Rise of the Weakest Summoner

For now, Silvia chose to remain in her flaming form. She had much finer control over hers and any other fire with her ancestry brought out through Aura Unification. They had trained together with Asterios to test the limits of her abilities in that enhanced body, and while she couldn’t completely take over his fire, she certainly was the most effective person to defend herself and others against it.

Therefore, against other Dragons too.

And the ones using the ice attribute, obviously.

After stepping through the created hole, they ended up in a spacious, circular chamber with a relatively high ceiling. As before, everything was made of and in ice. It had a pleasant blue color, without being too clear and too dark at the same time. Everyone admired the finely sculpted walls adorned with beautiful columns. Whoever had created this entire place, put a lot of effort into making it feel regal.

Even the sporadic furniture was made of the same frosty crystal, barely standing out against all the other surfaces. But, it somehow did and created an incredibly curious sight, adding a touch of mystery and allure to the noble style dominating every piece of decoration and usable elements. Additionally, a delicate layer of whitish mist pooled over the smooth floor, disturbed by the steps of Ast’s group investigating the ice palace.

“Everything is so big. Maybe not massive, but it’s like we are again in the Descending Spire, made of ice instead of golden metal,” Tina commented.

“It’s quite natural considering who the owner is.” Althea smiled softly. “Our host was wise enough to introduce features for both her humanoid and draconic form into her lair. She can freely move and use it as she wishes in whichever shape she feels like using at the time.”

“Hopefully, it doesn’t go down a hundred floors.” Bryn chuckled lightly. “The stairs would be a real slipping hazard.”

“I don’t think this place would run as deep as the mountain allows. It would be hard to keep an eye on such a vast structure alone,” their draconic companion said. “If my knowledge is still relevant, we should find a few different rooms at best, including the sleeping chamber, nesting chamber, feasting chamber, and most importantly, the vault where her hoard is located.”

“Woah! Is it like in the stories? Does she keep a mountain of gold to lie on?” Miria’s eyes sparkled as her face snapped to the Dragon lady.

“She might, but she might not. Every person may consider different things valuable to them. It’s not always gold or precious assets. It might even be things like books or bones and skeletons,” Althea replied with a delicate smirk.

“Walking in on a massive True Dragon napping on a few tons of dead people and creatures. That would be a horrifying sight.” Grea shuddered, and not from the cold.

“Could fit the Crimson or Onyx clan, no?” Silvia pondered out loud. “From what we know so far, they feel like the most ferocious of the sort. Though, maybe those related to ice and blue shades are much worse.”

“Let’s hope not,” Asterios responded, gazing into the three different paths leading out of the entrance hall. “It might be wishful thinking not expecting any conflict, but I would prefer her to be a bit more talkative than combative.”

“The colder bloodlines do usually seem less interested in a straight-up, instant brawl,” his mentor shared. “They are just as fierce but mostly when you push their comfort zone or defenses.”

“Which way do we go first? Any clue where these passages lead to?” Selene asked.

“Let’s take a careful peek in pairs while Ast looks over us from the middle,” the flaming princess suggested. “Don’t venture into any of the corridors yet.”

The girls had no problems forming pairs, with Grea staying behind by their beloved. She was aware of being the weakest link, while not completely weak of course, and saw no issues with abusing that fact to achieve some additional personal contact with Asterios while the others worked their asses off.

He didn’t mind the snuggly demon woman pressing herself against him, but both of them kept their attention on the others, as much as they seemed to be fooling around with their hands.

“Damn, that ceiling is some fine art,” Grea remarked while glancing up. “Maybe we should steal the idea for your own lair?”

“What makes you think I’m going to build one?” He snorted a little, moving his gaze up too.

“Because getting plowed atop your hoard has just appeared on my list of fantasies?” She batted her dark lashes at him.

Shaking his head, Asterios tugged on her tail through her thick clothes, evoking a surprised yelp and a sultry giggle from the mischievous lady. He had to admit, the design atop their heads was truly impressive. While the ceiling was still of the same ice, it depicted an impressive True Dragon in mid-flight from below, half poking out of the bluish surface. The furthest points of its body determined how big the chamber was, the wings dictating the width and the tail and head setting the length, plus the necessary filling around them as the room was circular.

