The first rays of sunlight lit up the forest and cast a rosy hue across the morning sky. Golden fingers of sunlight lit up the scene as the dawn chorus of melodic birdsong drifted in.
Elysia's lashes quivered a little before she opened her eyes. She felt a bit confused when she was still in a half-awake state. However, it all changed right away when she already fully conscious.
All Elysia recognized, her head was being hugged by Elena, and her face was buried in Elena's soft twin peaks.
'Uuu, how irresponsible. Fortunately, I am not short of breath and die in sleep.' A flush crept up Elysia's face as she took a little distance from Elena.
Elysia looked up just to see Elena was still asleep, but something was not right there. Elena was sleeping with a half-open mouth. For that reason, Elysia stretched out her hand and slightly pushed Elena's chin upward so that the latter's mouth closed.
After that, Elysia tried to free her hand that was squeezed under Elena's body.
"Ahn."
"Please don't make weird noises." Elysia blushed even more, when she accidentally touched Elena's breast and received a moan from the latter. Nevertheless, Elysia managed to free her hand.
Elysia enjoyed the fresh and cool air for a moment, then decided to wake Elena up. She shook Elena's body gently. "Sister Elena, it's morning. Wake up, wake up, sleepyhead."
"Ungh..." Elena just changed her sleeping position.
Feeling that wasn't enough, Elysia just heaved a soft sigh and brought her face closer to Elena's. She whispered soothing words into Elena's ear, then let out a soft breath there.
It was super effective. Elena shivered slightly and opened her eyes. She looked at Elysia then smiled. "What a unique way to wake me up, Ely. How about your sleep? Did you sleep well? Your big sister is feeling great today."
"Good morning, Sister Elena. I slept well." Elysia turned to the side because she didn't want to answer much. She knew Elena would tease her a lot if Elena found out.
"That's great. Shall we go now? Is the little Goddess awake?" Elena stretched her body with both hands up, then propelled her body to sit up.
"Please wait a moment." Elysia talked to Nell about a few things. After that, she gave an OK hand gesture to Elena. 'Nell, it's about to say goodbye to the village chief. We'll wait here because Nell will come here first.'
"Then you better have some breakfast first, Ely." Elena crawled out of the sleeping bag. She checked the surroundings at a glance and made sure the protective barrier was still there.
"How about you, Sis- em, master? Would you like to have breakfast with me? On this rather cold morning, a bowl of warm porridge will taste even more delicious." Elysia also came out of the sleeping bag while carrying Vanessa. The sleeping bag just vanished a moment later as Elena no longer supported it with magic.
Vanessa opened her eyes and greeted her master. Then she closed her eyes again to enjoy every warmth of her master and sunshine. She barely slept to stand guard in case of danger, after all.
Elysia just stroked Vanessa gently, then sat beside Elena.
"It's enough for you and Vanessa to have breakfast. I don't need to eat and drink." Elena responded to Elysia's previous offer.
"Why is that? Would you not try to eat and drink with your taste buds, master? Or, is my cooking too bad for you to try?" Elysia pouted, but Elena pinched her cheeks because of it.
'Please don't dramatize our conversation, Ely. You eat breakfast, and I just need to go back to the Soul Realm to taste the food you eat.' After feeling satisfied with playing Elysia's cheek, Elena entered the Soul Realm.
Elysia just shrugged her shoulders and prepared a warm breakfast while chatting lightly with Elena in mind.
A few moments later, two bowls of warm breakfast were ready. Elysia gave one to Vanessa.
"No fish? Meat?" Vanessa sniffed the warm porridge and turned to her master with a pleading expression.
"Hm-hmm, you'd be surprised by the taste, Vann. Give it a try. Can you use a spoon? Or, you want me to feed you?" Elysia smiled warmly and ate her breakfast.
"Spoon?" Vanessa looked at her little paws. It was challenging to use a spoon in her cat or tiger form.
After all, she couldn't transform into the human form like the Saint Beast's ability yet.
"Then, please feed me, master." For some inexplicable reason, Vanessa wanted to be pampered by her master.
"Sure, wait for me to finish my breakfast, okay?" Elysia nodded lightly, and Vanessa also followed suit.
Right after Elysia finished her breakfast, she fed the cat spoon after spoon.
Vanessa found it strange because she felt the meatless porridge was delicious. To conclude, all food made by her master's skillful hands would always be delicious? The white cat made a conclusion in her mind.
