Chapter 63: Chapter 139 – Let There Be Light

Fortunately, flying with the use of Ast’s draconic wings in the real world seemed to be no different from what he had experienced back in that weird volcano realm. Of course, he couldn’t achieve the same level of control or speed and could feel the limitations of his newly formed body parts but he still had no real issues soaring through the sky with Miria in his arms.

“Wooooooooooooooooooooo! Hahahahaha! This feels so amazing!”

The overjoyed panthergirl kept laughing, shouting, and kissing Ast’s cheeks in turns while holding onto his neck. He chuckled occasionally too. A wide grin didn’t want to leave his face. Flying was extremely fun and pleasant. It felt natural to him. He hadn't even known he needed it.

But, this state was not permanent so Asterios didn’t waste their time in the sky and headed straight for the plains pointed out by Trish. Glancing behind, he saw Selene following them while enveloped by the same blue aura he had seen down in Kaguya’s secret apartment.

The technique she used for flying certainly wasn’t easy and Asterios could tell Selene was learning how to properly control it on the fly, but she was doing a great job. He remembered her once saying that Kaguya could supposedly fly at her seventh stage so he was surprised to see Selene already replicate it.

Just like in his case, though, she definitely couldn’t maintain it for long. Hopefully, it was enough to remain active until they reached their destination. Silvia, who was currently in the fox lady’s arms, didn’t seem as excited at the unusual aerial travel as Miria, clutching Selene’s clothes tightly. At least, she wasn’t so distressed as to close her eyes or shake in fear.

“Master! Can you go even faster?” Miria’s question brought his attention back to the front.

He chuckled after seeing her bright smile and hopeful eyes. “I’m afraid I’ve hit my current limits. We don’t want my wings to suddenly go poof, do we?”

She giggled and pecked his lips, watching how Ast’s white hair flailed in the strong wind. It was already an incredible experience so she obviously didn’t want her master to push himself too far. He would surely agree to fly together in the future again, after mastering his new, amazing ability.

They covered the remaining distance in relative silence, with Miria admiring Ast’s face and his draconic wings as they flapped behind his back. She couldn’t stop imagining him as a real Dragon in its full form. Countless different concepts of his looks flashed through her mind.

Bringing himself to as much focus as he could, Asterios reduced their speed and slowly lowered them onto the solid ground. His mighty wings flattened the grass around their landing spot from the powerful air pressure created by their movements.

With an energetic laugh, Miria jumped off his arms and started bouncing around while looking at him from every angle, mostly choosing ones that showed as much of his wings as possible.

Selene reached them less than a minute later. She fell from the sky while still enveloped by the blue aura resembling a candle flame, hovering over the ground for a few seconds. Dispelling whatever technique it was, she landed softly and released Silvia from her arms.

“Are you okay? We could have stopped if it was uncomfortable,” she said to her passenger.

Silvia shook her head, steadying herself with Selene’s help.

“It was fine. I know I might not have looked exactly like it, but I enjoyed this unique flight. I have just a little bit of acrophobia. I’m trying to overcome it, though, so thank you for this opportunity.”

“You are so brave, Silvia!” Miria exclaimed excitedly and stepped closer to lend an arm to the princess too. “I would have surely been trembling in fear if I was in your place!”

Silvia smiled gently and nodded. “Thank you. I’m sure someone as strong as you don’t have many, if any, things that can be considered a weakness.”

Miria giggled awkwardly while glancing away. She didn’t like being dishonest but also didn’t want to reveal how laughable the things that made her uncomfortable were.

Asterios plopped a hand onto her soft hair and brushed through it, sensing her slight shame and guilt. He already knew of Miria’s little terrors and made sure to let her know that she didn’t have to share them with everyone.

No one continued the topic and they all glanced around. Asterios deemed the spot decent for their next summoning attempt. All the girls were eager to work on preparing it, as usual, and Silvia wasn’t an exception.

They first needed a decent spot to place the summoning circle down on. Miria suggested cutting the grass like she had done in the past but Asterios asked Silvia to take care of it, suggesting another way to get rid of the green stalks.

The princess cast a sizable Fireball and began manipulating its form. This served as a good exercise for her bloodline. She realized that Asterios had come up with it exactly because of that reason.

In a moment, she flattened the spinning ball of flames into a spinning disc of flames, compressing the fire greatly. It was hard to keep it like that so she quickly pressed it over the ground and burned the grass to ashes, creating a perfectly flat, earthy surface.

