Asterios gave Miria a peck and a few scratches before trying to open a portal to Selene’s world by himself, just to see if it was possible with her not present there. Technically, the connection between the worlds had been established during the contract so there was a chance.

And so, the gate appeared just like always. Nodding at each other, the duo walked into the crimson mist while holding hands. This time, Asterios focused on the experience of crossing through as much as he could and felt a strong but immensely fast tug before he stepped into a spacious chamber carved out of exquisite marble.

The interdimensional passage stayed behind them this time. Miria took a peek through the dark red smoke, looked both sides, and disappeared back with a wide smile, throwing thumbs up at them.

Selene walked forward and turned around with a graceful spin, making a courteous skid in front of Asterios.

“Welcome to my humble abode, my Lord. Everything here is at your disposal.”

He walked up to her and placed a hand on Selene’s delicate cheek. She smiled charmingly and pushed herself into his chest, joining their lips together in a very gentle, tame, and elegant kiss.

She broke the brief exchange with a quiet chuckle. “I must say, bringing your mate to your room certainly has something to it. I’m starting to understand why Miria was so quick to jump at you back there.”

Asterios caressed her bushy tail with his fingers, making Selene sigh delightfully.

“Do you want your bed marked too?” He asked in a mischievous tone.

A playful slap landed on Ast’s cheek. Selene’s wide smile met him after he returned his face to match hers. Her tail started wagging a bit faster. He could sense that she was very much up for that idea.

“Maybe another day.” She pecked his lips. “I would like us to take our time with that and that’s something we don’t currently have a lot of. Care for a little date with me, my Lord?”

“There’s no way I would say no to that, Selene. Too bad I don’t have any elegant clothes to match yours, though.”

She ran her hands over the front of his dark crimson coat. Asterios realized he had forgotten to switch back to the other style after dealing with Gnesh.

“I think this attire matches them perfectly, my Lord. White and blue versus black and red. Nothing goes better together than polar opposites.” She chuckled softly.

He nodded and brought his palm up. Selene gently slid hers into it and she began showing him around just like Miria had.

Selene’s whole mansion was carved literally in the giant marble peak, just like the rest of the buildings in the city inhabited by Spiritual Foxes. Therefore, pretty much everything was made of marble in various styles.

From the chamber’s structure, through furniture and some decorations, everything was made of the white mineral. But, it didn’t mean that it had no style or beauty, being only a single mass of the same color.

The room itself had a masterfully sculpted ceiling and corners, which were decorated by pillars one could find at the entrances to temples. One of the walls was completely gone and instead riddled with equally spaced thinner columns, giving the room’s owner a perfect view onto the alabaster city below from the short terrace. But, there was no glass between those decorative pillars like in Miria’s place and Selene’s bedroom received a faint breeze from the outside now and then.

After gazing down at the breathtaking scenery together, Selene smiled at Asterios and started creating translucent stairs out of cyan platforms. They stepped over the spiritual footholds and passed the balcony’s railing, slowly descending towards the buildings below them. Selene’s mansion was located a bit higher than the other houses, another privilege coming from her status and position.

No one batted an eye at two figures suddenly falling from the sky onto the busy street filled with Foxkin population of various fur colors. Just as he had guessed back at Miria’s village, the vulpine subrace dominated the city carved in the marble peak, with just occasional bearers of features coming from other animal families peeking through the crowd.

Most men and women wore clothes in a similar style to Selene’s, albeit less revealing and exquisite. Almost everyone was dressed in light robes tied up around their waists by soft material belts, with long and wide sleeves. Young-looking girls often used stylish cords instead which extended over their backs into big ribbons.

Still holding hands, the duo began walking over the white road with a quick but unhurried step. Many beastfolk nodded or bowed politely at them as they passed by and Selene always answered respectfully to each greeting.

It felt like everyone knew who she was and Asterios could tell that people respected their High Priestess. Besides those little curtsies, he also caught quite a few people whispering to themselves after passing them. On another note, Asterios was sure his hearing was getting better even without feeding scorching mana into his ears.

“Seems like even more people are surprised by my person here than at Miria’s place,” Asterios said, glancing at the fox lady by his side.

Selene chuckled softly while returning another greeting and then matched his gaze. “That’s not exactly because of you but because of me, my Lord.”

“How so?”

