> For still there are so many things,

> That I have never seen,

> In every wood in every spring,

> There is a different green,

— 'I Sit Beside the Fire and Think' by J. R. R. Tolkien.

== = ==

Location: < Berenices's 'Unnamed Settlement' > - One of a few such places scattered through the isolated corners of the lower heavens.

POV.: Nameless silver-haired fledgling angel.

I am not sure how long we stood there after I heard Phoebus' voice speak through the very fabric of reality. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours I didn't know.

I hadn't even managed to process the experience by the time that the now glowing gold elongated heptagonal bipyramid crystal fell to the still wet mountaintop grass where Ara's body had been.

However, the sight of the glowing crystal dropping, causing the ambient golden light to become muted broke me from my revelry. Honestly, as I did I was half expecting to hear the voice of the System tell me that I had reached level 12 just by hearing the sound of a god's voice. Although considering it hadn't happened earlier I wasn't surprised when no such voice came.

Eventually, Lady Berenices got up from her kneeling position, wiping off golden robes as she walked over to the crystal. Then in a motion that combined both an elegant stretch and reaching down, Lady Berenices reached down grabbing the golden crystal.

At that, my curiosity came back to me and I hesitantly broke the silence by asking, "Wha- What is that?"

All I got in response from Taurus was a quiet chuckle while Lady Berenices offered a little bit more of an answer when she cryptically replied, "If I know Eri you will learn more soon enough. But to answer your question it's Ara's heritage."

At that Lady Berenices lightly flapped her four powerful wings rocketing her into the air where she flew towards the Temple with the elegance of an egal.

Annoyed at how Lady Berenices' response only created more questions for me but still appreciating that she had taken the time to actually answer my inquiry unlike Taurus, I let out a soft sigh. Then turning to Taurus I asked him, "Is there anything else I can do to help?"

Nodding, Taurus curtly replied while pointing to a building not too far away, "You can see all the cores the holy aberrations left behind when they died right? Pile them up by that building."

Hearing Taurus' request I looked out over the settlement and mountain top seeing hundreds of the glowing crystals. This is going to take a while, I thought to myself with a sigh before I started gathering handfuls of the cores.

As I carried my first armload to the building Taurus had indicated, I noticed that despite his wounds Taurus was also helping. He would gather up cores in his giant arms and then fly them over to the building much faster than I could even run.

Seeing that I smiled, he wasn't as mean as his way of speaking had made him out to be was he?

Noting the speed at which Taurus flew, I decided it would probably be more efficient if I gathered the cores nearest to the building and let Taurus handle the ones that were farther away.

The sun had already begun to set by the time the two of us had finished collecting every one of the glowing cores and stacking them up. Bathing the sea of clouds in a golden glow.

My body sore from all the walking and lifting I had been doing without rest for hours, I began the walk to the Temple, which now seemed incredibly far away as my muscles protested at the effort.

Then without warning Taurus swooped down picked me up and lifted me onto his shoulders before flying up. Despite the initial scare of flying for the first time, it was amazing.

As if feeling the excitement bubbling up inside me, Taurus didn't go straight back to the Temple but rather he shot up high into the air. My long silver hair fluttered in the wind as we picked up momentum travelling higher and higher into the sky.

Before long the mountaintop settlement was just an island of color in a seemingly endless expense of golden clouds. The sight was wonderful. Beautiful and perfect in a way similar to but different from Ara's funeral rights.

Something about being so high up in the air, the wind travelling through my silver hair and brushing against my skin through my blood-stained white robe calmed me in a way I couldn't describe.

Whatever the case, as Taurus began a head-first dive toward the sea of golden clouds below, with me still somehow firmly sitting on his shoulders, I felt a calmness I hadn't felt ever since I had seen Ara's corpse falling to the ground. I felt so free!

When we made contact with the golden clouds which had a refreshing wetness not unlike that of morning fog but somehow more refreshing. As Taurus righted himself in the cloud, all I could see around me was a golden cloud. However, while I strained my eyes I could have sworn that I saw some fish-like bird dance in the edges of my perception before disappearing once more into the clouds.