Before she lost the hold on the packed mana, Silvia threw it into the sky as per Selene’s suggestion. The fiery disc flew up before exploding in a sphere of orange flames, much bigger than the initial Fireball she had cast.

This little trick halted the preparations for a few moments because everyone started discussing the technique they had just witnessed. Silvia was very grateful for their help in analyzing it and sharing their thoughts and ideas with her on how to train and utilize it. 

She ended up setting a goal for herself of making miniature versions of these flattened Fireballs to create smaller projectiles that looked less dangerous but packed quite a punch when they exploded. Everyone felt like this technique had a lot of potential.

Then, the actual preparations started. With all the girls around him and Umbra on his shoulder, Asterios went through a few design ideas of the summoning formation, explaining each of the arrangements to them. They decided to vote on which one to use and the winner was chosen almost unanimously, which made everyone have a good feeling about this attempt.

To draw the actual summoning circle, they needed the materials. Since those were stored in Ast’s girls’ realm, they tried to check if perhaps Silvia was able to go through the gate just like Asterios could. But, as expected, it felt like a solid wall to her, pushing her back with spiritual energy if she was too insistent on forcing her way in.

So, Miria and Selene kept bringing certain things out for all of them to discuss. Asterios talked the most, explaining what the ingredients were, to the great amusement of Miria, who loved hearing more about such interesting stuff.

For the base of the array, they chose to mix the Core’s dust they had obtained in the undead dungeon with an unimaginably light and fluffy golden sand, which seemed to be so weightless it looked like it was escaping into the air after Asterios opened the container storing it.

The girls expected it to be another byproduct of Fairies as Asterios had used those quite a few times in the past, but the actual origin of this unusual dust surprised everyone greatly. Miria’s face turned so red it rivaled a fully grown tomato, and a faint trace of rosiness could be spotted even on Silvia’s fair skin.

Why? Because this golden powder came to existence during a specific moment in the life of Qilin, mystical creatures resembling a fusion of a Lesser Dragon and a horse. This secretion was produced by the female Qilin when she found a desirable mate and continued to be released during the whole mating ritual of the two.

It was a quite rare ingredient since, as many people could imagine, it was close to impossible to collect it straight from the source. Qilin were highly resistant to magic in general so no Illusion or Charm Magic worked on them if someone wanted to use those to erase their presence to the magnificent beasts having a go at each other.

The only viable way was to collect the remains after the pair moved away. One such encounter usually yielded around a full jar of the prized ingredient. It wasn’t something extremely expensive, but Asterios had to save up for two years to get his hands on a small vial with the golden dust.

Selene carefully mixed the two ingredients in a small mortar. The dazzling powder quickly overtook the dark substance which came from the Core. It lost some of its radiance, but as a result of this union, the final product obtained a regal, gold shade.

At the same time as the fox lady was taking care of the formation’s base, Asterios and Silvia used soft chalk to draw the structure on the charred ground. The patterns consisted of quite a few rings of various sizes filling the biggest one, which was the summoning circle. 

Asterios had never used so many rings in his designs, but considering that they were aiming for the Light element, it was only natural for them to choose something closely relevant to it. The sun appeared as a sphere in the sky, Holy Magic often used circles emanating light, and so on.

He noticed that Silvia was as good at drawing the lines and patterns as he was. Not that she couldn’t be, but he had spent quite some time practicing and perfecting his artistic skills. It was very apparent that the princess had dabbled in drawing or painting in her lifetime, and she definitely had a talent for it.

Shortly after they finished, Selene brought the mixture and left it to them. She was tasked with joining Miria in their realm and helping her pick up good catalysts for the summoning. Asterios and Silvia would sprinkle the dark gold dust on the sketch in the meanwhile.

The two beastfolk girls rummaged through the storage behind Miria’s house in search of something appropriate. Asterios trusted their judgment even if neither of them knew exactly what they were looking at for the most part. Many things he had collected were outside of their accumulated knowledge.

But, Miria’s gut feeling hadn’t failed them the last time they had trusted it, and he knew they would bring a bunch of stuff for him and Silvia to comment on before the final catalysts would be selected. 

He was curious what could possibly catch Selene’s attention as she was much more spiritually sensitive than Miria. He had a few ideas, going through his collection in his mind.

Ten minutes later, the beastfolk duo came back with four items in their hands. Asterios and Silvia had finished their part just shortly before they arrived. Everyone moved aside to examine the picked catalysts.

