“Got it. Any instructions for me?” Asterios took a deep breath to compose himself.

  “Tia will guide you through it on the other side. As I said, we are more like an anchor. Now get your ass in the circle and strip.” She pushed him past the crystals.

  “Strip?” He raised a brow at her.

  “Easier to spot any changes or signs of things going fucked in the ass.” Grea winked at him. “What? Are you getting shy in front of a god-tier female who has most likely already spied on you bathing and fucking for months of time? Or is it the little me you are worried about? I told you, I had my fix. It should last until the evening. I’m coming into that bed early tonight and it’s not to get more sleep.”

  Snorting lightly, Asterios dismissed his clothing and sat down in a cross-legged position in the center of the fancy formation. The dark crystals hummed with power around him, filling him with an ominous vibe. Grea exchanged a few words with her father and they took their spots around the array. She snuck one more glance at his nude form, showed him a thumbs up, and signaled him to be on his way.

  Chapter 51

  Winter Is Coming

  Focusing as Althea had taught him, he dove into his mind and soon woke up inside the volcano realm. Calling forth his wings, he soared into the air and traveled from his personal mountain towards Tia’s tree. He didn’t spot the circle anywhere near it so he descended in front of the colossal trunk and it parted for him invitingly. Walking inside, he found the Dryad in the main chamber with her throne. Surprisingly, the copy of the array was there too, carved into the wooden ground.

  “I didn’t think you would ever cause intentional harm to your tree unless it was inevitable like with the Dragons,” Asterios commented.

  “It’s alright. I can heal this much with ease since this is all a spiritual projection rather than a physical manifestation in the real world. I’m basically carving this in my own soul.” She smiled at him gently. “Doing it this way will ensure you will be able to quickly heal both mentally and physically if the need arises. A little cut or two is nothing before ensuring that my current host and master is unhurt and can continue to provide for me.”

  “I understand. And appreciate it.” He nodded, stepping closer. “Let’s get it over quickly so you don’t need to see these wounds in your woodflesh any longer.”

  “Thank you.” She nodded back. “Sit down then, please.”

  He followed her instructions and mirrored his pose from the real world. Then, he watched as the mesmerizing vines protecting Tia’s decency slowly retreated, revealing her enthralling charms to the world. That made him recall the fact he was nude too and he shook his head. She strolled towards him from the front and lowered herself into his lap, wrapping her legs behind his back as she too took a somewhat meditative pose. He tried to ignore how close their privates were to each other and gazed into the Dryad’s glowing green eyes.

  “Hold me closely and link our foreheads. Then, reach for the edge of the seal whenever you are ready,” Tia said.

  Following her guidance, he wound his arms around her torso and rested his forehead against hers, closing his eyes. It took a moment to get rid of all the unnecessary thoughts and sensations, but he soon managed to travel through his memories and everything suddenly went black.

  Opening his eyes in complete emptiness, Asterios stood in front of the familiar wall of unbelievably complex symbols that hid the rest of his memories. It was as menacing as always as it thrummed with power. A power that could kill a person with a slight graze.

  “It’s so much more intimidating from up close.” Tia’s voice reached him from the side and his head snapped towards the source.

  “You are here too?” He didn’t hide his surprise.

  “I want to aid you through the whole process. Since our existences are interconnected, I’m able to stand before this seal with you for as long as you allow it,” she explained. “It’s slightly different from the times you invited others to peer at the formation through various artifacts and other means.”

  “The Dryad is correct.” Another voice made him turn the other way and he found Abyss right next to him.

  “Now it’s getting pretty crowded here.” He chuckled lightly. “I didn’t even notice you getting in.”

  “I’m connected to the crystal pillars and the circle carved inside your Inner Sanctum. This will allow me to observe the event more directly. I also gave my word to your mate that I shall try my best to protect you,” Abyss shared.

  “Much appreciated.” Asterios nodded and glanced at Tia. “Any more tips?”

  “Feel for the formations we created and use them to channel your will into the wall. You need to touch it for everything to work. Remember that we are not trying to take it down yet but only attempting to carve a small hole to peek through. Perhaps imagine it as parting thick vines that protect the entrance to a valuable cavern. By widening the gap a tiny bit, you will be able to snatch some treasure,” the Dryad suggested.

  “Draw on your draconic energies. It might lessen the burden on your spirituality. And, who knows, maybe the barrier will recognize and react to its signature. We don’t have your father’s or mother’s auras to use, but yours might be close enough to be sufficient,” Abyss added.

  “Alright. You can’t succeed without trying. Here we go.” He took a deep breath even though he didn’t have to breathe the same way as in the outside world and took a step forward.

  Approaching the gigantic obstruction, Asterios let his Hearts out and ferocious mana flooded his circuits, which felt like his entire body in this weird space. His draconic features materialized in a blink. As he located the arrays somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt something tickle his palm and watched it glow purple, emitting dark, mysterious smoke.

