Orion returned to Horizon feeling out of it.

He looked around, and noticed Deveralna waiting in front of the portal to Lahro.

'Right, I still have to deal with her matter.'

Keeping what happened with Tiohr-nam in a corner of his mind, he walked toward the lamia.

While approaching, he waved at her and called her out.

"Hey."

She wasn't answering, seemingly in deep thoughts.

'Hmm...'

He could forcefully make her return to reality, but instead, chose to observe her.

Her long crimson tail, wrapped around like a spring under her, her long orange hair, and those dark orange reptile sclera, reminding him of his mother's eyes when she used magic.

'Why only when using magic, features from our factions appear on our body?'

Something that was on his mind sometimes during training, was that besides the change in his hair color, there was no other changes.

'No wings, no horns, no tail... Why am I not like them?'

Only one time did features appeared, and it was when Ego forced the Sixth Magic unlock during his time of needs.

But even though this happened, he only had Amelia and Karteira to describe his appearance. He himself did not notice anything during the fight.

At that moment, he was there, but also somewhere else. Controlling that ability was a little to demanding for him at that moment, as he only had a few seconds of use.

Deveralna had that aura of dignity around her that made everyone question if they could approach her.

Orion remembered their first meeting. She acted like a child at first, but in reality, she was well aware of the suffering of her people. That childish façade was made to facilitate the use of her 'Keen' ability, and instantly judge the person in front of her as good, or bad.

Also, both Orion and Deveralna had something in common. He couldn't quite get his hands on it, but that was the reason why he ignored her sudden change of attitude when she asked him out.

He quite liked her two faces. She had to act as the Queen, a respectable and authoritative figure, yet she was a sweet and curious person outside of her role.

Now, to the problem at hands, which was the reason for Deveralna's lack of awareness currently.

There was a few problems that needed to be dealt with, some importants, others less.

The less importants were those related to Florian, like the agreements and trade aspects, which Orion couldn't deal with.

So it left the most important and problematic matters, mostly concerning Velridar and the lamias citizens, for Orion and her.

'I am their Queen. But what solution can I find alone when all of this is so sudden. Now that our freedom has been recovered, we need to be more careful than ever. We don't want any rebellion at this point... but from what is happening in Lahro, it might happen.'

He frown appeared on her face, while the two tips of her snake tongue appeared at the corner of her mouth.

'I don't want my people to suffer anymore. I need to find a way to at least quell their objections, and discuss this before it is too late.'

She felt something strange at that moment and turned her face right.

'Huh?'

Her eyes locked with Orion's, who was looking at her with interest, a hand holding his chin.

"O-O-Orion! Since when?"

Deveralna's body shuddered from the sudden surprise, as her tail unwrapped itself in a hurry.

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"I was there for a few minutes at most. I called out, but you seemed lost in thoughts, so I waited for you to finish."

While looking away, her face reddened.

'Why is he so gentle?'

"Anyways, are you done with whatever you were thinking?"

She inhaled and exhaled a few times, before focusing on the important part.

"Yes. Mama should be waiting right now."

As she was about to walk through the portal back to Lahro, she stopped.

After turning toward Orion, she looked down.

"I'm sorry. If only I had more experience as a queen, I wouldn't have bothered you with our problems."

But Orion shook his head.

"You've taken over only recently, so don't worry about that. It might sound false coming from me, but asking for help is not something to be ashamed of."

"Though, I only have knowledge. I can't do anything else for you."

Orion's smile eased her guilt and worries.

'I am quite lucky. If he had rejected me immediately, I wouldn't be here... Though, all of those mind-shattering problems are existing because of him.'

With a strained smile, she looked forward.

"That is enough. I am not asking more than your input on some ideas."

'I have to challenge the old ways of the lamias. The times have changed, and we have too. Mama, I'm coming for you with all I have.'

Deveralna slithered into the portal, back to the throne room of Lahro, followed by Orion.

~

*PShhh* *Boom*

"Wah!"

