The intersection between two walls I pointed to shattered with an exaggerated cracking noise far too impactful to sound like the collapse of a mere wall.
"Bingo." I grinned, my horns shining darkly due to my excitement. A reaction that made me think of the youth whose antics I loved to trash-talk.
There was no need, was there? For emotions showed on my tail and horns just like it did on her tail and fluffy ears.
Though the fluff hadn't yet grown completely, it was of a certain soft quality that forced me to never forget, for the first fluff was the softest.
"Hurry up, lazybones!" Arrogant accusations from the sidelines were the death of my sweet recollection. I immediately awoke to reality, cursing for my inadvertance.
"I'm on my way, lukewarm masseuse. This seal doesn't break easily." That was bullshit, but Nova Twinkleflame didn't need to know that!
"Masseuse... lukewarm?" I got the feeling the ancient fairy's mind short-circuited. It might not find it easy to determine which insult was worse.
"So... can I? Can I?" Its voice didn't suggest such. Not at all. I briefly wondered just what could've gone wrong with it or me for that matter, before asking.
"Can what? Heat things up?" I shouldn't have at that time. I really shouldn't. Had I only kept my trap shut... "Massage the scales? Glossy, menacingly dark green, amazing to the touch..."
On and on she went after having lost me in the middle of her monologue. I turned around, focusing my attention on the other ancient fairy in the room.
My gaze was averted with nonchalance. ...or was there this tiny bit of shame seeping through that facade?
I could've been wrong. "You want to... my scales?!" What a sacrilege! Now it was me who didn't know which insult to rate graver.
The fiery bundle of messy thoughts and her worn mind or the torment its carelessly spoken words had birthed in my head.
The former was by far more concerning due to the situation we were in, the latter because of what it meant for the future.
Therefore, with all my might was it that I tried to swallow the many words on my tongue and forget. Now. Was. Not. The. Time!
"Perverted thing," some did escape me. Was never one for totalitarian self-control. Somewhere in my mind, something always broke free, ran counter to reason.
To admit such wasn't even all that difficult, just shameful in its own right. For my age was... Anyway, the fire licking up and down its hazy appearance changed substantially.
Purple orangish turned deep violet with crimson tinges flickering about. "The shape, the contours, the material... priceless!"
For my sanity, I really better focused on the Central Node governing the Eastern Garden. At least there I could vent my feelings, with the ancient fairy not so much.
There was one rather unexpected change that creepy one's moodswings imposed on our situation. The heat it produced grew to such intensity, the living armours had trouble bothering us.
The reconstruction process barely kept up with the meltdown of the whole construct making up their bodies.
They pretty much looked more like waxmen condemned to a stove than the tricky adversaries they'd been. "How time flies~." I cleared my throath the next second.
"Enough fooling around," I addressed the ancient fairy not so much as I did myself, "the danger isn't over."
Focusing on the broken section between the two walls, it didn't take long to find out what had made that strange noise earlier.
It was a space enchantment that'd crumbled down due to the abuse suffered. A very complicated trick with extremely demanding requirements on body, soul, mana and understanding of the laws.
In my current state, there was no need to think about it since I couldn't even influence the broken shards, so better not mention the rest.
But there was no need to. Some turns there, some spins here and off they broke. Rumble!! "Darnation." As did something else.
RUMBLE!!! "Guys, to me. Hurry. Let's escape this nasty place. C'mon!" The other two didn't ask unnecessary questions and followed my order faster than ever.
Might've been because the situation happeneed to be just that dire. "Just which deranged fool installed a self-destructive mechanism so close to the very core? Doesn't he have a conscience?
The darn bastard should rot in the deepest layers of—" I almost bit off my tongue. The reason being we literally got blasted through the crack in the wall, hopefully leading towards the Central Node.
Or such I wanted the two to firmly believe. Because that wretch, the eternal deranged fool was... me. My design, my ideas, my... fault.
I cursed myself! Found really clear words too... Throughout the involuntary freestyle jump into realms unknown, I didn't stop spweing curses. I... responsible for the future bad karma?
That was worthy of me to spit at. So much so that I wasn't even aware we got sucked in somewhere, reaching stable grounds to anchor ourselves in.
"...oiiii. Hello~." "Findeth backeth to thineself, our traveleth's endeth is near." I eventually regained enough clarity to listen.
"Intruders. Insultors. Wretches..." One glance and I knew from where this unwelcome blaring was coming from. The place we landed in wasn't big.
Instead, many cables, plates, embellishments, restrictions, traps, curses, hexes and an ocean worth of thick mana we might as well take a swim in assaulted my sensory organs.
And in the middle of it all, there was a spherical construct approximately twice my size hovering over four pedestals surrounding it from all cardinal directions.
There was no colour contained to anchor our eyes on. Just a swirling mass of mana so damn thick it went beyond solid.
I wondered just for what purpose the Central Node had amassed this much valuable mana, decades of accumulation, in that one spot.
I didn't need to think for long, since the answer unveiled itself pretty soon. The mana began spinning in and around itself, compressing into what looked like thin tendrils.
Their shape was hardly perceivable, but to any one creature with even a spark of talent in grasping magic and the mystical laws governing it, the appendages were tantamount to hell itself.
After all, one simple touch, no matter how fleeting, and oblivion called. Moreover, to approach was a hurdle only I could take... "Oh. My. Gosh." Tiredness crept up on me...