In a flash of light we were back in the backyard of our territory.

No time had passed despite the several days that we had spent evolving. I had always known that time passed differently while evolving however it was the first time that I had seen clear evidence of that happening to myself. When it happened to Tama or Aoif it was all outside experiences and even when I evolved myself it never really hit me but now it did. I saw that Tama was still standing in the same spot as she had been when I had initially initiated my dual evolution with Aoif. That was what really threw me off, despite the several days that I had felt pass with Aoif while evolving Tama had not moved at all.

Breaking my thought Tama looks at me with astonishment softly exclaiming.

"You've grown, my Lord."

Looking inward I could feel the growth that Tama spoke about, the dormant aether in my pathways now excited with power. A green glow was constantly emanating off of me. Even the air around me was affected by the aether I emitted, becoming so pure that taking in a breath of air felt ten times more refreshing than crisp morning air.

However my growth in power did not come without downsides. The full unlocking of all my pathways brought with it the problem of control, where I once could control the circulation of my aether with ease now it felt like trying to hold water, pointless.

Every bit of my hard earned control was gone, replaced with untamed raw power.

Looking over to my left I saw Aoif who, herself, was having trouble controlling her aether too. It seemed like her control over it was better than mine though, as every passing second had her aether growing ever more invisible. However that was only with Aoif concentrating all of her energy on her control.

How I knew that Aoif had her full concentration on controlling her aether I couldn't tell you, I didn't even know. It was just some sort of innate feeling.

While I was thinking of this I was also trying to control my aether. Breathing in and out I close my eyes bringing my attention from Aoif back to my pathways.

The circulation of my aether was uncontrollable for now but I could at least control it in some sense. Instead of forcefully controlling it, I directed it to instead flow more efficiently so as to not permeate out of my skin. It was working.

When I opened my eyes the cloud of aether that had been created by me had lessened now looking more invisible.

Though there was still a visible string of aether that was traveling towards Aoif, tracking it I saw that it was intermingling with her own. I needed to fix that, even though it felt natural it would be a dead give away if we were going to try and hide once we went to the middle realm.

..

It took us a while but after a while of concentration we were able to hide the visible effects of our aether mixing.

The air around us wasn't covered in a cloud of purple and green aether constantly swirling together in a cloud of colors.

However the downside was that we had to constantly hold skin contact so that it could mix directly from skin to skin instead of emanating off of us and mixing in the air.

After we had done that I finally exercised my right to travel to the middle realm and brought with me Aoif.

..

In a great flash of light we were gone.

I opened my eyes and all around us was a great cosmos of stars. Each star had its own realm circling around it.

Next to me was Aoif who was admiring the sight as much as me. It was with unexpected force that we were drawn to a particularly big realm.

It looked like it was cracked in two, one being a prosperous utopia and the other a bare desert colored blood red.

There was a crack in the land that separates them from each other.

However as we got closer and closer I could see that it wasn't actually a crack but was a great wall of bodies each fighting in a never ending battle.

Great blasts of energy littered the sky. Thunder, rain, even just straight energy beams flew everywhere killing hundreds.

In just the few seconds that we were observing the battlefield I could count at least a thousand that had died.

It was more brutal than any war the earth had ever felt.

..

I wasn't able to take in the scenery for too long though as soon after we got close enough we were teleported to some wild area.

It wasn't the desert nor was it the utopia that we had seen.

Instead it was some sort of mountainous terrain.

Above us was a great peak that I had not seen while looking into the realm and below us was a great cliff that fell into a deep abyss.

..

[A low realm lord has ascended into your realm]

"What?!"

The roar of the Gaul's king echoed throughout his chamber. The servants waiting on him outside were cowed into a quivering mess.

They had only seen their king this angry on rare occasions and the servants around him at that point were all dead, used as stress relief by the king.

Coming out of his throne room an angry glare on his face the servants guarding the door were turned into a red paste, they had done nothing.

..

[A low realm lord has ascended into your realm]

The eyes of the queen opened wide, her green eyes sparkling with confusion.historical

"How?" she thought out loud. It hadn't even been a few weeks since they had first ascended to the realm competition.

Calling for a servant, she gets dressed.

When the servant arrives she has the servant call for the rest of her court.

Arriving in the throne room, she waited, bored eyes analyzing the situation

The rest of her court slowly trickled in, sitting down on seats.

Severe expressions on their faces.

Court was never called this close to the previous court date except in times of need.