Chapter 121: Chapter 192 – The Light of Salvation

“Are we going back the way we came here or are you jumping to the castle with Umbra’s help, Master?” Miria asked, glancing at the only passage leading out of the stone chamber.

“Let’s check the other end of this tunnel while we are here. If this circle summons the beasts, they have to reach the surface somehow, right?” Asterios replied.

“It’s always possible that it somehow does that above the ground already,” Tina added.

“True.” He nodded.

She roamed her gaze over the interiors once more, stopping at the array. “But it’s right to say that it’s worth exploring the rest of this place. Maybe this isn’t the only magic circle.”

Since no one had anything against the idea, they quickly assumed the previous formation and walked out of the creepy cavern. Nothing happened on their way to the place where Selene had dug into the passage and they continued the other way this time, still keeping their guards up.

After about five to ten minutes of walking, Miria noticed a faint ray of light ahead of them and Bryn dimmed her glowing orb. They carefully approached the crevice and soon learned that it led outside. The exit was covered by thick vines running through lush moss, almost completely sealing the entrance to the tunnel from the outside world.

Before she made quick work of the obstruction with her mana-coated blades, Asterios suggested trying their best not to damage it too much since it served its purpose properly, hiding this place from sight. They certainly didn’t want to make it easily accessible to anyone who could stumble on it by accident.

They pushed through the vegetation like through a heavy, earthen curtain and returned to the forest. Looking back at the entanglement of plants, flowers, and lots of different flora, they all agreed that it looked indiscernible from this side, and leaving the barrier intact was a good choice. Before they continued on their trip back home, Selene quickly flew away to mask the hole she had made in the grassy hill.

Asterios asked Venuzathor to keep an eye on the area, especially the secret entrance and the hill itself. The Storm King promised to place a few scouts there. That way, they could get a much earlier notice about the next attack or anything unusual happening in the close vicinity of the corrupted summoning circle.

Umbra transferred Asterios and Sylvia back to the castle while the other girls returned to their realms. Tina joined the duo since Ast’s world was also hers, obviously, and she took off with the princess to busy themselves with something while he visited their professor and friend. She sent him a wink before the two women disappeared behind the nearby corner.

Going over and over again in his head how he would approach this entire situation, Asterios wandered to the underground part of the castle. He strolled through the few rooms which had been turned into research workshops and headed to the one with Grea’s presence inside. The arched, wooden door was slightly open so he took a peek through the gap after widening it a little.

The demon woman stood over a wooden counter on the opposite side of the room with her back to him. She rested her hands on the sides of the smooth countertop while slightly hunched forward, most likely reading through a book or some documents. Her smooth, red, thin tail, curled from side to side unhurriedly, clearly showing how focused its owner was.

Using that chance to sneak in, he stepped into the chamber and closed the door behind himself. Grea was deep in her thoughts and her body didn’t show even the slightest hint of her registering the noise of it clicking into place. The key was actually in the lock so he turned it just in case, and slipped it into his pocket.

But, that was as far as he wished to take his stealthy approach and knocked lightly on the wood. The echoing sound made Grea flinch lightly and she glanced over her shoulder.

“Oh, Asterios. I didn’t expect you back so soon. I heard that my old man has just solved another part of your seal. Do you need something from him?”

“Not really. I’m still processing the entire thing and haven’t come up with any additional questions. I just stopped by to see how you are doing. Is he not around?”

Grea turned to him and rested her back on the tall counter, placing her elbows on the edge, which was at an almost perfect height for that. She crossed her legs and glanced at him.

“He’s either resting after the attempt, having a snack to replenish his energy, or stuck with his nose in another tome somewhere in the far corner of this place.”

“Great.” She cocked a brow at him but he just smiled softly and shook his head. “Nothing.”

Shrugging her shoulders, Grea sighed wistfully. “As for me, I’m afraid I’m nowhere as useful as he is. I haven’t made any meaningful progress for quite some time. I’ve gone through loads of material but it’s like there’s just this one little piece that keeps escaping my grasp whenever I start getting to the bottom of it, making everything I do feel like I'm walking in circles all around it. I’m sorry. I’m just a worthless quack.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Asterios apologized while slowly walking closer. “For making you feel like that. We both know how incredible you are.”

