"Fine, sit down and tell me why you're here." Mr. Ezerta said, with a hand massaging his forehead.

Aster nodded, and took one of the two seats in front of Mr. Ezerta's desk, while Mr. Ezerta took the chair behind the desk.

Mr. Ezeta's office itself actually wasn't that big, in fact it was crowded with papers, inks, blood, hides, and other materials.

And these materials were on a workbench that looked shoved into the room, the office looked more like a workshop than an actual office, but neither of the two seemed to care about any of this.

"They're back..." Aster didn't have to say who for Mr. Ezerta to know who he was talking about.

However Ezerta's reaction wasn't big, he simply leaned his head against his chair, and closed his eyes, he muttered, "We expected them to come back, but... Do you know who the strongest member they have in the Vivacity Realm?"

Aster shook his head, "I didn't even know they were back until Gorah told me, I don't even have a general location. And while we're on the topic, there's another thing they told me, they're going into dormancy."

"Is that so?" Mr. Ezerta mumbled, his head leaning on his hand.

Both Aster and Ezerta felt a wave of helplessness when speaking about Gorah.

A formation then appeared on the surface of the desk, and Ezerta put his hand through it. It entered a pocket space, and when it left, he held a bottle.

Aster's eyes widened when his eyes made contact with the bottle, "Oh my goodness, you still have astral sap!"

A tense smile formed on Mr. Ezerta's face, and his hand reached back into the formation, and he took out two glasses, "Might as well take this now..."

...

After riding for five days straight, their destination was in sight. Ash held a small smile on his face as the green pastures of Mr. Lottle's ranch came into view.

His speed increased, not because he wanted to, but because his own unicorn couldn't keep its excitement. Aaron's unicorn had a similar reaction, but it didn't increase its speed like Ash's until it felt a pat of conformation on its neck.

As they approached, they heard hooves next to them, and when Lenore looked behind them, she saw a trail of the Caster stage unicorns following after them, trying to keep up.

But this only caused Aaron's and Ash's rides to increase in speed, the horned horses looked like they were enjoying themselves.

However even with the growing distance between the two groups, the other unicorns never stopped trying to catch up, even when they got closer to the barns.

In the end, they didn't stop chasing them until they heard a whistle, its sound pierced the air and gained the attention of all the unicorns present, including Aaron's and Ash's.

The whistle originated from a two story house near the barns, on the front porch stood an elderly man.

There wasn't much to say about this elderly man except his smile made him look kind and frail, like he didn't move around much, but his aura gave a completely different feeling, like this one man could support a mountain, and the look in his eyes didn't look trustworthy.

Aaron nodded at the man as he dismounted, and Ash merely waved at him. Lenore looked around with eyes full of curiosity. Before this, she never knew where they bred their glorified horses.

"Mr. Lottle, we're here for this little Miss." Aaron said, grabbing Lenore by the shoulders, and presenting her to the elderly man.

Lenore gave a small bow, with Mr. Lottle bowing back. After that little greeting, Mr. Lottle turned his attention back to Aaron, "Follow me."

Mr. Lottle guided the group to the pastures behind his house, there was another group of unicorns, but these ones were a lot more mature compared to the group that chased after them. However there were a few offspring that were staying with their parents for the time being.

A fence separated the humans on the outside and the unicorns on the inside. Ash leaned against the fenced and examined the creatures.

He spotted a pair, near the back of the herd, it was a child-parent pair, they weren't doing anything special, but it still gave him a feeling of... Ash suddenly felt a shove to his side, interrupting his train of thought.

He turned to see his own unicorn bumping its head against his side. Ash patted its neck, "Thank you, Uri."

While this was happening with Ash, Mr. Lottle had already began explaining to Lenore about the different types of unicorns. There were three categories, the breeds for speed, strength, or a combination of both.

Using this new information, Lenore was able to deduce the type of Unicorn Aaron's and Ash's were.

Aaron's was a more heavy weight strength type of unicorn, with thick hair, and a large frame, while Ash's was smaller and had a lighter amount of hair, while at the moment, it was slower than Aaron's, if they were on the same stage of the magic path, Ash's would've been much faster.

Mr. Lottle continued to explain more to her, "Well, there's also very different personality traits between breeds. But I think you can already tell."

Lenore nodded, again she could see this from Ash's and Aaron's. While Aaron's unicorn was more dignified, Ash's was stubborn and playful.

"And last, the part I think you would be most interested in, how to tell the elements of these beasts. It's simple, from their horns. Look at those two, what do you see." Mr. Lottle said, pointing at Aaron's and Ash's rides.