“Many still believe I’m cursed, of course. It’s not every day they get to see the Cursed Apostle walk with a male while holding hands so intimately. Individuals who aren’t afraid of getting as close to me as to touch my skin can be counted on one hand.”

He sighed and gently pulled Selene closer, linking their elbows together with their palms still intertwined. Leaning more towards his foxy companion, Asterios left a tender peck on her cheek.

“Then, we should show them more that there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Selene smiled warmly at his words and nodded, bringing her face forward to respond with the same. They chuckled together after backing away and picked up their pace a bit.

In just a few minutes, the human-beastfolk duo arrived in front of the long and tall stairs leading to the main temple. Asterios had seen them many times through Selene’s eyes but it again felt completely different having to scale the multitude of steps by himself.

They arrived at the top with no issues. Looking back, he noticed that they were even higher now than Selene’s mansion, which had been left behind quite a distance lower. The main temple towered over everything in the city and its courtyard had been breathtakingly carved into the rising peak.

Selene led Asterios inside. The surprise and shock in the faces of priests, scholars, monks, and other residents of the temple were even more apparent than amongst the general population. Their white-haired High Priestess only smiled back at them happily, nodding her head now and then.

No one stopped them or even considered interrupting their stroll and they soon entered a section of the temple very closely resembling the small training arenas with columned corridors surrounding them Asterios had seen back at Welrond’s castle. The style was slightly different but the general layout was the same.

Selene pulled him towards the center of such a chamber with a partially open ceiling and he noticed the figure of a slightly tomboyish foxgirl with silver hair, floating in the air while sitting in a lotus position, clearly meditating in deep concentration. Twelve heavy-looking cauldrons levitated around her, upheld by grey spiritual energy. Judging by the occasional quiet sloshing, they were almost full of water.

He had an idea of who it was but Asterios didn’t know why they had come here since the young Spiritual Fox was in the middle of some training and he was sure the person Selene wanted to introduce him to was the Matriarch.

The fox lady in question chuckled to herself softly and suddenly turned towards Asterios, pulling herself into him and going straight for his lips. Albeit surprised, he didn’t resist and let Selene pursue his mouth with more passion than ever before. She kissed, pecked, sucked, and bit on his lips with great desire.

In no time, the sounds of their heated exchange filled the small chamber, echoing through the whole room thanks to the tunnel-like corridors running around its edges. Asterios soon caught on to what was happening when the sloshing of water gradually grew louder. Bit by bit, the heavy cauldrons began shaking more and more.

Around twenty seconds later, one of the floating pots shook enough to spill some of the crystal clear liquid straight onto the head of the focused girl. She shivered and all twelve of them dropped onto the ground simultaneously.

The girl’s eyes shot open, filled with untamed fury, and she screamed in frustration.

“Who dares to—”

She froze mid-sentence, paled a little after noticing who was creating such obscene sounds, and fell onto her butt while still in the lotus position, joining the cauldrons on the floor. Selene grinned into Ast’s lips as she glanced at the girl with one eye and soon finished the kiss, drawing her face back a little.

“You lack focus, Ronye, not control. Twelve Cauldrons of Tranquility is not the technique you should be practicing,” Selene spoke calmly, with a bit of a smirk.

The young foxkin’s lips drew a tight line in a clear attempt at not talking back. She stood up, shook her head to get rid of the remaining water from her long silver hair split into two fluffy locks behind her back, reaching almost the ground, and slowly walked closer to the duo.

“What do you want?” Ronye asked in a low tone, clearly not happy with the visit.

“We are just passing by while on our way to the Matriarch. Seeing you, I thought about my responsibility of guiding you as your senior and decided to correct your mistakes. Shouldn’t you be grateful that I’m still willing to do so after all you’ve done?” Selene raised her brow.

It again looked like Ronye wanted to argue but stopped herself. She put her fist against her palm in front of her and made a light bow.

“I thank the senior for her valuable guidance. This junior will take it to her heart,” Ronye replied in a stiff tone.

“I certainly hope you do so. We have high hopes for you with the Matriarch. As much as you hate me, you should know that I’m not trying to hinder your progress with meaningless tasks. Rather than wasting your time with Twelve Cauldrons of Tranquility, you should be spending whole days at the Hall of the Heaven-Splitting Gong. I can start teaching you more advanced techniques after you master your mental resistance.”

Ronye didn’t answer but slowly raised her head. Seeing that Selene was not continuing with her lecture, she turned her grey eyes towards Asterios.

