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  “It’s alright. Everything is fine.” Silvia’s calming voice cut through the loud shrieking noise, currently muffled by the frame of the towering Black Dragon shielding them from the worst of it. “You’ll carve holes in the floor at this pace.”

  Nothing the noble lady said fully reached the distressed panthergirl. Miria walked back and forth in the shade of her unconscious master, feeling very powerless and anxious. Finally, the redhead stepped into her path and pulled the beastfolk girl into her.

  “You know Tia took Ast to safety. Selene is continuing to put up barriers, so even if he could feel anything, it wouldn’t be much. Tina is constantly pouring water on his body, cooling it down,” she said cordially. “You aren’t powerless. As you can see, I’m not doing anything either. You know we are all better and worse at certain aspects. Asterios always leaves things to us when he knows we can easily handle them. Now it’s your turn. Let him and the others take care of this.”

  Wrinkling her fully transformed nose, Miria nodded faintly. “I know… I’m sorry… I’m just really bad at staying put…”

  “No, you are just very emotional and caring, much more than we are.” Silvia smiled amiably. “And that’s part of the reason why Ast fell for you. Trust in him like he does in you. Like we do. Sure, we might be able to do something if we cooperate, but you heard Tia, she has a solution, one that doesn’t involve us stepping into this weird light.”

  “You are right… I’m just being silly…” The panthergirl chuckled wryly. “How long do you think—”

  “The aura is changing,” Althea interrupted her, and both girls turned to look at the Dragon lady.

  They found her gazing upwards and followed her eyes. As she had said, the bits of light that were piercing the cover Asterios had made with his wing and body in a few spots were fading slightly.

  “It is,” Selene confirmed, taking a more relaxed pose with her hands still extended forward to continue creating layers of protective spiritual energy. “My barriers are starting to hold on longer and longer.”

  “Look!” Tina ceased her water treatment and pointed to the edge of Ast’s draconic frame.

  Over there, an unusual effect could be spotted. It was like the light itself bent around his body and continued creeping inwards, achieving a mist-like consistency. It spread further and further on the inner side of Ast’s figure, lighting the shadows up. The glow traveled through the pattern of his scales and didn’t seem to hurt him.

  “Drop your barriers!” Tina added, a small smile curling her lips up. “They are doing it!”

  Selene was hesitant to follow her request, but after a few seconds of thinking, she withdrew her mana, letting her arms fall to her sides. The crawl of the affected light sped up significantly, and almost in a blink, it wrapped itself all around Ast’s frame, all over his black scales.

  Asterios shone with a golden radiance while the glow past him gradually lessened. Bit by bit, it was getting darker and darker, the intensity of the cluster fading away alongside the troubling noise. That sound was still present and still loud, but it felt less sharp with each passing second, like the chorus making it up was losing its members.

  In about thirty seconds or so, the chamber returned to its initial brightness, but the ladies didn’t want to risk peeking out of safety yet. Anything could happen, both good and bad. One look to the back revealed that Umbra and Abyss were now able to peer into the room without being hurt or uncomfortable.

  Then, it started becoming darker than it had ever been. In the span of a few minutes, all the surfaces surrounding them began turning gray. However, they could all tell that it was just due to the light’s scarce intensity. The tiles beneath Asterios were still pretty white.

  Another moment passed, and suddenly, everything was enveloped in silence. With a flicker, it turned black, evoking a gasp from the girls. The only source of illumination was Asterios and his charged scales. It was incomparable to the strong cluster, lighting up only the nearby ground and ceiling, barely tickling the walls.

  But that was not where it ended.

  Everyone stumbled due to a mighty tremor. Looking around frantically, they watched the chamber shake. A more powerful jolt sent a vicious crack through the very middle of the floor and most likely walls and ceiling, judging by how both sides of the crevice instantly misaligned, one ending up higher than the other. Thankfully, Ast’s body didn’t rest on the breach, but his tail hung off one side.