“I wonder if it’s accurate,” Grea added. “This has to be the Lady of the Lake, right? I can’t see her putting another Dragon on her ceiling. Unless that’s her mate or something. Then, I can understand her fully. I also have a painting of you above my spare bed in the workshop.”

“Do I even want to know what it pictures?” Asterios asked.

“No.” She grinned at him devilishly. “But it definitely warms me up on cold nights.”

“If you weren’t working yourself to sleep, I would be the one doing that instead,” he quipped back.

“Ouch. Can’t refute that.” Grea faked a wince. “I guess I need to fix my priorities.”

Asterios snuck a peck onto the side of her forehead. “I appreciate your priorities being my wellbeing, no matter what I say. Now, let’s see what the others found out. Selene is waving at us.”

She smiled warmly at him and pulled Asterios into a loving kiss before walking up to everyone with their elbows linked. The ladies had scouted the entrances and gathered to discuss their next steps. After exchanging some opinions about the visual clues, they chose to follow the side paths first as the one at the far end of the chamber looked like the fanciest one, most likely leading into the Lady’s hoard or some other important place. It would be wise to try and find her before invading her precious collection like that.

Following the corridor to the left, they soon arrived in another room, this time more irregular. The walls and the ceiling were not as smooth and appeared as a slightly jagged, natural cave formation. 

On one side, stood a low but wide platform bearing marks of movement on top of it. It had dents in some places, created by constant friction throughout decades of use. From their position, it was rather apparent that it served as someone’s bed, as hard and cold as it was.

But, on the other side…

“Are those… broken eggs?” Bryn pointed out.

Everyone directed their attention to the section with two fairly big pedestals standing next to each other. Their tops were bowl-like to hold something of a round shape in place. And there was still evidence of that something all over the close vicinity of those short pillars. Whitish-blue fragments of cracked shells lay on the floor, with a bigger chunk still resting in the hollow at the upper part of the seats.

“No… Do you think someone came in and smashed her eggs?” Miria covered her mouth in horror.

Althea approached the remains with Asterios, picking up a sharp piece with her fingers. “It doesn’t look like they were destroyed from the outside. These fractures look a bit more natural. But, I can be mistaken.”

“Well, at least one of those poor bastards didn’t make it out alive,” Grea said, capturing everyone’s attention.

When they looked her way, she nodded behind one of the pedestals, pointing to a small draconic skeleton lying mostly complete out there. Its size was comparable to that of a large dog, and while most bones bore some marks here and there, the spine about midway to the head was completely broken. The cause of the newborn whelp’s death seemed rather self-apparent.

“Did someone capture the other one while snapping the neck of this guy?” Selene wondered out loud. “Perhaps two of them were more of a challenge than this person expected.”

“I think the struggle would still leave some evidence behind. Here, it’s like someone licked the floor clear off any blood or other traces,” Silvia commented. “I don’t think they were attacked.”

“Yet, they fought, and most likely one killed the other,” Asterios joined in, looking down at the evidence with a frown.

“Why do you think that, Master?” Miria tilted her head at him.

“If she disappeared before those hatched, there’s a chance it happened without the mother present. Doesn’t matter much if the pair broke out of their shells at the same time. I don’t think young Dragons can survive long without proper sustenance. If there was anything to eat here, it had to run out at some point, so they were forced into a fight where the winner took it all, including the life of their sibling. The skeleton looks to be picked clean to the very bone. The same might have happened to the traces on the floor. We might stumble on another deceased Dragon somewhere else in this complex if it didn’t figure out a way to leave this place before starving to death,” he explained.

“They might have been at each other’s throats from the very moment of their birth,” his mentor added. “Not really because of survival, but simply due to the urge to establish the dominant one. Without the mother to mediate or oversee it, the battle ended up with an actual casualty. The feeding part might have come later, out of necessity.”

“That’s really unfortunate.” Tina sighed deeply. “I now wonder even more what happened to the mother. She wasn’t present even for the birth of her children. No matter how harsh you might be, I can’t imagine willingly leaving your unborn kids in a predicament where they are fated to die locked in your room with no way to move out or even feed on. I would understand moving away after at least making sure they can crawl into the open world, but not this.”

