Three days had passed since the last mission in the swamp.
In the somber silence of his ritual chamber, Erick moved with calculated precision, arranging the components necessary for the ritual that would transform Jade into his first true follower. His hands worked almost on their own—tracing arcane symbols on the black stone floor, positioning crystals charged with vital energy, and mixing ancestral oils whose sweet, tallic scent filled the air—while his mind wandered far away, trapped in dark thoughts.
He couldn't stop going over the last mission.
The League of Injustice.
Black Adam and Wotan. Two absolute heavyweights. Beings whose re presence made the air tremble with raw power and ancient magic. The fact that he had deliberately placed himself before forces like those still caused him a deep, almost visceral discomfort. He had made that mistake before—confronting soone absurdly more powerful than he was at the mont—and had almost paid with his life for sheer recklessness. The mory still burned.
However strong he was becoming, however inhuman his body and soul were evolving, Erick felt he was still encountering harsh and relentless barriers: technological, biological, and above all, magical. He was evolving, yes. He was far beyond what he had been at the beginning of his collaboration with the Justice League. His muscles possessed a strength few mortals could dream of, his mind processed information at superhuman speeds, and his connection to hidden energies grew stronger every day. But it wasn't enough. It wasn't happening at the speed he demanded of himself.
He felt as if he had reached an invisible wall. A dead end that mocked all his efforts. He needed to force his way through. He needed to transcend. Because, however much his current power made him a formidable threat, it was still not enough to guarantee absolute survival in this world of gods, monsters, and cosmic entities.
As he carefully arranged the final ritual circle, Erick paused for a mont, his gaze lost in the green flas dancing above the incense burners. His thoughts returned to recent missions, like painful echoes.
The fight against the Wolf. The return to direct confrontation with Black Adam — an enemy of colossal weight, linked to Justice itself, but whose divine fury had almost crushed him like an insect.
He had almost died. Twice. Maybe more, if you counted all the tis he had flirted with the edge.
Erick closed his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. The ritual for Jade was almost complete. Soon, she would kneel before him and seal her fate as the first to belong to him, body, soul, and power. But even this achievent couldn't completely dispel the restlessness that consud him from within.
"I need to get stronger," he thought, with a cold, razor-sharp determination. "Much stronger. Because next ti... there won't be a 'near'."
The sound of the heavy door opening echoed through the chamber, breaking the ritualistic silence. Erick looked up. First ca the tallic, rhythmic step of Baymax—B-16—firm and precise. Right behind, lighter, human steps. He turned slowly.
Jade was being led by the giant robot, her slender, athletic body encased in the tight-fitting suit she usually wore on missions. Her green eyes glead with that familiar mix of curiosity and teasing.
Baymax stopped a few ters from Erick, his calm, synthetic voice filling the air:
"Finishing my task. Awaiting orders from the creator."
Erick nodded, without taking his eyes off Jade.
"Dismissed for now."
"Thank you, sir."
Baymax tilted his large, white head slightly, then announced aloud, as if speaking to himself:
"Looking for another activity."
The robot turned around with chanical precision and exited through the door, its footsteps echoing down the hallway until they faded away.
Jade watched the robot for a few seconds, a subtle smile curving her lips. When she turned to Erick, there was a playful glint in her eyes, as if she were about to play with fire.
"That network of robots you have... it would be a problem, wouldn't it? If soone hacked it and took control of them."
Erick turned completely to face her, wiping his hands on a dark cloth as he calmly replied:
"I would have a problem. My entire Baymax network is not connected to any external network, which gives it protection against intrusion. Only I can access it. I have the necessary source code to make any kind of change to it."
Jade gave a low whistle, impressed, then crossed her arms. The gesture subtly lifted her breasts, highlighting the firm curves beneath the fabric.
"Impressive. Truly, geniuses are..."
Erick held her gaze for a mont, then continued, getting straight to the point:
"So... are you ready for your change?"
Jade crossed her arms more firmly, the movent causing her breasts to rise slightly more. She raised an eyebrow, her tone slightly defiant:
"Well, first I'd like an explanation of what you're trying to tell ."
