Asterios opened his eyes and found himself lying on the platform they had been standing on.

No. It wasn’t the same platform.

It had the same complex arrays in the pattern of a triangle, consisting of three major magic circles, but this one was made of a much darker rock instead of the light brown sandstone.

With a quiet accompaniment of groans, everyone gradually sat up, slowly noticing that they were now in an underground chamber. Nine impressive columns surrounded them, set in a circle around their current location. Each had a metal torch burning with green, blue, or yellow flame.

Behind those, a spacious, square room spanned. The walls were decorated with wide carvings covering almost the whole surface, depicting various events of some kind. A set of torches of the same color hung by each sculpture.

“Master…” Miria murmured while rubbing her head.

“I’m fine. Is everyone with us this time?” Asterios glanced around and started counting heads.

While he did so, each person confirmed their presence vocally. No one was missing, and no one seemed injured either.

“What happened?” Silvia asked as she stood up with Selene’s help.

“We got teleported, that’s quite obvious,” the fox lady answered.

“So that’s what was sealed under all that sand. An ancient teleportation formation.” Radir fixed his clothes and spectacles. “No wonder I could literally sense the Sealing Magic right in the air with an arrangement as powerful as this.”

“Is this the inside of the real tomb, then?” Svertaniel pondered while glancing around. “Were the pyramids always just fakes?”

“Why would it be connected to Dragons if so?” Asterios asked. “Do we know if they perhaps knew any? Or perhaps one of the three was secretly a Dragon.”

“That’s true.” Svertaniel nodded. “There’s nothing about Dragons in their legends. Well, there is, actually, but it involves a lot of slaying so I don’t think it’s that relevant considering that the Draconic language was used to construct this place.”

“Someone could have built it much later, no? Just using the pyramids and their energy to set everything up,” Bryn suggested.

“I think this place holds much more importance to us than we would have thought,” Asterios commented.

“Why?” Miria tilted her head.

“Clearly, because of the language,” Selene replied.

“That too, but…” Asterios pointed a finger behind them and most of the girls turned around.

A wide mural spanned over one of the walls. This one was made of pure gold, shining appealingly. Miria and Selene instantly recognized the similarity between it and a certain golden gate they had seen not that long ago.

Instead of a Nine-Tailed Fox and a True Dragon, though, the carving depicted three demons on one side, most likely the Founders, and a True Dragon closely resembling the one in the girls' realm on the other. They looked to be exchanging something.

“Will this one open too? I don’t see any handprints.” Miria pondered, coming closer to the golden wall.

“Why would it open?” Bryn asked.

“There was a similar gate in my and Miria’s world,” Selene explained. “We were able to open it and find a hidden apartment where… who we think might be Asterios’ parents lived for some time,” she continued, taking a glance at her master to make sure she could reveal this much.

“Well, I see no doors, gates, or exits anywhere else in sight.” Radir waved his hands around. “So, it’s either that or this chamber is all that the puzzle was hiding away. Which I find hard to believe.”

“Umbra? Can you tell us more about our location?” Asterios asked his shadowy familiar.

~We are deep under the Tri-Valor Valley. I can move us to the surface without an issue but if there are any other rooms or passages leading out of this place then they are somehow protected from my senses. My movements will most likely be greatly restricted outside of this chamber.~

Asterios then stroked his chin. “So, what do we do? Keep trying to figure this out or return to the surface first?”

“I think we should keep exploring, Master,” Miria shared her opinion, walking closer to him and brushing her cheek against his. “Maybe it will give us some hints about your parents again. Or maybe even about your memories.”

“I agree with her, my Lord.” Selene also walked up to Asterios, hugging his arm.

“I’ll go wherever you guys go,” Silvia calmly announced when he glanced at her.

“Same here.” Svertaniel nodded.

“I will stay around in case you guys need my healing, then.” Bryn flapped her wings to stretch them.

“Well, pretty much everyone is on board so I guess we continue and see where it leads us. If we can open that gate, that is.” Asterios turned to the golden depiction.