She chuckled openly with a wide grin. “Don’t try to sugarcoat it. I do have my moments but I’m just some crazy bit—”

“I haven’t been perfectly honest with you on everything,” he interrupted her with his smile turning a bit wry.

Grea snorted to the side and crossed her arms under her chest. “Obviously. Don’t bring the entire 'no secrets between friends' bullshit here. It’s a lie. Everyone has something they want to keep to themselves. You do, I do, everyone does. Especially considering what you are. You’ve always been a careful person. I wouldn’t expect anything less from you. Besides, it’s not like your secrets are that much bigger than mine.”

“Are you sure?” Asterios smirked and took one step back, making her raise a confused brow at him.

Then, a crimson gate slowly rose from the ground next to Asterios. After forming a full arch, the dark surface rippled and Tina walked into the chamber with an old book in her hands. She beamed a wide smile at Grea, passed the black volume to the demon woman, and nodded her head before stepping back through the portal with a little wave of her hand. The gate then retreated to the ground a moment later.

Grea stood there with her jaw dropped as low as it physically was possible, absent-mindedly holding the book in her still-extended arms. Her pupilless eyes were usually hard to track but Asterios was close enough to follow the shift of her facial muscles and eyelids to watch how Grea’s gaze repeatedly shot between him, the missing gate, and the black tome, making a quite funny triangle.

“Are you sure?” He chuckled and repeated his question. 

With an expression of pure shock still on her face, she let a small groan escape her throat and proceeded to open and close her mouth in turns, letting out various quiet noises instead of any comprehensible words. Asterios couldn’t help but grin even more at his flabbergasted professor.

But, finally, after about thirty seconds, Grea’s arms shot toward the ceiling.

“What the FUCK?!”

The book flew out of her hands and bounced off the stone bricks above their heads. Asterios quickly stumbled around on his feet and caught the falling tome before it slammed into the ground, releasing a small sigh of relief, and then chuckled quietly again.

“This just did not happen,” Grea continued with a grave tone while constantly shaking her head. “This is not what I think it is. Your evil parrot evolved and can now create red gates instead of black shadows. Yeah. For sure. You are just fucking with me.”

“I’m pretty sure you should be able to tell if I do.” He smirked at her.

Grea let out a half-moan, half-whine as her knees trembled a little. She launched herself at Asterios and grabbed his collar, pushing her face in front of his.

“HOW?!”

He brought the book up next to their heads. “Here’s the answer in full detail. It’s the piece you have been missing. I’m sure you would have figured it out yourself even without this, but I’m really sorry for keeping this from you.”

She tore it away from his hand with a scoff and stepped back to lean onto the counter again. He knew she didn’t scoff at him, or at least she wasn’t angry at him for keeping secrets. Grea was just a very expressive woman and he had a feeling that even she wasn’t always in full control of her body, which had sometimes led to her being misunderstood.

“Check the labeled pages,” he suggested. “I know you are a fast and thorough reader but there’s quite a lot of information in there. I made sure to mark the core parts.” 

A grunt answered him and he silently watched how Grea scanned the bookmarked pages. At first, she paid attention to every single word and sentence, going quite slowly, but then he watched how she sped up more and more until she was basically flipping through the pages with a lot of noise. She was shaking at the very moment she shut the book. Raising her face to match his, she again began letting out random noises in an attempt to form words.

Asterios showed a slightly gloomy smile. “I’m sorry. There’s not much more I can sa—ow!”

“Stop apologizing, you idiot!” Grea huffed after hitting the top of his head with the book’s spine. “There are no such things as no secrets between friends, again. But… Why?”

He rubbed the back of his neck but didn’t run away from her gaze. “I knew exactly how much this means to you. It’s your dream, your life goal, your everything. You would do literally anything to achieve it, except maybe for the vilest, evil stuff. I think.”