  As the earthquake subsided, Miria chanced a peek past Asterios. “It’s gone.”

  “What?” Tina frowned and walked out alongside the others. “It really is.”

  Where earlier levitated the condensed energy, now remained nothing but an empty space.

  “How?” Silvia asked ponderingly. “Did he absorb all of it?”

  “Precisely.” A new voice echoed through the air, making them jump.

  “Master!” Miria was the first one to respond, running back to the slowly rising Asterios. “I was so worried!”

  She smashed into his snout before he could lift it, evoking a deep chuckle out of him. “I’m sorry. But it’s alright. I’ve never been in mortal danger, and I’m glad to see you doing fine too.”

  “No, don’t apologize, I understand.” The panthergirl shook her head while rubbing her face into his scales. “I’m glad you didn’t have to suffer for too long. Thank Tia for me, please.”

  He knew she knew she could do it on her own, but Asterios passed the message nevertheless. Then, he began changing, quickly turning smaller while covered by black mist. In a flash, he was hugging Miria back in his humanoid form.

  Save for one detail.

  “You are still shiny!” She giggled adorably.

  “Oh.” He looked himself over and found his skin emitting a gentle golden glow. “I guess I’m your torch for the foreseeable future.”

  The other girls laughed softly as they approached the duo, and he exchanged some hugs with them too. Abyss and Umbra appeared next to their spot, making him turn to the shadowy pair.

  “Did getting rid of that cluster help you?” Asterios directed his question at the mocha-skinned lady. “Do you feel the control over the realm returning to you?”

  “I’m afraid it’s not that simple.” Abyss gazed into the space where the sphere had been.

  “Can’t blame a guy for hoping.” He shrugged lightly.

  “But your clever actions did have an effect on something greater,” she continued. “This facility is clearly part of something bigger. I would be surprised if he left the fate of the seal in the hands of just one power source. This might not have even been the main one, just some auxiliary energy cluster meant to hide the real thing.”

  “What now, then?” Tina wondered out loud. “I don’t see anything useful here, even if I can barely see anything.”

  Silvia created a wide flaming ring under the ceiling and received quiet thanks from the short Summoner lady. Her technique emphasized the massive crack splitting the chamber into two. Right after, the ground shuddered once more, making the halves slide further up and down before ceasing to tremble.

  “First, I suggest we leave,” Selene insisted, her tone tense. “My barriers are powerful, but even they might not last forever underneath an avalanche of rock and stone.”

  “Maybe we’ll still manage to check a few more—” Miria didn’t manage to finish as another rumble interrupted her.

  “Allow me.” Umbra floated up to them, spreading his body wide.

  No one argued, and they quickly huddled up together. As promised before the recent events, they let their shadowy friend act according to his judgment, which was highly likely to match their own. The darkness swallowed them right away, and they felt themselves moving at quick speeds. Umbra dashed towards the exit the way they had come in, the defenses completely turned off. The underground facility jolted again, this time much stronger.

  As he arrived at the vertical tunnel Abyss had carved, something snapped, and numerous cracks littered the pristine surfaces. Everything crumbled moments before he dove into the circular passage, dust and particles chasing him vehemently. He shot out of the hole with a burst of sharp pieces, avoiding them easily. The surrounding area quaked, and in a blink, a sizable rectangular part of the ground collapsed downwards by about the average height of the chambers below, creating a tiny valley.

  When things calmed down, Umbra released Ast’s party, and Abyss floated up to them on her purplish cloud.

  “Awww… It’s ruined now…” Miria pouted sadly.

  “What is? The Darklings’ sacred grounds or our chances of finding any hints?” Tina joked, looking just as disappointed.

  The bottom of the funnel they had entered through was demolished, including the whole area. But, on the other hand, they could see more bits of white poking out of the dark rock everywhere, the tremors chipping away the layer of stone covering it.

  While the Darklings would have certainly been overjoyed to explore the facility, maybe this was a better alternative.