“This is a mystery we will try to solve while looking around here,” Althea said gently. “We should see if we can locate the other one.”

Giving the nesting room one more glance all over, they retreated into the middle hall and picked the other path. The corridor was much shorter and quickly curved into a smaller chamber too. It was instantly apparent that it was meant to be a kitchen or pantry as plenty of shelves, boxes, barrels, crates, cupboards, and cabinets lined up the smooth walls. Everything was of ice in various shades and opacity.

And almost everything was damaged to some extent.

Whatever had been stored there before was long gone. The other little Dragon had to be the culprit behind the fierce assault on the food and water supplies as claw and bite marks decorated pretty much every surface in sight. Some frosty furniture was shattered or just slightly broken while old bones belonging to various creatures littered the floor. Nothing edible had been left behind to rot and decay.

“Well, I say this proves that one theory.” Grea put her hands on her hips while examining the damage. “But, I can’t see the corpse of the little bugger anywhere in this place.”

“The other one seems confirmed too.” Bryn directed their attention to one of the corners. “Can we move that rubble over there?”

Silvia floated a bit closer and released a wave of gentle but powerful heat into the fragments of crystal that obstructed their view. The jumbled shapes slowly melted away and revealed a roughly carved-out tunnel going up and away from the room. It was big just enough for someone to walk on all fours through it, having some leeway in each direction. Noticing it, everyone understood that a lot of the nearby lumps and pieces of ice and dark blue stone had come from this particular shaft.

“Smart from a young age.” Althea grazed the edge of the opening with her fingers. “It knew it was better to dig upwards and let the rubble naturally roll down into here. The question is if it made it out or if its body lays frozen somewhere in the middle before this point and the outside world.”

“There’s one way to check.” Grea snapped her fingers and Aura unwound herself from her mistress, mostly coming out as pinkish mist from the crimson-skinned lady’s feminine areas. “Would you mind taking a peek into this path for me, dear?”

“Give me just a moment.” Aura nodded and floated into the breach.

Her mischievous Summoner grinned salaciously as Asterios and the others stared at the demon woman. “Can’t have my slit freezing shut or I won’t be ready for you at any time. Aura makes some fine thermal underwear, I tell you.”

While their pink friend investigated the passage, they searched the kitchen for some more clues. Not much more was revealed during the investigation, only confirming some of their earlier guesses or further supporting the probability. The gate was clearly too heavy for the young Dragon to open or scratch its way through so it had chosen the only other option available. The walls weren’t reinforced with spiritual energy as much.

Ten minutes later, Aura returned. “It’s currently covered with a layer of ice and snow, but there’s a second hole on the other side. It seems the Dragon made it out successfully. It was impossible to tell what happened next, unfortunately.”

“That’s already plenty. Thank you.” Asterios nodded at her respectfully. “Considering the fact that the sealies didn’t mention anything about a smaller version of the Lady of the Lake, it’s unlikely that our little suspect stayed around the area. If it’s alive, it might be far away. Otherwise, it could have been taken down by a Frost Titan or something else.”

“It’s still such a sad story.” Miria sniffed quietly. “I can’t help but hope that the small Dragon is doing okay on its own.”

“Some of their methods of upbringing might be somewhat rough and even barbaric, but I agree that no one deserves to wake up in a situation like this.” Althea shook her head. “However, it’s no use worrying about things out of our control.”

Everyone agreed after a moment and they slowly backtracked into the middle section of the lair. Left with only one remaining way to continue, they carefully strolled into the most intricate section. Another double-winged gate greeted them, but after using just a bit of strength, they were able to push it open without much trouble.

Behind the gate, they found one more circular chamber with impressive columns all around. In the very middle, lay a few big piles of something shiny. Upon closer inspection, they realized that those were all things made of silvers or similar minerals. The diversity of the items ranged from cutlery, through equipment and weapons, to whole chunks of ore and segments of constructions.

“Girl knows what she likes.” Grea snickered under her nose. “I wonder how many of these are pillaged and how many were offered as gifts or offerings in exchange for one’s life.”

“What would be in Master’s hoard?” Miria tapped her lips thoughtfully.

