Within a cavernous dwelling, where a small natural river flowed through the center, and light peeked through a hole overhead, all while tiny balls of light fluttered about, Yori found herself sitting upon a desk, with slabs of crystal scattered across various tables made of cut trees. From the crystal slabs, various letters, unknown to anyone else, floated in the air surrounding her, all the while, the tiny familiars flitted about carrying tiny orbs much smaller than themselves around.
“Hmm…bypassing the null space between dimensions is fine…but I want to explore it. How to go about doing that though? Nothing can survive that area…the complete lack of air and unrelenting gravitational pressure on the body makes it impossible. Even the shields wouldn’t hold for long, and they wouldn’t save us from the lack of air either…”
As she pondered what to do, Ixen made his way in, the large boulder at the entrance shining for a moment as runes appeared in a circle pattern before he walked in, stretching his body as he made his way down the stone steps and into the den.
“I’m back, short day today, they had a lot on schedule so I just decided to take the day off rather than take the overtime. Gives Jasra and Elsu a break as well. How ya doing anyway? Gain any headway on that research on whatever the space you called it was.
“Null space. A vacuum of no air and immense pressure. The area that exists between dimensions where living beings like us aren’t supposed to even know about. I didn’t even know about it until Yama explained it.”
Ixen made his way over to what resembled a couch, with pillows and blankets overtop of it in a leaf like pattern. As he relaxed, laying himself overtop of it, he tried taking in what Yori had said, but ultimately dismissed it, as delving any further would only lead to him becoming confused.
“Right, right. Yama again, huh? You do talk to him a lot…”
Yori continued to look over the floating words, moving them around with her paw all while writing up a few things in the other as diagrams of various scenarios played out in the air, dissipating at seemingly random points. Upon closer inspection however, the ones that dissipated were familiars being sent to the null area, each one dying in the tests.
“Well of course, we both travel to other worlds a lot after all. It’s only natural we may run into one another a lot. Dammit…so many just can’t survive it…how does he do it…? If he can do it without magic, then it’s definitely possible to do so with it…!”
Ixen continued to watch for a bit, seeing Yori slowly become more and more frustrated as she fiddled around with various defensive spell combinations. Looking at them, it was clear that she had already created a few spells that weren’t made before.
“...what spells did you make? I don’t recognize most of these mana combinations.”
Yori barely looked back at him as he asked, continuing to write out symbols in the air, only briefly stopping what she was doing in order to respond.
“That one in particular would allow one to breathe in a vacuum. Of course, it didn't seem to work out, did it? It is quite hard to make a spell that completely alters a living creature's anatomical structure without irreparable damage to the internal systems. We have augmentation magic, but none of it has been able to bypass a creature's need to breathe...”
As she finished, another one of the images dissipated into light particles, causing Yori to shake her head in response to it.
“Like that actually. Died because the spell made it so it could “only” breath in a vacuum. But once brought back into a normal environment it ended up dying anyway. Haah…perhaps I can kidnap Yama and just…study how he works…”
Ixen simply looked on at the eleven still being studied for a brief moment, before looking back at Yori, who was becoming noticeably frustrated. Despite the face she was presenting, the fact that she was willing to look for outside help served as a clear sign that she was beginning to hit her limit.
“Hey, you’ve been cooped up in here for about a week now…perhaps some air would do you good. It might make thinking up solutions easier.”
Yori quickly shook her head in response to the question, clearly being almost offended by the request after he suggested it. She pulled her arms away from the screens she was writing on before looking back at him with a rather cross expression.
“I’ll have you know that I’m moments away from figuring out yet another breakthrough in magical study that hasn’t been discovered in Edarel yet. I don’t need things like “fresh air” to distract me from my goal! Twenty seven of my spell ideas may have not worked out, but with the eleven still out there, I know that at least one of them-”
Before she could finish, a chain of popping noises could be heard behind her, as each of the eleven familiars died almost simultaneously, breaking apart into particles once more. This led to a brief silence between the two, before Ixen looked at her, only opening his maw for a brief moment.
“So…thirty eight failed then?”
With a long sigh, Yori closed down the screens, pushing them back down into the tablets of crystal that laid out over the table, before yawning and pulling herself up from the chair.
“Fiiine, let me freshen up a bit, then we can head out. Not sure what you want to do though.”
“Just a walk, we don’t really get to do much together anyway. Since we’re both always busy and you’re never really here…”
Ixen trailed off with the last comment, only for Yori to wave him off, before conjuring a few more familiars who quickly proceeded to groom her fur. She made her way over to the large natural pool of water, dipping herself into it for a while and swimming for a bit, all the while letting the magical light creatures clean her, scanning her body over with magic and removing any dirt or other such unwanted items that would have sullied her fur.
