Seeing those two giggling at the fact that their reaction was quite similar, brought a smile to Aster's face, still the time they could spend in this planet was limited to he though against all his wishes, as he enjoyed seeing the usually grumpy ligress girl smiling, he had to interrupt them.
After all, this planet should be reserved for Core Elders, for the sole reason that operating the formations was quite pricey, which is normal, a formation that can take the ligress girl by surprise can be anything but average.
Just like the castle that was given to him along the Twin Sword Valley, all the formations in this planet were personally engraved by two of the Ancestors of the sect, in other words his dear godmothers were the ones that created this training place for elders.
As to why he didn't bring Eris here instead of Mira and Aria, only now he got access to this planet, thanks to Agnes pulling on some tricks and more accurately thanks to William, since he'll be taking all the blame according to the Fey princess, not to mention she and Mylene were more interested in the plan to develop the valley which Aster proposed to them.
"Ahem, I hate to interrupt the moment ladies, but if we don't start moving, another meteor will come down", he said.
Aria and Mira nodded, the ligress girl hid her cute ears and tail regaining her neutral appearance, showing her spirit beast's ascendence wasn't that much of a problem, since there are body constitutions and lineages within the four galaxies that grant feline-like characteristics, so in case someone questioned them Mira could just say that she had one of them.
Just like how Aster tricked others to make Camilla's lineage less "unique", after all there is a huge difference between the greed caused by a treasure which existence is limited to one, and one that has at least two known cases.
But in Mira's case, just like any of the girls who have a lineage or constitution, manifesting its characteristics consumes stamina as it comes with a boosting effect, in Mira's case that allows her to change her solid ice to the one from her spirit element's ascendence, as to what that meant she hadn't explained it to Aster, but just like Esmeralda's green wind which Kana can command now, there is a limit as to how much she can use.
That's in part why Aster wanted Mira to come with them, as the head of his household it is his duty to lead his family and for that he has to know the capacities and limits of the girls, well, it is also true that he enjoys these dates though.
'I could keep them out and not use wild ice but…', thought Mira as she remembered Aster's pleased reaction when he accidentally caressed her fluffy ears, which made her slightly blush.action
'Humph, unlike that little wyrm I'm not your contracted spirit beast and yet!', inwardly yelled the ligress girl, to then sharply gaze at Aster who playfully smiled to then say.
"Dragonkin might be lascivious but it seems that cat girls are quite temperamental", not waiting for Mira to react, Aster jumped creating an ice platform the moment he started descending to then move through the air towards the north.
"C-Cat girl, I'm a ligress!", shouted Mira, even the little girl Kana called her "Tiger sister" not cat girl, the strange thing is that while she would have definitely taken it as an insult to her noble ascendence if it came from someone else, she couldn't really get angry at Aster, since she could feel no malice in his words.
"Don't take it to heart, Aster really enjoys spending time with us like this~", happily said Aria to Mira.
"Humph, he is just a pervert", mumbled the Ligress girl before the two of them became flashes of blue light that shot towards Aster's direction.
Aria who was using her Rigel's flames to freeze the path ahead of him, to then slide on it, couldn't help but have her attention drawn at Mira's technique, she has seen her use it even when she was encased in that giant ice liger which she created to defend herself.
"You already know about what exists above mortal planes right?", said Mira as she glanced at Aria from the side.
"Mm, places like the one from where Eris and Mylene came, Aster managed to somewhat explain us without putting us in danger", answered Aria, not all the girls have been present when Aster visited places where the Heavenly Law is laxer like Esmeralda's secret realm, so they couldn't listen about Divine Firmaments and similar stuff firsthand.
However, Aster, Eris and Mylene had explained using technicisms and other methods to them, a little trick that Mylene and Eris knew about, as long as certain information is kept hidden, like cultivation realms for example, the Heavenly Law won't consider it them breaking the rules, so everyone in the family is aware of the existence of a place above the Heavenly Quadrants where powerful beings live.
"Yes, if I were to sign a contract with you, your existence and mine would be considered one and the same to a certain extent, so you'll be able to know what I know without this mortal plane's law interfering".
"However, in the meantime I can tell you a few things, after all I'm now in the mortal realm, so even if the techniques and abilities I know surpass what this mortal plane would tolerate, I'm not as experienced in the diluted versions I have to use due to my current situation and you seem to be apt for them too so… I wouldn't mind to share so I can have a sparring partner when needed", she said.