“Mystical creatures,” Tina responded immediately and Asterios raised a brow at her. “Wait. Hear me out. I didn’t mean that you would capture and keep them locked in some cave. But, it was your dream to surround yourself with summons. I honestly can’t see you collecting anything else just for the sake of it.”

“I can.” Her ex-professor winked at the blue-haired girl. “Women.”

“We all know that’s not true or else Ast would have slept with plenty of other females who showed interest in him,” Silvia countered. “And I’m going to most likely steal his line, but he doesn’t think of us as things he collects.”

“You are no fun to tease.” Grea pouted. “What things that aren’t living do you think he would gather?”

~Books, possibly,~ Tia chimed in. ~I saw in his memories how much Asterios loves reading and studying living creatures. I can imagine his lair’s core in the form of a neatly organized library. With some comfortable furniture he can make love to his mates on without disturbing his hoard.~

“Fair point.” The demon lady nodded. “I can see that too. So, do we grab anything or everything?”

“Is there really a reason for us to lay our hands on these precious metals?” Althea asked calmly. “I don’t think this family lacks funds, and if there are any artifacts in this stack of items, the creations of the Spellsong family most likely overshadow those with ease. We don’t know if the Lady is truly gone. Messing with her hoard might be an unnecessary move.”

“I agree with Althea.” Asterios exchanged smiles with his emerald-haired mentor. “Plus, we can come back here at any point. There’s no reason to delay things further by going through piles of this stuff. The Lady is gone and we don’t seem to have learned much about her current whereabouts or state.”

“Can we at least walk around for a little longer?” Miria looked up at him with pleading eyes.

“Of course.” He chuckled warmly. “Be careful of any traps or such, though.”

They split up and admired the vault and its treasures individually or in groups. It was fascinating to study the interesting objects its owner had collected throughout her life. There were no other paths leading out of the chamber, and none of them spotted any secret passages or sections, soon deciding that they should head back for now. Admiring the beauty of this ice palace and its main hall, they gathered in front of the breach Silvia had created and started slipping through it once more, with Asterios staying behind as the last person.

Just as he leaned forward to pass through the gap, a faint ceramic crack echoed through the air, traveling far into all three paths. He turned his head and slowly scanned the spacious foyer but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

“Master?” Miria’s voice came through the breach.

“Coming,” he replied, took one more glance, and soon joined them on the other side.

With everyone present, Tina worked on patching the hole with water while Asterios froze it with one of his spells cast from his Spellslinger. Silvia then added some finishing touches with her flames, making the spot they had gone through appear more or less untouched from afar. It was the least they could do for breaking in uninvited.

With their job done, the flaming princess dismissed her powerful form and Asterios took everyone onto his back once more. They could simply transfer themselves to the ground below the mountain, but it was much more fun to fly together. Not having to worry that much about being spotted was rather nice.

A few moments later, they landed in front of the unfrozen lake with no change around the mysterious body of water. Asterios turned human and they all stared at the perfectly clear liquid.

“Any new ideas? Or are we staying with me taking a dip in this thing to see what’s the matter here?” He pursed his lips, glancing over his mates ponderingly.

~That would be ideal,~ Tia replied.

“Alright. I guess I should get ready.” Sighing softly, he cracked his head and took a look at his clothes.

“Are you going to undress?” Tina asked with a slight flush to her cheeks that wasn’t evoked by the weather.

Grea rolled her eyes. “Oh, please, it’s not like there will be much to stare at in this climate. No use getting all shy over it.”

Turning towards them, Asterios made his spiritual attire disappear in a wave of crimson flames. The moment everything was gone, Grea’s gaze jumped down to his waist as her brows rose to her hairline, and her mouth formed a perfect little loop of surprise. Tina and Miria grew even redder as the others showed amused smiles.

“Another perk of being a Crimson Dragon.” He smirked at the demon lady. “My blood runs as hot as I need it to.”

“And you were walking with that like this the entire time?” she asked while pointing down.

“No.” Asterios chuckled. “This is thanks to all your attention. A treat, if you would like to call it so.”

Before she could get enough of such treat though, he took a step back and fell into the lake with a loud splash. The ladies laughed and dodged the icy-cold water coming for them, with Grea being the only one getting hit due to still being a bit too stunned to react quickly enough.