Radir arrived at their side with a wide smile. “I’m fairly sure Eyla was an expert in Sealing Magic so there’s a big chance we may stumble on something useful to your issue here. Ohhhhh, I’m so excited!”

After first checking if everyone was truly alright, Bryn cast a simple rejuvenating spell, basking everyone in warm light, and they spread around to examine the murals. Asterios and all the girls chose the golden one while the two demons started with the stone carvings on the other walls.

“There really aren’t any handprints anywhere,” Selene commented after a while. “But, I guess none of us would fit the requirements this time. We have no demon companion amongst us besides the other guys.”

The girls closely analyzed the picture, touching and poking every inch of it, but couldn’t find anything. Ast’s Draconic Sight didn’t reveal any hints either, besides letting him know that the gate was as packed with spiritual energy as the one back in the beastfolk realm. Here, though, it was only the crimson energy.

Finally, after a few minutes of their fruitless efforts, Ast’s eyes stopped at the spot in the middle of the depiction. One of the female demons stood in front of the group and extended her palm forward as if she was offering something to the Dragon. Or, perhaps, receiving instead.

He moved closer and stared at that point intently. There was a shallow, irregular shape carved above the woman’s palm, barely visible when looked at from a straight angle. He ran his fingers over it a few times.

“Did you figure something out, Master?” Miria glanced at him curiously.

“Possibly. Step back just in case, please.” Asterios kissed her forehead, making the panthergirl giggle adorably.

She nodded and quickly backed away with everyone else following her. Afterward, Asterios summoned something into his palm from the storage ring. The beastfolk girls instantly recognized the damaged scale they had taken from the Golem in Teira.

He looked at it for a moment and pressed the item into the very shallow recess. The scale fit more or less perfectly, staying in place even after Asterios retracted his hand and took a step back.

Then, the whole chamber rumbled and a loud, metallic click followed. A powerful spiritual aura shot out of the golden wall and it jumped back a little, splitting to slide to the sides. The heavy curtains slowly parted and revealed a corridor behind them, riddled with torches in three colors.

“Well, looks like you got it, lad.” Radir patted Asterios on the shoulder after coming closer to check the commotion and laughed.

Asterios quickly moved to the side after noticing that the golden gates hadn't completely hidden away inside their sleeves. They stopped just enough for him to take the scale back. Thankfully, it was possible to remove it from the recess, and the entrance remained open.

“Come, Master! Let’s check it out!” Miria waved at him from ahead alongside the others.

He chuckled and stored the scale back in the ring.

Asterios joined them in the passage and the thrilled panthergirl linked elbows with him, snuggling to his side as they walked through the tunnel made of dark stone.

Besides regular columns and stylized walls, not much else could be spotted on their way forward. After around five minutes of walking, they stumbled on a stone gate which opened by itself when they got closer.

They walked into a quite long chamber. There was a short ledge on both ends, with a stone balustrade stopping people from falling into the section below. They had entered the chamber into one of them. The air above the railing shimmered mysteriously like in a hot desert.

Everyone curiously glanced around. Besides the balustrade, there was also a fancy stone pulpit in the middle of the ledge, and a big, metal, vertical disc hanging from the ceiling on some mechanism.

Numbers from one to twelve were present on its surface in the pattern of a clock. There was a thin handle next to each number. The whole circle had shallow lines carved into its surface, splitting it into twelve equal pieces.

“It spins,” Svertaniel noted, giving the disc a little push.

Clicking noise echoed through the long hall until the rotations stopped completely. Everyone noticed how the inscriptions on the slice of the circle that had ended up at the topmost position, on the clock’s twelfth hour’s spot, glowed with a crimson hue for a brief moment.

“Is this some kind of a game?” Selene asked.

“More like a trial,” Asterios answered, tapping the stone pedestal.

The others gathered around the pulpit with draconic themes.

“Oh, great, more of that script which only you can understand.” Radir sighed.

“Prove your worth,” Asterios read the words out loud.

