There it was, right in front of her eyes. And it was coming from a cocoon-like entity in front of her.

Aurora wanted to take her eyes off the cocoon but there was something attractive about this entity that made it impossible for Aurora to look away from it.

She wanted to reach out and touch this cocoon but Rita’s voice was what held her back. There was fear in Rita’s voice as she hung back and observed the entity.

“Maybe it is not a good idea for us to mess with this thing. There is too much energy coming off this cacoon and the feeling of an Abyss is reeking from this place. It is making me a little uncomfortable, to be honest.”

Rita had never been uncomfortable with the presence of the abyss so this was a first for her. This put even Aurora at a loss of what to do.

She wanted to help Rita out but the need to know more about the origin of the cocoon was overwhelming to the point that Aurora was sure she was under compulsion.

Every time she neared the cocoon, the heat in her body dimmed down as well and pleasure coursed through her body.

This cocoon was her calling and Aurora needed to check it out at any cost.

“Rita, take a few steps back and turn around if you feel uncomfortable. I am sure everything will be over soon.”

Aurora asked as she walked near the cocoon. She had yet to touch it but her fingers were lingering dangerously close to it.

It took a single step for her to push the soft threads of the cocoon apart and stare at the empty but small face in front of her.

Blue hair and pale skin were what greeted Aurora and she wanted to be surprised to see her face stare back at her. But even that feeling of surprise came to her muted. The abyss was making her emotions duller.

Magic was interacting with her body all over, caressing her in places it should not be Aurora was feeling the tingles all over herself.

“What are you going to do about it? This kid looks just like you. Is it your secret daughter I knew nothing about?”

Rita tried to tease but even that fell flat in the tense atmosphere. Aurora could tell that Rita was trying her best but this was just not the mood for that kind of thing.

“This is not my kid but I have no problem taking her as one if she waked up right now. Hey, help me drag her out of the cocoon.”

“W-What? We are extracting that thing out? How about we don’t do that and leave things as they are? Hey Aurora-“

But Aurora had made up her mind and her hands were already working to separate the threads around the kid.

Seeing her work this hard, Rita had no choice but to join her with a reluctant sigh and her hands tore the cocoon apart.

And just when it felt like they had done enough, it happened. The self-healing of the cocoon kicked in and it managed to repair itself in record time.

That thought of wasting effort on such a thing annoyed Rita but Aurora was far from done. She dragged her hand and formed a dagger out of her powers.

The threads that were connecting again were cut-off again but Aurora and Rita just sat back this time to see how Aurora handled this.

After all, she was becoming more of a hindrance than a help, which was not good for Rita. Aurora managed to drag the kid’s body out finally but she was exhausted and panting.

The kid shined for a few seconds before her eyes opened into the golden slits the same shade as Aurora.

She gave out a yawn before her body shined a bright silver and an egg stood in the child’s place.

“Wow, so that happened. What else do you want to do Aurora?”

Rita turned toward the other female who was cradling the egg but her face was unnaturally flushed and her body was radiating unnatural amounts of heat.

Aurora’s panting face and flushed cheeks were doing things to Rita that they should not and she had to hold her moan back at the erotic picture it made.

“Aurora?”

Rita asked again, just to confirm if she was on the same wavelength as the other and she got a glare for her efforts.

“Stop looking at me like that and help me out. This thing is not going to correct by itself. I need to ** and get it out of my system.”

That was all the permission Rita needed to jump Aurora and she smashed her lips against the older female.

___________________________

The shadow puppet had not been easy to deal with. It had been exhausting both physically and mentally but Karan had managed to get rid of it somehow.

His experience with annoying magic came in clutch and he managed to erode the puppet before it could open its annoying mouth.

Karan had never used his magic this much before but it just highlighted how dire the situation was.

Well that, and he had gotten incredibly lucky when the canon from the tower’s attack had managed to hit his opponent and had taken it off-guard.

That had freed Karan to do what he wanted to and he had sprinted toward his destination.

Karan ran faster through the hallway, his feet not losing their balance despite the shaking of the floor. The tower was becoming more and more viscous in their attack and Karan had a feeling that they would soon deploy the big guns.

Not that it mattered much when it came to the gods. Any one of the Southern elites could handle whatever the tower threw at them and there lay the problem.

The tower only had Minerva right now for helping them out. Two out of their three gods were missing and that put the tower at a massive disadvantage.

What Karan needed to do was to do the asshole thing and use this missing situation to his advantage to get the tower under his control.

Minerva might not care about what the tower did but Karan had poured his blood and sweat into it even when he did not need to do that. And somewhere along the way, he had gotten attached.

‘Not to mention that it would help Aurora and Rex in the long run as well if the tower stopped messing with them.’

This was also a big reason that made Karan start moving.

He quickly reached the top of the palace and took in the ship that the tower had sent. It was advanced and had a lot of stored magic in it.

It might even be felt from here and it was Minerva’s magic that was operating that thing. And it was not gentle most of the time.

It would tear anyone apart if it managed to hit someone. And it would be indiscriminate in its destruction as well.

Karan did not want to say this but Minerva was someone who liked to retain ‘balance’. When all the others favored using favored strengthened elements to their advantage, Minerva favored them all equally.

That made her both easy and annoying to deal with. And dealing with Minerva’s mood could be tricky. She had been the cause of more than a few incidents as well.

‘Anyway, time to head into the shop to see who is commanding it. If nothing else, threatening the one in charge is always viable.”

Karan took in a deep breath before he shot out like a beam toward the ship. He knew from instincts where to and how to get in quickly.

The lack of surveillance meant that his presence had been noted and he was deemed to be safe to take in. Karan did not hesitate to make use of this opportunity to knock everyone down and connected with the ship’s magic.

But he was rejected, much to his shock. There was only one person who had a higher degree of control than him over this ship and he could not believe that Minerva had managed to drag herself out as well.

“So you came back? Right in time to see me crush these southern bugs. They have annoyed me enough until now.”

It was Minerva and for the first time in his life, Karan could say that she sounded annoyed. The canons charged at her orders and they fired at the root of the building.

That snapped Karan out of the daze he was in and he instantly wrested Minerva’s magic for control to change the aim of the canons.

He did not fully succeed but even a little control was enough to force those canons away from the root of the building.

“What do you think you are doing hindering me?” Minerva’s voice was full of annoyance and Karan let out a startled laugh.

“Ahhh, so first thing first, can you not shoot the roots of the palace? Some important people are in there,”

Minerva glared at him but she finally changed her aim without asking much.