In just a few moments, they picked her up out of the water and began to fly around her quickly, drying her off while combing out her fur and tail, then spreading out the fur tufts on her head, overall making her look as presentable as possible. As they did so, Ixen shrugged and decided to at least do a bit himself, taking off his coat and creating a few familiars himself, though unlike Yori’s glowing, white colored orbs, Ixen’s were a bright reddish orange color. Despite the difference, they functioned much the same, cleaning his scales of any residue, and leaving his scales with a shiny coat, all while taking his robe and doing much the same to it as well.
Beforelong, the two were soon finished in mere moments, having to do little to lift a finger as the magically summoned beings did all the work for the two. Ixen quickly took his ring and put it on, but Yori was nearly ready to head out with nothing on, only to be stopped by Ixen.
“Hey now, where’s your shield? You need to get that on before we can go.”
Yori rolled her eyes at the request, waving him off as she did many other times, his overly careful nature being both well regarded, but annoying at times like this. Still, she had the hood and gloves brought over nonetheless, with the matching sphere that held the hood together serving as her shield generator.
“I don’t know why you insist on me taking this thing with me everywhere…but fine, fine. It isn’t as if someone as great as me needs it.”
“It isn’t about being great, hun, it’s about being careful. You never know what can happen. And you're not the most durable. I’d rather not see some creature kill you because you didn’t take any precautions. Nothing can get through that thing without ample anti-magic, so it helps put me at ease. Doubtful we’ll run into anything like a pack of cottro.”
Yori shrugged, quietly muttering how little he understood other worlds and the lack of use such a shield really was in most places due to the lack of mana in many of them, but resided to accept his belief in magic superiority nonetheless. Though in part this was likewise due to Yori herself agreeing to it.
Regardless, with the two finally done, they headed out, using the portal to travel through the boulder blocking the entrance to the cavern den and teleporting themselves through the forest where the cavern dwelling lay hidden and onto the main road on the continent.
“Teleportation, one of the things that just makes us mages better than those that do without. Haha…feels a bit unfair when you really think about it.”
Despite Ixen’s comment, Yori did not disagree, believing much the same about their superiority over non magic users and the worlds they came from.
Still, with that, the two began to walk, the light breeze and light blue hue of the morning sky offered itself a peaceful walk, with Yori wasting no time in pulling herself up on top of Ixen’s head, and resting for awhile as she listened to the sounds of birds and other creatures surrounding them. Each of them rang in the early morning in their own way, while Ixen himself walked along the road. Even with the two not saying much of anything to one another, the fact that they were together seemed to be enough for the two.
“It’s nice, getting to travel again like this.”
“Please…it’s just a walk, no reason to get emotional about it…”
As they walked, the two passed by a small outpost, with just a few small shops along the road, seemingly a small merchant stop. With nowhere to head to immediately, Ixen decided to stop by and look around a bit. The two spied a small stop selling a few local produce, and deciding to get a small bite to have on the road, spent a few crystals to buy a couple apples.
Despite the easy purchase however, the shopkeeper was insistent on trying to give Ixen a discount, no doubt due to him stopping the “evil mage knights” that wanted to control over all magic in Edarel. He insisted on not getting one, though Yori, not one to miss a chance at waxing how great at least someone was, began trying to push the envelope on what should be given out. After a lot of debating, name calling and Yori being as annoying as possible, eventually Ixen simply bought the food for what it was worth, and even gave a few more crystals as an apology for the entire situation. Once done, the two were on their way once again, though with Yori going on a bit about how overly nice her husband was being, and the reasons why he should have just taken the discount.
Eventually however, as she calmed down, Ixen and Yori made their way down the road, looking over the scenery as a gentle wind blew, ruffling the leaves of nearby trees. The outside air was peaceful and soft along the road, leading the two to stop for a bit and sit out over the grass. However, as they stopped, a group of three surrounded the two, them being an emerald, alklade and an amber dragon. The emerald was the first to address the two, looking over the pair with a gaze of barely contained hatred, making it clear he had no good intentions for the pair.
“Saw you back at that merchant stop at the outpost. You’re that famous noble loving garnet dragon Ixen, yeah?”
Ixen immediately pulled himself up, the line rubbing him the wrong way, but still not enough to get him to retaliate against who were no doubt just some civilians as far as he knew. Still, the sight of an emerald with an amber was certainly interesting to him.
