It looked like a wasteland, and even Brent seemed confused.

“How?”

Then Taury smiled.

“Clever, Grace, a practice room. Wonder if theres a control panel anywhere.”

Then Grace popped out of the ground.

“Control panel’s that way, I got Roman’s help in designing it.”

“Oh… thanks… Why are you in the ground?”

Grace smiled.

“I got tired after doing so much designing, so I took a nap.

I looked at them.

“What does this room do?’

Grace smiled.

“Well, it’s similar to a pocket realm, the control panel makes various situations and allows for practicing various magic and other fighting styles. The wasteland setting is perfect for training fire magic, so Ruby could work on channelling.”

“Pocket realm?”

She sighed at Aoi’s confusion.

“It’s a Tardis room.”

Aoi’s eyes shone in understanding.

“Woah! That’s so cool!”

“Yep, and it’s powered by the magic used in the room.”

I thought for a moment.

“Wouldn’t Ruby cause it to overcharge?”

She smiled.

“Roman and I designed it with Ruby in mind. It’s designed so that any extra magic will be converted into energy to power the rest of the house, and if that’s still not enough, we have an energy releaser in the basement, so it will zap the ground.

I smiled.

“Clever.”

She nodded.

“There are a few other modes that currently work. Forest, for training movement, and arena, for test battles against magical constructs.”

I looked impressed, this sounded really incredible. It would be very fun to mess around with this.

I smiled.

“Mind if I test out the arena?”

Grace smiled.

“Be my guest.”

Taury twisted the knob on the panel and the terrain shifted. Bleachers appeared around me, and a massive arena formed, magical engraving touched the earth.

Then Brent had a question.

“If this is in the house, then why is there a sun?”

I smiled.

“That’s the rune, right, Grace?”

Grace nodded.

“Alright, how hard of a fight do you want.”

I smiled.

“The hardest.”

Aoi snickered.

“Yeah, asking any of Saiyung’s students that question isn’t necesary.”

Grace smiled.

“Well, he’s about to get humbled either way.”

Then several constructs appeared.

“Have fun trying to destroy twenty high powered elementals!”

Then Brent had a question I always wanted to ask.

“You know, I’ve always wondered, what’s the difference between atronachs and elementals?’

Grace rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Well, Atronachs form naturally, Elementals are crafted. Plus Atronachs can actually think and feel.”

Then I asked.

“Wait, if atronachs can reproduce with each other, then why are they still rare?”

Grace smiled.

“That’s a good question. It’s because we still need to replicate the event to have the child, so it’s still incredibly rare, it’s not like an atronach could get pregnant. We essentially do what you and Wings did to make Ruby, except a hybrid wouldn’t normally pop out.”

I nodded,

“Fair enough.”

“Anyways, enough questions. FIGHT!”

Then the elementals launched at me. I dodged one and leapt over another, then a third punched me in the stomach.

I launched into the wall with a cough, then I snapped into action. I realized that, while strong, they were still made of an element.

I reached out as a fire elemental punched at me, and my eyes began to glow as I smirked.

The fiery hand began to deconstruct as the elemental was pulled into my flame, which I formed into a whip to strike a water elemental with. Then I reached my hand into it’s core, and grabbed it, forcing the water to abandon it’s form and armor me.

As that happened, a rock elemental struck me, but the water hardened and rebounded the stone. I located the core and slashed through it with the fire whip.

At that moment five elementals charged me at the same time. Two fires, a light, a water, and a wind.

I smiled, reaching out my arm I seized the wind before launching it’s power into the water, blowing it apart, and killing it.

Then I siphoned all the air around me into a small sphere for me to breathe, causing the two fire to extinguish and the light to begin to cough, then I shattered the wind core and slashed the light in half.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The whip faded along with the armor, and the other twelve apparently had enough intellect to have tactics.

I realized it was like fighting animals, tactical, but dumb enough to trick.

The last fire elemental launched itself at me, with a water backing it up. Two earth tried ambushing me, but it was pointless. I grabbed the two earth and disassembled them into a shield to block the other two, using the distraction I grabbed the fiery core and slammed it into the water, destroying both.

The last water and the last earth made a last ditch effort to bring me down, but I managed to use my fire and evaporate the water, then using water to rapid erode the earth.

Then all that was left were three wind and three light.

The winds stood in a defensive position, but the lights were nowhere to be found. I looked around and saw where my friends sat, they were agape, all except for Ruby who seemed entertained.

