Lith felt Solus's pain like she felt his own. Their lives were like two crooked towers, but as long they could lean onto each other, they would stand forever.
Lith held the wisp tight against his chest, shocked by the amount of suffering she had gone through in so little time. The raw strength of the emotions he was experiencing made Lith completely lower his guard.
It was only the second time that he had allowed it to happen, the first being when he was ready to die at the Scorpicore's hand as long he and Solus fought side by side. Neither of them noticed the wisp going through Lith's chest despite having achieved a physical form.
Once their minds and bodies were fused, the same happened to their mana cores. They pulsed in unison, beating at the same rhythm while tendrils of energy connected them. The two mana cores revolved around each other like twin stars.
The resonance between them made Lith's core turn bright cyan, on the verge of turning blue, while Solus's bright yellow core turned into a bright green one simply by absorbing the excess energy that Lith's body usually dispersed not being able to handle it.
The tower was shaken to its foundations, rumbling noises forced them to snap out of their trance. Lith noticed that everything was different, even though he had no idea why. The walls looked sturdier, the space around him larger.
Lith could perceive the mana flow passing through the magical artifact like he could hear his own heartbeat.
The debris leading to the first floor had disappeared, just like Solus.
"What the heck? Solus, where are you?"
"Right here." Lith heard Solus's voice coming out of his own mouth.
"I'm inside you!"
"That's a gross way to put it. Are you listening to yourself?" Lith made a retching sound.
"That came out wrong. Sorry." She giggled.
"Do you have any idea about what happened?"
"None." Lith replied noticing that his left hand was moving by itself, touching his own face.
"So, this is how having a body feels. It's amazing." Half of Lith's face was shocked, the other had a delighted and quite feminine expression.
"Wait, you can move my body at will?"
"It seems so." She shrugged. "Want to go check the first floor? I'm curious."
"Curious? Aren't you supposed to know what's what as soon as your body repairs?" The situation was becoming odder by the second.
"Normally yes, but nothing is normal now. I think that us merging is an anomaly of sorts, temporarily boosting my strength. I have no clue about what's upstairs like I don't know how we fused."
"I hope you are right about our condition being only momentary. It would be creepy in the long term." Lith shuddered.
"No need to be shy. I've seen you naked plenty of times." She mocked him.
"I know and I'm fine with it. Yet this gives a new whole meaning to the words 'touching oneself'."
Solus laughed heartily, before realizing the full meaning of his words and blush from the embarrassment.
"I would never do that!"
"I believe in your good will, but you don't remember how having a body feels."
To prove his point, Lith took out a cream puff out of the dimensional pocket. It was still fresh as when he took it from the academy's canteen.
"Stop after one bite."
Solus sniffed the pastry, its sweet smell was intoxicating.
She took a bite and then another, until there was nothing left.
"Sorry, but it was too good. We ate them in the past, but sharing your senses is like the trial version of the real deal." She said apologetically.
Lith sighed, climbing the stairs leading to the first floor.
Chapter 254 First Floor part 1
While climbing the stairs, Lith didn't know what to think of his current situation. Since he and Solus had fused, most of his usual rage and resentment seemed to have taken a rain check.
Solus could perceive his happiness for being reunited with her, which made her even happier. Because of the mind fusion, their feelings reinforced one another in a loop.
Not knowing when it would end, Lith fed Solus all of his favorite foods, letting her experience them first hand. The care and the attention she received plus all those new tastes sent her on cloud nine.
"By my maker! Everything is so good! Are you sure I can eat so much? You had lunch barely an hour ago." She said worried for Lith's stomach.
"Don't worry, it's nothing we can't cure. We should enjoy this 'pink colored glasses' moment until it lasts."
The first floor was quite peculiar. The furniture was comprised of a few empty bookshelves, lots of mirrors, each one of different shapes and sizes, and a globe. It was similar to the one he had back on Earth, but this one represented Mogar and it was huge, with a radius of over half a meter (2').
Unlike his childhood nightstand lamp, it didn't show the whole world. Only the areas where Lith had been and the places he had visited were depicted.
He focused on the map of the region that was stored inside Soluspedia, recalling the names of cities and rivers, but the globe remained blank.
"So it's not a matter of knowledge." His voice was muffled by all the food Solus was stuffing herself with.
"It only matters where we have been. I wonder why. Any idea, Solus?"
"None. Hey, there's even the academy. Both of them actually. Even the Lightning Griffon academy is marked." The moment she made Lith's finger touch the academy, the globe's surface zoomed in, projecting a 3D hologram, precise down to the last detail.
The hologram was colored in shades of red, giving them a mild headache whenever they focused on a specific room they had visited during their short trip before Headmistress Linnea rejected Lith's application.
Lith then touched the White Griffon, getting the same result.
"I'm feeling a pattern here." Lith pondered. "Let's try the mining town."
The headache persisted. The holograms representing the known areas nearby the academy were all as red as detailed.