Erick held her gaze for a mont, then continued, getting straight to the point:
Erick didn't hesitate. His voice ca out firm, full of intention:
"Basically, since you're now part of my team, I'm not going to leave you empty-handed. I'll be giving you your first power, and if you remain loyal, it will be the first of many."
Jade raised an eyebrow, curious. Erick held up his right hand before her, palm open. In that sa instant, vivid, controlled flas rose from his skin, dancing between his fingers with an intense orange-red glow. A confident smile curved his lips as the subtle warmth radiated through the air.
"Are you ready?"
Jade watched the flas for a few seconds, her green eyes reflecting the fire, before asking:
"And how is that going to be?"
Erick smiled wider, his voice low and full of authority:
"Well, you can choose which elent you'll be. After all, I'm not here to enslave you. The elent I chose is fire. It has, let's say, many properties. For example, destruction as well as healing. It allows to heal faster, to have a stronger constitution because of its properties. Fire forges, fire lts, fire improves. It's not just destruction. But you can look for another one."
With a fluid gesture of his other hand, Erick activated a hologram that materialized in the air between them. Four luminous symbols slowly rotated: the stylized symbol of wind, earth, water, and, brightest of all, that of fire. The images floated with precise, almost hypnotic detail.
"So, which one do you choose?"
Jade rested her hand on her chin, imrsing herself in deep ditation. Her eyes scanned each symbol with calculated attention, her face serious as she weighed the possibilities. Silence stretched for a few monts inside the ritual chamber, broken only by the soft crackling of the flas in Erick's hands.
Then she spoke, her voice firm and decisive:
Jade rested her hand on her chin, imrsing herself in deep ditation. Her eyes scanned each symbol with calculated attention, her face serious as she weighed the possibilities. Silence stretched for a few monts inside the ritual chamber, broken only by the soft crackling of the flas in Erick's hands.
She reflected coldly. She could perfectly understand why Erick had chosen an elent with such a high level of lethality—fire was pure destruction, forging and rebirth all at once. But perhaps this aggressive approach wasn't necessary for her. After all, her main functions were those of an assassin: silent infiltration, surgical precision, and quick disappearance. Fire attracted a lot of attention. Air, on the other hand…
Jade looked up at Erick, her green eyes firm and determined.
"I've already chosen."
Erick gave a satisfied smile, tilting his head slightly.
"So tell ."
"I choose the air."
Erick raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised but intrigued. The hologram rotated slowly between them, the symbol of the wind now shining more brightly.
"Ah, interesting. And why that choice?"
Jade held his gaze for a second, her voice low and confident:
"I seek freedom, and air is the elent of freedom."
Erick gave a genuine smile, a glint of approval appearing in his eyes.
"Good answer. So, let's get to work."
Erick looked away from her and lowered his gaze to the floor of the chamber, where the ritual was already completely drawn in precise lines of black ink and bone powder. Jade approached silently, stopping beside him, and also looked at the intricate diagram that covered the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling.
"Jade, I want you to pay close attention," Erick said, his voice deep and serious. "The ritual is extrely dangerous. You have to be prepared for the likely eventuality of your death."
Jade nodded once in confirmation. She already understood perfectly that all true power ca with risk.
"The ritual, while simple, is extrely dangerous. What will I basically do? Remove your soul from your body, transfer it to another dinsion, and while you are there, your mission will be to restrain an elental. Once the predetermined ti has passed, I will bring you back. And imdiately afterwards, I will seal and bind the elental to your soul, allowing you to unlock elental powers."
Jade replied with a slightly humorous tone, the corner of her mouth curving:
"Just that?"
Erick gave a brief smile.
"That's all. Jade, I want you to concentrate and capture the youngest elental you can. The younger it is, the easier it will be for you to dominate it. If you capture an old, mature one, the chance of it possessing your soul and body is enormous, causing your soul to be suppressed and it to take over your body. When that happens, the only thing I can do is destroy your body. After all, the chances of your consciousness returning are extrely low, so I want you to concentrate and capture the young elental."
