"So what did you discover?" Erik asked his beloved fairy as theyy in bed together. Emma was on Erik''s other side, so the two talked through their bond for now.


    "Quite a lot, actually," Elora responded while snuggling up to his chest. She had spent thest half a day shifting through every single thing this structure could do, and now she deserved somefort.


    "But not everything…" she continued with a frown.


    "How do you mean?" Erik blinked in surprise.


    Elora exined with a thoughtful expression, "This ce seems to have a number of functions that can only be essed after you reach a certain ranking… Even I can''t ess them now and, presumably, neither could Eira when she was in control."


    "I see…" Erik mumbled curiously. "Let me ask her, then."


    By now, Erik had three different channels in his head that he couldn''t talk to at the same time. They were like radio frequencies, and he could only attune to one of them.


    First there was the channel through which he talked with his wives, which was more or less facilitated through his bond with Elora, but in this case, Erik was the hub through which this channel flowed, while Elora was technically just another connection.


    Second there was the channel that governed the Bonds of Service, which right now involved Emily and Nora, and went directly through Elora, since she was the one creating those bonds. In this case, Elora was actually the hub, which meant she was always listening in when Erik talked to either Nora or Emily through that channel.


    A fact he had made sure not to mention to Emily.


    Lastly, there was now a third channel, the one that allowed him to talk with Eira, who had essentially be his armor.


    Switching to that third channel, he began to talk to the minotaur construct. "Eira, when you were still controlling this ce, did you have have function you could only ess when I reached a certain ranking threshold?"


    Enjoy new adventures from м??


    "Hmpf," Eira snorted and pouted in response. "I guess your little fairy ran into the blocks, huh?"


    Clearly, Eira was still unhappy with Elora for breaking the connection to Audu.


    Still, since she had already made up with Erik, she continued, her voice sounding a little brighter now, "Anyway, yeah. There a number of function that even I didn''t have full knowledge of. After you absorbed the dimension, the sigils were supposed to be able to monitor your ranking progress, and unlock those functions upon reaching various milestones."


    "So you have no idea what those do? Do you know if all the blocks are rted to my ranking?" Erik asked curiously.


    "Nope, no idea, Master. About either question," she answered with a shrug.


    "Alright, thank you, Eira," he answered her.


    ''Clearly she''s still not entirely happy about how everything went,'' Erik thought to himself. ''But I hope she''lle around again soon.''


    With that thought, he swapped back to Elora.


    "Seems Eira knew of the blocks, but has no idea what they are hiding either," Erik shrugged as he ryed his conversation with Eira to the fairy. "Or, for that matter, if the only functions this structure is hiding from the two of you will unlock with my ranking upgrades."


    "Ugh, I don''t like not knowing things," Elora responded with a scowl on both her physical, and mental expressions. "I''ll keep trying to work around those blocks, but I suppose we can only wait now."


    Then, she shrugged, and continued, "Anyway, for now, this ce has no more functions than we already knew of. I suggest you absorb the dimension now. Perhaps a new function will awaken when this ce figures out you''re already a second rank."


    "You know," Erik answered with a smile. "After I do absorb this ce, I hope we can start calling it our home, instead of just ce, or structure."


    "Our home, huh…" Elora mumbled with a surprisingly fond expression. "I like that," she finally nodded.


    With that, the two of them decided to wait for Emma to wake up. After all, before absorbing the dimension, they wanted everyone to leave, as they had no idea what this event might do to anyone still inside at the time.


    A few hourster, four people were standing outside the dimensional entrance, and back in front of the elevator they came down in a little over a month ago.


    These were Emily, Emma, Astrid, and Alice, and they were all watching the portal in front of them with a mixture of curiosity and anxiety.


    Suddenly, the portal flickered, and Erik walked out of it while holding the spatial orb that was previously in the middle of the main hall.


    Behind him, the portal flickered shortly, and then disappeared.


    Looking behind him, Erik nodded with satisfaction, "So far, so good."


    By taking the dimensional anchor outside of the dimension, Erik had made it so that this dimension was now movable, just like Audu''s was. The main reason for this was still to make sure no one was inside during the absorption.


    He turned towards the people behind him with a smile, "Alright, let''s get back above ground. I think we can all use a little sunshine, don''t you?"


    While only Emily didn''t really seem to mind the darkness, perhaps unsurprisingly, the others nodded enthusiastically.


    They all stepped back onto the tform they came down on, and Erik took out the medallion again, before pressing it in the altar, and starting their journey back to the outside world.


    With their previous experience, this was now a far more novel event, and they soon found themselves back in the middle of a snowy taiga forest, and a brightly shining sun.


    But, while most of them took in the sunny rays with bright smiles and enthusiasm, there was one that seemed particrly awestruck.


    Next to Erik, a beautiful minotaur girl stood, as her wide eyes seemed to try and look everywhere at once.


    "So this is… outside," she mumbled, with awe in her voice, as she looked at the green trees, and white snow. Then, she turned her attention to the orange orb hanging in the sky, "And that''s the sun… it''s beautiful…"


    "Hehehe, of course it is!" a strangely proud Astrid suddenly interjected, as if the sun could only be beautiful, since it involved her affinity.


    But Erik was quick to grab the opportunity, by sneaking behind Astrid and hugging her waist, before whispering in her ear, "Not as beautiful as you, though."


    A quick blush spread across Astrid''s face, before she suddenly turned around and punched Erik''s chest, "Shut up! J— Just get absorbing already, I want to get back to training!"


    Erik chuckled, before turning his attention to Eira for a moment. He smiled slightly at her, "While this forest is certainly beautiful, as is the sun, there are far more beautiful things out there. Both on this, and beyond. I''ll show them all to you."


    Eira smiled happily, but with no small amount of embarrassment as she poked her fingers together. "T— Thank you…"


    ''Perhaps it''s not so bad…'' Eira couldn''t help but think to herself. ''What would have happened if I or they did contact Mistress… Would I still have been able to adventure with him…?''


    As Eira had her first doubts regarding her Mistress, Erik decided to get on with it.


    He sat down cross legged on the tform, and ced the spatial orb in front of him.


    "Okay, so how do I do this?" he asked his fairy partner.


    "Just put your hands on the orb again, but this time, try to reach out to it through aetherium. Instinct should take care of the rest," Elora answered him. "The spatial seed should be reaching out the moment your aetheriumes in contact with a spatial anchor. After you get started, I''ll coordinate with the structure… our home… inside the dimension, and make sure everything goes smoothly."


    With Elora''s exnation, Erik nodded determinately, and reached out his hands, before, under the both curious and anxious gazes of hispanions, channeled his aetherium into the orb.


    The moment he did so, both it and Erik began to shine with a dark-blue aura, and Erik could feel something inside himself that he hadn''t felt before. Like a void that needed to be filled.


    Suddenly, he felt a powerful a hunger. A hunger for the very thing that stood in front of him.


    His eyes shone with desire, his aetherium reached out to envelop the orb entirely, and he felt like he was sucking something out of it.


    And as the contents of the orb were sucked out, Erik felt that empty void inside him being filled up.


    His body shook, and his mind reeled as he felt like he had very little control over the current situation.


    Finally, however, it ended. Suddenly, he had control of himself again, and he quickly pulled back his hand from the orb as he panted heavily.


    At the same time, the orb suddenly disintegrated into powder.