  Stopping in front of the cursed seal, he reaffirmed his will and guided his hand onto its ethereal surface. The moment he touched the enchanting symbols, a wave of repulsive force hit him right in the face. But, he held himself strongly through it and watched as the purplish energy from his palm expanded onto the seal. Slowly but surely, it was eating at more and more of the glowing surface.

  Then, it hit him like a brick.

  Asterios shouted in surprise and grabbed his head with his other hand, even though they were technically inside of it. A pulsing thudding hammered in his mind and he was pretty sure it was also mirrored in the space the three of them stood together. But, he couldn’t tell because everything was simply muffled by the sensation assaulting him.

  Even so, Asterios didn’t back away. Something was happening, and it was something else than him just suffering. He could not see it but he could feel the change. Whatever Abyss had infused his hand with and whatever the magical arrays added to it was interacting with the barrier. The fact that the insane wave of rolling death hadn’t been released was a good sign.

  The pulsing slightly lessened and Asterios began to feel a tugging on his mind. It pulled in every direction as some bits of memories flashed before his eyes. Most represented things he clearly remembered, like all events past being picked up by Kindra, but then, his confusion grew as some unfamiliar bits blinked through the storm.

  As the first one he could focus on, he saw the image of snowy mountains with multiple tall peaks. The weather was intense and everything was white. Amongst all that snow, he saw signs of civilization. Lights and what had to be stone structures peeked out of the grand hills. They created a massive, segmented city connected by long, enormous bridges, almost like a net of multiple villages.

  For the second memory, he witnessed dark stone hallways almost as big as the passages in the Descending Spire. But, he then realized that they weren’t exactly as tall and it was the residents who made them feel like that, all because the people walking around were rather short, about half a human size. Many if not all men carried huge beards with different details woven into them.

  With another pulse, his perspective switched to a triangular chamber. Weirdly, a square table stood in its middle, feeling rather out of place. A few more of the short people surrounded it, but their clothes seemed far more exquisite. They talked animatedly as he lay on the table and watched them. As his head swiveled towards someone who answered, he noticed the only two tall individuals in the room.

  It was Red and Kaguya.

  They were blurry and even more obscured than the short people, but he had seen them enough times to recognize their manner of simply existing and their style of dressing. No one would be able to miss the three magnificent tails she currently had out.

  The memory began slipping and Asterios did whatever he could to listen in on the ongoing conversation. All he could hear since the beginning of this weird barrage of memories was just distorted and distant noise. Words couldn’t be recognized or identified even though he knew they were speaking languages he understood.

  With a titanic effort not to get kicked out of the memory, he finally managed to pierce through the filter.

  The first word he heard was ruby tongs.

  The second word he heard was seal.

  The third word he heard was impossible.

  The fourth word he heard was knowledge.

  The fifth word he heard was authority.

  The sixth word he heard was deal.

  And the memory was abruptly cut off.

  ※ ※ ※

  With a panicked gasp, Ast’s eyes flew open and he began panting. It took him a second to realize that he was no longer inside his mind but he had returned to the real world. Grea, Radir, Abyss, and even Bryn looked down at him with concern and worry. The silhouettes of all his other mates flashed in his peripheral vision too. Something held them back from reaching out to him and he could see the horror in his demon lover’s expression as she fought with herself whether or not to just fuck everything and do so anyway.

  That was when he noticed that he was on fire.

  Sitting inside the magical array, with the floating crystals shattered and lying in pieces around him, his draconic features were fully out and plenty of dark crimson scales covered his skin, including his entire legs and arms. From between the scales, fierce scarlet flames licked the air, raising the temperature around him stupidly high. He could tell that the pavement underneath him was nothing more than a puddle now.

  Taking a deep breath, he forced the flames to calm down and reduced them almost to nothing. Tiny flicks of fire still danced over his body but the temperature dropped instantly. Releasing a heavy sigh, he looked up at the ladies, sensing Tia observing him from inside too. He was glad he could feel her as it meant she was fine after everything that had happened.

  “You are okay, right?” Grea asked with a trembling voice. “Everything is fine? It didn’t cripple you or anything, yes? It is you in there, is it?”

  He attempted to smirk at her. “Yeah. It’s still me. All is good. You didn’t hurt me.”

  Ast’s last sentence forced a silent, strangled cry of relief from her and she lost her strength, falling into Tina’s arms.

  “What happened, Master?” Miria asked worriedly.

  “It was different than before. I managed to catch snippets of memory or memories and they were somehow obscured, muffled. I saw some winter imagery with multiple mountains and what could be towns on their sides. With quite some effort, I caught only a few words out of everything. They don’t really make sense to me but they were ruby tongs, seal, impossible, knowledge, authority, deal,” he summarized. “It felt like two sides spoke them in turns.”

  “It sounds rather random at first but I can see how it could possibly fit into a whole conversation.” Selene rubbed her chin as she pondered over the new information. “Unfortunately, it still doesn’t make much sense besides being related to Sealing Magic?”

  “Maybe it’s not Sealing Magic but the seal in his mind directly,” Althea suggested.

