As he absorbed the darkness from between the crumbs and pieces of the destroyed facility, his frame grew over what they had remembered. Releasing a resonant roar, Asterios spread his misty wings and dove towards them. His impressive jaws chomped on the remaining monsters as the ladies began soaring to the entrance of the endless ravine.

  Finishing a lap around their position, he flapped his smoking wings and rushed after them. Selene was still so taken aback she forgot to deactivate her barriers, realizing her mistake the moment he opened his terrifying jaws and bit into the teal sphere, his fangs piercing through all layers with completely no resistance. Yet, they didn’t break as his hold on them was unexpectedly gentle.

  Miria cheered while Tina and Silvia laughed softly. Selene was the only one too stunned to let out any noises, simply staring at the outside of the barrier while pushed into its back wall with all the other girls as they rushed to the opening. They flew at quite a speed and passed the edge in no time. Asterios then stopped in the air and turned around so they faced the ground and the bottomless pit. Slowly descending to the surface, he placed them down as delicately as he could.

  Recalling her technique, the fox lady helped the others get up. They watched together as their beloved master stepped back and loomed over them in his new Shadowflame form. For a moment, no one moved as they awaited his greeting or any other words. But when those didn’t come and he just kept gazing at them, Miria finally spotted a small issue.

  “What happened to Althea?” She gasped, and her brows pinched with worry.

  “Look there.” Tina pointed at Ast’s chest.

  They focused on it and noticed that the darkness over that area seemed a bit less ominous and foreboding. Then, everyone noticed why. It was slightly see-through, and they could spot the figure of their draconic sister-mate curled into herself in a fetal position, held affectionately inside the oval bubble by the shadowy tendrils. Miria cooed adorably, feeling the same as the other women.

  For some reason, they couldn’t shake off the impression that it meant to symbolize his heart.

  She was his heart.

  That was how much he cared for her.

  And for all of them.

  Because they knew that if any of them were in their sister-mate’s place at that time, it would be them cautiously upheld by the dark threads.

  As they admired such romantic subconscious development, the shadowy flames flickered and began dissipating. Ast’s draconic frame lowered until he lay on the ground, resting his head underneath his wing, bringing it closer to his heart. With the final traces of the overbearing darkness fading away, they revealed both him and his mentor prone on the slippery crystal floor.

  The ladies ran up to them and found both unconscious. Miria and Selene peeled Asterios off Althea as he was resting over her protectively, while Tina and Silvia took the Dragon lady into their arms. As the duo slowly roused from their deep sleep, Umbra and Abyss emerged beside the group, watching the scene from the sidelines.

  “Take it slow, my Lord.” Selene grazed Ast’s cheek lovingly. “We are all safe and sound.”

  He grunted in affirmation and unhurriedly sat up. Althea managed to do the same at a similar time, and their eyes met. They both smiled softly, and a light chuckle escaped their lips.

  “That was a little bit intense, wasn’t it?” he said amusedly.

  “I hope my deference hasn’t made you uncomfortable,” she replied with a tiny smirk. “I feel like I should assure you that it wasn’t by compulsion.”

  “I know.” Asterios nodded softly. “I could tell. Thank you nevertheless.”

  “What happened?” Tina glanced between the two.

  Althea met her gaze with a graceful smile. “I think we’ve just made our dear mate quite a bit stronger.”

  The ladies shared excited grins before turning back to the pair.

  “That was one impressive display,” Silvia commented. “It got slightly scary near the end, but I’m glad you are both okay.”

  He reached out to squeeze her hand affectionately. “Sorry about that. The truth is, the three of us were still in the middle of the ritual until the Shadowflame dispersed. You could say that you were standing before my draconic subconsciousness. I’m happy it seems aligned with my consciousness and didn’t give you too much trouble.”

  “No wonder it felt so regal and imposing,” Selene noted with a pleased smile. “I did have a slight urge to kneel, but when do we not in front of you?”

  A few laughs escaped the women, and he shook his head.

  “Master’s aura certainly underwent a noticeable change,” Umbra said, moving closer. “Even now, the darkness seems to be seeping out of his core.”

  They all turned to Asterios and noticed the shadowy tendrils wafting off his frame, giving him a menacing look.

  “By the way, why did you two disappear and arrive so late?” Tina inquired curiously.

  The Duke chuckled openly. “I was afraid that Master’s darkness would try to clash against mine, and it honestly emanated rather dangerous vibes at that moment.”

  “Similar reason,” Abyss added after him. “There was no need to disrupt his spiritual progression as things seemed under your control.”

  “Thank you both.” Asterios lowered his head to the shadowy pair. “We managed to finalize the ceremony properly with your consideration. As Althea said, I managed to get a bit more in tune with my black lineage. And, while doing that, we might have discovered a way to strengthen both of them with this guy’s energy. I might actually want to seek out all of these clusters after we are done here.”

  “Can’t ignore a good freebie.” Althea smiled at him slyly. “I’ll help you absorb them whenever you need my assistance.”

  “Speaking of which, what happened to Tia?” Miria tilted her head at them.