Given her nigh absolute power, it must have been humerous to see me struggling with what she could annihilate within seconds.

Then one of the lights took advantage of my momentary distraction and knocked me down. The winds launched in and began to siphon my air.

Then, it was like my body snapped into pure defense mode.

The black on my arm shot through my body, causing a brighter glow, and formed massive claws which I used to rend the wind elementals, restoring my air, then all of the light elementals all shot their light in an attempt to slay me, but I pierced it and injected shadow which proceeded to fill the light and crush them into debris.

As the last light faded, I fell to my knees, panting. The shadow receded into the mark again, and I felt calm again. I breathed and stood up.

“Well, that was interesting.”

Grace was pale.

“Yeah… that’s one way to do it.”

_

“This is the meditation spot.”

Grace took over as guide, due to her designing a lot of it.

She showed us a tranquil place, another tardis style room, it looked out onto a mountain rage, a cherry tree above a stone circle with a crest on it.

“What’s that symbol?”

Taury smiled.

“It’s the crest of Avalon. Grace, how did you get the design?”

She smiled.

“I asked Simial if he could show me what it looked like, so I could make it. Once I told him it was for you, he was more than willing.”

Taury smiled.

“Despite his faults, I like his loyalty.”

“Yeah… loyalty…”

It seemed as though Grace also pretty quickly picked up on Simial’s infatuation.

I looked at the mountain range before us and was struck by awe. The winding valleys stretched for what appeared to be miles, the scent of lavender flooded the room. A sense of unending tranquility echoed sharply here, making me feel a deep calm that I hadn’t ever felt.

I stepped forward and smiled, an involuntary thing, but it felt natural, my magic echoed. The mark twisted and stretched, but oddly enough, it didn’t feel violent.

I lifted the marked arm, and the blackness seeped out, but it didn’t corrupt. It felt the air, the purity, and I heard a voice.

‘The Dream shall be here.’

Then the place became dark as night.

“William?! What’s happe-”

Grace went silent as the light stretched across the room. The Dream, forming in a simple room.

“W… how?”

I smiled, feeling it’s light and purity. Each fey could feel it’s truth. Even the humans were aware of what such an event was.

“I don’t know, but… it truly is here…”

The shining lines stretched across the sky as a pure feeling of peace erupted from everything.

Then the mark receded into my arm, yet the Dream remained.

“How?”

I was confused, the mark on my arm was calmed by this miniature dream. I blinked.

“I don’t know…”

Then it disappeared.

“Huh, guess it was temporary.”

“Yeah…”

Ruby looked at us with an incredulous look.

“Why are you confused, its not like the Dream was actually here, it was a stretch of the remnants that was in Papa. He just made the magic in here more dense.”

I blinked.

“Why did the mark stretch?”

Ruby blinked.

“I don’t think I can tell you that yet, Papa.”

I sighed.

“Great, now you’re like Arty.”

She moped.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to.”

“Who forbids you?”

She looked up and smiled.

“The True Song.”

I sighed, flapping my arms in an exasperated manner.

“Great, so, I’m the Unsung, someone I don’t know is the First Song, and now theirs a True Song. What’s with magic and songs?”

Ruby thought for a moment.

“I don’t know actually.”

I thought for a moment,

“And, what’s with the tapestry?”

Ruby looked at me.

“That’s simply magic, I thought you and Mama could see it already. Maybe it’s because Aunty couldn’t raise you, and instead the Old man did.”

She seemed deep in thought.

“Yeah, I don’t know.”

I sighed.

“Fair enough.”

_

“And, this is the dining room.”

It was a regular dining room. A table with enough slots for everyone to eat, plus a few, it showed a simple design with a floral table cloth and soft chairs with plush padding. It simultaneously looked humble and pretentious at the same time. A golden thread embroidered the chairs.

Aoi had a question.

“Is that real gold?”

Grace looked at her.

“Yeah, gold isn’t much to Earth Golems, so I didn’t have a problem in threading with it.”

I thought for a moment.

“Why not?”

She sighed.

“Do you know the legend of Rumplestiltskin?”

“Yes?”

“Well, he’s an earth golem, right prick too. My kind can turn most dead things into gold.”

“So… Midas?”

“He was a half golem, he was also an anomaly, he couldn’t control his power.”

I blinked.

“If atronachs can’t get pregnant, then how could there be a half golem?”

She blinked.

“Thats… a good question, I don’t actually know. You’d have to ask Roman.”