“How do we do that, though?” Silvia wondered.

Asterios noticed a similar recess as the one in the gate and placed the scale in it too, thankful that he had been able to retrieve it before as he clearly still couldn’t produce those like an actual Dragon might possibly be able.

The text got illuminated in a crimson shade and Asterios felt a pull. In a split second, he found himself in a different place.

No, it was still the same chamber. He was now standing on the lower section, though.

“Master!”

He heard Miria’s worried shout and looked up, behind himself. She and the others were still on the ledge and the panthergirl pressed her fists into the shimmering effect above the balustrade, which seemingly stopped them in mid-air.

She tried her best to push through it but the weird thing was like a solid wall. The others looked around to find an unobstructed spot that could lead below but didn’t discover anything of use. The two sections were completely separated.

“Hmmm…” Radir fixed his spectacles. “It looks like the hall below is a sealed space. And this is a very powerful spell. It would take me months if not years to create a hole in it even if I had all my equipment here.”

Miria stopped banging her fists at the shimmering barrier and took a step back.

“Master! Just wait a moment! I’m coming to you!” she shouted and jumped back to her realm through the crimson portal.

Everyone watched how it disappeared. They waited a second, two, three, four, and… nothing happened.

~I can’t return!~ Miria screamed anxiously through their connection, letting all of Ast’s familiars hear her. ~The gate is not opening!~

“Don’t leave this realm. It looks like even my Summoning is being blocked in this space,” Asterios quickly instructed the others, glancing up at them.

Selene, Bryn, and Umbra nodded. Even the Lord of Darkness couldn’t penetrate the barrier.

~Master…~

Miria’s quiet voice resounded in his head again. He could tell she was almost on the verge of tears.

~It’s okay. You couldn’t know. You made the correct decision. I’ll be alright. Just watch over me from your home for now and don’t worry too much. I love you.~

He gave his feline mate some mental scratches and loving rubs until Miria calmed down a little. Then, Asterios turned around to examine the long chamber in front of him.

The floor was riddled with slightly protruding triangles of the three colors that were already plenty familiar to them. Their edges were around one meter long. Asterios stood inside the only one of two white platforms. The other one was on the opposite side of the hall.

The colorful triangles made an extremely twisty and irregular path from his position to the other side of the room. It split at a few points into different routes, merging back a bit later.

A carved line ran between the triangles, usually leading forward, but sometimes, when the path turned back, it connected to one of the earlier tiles, creating a loop. Besides situations like those, each triangle had only two connections—from behind and forward.

Suddenly, Asterios got an idea.

“Can someone spin the disc again?” he asked, looking at the audience above him.

Silvia was the closest to it so she fulfilled his request. The wheel rotated for a few seconds while releasing clicking noises and finally stopped. The number four was illuminated.

At the same time, four concurrent triangles on the floor in front of Asterios lit up in their respective colors too, causing a few gasps from the people on the ledge.

First, he checked if he could step to the side or somewhere else other than ahead, but an invisible force stopped him from doing so. With the only way being forward, Asterios walked over the line to the next triangle and stepped onto the blue shape.

Everyone waited with bated breaths, but nothing happened.

Figuring out that he had to move as many tiles as the spinning wheel showed, he passed two more and stopped on the fourth platform. The yellow triangle caved in under his weight and released an echoing click.

Above his head, in the very middle of the long chamber, a big, golden script appeared in the air.

Prove your strength, it read.

Six yellow magic circles materialized under the high ceiling. A moment later, something fell out of each of them. Big blobs of different colors plopped onto the floor.

Greater Slimes.

“My Lord!” Selene shouted from behind his back.

“I’ll be fine. You guys don’t drop your guards up there. The text suggests that this is a test of power. I can handle this much.”

Asterios noticed that the restriction on his movements had been lifted and immediately jumped back a bit. Perhaps for the first time in quite a bit, he was truly alone. No one could help him in this fight.