The shy panthergirl presented her choice first. One of the catalysts she put her trust in was something extremely simple but seemed fitting in her mind. An elven bandage made of magically raised and enhanced leaves. Rather than part of Ast’s collection, it was an item from his emergency medical supplies.

He smiled at Miria and stroked her ears reassuringly to stop her from getting embarrassed due to her picking something that wasn’t exactly an ingredient. But, Asterios knew how valuable thinking outside of the box was when it came to magic, and he conveyed his praise and gratitude to his sweet mate properly.

Next, Selene offered her own pick. It was a bottle of Troll’s blood. Everyone knew about their high regenerative abilities. It certainly was a safe choice when attempting to summon something with qualities related to healing. Selene had noticed its properties with her Spiritual Sight, and that had been the reason behind her choice.

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Out of the two, the party decided to go with Miria’s suggestion. They needed a healer. There was a bigger chance that the summoned entity would come from a species that possessed a strong self-regeneration ability if they used the Troll’s blood, and that didn’t help them at all. Miria was elated to hear that.

There were two more things the girls had taken out of their realm. Both Miria and Selene agreed that it would be nice for their new companion to not be utterly weak in terms of at least defense if not also offense, so they searched for something that could work as a good catalyst with that quality in mind. They both believed it shouldn’t be a problem to attract another powerful entity with Ast’s strength.

Miria’s bet was on a carapace of a light brown, hand-sized beetle. The chitin shell felt extremely hard and looked very durable. She couldn’t find anything else that would give her a sense of protection more than it. The size of the bug fascinated her too. One could even throw it as a brick.

Contrary to her feline friend, Selene had chosen to go with something completely different. She held a single thin feather between her fingers. It was a long one, almost matching the length of her whole arm. Its vane was blindingly white. Light grey patterns ran over its surface. She got an agile vibe from it.

In this second round of picking, the choice fell onto the feather after Asterios explained what the items actually were. Maybe unintentionally, but Selene picked the tougher and more durable catalyst. 

The beetle’s shell wasn’t soft or weak either, but the feather belonged to a Stone Basilisk. The countless tufts often took unprepared adventurers by surprise with how resistant to physical attacks they were. A normal weapon was close to being unable to wound the beast.

To everyone present during the strategy meeting, it felt much more suitable than the beetle. Miria cursed playfully and pouted at losing the second round to her vulpine friend, then squinted her eyes at Asterios when he was fluffing Selene’s long ears as her reward.

The trio chuckled together afterward while Silvia smiled softly. It felt nice observing their interactions.

“Alright. We have pretty much everything. Should we get to it?” Asterios asked.

“Don’t forget the lucky charm, Master! We forgot it the last time and look what happened!” Miria beamed a smile at him.

He shook his head. It wasn’t even possible to refute that.

The eager panthergirl scooted closer to him and Asterios let Miria place a loving peck on his lips. She purred at him softly, rubbing her cheek into his, and moved away to make space for Selene. The fox lady wasted no time and kissed Asterios too, making her fingers run through his hair for a moment.

They didn’t overextend this traditional now part of the ritual to not make Silvia too uncomfortable and the girls helped Asterios up. Before he moved away, Miria received some more ear scratches while Asterios looked at her.

“One more thing. I know it’s very exciting each time, and during the Blood Summoning it was even more since we encountered a Dragon, but try to keep your emotions in check until things are confirmed to be either good or bad, okay?”

Miria blushed a little and lowered her gaze, nodding faintly. She knew what Asterios was getting at.

“It’s not that I would pursue the help of someone as hostile towards the others as that Dragon lady, but we need to be extremely careful during the initial phase of the summoning. Your small interruption revealed her true colors, and I’m fairly sure she would have jumped at me the same way just a few moments later, without giving me time to elaborate anyway, but let me be the only one in the summon’s focus at the beginning. It will be safer.”

She nodded again and glanced into his eyes. “I fully understand this, Master. I’m really sorry for that time. I promise it won’t happen ever again. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. No matter how excited I am, I will wait until you let me know I can speak before doing so.”

Asterios pulled Miria into a brief kiss and smiled at her. “Don’t blame yourself too much. Who knows how things would have gone exactly if you didn’t do anything. I, for one, am not sure about myself either. Just her presence affected me to some extent, like the little spikes of emotions in the past. My source could somehow sense her hostility right from the start.”