A quiet chuckle escaped Grea’s lips as she tightly hugged the book to her chest.

“I’m not going to say that I know better than you, but I just didn’t want you to do something you might regret after the euphoria settled down,” he continued. “I wanted to wait for a good opportunity. The longer I waited, the more it bothered me, but you know how stubborn I can be when I decide on something. I thought it was finally time to end this.”

They stared at each other in silence for a good while before Grea placed the book away on the counter behind her.

“Fuck…” she cursed and took a deep breath, releasing a heavy sigh. “Since you shared with me a quite big secret of yours, I have to tell you one of mine. It’s only right.”

Asterios opened his mouth to interrupt but Grea raised her hand to silence him. He stopped himself and obediently listened.

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“This is something I have shared with only one more person.” 

She glanced up at his face. Asterios could tell that Grea was preparing herself to gauge his reaction to whatever she was going to say. Her arms returned to her chest with a slightly more anxious hold. It was clear that her more vulnerable side was showing.

“I love you.”

Once more, a short silence fell onto them. This time, it was Asterios who broke it after a warm smile appeared on his lips.

“Tina?” He crossed his arms too and raised a playful brow at the demon woman.

Even before Grea replied, he could clearly see the corner of her mouth curl into a tiny smirk. She nodded at him faintly.

“Looks like we really have a lot of secrets,” Asterios said and they chuckled together. “Did you get it?” He gestured at the book with his head.

“Just enough to grasp the concept and… know what’s necessary to succeed,” Grea answered with a little skip of her eyes to his waist.

“Let me just give you a quick rundown, then. It’s not just pure Summoning Magic but you have clearly figured that part out yourself already.” She smirked at him and he replied with the same. “The draconic aspect plays a pretty big role in the entire thing. Thanks to the Dragon’s Coupling Ritual, I can take the characteristics of the Dragon’s Coupling Bond and Summoning Magic and merge them into something new and improved.”

“I’ve seen a mention of a few of those bonds in there.” Grea nodded and shuffled on her legs.

“Basically, a True Dragon can take a slave, a servant, an aide, and a mate,” Asterios listed on his fingers. “We’ve learned that True Dragons build their entourage that way, binding other entities to themselves, and also laying with them. The last part makes everyone who participates stronger, especially the Dragon. Summoning and draconic contracts can easily overlap but you’ll learn more about it from the book. Just know that they can either block each other from happening or fuse. But, for that, the Dragon’s Coupling Bond has to be fully formed.”

“So… In my case…” Grea murmured while raising her left palm up and glancing at it.

Asterios smiled. Someone as smart as her didn’t need a long time to catch on.

“The summoning contract was shoved aside, also partially because we are from the same realm, and we formed a draconic contract, which bound you to me as a close aide. Thus the mark on the back of your hand. I’m sure you have realized by now. The one the other girls have is that of a mate.”

He slowly walked closer to her and pulled Grea’s hand into his.

“This is also the main reason why I was so hesitant about telling you,” he admitted and she glanced up to look at his face. “The mark of the mate forms for a person who is pretty much in unconditional love with the contractor, with the same feelings being present from the other side too. In the case of the close aide, it still revolves around strong feelings of affection but it’s either that they aren’t as deep, or one of the sides isn’t fully confident in them, perhaps somewhat unsure about it.”

Breaking the eye contact, Asterios glanced down again and gently stroked the slightly glowing, red pattern.

“Both mate and close aide can become summons, so it’s not where the problem lies. I wasn’t sure how you felt about me, if the lacking part was on my side, on your side, or both. That’s why I didn’t tell you immediately. I know you more than well. I was afraid you would have pushed yourself to fuck me for the sake of your ever-going dream. As I said earlier, I didn’t want to let you do something which you might come to regret deeply later.”

He brought his gaze back and looked straight into Grea’s bright red eyes. Her face didn’t show much emotion, remaining more or less neutral as she listened to his confession. Then, she took a deep breath and sighed heavily again.