A moment later, Nell flew closer according to the connection point with Elysia.
Nell bumped into the invisible protective barrier and stuck to it.
'Elysia, please ask your master to revoke this protective barrier! Your master knows I'm coming, and she still put up this barrier?' Nell pounded the barrier in annoyance.
'Oops, fufu.' Elena covered her mouth in surprise, but she smirked and laughed a moment after.
Meanwhile, Elysia just shook her head helplessly. She revoked the protective barrier, and Nell floated down to land on her shoulder.
"Hmm, you guys are having breakfast? All right, I'll wait." Nell sat on Elysia's shoulder and immediately cast invisible magic for everyone.
"Good morning, Nell. Did you sleep well?" Elysia greeted for pleasantries.
"Um, good morning. I'll be fine and fit even though I haven't slept all night." Nell thought back to the lively young fairy who had been bothering her all night. Yet, she shook her head immediately because she didn't want to remember that.
"Anyway, where is your master, Elysia? I wonder what kind of experiment you have planned." Nell glanced right and left, but she couldn't find Elena's whereabouts.
In response to that, Elena smiled mischievously and used magic to flick the little Goddess off Elysia's shoulder.
"Ouch! What is it? Who is it?" Nell yelped and jumped high. She flew off only to see Elysia had an innocent gaze. "Elena, how naughty you are."
Elena immediately exited the Soul Realm and brought herself into reality. She covered her mouth with a sneer. "Pfft, look at your shocked expression earlier, fufu... That's what you laughed at yesterday."
"Is this retaliation? Revenge?" Nell approached Elena for some business.
At the time, Elysia and Vanessa were just watching Elena and Nell argue over a trivial matter. Then, they suddenly changed the topic of conversation to a discussion of experiments that would be carried out to approach the tree of life.
A few moments later, they all flew towards the tree of life.
"Well, what are you going to do next? For your information, I've done a lot to try to get in, but all of them failed." Nell folded her arms. They had plenty of time now, and she wanted to know what Elena would do about this.
Elena just ignored Nell's remark and exchanged words with Elysia in mind. 'Ely, do you still remember what you did to the dome barrier a few days ago? Perhaps, the same method will work for this mysterious domain.'
'Shall we try that method?' Elysia asked to make sure.
'En, let's do that for the first try. However, we need to find a suitable spot at the weakest point first. Let's search it with your advanced perception and sacred vision.' Elena stretched out her hand, and Elysia held her hand.
Then, they flew and went around the mysterious domain once, searching for the weakest spot to enter.
Nell just followed behind in silence, even though she was utterly clueless about what this master and disciple would do.
'Oh, look on the southwest side, Sister Elena. I can see a spot with unstable energy fluctuation there. Let's go over there?' Elysia looked at the spot with a pleased expression, and so did Elena. They landed near that spot and checked a little further.
'Ely, let's try this on this spot. I'll help you perforate this domain for our way in.' Elena groped the invisible wall and patted the best spot.
'Good.' Elysia put Vanessa to the ground and approached Elena.
"Hey, what are you planning to do? You exchanged words telepathically and deliberately did that, so I wouldn't know, right? Please tell me because I also need to know." Nell flew around Elena with a disgruntled expression.
"Ely and I are going to make a hole in this mysterious domain. Hopefully, it will work out for this." Elena patted the invisible wall once again.
"Very well, I really wish you success. Please say it if you need me." Nell floated down and sat on Vanessa's back. She could only count on Elysia and Elena's success.
Elysia glanced at Elena, and the latter gave the nod. After that, they touched the invisible wall and scanned every element of the mysterious domain's wall.
Elena tried to break the composer's rules a little bit to create an entrance, but the wall quickly restored itself.
'Ely, let's try to punch a hole together. We'll see what happens.' Elena suggested. Of course, Elysia had no objections.
"Three, two, one, now!" Elena announced with a shout. At the same time, she and Elysia immediately broke a small part of the invisible wall.
It was like shattered glass from being hit from the outside, and a hole was formed. However, the entrance was slowly being restored, and Elysia magic remained there to hold the entrance open.
"Looks like we did it! Come on in quickly." Elena beckoned Nell and Vanessa.
Henceforth, Elysia, Elena, Nell, and Vanessa immediately entered the mysterious domain.