“The fire didn’t even smoke the crystal a little bit. It’s impossible to defeat if it can just reconstruct itself from all the gold in this chamber. No matter how many times we melt it, we will be stuck in a loop. And it can use everything including the actual room to regenerate,” Silvia shared her thoughts as the Golem was finishing taking form.

“If that crystal is even partially as tough as the scale powering the one we fought in the past, then it’s going to be extremely difficult to even scratch it, not to mention destroying it,” Selene added.

“And the worst part is that the floor is now boiling hot, making it even harder for us to move,” Svertaniel joined in.

“Sorry,” Silvia apologized somberly, knowing well that it was purely her fault.

A quiet splosh reached their ears and a wave of frosty air suddenly passed low above the ground, biting everyone in their ankles. They turned their faces towards the source and found Asterios crouching down with his Spellslinger shoved into the melted surface of the golden floor.

Decorated by a deep azure gem, it kept releasing freezing waves in quick succession, pushing cold air accompanied by whitish mist to the very far corners of the chamber. In a flash, the melted gold cooled down and turned solid again, even trapping the Golem’s feet for a brief moment by welding them to the ground. No more shiny droplets rained from the ceiling.

The spell ended and the crystal shot out of the niche with a whizz and a pop, shattering in the air. Asterios raised himself quickly and met everyone’s gaze.

“We are quite limited in fighting space compared to the last time so we better handle this quickly. Let’s go all out. I really hope there are no more trials after this.”

A faint trace of crimson aura began seeping out of Ast’s body as he spoke. Sporadic scales of the same color surfaced on his skin, popping up at a few spots on his neck and other visible areas. His draconic eyes glowed brightly.

Miria shivered a little after watching his transformation. Not out of fear but excitement. Her body was filled with an inspiring and encouraging feeling. Just his presence and leaking spiritual aura made her feel powerful. She wanted to growl, to roar to show her readiness to fight alongside him.

Naturally, Selene wasn’t unaffected by it either. Her own energy resonated with the one Asterios was releasing, additionally enhanced by their bond as Soul Mates. Instead of a primal urge to battle her opponents valiantly, her mind turned calmer and more serene as Ast’s presence filled her with confidence.

Their own spiritual auras exploded too, with Selene’s being more apparent. Miria couldn’t hold back anymore and let out a ferocious roar which shook the air and made everyone else except for the trio—and Umbra, of course—cover their ears as more fur covered her body. At the same time, the immense pressure from Selene’s sixth stage of Awakening made the atmosphere heavy.

~What a peculiar feeling,~ Umbra commented in their linked minds. ~I’ve never felt anything like this. For some reason, I feel more liberated than ever before, like the power of the curse has weakened. Is this the benefit of a True Dragon’s servant?~

~We will have time to discuss it after dealing with our current predicament,~ Selene replied in a calm, controlled tone and with a completely neutral face. ~We will stall the enemy for as long as possible. Please, come up with a plan to take it down, my Lord.~

Asterios nodded and the six-tailed fox lady disappeared in a light blue flash, followed by a loud boom somewhere behind everyone’s backs which caused a small earthquake.

Miria suddenly crossed the distance separating her and Asterios in a blink and pushed her lips into his. She pursued his tongue fiercely for a second and pulled back with a feral grin. Her posture blurred and she was gone too, even without the activation of the Haste rune which still remained on her skin.

The rest of the party followed with their gazes after the sounds of battle and saw the beastfolk duo assaulting the immobile Golem from many angles, working together in perfect sync. Miria danced around their opponent with minimal movements as if she could predict its attacks with pinpoint accuracy and timing while Selene casually swatted the Golem’s sword and arm away with an almost expressionless face, causing small explosions of air each time their limbs collided.

Nevertheless, they still weren’t doing any serious damage to the puppet of solid, clearly reinforced gold. Just as the fox lady had said, they were playing for time and Asterios quickly stepped closer to the group standing at the only partially unscathed spot on the floor, saved by Bryn’s and Selene’s barriers.

