“I think you should leave it to me,” Tia said, brushing a hand over Ast’s back. “There’s no need to delay. I shall study any potential effects of this result and let you know my thoughts.”

“Sure.” Asterios nodded. “You certainly know more about this stuff. Any initial ideas?”

“A few, but nothing I should worry you about just yet. Examination first.” She smiled at him sweetly and spun around with a cute wink. “But, if it would be possible to absorb the other clusters this way and save them for later, this could become a decent trump card for you.”

“How so?” He raised a curious brow at her.

“Your Dragon’s Hearts are already almost bottomless in terms of energy when we keep in mind your draconic nature, but having another pocket of power you could call at a dangerous time might be just the little thing that turns the tables on your opponent.” The sly Dryad giggled impishly. “Nothing gets one more sure about their victory than seeing their enemy completely drained of all the spiritual strength.”

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Asterios smirked back at her. “And then pop. Right when their guard is down. I agree. It’s a devious little plan, but there are no shameful steps when it comes to protecting the ones you love. I’ll leave you to it, then. Thank you.”

A wide grin adorned her gorgeous face as she threw her arms over his shoulders and kissed him deeply.

“No need to thank me. I’m doing it for us. I want to protect our family too.” Tia’s fingers caressed his cheek as she looked into his eyes dearly. “The stronger you are, the stronger we are. I will be forever grateful for you saving me and shall ensure you possess enough might to save many more.”

“Hopefully before the person I’m trying to save ends up a bodiless soul next time.” He sighed softly.

“You better not start blaming yourself for this again or I’m going to sicc Grea on you.” She snickered dangerously and bopped him on the nose. “Now, back you go. The girls’ intrigue is reaching its limits. Get a hold of yourself before they hurt themselves with their curiosity.”

Blinking at her in confusion, Asterios hastily extracted himself from his Ancestral Plane. Tia stumbled a little with a quiet laugh, her arms winding around her figure, already missing the warmth of his soul on her consciousness’ avatar skin. After experiencing deeper closeness with her new beloved, she had difficulty controlling her yearning. And the fact that in this space she was the incarnation of her mind didn’t help quench those desires. She had no body she could control here.

But, she knew it wouldn’t be long before he found a way to bring her back into the physical world. As much as he struggled to hide it from them, they knew Asterios constantly racked his brain about possible options to achieve this feat. Until that happened, he wouldn’t stop feeling partially guilty about being unable to protect her Tree.

Unhurriedly turning around, Tia looked up at the miniature sun bathing the soul image of her Tree in a pleasant light. After being absorbed by Asterios, it had lost its sharp and violent nature, turning warm, gentle, cordial, and most importantly, loving. It felt nourishing in a way she hadn’t experienced in ages.

Perhaps the time she would walk the realms again wasn’t as far as she’d thought.

※ ※ ※

Opening his eyes, Asterios was greeted by an adorable yelp and the sight of Miria falling onto her butt, her fluffy ears laid down atop her soft black hair from the shock of surprise. She had been pretty much in his face as she was trying to catch a glance at his shadowy self, because as he noticed, his form was still that of dark billowing fog and most likely pure white eye slits. Thankfully, he had come back before she had enough time to move from starting to touching.

“Are you alright?” he asked, extending a hand to his sweet mate while placing his feet on the ground, finished with his levitating meditation.

She shot him a sheepish smile and accepted the help. His darkness licked at her fur, but properly controlled, it wasn’t hostile. The ladies watched as their excited sister-mate played around with the misty tongues, grinning from ear to ear. Silvia then approached them, a calculative look on her face as she too peered at Ast’s relatively new form.

“You can keep it up subconsciously?” the princess asked. “I still need to think about mine at least a little.”

“Sorry.” He chuckled wryly.

“I didn’t mean to sound jealous or accusing.” The scarlet-haired girl rolled her eyes and stepped forward to place a dainty peck against his cheek, making it shimmer a bit. “I’m going to get there myself soon too. This seems similar to my transformation, doesn’t it? I bet you will be able to help me improve even further.”

“There’s no doubt about that.” Selene hid her ladylike grin behind her slender palm. “Master is an expert at making sure we grow to the best of our potential.”

“So, how did things go?” Tina tilted her head at him.