Karteira found herself pushed backward with tremendous force and rolled on the ground, before grabbing her arm in pain as steam erupted from it the moment she stopped.

"It burns so damn much! Release!"

Her plates retracted back to their original state, though some of them stayed behind, either broken, or bent weirdly.

*Crack*

She grabbed them and ripped them off of her arm.

'That feels better.'

Looking at her sweaty and reddened arm, she grimaced.

'I still can't make it. What am I missing?'

Karteira was currently training while waiting for Orion.

'This is one of the best moment to do that, yet I keep failing.'

While she waited for her arm to cool down, she stared at the target in front of her. A few cans were stacked in a pyramid shape, but none of them had fell.

'I've managed to create a long range attack thanks to Amelia, but without her, I'm stuck doing close range.'

She placed her right knee on the ground, dropped her hands in front of her, and made her tail bend over her back with the tail pointing straight ahead.

'Our combination.'

-

"Karteira."

"Orion? What is it?"

"I had something to tell you about steam."

'What could it be now? There's not much about it isn't it? It's just my sweat evaporating and creating gas... or that's what he said before.'

"Did you know that steam could be used for burning things?"

"Huh?"

-

"Flamethrower."

At her words, her plates moved again, enveloping her whole body. Her tail got encased in a thick tunnel displaying a small hole where the tip of her stinger was.

For a long minute, nothing happened. She remained still, until...

"First block."

The storages on her thighs opened with a clicking sound, but instead of sending the condensed steam outside, it was released through another way. One that released the steam in the plates armor of her tail.

It was horribly hot, scorching even, but her tail was able to resist it after multiple tries. It wasn't like her skin, so it could withstand quite a lot.

As the air began to move through the various chambers of the armor, it merged, heat more, and finally arrived at the exit.

*Thruuuuuuuu*

The sound of air exiting a small opening echoed around her.

'I still have a little fire magic from Amelia...'

A little red plate was lodged on a plate near her wrist. The moment she channeled the magic inside her, the plate lost its reddish color.

There was currently two uses for it. The first one was to facilitate the creation of steam through heat, the second was this.

The tip of the plated tunnel, called a muzzle by Orion, began to heat up, changing from its cerulean blue color to a heated red.

At that moment, the true flamethrower happened. The scorching steam caught fire, heated to the maximum her plates could handle.

A red flame covered everything in front of her, capable of burning even the toughest of corrupted beasts.

Though, she only had enough stored fire magic for three seconds of activation.

"I still shouldn't use it too much, or I'll catch on fire. I also need to find a way to keep myself from harm, and to cool the plates faster."

She carefully straightened, and glanced at her scorpion tail. The muzzle was so hot she couldn't do anything about it at the moment.

"The coldness of the south was great to try it, but here, it doesn't work the same. It heats way faster."

While she had to wait for her plates to cool down, she thought of the ability she was working on before.

"..."

'I have no idea how to make it work.'

At one point, she stopped trying, and returned home.

...

On the way home.

"Hmm?"

She looked at the tree they planted.

'Is it glowing, or is it me?'

Karteira approached the tree, noticing a strange green glow coming from it.

The closer she got, the stronger it became.

Once in front of it, she noticed the source of the glow.

"Is that... mother's crest?"

As she placed her hand on the young tree's trunk, she felt the same energy as her mother flowing inside of it.

"What is happening? Wasn't this tree supposed to be a separated part of her?"

Then, a weird rumble made the ground vibrate lightly.

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

The tree glowed brighter, and got enveloped by it entirely.

Before Karteira could blink again, the tree grew to half the size of the real Tree of Life, casting a massive shadow behind it.

The crest of the Tree of Life, a leaf with four long arms, cracked open, and revealed a being quite familiar to her.

"M-Mother..."

Though the empty eyes of the being showed that it wasn't conscious, it looked like a younger version of the fairy realm's Tiohr-nam.

"How am I going to explain this to Amelia?"

With exasperation, she returned home and woke up Amelia, who also couldn't believe what had happened while she was asleep.

During this event, Orion was almost done with the lamias' problems.