  “All of that for nothing.” Selene sighed.

  “Hey, at least Asterios got something out of it. Even if it’s the ability to illuminate his path a foot or two ahead,” Silvia replied, evoking some light laughs from them.

  ~It will pass soon,~ Tia chimed in. ~His gains are much bigger than that, I can assure you.~

  “You sound livelier too,” Tina pointed out.

  A sweet giggle answered her. ~I’ll fill you all in later.~

  “This expedition wasn’t for naught,” Abyss said, capturing their attention. “I have studied the cluster as much as I could during the assault. Its spiritual signature is much clearer to me now. I don’t doubt there are more of those things scattered all over the realm. I’ll be able to pinpoint them much easier now.”

  “But you can’t do it all from here, can you?” the fox lady asked, and she shook her head. “Then we still need to somehow find ourselves in their vicinity. There’s no way another one is close unless there are hundreds of thousands of them.”

  “Even he wouldn’t be able to create more than a handful of these spheres,” the mysterious woman informed them. “Ignoring the sacrifices necessary to be made, each condensed bundle requires a tiny part of his own power. And he isn’t the type to part with it easily.”

  “We are back to square one, then.” Miria propped her fists on her sides and looked around intensely. “How are we going to figure out the location of the other facilities?”

  “Places of conflict,” Althea joined the conversation, thoughtfully brushing her chin. “Even if we exclude Kaguya, this region was always full of activity. The Titans lived here before she killed them. The Horror made it its home before we restrained it. All sorts of beings were drawn to the power of this buried cluster.”

  Everyone processed her words for a moment and found themselves quickly agreeing with the wisdom coming from Ast’s respected mentor.

  “That shouldn’t be too hard, then,” Umbra said. “I have at least a few spots in mind that can count as eternal battlefields for no reason other than territorial disputes. Not all of them might be what we are looking for, but it’s a start.”

  “And we can ask our new friends!” Miria clapped joyfully. “Maybe they will know something, or the artifacts they mentioned will carry hints!”

  “You are right.” Asterios ruffled through her hair. “Hopefully, they won’t kick us out for desecrating their holy grounds.”

  “Look at it the other way, my Lord.” Selene smirked and leaned forward to grab a piece of chipped-off white mineral. “They can now make some killer jewelry.”

  He shook his head and started shifting again to let the ladies ride his back on the way home.

  Chapter 11

  Sacred Collection

  With everyone in their seats, Asterios took off. They circled the area a few times to look at the changes brought forth by the collapse of the underground facility. Seeing an almost perfect rectangular indent with straight edges, the middle part slightly more uneven, felt quite eerie. That weird place had been so much bigger than they had thought.

  Hopefully, they hadn’t missed too much down there. But, there wasn’t much they could have done. As Abyss explained, the structural integrity must have been upheld by the power from the cluster, and that was one of the functions behind the golden paths adorning every surface. They couldn’t stop the feeling that it was designed so that any intruders would be buried alive if they managed to mess with the power source.

  Finishing one last lap over the rubble, Asterios turned towards the direction of the Darkling village. It was time to report to their friends. Even if not all the news was positive. At least the area was safe once more, and it should remain safe for much longer now that there was no enticing aura spreading through the air and ground.

  Flying in silence, Miria was the first one to break it. “So, how did you stop that orb of bad energy from burning you to a crisp, Master? Tia helped you, right?”

  A soft giggle echoed in their heads as the person in question listened in on the conversation.

  Asterios chuckled deeply. “It’s a little complicated, but to keep it short, Tia offered to use her Tree and herself as a funnel for the natural energy making up that artificial sun. We had to unite our minds and bodies, even if only spiritually, to support the process. It might have all happened in my Ancestral Plane, but it was no less real than anything around us.”

  “I knew something was different since you returned,” Althea said with a gentle smile. “You seemed much more… radiant.”