“My name is Ixen yeah, but noble loving…? I wouldn’t say that. I might work for the department of magical affairs, but my mates are an amber and an anki. Neither are exactly the first races one would associate with a noble lover…”
“Shut up! You work for the department in Odarriya, and that should be plenty enough reason! Rather than trying to one up them and be a merc.”
The emeralds' tone was confusing to him, especially given most emerald dragons were nobles themselves. For one to be saying that mercenaries were better than the department which in defense, did focus a lot on Odarriya’s issues most of the time, was odd. It was then that it clicked for him.
“Hm…oh I see. Now I get it. You used to be a noble, got arrested for something, and then they kicked you off of Odarriya, making you lose all your crystal as well as your noble status. Am I right? Is that why you hate the department so much? Because they stripped you of the power you thought you could abuse?”
The emerald dragon now started to become defensive, with Ixen having hit the mark on what happened. As he tried to figure out what to say back, the amber saved him from having to talk, by continuing for him.
“That’s not your business, department mage! Now hand over all the crystals you have on you! We saw you back at the crossroad, we know you’ve gotta be loaded.”
With this, Ixen sighed as the amber attempted to rob him, shrugging as he moved his foot a bit, only to be met with a sudden attack spell from behind. The third member, the alklade, was watching them closely to make sure he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.
“And now you are robbing us. Dig yourself deeper, why don’t you? You know, I know an emerald like you that also got their status and title stripped away. But you know what he did? Worked his tail off and became a top ranked general in the military, and is highly respected for it. I’m off duty, so if you turn and leave now, I won’t arrest you. How about it?”
The three stopped to look at one another for a bit, only to soon begin laughing amongst themselves. This was enough to finally get Yori to open her eyes, mostly ignoring the exchange going on as she tried to rest underneath the tree. Once the group had their fill of laughing at what they perceived as an empty threat, the emerald once again spoke up, gaining the confidence to speak again.
“Oh please! It’s three versus one! You really think that you’ll win? How about you leave the capsule with all your crystals, and in exchange, we leave you to walk away with only a few broken limbs? Better than us taking it off your corpse, yeah?”
Before Ixen could get a word out to reply, mana beginning to spark in his hands as he prepared to defend himself, Yori hopped over after having rested and was now fully awake. She smiled at the group, her signature overly cocky and condescending gaze struck each of the bandits in turn, as they stared down at the tiny rabbit.
“Oooh? You say this is a three on one? Come now, there’s no reason to disrespect that garnet dragon over here like that. And all because he’s too weak to count in this fight? Besides, you disrespect the great Yori as well? She, who alone would be worth at least ten of each one of you? No, no…this isn’t a one versus three. This is “The greatest and most powerful wizard in the omniverse, Yori, vs some shitty bandits on the side of the road! Face it, you guys aren’t even worth mentioning as a footnote in my tale of greatness!”
There was a collective silence for a brief moment, as all four of the other mages there looked down at the tiny raunikayle, smaller than everyone there and one that most knew as one the biggest failures that graced Oddariya’s halls.
“You have a lot of nerve, talking as if you’ve already won, you worthless rabbit bitch. Just for that, after this is done, how about we drag your tiny little body, kicking and screaming into the woods, where we’ll take turns teaching you to shut your mouth. I’m sure a few rounds with a cock in those holes of yours will put you in your place. You stupid little cunt-!!”
Before the emerald could finish speaking, a stream of fire sped past his head, cutting him off as the heat from the fire nearly caused his fur to burn. Ixen, who had been especially passive up to this point, now looked respectively pissed, as streams of fire wrapped around his hands.
“You want to try taking what you said back? That comment of yours already forfeited any goodwill I had towards you before. But if you at least apologize, I’ll make the beating less painful.”
The alklade, who had been watching for a while now, left little time for them to consider an option, and once the first spell was set off, the serpent wizard’s gems began to glow, as thunder began to crackle out from around him. The amber’s own hands began to glow as well, the large dragon shifting his hefty body around to better position himself as plants around the area began to sprout from underneath the ground! Ixen was quick to generate a large shield of fire around him and Yori, incinerating the plants that were growing around the two, all while the emerald himself created a slew of crystals from a circle and began to fire them out towards them in a stream of shards!
Yori stood behind the fire shield, laughing as everything went down, the fire barrier taking a massive beating from all sides, all the while Yori did nothing as she watched everything unfold.
“Hah! Look at you all! How cute your low level magic is compared to someone like me, who far outstretches you in every capacity! I almost pity you all for being so far below the greatness that I, Yori the omnipotent and unstoppable wizard, praised in the pristine halls of the floating city of Odarriya, as the greatest mage-”
“Do you mind helping!? This isn’t exactly easy to hold, you know!?”
