A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

After Erik's words died down, Ankhur sighed with a reluctant nod. "I'm ashamed to discover there are still parts of this city I don't know about. We did several top-to-bottom searches in the beginning, but to be honest, the entire thing was like a psychedelic trip for everyone."

He shrugged helplessly. "We were still just barely getting used to the awakened world when this city showed up out of nowhere. We had no way to discern between the truly mind-blowing and merely mind-rumbling things this city holds… and we still don't."

Creasing his brow, he looked at Elora. "If you can be a little more specific about what we're looking for, I'll immediately put every available man and woman on it."

Elora sighed. The disappointment she felt in what she considered being the Enkarian's incompetence was palpable. Intellectually, she knew it wasn't their fault, but it remained frustrating for her. Besides, she didn't really care if it was their fault or not…

Staying silent and in thought for a moment, she eventually shook her head. "There's no point…" she grumbled, now in a bad mood. "I imagine they tried to hide the entrance, so what we're looking for could look like anything."

Sighing again, she rubbed her temples. "Alright, I'll create a sigil stone that second-rankers can use to generate a kind of omnisense. It's useless for combat in this way, but should be good enough for this. Make sure someone comes to get it in a few hours, and then gets the various newly minted sigil crafters in the city to create more of them."

She looked at Ankhur sombrely. "It should be possible to have at least a few teams searching with these stones before Naeku wakes up. Don't disappoint us."

As she spoke, Erik had his arms crossed in front of his powerful, naked chest. His stance was a little intimidating at first glance, but then you'd notice he was just flirting with Astrid as Elora took care of this part.

Ankhur smirked wryly at being scolded and ordered around by this tiny woman. Despite the fact Erik was technically a lot more intimidating, Elora's scolding tone made anyone targeted by it feel very small, ironically.

Beside him, Enkai bristled at her tone. Yet, before he could speak, Ankhur stopped him by putting his sigil construct hand on the man's shoulder. He nodded at Elora with a deferent, but also resolute, gaze. "Don't worry. We'll take care of it. You should know we probably care more about the safety of this city than you do."

A smirk spread across her lips. "If a desire to be competent mattered more than actually being so, the universe would be a very different place. But, what choice do we have except to hope for the best?"

Erik wisely kept himself busy with Astrid, rather than get involved in this. It appeared Elora was in a bad mood, and he was happy for Ankhur to be his beloved's venting target.

Without another word, and still sitting on Erik's right shoulder, the fairy turned to her husband. "Let's go, my love," she said in a tone so gentle, you'd never suspect it came from the same woman who spoke to Ankhur. "I need to get started, and you need some rest. There's no telling what we'll find tomorrow."

Erik's body was still aching and Elora's magic was still busy supporting his natural regeneration in closing all the wounds, so he could only agree with her. Ankhur continued appearing wry. He was emotionally mature enough to not really mind Elora's attitude, as he'd already largely accepted her and Erik's status as his rulers, but… it still felt strange.

So, Erik nodded a goodbye at Ankhur, and started walking towards the palace. Astrid and Elora ignored the poor king, however. In fact, Astrid had very different things on her mind.

"Sooooo…" she drawled innocently, before grinning at him lustfully. "You have a few hours free now, right? And you still have something to make up to me for not letting me fight earlier, right?"

"No!" Elora immediately interject before Erik could respond. She glared at Astrid. "He needs rest! Can't you see he's still covered in wounds?!"

"I know, big sis!" Astrid answered without even looking at Elora. Her eyes furtively traveled across Erik's half-naked, wounded body. "Isn't it hot?!"

Surprisingly, Elora became a little flustered. Erik actually felt the mixed emotions through their bond, and he smirked knowingly. It wasn't Astrid's comment about his hotness, at least, not entirely, but more the way Astrid addressed her. 'Big sis' for Elora as the first wife was a moniker that was still in the roll-out phase, and not common yet.

But, Elora really liked it… and her sister-wives had discovered that using it sparingly would make it easier to convince her.

"F— Fine… Do as you like…" she muttered, turning her head away. "So long as Erik doesn't mind."

Erik smirked and shrugged. "I can go a night without rest… it's not like the battle lasted that long. I know what it takes to satisfy a harem, after all," he finished with an amused shrug.

Astrid's grin widened, and they disappeared in the distance.

***

Meanwhile, back with Enkai and Ankhur, they watched them leave in silence for a moment. Ankhur, still a little wry, but determined to find out what is going on here, Enkai still frustrated about pretty much everything.

Finally, he turned to his king and friend sombrely. "Obviously this event was regrettable, but I discovered something else disturbing, today…"

So, he told Ankhur everything about what happened with Erik's new religion.

***

After arriving back at the palace and heading towards Erik's dimension, Erik suddenly thought of something else. He quickly send a message to his two high-priestesses. "Don't search for a new spot yet," he told them. "Just clean up and then come back home. There will be a city-wide search tomorrow, so it's not a bad idea to lay low for a moment."

After getting a pair of quick confirmations, Erik disappeared into the bedroom with Astrid, while Elora looked at them jealously, before heading to the training room, which held a sigil crafting station.

The following morning, Erik got up early, leaving a satisfied Astrid behind, and moved to Naeku's bedroom. Yet, when he got there, he realised someone had beat him there. Enkai left the room with a grumpy expression. Noticing Erik, he snorted, and went the other way.

Erik chuckled, suspecting what this was about, and entered the room. In the middle of the room stood an incredulous Naeku with a cocked eyebrow—their bond had already told her he was coming.

"You have a religion?" she asked in a strange tone.