  The girls laughed at her little joke, Ast’s onyx scales still emitting hints of a golden glow as it slowly faded away.

  “Congratulations,” she added, grazing those scales delicately. “I’m happy for both of you.”

  After a few seconds of pause, a gasp sounded through the air, coming from a certain giddy panthergirl as she caught on at last. “You two mated?! Yay! I thought Tia would need to wait until we got her a new body! That’s so nice!”

  “You must have been in a hurry.” Tina smirked cheekily. “You usually aren’t so quick.”

  Another round of laughter passed between the ladies at her little tease.

  ~If you are that curious, we took our sweet time and Asterios made tender love to almost every single part of me,~ Tia came to his defense. ~And we might have taken some more time without you even noticing due to the difference in perception, but I didn’t want to burden our kindhearted Master with too much guilt.~

  “Guilt?” Selene’s elegant forehead creased with a frown. “Ah. Were you worried about us, my Lord? But we were protected and safe thanks to you.”

  Silvia rested a hand on her shoulder. “We were, but he was aware that we weren’t exactly comfortable in the situation we found ourselves in. I’m sure you would have found it hard to focus on your own pleasure while your loved ones were in an uncertain scenario. I’m impressed with his adaptability.”

  “I might have had some trouble getting in the mood under such circumstances,” Miria admitted shyly.

  “Thankfully, Dryads can be very enticing, and Tia is more than just a fine specimen,” the Dragon lady teased with a reminiscing smirk. “You are now fully connected, right? I can’t wait to witness the results of this union.”

  ~I’m a little sad you couldn’t have been there with us, but I’ll wait patiently for the day we share a night with our charming mate.~ Tia giggled sweetly. ~As for the effects of our deepened bond and my completed Oath, you should be able to start experiencing them soon. It should come with many boons and physical enhancements. Though after our recent meeting, I don’t think our skilled lover requires any more of those.~

  Asterios could feel himself blush even in that fierce and ominous form of his.

  “I need details!” Miria hopped up and down atop his back. “How does it feel to do it inside Master’s soul? How does your body feel? Is it coarse like bark? Where did you even do it?”

  As the inquisitive feline bombarded their new sister-mate with questions, he decided to turn his attention to the road ahead. It would be much less embarrassing to leave all the answers to Tia. It still sometimes baffled him how interested the ladies were in hearing about the intimate bits every time, save for Grea’s involvement, of course, but he could admit that making love inside one’s soul had something romantic to it now that he thought about it calmly.

  Nevertheless, as his passengers chatted about spicy details, sharing a few giggles and intrigued chuckles along the way, Asterios brought them all back to the settlement, keeping his senses primed for any potential ambushes and surprises. Naturally, Umbra was watching over them from hiding too, and while not visible, it was clear Abyss didn’t lag too far behind.

  The peculiar village hadn’t changed during their absence. Everything was just as square as before. He headed straight for the main tower and descended next to the entrance. With everyone off his back, he shifted again, the faint radiance almost completely gone from his skin. The girls smiled at him, taking a glance at the last bits of the glow, seemingly already disappointed that it would soon come to an end.

  Before they got to enter the building, Darek jogged out of the entrance and spread his little arms. “Welcome back! Seeing that everyone is unharmed, I assume you have succeeded? Or do you require more preparation after scouting out the Sacred Grounds?”

  “The Horror is no more,” Selene answered. “But our expedition wasn’t completely without issues. There’s much to cover. Did you prepare the artifacts?”

  The chief nodded vigorously. “But of course! We gathered everything we could find! Please, follow me, and I shall guide you to the showroom, Your Eminence!”

  “Very well.” She stepped after the leader, and the rest of the group stuck close.

  Ascending a few floors, they soon entered an almost empty level. It was clear from the marks in the dust that everything currently visible there had been hastily assembled during the time it took Asterios and the crew to deal with the Horror. Pedestals, stands, bases, pulpits, and small stages littered the ground. A plethora of different trinkets rested atop them.