“May I know who this is, High Priestess Selene?”

Selene sighed heavily. “You can stop with that overly polite tone. I have never complained about you to the Matriarch and you know it. You’ve brought the last punishment onto yourself with your own two hands while I tried to stop you.”

She then gestured at Asterios.

“This handsome man by my side is Asterios, my Soul Mate and my Lord,” she exclaimed with a proud smile.

“Nice to meet you.” Asterios nodded his head.

Ronye furrowed his brows at him. “Your Soul Mate and Lord? He doesn’t even have a single tail! Did the curse make you completely retarded or is it the price of reaching the fifth stage? How can you serve someone so pathetically wea—”

Ronye was shut up by a sudden hand grasping her cheeks with crushing force as a powerful spiritual pressure exploded in front of her. The five-tailed Selene glared at her while bringing the much shorter girl into the air by holding onto her face. Ronye’s eyes went wide and her skin lost most of its color.

“I dare you to utter a single word of slander more towards my Lord and you will experience the price of reaching the fifth stage on your own skin, by my own hand. Are we understood?”

Ronye started nodding as fast as she could and Selene freed her from her grasp, withdrawing her Awakening.

“If I were you, I would be groveling in front of him and begging him to teach me how to achieve his unbelievable mental fortitude instead of trying to judge someone by what’s visible on the outside. You are lucky my Lord is a benevolent person or nothing more than an empty husk would have been left of you if he decided to act instead of me.”

Moments after Ronye managed to take control of her face, her eyes shot open to the brim again and she shivered after meeting Ast’s gaze. He smiled at her kindly, which didn’t help at all. To her, it could have very well been the most ominous grin she had ever seen after Selene’s words settled in.

“You will come with us for now,” Selene suddenly stated.

“What? Why?” Ronye turned to her with a shocked expression.

“You might possibly gain valuable insight from what is going to happen,” Selene replied.

Ronye was confused but knew better than to question the people above her. Selene was now equal with the Matriarch in terms of strength after she had suddenly jumped two stages at once. She took one more glance at Asterios, wondering if that weirdly common-looking person without animal features had something to do with it.

They walked to the Matriarch’s quarters together and Ronye could not believe what she was seeing the whole time. The duo strolled through the corridors side by side while holding hands and chatting casually, occasionally pecking each other’s cheeks and chuckling together. Selene was clearly smitten with the man for some reason. She, a person who had never even looked at any other male without indifference in her eyes before. It didn’t seem like an act just to annoy her anymore.

Reaching the big ornate door, Selene knocked on it and led everyone inside. Asterios recognized the room he had seen a few times through her eyes and found the refined fox lady with dark ginger hair and fur sitting behind a heavy maple desk. If he was not mistaken, Miria’s father was behind its creation.

Lerisse glanced up from some documents and her eyes immediately turned into saucers.

“By the Great Heavens! Is this…?”

Selene smiled at her friend and nodded. Lerisse quickly stood up and ran around her desk to stand in front of the trio. She suddenly bowed lightly and made the same gesture towards Asterios as Ronye earlier had done towards Selene.

“It’s my pleasure to finally meet you, Asterios. As you may know, my name is Lerisse. Thank you for taking great care of my Selene. I truly appreciate the immense support, help, and guidance you have shown to her. Please, accept my bow as a token of my gratitude, even though I’m sure it doesn’t mean much to you.”

While Ronye’s brain was trying to process what had just happened, Asterios stepped forward and brought Lerisse’s posture up, placing one hand on her shoulder.

“There’s no need for any of that. It’s only natural that I help someone when it’s clearly in my power to do so. I should thank you for taking care of Selene instead while everyone else took their distance from her. So, thank you, Lerisse. I have no doubt that it’s thanks to you that I can feel this lucky to have gained the favor of such an incredible woman.”

“As courteous and kind as Selene said.” Lerisse smiled warmly at him.

“Right?” Selene stepped closer too, entwining her elbow with Ast’s.

They all looked at Ronye, who was standing there with her mouth agape and pretty much completely frozen.

“And why are you here? What trouble did you cause this time, Ronye?” the Matriarch asked.

Selene chuckled. “She did nothing wrong. I just felt like bringing her with us. She might learn a thing or two about humility perhaps.”

Lerisse nodded. “That’s so like you, Selene. Too bad your effort is rarely appreciated.” She sent a glance at Ronye, who closed her mouth and hung her head a little bit.