But, he wasn’t as weak as he had been months ago. He had good equipment, strong artifacts, powerful Runic Chips, and his own bloodline to make use of now. A bunch of Slimes was nothing in front of that.

He quickly filled his body with more of the scorching hot mana, partially strengthening his brain, heart, and eyes. Asterios didn’t want to overstrain them too quickly but he also didn’t want to take unnecessary risks, thus only partial enhancement.

Aiming his left hand at the closest blob, he bent his fingers in a proper motion and three needles whizzed through the air, pushing through the monster’s membrane with ease and piercing its fist-sized core.

Before the other enemies reached him, Asterios quickly reloaded the needles and reached behind his back with his right hand, grabbing the hilt of the artifact sword attached to his coat. The dark purple blade glinted ominously, craving some action.

Asterios fed it his mana and the weapon exploded in crimson flames. He dodged a few incoming tentacles and rushed at another opponent, drawing the sword to his side while pointing it ahead.

With a strong lunge, he drove it into the second blob, skewering its core, and quickly jumped back before the other ones hit their attacks.

Two opponents gone, four more left.

Constantly looking around with his sharpened senses, he made sure not to get surrounded and kept changing his position according to the placement of his enemies. The barrage of tentacles and acid spits forced Asterios to bob and weave while waiting for a window of opportunity.

Another one showed up just a moment later and he cleaved through a pink Greater Slime with a single swing, splitting its core horizontally and burning its body with the violent flames. Leaving the sword in his left hand to parry a tentacle, he revealed his Spellslinger and aimed it at a different monster.

The blade sparkled with crackling, blue particles and a loud thunder echoed throughout the hall. A bolt of lightning struck the Slime with a bright flash. The electricity jumped from the initial target to the other two blobs, paralyzing them all together.

It still rang in Ast’s ears but he ignored the uncomfortable sensation and rushed at the monsters while they remained stunned. Two were defeated before the last one regained its proper control and tried to swallow Asterios with its big body.

But, it didn’t work for it as he stabbed the exposed core during the Slime’s motion, killing it before it could encase him in killer jelly. Unfortunately, the remaining matter splashed onto Asterios as it lost all its tension after the owner had passed away.

He shook off whatever he could and glanced towards the sound of clapping. The others were giving him small applause and Asterios chuckled, shaking his head. The yellow triangle kept blinking so he walked back to it and the restriction returned.

“I assume we have to get you to the other side, right, my Lord?” Selene asked with a soft smile.

“Yes,” he answered with a nod. “Another spin, please.”

“I guess it’s my turn now, fufufu~”

Selene walked to the wheel and strongly pulled the handles. The disc spun extremely fast for a good ten seconds before it slowly locked on the number eleven.

“They do tend to say that Spiritual Foxes are lucky, fufufu~”

Asterios shook his head and calmly covered the distance, stepping over the illuminated path. He ended up on a green triangle this time and lifted his head. An emerald script materialized in the air this time.

Prove your knowledge, it read.

Then, more words appeared under it in a single row. They spelled Aquairy Sand, Abyss Line Moss, Firewater Seed, and Ice-Sharp Dusklily.

He stroked his chin while pondering over what clearly seemed to be various magical ingredients. To a random person, they might all have looked like completely unrelated items, each supposedly connected to a different element, but Asterios knew all of them well enough to quickly figure out.

“Firewater Seed,” he exclaimed loudly.

After a few seconds of silence, the script disappeared. The triangle under his feet didn’t blink so he was sure the answer was correct and the wheel was ready to be spun around.

Out of all four listed ingredients, three were related to some kind of water. It wasn’t that hard to guess with their names available, but Firewater Seed was actually a gem formed inside magma flowing through thick spiritual veins.

Since it was often found in various territories of dwarves, it was first named by them, and they loved calling magma or lava firewater. Thus, that one didn’t match the rest of the ingredients, which could be found in actual water.

“Another spin?” Selene asked loudly since Asterios was slowly moving away from them.

He nodded at her mentally and waited. The fox lady pulled the wheel in the exact same fashion as the last time and it landed on twelve this time.