Asterios proceeded to fill them in on the events and conversations from his inner world and they all listened eagerly. Tia’s suggestion fascinated them, gaining a unanimous vote for its introduction. When they got some time on their hands, they were going to collect as many clusters as they could fit inside Asterios, as worded by the short Summoner lady, who then quickly realized her choice of expression and dipped her head while blushing furiously.

“So, just one more and we are done.” Miria hopped around victoriously.

“We don’t know if reassembling the key will let us disable the seal this easily, but it should definitely give us access to more information about the structure,” Althea commented wisely. “Shall we move on or do you need a moment to process the changes inside you?”

Shaking his head, Asterios curbed down the panthergirl’s enthusiasm with a few playful strokes of her dancing tail. “Let’s get outside. I’m going to stay like this for a while. The more I rely on it, the more my onyx half seems to wake up after the recent infusion. And I want to try something out.”

Everyone was in agreement with that and they retraced their steps, going up the swirling staircase dug into the walls of the circular pit, now empty and devoid of any presence. Walking to the top, they found a ghost city, its streets also barren of any activity. The worshippers were all gone, to the very last creature.

Directing his face into the sky above them, aiming at the floating marble cube fortress, Asterios reached into himself and located the cluster of light energy he had previously swallowed. It wasn’t hard when he imagined it being close to Tia’s spiritual signature, which was correct to some extent. Nibbling on its reserves a bit, he fed it to his darkness and black shadows burst out from his position.

Before the ladies could react, they were all swallowed by them as they stood around their beloved. The black dome retreated in an instant after it had closed up, revealing a change in scenery. They were once more at the edge in front of the entrance to the white structure above the cultists’ community.

“That was so quick, Master!” Miria beamed at him.

“Look. You can see these guys spreading out.” Tina pointed somewhere below and they moved closer to peer at the ground too.

As she had noted, the spider-crabs were traveling in all directions to deliver the words of their Messiah to the entities of the Nethernight Realm. They were moving fairly fast but Ast’s group already knew their legs were capable of high speeds. One could say these fanatics were overzealous in their new holy task.

“Was it really a good idea to send them out into the world just like that?” the blue-haired girl continued a bit pensively. “They don’t seem exactly strong.”

Umbra made himself visible by her side, with Abyss already being there without them noticing. “They are actually safer thanks to your decision.”

“They are?” She turned to him skeptically.

“There’s no such thing as guaranteed safety in this place. One might assume that living in a community might bring higher chances of survival, but it’s the opposite. Gathering in one place just makes it easier for powerful entities to wipe the whole village out with a single assault,” the Lord of Shadows explained. “Additionally, they were praying to the light. It was only a matter of time before someone found out and took great offense to that, murdering their entire tribe. You did them a favor by introducing Master as their Messiah. They are going to worship his darkness instead of the malicious light now. Plus, they might not look like much, but who knows what kind of monsters they might become when they get serious.”

“Little Shadow is right. Your actions might have saved their lives,” Abyss stated in his support.

“That settles it, then.” Asterios hugged the petite girl affectionately from behind, still enveloped by darkness. “The best we can do for them is finish our business as soon as we can. When their Messiah saves the world, it should bring a few days of peace at least.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She stayed in his embrace for a moment longer and they started getting ready to travel to their final facility. While Asterios worked on the technique he had used to bring them up, his companions decided on the direction they would be continuing in. A few chance games later, the south won. They grouped up and he attempted the transfer once more.

It succeeded, but only to a certain extent.

When the curtain of darkness receded, they found themselves on the dark ground once more. He had missed his shot by about half an hour of walking, the floating fortress visible in the lit-up sky in the front above them. It was definitely a matter of practice and gauging how much energy was needed to make the jump. However, he was glad it wasn’t a complete failure.

“Is it me or does it look like the weird outpost is being… attacked?” Selene hummed to herself while squinting lightly.

Everyone focused on what they were seeing even more and understood her remark. Some kind of flying and aerial beings were clearly throwing themselves at the amalgamation of marble cubes. Physical and magical attacks bounced off the perfectly smooth walls, leaving barely any marks behind. An entire army was amidst a full-fledged siege, unable to do anything to the light god’s castle.

“This is what we were trying to prevent,” Umbra said unamusedly. “Without proper coordination, this is pointless. And dangerous.”