“We will need some serious firepower if we want to get rid of that crystal, but more controlled and precise. Anything more from Selene and we risk bringing all the sand and earth on our heads.”

Just as he finished speaking, a powerful tremor almost knocked them down, followed by another, accompanied by a metallic gong. Selene’s empowered strike pried the Golem off the ground, ripping its welded feet from its ankles and sending the golden guardian crashing into the opposite, deformed wall, encasing it in the dented metal.

Everyone understood what Asterios had meant with just this accidental show that supported his words. Selene could clearly go much further but had to be mindful of her strength. For now, both girls toyed with the Golem as much as they wanted, but in a battle of attrition, it would be the winner in the end.

“I’m afraid that I won’t be useful here, Master. I’m sorry,” Bryn apologized with a respectful nod.

“You are our support and that’s already plenty. Keep everyone healthy, that’s all you need to do. And protect Radir if you are able to,” Asterios replied, glancing at Silvia and Svertaniel next.

“I can try to weaken the magic enhancing the gold, and possibly the crystal itself, but I need a lot of preparation,” the demon man informed him.

“How much?”

“I need to place many formations around this room. It’s more like a ritual rather than a spell. I can explain the details later. It will be difficult to reach all the spots with the fight going on as I will be extremely vulnerable,” Svertaniel explained with a serious expression.

“Umbra.”

The shadowy familiar materialized from the ground after Ast’s call, this time in the form of a tall, ominous pillar of seeping darkness with two glowing purple spots serving as the representation of his eyes. A crimson symbol of Ast’s Summoner’s Brand pulsed slowly between them.

Without needing any more specific verbal orders, Umbra’s shape expanded and swallowed Svertaniel as a whole, surprising the Void Mage greatly. Just a moment later, the black shadow thinned out and revealed the demon man again, who instantly checked his body with his hands to search for any changes.

He was the only one who couldn’t see the sinister patterns over the skin of his face and neck, running down under his clothes.

“I don’t feel like anything is different,” Svertaniel commented.

Asterios brought out a simple knife from his storage ring and threw it straight at him. Svertaniel gasped at the incoming projectile but reacted too late to block it. The sharp tip reached his chest and… went through it with a quiet rustle.

“What?” He raised his brows in confusion, checking out the place of supposed impact.

A deep chuckle resounded in everyone’s minds.

~It’s been a long time since I used this much of my power. Don’t be surprised by such an insignificant thing, mortal. You should better focus on your task and leave everything else to me.~

Not even a second later, Svertaniel disappeared from their sight in a puff of dark smoke, showing up in one of the irregular corners of the golden chamber, which had all been turned into their current state by Silvia’s earlier inferno.

Radir, Bryn, and the fiery princess winced a little when they saw the Golem’s sword heading straight towards the demon man after missing both Selene and Miria. But, the golden weapon passed through Svertaniel like through smoke, dispersing his body only for a brief moment.

They realized that he was invulnerable in his current state and he didn’t take long to understand that too, getting right into the necessary preparations. Violet light flashed regularly from his position as Svertaniel began weaving various creepy symbols into the environment.

“Can you do anything to the core?” Asterios asked and Radir quickly noticed that the question was aimed at him.

“Sealing Magic is pretty much my only weapon and defense, which doesn’t mean much considering its usual use and how inflexible in battle it can be, requiring even worse preparation than some rituals,” the red-skinned man answered, fixing his spectacles. “But, after you separate the gem from the body again and your friend weakens it, I could try to cut it off from the inexhaustible amounts of gold present around us.”

“That’s more than enough. Please, be ready to seal it at any moment you see fit.” Asterios nodded at him. “Now, we just need to melt it again.”

Seeing his gaze on her, Silvia shook her head a little hesitantly. “I don’t think I can achieve the same level of heat as before. I’m not completely spent, but my repertoire is now partially limited.”