  “It was weird,” Asterios admitted. “And I can’t place these bits on a timeline, contrary to all the other memories. I don’t know where they came from and when they happened. I feel like I should know but it’s just not there. All of this is quite unusual.”

  “I don’t think you unlocked more of your further memories,” Abyss said. “The barrier didn’t retreat like the last few times which your mates described to me. Something came through the part you weakened, though.”

  “It might be only an assumption, but what if there are memories Asterios isn’t even aware that he is missing? And that they aren’t chronologically older than where his current furthest one is?” Tina suggested. “All that obscurity and everything else feels like someone tried to hide something. Your other memories weren’t really hidden from you, they were simply blocked off.”

  “Information and memory related to the origins of the seal,” Radir whispered. “If it was me, I would put those behind an additional safeguard, just in case someone managed to penetrate the seal I placed on my subject. They would be able to access the restricted memories, but they would miss the important part about the process of putting the barrier in place.”

  “That would check out,” Grea commented after finally recovering. “The seal was put in place after every other thing his parents did to him. It would have been pointless if he remembered how he lost his second Heart or how they put his draconic origins to sleep. Chronologically speaking, this might be the closest memory to the starting point of the initial seal. We just moved past it without even noticing.”

  “But who did it? That’s some advanced work. You need not only knowledge and skill but also expensive resources and most likely artifacts. A seal within a seal. That’s next-level shit,” her father continued after her.

  “I don’t know who but they were short and had beards.” Asterios shrugged. “Everything else was blurry.”

  As everyone pondered over it, he noticed Silvia being in deep thought. She caught herself after sensing his eyes on her and showed a faint smile.

  “What did you figure out?” he asked curiously.

  “Ruby tongs. I think I remember hearing about something like that, but it wasn’t ruby tongs. It was one word, Rubytongs, and it feels like a name,” she replied. “It feels like a name I had to learn for my political etiquette. And I’m just remembering that it might belong to a dwarf lineage known for their skills in the forge. It would match what you described as the main subrace of dwarves live in the mountains in the opposite direction than the Demon Continent. I haven’t been there personally so I can’t fully confirm.”

  “Dwarves, huh?” Grea snorted. “I wonder what’s the chance the only dwarf with forge blood in their veins that we befriended knows anything about it?”

  “Truvi?” Miria’s ears twitched as she tilted her head. “But she quit smithing and always wanted to be an advisor.”

  “Doesn’t change the fact that she most likely was brought up to work in the forge by her father,” Selene said. “She did return there after they kicked her out.”

  “I think it’s worth a try.” Asterios slowly stood up. “After someone helps me scratch the layer of now-cooled stone off my ass.”

  The girls chuckled and giggled as he angled his hips to show his side and displayed a chunk of pavement stuck to his behind. Sitting in a puddle of melted ground could result in that. Thankfully, with his scales and resistance to fire and heat, it was just a minor inconvenience to him. With a little bit of help from his mates, his tender butt was smooth and skinny once more.

  And he was happy the ladies could get some amused laughs from that to relieve the tension and anxiety they had felt.

  In the meanwhile, he shared more details of what had transpired inside his mind with them, and they in turn described how things looked from their perspective.

  A powerful spiritual force had suddenly descended onto the room and he combated with his draconic aura, bringing out his features. Then, it intensified and he had been set ablaze. They had to retreat to the edges of the chamber and the heat still almost burned them. Tina had fortunately been there by that point as everyone instantly gathered seconds after sensing the outburst, and her familiars helped cool everyone off. Asterios struggled against something but otherwise looked unharmed, and after some time, he returned to them with a gasp.

  Finished with their stories and cleaning, they all moved out to visit their receptionist friend, save for Radir, who decided to stay behind and begin fixing the room. Arriving at the guild, the girls looked over the available advisors and spotted Ellie and Truvi behind their posts, chatting together since no one had approached them at this moment.

  They walked towards the duo and the receptionists caught on. Both women greeted them with smiles, wondering who they aimed to interact with.

  “Hi there, Ast. And everyone. Are you looking for the guildmaster?” Ellie asked.

  “Not this time.” He shook his head softly. “We actually have some business with your friend there.”

  “Me?” Truvi pointed at herself in surprise. “What ya need me fer? I ain’t in trouble, right?”

  Miria giggled and grinned at her. “We just need your help! Like in the good old times! You are still our advisor in my heart, just like Ellie is!”

  “May we ask you a question unrelated to the guild, Truvi?” Silvia joined in politely.

  “Ah, yes, of course. How can I help ya?” The dwarf girl cleared her throat and looked between them all.

  “Does the name Rubytongs remind you of something?” the princess queried.

  Truvi blinked a few times in a stupor before showing a big grin. “Ya bet yer tits it does, m’lady! There is no dwarf born in Wintercrown who doesn’t recognize it! It belongs to one of da main clans! My family comes from a minor one but we still know all da snobs who fight fer rule as da Dwarf Sovereign.”

  “Then they are big players on the board?” Tina pondered out loud.