Akira hitched a ride on Yuki as the two of them flew back with the three men from the Dragons of Gaea. They were on a path that was in the general direction of the capital city, but Yuki felt that they deviated a bit to the left. 

‘I wonder if their base is hidden,’ Yuki thought.

[They don’t seem to be a secret organization, so it might not be,] Akira replied.

‘True. And if that town hall is anything to go by, their base should be gorgeous.’

[Hmm, I wonder what it’ll look like.]

They passed the capital, Yuki spying it out of the corner of her eye as they flew by, and began angling downward for a landing. Yuki’s questions on the base were answered. 

Ahead of them, in a clearing, stood a building made with the same theme as the town hall with pillars and stone. Flanking the entrance were two statues. The statues were in the shape of a man in armor armed with a sword and shield. They looked ahead stoically as if guarding the building. 

Yuki landed with the three men on the field. The men turned back into their elven forms while in the air, but Yuki couldn’t do that with Akira on her back. Her claws dug into the pristine grass, creating holes in the ground. She gave the men an apologetic look. They didn’t look bothered by it though.

Akira slid off of her and she changed her form. With a wave of her hand, she repaired the ground, flattening the land that she had deformed. She wanted to fix the grass as well, but her aptitude for the other elements was something she felt should be carefully used with strangers.

“Come,” the leader of the three said, turning around as he spoke. “Let’s go inside so we can talk a bit before the testing.”

“Is this about my friend?” Yuki asked as she caught up with long strides.

“Yes,” the man said matter of factly. “She comes from a species of demon that should be all but extinct. However, we may know something about where she comes from.”

Yuki glanced over at Akira who walked beside her and raised a brow. Akira was frowning. 

“Come. We’re expected to show you to the others in around fifteen minutes, so we don’t have much time,” he said.

They went up the stairs and into the stone building, the doors opening by themselves the moment they touched the first step. Inside the building, a receptionist waited for them from behind a desk. In front of her, on the floor, was a massive seal emblazoned into the ground. It looked like a dragon’s claw gripping a gemstone in its talons.

“Welcome back, Brothers,” the receptionist, a male, greeted. 

“Thank you. We’ll be going down,” the man said. 

“Understood.” The receptionist looked at Yuki. “Oh, you are the new archmage. Greetings.”

He did a small bow that Yuki replied to with a smile and a nod. 

“Please, back up a few steps,” he instructed.

Yuki followed the three men as they went to the center of the seal on the ground, Akira sticking close to her. The receptionist bade them a farewell before the floor began to sink into the earth. 

‘Oh, the seal was also an elevator of sorts,’ Yuki thought.

After around fifteen seconds, the elevator stopped with a small jolt. They had entered a cavern filled with lamps fueled by mana that lit up the area. The ground was flattened, but when Yuki stepped off of the elevator, she could feel the natural bumps and ridges of the rock. 

“A cave?” Yuki commented.

“It allows us to feel closer to the earth,” the brown eyed man replied. “Come. Let me show you two something before we talk.”

He walked hurriedly down one of the many hallways connected to the cavern. The two cloaked people with him flanked his sides. The hallway they were going down didn’t seem to have any connecting rooms to the side from what Yuki could see with her naked eyes. It led into something that resembled a shrine of sorts with two giant double doors that were opened all the way. 

“Look at the statue,” the man said quietly.

In the center of the room, a statue stood atop of a pedestal. Engraved onto the ground were five points that looked like they once held something a long time ago. The entire room was quite barren other than that.

Looking closely at the statue, Yuki recognized what it was. It was a chimaera sculpted out of stone sitting proudly as it stared at the open entrance of its empty room. 

“What does this have to do with Akira?” Yuki asked. “It’s just a statue.”

“Well, ask your friend.”

Yuki glanced over at Akira who was looking around the room with a frown. She explored it with hesitant steps and went up to the statue where she placed her hand on it, stroking it gently.

“This place feels somewhat familiar,” she said. She looked at Yuki. “I don’t really know how to explain it.”

“This is a demon shrine as others call them,” the man said. “It’s a place for demons to store their precious items and treasures. Many are rigged with traps and spells to protect the insides. These spells tend to fade away as time goes on, so many forgotten shrines have been pillaged. They aren’t made anymore since they’re not the best way to protect valuable goods.”

