The Mogs are already beginning to thin out. Some are actually retreating towards the Anubis, while others have formed a loose perimeter around the crater to protect their Beloved Leader. Setrákus Ra doesn’t seem at all concerned with any of this. He’s completely focused on operating that machine of his.

As I fight my way towards the crater, the tube begins to emit a whooshing sound. I can feel the atmosphere around us change—loose rocks are lifted up from the ground, and I feel a vague sense of gravity pulling me towards the crater. Fully powered on, Setrákus Ra’s device is starting to suck up the surroundings. I see Ella, still standing idly in the crater, still telepathically silent, her hair whipping towards the cylinder. The well itself begins to crumble, its bricks lifted loose and briefly hoisted towards the sucking machine before they’re deflected by a force field that’s probably similar to what protects the Anubis. This device of Setrákus Ra’s isn’t interested in the ground and debris; it filters them away, creating a mini tornado of dirt and brick.

And then it happens. With an ear-piercing shriek like a thousand tea kettles exploding, the cobalt-blue Loric energy shoots up from the ground and is sucked into the cylinder. The entire area is cast in a flickering blue glow that causes even some of the Mogs to look around in wonderment. It’s unnatural, the way the energy ripples up from the ground, at first wild and uncontained, but quickly caught and channeled through what I realize is a pipeline, transferring the Loric energy into the Anubis. I found the Entity’s glow comforting and serene back in the Sanctuary, but now—the air crackles with electricity, the flashes hurt my eyes and the noise . . .

It’s like the energy itself is screaming. It’s in pain.

“Yes! Yes!” Setrákus Ra bellows with delight, like some kind of mad scientist, his hands raised in rapture towards the energy funnel.

Marina loses it. Caution goes out the window as she sprints towards the crater. Two thick and sharpened icicles manifest over her hands like swords and she uses them to impale three Mogs on her way, spinning through the ranks of the ones guarding the crater. Then, she’s sliding down the rocky incline, towards Setrákus Ra and Ella. She’s going to take him on by herself. I did that once—it didn’t work out so well.