Then we were through the layer of clouds and I saw an endless forest expanding in all directions. The dense forest, a rare sight in the heavens made me gasp in awe, as Taurus lowered our altitude until we were mere matters above the forest canopy. Before long hi tilted upwards once more.

As we ascended through the clouds once more, Taurus silently approached the rocky cliff of the mountain our settlement was built upon. Getting so close that I could have touched it if I stretched out a hand. Taurus still rose higher and higher until my vision was once more obscured by the golden clouds.

Moments later we broke through the clouds and were rocketing over the cliff and towards the Temple's large double doors.

After landing in the Temple's entrance Taurus deftly lifted me off his shoulders before gently placing me on the ground, leaving me speechless at the wonderful sights he had just shown me in a matter of minutes.

As if embarrassed Taurus hurriedly walked into the Temple before me. His bulky form gave no indication of his gentle but gruff personality.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Following Taurus into the Temple, I saw a sight I hadn't expected.

The various members of the coven were sitting around a magical fire that someone must have conjured. While many of them were covered in bandages they all had joyous smiles on their faces as they shared food.

The focus of my attention and much of the coven's conversation was our guest who had apparently woken up at some point; as well as the baby fledgling who was sitting on the guest's lap, contentedly eating something.

Unsure of what I should be doing, I hesitantly made my way over to the fire.

But before I had even made it halfway, Lyra had noticed us and called out to me and Taurus, "Here come our coven's hard workers!" before directing her sing-song voice towards me, "Come sit here," she continued while gesturing to an open spot beside her, "you haven't heard me play the harp yet have you?"

-=== = ===-

When demons close their eyes, relax their postural muscles and meditate they enter a resting state of body and mind called quiescention. During quiescention, the activity of their brain is altered and consciousness of their surroundings (other than what directly relates to their meditation) is mostly suspended.

For most demons, quiescention is the closest they will ever get to sleep and is thought to be an adaption that developed in response to the netherworld's ever-present dangers since demons can be aroused from quiescention quite easily. But in some cases, stronger demons will enter a quiescention that lasts decades if they aren't disturbed.

The fact that they meditate during quiescention is an incredible advantage to demons allowing them not only to make limited plans but also to cultivate their energies when other creatures would have to sleep.

Seeing the advantage of quiescention its not surprising that many other sapient creatures have tried to replicate it. Notable among these are high elves, some fey and even some branches of angels—not that you would ever catch me telling an angel that they are copying demons. However, no creature that I know of has ever reached the mastery of quiescention that comes to netherworld demons naturally.

— Excerpt from 'Learning from Demons' by Rasathlab.

== = ==

Location: < A pit cell within 'Uggrock's Den' > - One of many caverns found throughout the upper stratums of the netherworld.

POV.: Nameless silver-haired demon larva.

As I was cultivating my Id-Qi I was unexpectedly interrupted by a familiar and welcome voice saying,

< Congratulations! You have accumulated and condensed the required energy for level twelve. Your race level is now twelve. >

< Due to cultivating with the 'Plutonic Id-Vesture Technique (Complet)' you have begun to form a demon heart. >

< Your demon heart is at 13.37% completion. >

The voice had told me this right as I had finished absorbing another of the Id-Qi droplets into my heart. It had been a surprise to me because of the way that the scrolls had been written. The scrolls hadn't been about raising one's level but rather they talked about breaking through 'layers' of what it called the 'qi condensation stage'—although it had said that it would work during the 'Body Refinement' stage as well, whatever that was.

This was an important discovery for me since it meant that there was no longer any reason whatsoever for me to eat the demon cores, it was wasteful in comparison to 'cultivating'—as the voice had called it—, and I didn't even need to do it to raise my level.

This was lucky for me since as I was meditating I had used up all the ambient aether from both demon cores and had awoken to see them crumbling away into a dust so fine that they were indistinguishable from normal dust. After which I had noticed I significant drop in speed that was just barely still profitable, if only because of my new method of gathering ambient aether.