“We will have to work together, then.”

She raised a brow at Asterios, a little curious. “How?”

“I apologize but I will need you to strip off the upper armor and clothing. I wouldn’t ask for this if it wasn’t completely necessary.”

Silvia glanced at the ongoing fight by their side, taking a note of how Miria and Selene gave their best to keep the Golem’s attention on themselves, giving Asterios and the rest of them enough time and leeway to come up with a plan.

She wasn’t too bothered by Ast’s request, albeit not completely devoid of the faint trace of embarrassment accompanying such action. Knowing well that they should take any chances they could and trusting in Asterios’ plan, she raised her hand to activate her spatial storage ring.

“Underwear is fine,” Asterios added before she shoved everything inside, making her smile softly at him.

With a weak flash, Silvia’s reinforced coat and vest underneath it disappeared together, revealing her torso to the world, with just a dark orange bra left behind, hiding her slightly more than modest breasts.

Asterios wasted no time and hastily stepped closer to the princess, taking out a small glass jar from one of the pouches hanging at his belt. He opened it while walking and stopped behind Silvia, unplugging the container and taking some of the paint-like substance on his fingers.

“It will be a little cold at first,” he warned and began quickly drawing complex formations just like with Tina in the past while enhancing his mind, eyes, and body with scorching hot mana to quicken his movements.

Silvia could tell that the marks he was leaving on her entire back were quite advanced. She tried to match them with what she knew by imagining the symbols and lines in her mind while following Ast’s fingers grazing her skin but it was too difficult and she got nothing from it.

Bryn observed as everyone did their part and worked together to reach the common goal of defeating the tough opponent. Since she was tasked only with Radir’s protection, she had the opportunity to take a look at each person, making sure no one needed her help.

The number of things going on in the spacious, golden chamber was baffling. Miria and Selene actively fought the Golem right on the front lines, often luring it around to reposition it further from Svertaniel, who seemed to be in a trance while creating evil-looking arrays over the whole room.

Whatever occasional attack or debris reached the demon man, passed right through him thanks to Umbra somehow turning him ethereal, working in tandem with Svertaniel.

And finally, there was Asterios who covered Silvia in paths made from dark blue paint at an impressively quick pace. Compared to Tina’s, the patterns wiggled and turned much more and in a noticeably larger number.

After what to him felt like long hours of intense focus and was just a few quick seconds for both Bryn and Silvia, Asterios wrapped up his work and ended up behind the princess again.

“It looks like Svertaniel is almost done too and Radir is on standby. Do you think you can use something more focused, without melting the whole chamber and us alongside it?”

“I wanted to say that I could try but in the current circumstances, there’s no try, only do. I’ll make sure not to hurt your partners,” Silvia answered confidently. “How do these help, though?” she asked, examining the patterns on her skin.

“Like this.”

Asterios pressed his palms into her back and all the lines and symbols lit up in light blue, kind of similar to how Selene’s external circuits got illuminated when she used them. In a moment, they started changing and soon switched into crimson red, glowing even fiercer.

Silvia gasped and shivered a little. Warm energy began flowing into her body, spreading itself all around her spiritual circuits, accumulating around her spiritual core. The moment it got in contact with her own mana, the two energies mixed together and became even hotter, filling her with a comfortable blaze on the inside.

She felt something similar whenever her father had taught her how to properly control her spiritual energy and a few times during training with him, but the searing sensation had never burned this intensely, filling her with incomprehensible power.

It was like Ast’s scorching hot mana served as fuel for her own fire-based spiritual energy, fanning the flames of the forge which was her spiritual source. That reaction was much more powerful than anything before as she felt seemingly infinite access to this extremely beneficial fuel.

Silvia tried her best to focus her mind instead of letting it wander around, lost in the thoughts and questions about the unexpected conjunction. She embraced the pleasant inferno burning her from the inside which accumulated like steam under the lid of a pot, soon going to gather enough to force its own escape out into the open.

