"So what did you discover?" Erik asked his beloved fairy as they lay in bed together. Emma was on Erik's other side, so the two talked through their bond for now.
"Quite a lot, actually," Elora responded while snuggling up to his chest. She had spent the last half a day shifting through every single thing this structure could do, and now she deserved so comfort.
"But not everything…" she continued with a frown.
"How do you an?" Erik blinked in surprise.
Elora explained with a thoughtful expression, "This place seems to have a number of functions that can only be accessed after you reach a certain ranking… Even I can't access them now and, presumably, neither could Eira when she was in control."
"I see…" Erik mumbled curiously. "Let ask her, then."
By now, Erik had three different channels in his head that he couldn't talk to at the sa ti. They were like radio frequencies, and he could only attune to one of them.
First there was the channel through which he talked with his wives, which was more or less facilitated through his bond with Elora, but in this case, Erik was the hub through which this channel flowed, while Elora was technically just another connection.
Second there was the channel that governed the Bonds of Service, which right now involved Emily and Nora, and went directly through Elora, since she was the one creating those bonds. In this case, Elora was actually the hub, which ant she was always listening in when Erik talked to either Nora or Emily through that channel.
A fact he had made sure not to ntion to Emily.
Lastly, there was now a third channel, the one that allowed him to talk with Eira, who had essentially beco his armor.
Switching to that third channel, he began to talk to the minotaur construct. "Eira, when you were still controlling this place, did you have have function you could only access when I reached a certain ranking threshold?"
Enjoy new adventures from мѵʟ
"Hmpf," Eira snorted and pouted in response. "I guess your little fairy ran into the blocks, huh?"
Clearly, Eira was still unhappy with Elora for breaking the connection to Audumla.
Still, since she had already made up with Erik, she continued, her voice sounding a little brighter now, "Anyway, yeah. There a number of function that even I didn't have full knowledge of. After you absorbed the dinsion, the sigils were supposed to be able to monitor your ranking progress, and unlock those functions upon reaching various milestones."
"So you have no idea what those do? Do you know if all the blocks are related to my ranking?" Erik asked curiously.
"Nope, no idea, Master. About either question," she answered with a shrug.
"Alright, thank you, Eira," he answered her.
'Clearly she's still not entirely happy about how everything went,' Erik thought to himself. 'But I hope she'll co around again soon.'
With that thought, he swapped back to Elora.
"Seems Eira knew of the blocks, but has no idea what they are hiding either," Erik shrugged as he relayed his conversation with Eira to the fairy. "Or, for that matter, if the only functions this structure is hiding from the two of you will unlock with my ranking upgrades."
"Ugh, I don't like not knowing things," Elora responded with a scowl on both her physical, and ntal expressions. "I'll keep trying to work around those blocks, but I suppose we can only wait now."
Then, she shrugged, and continued, "Anyway, for now, this place has no more functions than we already knew of. I suggest you absorb the dinsion now. Perhaps a new function will awaken when this place figures out you're already a second rank."
"You know," Erik answered with a smile. "After I do absorb this place, I hope we can start calling it our ho, instead of just place, or structure."
"Our ho, huh…" Elora mumbled with a surprisingly fond expression. "I like that," she finally nodded.
With that, the two of them decided to wait for Emma to wake up. After all, before absorbing the dinsion, they wanted everyone to leave, as they had no idea what this event might do to anyone still inside at the ti.
A few hours later, four people were standing outside the dinsional entrance, and back in front of the elevator they ca down in a little over a month ago.
These were Emily, Emma, Astrid, and Alice, and they were all watching the portal in front of them with a mixture of curiosity and anxiety.
Suddenly, the portal flickered, and Erik walked out of it while holding the spatial orb that was previously in the middle of the main hall.
Behind him, the portal flickered shortly, and then disappeared.
Looking behind him, Erik nodded with satisfaction, "So far, so good."
By taking the dinsional anchor outside of the dinsion, Erik had made it so that this dinsion was now movable, just like Audumla's was. The main reason for this was still to make sure no one was inside during the absorption.
He turned towards the people behind him with a smile, "Alright, let's get back above ground. I think we can all use a little sunshine, don't you?"
While only Emily didn't really seem to mind the darkness, perhaps unsurprisingly, the others nodded enthusiastically.
They all stepped back onto the platform they ca down on, and Erik took out the dallion again, before pressing it in the altar, and starting their journey back to the outside world.
With their previous experience, this was now a far more novel event, and they soon found themselves back in the middle of a snowy taiga forest, and a brightly shining sun.
But, while most of them took in the sunny rays with bright smiles and enthusiasm, there was one that seed particularly awestruck.
Next to Erik, a beautiful minotaur girl stood, as her wide eyes seed to try and look everywhere at once.
"So this is… outside," she mumbled, with awe in her voice, as she looked at the green trees, and white snow. Then, she turned her attention to the orange orb hanging in the sky, "And that's the sun… it's beautiful…"
"Hehehe, of course it is!" a strangely proud Astrid suddenly interjected, as if the sun could only be beautiful, since it involved her affinity.
But Erik was quick to grab the opportunity, by sneaking behind Astrid and hugging her waist, before whispering in her ear, "Not as beautiful as you, though."
A quick blush spread across Astrid's face, before she suddenly turned around and punched Erik's chest, "Shut up! J— Just get absorbing already, I want to get back to training!"
Erik chuckled, before turning his attention to Eira for a mont. He smiled slightly at her, "While this forest is certainly beautiful, as is the sun, there are far more beautiful things out there. Both on this planet, and beyond. I'll show them all to you."
Eira smiled happily, but with no small amount of embarrassnt as she poked her fingers together. "T— Thank you…"
'Perhaps it's not so bad…' Eira couldn't help but think to herself. 'What would have happened if I or they did contact Mistress… Would I still have been able to adventure with him…?'
As Eira had her first doubts regarding her Mistress, Erik decided to get on with it.
He sat down cross legged on the platform, and placed the spatial orb in front of him.
"Okay, so how do I do this?" he asked his fairy partner.
"Just put your hands on the orb again, but this ti, try to reach out to it through aetherium. Instinct should take care of the rest," Elora answered him. "The spatial seed should be reaching out the mont your aetherium cos in contact with a spatial anchor. After you get started, I'll coordinate with the structure… our ho… inside the dinsion, and make sure everything goes smoothly."
With Elora's explanation, Erik nodded determinately, and reached out his hands, before, under the both curious and anxious gazes of his companions, channeled his aetherium into the orb.
The mont he did so, both it and Erik began to shine with a dark-blue aura, and Erik could feel sothing inside himself that he hadn't felt before. Like a void that needed to be filled.
Suddenly, he felt a powerful a hunger. A hunger for the very thing that stood in front of him.
His eyes shone with desire, his aetherium reached out to envelop the orb entirely, and he felt like he was sucking sothing out of it.
And as the contents of the orb were sucked out, Erik felt that empty void inside him being filled up.
His body shook, and his mind reeled as he felt like he had very little control over the current situation.
Finally, however, it ended. Suddenly, he had control of himself again, and he quickly pulled back his hand from the orb as he panted heavily.
At the sa ti, the orb suddenly disintegrated into powder.
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