“Or Zeus, since he has the most experience with that.”

Taury snickered.

“Yeah, and he’s scared of you, he’d probably answer.”

I sighed.

“Did I actually scare him that bad?”

She smiled.

“Oh, if you weren’t stopped, you would’ve flat out killed him.”

Her face went dark, and a deep smile emerged that made us shiver.

“Heck, I was tempted to finish the job.”

Aoi smiled.

“Yeah, he was a douche, can’t believe that Daniel turned out to be the rudest crulest person out there.”

I sighed.

“Yeah…”

I walked around the room and saw a bunch of paintings. One depicted a battle, I recognized a few figures. Zeus was in the foreground, light echoing off of him in waves, he seemed to be unnoticed by the rest of the depicted characters. He was gritting his teeth and looking at the battlefield in concern. I also saw Roman, an inferno launching from his fingers, his usually soft face twisted in rage. I even saw Morgan, holding a dead woman, tears on her face. Vines shielding them.

There were two figures, however, that it seemed that the whole painting surrounded.

One was a massive figure, she resembled Morgan except she had a reddish tint, and trees grew along her entire body as though it were armor. Her face was grim and filled with anger. Almost all of her attention was on the one other figure that the painting focused.

I would recognize her, even if the entire painting was changed.

Taurael held a blade, Excaibur, above her head, her face had spatters of glowing blood and light radiating off of her. A look of determination, almost as though she was shouting, was depicted on the paper. Her armor was mostly splintered, and showed clear injuries. Her wings were stretched far, like they propelled her at the massive spriggan. Her shoulderpad was missing, revealing her white undershirt. She held herself in pure power, even then.

Grace walked up.

“I have no clue who drew it, but my contact said it was one of a kind.”

Taury looked.

“Zeus wasn’t at the battle.”

I looked, and remembered what she had said.

“Maybe he hid? Tried to help and cowarded out.”

She nodded.

“That seems likely. He was always a big coward.”

Aoi looked.

“So, that was Gaia…”

“Yeah, she was the most powerful spriggan. It took all of us to hold her back, and even then, Morgan was the one who finished the job, though we still don’t know how she did it.”

I sighed.

“Probably because she’s worried that you’d use it against her.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Who’s that girl that Morgan is holding?”

Taury sighed.

“That was Persephone, as you know Morgan was Hestia, and she saw Persephone as a daughter, her death hurt her almost as bad as it did Roman.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah…”

…

“Well, this got sad. Any more rooms?”

Brent sighed.

“One more.”

Aoi looked happy.

“There are so many rooms. Are we going to see more guest rooms?”

Grace smiled.

“No, in fact, this is a room Wings will enjoy.”

_

“A MEAD HALL!!!”

Taury started flying around in pure excitement, and she examined everything.

I walked around and noticed that there were wood carvings that depicted my and Taury’s actions.

One, on Taury’s side, depicted the sword in the stone being removed by Arthur. Taurael was depicted rising from the lake.

A carving also showed her dueling Zeus. The two seemed angry.

Several other carvings depicted several of her achievments, but some of mine were also cool.

One depicted me and Roman battling the Hunter. Another depicted my first killing of a demon. Another depicted my fight with Zeus.

In the middle were two things.

One carving depicted the battle in the Order base. When me and Taury fought the Hunter, and the last made me and Taury gape.

“How did you get that?”

It was a perfect depiction of the moment that I removed Taury’s name curse.

Grace gave a confused look.

“That… wasn’t there before. It was a carving of you two and Ruby before.”

Brent nodded.

“Yeah, I can confirm that.”

Adeline blinked.

“What does it depict now?”

I sighed.

“Eh, it’s something a bit personal, you’d have to know more to understand it.”

She sighed,

“Alright.”

The tables were made of an odd wood.

Taury blinked.

“How’d you get her to give you some trees?”

Grace smiled.

“I just asked Morgan if I could use some wood for a mead hall.”

I sighed.

“Can she see through the tables?”

Grace smiled.

“No, she can’t see through dead wood.”

“Okay, good.”

Brent smiled.

“So, that’s the whole house, what do you think?”

I smiled.

“I like it.”

Taury and Aoi smiled.

“Yeah, it’s awesome.”

And Ruby giggled.

“So much to explore!”

Well, we could live like this. It was cool to have a new house.

Brent handed me the deed and bill of sale, and then he and Grace left.

I smiled.

Things were looking up.