"And how am I supposed to know who is young and who is old?"
"Simple. Young people are sparks, they're small. They barely have any consciousness, they're more like literally a mass of elents. And it's easy to identify them. Are you ready?"
Jade took a deep breath. Then another. Her chest visibly rose and fell.
"I am."
"Excellent."
Erick pointed to the exact center of the diagram.
"Go to the center of the ritual."
The floor of the room—and the entire chamber around it—was covered with different types of runes, intricate diagrams, and words from unknown languages, even engraved on the ceiling. Jade walked to the center and sat cross-legged at the focal point.
"You have five minutes to get back to your body," Erick warned. "If you don't get back there, your body will go into shock and you will die. So, be as quick as possible."
Jade gave him a confident smile.
"Rest assured. I am a murderer."
Erick knelt on the floor before her. He clasped his hands at his chest in prayer and began to chant an ancient Latin song—difficult, guttural words, almost impossible for any ordinary ear to understand. As soon as the first syllable left his mouth, the air in the room began to stir. An invisible gale blew strongly, tousling Jade's hair and making the flas of the incense burners dance wildly.
With a sudden movent, Erick slamd both open hands against the ground.
At the epicenter of the ritual, all the runes, diagrams, and symbols lit up simultaneously. A pure white light began to spread, with Erick as its main source, rushing in brilliant waves toward Jade. The light intensified rapidly, becoming blinding. Jade was completely engulfed by it, until absolute darkness took over her vision.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in a strange world.
Rocks floated in the weightless void. There was no way to define left, right, up, or down—everything seed like the sa infinite and chaotic dinsion. Around them, other rocks slowly rotated. Further on, incandescent balls of pure fire floated like small stars. In the distance, a gigantic wave of water—a liquid monstrosity—passed by for miles, visible even at that absurd distance.
Jade realized she wasn't in her own physical body. She looked at her own hands: they were translucent, soft, in the pure form of her soul.
She concentrated and discovered that movent was easy—she only had to think, and her astral body floated effortlessly through space. She flew among the floating rocks, searching for what Erick had described: a spark of an elental.
She flew close to a gigantic rock, and behind her, a colossal hurricane swirled, spinning enormous boulders overhead. The sight was terrifying—sothing few mortals had ever witnessed. She veered, flying downwards, her senses on high alert.
Then he saw it: a small, faint, almost insignificant point of light. Exactly what he was looking for.
Back to the ritual chamber.
A minute and a half had passed since Jade had entered the spiritual plane—or, more precisely, the elental plane. Erick knew that ti there was relative. Although it was difficult to asure precisely, he understood that the flow of ti in that place behaved differently: sotis faster, sotis slower than the real world. That's why he had given the strict limit of five minutes.
When the three-minute mark arrived, drops of cold sweat began to trickle down Erick's forehead.
At four minutes, a bad feeling gripped her chest—perhaps she wouldn't be able to co back.
As the ti approached dangerously close to five minutes, Jade's eyes suddenly snapped open. She took a deep breath, as if she were breathing air for the first ti in her life.
Erick ran to her and knelt beside her. He imdiately realized she was still in a deep trance: her eyes had rolled upwards, revealing only white. He had little ti left.
He clasped his hands in front of his chest. Luminous runes appeared between his palms. He touched Jade's forehead and, in the instant of contact, the runes began to spread across her body like veins of light, filling every inch of her skin.
As soon as she was completely covered, an intense white light shone. Erick began the sealing process, binding the elental to Jade's soul, fusing the two into a single entity.
He could clearly see: the elental she had brought was young, weak, still a spark almost without consciousness. A triumphant smile appeared on his lips. They had succeeded.
The runes on his own body vanished as if they had never existed. Erick took a few steps back.
Jade lay in the center of the circle, fast asleep, her skin as white and immaculate as that of a sleeping princess.
Five minutes later, she opened her eyes.
He sat down slowly and looked at his own hands, flexing his fingers as if testing sothing new. Erick watched silently before asking in a low voice:
Did it work?
Jade lifted her face to his and gave a slow, satisfied smile.
"Try."
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