“Why is there a statue here then?” Yuki asked. “It looks to be made out of normal stone.”

“Do you see those markings on the ground?” the man said, gesturing at the five points.

“What are they?”

“They used to hold runic pedestals, one in each and connected in such a way so that they made a pentagram,” he said. Yuki recognized that term. Runic pedestals were basically a way to set up spells quickly by engraving the necessary runes on them and placing them at their necessary locations. “We took those as well and stored away with the rest of the treasures in a more secure location. Examining them gave us some interesting information.”

“Like what?” Yuki said.

“The spell engraved on them made a trap which didn’t surprise us. It would kill any group that entered the room and tried to take the runic pedestals. Anyone greedy enough to pillage a demon shrine would never be able to resist such a treasure much less five of them. Made out of gold and encrusted with jewels, it would take quite a large amount of self control to resist.”

“What else did they do?”

“Well, what was interesting was how the killing worked,” the man said. “It completely absorbs the life energy of the people that enter the shrine  Then it channels that energy into a secondary set of spells. This set is almost the complete opposite of the first. It gives life rather than steals it.”

“Life to who?” Yuki frowned. “There is only a statue here.”

“There was something inside the statue,” he explained. “Chimaeras are elemental beasts. They are like earthen spirits given a physical form. In the statue was, we believe, a chimaera that was in its infancy. Merely an embryo. However, demon embryos are basically spells with no tangible form. They require energy to form completely.”

“So the life energy was given to the embryo,” Yuki said. She frowned as she began to realise what was being hinted. “A chimaera embryo resided in that statue and the spells fed it to let it grow until it was big enough to become something physical.”

“Not quite,” the man replied. “It fed energy to the embryo up until a point. That point was when the embryo could travel around as a spirit of sorts. The maker of this shrine didn’t want their child becoming trapped in here. So, the embryo would turn into a temporary spirit that would go out into the world and search for a source of energy that it would absorb to become what it was meant to be.”

“Is this all theory or has this happened before?”

“It’s happened before. The spirit part. The spell is completely new to us though. The window for the spirit is quite short. One day is all they have until they fizzle out.”

“Where would they be attracted to?” 

“Since chimaeras are from the earth, they would go to large concentrations of earthen elemental energy,” he said. 

‘Like the one on my necklace that my real parents held. Or myself since earth is my strongest,’ Yuki thought. Things were starting to clear up.

“What I’m trying to say is that a chimaera was born here,” the man said. “A group triggered this trap and then the chimaera was set free. When it happened, the Dragons of Gaea could feel it. That amount of earthen elemental power being born, even if not completely, wasn’t something we could ignore. Then we found this place and brought it back with us.”

“How long ago was that?” Yuki asked.

“Two hundred years ago.”

Yuki locked eyes with Akira. They both must have been thinking the same thing. Two hundred years ago was when Yuki’s egg was lost. Now it was also when Akira was born. 

‘You must have joined my egg,’ Yuki said. 

[I think so too,] Akira replied. [Two hundred years, hmm. That’s quite a long time.]

‘It is.’

“So I think that this place was where your friend is from,” the man continued. “Some thieves broke in and tried to steal before being used as fodder for a spell. We were never sure if the chimaera survived, but now we know that she is thriving.”

The man turned to Akira and gave her a deep bow. The two other people with him did the same.

“We hold great respect for the chimaeras,” he said. “The Dragons of Gaea and them have been partners for the longests of times. Their leader had almost the same status as our archmage. Since you, Lady Akira, are the last of your kind, you are by default the leader of your kind. I hope we can work well together.”

“Oh,” Akira said. “I, I see. I hope so too.”

She gave Yuki a bewildered look that Yuki couldn’t help but smile at. 

“Did you see the bodies when you took the shrine?” Yuki asked, directing his question to the man.

“I wasn’t there. I was a mere member at the time,” he replied. “However, I do believe they took the bodies as well so that they can investigate what happened. The bodies have long been disposed of, but their items are still locked away.”

“Really? Do you mind if we looked at them?” 

“No, but that is an odd request. You’ll have access after the tests since if you gain approval, you will have free reign of the entire facility.”

“Alright. I was just curious about who would break into such a place,” Yuki said. “Let’s get to those tests then, shall we?”