“It won’t trigger some unimaginably powerful defenses, right?” Miria giggled worriedly.

“I wouldn’t believe he didn’t prepare any countermeasures against the assault on his spell save for the illusory barrier,” Abyss shared as neutrally as usual.

“I guess it’s now a race against time,” Asterios stated firmly. “We should hope there are no world-ending magics prepared in case of such a scenario.”

“Well, if the realm was gone, at least Umbra would be finally free, no?” Tina let out an anxious snicker, clearly trying to convince herself of that positive and failing.

Dragging their gazes away from the all-out war with only one side actively participating, they switched their attention to the settlement laid before them, right beneath the suspended structure.

“Not them.” Umbra groaned and mimicked swiping a hand over his face in despair. “I knew this land felt familiar.”

Multiple pyramids made out of black and dark purple bones extended from the ground and stopped at various heights. Most of them had been built with smaller bones, more human-sized, but each was decorated with a bunch of bigger trophies woven into their designs. For a moment, Asterios was reminded of the Demon Continent but quickly dismissed that notion.

This was much creepier and more ominous.

In contrast to the last time, he did not want to explore these.

Besides, thousands of skeletal monsters flowed through the streets winding around the vicious pyramids, ranging from humanoid to total horrors. A single glance confirmed that their bones were definitely part of the conical buildings and not just the bones of their enemies. It was hard to guess if that was a punishment or a reward for these people.

In any way, a massive army of undead awaited them in a city made of their own bodies.

Quite fitting, some would say.

“I have a feeling it isn’t another them similar to the ones we met in your pocket dimension,” Asterios finally said, breaking the tense silence.

“I’m afraid not.” His familiar released a deep sigh. “It’s a bastard who has always been trying to undermine me. And his army of Death Legion. They are pretty much immortal as their bodies are reconstructed through all the available darkness. The light might have inconvenienced them a little, but not enough to make them easy to deal with. As long as that violet spark sizzles in their chests, they will not disappear.”

“Let them try to find an issue with us.” Miria growled while smacking her fist into her palm. “No one bullies Master’s subordinates.”

“Perhaps we don’t have to confront them,” Althea suggested a less troublesome approach. “They don’t seem to be aware of the true nature of the mana source atop which they had founded their little empire.”

“It will be a pain to sneak in there,” Silvia noted. “And negotiations are most likely off the table.”

“Then all we need is a diversion.” Selene grinned cunningly. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s their forces that are up in the air. Why not cause a bit of a disturbance on the ground in response? They will need to split their attention and might not want to pull their assault teams back for that.”

“I’m in!” Miria’s eyes sparkled with delight. “My fur is still itching to explore more of what I can now do after the ritual!”

“I think it’s time I tested Rusi’s abilities on something else than just a few training dummies.” Tina smirked proudly, cracking her interlaced fingers forward.

“What about a good old spar, ladies?” The white-haired vixen turned to the pair. “It’s been a while since we faced each other seriously.”

“Oh, yeah! I regretted not getting to fight all of you in Bryn’s world!” The feline girl released extremely thrilled growls.

“Last woman standing?” The petite Summoner raised a brow at them and her friends nodded. “Leave it to us, Ast. You three plus Umbra and Abyss sneak into the complex. We’ll take care of putting up a good show for our new friends.”

“Alright. I’m counting on you.” Asterios smiled at them appreciatively. “Try not to mess each other up too much. It might take a while before we are there to patch you up.”

“No promises.” She chuckled craftily, but seeing his unyielding glare, she blushed a tiny bit and escaped with her eyes to the side. “Okay. We’ll be careful.”

He squinted at her even further, evoking a huff from his smart lover as she crossed her arms over her ample chest.

“Fine! I swear!” Tina stomped her feet angrily while trying to glare back. “Now go! You silly, over-considerate, too-handsome-for-your-own-good man!”

Her eyes widened as she realized what she had accidentally slipped in there and her face turned deep red as Asterios smiled cordially at her. She spun around, grabbed Miria’s and Selene’s wrists, and yanked them away, hastily pulling them toward the pyramids.

A delicate chuckle reached Ast’s ears and he took a peek at the fiery princess by his side who had an amused expression on her royal face.