Aria saw the ligress girl's slightly embarrassed face and she smiled in response, basically Mira was offering to teach her using the excuse of she needing experience, well it wasn't a lie, Eris and Mylene were in a similar situation, they had to use degraded versions of the techniques they were used to.
But that wasn't as bad as they thought it would be, thanks to Aster they could eliminate the "flaws" that their lack of knowledge, recklessness and mistakes created in their foundation, in other words they gained more potential to exploit than what they had when they were in the mortal realm back at their respective Divine Firmaments.
"Sure, those clouds seem to have a high maneuvering potential, they would help me even things against monsters like Aster or Alice who can basically brute force their way into the sky by jumping", said Aria.
Mira nodded, she made a few gests with her fingers and then shot a couple of blue lines of light that landed on Aria's legs.
"This is the mortal realm version of my father's family movement technique, "Snowcloud Step", just like how clouds float in the sky despite them being essentially formed by water, this technique allows even those with giant physical bodies to be as light as a cloud, for now you can use those ones, try to feel their composition so you can learn to do them yourself", she said.
Aria's eyes sparkled in response, her constitution made it so whatever changes happened to her body, only the positive effects will remain, for example, thanks to Aster's training program, she has gained physical strength but her muscle mass, body shape, weight and other aspects didn't change at all, that is an aspect of her body constitution which Aria has yet to explore.
Not only because there are no records of a body constitution like hers, since the one Lilia knows about doesn't have such abilities, but because for her to develop her constitution she has to train her physical body, despite her constitution actually being energy and soul oriented, which is quite a strange thing.
However, taking into account the fact that she is a Star Maiden, that change could be related to Rigel or maybe it's an effect of the evolution trait of Aldebaran which every one of the girls can enjoy thanks to the twins, Aria has been influenced as a Star Maiden by Aster for as much time as Alice after all, those two are only second to Lilia in that aspect, who has shown the biggest change of all, having become the first cultivator in the four Heavenly Quadrants to ever reach the peak of the Transcending realm in a secondary path.
Mira who was smiling at Aria's interest on the ice spirit energy clouds taking form below her feet, suddenly froze at the sight of the outer layer of those clouds dissolving into light blue particles that were then absorbed by Aria's legs, more accurately by her cyan jade-colored bones.
But that wasn't all, the next second, Aria's feet were still on top of the blue fog that was left behind when the clouds were dissolved, exploded in blue flames and her body started floating until she reached the same height at which Mira was floating.
"Y-Your legs, are you okay…", Mira who became altered all of a sudden, approached Aria in a hurry but her worries disappeared as fast as they appeared and then what replaced them was confusion.
"What was that, wasn't your constitution's ability to create those flames to then share them with him through… "cultivation", how did you disassemble a part of my ice?", mumbled the ligress girl.
Aria's face slightly reddened at Mira's words, she apparently thought that Rigel's flames were created by her body constitution and that she was sharing them with Aster through dual cultivation.
Under normal circumstances that would be the case, Mira has seen Aster's blue flames and they aren't something that a man would normally possess, unless he was one of the rare cases of men being born with a really high ranked yin constitution, and she is sure Aster isn't like that, for the simple fact that he is constantly radiating an extremely pure yang just by existing.
Curiously enough, unlike other yang energies which make the ligress girl feel disgusted, a secondary effect of she having been tortured with it during all those years, being exposed to Aster's yang energy doesn't have that effect on her and she previously attributed that to her theory of Aria sharing her yin and ice attribute with him.
"Ahem, no, these flames weren't part of my body constitution originally… also we haven't practiced dual cultivation yet, Aster has his own flames and I have mine, that being said, this never happened before", said Aria as she observed the fiery clouds that were keeping her floating next to Mira.lightsnovel
"I knew that you were compatible with my techniques but this is a bit…", the ligress girl who was lost in her thoughts was brought back to reality upon a familiar figure and voice appearing out of nowhere.
"Of course, when it comes to ice my Aria is second to no one", said Aster who was descending from the sky.
Seeing Aster's mischievous smile, Mira couldn't help but frown to then ask.
"What did you do?", only to see Aster chuckling in response.
"Well, you two ladies were taking a bit too much time, so I decided to speed things up a bit", not even a second after Aster finished speaking, the ground rumbled and the temperature increased by a lot.
lightsΝοvεl ƈοm "Booom!", the solid rock floor cracked in all directions and then bright red magma flowed from below, surrounding Aster and those two.
