The distance between her and the entrance was huge. From her calculations, she didn't have the stamina to get all the way up in one go. If she was lucky, and the temperature was somewhat similar to what she felt now, then maybe she could get halfway up. By then, she would have no choice but to withdraw into the crystal once more.

She took a deep breath as she made up her mind. The air inside didn't feel stale anymore, and the oxygen-rich air was much better.

[If it wasn't for the cold...] she said as she scrapped her previous plans.

When she manifested again, she wanted to somehow strengthen her body before finally making the trip, but this was no longer an option.

She looked back over towards the table and grabbed her pen. She didn't need anything else. But even if she did, she couldn't physically carry it.

One day, she would return for the rest.

Shortly afterward, she found herself slowly walking up through the seemingly endless corridor. Unlike the main chamber, the corridor itself was pitch black. Back when she made it, she didn't think she would find herself in a situation such as this. However, since the corridor itself was one straight line, it wasn't that big of an issue.

As she walked through the darkness. All she could hear was the sound of her rhythmic steps and her increasingly shallow breaths. To make matters worse, the stone tiles beneath her feet felt increasingly cold. And soon, she had to take a short break. When she sat down, she released a small yelp as her skin made contact with the tiles. Almost instantly, she shivered as she jumped back up again.

[Cold!] she hissed as she invoked a basic spell for warmth. She couldn't stand, and she couldn't sit. She was out of options.

The cost of warming herself up was nowhere near the amount she needed if she had to go back inside the crystal and once again manifest herself. Her body might have been incapable of making use of the crystal's energy, but she still had her extensive knowledge. Her mind flipped through countless spells as she chose the most basic and efficient one for heat.

A spell, or an inscription. Both of them were similar in nature. In fact, inscriptions were spells etched into physical objects. When she inscribed her race's language onto a stone tablet, it was similar to casting a spell. She merely stored the required energy within the symbols themselves.  The caster would then only need enough energy for the activation sequence itself.

Ever since she manifested once more, she had felt a tiny amount of energy within her body. Now, that energy was all she had to work with.

As she activated the sequence, she felt a comfortable warmth spread through her body.

When she felt her body slowly regain its senses, she continued upwards. However, soon afterward, she saw something strange a bit further up. She couldn't help for slow down as she quieted her steps further. She cut off her random thoughts as she concentrated her senses forward. There wasn't supposed to be any change in the corridor until the last stretch. She had no idea what could've caused this change, but she wouldn't take any chances. When strange things happened, caution was the best approach.

However, the flickering light from a long series of torches was the last thing she expected to see. She had never seen anything like it before. She froze as her eyes narrowed. Her mind analyzed the object from afar and quickly concluded that it wasn't dangerous. She didn't feel any energy imbued inside the strange objects.

Her pupils shrank as she entered into the light. She had to close her eyes slightly after she had spent countless hours inside the darkness.

From the looks of it, someone had been here recently. The fire from the torch gave her eyes an ominous look as she looked up through the corridor's path. It was clear to her that someone with enough intelligence to mount something like this to her walls had intruded on her territory.

However, she had only seen a few intelligent species apart from her own before. To her knowledge, none of them were alive before she lost her crystal. She knew this was true. When her crystal broke, her incorporeal form that had existed for what could easily be described as an eternity had briefly engulfed the material plane. In that short moment, she knew that she was alone.

She had not felt a single living being as she engulfed the planet. Time had claimed everyone but her at that moment. But now, new life had once again claimed the planet. Her eyes slowly closed as her thoughts wandered back in time.

The first time she ever felt intelligent life, apart from her own race, it vanished before she even managed to see them. She couldn't comprehend how fragile life was back then. Like the flower in her room, everything turned to dust in her absence. However, one day, after countless chances had passed. She finally laid her eyes on them.

She didn't wait as she immediately materialized before their eyes. She feared that their lives would once again pass her by. At this moment, she had lived in solitude for unimaginable many years. The thought of sharing her world with intelligent eyes filled her mind with a newfound spark. However, when she saw their simplistic bodies without a shred of energy, she faltered. Their dark, empty eyes didn't contain a speck of what she sought. Their crude, insignificant howls filled her ears as their bodies tensed at the sight of her.

She watched emotionlessly as they swiped their claws towards her neck. She felt as if she had fallen into the great forests from high above, being cut by mindless branches as she crashed into the crust of the planet.

Soon, as she observed their fragile lives, their species came to hold as time itself claimed their race. Once again, she alone observed the world.