Seeing Kana's motivated expression, Aster smiled and then patted her head a couple of times before they left the room, with her hugging his right arm.
Kana happily hummed, while she clung to Aster as they walked outside, the village was unaffected from the previous battle, but Ixas had to built another two small buildings for the two new visitors.
So, there was some differences in the landscape due to that now, Aster also saw from afar that there was some kind of banquet ongoing in the village.
"What are those two up to now", mumbled Aster recognizing Mylene due to her pretty showy pink hair.
He brought Kana to the center of the village where a large table with different dishes was placed, the clay humans created by Ixas brought plate after plate of food while Ixas, the two middle aged protectors as well as Natasha and Charlotte, and of course Mylene and Camila were enjoying their meal.
"For being made with mortal grade ingredients, this tastes pretty good, it just needs a bit more heat~", said Natasha while she took a big bite of a bread, she then touched her steak with one of her fingers lighting it up on fire before she munched on it by impaling it with her fork.
Her protector saw her wild eating manners and sighed.
"Young miss, please act according to your status…".
In comparison Charlotte had a very organized plate, which only consisted in vegetables and fruit.
"Humph, savage", she mumbled as she cut a piece of fruit to eat it a second later.
"Boring grandma~", of course Natasha didn't miss the chance to get back at her, while Charlotte was swallowing her food, so that she couldn't reply to her, which ended in them arguing.
But it only lasted for a couple of seconds, until they noticed Aster arriving.
But then their eyes drifted away to the little girl which was holding onto his arm, both of them couldn't help but show their surprise in their eyes.
'That explains why that white bitch was so eager to find this place', thought Natasha, before she raised her cup at Aster.
"Good morning, have you thought about it, the next time I can wake you up personally~".
Charlotte limited herself to lift the sides of her dress at Aster as a way to greet him.
Kana's curious eyes observed these new faces, and then she gave Aster and interrogative gaze.
Aster felt Kana's innocent yet accusatory gaze and he bitterly smiled, before he returned the greet to those two, they then sat down next to Mylene and Camila.
"Good morning", the first one to greet them was Camila, she seemed well rested and fresh compared to yesterday.
"Good morning, it would have been nice if you woke me earlier", said Aster, it was past midday already, so they probably needed to stay one more night in this village.
"I tried, but you two didn't even flinch, if it wasn't for the fact that I could see you breathing, I would have thought you were dead", Mylene joined the conversation as soon as she swallowed what she was eating.
Kana giggled, she did wake up but wanted to cuddle with Aster, so she kept her eyes closed and fell asleep again.
"What's up with this banquet by the way?", asked Aster as he took a plate and put a variety of food in there, to share with Kana since she was sitting on his lap.
"Well, apparently that guy will take the clay humans back with him, but they will be out for quite some time… because it's going to take him a while to reach his home, of course that is, if he is able to return from where he came once the Emerald Whirlwind has been taken".
Apparently Ixas organized this little farewell banquet, since they had to wait for the rest of the day, they might as well go all in for the resting and relaxation.
"Ah right, and those two managed to bribe Ixas to let them come in, and they have been waiting for you to wake up, so they joined us for the banquet too".
Aster nodded as he gazed at Natasha and Charlotte.
Natasha had a slender yet curvy body, her skin was pale but had a healthy pink tone to it, she had long red hair which sometimes had orange shades here and there, and now that he paid her mor attention, she had pretty green eyes.
Unlike when Aster saw her for the first time, she was now wearing a pretty daring, black short sleeveless dress, with stockings and long gloves too, her hair was also combed in a ponytail, something worth mentioning was that she had pointy ears, but they weren't long like the ones Aster saw in the elves of the videogames he played back at earth, but rather similar to human ones, with just pointy ends.
In any case, the look perfectly matched her carefree and wild behavior, like right now, she was winking at sending Aster kisses from time to time, it was a bit strange, but he didn't see any harm on it.
As for Charlotte, she was rather tall for the age she seemed to have, she had waist length blond hair and blue eyes, her get up consisted in a white and blue dress that left her pretty pale shoulders in plain view, but covered most of her chest, besides that she was using white stockings, and large gloves as well as some feather ornaments here and there.