This time when I looked over at Amethyst I noticed that the demon larva had also used up the demon cores I had given it. Moreover, Amethyst was surrounded in a foul-smelling black gunk that was a telltale sign that it had levelled up at least once. It also informed me that Amethyst had been below level ten when it had been dropped into the pit.

As I was considering whether I should continue cultivating or if there was something else for me to do, I was interrupted by the sound of a metal grate being moved as it echoed through the pit.

I quickly got up reading myself for more demon larvae to come falling into the pit like had happened the last time I had heard the sound.

However, instead of demon larvae one end of a chain ladder was tossed over the pits' edge. Moments later the ladder was followed by the impatient but somehow still seductive voice of a succubus saying, "Climbed up the ladder! Or do I have to come down myself and grab you?" then after a short pause she added, "Oh ya, leave your things down there, if you survive you'll be coming back here anyways."

Seeing that Amethyst had awoken I motioned to it whispering, "Follow me."

Then seeing the reluctance of the other demon larve and not wanting to test the succubus' patience I made my way to the chain ladder, which was on the opposite side of the pit.

Reaching the ladder I lightly stepped on the bottom rung, testing it. However, when my unusually sharp claws reached it, they cut through the metal rungs. Although considering the resistance I felt it was probably more than strong enough for most demon larvae.

After some quick adjusting of my posture, I worked out a way that I could climb the ladder without cutting right through it. Then I carefully made my way up the ladder.

Before long I was climbing out of the pit to the sight of the same succubus who had dropped me into the pit impatiently waiting in the cave's walkway.

After I had gotten out, I turned around and waited for Amethyst as it climbed up the chain ladder and out from the pit. Then with Amethyst walking behind me, I walked closer to the waiting succubus.

As we waited for the rest of the demon larvae to follow our example and climb out from the pit I found my eyes wandering around the dimly lit cave. They kept being drawn back to the succubus' seductive form, while some part of me noted that Amethyst had been right, the succubus did have big boobs.

To distract myself I concentrated on my aether sight, noticing that to my aether sight, the succubus seemed like a bright lantern, her body glowed with immense amounts of aether. However, to my chagrin, this didn't make her any less seductive, if anything it did the opposite.

So with an immense feat of willpower, I forced my eyes away. Focusing on the walls I noticed that the glowing lines that adorned the cave's walls were filled with flowing aether.

My understanding of how to direct ambient aether improved as I observed how the aether flowed through the invisible pathways on the cave's walls. I saw how a little current here and a little push here would improve the flow. I was pretty sure now that if I was given the chance I could once more improve the spread at which I drew in ambient aether.

I'm not sure how long I stood there staring at the wall but I was torn away from my thoughts by the succubus' sharp voice instructing us to follow her. Apparently, the rest of the demon larva had climbed out of the pit when my attention had been captured by the flowing lines of aether.

As we walked through the cavern, I considered where we might be going.

I was pretty sure that Uggrock was capturing us demon larvae to create strong and loyal subordinates. So I wouldn't have been surprised if we were being brought somewhere to improve our strength. And considering my instinctual and empirical knowledge of the demons, and the netherworld in general it would probably involve fighting.

So as we walked through the cavern I prepared myself for combat but despite my best efforts I would still end up distracted by the succubus' alluring gait.

Before long the scenery abruptly changed. It was clear that we had entered a stretch of the cavern that had seen much more use. The floor was covered in shallow claw marks and the path was lit much better.

Curiously my eyes searched for the source of this new brighter light. Soon my gaze followed one of the glowing lines of aether up to the cave's ceiling. Following the glowing line of aether along the ceiling I noticed that every once in a while it would split apart around a stalactite—stalactites which I noticed were the source of the brighter light.

Curiosity satisfied, I once more looked forward.

As we walked we passed a few adult demons. As we would near them I noticed that they moved out of the way of the succubus and while some of them stole glances at her none of them dared to make a move.

From that, I gathered that she seemed to be at the top of the food chain here.