Demon Continent Alsace in the year 307 in the 10-month Asmodum on the 24th day after the shattering of the empire.
A sound broke her out of her brooding, above and around her swam waterborns, schools of fish, and other sea creatures.
And they all seemed to be performing a song and dance, the bright colors that surrounded her beginning to flicker, only to shine anew in a new color.
The singing was not human, nor was it demonic, and even so it resembled nothing she had ever heard in these or her old lives.
Everything revolved around the underwater volcano and the feeling of timelessness she had had until now and which she now recognized as such changed.
She felt as if old mill wheels were moving again, only they were not grinding forward, but backward.
Even if I am not sure whether there is a right direction for mill wheels, in which they can grind.
Nevertheless, this was the best explanation with which she could describe the new feeling.
The play of light barely noticeably changed as she searched for the reason, and for the increasingly loud chanting around her, she had difficulty concentrating.
Still, through the swarm of bodies of sea creatures and waterborn, she saw the mandala at the bottom of the seabed begin to glow and slowly fill with arcane energies.
Each new rune that was felt with Arcane Energies shone like a pillar of light, sending one into the darkness of the sea.
Lucine suddenly appeared beside her and took her by the hand as she had done on the surface of the water. Only this time not to drag her into the depths, even if she could feel a certain lust in her superficial thoughts, which led her to suspect that she probably wanted to kiss her again. Not that she had anything against it. Lucine was, as far as she could tell, an attractive woman.
She noticed how her body reacted when they turned around each other and other and the question of why a waterborn looked like a very attractive human woman at all was lost in the moment when her and Lucine's lips touched and for a few moments she could think of nothing else but the here and now and all other thoughts that had been going through her head died and she took in the moment, which seemed to stretch on and on, with everything she had at her disposal and she enjoyed it.
Unlike on other occasions, this time it was not two bodies pressing against each other, but hers was surrounded by Luciner's, captured in a pale of their own and caressed by the latter as they kissed.
Within her domain, she could see other Nereus Ilayda doing just as Lucine and she were doing, even the fish, whales, and other sea creatures seemed to be in a tight dance.
And more and more powerful was the sound of a beating heart, with which the light seemed to pulse in time, and each time the darkness of the sea continued to distribute, after which new forms seemed to peel out of the darkness.
The dance was an incantation, an ever-growing incantation that was joined by more and more waterborns and animals to participate. The more the mandala grew on the bottom of the sea, the larger the crowd of dancers became. With each renewed heartbeat, the speed of the dancing increased.
The flashes of arcane energy increased and were seemingly anticipated by the dancers, however, and woven into the dance as the energies now raced past them.
Now and then, when she could get a glimpse of the dancers and the mandala, which was not often, the way Lucine embraced her, she could still only see what she had already seen with her domain as well.
The dancers, who had newly joined together with the arcane energies circling the dance, formed a barrier, which seemed to be influenced by the heartbeat as well as the dance because it materialized more and more strongly so that it could be seen with the naked eye.
First one and then more and more small arcane lights ignited around her, as she knew them from the waterborn, which at first only flickered slightly and seemed to fight against the torrent of arcane energy, which now ruled within the barrier until they finally found themselves and seemed to grow larger and larger until they were as large and powerful as those of the adult waterborn.
While seemingly new waterborns were being born of Nereus Ilayda, the Arcane Energy around her increased in intensity and purity and she felt herself approaching a level ascension.
The arcane energy held within the barrier increased more and more with each new birth of a waterborn, and the part of the energies that was not needed to form their core became more and more and flowed into her and to her own core. Arcane energy flowed through her meridians in such quantities that they began to radiate through her skin and the water around her began to evaporate, causing Lucine to move away from her.
However, she was only aware of this on the periphery of her perception, because she was busy trying to control and refine and clear the Arcane Energy that was flooding her meridians and impacting her core.
Whereby she felt the Arcane Energy bursting outward through her meridians and skin, discharging like the volcano's Arcane Lightning. Which shook her body every time.
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Unnoticed by her, the darkness of the sea was dispelled by a reddish light as a red star manifested over the heads of the dancing people.
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Lucine didn't know what to do Cali had suddenly become a focus of Arcane Energy and she had had to separate from her before she would have been hurt by the wild Arcane Energy.
Hastily she looked around for one of the elders or someone who could help her, but they were all caught up in the trance of the dance and did not notice what was happening to their guest.
But she could not do nothing, that would go against everything she had learned and also against the customs of hospitality in particular, which were rules that must not be broken.
Still looking around for help, it occurred to her that they were both above the Yanar, and she remembered how earlier in the day Cali had stood near the Yanar's without much problem. So if she could direct Cali, who was already sinking to the ground, to come near the Yanar, the ritual would soak up the excess Arcane energy that shot out of her, making her a living Yanar. So that she could complete her level advancement without further problem.
With this plan in place, she set about putting it into action, only she had to be careful not to hurt herself and not to hurt Cali.
So she directed the water from some distance towards Cali to get her out of the center of the ritual faster, always careful not to throw Cali too much back and forth. The heat which her level advancement was generating caused the water around her to evaporate faster and faster, which still did not bring anyone out of his trance.
Unexpected help came from the newborn Ilayda, who swam around her and Cali, filling the water with childish laughter.
Suddenly everything around them was bathed in red light and she could see as far into the depths of the sea as never before following the light she looked up and could see a red star high above them. Only this one was closer than the ones she sometimes saw in the sky above the surface of the water.
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Distracted by this sight, she and the newborn Ilayda did not notice how Cali fell into the volcano full of arcane energy.
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In her prison, Diva perceived how the meridians that covered Arcane changed and changed their position only this time not like they always did when the Nereus Ilayda celebrated their festival of salvation.
This time there was an upheaval of the old meridians so that a tremor went through the walls of their dungeon and also their prison itself began to tremble.
Fearful cries of her Larrua sounded and the voices of mothers and fathers who wanted to reassure their children.
"Do not be afraid, my children Arcan only learns that we claim our birthright."
With which she also let her Arcane energy flow into her prison and from there into the meridians that fed on it, to remind Arcan and the divine races that they were Forgotten, but had not forgotten.
And she could feel other Titans joining her call and making Arcan tremble and with it the gods and their races.
