Hearing the Emperor's words, Little Shrubby answered with a low, resonant growl.
The Emperor gripped the Thunder God Drum and began to beat it methodically. Each strike sent thunder tramlines through the air, thickening the Lightning Dao Traces and weaving Dao Insights into the sky itself.
Little Shrubby began to pulse with flames and electricity. His form swelled with power until lightning wrapped his fur in a halo and fire licked his flanks. He became a living coil of storm and flame.
WHOOSH.
Little Shrubby began to run in tight circles, the Emperor beating the drum in cadence, and slowly the pair wove a vertical pillar of whirling lightning. The column rose, crashing into the fog of baleful energy above the crypt.
The pillar hummed with Dao resonance. To the Ephemera inside the barrier, nothing seemed different. Their ritual cocooned them and dulled their senses. They could not see the tiny black snake poke through the weave to mark the exact flaw in the barrier.