“So, do you still want to experience it?” Selene asked with a mischievous smile.

A glint flashed through Lerisse’s eyes. “Can I?”

“If Asterios doesn’t mind, of course.”

He already could sense what Selene had in mind and nodded at her. She smiled sweetly and left a kiss on his cheek before dragging the confused Ronye away by the collar. Asterios and Lerisse remained in place, looking straight into each other’s eyes.

“Don’t hold back. Go all out. Please,” she requested.

“With pleasure.”

They both nodded and closed their eyes. A moment later, two presences exploded into the air with fierce spiritual pressure of crimson and orange colors. The two forces clashed against each other and sent the whole chamber into turmoil just after the duo opened their eyes.

Ast’s scarlet irises with vertical pupils gleamed ferociously while Lerisse’s five ginger tails trembled in a furious manner. They released more and more of their mana into the air, weaving it around their bodies, matching each other’s aura all the time. The pressure in the chamber increased to unimaginable levels. Selene had to enter her own highest stage of Awakening to shield the almost fainting Ronye.

Reaching the highest level of strength she could muster, Lerisse aimed all of the energy she was releasing at Asterios, leaning forward a little bit and struggling to step closer to him. For a brief moment, he was being pushed back by the orange aura as the Matriarch slowly closed onto him.

But then, Asterios felt the urge to contest her, match her, overpower her with his own spiritual aura, and his eyes turned even more feral. He made a step forward as a low growl escaped his throat, causing his own pressure to spike up substantially, turning the tides and beginning to crush Lerisse’s spiritual bubble.

Her eyes widened and she locked gazes with the human man. The moment she did, she felt like the whole chamber plunged into an abyss and lost its ceiling. High above her, only a dark silhouette was visible, with two gigantic scarlet moons scarred by black vertical trenches glowing at her from high up.

She shuddered. She felt like an ant. She felt like a tiny figurine in a dollhouse being stared at from above by the unmeasurably powerful giant for whom she was just a toy, something he could crush with the snap of his fingers.

She shivered again, sweating more and more. Then, the perspective returned to the normal scale in a flash and she found herself on one knee in front of Asterios, who stood above her with an extended hand. His crimson eyes still glowed mightily but were filled with passion, care, and fondness.

Lerisse accepted his hand and shakily stood up. She blinked a few times and looked around. Her chamber was a mess. A hundred times worse than when she had butted heads with Selene, although Ronye had interrupted them in the middle back then.

Selene walked up to them with a dainty step while lightly biting on her lower lip and stopped by Ast’s side. Their eyes found each other and she sighed dreamily. He didn’t let Selene wait too long and pulled her into a deep kiss. It was his fault she had gotten turned on in the end.

“What the hell… was that…?”

They all glanced to the side when they heard Ronye’s weak voice. The poor girl was down on the floor after her legs had given up from the immense spiritual pressure and she was trembling continuously. When Asterios met her gaze, she quickly looked away with her ears laid down. Selene and Lerisse glanced at each other and smiled, sensing another detail in Ronye’s state thanks to their keen sense of smell.

“That, my unruly junior, was an Aura of Authority. One coming from a Dragon, most likely.” Selene chuckled softly while stroking Ast’s cheek.

He shook his head with a smile and withdrew the rest of his aura, staying in his awakened appearance. After he was freed from Selene’s embrace, he helped Ronye stand up. She quickly increased her distance from him, though, smiling wryly as she clutched her qipao with her small hands over her stomach.

Asterios, Selene, and Lerisse sat down on a marble bench and started chatting about the fox lady’s Soul Mate. It felt like another discussion with a concerned and curious parent and he knew that even though the Matriarch wasn’t Selene’s biological mother, she was even closer to her than the woman who brought her to this world. They spent around an hour talking about various things, even mentioning Kaguya and Ast’s possible draconic ancestry.

Afterward, they promised to visit the temple more after they reached the Demon Continent and returned to the ship through the portal. Lerisse helped the shaken Ronye gather herself up a little as they discussed Ast’s show of spiritual prowess.

For the first time in her life, Ronye started gaining respect for someone else than their Matriarch. An urge to ask for teachings and guidance began surfacing in her slightly ignorant heart, pushing through her hardened shell that had grown around it due to her immense talent.

And, perhaps something else too. Something she hadn’t felt yet. The need to impress someone else than the Matriarch. The need to impress a man.