  “She’s resting. Her role in everything was substantial. Both she and Althea went quite far for me, and it wasn’t exactly painless. I’ll need to repay them somehow,” he answered thoughtfully.

  “After everything is finished, I’m pretty sure the three of us will be able to find a solution that shall satisfy all sides.” His mentor peered deep into his eyes, hers brimming with love and something much more intense.

  Asterios cleared his throat and got up. “Anyway, apologies for the scare. Thankfully, no one got hurt, so it seems. Are we ready to move on?”

  “The way you destroyed that facility was quite frightening, I have to admit.” Tina giggled timidly. “Does this mean we will have no problems with them going forward?”

  “I can’t promise that, but I will be exploring this side of me more, so we shall see.” He winked at her. “But, before we decide to chase after more clusters, we should check one thing.”

  “Which is?” Miria hopped in place giddily.

  Ruffling through her hair, Asterios brought forth the damaged disc. “Let’s see if there’s any change after I have absorbed more light.”

  As he held the broken token, one more segment fixed itself with a golden shape. Something was telling him that it was more important than just showing them the facilities.

  Chapter 23

  The Golden Shell

  “Aren’t we worried that it might shoot out those columns of light again and bring another avalanche of enemies onto our heads?” Tina asked while taking a glance at the magic badge.

  “We know it does that when the gaps are filled, so Asterios can leave one empty,” Silvia pointed out.

  “We assume to know,” Althea corrected her kindly. “I’m not completely sure I properly completed the circuit that time. The explosion of mana happened when I tried to join the rotation created by him and Miria. It could have been the interference I caused instead that brought forth such a reaction.”

  “Well, we are going to confirm that soon, aren’t we?” Selene looked between the other ladies. “At least we are in a place where the monsters are going to be greatly inconvenienced while we can make use of our talents to stay in the air.”

  “There’s no need to take chances,” Asterios joined in, and the girls turned to him. “Since we aren’t going after the last two clusters that this token needs, we can simply obstruct the outgoing light ahead of time.”

  “Master is so right!” Miria giggled cheerfully. “How are we going to do that? Should we look for a cave or get back to the mountains?”

  He shook his head, and his gaze wandered to their butler friend. “Umbra?”

  “At your command, Master.” His familiar bowed respectfully.

  Making a pattern with his fingers through the air, the shadowy Duke raised thick shadows around them. The opaque barrier rose into the air until it locked them all inside a sealed dome of complete darkness. Yet, they all could see perfectly well inside. Before anyone asked why, they understood.

  Ast’s draconic sight had already been like a perfected version of Darkvision, but now that he had grown his black Heart, he was almost, if not already, one with the true darkness. It didn’t inconvenience him. Rather than that, it obeyed him. And through him, the women were saved from the mischief of all the natural and unnatural shadows.

  “That’s cool.” Tina smiled with wonder-filled eyes. “Doesn’t that mean you could have created a bubble like this too?”

  “Perhaps, but Umbra is much more experienced in it,” Asterios replied with a nod towards their friend. “And I will need to focus on this thing, so it’s better to leave it in someone else’s capable hands.”

  “I’m always glad to be of assistance.” The Duke let out an appreciative chuckle. “Perhaps one day there will come a time when you will be helping me out, Master. Or teaching me the proper way to use certain techniques. I don’t claim to be all-knowing in the matters of darkness and shadows, no matter how many centuries I have had to practice and explore them.”

  “I would do that with extreme pleasure.” Asterios grinned. “But, I feel like you are going to get much more from your friendship with Kori. I bet our dungeon friend must be missing you greatly during this journey.”

  The ladies agreed with him, and Umbra didn’t deny getting close to the Dungeon Core. He didn’t need to, since their budding relationship was fairly noticeable.

  “Okay. Let’s see if we got any closer to solving our issue or if we were chasing a wild goose for days, wasting our time.” Rotating the artifact, Asterios focused on his natural energy.

  Just like before, while he held onto the broken disc, an additional segment recovered with golden ethereal light. Also, the same as before, the mysterious grid of hexes hovered above the badge in an arc. He examined it alongside the women, but they spotted no changes to the weird mesh, no matter how they looked at it.

  Miria then offered to join him, and Asterios attempted the joint circulation once more. Everyone prepared themselves for a violent flash as the final piece of the artifact filled up, but all that happened was a faint shimmer within the displayed illusion. They blinked confusedly at the lackluster reaction.

  “That’s it?” Tina frowned deeply. “Maybe Althea was right.”

  “Wait.” Silvia grabbed Ast’s wrist as he was tilting the image around with Miria.

  The pair halted their movements and let her take a closer look at whatever she had noticed. Kneeling in front of them, the princess peered into the mesh from below, her pretty amber eyes scanning the hexagons attentively. The others followed her lead, curious about her discovery.

  “Don’t these dots look like… constellations?” Selene asked thoughtfully.

  “I had the same feeling,” the scarlet-haired girl admitted. “But these definitely don’t belong to our world.”

  Even Umbra and Abyss took a peek as the duo raised the token above their heads.

  “I recognize these patterns…” The Duke whispered to himself.