“There’s no use pondering over it now, my Lord,” Selene joined in, placing a hand on Miria’s shoulder. “We will be much more careful in the future. We will also be more ready to react. Without directing any hostile intent towards your guest, of course.”

He pecked Selene’s lips too and turned around to walk to the summoning circle. With everyone ready on the sidelines, Asterios sat in a lotus position and leaned forward, touching the circuit with his thumbs and pointer fingers.

For this summoning attempt, he wouldn’t be trying to hide his scorching hot mana nor flaunt it ostentatiously. Aware of his ancestry, he planned to make conscious use of it. Hopefully, it would work much better than in the past now that he had an idea about what he was and could transmit that concept through his Echoes of Consciousness.

Appearing in the starry space with the summoning formation underneath him again, Asterios began searching for his new ally. He easily noticed that his spiritual pings gained in strength again, reaching many more and much farther realms. He did his best to properly convey his requirements and information about himself.

He did expect a change, but the sheer number of candidates willing to serve someone with draconic ancestry surprised him greatly. From one to two responses in a few minutes of searching, it changed to low tens. Many beings still feared him, but it seemed like the majority had been scared mostly by the prospect of an unknown individual with immense spiritual energy in the past.

Asterios could compare it to him going around inns and bars while visibly armed to his teeth and finally pulling down his obstructive hood during one of the visits, revealing that the man behind it wasn’t as bad and scary as everyone had thought. It was a funny concept.

So, with an actual variety of choices, he spent some time looking around the willing entities in search of one that felt the most suitable for their party, and the most compatible with him and the others. It felt like a few long hours in the unending darkness riddled with sparkling stars.

His consciousness arrived in a realm that seemed to be surrounded by a blue sky. After peeking inside at the entity, he saw himself standing on the edge of a magnificent, golden structure floating in the air. He could barely see the ground far down below.

The figure standing by his side turned around. He couldn’t make too much of their appearance, but he knew it was a woman with waist-long golden hair tied up into a single, smooth pigtail behind her back, wearing some kind of white metal armor.

She didn’t seem against being invited into his realm and accepted the connection after a short moment of staring at Ast’s soul. The corridor manifested properly, and he could feel the guest moving through the interdimensional tunnel at a rapid pace, which, for some reason, gave off a rainbowy radiance this time.

A human-sized crimson gate opened above the summoning circle and Asterios opened his eyes. A beautiful woman stepped out of it. He could now see her dazzling face, golden hair, and white armor much better.

Heavy white greaves covered her feet and legs, reaching almost to the end of the woman’s thighs. An armored belt ran around her waist alongside leather shorts of the same color, with a tail-cape attached to it. 

Equally tough chestplate, shoulder pads, and gauntlets protected her upper body, leaving her slim, slightly muscular belly partially exposed. She wore something akin to an armored circlet or a diadem, with a metal part above her forehead, and a wing-styled piece of armor over each of her ears. 

Everything was of white color with dark gold details, including the inner side of the material falling down from her belt. Additionally, she held an expensive-looking staff with a sizable cross inside a circle at its end. Well, more than a staff, it actually seemed to be a spear with how sharp the spike extending from that ring looked.

But, these weren’t the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring details surrounding this elegant, heavily armored woman. Two very distinct things had been missed by Asterios when he had made contact with her.

Wings and a halo.

Two white, feathery wings almost as big as the woman’s body were present behind her back. They looked magnificent and everyone could tell that they weren’t just decorations from the occasional, gentle movements they made. A circle of glowing light hung in the air above her head as if attached to it with some invisible force, changing angles in sync with her head.

The woman’s golden eyes examined Asterios as he stood up. A calm expression painted her gracious face.

Then, she suddenly pointed her staff-spear at Ast’s chest and squinted at him, spreading her feathery wings wide.

“I can sense traces of darkness surrounding your core,” she said with a dignified tone. “Rejoice! Uhhhh… Ummmm… What are you?”

Her distinguished aura slightly wavered as she smiled a little clumsily at Asterios.

“Well, a human, I think? I technically am connected to a Spiritual Fox and a Dragon through my ancestry so I’m not so sure right now,” he answered.

The angelic woman nodded a few times as he spoke.

“Ekhm.” She cleared her throat, turning back to her dignified self. “Rejoice, human! I shall purge the darkness pestering you as a token of my goodwill!”

And her weapon began glowing increasingly brighter.

 

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