Yori stopped as Ixen yelled at her, causing her mood to drop suddenly as she shook her head and a frown crossed her face. Pulling her arms out from crossing around the tuft on her neck, she quickly began creating a slew of circles around them. Immediately creating two purple circles within a large area and then a crimson one. With each of the circles, the power of the shield increased exponentially, causing Ixen to make it explode around them, pushing the three bandits off their feet for a moment. With that, Yori groaned as she then swapped roles, creating a large, translucent barrier around the two with her own magic, as Ixen then shifted to creating a massive wave of fire around them both, now generating massive amounts of heat as it began to melt even the earth around them.
“You never let me have any fun, you know that?”
Ixen shook his head at Yori’s comment, clearly in disagreement on what she considered to be fun. The heat completely prevented the amber from using any of his plant based magic as he shifted to using water instead, while the alklade soon attempted to control the flames with his limited knowledge of fire type energy magic. The emerald, wasting no time in trying to throw the two off, began to alter the earth around the area to make them lose balance.
“I’m sorry, but explain to me what’s so fun about being robbed, raped then killed in a forest by a bunch of bandits?”
Ixen quickly weaved together a small fire serpent, and sent it out towards the alklade. Being the most important one to take out, he quickly adjusted his fire to focus on the snake, and quickly wrapped him in a sphere of fire. Despite the flames themselves not burning him, due in no small part to the shield generator he had kept the actual fire from burning him directly, the heat emanating from them immediately cut him off, causing him to scream for help. The amber shifted his focus to dousing the sphere around his ally, but almost as soon as he did so, the fire wyrm that Ixen created quickly went in and snatched a cloth ring around his body. With the shield no longer there, the flames began burning him immediately, but Ixen stopped them before they could do any more permanent damage. With a single swing, an energy wave knocked the alklade into a tree, knocking him out instantly.
“One down.”
The remaining two were now on the defensive, the water from the earlier action only having evaporated almost instantly when in contact with the fire from before. Realizing the flames were far too hot to do much, the amber opt to instead try and run into them and overpower them both physically.
“No you idiot! Don’t-”
Immediately, as he charged the two, he ran head first into the shield Yori had created, slamming into it hard as the shield he wore around his wrist crackled from the impact. In frustration, he immediately began punching at it, causing the dome around Ixen and Yori to falter.
“Ugh…the fun is, well you know! The domination part! It feels really good! And this idiot…is bugging me!!”
Immediately, Yori moved her hands around, causing the place where the amber was punching at the shield to begin warping around his fists. The clear bubble grabbed his arms tightly in their grasp, causing him to immediately begin pulling away, only for the same wyrm from before to snap the cloth bracelet off. With that, Ixen wasted no time in delivering a series of air blasts straight to his over exposed stomach, beating into him and launching him into the air, before stopping and letting him drop down, winded and unconscious.
“Nothing would be fun about being killed after you know. Ahh, but I guess I forgot who I’m talking to. No matter, one left!”
The emerald, being the only one left and having been unsuccessful at infusing the earth in time before both his allies were knocked out, decided the best course would be to run. The earth that he did manage to infuse helped him gain some speed, as he tried to get away. With no dangers remaining, Yori shook her head at the sight of him fleeing, before breaking one of the three circles and creating one directly in front of the fleeing emerald dragon. The moment he passed through it, he was then teleported right beside the two, leaving him in complete confusion as Ixen pinned him down.
“And three. You're under arrest. I really wanted to just relax today, but you had to go and ruin it. Let’s take these three in.”
Yori shook her head before creating a few familiars to carry the snake, though Ixen needed to help with the amber dragon, the massively obese dragon weighing a ton just to lift off the ground. Eventually they simply opted to drag him, as the familiars could not pull him up off the ground, given the massive amount he weighed.
The two made their way back to Odarriya, turning them in, but once finished, Ixen sighed as he looked up, the day now nearly spent despite having a day to spend with Yori for once.
“Dammit…those three completely ruined this. I just wanted a day to spend with you. We don’t really get to do much, on account of you being gone and me being so busy all the time…”
Yori shook her head at the comment, clearly dismissing it as just some minor griping on his end. With her going out all the time and dealing with Yama or the one pokemon named Rose, among many others, she simply failed to see much issue with what he spoke.
“I don’t really get it. What’s the problem? It isn’t like we don’t both agree to being together. As if I’d choose some random over you.”