“Her true thoughts always sneak in when she gets riled up,” Silvia revealed, peering back at him affectionately. “Can’t say I disagree, though. I too catch myself staring sometimes.”

Shaking his head at the incredulous statement, he gestured at the rest of the team to follow him as he directed them to the other side of the bone city where the diversion trio was not heading, his arm tenderly wrapped around his flame-haired girlfriend’s shapely waist. She almost lit up from his shadowy touch herself but contained her lineage as much as she could since they needed stealth for their upcoming operation.

A walking, flaming depiction of a goddess of beauty didn’t exactly fit the theme.

Umbra and Abyss made themselves scarce while Althea took Ast’s other side. His darkness spread over their figures and turned them into shadowy humanoids too. Then, he focused on blending with the environment as much as he could, which wasn’t too hard with it being the land of eternal night. Minus the temporary daylight coming from above.

Still, plunging into the cast shadows, he was able to bring them into the scary-looking necropolis. Pushing down his fascination at witnessing so many types of undead and skeletal creatures, he navigated through the streets while searching for the best spot to descend into the ground, where the facility was undoubtedly buried. Nevertheless, the population didn’t exactly feel like a community, more like a puppet army stored in and around the pyramids. That made it more bearable and let him focus on the task at hand.

~There!~ Tia’s musical voice echoed through their minds. ~Behind that one!~

Asterios snuck around a few more crossroads and emerged past the building she had mentioned. Some undead were loitering around, but his shadow cloaking worked wonders when combined with the shade cast by the bone monument struck by the golden light. He and his companions could hide in plain sight while looking around for a way to start digging without giving themselves out.

~Can’t see how we can get away with—~

Silvia’s comment was interrupted when an intense earthquake shook the ground, making the pyramids rattle, the monster topple, and them almost fall too. The clap of thunder and a silvery flash accompanied it. A second later, only the echoing noise remained, rolling into the distance. All the undead started picking themselves up and rushing in a certain direction, leaving Asterios and the girls alone.

Coming out of their camouflage, he snickered lightly. “Looks like they got serious. Shall we too?”

~I’m fairly sure we are right above the core chamber,~ Tia said. ~I can feel its energy and the cluster inside you is reacting. If we dig straight down, we should land exactly where we need to, capture the cluster, and get out before anyone notices.~

“Allow me to make haste, then,” Abyss offered. “I shall save us some time.”

“By all means.” Asterios bowed politely and took a step back.

Then, they watched as Umbra’s creator brought forth the same technique she had used to drill into one of the locked facilities, employing her grimoire and a sphere of tightly condensed pure black energy. However, this time, it lacked some of its splendor and visuals. It felt rather practical and simplistic, with just a bit of purplish glow over the pages.

That was when he realized she had just been putting up a show for their first time witnessing it.

He was starting to understand that this trait was taking up a much bigger part of her personality than he had expected. She was a much bigger tease than anyone would have thought, even with the little jabs and theatrics that accompanied the mysterious woman. Perhaps some of her other techniques had been more of a show than they had to be.

In the end, it didn’t matter. A narrow tunnel had been cleared as it was supposed to be. Closing the magical tome, she dismissed the spell and glanced at the trio. Asterios offered her an appreciative nod, looked around one last time, and jumped into the hole, followed by the others. They dropped for a few long seconds before landing in a spacious chamber with a strong light source in the very middle, touching the floor a safe distance from it.

“Great. I’ll get to it—”

Standing up and offering the ladies his arms to do the same, Asterios froze. They followed his gaze and paused too.

The room was identical to the ones they had been to multiple times, save for one tiny detail.

There was no spiritual cluster in its center.

Instead, a creature of pure light napped in its place, its entire form resembling that of the sphere’s usual golden surface. It had the general shape of a lion, with one crucial difference. The head. Instead of the usual animal one, a human-like female face sat perched atop the monster’s shoulders.

And just about now, it was starting to wake up, rising to its full height, taking up two-thirds of the vertical space. Its eyes glowed brightly and it released a half-screech half-roar at the invaders, preparing to intercept them.

~Oops.~ Tia giggled apologetically. ~Looks like our cluster is in another chamber.~

Asterios snorted and took a combat stance.

Things had been going way too easy up to this point anyway.