When Kain finally could sense the world around him, his mind was in the gem, the inside seeming so large compared to the outside with a thin, green gem-like wall separating the two. He knew that he could leave anytime he pleased, but it was a bit unnerving nonetheless. He had let his guard down and went with the flow when it could have hurt either himself or Luna. He scolded himself for a moment before looking around the world in the gem. There was nothing but empty space all around. The world within the gem was a giant sphere of empty space with a radius of a bit less than a football field. The border of the sphere was a glassy substance that persisted out until he saw the edges of the gem. It was like his mind had shrunk the size of his perception and he had been transported inside a hollow gem. He willed himself to move forward, which came effortlessly. The necklace seemed to be built for convenience, it seemed. He explored the space in the gem, finding nothing but the glassy wall that blocked the inner space from the outside world. He moved to the very edge of the sphere and knocked on the wall in front of him. There was no sound from the barrier, and there was no reaction. The wall felt smooth, perfectly so even, and it was cold like glass. Kain moved around the sphere, checking around to find the same thing from every other part of the barrier. He shrugged and pulled himself out of the gem.
He opened his eyes in his real body, seeing the room around him. Suddenly, an object hit the top of his head. Looking down, it was a small fragment of metal that rolled off of his shoulders, hitting the ground. When it came to a stop he looked to his shoulder, staring at the reddish-brown rabbit that was holding up other chunks of metal with her energy. Her ears were bent backward and she was lying down. Before he could ask any questions, her young voice echoed into his mind.
‘Uhh… whoops…? Are you okay? I was worried, you know. You suddenly stopped responding when you picked that thing up, so I got nervous…’
‘And your solution was hitting my head with heavy objects? Wouldn’t that cause more problems?’
‘I get it! I’m sorry! I was just a bit nervous. I knew you wouldn’t die, but I’m still nervous!’ She cried. The metal chunks fell from the places where they were levitating.
Kain sighed, ‘Yeah… That one’s on me. I had my guard down a bit, so I was not very careful. Sorry about that, but I’ll be here for you. You okay now?’
She looked at him and pouted, ‘Don’t scare me like that…’ He chuckled at her pouting, turning his attention back to the necklace. He examined it for a moment before pushing his energy limbs out to examine the clockwork needed to make it possible. He noted that, while it was leagues more advanced than the boxes upstairs, it was still many more leagues away from the beating green gem. Another thing that caught his interest was the circular design of the array. There seemed to be a hole in the center of the design that invited energy in. He pushed the limb into the space, causing him to open his eyes. He looked around and noticed how nothing changed, but he felt the necklace had something different about it. He pushed the giant dagger into the necklace, watching it disappear. He stepped back in shock before quickly turning his mind into the gem. The event was faster this time, likely due to his prior experience, and when he found himself in the giant sphere, he looked around for the dagger. He found it hovering near the edge of the crystal, outside of the sphere’s reach. He willed himself over to the edge closest to the dagger and tried to reach for it, but before he could even touch the barrier, it flew toward him, entering the sphere and hovering in front of him. He tried to grab it, but he realized that he had no hands in this state. When he wanted it to move upwards, however, it simply lifted up. He willed it down, and down it went. He twirled it and spun it by willing it so, but there was never any delay. He then willed it to leave the space, making it disappear from the space. He lifted his mind from the space and came back into his own eyes. He looked down and saw the giant dagger lying on the ground a few feet away. He went to pick it up when Luna spoke again, ‘Be more careful! That thing almost took your arm clean off!’
Alarmed, he asked, ‘Wait what happened?’
‘That thing flew upwards after you did… uh… something to it with the gem thing. It came out of the gem fast and came back down ready to cut your hand off. I sent the thing flying though!’ She said with a hint of pride.
Kain got shudders down his spine again. It seemed to him that Luna had been saving him from gruesome fates since they first met. He replied sincerely, ‘Thanks, Luna. Never knew what I’d do without you.’
She gave a proud grunt, ‘And you better remember it! So, what’s that…
‘Necklace.’ He chuckled.
‘So what’s that necklace do? Can it store stuff?’
‘Yep. It’s a necklace that stores things in a giant space inside the gem.’ He brought the giant dagger into the gem, ‘With it, I don’t have to carry anything around with me and I can just put it in her. Even better, it’s a good size to carry on my waist.’ he tied the chain the necklace was hanging from around a belt loop in his ripped jeans. He then put the rest of his equipment into the necklace, storing the green gem, Grand, Mouse, Dea, and the ammunition for his guns. He looked up at the confused Luna, saying, ‘Pretty convenient, huh?’ Luna dazedly nodded at the spectacle.