With such robust energy just begging to be released, she picked one of the finer spells and began casting, taking one more glance over everyone else to make sure that they were ready. It was a bit harder to do while remaining stationary but she completed all the movements perfectly, creating a much smaller magical circle in front of her than usual.

Finishing the shimmering array of orange color hanging in the air at the height of her shoulders, she shoved the tip of her flaming staff into the middle of it just the moment Miria and Selene brought the Golem exactly where she needed it to guarantee the hit and Svertaniel activated his technique.

A Violet hue filled the chamber as all the runes covering its walls and other surfaces lit up all at once. Unusual streaks resembling purple lightning showed up on the metal making up the golden puppet, originating from the crystal in its forehead.

Just like before, the Golem sensed an upcoming attack from Silvia’s position, judging it much more dangerous than the attempts of the two beastfolk girls. It instantly tried shifting its position to avoid getting hit, but it was too late. Miria and Selene grabbed its arms and held it down.

A thin ray of orange light shot from the center of the formation and hit the golden puppet in one of the wings, missing the targets almost completely. It did melt the metal in an instant, cutting off a big chunk of the wing and the Golem’s shoulder, but Silvia hadn’t expected it to have such a strong kick on launch. It never had.

That was when she realized something was wrong. The shimmering orange circle she had made suddenly showed signs of crimson tongues, turning it into a mix of both colors. The array crackled and glowed brightly.

Silvia’s eyes widened to the brim.

“Get back!” she shouted at the girls holding down their opponent.

Miria and Selene disappeared from its sides and showed up behind her and Asterios just the moment the magical formation suddenly expanded, launching more patterns from itself in the forms of increasingly more rings of symbols coming from an unusual script.

The flaming beam which earlier resembled a small ray of sunlight from either sunset or sunrise turned into a thick pillar of solid light in a millisecond. Assuming a bi-color structure of their joined energies, it released a piercing hum as it covered the Golem’s entire figure.

Compared to the previous pillar of fire which surged vertically from the ground and was clearly made of swirling flames, this one felt like solid light with so much intensity it melted anything on its path like sugar.

The huge beam of death stopped after a few seconds and revealed not only the complete lack of the Golem and the gold which made its body—which most likely had been completely evaporated—but also a deep hole in the wall on the opposite side, running far, far into the distance, piercing through a few other, definitely reinforced chambers.

“Good gods, the destruction…” Silvia commented. “I don’t think the weakening curse was even necessary at this point…”

The spell was incomparable to anything she had cast in the past and how this particular technique should be. She was sure Ast’s influence played a huge role in what happened.

Even so, they all noticed a glint of the almost indestructible crystal lying on the floor. Radir made his move and clasped his hands together as if he was catching a fly. Multiple long sentences in a language none of them besides him understood appeared in the air and began flying through it like snakes with the ability to traverse the sky.

One by one, they wrapped themselves around the crystal, which gradually lost its scarlet glow with each concurrent layer. After a bunch of straps covered it, the gem trembled and fell to the floor. Radir hastily ran to it and started the follow-up sealing operation while everyone else sighed in relief.

“That was quite something,” Bryn said, turning towards the giant, regular, smoking hole made by Silvia’s beam. “Disintegration rays can’t even hold a candle to this.”

“What happened, though?” Miria tilted her head, still in the slightly more feral form.

“I don’t know. I think our energies… mixed? I’ve never seen any of my spells react in such a way before. This level of power is just incomprehensible… This can’t even be called a hole. It’s a clean-shaped tunnel with an ending we can barely see. Melting this much gold, stone, and earth combined with just a single flash of flaming light should be impossible,” Silvia replied.

“Looks like the two of you might really possess extremely compatible bloodlines,” Selene commented with the same controlled and calculative tone.

“Yeah,” Silvia responded, glancing at Asterios with the faintest trace of awe in her amber eyes.