Aria and Mira who landed next to Aster gazed at him."I might not be too informed in what date regards, but I'm pretty sure that creating a tsunami of magma to drown your companions with, isn't a popular activity", said Mira.
"Mm", Aria nodded in agreement, but then she was moved by Aster's next words.
"Don't be like that, I prepared this stage especially for you two and I even have a pretty nice reward for you, depending on your performance of course", he said.
"Ghrshaahs!", Aria and Mira's attentions were drawn to some strange sounds coming from the "magma" that was surrounding them, their pretty eyes showed their surprise upon said magma suddenly raising and grouping to form semi-humanoid figures of around fifty meters tall each, for a total of forty of them.
"Elemental golems, to think I would see such an advanced combination of rune mastering and alchemy techniques, in a mortal realm no less", said Mira.
"Well, the ones who created this place are people who were on par with Lilia, so it is still too early to be surprised", added Aria, to this day, besides Aster himself, the biggest monster in most of the girl's eyes is Lilia.
"Sggghhhhh!", without further ado, the magma giants punched the ground at the same time, creating a tremor followed by a high wave of scalding lava that surrounded Aster and the girls in every direction, at least until two different voiced echoed through the area.
"Permafrost Seal".
"Freezing Claw!".
With the command of the first voice, all the lava waves were encased in ice, that's right, lava which was at an incredibly high temperature was frozen in ice, the strange thing is that there was no reaction from the clash of two completely opposite elements, the magma simply froze before it could reach its destiny.
As for the second voice, light blue spirit energy exploded in all directions, tearing the frozen waves of magma, turning them into piles of thin ice dust that was then blown away by the air of the battlefield, creating an artificial snow rain that lasted a couple of seconds before the high temperature evaporated it.
Once the waves of magma were cleared, the figures of Aria who had entered her Ice Fary state as the otherworldly soft glow that her unique platinum blue hair was radiating suggested, as well as Mira whose fluffy ears and tail were manifested, were revealed.
Aster nodded, admiring the pair of ice princesses from the side, before his body exploded in blue flames, as he approached them.
"The rules are simple, the one who finishes twenty of those things first, win, of course you two will play against me", he said with relaxed voice, to then add.
"Ah right, in case you think I'm underestimating you two teaming up", Aster snapped his fingers and the chest of one of the many magma golems lit up in blue flames, which then consumed it from the inside, until a minute later the golem crumbled apart turning into an around fifteen-meter sphere of blue flames.
But that wasn't the end of Aster's demonstration, the sphere decomposed into a few streams of blue flames that then flew towards Aster, orbiting him.
'How the hell is that not an ability exclusive to a high ranked ice attributed body constitution!', inwardly swore the ligress girl.
"Mmm, let's see, to make it even more fun, if you two lose, you'll have to stay like that for the rest of the day".
Aster's teasing voice, made Aria inwardly sigh, she knew he just wanted to see them in these states to tease them, on the other hand and judging by Aster's vertical pupils, he must have made all those magma golems follow him all the way here for a good reason.
In other words, he has seen a chance for them grow with his dragon eyes, but even he wasn't aware of what was specifically needed for it to happen, they weren't aware of it themselves after all, so he could only try different things, pressure and motivation being two of them.
"Humph, you'll normally would have lost your hand for touching my ears and now you want to watch them up-close for a whole day, this is why mother warned me about dragons", mumbled Mira, which made Aria softly laugh.
"You can't put all the blame on his dragon lineage, he was like that even before restoring it", she said as she giggled.
Mira's eyes sparkled for a second, now that she was starting to learn more about Aster and the others, she was getting more and more interested in his circumstances.
'How did he manage to restore such a strong dragon lineage in a mortal plane', was what she was thinking right now, but that could wait, at least until she and Aria had turned those twenty magma golems into a pile of crushed ice.
Those two exchanged gazes, nodding at each other to then raise into the air towards their respective batch of magma golems, while Aster amusingly smiled at them from behind, the streams of blue flame that were orbiting him started rotating at high speed, before his legs tensed making the ground crack below his feet.
"Booom!", Aster became a light blue flame meteor that shot towards another magma golem, Aria and Mira who were about to clash with their respective enemies, looked backwards just to see a blue meteor creating a huge hole on the chest of a golem, which them exploded in blue flames.
The result was Aster landing safely on the ground, now being surrounded by a larger quantity of blue flames than before.
'That's cheating!', inwardly cursed the ice princess and the ligress girl at the same time.