“I guess it’s my turn now, right?” She chuckled delicately. “As cringy as it’s going to sound, you are literally the golden sunshine that pierced the dark clouds of my crumbling world after it had collapsed. Your light pushed through what I felt was impenetrable darkness and shone right onto my cold face, showering it in pleasant warmth.”

A tender smile tugged the corners of Grea’s mouth as she brought their hands up and between them. She placed her other palm on top of Ast’s and brushed his skin softly, trapping his hand between hers.

“You ignored pretty much everything about my past no matter what others said. I did my best to scare you away but you never gave up. I vividly recall every single day you showed up in front of my lab, letting yourself be subjected to my shouting and cursing until I got so annoyed I finally let you in. Then, you proved that you didn’t care only for all the knowledge but also for me as a person. I showed you my unsightly side more times than I can remember but you didn’t recoil even once. You were always there, with me, going completely out of your way to look after me during my darkest moments.”

She kept lightly grazing Ast’s hand until the faint smile slowly faded away from her face. He watched how her lips tensed and her expression gradually turned sorrowful.

“There was… only one person I viewed this way…” Grea continued with a much quieter voice. “They are… gone. Because of me. You were so similar to her… so kind… so warm… so selfless and passionate, that I…”

Trying to stop her lip from trembling, Grea bit on it while starting to blink repeatedly.

“But… I didn’t… I couldn’t… Not again… Not another… I could not—”

She started shaking her head when Asterios tore his hand away from her hold and placed both palms on her shoulders, pressing on them strongly, interrupting his agitated friend.

“Look at me. Grea, look me in the eyes. Look.”

She stopped the motions and faced him properly. They stared deep into each other’s eyes and she could clearly see his serious expression and tensed forehead. Asterios increased the strength of his grip on her shoulders.

“Did you already forget what I said? Or did you decide to completely ignore it?” He leaned closer, their noses almost touching. “I will never die. I will never leave you alone. Nothing will stop me. Not even you.”

She held his powerful gaze for a good moment, admiring Ast’s glimmering, crimson irises. Tears finally escaped the corners of her eyes and flowed down her crimson skin like rivers. Her lip trembled as fast as a hummingbird’s wings as they peered into each other accompanied by her quiet sniffles.

Then, out of the blue, Grea slapped herself in the face hard, spooking Asterios so badly that he jumped back with wide eyes as a loud smacking sound echoed through the air for a second or two.

“Enough of this soppy bullshit!” Grea shouted at particularly no one and lunged forward to grab Ast’s collar with both hands again. “The truth is, I fucking love you, and I don’t fucking care anymore!”

Before he could react, she slammed her lips into his with enough force to make their teeth chitter against each other. He ignored the short pang of pain and allowed Grea to violently pursue his tongue as if her life depended on it. She kissed him roughly long enough to run out of breath, forced to withdraw for air.

“If you really do mean that, then fucking fuck me, Dragon!” she bellowed right into his face with a growing grin. “Come on! Make me yours! Claim me! Break me! I know you want me!”

Asterios chuckled with a big smile too. “Here? What if your father is close by?”

She scowled to the side while rolling her eyes. “He will be fucking ecstatic to hear me getting pounded into oblivion while screaming your name at the top of my lungs. He would very well watch and cheer you on if he could.”

Asterios snorted but knew that it was most likely true.

“Getting second thoughts now, Dragon? Afraid that you can’t handle me?” She pushed her face more into his with a taunting smirk.

He moved his right hand from her shoulder, slowly trailing it up her neck, and ending at her cheeks, squeezing them with quite some strength. 

“Watch what you wish for, Dahaka,” Asterios growled with a husky tone.

“Fuuuuuck…” Grea bit on her lower lip and shivered as a wide smile blossomed on her face.

He suddenly pulled her with him as he turned around and shoved her aside. She stumbled over her legs and ran into a waist-high stone counter in the middle of the room with a grunt. Looking over her shoulder, she trembled again. The way Asterios slowly walked toward her with an overbearing smirk made her weak in the knees.

Perhaps she might have pushed him a little bit too far. 

But, that was exactly what she wanted and he obviously knew it well.

 

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