Selene proudly puffed her chest out while others applauded her. Meanwhile, Asterios walked forward over the twisting and turning path until he reached an intersection. The restriction clearly allowed him to pick a side to continue on with his remaining tiles from the recent spin.

He glanced over the two paths and picked the one with fewer blue triangles since they still didn’t know what those did. His choice led him to a yellow platform again and the same, golden script appeared, with only four magical circles this time.

Fully mature Lightning Wolves fell to the ground and started growling at the human in front of them. Asterios had a hunch that the golden formations kept various monsters and beasts sealed inside them.

A not-so-pleasant memory resurfaced in Ast’s mind when he saw them so he acted quickly to wrap the battle up as soon as possible. He hastily slotted Tectonic Crash into the Spellslinger and activated it while smacking his fist into the ground.

Massive tremors toppled the wolves over. Asterios didn’t waste any time and switched to another Runic Chip before the trembling fully subsided. He aimed the blade towards the ceiling and brown energy surrounded it.

Eight massive Earth Javelins formed in the air and he brought them down with a swing of his arm. The spinning projectiles skewered the Lightning Wolves, filling the long chamber with pained yelps and whines.

One wolf managed to avoid getting hit in the vitals and launched itself at Asterios with a single spike in its back. He dodged the attack and sliced the beast in half with the artifact sword in his left hand as he spun around.

This time, Asterios noticed how the bodies disintegrated with golden particles since it was more than just some gel and slime. The chamber was clean again in a matter of a few seconds.

Selene spun the wheel again but it landed on one. The fox lady pouted, saying that her luck must have run out. Additionally, the tile was yellow again and Asterios had to face four giant Silver Widows, very big and venomous spiders.

He dealt with them without getting seriously injured and other people started having a try at the spinning disc. For the next half an hour, Asterios faced a few trials of knowledge and strength, somehow avoiding all the blue triangles. He much preferred the questions since he hadn’t had much trouble figuring out the answer.

Then, not that far from the end, after Radir finally got his chance to play with the mechanism, Asterios landed on the platform previous to the last, white one. Everyone cursed their luck, even more, because it was the first time they ended on a blue triangle too.

Prove your dedication, read the sapphire script.

Asterios felt like there were many ways to approach that trial but he wasn’t sure about what those were exactly. He could possibly show his dedication by just waiting long enough, maybe throwing away one of his weapons, or trying to offer something to the room.

But, he also noticed that the restraining force holding him inside the tile’s space seemed different. When he reached out his hand, his fingers received a jolt of pain instead of just running into a solid barrier.

The further he pushed his limb out, the more it was subjected to the agonizing sensation, and the stronger the effect got. But, it was nothing compared to what Asterios had felt when he shared Selene’s pain long ago when they had been traveling to Tyrienheim for the first time.

Clenching his teeth and filling his body with the scorching hot mana, he stubbornly pushed forward while groaning in pain. Everyone else watched him in complete silence, seeing the lightning-like particles assaulting Ast’s body and listening to his strained voice.

After a good minute, Asterios managed to push through the restrictive force completely and fell onto the last, white triangle, panting heavily while drenched in sweat. The moment he touched the tile, it glowed brightly and the chamber rumbled.

Parts of the balustrade by the walls on the side of each ledge retreated into the floor. Stone stairs arose from the bottom section to match the openings and soon, two staircases allowed people to access the raised platforms on each side of the long hall.

Everyone ran to Asterios instantly and even Miria was finally able to jump back to his side through the crimson gate. She quickly threw herself at him and hugged Asterios tightly as he lovingly patted her head.

Bryn healed up all of Ast’s minor injuries and he thanked the Valkyrie with a smile.

“That was something else,” Radir commented. “I bet this isn’t the only trial in this place, though.”

“Let’s rest a little bit on that other ledge first before continuing further,” Silvia suggested.

“I’m fine with that.” Asterios chuckled.

It was obvious he was the only one needing a break.