  A moment later, the dome that hid them away retreated into the ground. Moving closer, Umbra took hold of Ast’s and Miria’s wrists and started messing with the angles of the illusory projection, clearly aiming it toward the dark sky. After a good while, he stopped abruptly.

  “Don’t move for a second, please,” he requested politely. “Creator, do these align somewhat?”

  Abyss’ deep eyes peered into the spot he pointed out with such an intensity that the others were worried she might pierce holes in the very magic upholding this mesh.

  “That seems to be correct.” She nodded slowly. “However, now that I look at it, the position of this particular group of stars doesn’t align with my memories. Not by much, but for someone who spent ages sculpting and observing this world, tiny details like these tend to end up engraved in one’s mind.”

  Walking out of the golden umbrella of hexagonal shapes, she then turned her head to the sky and watched every corner of its surface with unparalleled focus.

  “Something is not right,” Abyss stated. “I can’t rule out the possibility that the realm became misaligned over time, but I have this weird feeling that it’s a much deeper issue.”

  “Nevertheless, I think this is a star map, Master,” Umbra said while she continued to ponder. “And from the hints it offers, I’m almost certain I know where it’s leading. We’ve been there already, even. This particular constellation should be located above the Darkling habitat, more or less.”

  “Which would be where this damaged disc comes from,” Miria noted. “If those creatures didn’t bring it from somewhere far away, of course. Coincidence?”

  “It might be.” Asterios hummed to himself. “But it also might not be. I say we check it out. What do you think?”

  “We go wherever you go.” Althea smiled at him elegantly.

  Receiving similar affirmations from the rest of his mates, he turned the projection off and hid the gate key away. Umbra offered to transfer them to their destination, but Asterios wanted to test a few things related to his recent advancement. That got the attention of literally everyone, and they gave him some space to prepare.

  First, he assumed the form of a black True Dragon. Second, he further drew on his onyx Heart and spread the dark energy through his majestic body. Tongues of black smoke wafted from between his scales until he became fully swallowed by them, ending up with the same misty appearance as he had shown right after consuming the last cluster.

  Moving around a little, Asterios got the hang of it rather quickly. The main advantage of this half-corporeal and half-not constitution was its incredible mobility. He moved from place to place like a cloud of menacing mist, at an impressive pace too. It allowed him to sink into the very ground as long as it was shrouded in darkness, utilizing a similar transfer to Umbra’s Shadow Step.

  The only question was whether he could carry others this way.

  So, Selene volunteered to check that out. And while she could still mount him as usual, whenever Asterios dove into a shadow, she would be left behind. But, they didn’t quit right away, and he came up with a different tactic. Trying to recall the feeling of having Althea within his frame, he suddenly chomped on the fox lady’s figure, swallowing her whole. The girls gasped in shock, even if they inherently knew she wasn’t hurt.

  Right after, the space over Ast’s draconic chest changed a bit, and they found their sister-mate inside that partially transparent shadow cocoon. She snuggled with the darkness embracing her, and waved her hand at them with a happy smile.

  Easy to guess, Miria didn’t last a second more and begged Asterios to eat her too.

  And just like that, they all ended up in his belly, squeezed together behind the translucent pane. Umbra found a way to attach himself to Asterios, partially merging with his shadowy body. Abyss abstained from such actions, naturally, as she was capable of crossing the distance in a blink, most likely. Perhaps she would be willing to share that technique with Asterios, he hoped.

  With his passengers ready as much as they could get and excited as much as he could handle, he took flight. But, instead of simply moving physically at high speeds, he tried to weave the shadow affinity into the process, imitating Umbra’s techniques. His form shrank into a dark stain, and he zipped over the terrain.

  Gaining a bit of practice, he managed to include long-distance jumps through the shadows too, increasing their pace considerably. If they continued traveling like that, they would arrive at their destination in days instead of a week or so. But, since it was still relatively new to him, the girls convinced Asterios to take breaks instead of going for a full marathon.

  During those moments, Umbra took over once more while he rested alongside his mates, sharing experiences and insights with them. Thanks to that, he became faster each time it was his turn, and they reached the Darkling village two days quicker than it had taken them to cover the same distance.

  Stopping away from it so as not to bother their overzealous friends unnecessarily, they gathered around Asterios and Miria, who activated the disc once more. The map showed up properly, and the group worked together to align the purplish dots in the sky with the golden ones visible on the hexagonal mesh. It took a few minutes and some snappy arguments about who saw the pattern better, but they got it almost perfectly in the end.

  “Looks like this is it,” Silvia said while rubbing her chin gently. “What did we gain from this puzzle?”

  “I expected a big flash or a revelation of a super hidden and mysterious facility, but this is kinda disappointing,” Miria commented with a small sigh.

  “It’s a map, in the end,” Selene pointed out.

  “But also a key, considering its shape fit the hole at Umbra’s peak,” Althea added. “We need to look closer.”

  “I have deciphered the directions,” Abyss stated nonchalantly, turning heads right away. “The outer edges of the two marked constellations point to a specific spot.”

  “That means this map doesn’t lead to an underground hideout like the ones we have been visiting, but instead leads into the sky?” Asterios summed up. “I don’t see anything above us.”