Nodding in contentment, Kain left the small room and headed onward to the shutter door that was connected to the presumed storage room. He lifted the door and peered inside, Luna’s flames exploring the room with his gaze. It was larger than the room with the rotten food in it, taking up a whole third of the floor, and not having any holes nor blood to be seen. The room was littered with giant, 15 foot tall shelves filled with metal boxes, all possessing different lines of scribbly text. There were a few bigger boxes in the room as well as an area off to the side that was walled off and had a reinforced door. Kain asked Luna, ‘So, where to first? My vote is that we open a few of the boxes.’
‘Hmm… I think we should check that place over there.’ She pointed a paw at the room with the reinforced door, ‘It might be something better than the stuff in here. Besides, we’ll be able to make sure that there isn’t any danger.’
He chuckled at her analytical side showing again, responding with, ‘Hmm… yeah, that’s probably the smarter move here. Alright, let’s go. Oh, also, maybe you should prepare an attack that is easy to hold. Just in case.’ Kain fluidly pulled the giant dagger out of the necklace being used as a satchel. He was rapidly becoming more used to the amulet, most likely due to the fact that it was made to be convenient.
She responded with more pep than usual, ‘Ooh! I’ll do it!’ A few lines of condensed air formed around his head, aiming for the door.
Before they entered, he said, ‘Before this becomes an issue, watch the friendly fire. It’s a dangerous proposition to be aiming those things near me. I may have this poncho and the armor inside but it’s just a bit of bone and skin, so be careful. Besides, I don’t want to have to teach you how to theoretically reattach arms or hands.’ He reached the door and was about to open it, ‘Alright, let’s go!’ He cracked the door open, letting the flames dart in before opening the door fully. Inside were a bunch of metal weapon racks filled with giant weapons as well as a few pods made of a glass-like material housing giant, undamaged suits of armor with their helmets off. They were all black with blue highlights. Seeing no danger, Kain put his dagger away and Luna recalled the energy put into her wind slices. Kain walked up to one of the racks and examined the items on it. There was a giant, two-handed mace, a giant broadsword, a spear, a shield, and a few giant daggers like the one Kain was holding. He stored the daggers away just in case he needed a spare.
Luna pointed to the other weapons, ‘Not gonna take those?’
‘Nope, those things are far too large for me to use,’ he chuckled, ‘let alone for you to use. You can’t pick up any weapons with your paws anyway, so it just won’t work.’
Luna pouted before saying, ‘Well, I can’t use weapons like you do, but watch this!’ She extended her energy out, grabbing the giant shield with it and levitating it over to her side. It was a tall kite shield, about six feet, and made of deep blue metal like the rest of the tower. Kain examined the shield, finding there to be a very basic formation across the surface. It was basic enough that he was able to understand the general aim of the formation, unlike the two gems he had found. The goal of the formation was to increase resilience and absorb shock from blows. Luna piped up from her roost on Kain’s shoulder, ‘See? I may not be able to throw things with this, but I am able to do this.’
Kain looked at her with a bit of admiration, saying, ‘Hmm… that’ll be a good way to protect yourself. By the way, when did you learn to do that? It looks like you’re using two concepts here: movement and anti-gravity, right?’
Luna looked at him befuddled, ‘Uhh, no… I’m just using movement to keep it up off of the ground.’
Kain looked at her incredulously, ‘So… you’re holding up that giant thing by constantly exerting pressure upwards?’
Luna’s ears folded back, ‘Yeah…’
Kain chuckled, saying, ‘Well, anti-gravity is just gravity, the thing that pulls you down, reversed. Try it, maybe it’ll be easier for you.’
‘Hmm… Let’s see…’ The shield dropped to the ground as she stopped supporting its weight by constantly using upward movement. She conjured energy from her body imprinted with the concept of anti-gravity, but noticed that there was actually a conversion ratio. Not being able to measure numbers, she estimated that it took hundreds of times more energy to create anti-gravity energy, something that never happened when she used concepts like movement, fire, or light. They were the only concepts she used because she had made all of her attacks reliant on creating a situation where it would cause damage by just releasing it from its state before the attack was launched. She sent the anti-gravity energy to the shield, making it float up effortlessly. There was little, if not no, drain on her energy through the method, though she was still unable to make weapons fly at targets with enough speed to cause harm. ‘Ohh! This is really easy now! Though… the energy in my body is running a bit low. Using anti-gravity energy has a high conversion rate.’ she said.
He asked confusedly, ‘Conversion rate?’ She quickly explained her experiences, including her uses of other concepts to create attacks. He shook his head digesting all of the information, ‘Well, we’ll just have to test it later. We’ve got a bunch to do when we’re done, so we need to look through the last of the rooms.’ Luna nodded in affirmation, prompting Kain to look through the rest of the armory-like room.