Lenore Analyzed their unicorns, Aaron's was white, with a golden mane and horn, which she knew symbolized the light elements.

She then looked at Ash's, his unicorn didn't have the same color hair as Aaron's, instead its coat was charcoal grey with white markings on its face, and a red horn, she could guess this symbolized fire.

But there was something strange about all of this, "Why are their horns the color of their element? No other animal is like that."

Mr. Lottle smiled at the question, "The unicorns have their own way up the magic path, which leads them to have many differences compared our own way, and you are mistaken, unicorns aren't the only animals with their own particular way through the path of magic, but I'm pretty sure Aaron wants to be the one to show you that."

Mr.Lottle glanced at Aaron, who gave him a small nod. "Okay, enough stalling, go get in there." Mr. Lottle began pushing Lenore into the fence, but she held her hands up to stop him.

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"You haven't told me what I needed to do yet." She exclaimed.

"What do you need to do? Well, you go in there, and you bond with one of those horned beasts, and don't forget, if you go near one that doesn't like you, they will attack."

Those words were the last words she heard before being shoved through the gate. Inside this gate was different from the outside, similar to the one in O'Kairo, but also completely different.

The sounds from the outside completely vanished, and she couldn't see Aaron, Ash, and Mr. Lottle anymore. She also felt this weird energy that extended upwards from the fences, which explained why none of these creatures attempted to jump out.

When she entered this pasture, none of the unicorns had any large reaction to her presence, some merely glanced at her before losing interest, others didn't acknowledge her presence in the slightest.

Lenore stood there, a bit awkwardly, she felt unsure on how to continue from here, especially since she was shoved into here without any instructions.

She looked around, while playing with her thumbs, considering their previous reactions, she knew if she approached any random unicorn, it may not bore well for her, especially since the weakest one here was also in the Core Creation stage, but she came here with a mission, and she was going to complete it.

Outside the gate Mr. Lottle glanced at the quiet Ash, "How's your brother?"

"Dead." Ash replied with a monotone voice.

Mr. Lottle didn't really have a reaction to the news, whether it was because he didn't care, or he was just used to the concept of death, maybe it was another reason, only he knew, but he said, "Well, things like that happen, you just have to learn from it."

Ash nodded, "Your right, I was stupid to leave him with the Ayuna's, I should've taken him and Cay..." Ash paused, then continued, "I should've left with him."

Mr. Lottle pondered on what he just heard, and was reminded of someone standing a mere few feet away from him, "Are you going to go looking for revenge? If you are, advise you to ask Aaron where that path is leading him."

Ash frowned, and muttered, "Arron? Does that mean it's true that he's..."

He was interrupted by Aaron saying, "She's going for one."

Lenore began to take her chances with one of the unicorns that glanced her way when she entered, the one she approached was brown with white markings all over its body like a cow. Its horn was the color of dirt, and its power was equivalent to a Star Core Warrior.

When it heard Lenore approach, it raised its head and stared at her. A shiver went down her back when this unicorn stared her down.

She unconsciously took a step back, when the unicorn saw this, it lost interest, and laid its head back down.

A frown surfaced on Lenore's face when she saw this,

Maybe a Core Creation would be easier to tame...

Scanning the pasture, it didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for, so she tried again with this new unicorn.

This one was standing, and held a dark red coat, on its legs were black markings. Lenore tried a gentle approach with this one, she walked slowly, and used a soft voice to calm it.

However the unicorn turned away from Lenore, but she was persistent, which was her mistake, the next moment a trail of fire shot towards her.

She used a light shield to block the incoming attack, but she didn't notice that the horned horse was charging up to her, she barely had enough time to use her wings as another shield, in the end, Lenore was forced to retreat by flying away.

Outside the gate, Aaron and Ash both watched her with understanding within their eyes. They went through the exact same thing when they were picking out their unicorns.

Mr. Lottle eyes however contained nothing, but amusement. However there was a reason he didn't tell any of them how to form a relationship between the unicorns, and that's because he didn't know how.

Throughout the years he'd seen many different people use many different methods on how they bonded with their unicorn, many that didn't even make sense.

For example, he saw someone and their unicorn bond over picking up a piece of stone.

He used to think those with similar or opposite elements got along better, but that was proven wrong 50 years ago when an earth magic user formed a bond with a fire element unicorn.

And there were also the different personalities between the creatures that required different ways to form relationships with, so in the end Mr. Lottle settled on simply throwing in riders and seeing what comes from it.

About an hour passed, and Lenore tried to bond with many different unicorns, all of them failing. Right now she was cut, bruised, and bleeding all over. The feathers from her wings were scattered everywhere, and the determination in her eyes was fading.