Focusing on his connection with Tia, Asterios swam deeper into the sizable pond while drawing out a good amount of his lineage to keep him from freezing. At one point, his body temperature rose so high he could see the water bubbling over his skin as it boiled on contact. But, he felt comfortable enough to continue heading in the direction his Dryad friend was guiding him. The bottom of the pool arrived in front of him after about a minute and he glanced around.

~There. That protruding thing. Do you see it?~ Tia led him mentally.

Asterios spotted the thing she was talking about and moved closer. Amongst other rocks and stones, something more elongated stood out. It looked to be part of the lake’s uneven floor but positioned at a slightly weird angle. The protrusion was thick enough for him to grab its top section if he wanted, which was more cylindrical than the rest.

~Try grabbing it? I can feel powerful natural energy from it but it’s kind of locked up,~ the Arch Dryad suggested what he was just thinking of doing.

Wrapping his fingers around the protrusion, Asterios was immediately hit with a piercing cold that surged into his body through his arm, prompting a pained groan from his lips. It spread quickly, cooling down his temperature at a rapid pace. He could see his hand starting to turn blue.

~Fight it! With everything you have! I’ll keep healing your body as you go!~ Tia shouted with concern and he felt her powers rejuvenate him faster than they did so passively.

Not willing to succumb to this weird phenomenon, Asterios let his draconic ancestries run wild and a wave of heat burst out of him alongside immense spiritual pressure. Putting his all into drawing out the most fierce scorching fire he could call upon, he accidentally created a sizable sphere of boiling water about two meters wide from his body. A storm of bubbles surrounded his figure, completely obstructing his vision.

But, thankfully, he didn’t need it.

He could feel the cold give up and get pushed back into the rocky stick. Then, his own warmth surged into it in turn and the weird knob started sucking it up with an unimaginable ferocity. It was hard to keep control of, and he worried that it could drain him heavily, but before that could happen, the suction gradually grew weaker until it finally stopped.

At that point, Asterios noticed that the water around him wasn’t boiling and bubbling anymore while he was still radiating intense heat. Before he investigated that turn of events, he hastily pushed himself towards the surface. Taking another breath of fresh air took priority over everything else. The battle down there had taken a bit of effort out of him.

When he surfaced with a faint gasp, he realized that he was now surrounded by fresh tongues of steam. The edge of the pond in front of him was no longer covered by snow, which had already melted away. The girls stood a bit from it with wide eyes and big smiles.

“It’s a hot spring!” Miria squealed happily and discarded her own clothes in two blinks, diving in without any memory of her earlier embarrassment.

She proceeded to swim around and float on the surface while sighing blissfully, her alluring charms poking out of the water delightfully. The other ladies chuckled at their sister-mate and joined the duo in the lake with some more composure. Asterios smirked to himself and swam to the shore. 

Finding a spot where the ground descended into the depths at a fairly smooth angle, he rested his elbows over the edge while lying on his back and relaxed a little, admiring the sight of his lovely mates taking a dip in the hot water too. They could investigate the weird protrusion in a moment. It didn’t seem to be doing much else besides existing there for now. First, it would be good to recover a bit in the surprising gift the unusual rock presented them with.

It could have taken a minute or ten since he had briefly closed his eyes, but he felt a smooth hand travel up his stomach, which brought him out of his pleasant stupor. Lifting his eyelids, he saw the girls still talking to each other while enjoying the spring, and Miria was currently racing Tina across the big pond. 

As for the owner of the hand, the beautiful fox lady rested her head on his shoulder while snuggling to him tenderly from the side. Her fingers kept running circles over his skin, caressing it with clear affection and interest. Feeling his gaze on herself, she raised her bluish eyes to meet his and showed a questioning smile, inching a bit lower with her palm this time.

“The others?” Asterios asked.

“Can join if they want,” Selene replied. “But I feel really revitalized by these waters.”

She sensually climbed onto his lap as her eyes turned white and a few more tails surfaced behind her beguiling back. Pressing her chest against his while placing her palms over his cheeks, she peered down into his crimson irises with a silent question.

He snuck his hand into her lush hair from behind and brought her lips to his for a gentle kiss. “I guess I seem to be full of energy too, so there might be something to that.”

She smiled gracefully and dove for another one, squeezing the evidence of that energy snugly between their bodies.