“That’s not the point…I mean like…you’re with Yama a lot more for example. I’m glad you’re making so many friends, I really am. But I don’t want to be left out either…”
There was a brief silence between the two afterwards, with Ixen quickly chalking it up to Yori simply disagreeing with it quietly. As he was about to just drop it and offer to head back home, Yori quickly pulled herself up to his shoulder, before patting him on the head.
“So sensitive…what will I ever do with you? Fine, fine, there’s still some time left, why don’t we go out somewhere. Maybe that one place in Houville…that’s a nice restaurant. Give a good end to the day. You’re paying of course though.”
Even if small, the comment coming from Yori of all places left a bit of a smile on Ixen’s face, as he reached over and picked her up off his shoulder before pulling her into a gentle hug.
“Hah, sure. Let’s do that then. I love you, you know? I really need to figure out something to be with you more often…”
Yori quickly looked away, blushing as he held her in his arms, not struggling in any way however, like she would if anyone else did much the same thing to her.
“S-stupid. You know I hate hugs and whatnot. Can’t believe you would do this kind of crap…”
Despite the comment, Yori quietly whispered out the words “I love you to” in a low voice, as Yori created a circle and the two walked through it, teleporting them both into a large, bustling city. Lights from a massive array of floating magic orbs lit the marbled streets, and even late at night, hundreds were still out and about in the city, talking, goofing around and shopping from the vendors still willing to be open late at night.
Ixen and Yori made their way through the streets and crowds, with Ixen carrying Yori in his arms, though not without embarrassing her in the process. Despite any demands to be let go, Ixen simply laughed them off and pet her gently on the head, causing her to blush and look away from him.
They gradually made their way towards a large restaurant suspended over the nearby ocean, with magic likewise keeping a large patio area levitated over the water. Familiars are flying around, carrying food orders out to various tables where other customers all sat and talked amongst themselves.
As the pair made their way to the entrance, an emerald dragon greeted the pair before setting them up at a table, leaving them to peruse over the menu. The items on it were popular favorites from all across the world of Edarel itself, with a few local favorites here and there. Naturally, the prices were high, but with both desiring to make the most of the rest of the evening, Ixen, buying everything as per Yori’s command, decided to simply accept the damage to his wallet that would come.
The two made their orders, and soon enough, the food came out. The pair chatted away for a while whilst taking their time. Sidelong glances from others there looked towards the raunikayle eating at a table, though despite the judging gazes, Yori did not seem to appear to concern herself with the opinion they had, as her focus was entirely on Ixen, who was just happy to spend time with Yori despite all the times she would leave and go out.
After the two finally finished and paid, they headed back home, where the remnants of Yori’s experiments sat, laid out over the desk. Despite wanting to get back to working on it all, she looked over towards Ixen, who made his way towards the bed, clearly a bit down from the end of the day, but chose not to say anything on it. As Yori looked back at the research and then back towards Ixen, she let out an overly exaggerated sigh, and proceeded to tug on the back of
His coat that he had yet to take off.
“Research can wait for a bit longer. And it isn’t good to do so while tired anyway. I’m heading to bed, Don’t take too long getting there, or I’ll take up the entire mattress for myself.”
Ixen found himself caught off guard at first, but proceeded to laugh, quickly picking up Yori by the tail and lifting her up to face level. With a toothy smile and a flick of his serpent tongue, he licked Yori’s face before lifting her neck up to look him directly in the eyes.
“You? Take up the entire mattress? Hah! Not with your size. But I’ll give you a chance to back that claim up. Let’s work off that food. Spar, beat me, and you can sleep on the entire bed, while I’ll sleep on the couch. But if I win…you’ll be using me as a bed. And I get quite rowdy while I sleep as you know.”
Despite the obvious ploy, Yori smiled back at him, this interaction being a lot more her speed. She crossed her arms and quickly poked the garnet dragon on the snout, smiling in her typical cocky fashion while being as condescending as possible to the reptile over three times her height.
“Bring it on! You know I’ll win anyway. After all, who do you think I am? I’m the greatest mage of all time! A ruddy lizard like you won’t stand a chance against me! Hope you’re ready to sleep on the couch!”
With that, the two left, with a short fight ensuing. In short order, the two made their way to bed, with Ixen pulling himself up and Yori, unconscious after their spar, being placed gently on his belly before Ixen found himself falling asleep with a claw gently placed overtop Yori’s tiny frame. With a quiet goodnight from the garnet, followed by a confession of his love for his cocky partner, the dragon drifted off to sleep.
lovespell that was done a few days back, but I haven't been able to post it until now. Very happy to finally get to do so now though! 