She used her light magic to heal her injuries and sighed. She then looked around to see who she should approach next.

Outside the gate, Ash turned to Aaron, "We could always try again tomorrow."

But Aaron shook his head, "We'll stop when she wants to stop."

Another few hours passed, and Lenore was in even worse shape than before. There was a hole in her side made from a unicorn's horn that was gushing blood.

But despite her state, Aaron still didn't intervene, much to the dismay of Ash.

On the field, just as Lenore was about to give up, she saw something strange. Along the edge of the group, there was one peculiar unicorn.

This one wasn't dignified nor mighty, and it didn't look as amazing as the others. It stayed a distance away from the group, as if it was scared to approach.

Lenore locked her eyes on the creature and slowly made her approach. Despite being nervous of approaching the group of unicorns, this grey horned horse seemed to have no trouble with Lenore approaching it.

But anyone could tell this was a front for its true feelings by the flickering of its ears, and the quiver in its nose.

"That's..." Aaron's voice held a small hint of disbelief, and his heart suddenly held mixed feelings.

When Lenore was in front of the creature she was unsure on how to continue, she cursed Mr. Lottle under her breath for that.

But she took another step forward and... Collapsed, faced first into the dirt, which was very weird as she still had enough magical energy inside her body to support her, but the hole in her side felt very strange, and her magic was so chaotic at the moment, she couldn't control it.

The grey horn unicorn lowered its head to look at Lenore, its eyes held a strange light.

"Aaron, now should we intervene?" Ash asked.

"Maybe." Aaron said with a quiet voice, but just as he was about to move, Mr. Lottle put his hand up, "Wait one more minute."

The elements around the grey horn unicorn began to move, but because the trio was outside the gate, they couldn't feel what elements were being moved.

These elements entered Lenore's wounded side, she didn't know what was happening, but after a few moments, the elements left, and Lenore's side didn't feel as bizarre.

"That's something new, is she forming a bond by presenting herself in her weakest state, or is it because she has unicorn's toxin in her body?" Mr. Lottle muttered to himself.

But Despite the feeling in her side fading, she didn't regain movement in her body. The unicorn used its horn to flip her over, and Lenore was face to face with the beast

They stared at each other for a good eight seconds, Lenore had no idea what this horned horse was going to do.

The grey horned unicorn stepped closer to Lenore and pointed their horn above her chest, where her heart was.

A small strand of magic was created, and it lingered just above that area, Lenore was at a loss on what to do.

Thankfully, she felt her body slowly regaining its movability, and she felt that she could control her magic again, but only slightly.

But this didn't stop her from worrying about the magic strand above her body, however a voice sounded right next to her.

"Accept the strand, and bring into your magic domain, then offer a strand of your own." This voice she recognized to be from Mr. Lottle.

Lenore didn't understand what he meant, but with Aaron here, she didn't think Mr. Lottle would try anything that would hurt her.

Bringing in magic into the magic domain was different from bringing in magic to the mental expanse, you didn't need a special method, and everyone brings in magic into their magic expanse every day when they refine their stars.

Lenore did as she was told, and took in the unicorn's magic into her domain, the strand didn't linger there, instead it entered one of her flawless stars that wasn't connected to her incomplete Star Core.

When it entered, Lenore took some of her own magic and presented it to the Unicorn, it touched it with its horn and it disappeared.

Lenore didn't feel anything different at first, but she soon noticed a faint feeling getting stronger, this feeling was similar to the one Cronix felt when he formed a contract with Madame Potpourri.

"... She did it..." Aaron muttered.

Mr. Lottle tilted his head with amusement, "I wonder how Aster would react when he sees a unicorn like that again, would he cry? Aster was always emotional, oh, it seems like you are as well."

Aaron didn't quite hear Mr. Lottle's words, his emotions right now couldn't be described with basic words like happiness nor anger, maybe it was a type of bitterness, and while his face said none of this, his clenched fist said enough.

On the sideline, Ash didn't really understand what was going on, but seeing how Aaron was reacting, hearing Mr. Lottle's words, and some rumors he heard back at the Holy Knight headquarters he thought he pieced it together.

Back when the Immortal Ring was still intact, all the members had a unicorn of their own, that included the late queen.

According to the rumors, the queen's unicorn was of the rarest breeds and he vaguely remember hearing the colors matching the one Lenore was currently bonding with.

But without the connection he felt nothing, this scene wasn't for him. But one thing did strike him as odd, the horn of that unicorn was charcoal grey, and there was only one element that matched that type of color: The dark element.