"Okay, now let's give the Trawn woods a shot." Lith had never been outside the White Griffon's forest, since thanks to the Marchioness he had access to the Mage Association's Warp Steps that brought him directly inside the academy.
He could have chosen the Lightning Griffon's outskirts, from where he departed along Count Lark, but he clearly remembered how tightly patrolled was the area. So, he picked a closer and much more harmless location.
This time the hologram was blue and the headache was gone. Lith focused on the clearing in the woods where he used to train in the past. When he zoomed to a specific location, the hologram disappeared and Lith felt his attention drawn to the biggest mirror in the room.
It had a silver circular frame and it was so big to occupy most of the west wall. The surface of the mirror rippled and the image of the room it had reflected until a moment ago was replaced by the clearing's spot Lith had been looking for.
"Could this be¡?" Lith pressed his hand against the image, but nothing happened. He could feel the cold glass surface under his fingers.
"Maybe we should send mana into it." Solus snapped Lith's fingers, channeling the energy from the mana geyser through the tower and into the mirror. The mana quickly rotated along the frame's edges, making it emits an orange glow.
The glass then turned into a silvery liquid that was drained by the frame, yet the image in front of Lith's eyes didn't change. He was now able to hear the familiar noises of the woods' wildlife, to feel the chilly breeze blow on his face.
"A personal long distance Warp Steps!" Lith was amazed as much as confused.
He tried several locations he knew, even some very close to Derios, the capital of the Marquisate. They were hundreds of kilometers afar, yet they managed to open them effortlessly, without using a drop of their own mana.
"There are only two problems." Solus pointed out.
"One, we can only pick deserted places. If someone looks through the Warp Steps, they could see inside the tower and t
hat would get us into trouble. Two, how the heck do we come back? If the tower stays here, either we split or this thing is useless."
Lith nodded, letting his arm across the dimensional Gate. An unpleasant sensation spread through his body. Both Lith and Solus felt their minds drifting apart, their connection became weaker and weaker, until he pulled his arm back into the tower.
"Guess our condition really is temporary. Probably we'll revert back to normal as soon as we get outside the tower."
They were still recovering from the surprise when the walls shook violently, cracking in multiple spots. The tremors were strong enough to make Lith almost lose his balance.
"What the heck was that?"
"Well, this room shouldn't exist in the first place." Solus ate a chocolate sprinkled biscuit.
"If for any reason our fusion gets broken, it's likely everything will collapse on our heads. See?" She pointed at the cracks that were disappearing as quickly as they had formed.
"Okay, so the globe represents all the places we can Warp to. The headache probably means that a place is unavailable, at least at our current level. I prefer not to try forcing our way through the academies' arrays.
"Not only do we risk getting detected, but we could also spend so much mana to get split. Let's check the rest of the stuff first."
"Yeah, too bad we don't get to understand how we are supposed to return here."
The second biggest mirror in the room had a gold rectangular frame. It reflected an image that left them both flabbergasted.
Lith had now a second pair of eyes, right above his eyebrows, and was shrouded in a golden aura.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.
"My aura has always been black and red. I suppose it's yours, then." Lith shrugged.
Solus winked at their reflection, making both left eyes close.
"Definitely mine. The question is: what the heck is this for." Lith injected the mirror with mana, the edges of which started to emit a blue glow. Instead of spinning, this time the mana seeped into the mirror until it emitted a humming sound.
"Okay, let's try visualizing stuff again." Lith thought about the White Griffon academy, getting a splitting headache in return. Then it was Derios' turn, but the result was the same.
"Lutia, then?" The mirror turned black for a second before showing him the village's square. Lith discovered that he could move his perspective at will, watching and listening like he was actually there in person.
He could move to any place he had been at least once in the past. By looking through a window, he could also enter inside the houses of the villagers. Their talks had no significance to him, so he kept experimenting with the limits of his scrying device.
"This thing sucks!" Lith stamped his foot on the ground.
"I can't even see the whole village. The range's too short."
"For now, at least." Solus tried to console him, but she didn't believe her own words either.
Chapter 255 First Floor Part 2
'Visiting this room is already a sneak peek. Who knows when we'll actually get it? If this is all it can do, then it's pretty terrible.' She thought.
"Agreed." Lith replied.
"Mind fusion, remember?" He added in response to her surprise.
Solus felt stupid for a second, then she had a crazy idea that made Lith's skin crawl. He focused on a small pebble in the middle of the street, using spirit magic to move it. Lith could perceive the tendrils of his mana moving through the air, wrapping around the stone.
Moving it was as hard as it was an elephant. Lith tried a series of chore magic spells too before giving up. Fire blackened only a spot the size of a pinhead, water couldn't freeze it even with the weather being already cold and earth magic didn't manage to crack it.
"It's useless. Yes, we can use magic even from this distance, but the effects are negligible. Unless¡"
Lith focused on the area surrounding the tower and the image in the mirror changed accordingly. He could see and hear everything in 25 meters (82 feet) radius, like every single stone that composed Solus's body was his eyes and ears.