Similar to Natasha she also had pointy ears, but hers were actually longer than human's, not too much but there was that.
If anything, it was clear they descended from spirit beasts, which ones though, that was the main question.
"I have heard of the Viridian Griffon Heavenly Quadrant, do you two perhaps come from there?", Aster first decided to test the waters.
"Mm?", Natasha was the first one to react, she seemed to be having a hard time remembering something, before she shook her head.
"No but have heard of that place, if my memory doesn't fail it's one of the properties of the Storm Roc family… the family of that woman that fought with you".
"How much do you know about the universe?", asked Natasha with a curious expression, she was sure Aster didn't come from a place like hers, judging by the fact that he used spirit energy.
But then, she saw him using a type of energy she has never heard about, so she wasn't sure anymore, the universe is so vast, that no one can have the confidence to say it knows it all.
Aster then proceeded to tell them more or less about the Star Clusters, the Stellar Systems and lastly about the Heavenly Quadrants.
Judging by Natasha's curious expression, she hasn't heard of that divisions, but what actually caught Aster's attention was that, they could talk about it without being punished, while Mylene and Eris had to limit what they told him, due to that.
Mylene noticed and she immediately explained.
'This secret realm has its own rules and laws… similar to how the sun and the moo of this place could be so easily affected, unfortunately I had no way to know it because I haven't recovered', Mylene sent a sound transmission directly to Aster's ears, so that others wouldn't hear her.
Aster nodded, something similar happened back in the internal space of the black book, Rya was able to leave the mind space, even if her soul was damaged, without suffering any backslash since that space was designed to contain purely spiritual beings, like the twins.
"That's an interesting way to organize things, however, those three divisions are a sole entity, at least for us, we call them "Mortal Planes", and then we have the place where we from where we come".
"We call them "Divine Firmaments", or "Higher Firmaments", and unlike the dimensional tunnels you mentioned, to descend from the Divine Firmament to the Mortal Plane, or vice versa, you need to use a Heavenly Staircase, and we literally either descend or go up, but don't travel sidewards".
"By the way, we three including that woman come from the Divine Feather Firmament, and I'm from the Sun Graceful Luan clan~".
"Anyway, I can't tell you too much about the firmaments since it's against the rules, but they exist above the Mortal Planes, but unlike what other people think, there are mortals there too".
"The difference is that there, others have the chance to break through easier than here, I'll recognize that, but and even then, only about 10% people manage to do it".
"But all of that can wait, let's focus in that woman from the Storm Roc family and why she was so keen in taking that little girl with her".
"According to the story, a roc has two different types of feathers, one of them is poisonous, but the other is the antidote, so the Storm Roc family has always been divided, or at least that was the what were told".
"But apparently the "gentle" side of the Storm Roc was completely gone due to a fight they had, and since that moment they have been looking for someone who has it… like that little girl", said Natasha as she pointed at Kana.
"Mm?", Kana stopped munching on her food for a moment but feeling Aster patting her head, she smiled and continued with what she was doing.
"Unfortunately, I don't have all the details about that, but I know someone who does, if you leave me join you for the trial at the Emerald Heart mansion, I will gladly ask her to share what she knows along the way to pass the time~.
"Humph, you forgot to mention my family, you rude woman… I come from the Moon Stream Luan clan", added Charlotte.
The first one to react was none other than Mylene.
"I have heard of your races, but it shouldn't be possible for you to have come all the way here… the travel would take so much energy that people from the young generation would take a couple of hundreds of thousands of years".
Natasha and Charlotte stared at each other before they answered.
"You clearly haven't been in your firmament in a long time, things have changed quite a bit lately, portals to other firmaments have been opening randomly, some are at war, others are forming alliances, others have fell and some others have risen, that's why we came to this secret realm, the Emerald Whirlwind is a grow type intelligent treasure, it's the best type of treasure possible, everyone wants an advantage for when their home gets invaded".
This time, let alone Mylene, even Aster was shocked to the bone, just imagining a war of that scale was, hard to describe.
"H-How many years has this been happening?", asked Mylene with a serious voice.
"Mmm… it's not as chaotic as you imagine, because it has only been twelve years or so since it started".
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