He could even use Life Vision and Solus's mana sense at will, allowing him to spot all the animals and magical beasts in the vicinity. When he used chore water magic on a dried up tree, it had the same effect of a tier one spell.
"I stand corrected. It doesn't suck at all. I can use it not only to scout everything within its area of effect, but I can also cast spells while being empowered by the tower and the mana geyser. This is a tremendous improvement to our defensive capabilities." Lith was overjoyed by the discovery.
"I wonder which one of these mirrors controls the arrays." Solus pondered.
"What arrays?"
"I am bound to have several arrays at my disposal, both for protection and attack. Remember what Jirni said? If every noble household has wards to protect against Warp Steps, I don't think my maker was so dumb to overlook the dangers of dimensional magic."
Lith was about to move towards a mirror with a square frame, when his vision cracked, as if he was watching through a kaleidoscope. The room seemed to be spinning around, disorienting him and making Lith lose his balance.
"What the heck is happening?" Suddenly the world wasn't so pink anymore. He didn't feel happy or relaxed, just angry.
"I guess our time has ran out." Solus calmly bit one last pastry while the tower rumbled ominously. The tremors increased while the room was shrinking in size. Countless cracks appeared on the walls.
Like living snakes they spread up to the ceiling, making dust and debris fall on their head.
Lith's mind was too messed up to use dimensional magic for escaping. He couldn't see or focus properly with Solus's mind getting in and out of his own like it was a revolving door.
He could only stumble towards the stairs, but everything happened too fast even for his enhanced body. Huge sections of the ceiling came crashing down, forcing Lith to roll forward to avoid being squashed to death.
A giant piece of stone fell on the stairs, blocking his way.
"F*ck me sideways!" He yelled while the whole room came down.
The rubble weighted more than a ton, but instead of turning him into toothpaste, it simply pushed him down through the floor. The rock beneath his feet became immaterial for a second, letting him fall down to the ground level unharmed.
He hadn't the time to use any spell, yet he was slowly descending through the air as he weighed nothing more than a leaf.
"Why so scared, dummy?" Solus chuckled.
"The tower is my body and so is every single piece of stone and furniture. I would never allow any harm to befall my beloved host." She smiled.
"Holy sh*t! You are smiling!" Lith pointed his finger to the figure that was floating in mid air a few centimetres from him.
It was a humanoid female, entirely made of golden light. It had no facial features, aside from her shining eyes, a smiling mouth and a cascade of golden hair enveloping her whole body that floated in the air like she was moving underwater.
"What do you mean?" Her mouth disappeared. Solus had barely the time to look down on her own hands when her body imploded on itself returning to be a wisp made of light.
"F*ck!" Solus angrily swore.
"Can I see how did I look like through your memories?"
"I don't think it's a good idea." Lith shook his head.
"Pretty please with a cherry on top?" She begged while circling around him.
"Solus, it's for your own good. You wouldn't like what you see."
"Please, I need to know!" She rammed into Lith's head to emphasize her point.
"We just reconciled, I don't want you to get angry or sad."
"I won't, I promise."
"Remember your words, because I will." Lith let his memories flow into their mind link.
He had been true to his word, Solus didn't like it.
"What's this? C cup, maybe more. F*ck the light?
Solus is a shorty, barely 1.54 (5'1") high? Nice legs, sadly ass N/A? Her belly looks kind of flabby?" The images had more footnotes than a director's cut.
"Did you check me out in less than five seconds?" Lith couldn't share a memory without everything that came attached to it.
"Yes. I told you it would make you angry. Or sad. Or both."
"That's why you made me promise!"
"Guilty as charged." Lith nodded with a smirk.
"I'm the one stuck in a pubescent body for at least another few years and as I told you before, you have no idea how it feels. I already have to keep everything I do and say in check. I have no control over my thoughts."
Solus accepted his explanation, but was quite pissed off anyway.
'All this time wondering how I'd look like in a human body and when I finally get to see it, my precious memory is ruined by those sh*tty remarks. Couldn't he just be stunned by my beauty?'Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.
"So, how do you plan on curing Elina?"
"It's going to be tricky." Lith sighed, remembering the second reason he had decided to solve his conflict with Solus. He needed her help.
"This isn't just anybody, it's my mother we are talking about. I'm not going to take any risks, I can't afford using Invigoration during the procedure. I need my full focus and for you to constantly monitor her vitals. Just like we did to remove the undead's poisoning, if I slip up, you must prevent things from escalating."
"Don't worry, we can do it. We'll get Elina pregnant in a jiffy!" She declared proudly, making Lith emit a retching sound.
"Gross!"
"Oh, come on! You know what I mean. We just need to get inside her and do our job."
"Please, stop!" Lith begged her. "This is even worse."
"Fine, I'll shut up." She mind pouted.
'I don't know if the prolonged isolation made me socially awkward or it's just that fusing myself with Lith infected me with his dirty mind.'
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