’Visiting this room is already a sneak peek. Who knows when we’ll actually get it? If this is all it can do, then it’s pretty terrible.’ She thought.
"Agreed." Lith replied.
"Mind fusion, remember?" He added in response to her surprise.
Solus felt stupid for a second, then she had a crazy idea that made Lith’s skin crawl. He focused on a small pebble in the middle of the street, using spirit magic to move it. Lith could perceive the tendrils of his mana moving through the air, wrapping around the stone.
Moving it was as hard as it was an elephant. Lith tried a series of chore magic spells too before giving up. Fire blackened only a spot the size of a pinhead, water couldn’t freeze it even with the weather being already cold and earth magic didn’t manage to crack it.
"It’s useless. Yes, we can use magic even from this distance, but the effects are negligible. Unless..."
Lith focused on the area surrounding the tower and the image in the mirror changed accordingly. He could see and hear everything in 25 meters (82 feet) radius, like every single stone that composed Solus’s body was his eyes and ears.
He could even use Life Vision and Solus’s mana sense at will, allowing him to spot all the animals and magical beasts in the vicinity. When he used chore water magic on a dried up tree, it had the same effect of a tier one spell.
"I stand corrected. It doesn’t suck at all. I can use it not only to scout everything within its area of effect, but I can also cast spells while being empowered by the tower and the mana geyser. This is a tremendous improvement to our defensive capabilities." Lith was overjoyed by the discovery.
"I wonder which one of these mirrors controls the arrays." Solus pondered.
"I am bound to have several arrays at my disposal, both for protection and attack. Remember what Jirni said? If every noble household has wards to protect against Warp Steps, I don’t think my maker was so dumb to overlook the dangers of dimensional magic."
Lith was about to move towards a mirror with a square frame, when his vision cracked, as if he was watching through a kaleidoscope. The room seemed to be spinning around, disorienting him and making Lith lose his balance.
"What the heck is happening?" Suddenly the world wasn’t so pink anymore. He didn’t feel happy or relaxed, just angry.
"I guess our time has ran out." Solus calmly bit one last pastry while the tower rumbled ominously. The tremors increased while the room was shrinking in size. Countless cracks appeared on the walls.
Like living snakes they spread up to the ceiling, making dust and debris fall on their head.
Lith’s mind was too messed up to use dimensional magic for escaping. He couldn’t see or focus properly with Solus’s mind getting in and out of his own like it was a revolving door.
He could only stumble towards the stairs, but everything happened too fast even for his enhanced body. Huge sections of the ceiling came crashing down, forcing Lith to roll forward to avoid being squashed to death.
A giant piece of stone fell on the stairs, blocking his way.
"F*ck me sideways!" He yelled while the whole room came down.
The rubble weighted more than a ton, but instead of turning him into toothpaste, it simply pushed him down through the floor. The rock beneath his feet became immaterial for a second, letting him fall down to the ground level unharmed.
He hadn’t the time to use any spell, yet he was slowly descending through the air as he weighed nothing more than a leaf.
"Why so scared, dummy?" Solus chuckled.
"The tower is my body and so is every single piece of stone and furniture. I would never allow any harm to befall my beloved host." She smiled.
"Holy sh*t! You are smiling!" Lith pointed his finger to the figure that was floating in mid air a few centimetres from him.
It was a humanoid female, entirely made of golden light. It had no facial features, aside from her shining eyes, a smiling mouth and a cascade of golden hair enveloping her whole body that floated in the air like she was moving underwater.
"What do you mean?" Her mouth disappeared. Solus had barely the time to look down on her own hands when her body imploded on itself returning to be a wisp made of light.
"F*ck!" Solus angrily swore.
"Can I see how did I look like through your memories?"
"I don’t think it’s a good idea." Lith shook his head.
"Pretty please with a cherry on top?" She begged while circling around him.
"Solus, it’s for your own good. You wouldn’t like what you see."
"Please, I need to know!" She rammed into Lith’s head to emphasize her point.
"We just reconciled, I don’t want you to get angry or sad."
"I won’t, I promise."
"Remember your words, because I will." Lith let his memories flow into their mind link.
He had been true to his word, Solus didn’t like it.
"What’s this? C cup, maybe more. F*ck the light? Solus is a shorty, barely 1.54 (5’1") high? Nice legs, sadly ass N/A? Her belly looks kind of flabby?" The images had more footnotes than a director’s cut.
"Did you check me out in less than five seconds?" Lith couldn’t share a memory without everything that came attached to it.
"Yes. I told you it would make you angry. Or sad. Or both."
"That’s why you made me promise!"
"Guilty as charged." Lith nodded with a smirk.
"I’m the one stuck in a pubescent body for at least another few years and as I told you before, you have no idea how it feels. I already have to keep everything I do and say in check. I have no control over my thoughts."
Solus accepted his explanation, but was quite pissed off anyway.
’All this time wondering how I’d look like in a human body and when I finally get to see it, my precious memory is ruined by those sh*tty remarks. Couldn’t he just be stunned by my beauty?’
"So, how do you plan on curing Elina?"
"It’s going to be tricky." Lith sighed, remembering the second reason he had decided to solve his conflict with Solus. He needed her help.
"This isn’t just anybody, it’s my mother we are talking about. I’m not going to take any risks, I can’t afford using Invigoration during the procedure. I need my full focus and for you to constantly monitor her vitals. Just like we did to remove the undead’s poisoning, if I slip up, you must prevent things from escalating."
"Don’t worry, we can do it. We’ll get Elina pregnant in a jiffy!" She declared proudly, making Lith emit a retching sound.
"Oh, come on! You know what I mean. We just need to get inside her and do our job."
"Please, stop!" Lith begged her. "This is even worse."
"Fine, I’ll shut up." She mind pouted.
’I don’t know if the prolonged isolation made me socially awkward or it’s just that fusing myself with Lith infected me with his dirty mind.’
While pondering about her poor choice of words, Solus found herself resting on his lap. Lith was planning ahead the procedure while caressing the wisp as it was a puppy.
Before she could realize it, Solus fell asleep for the first time in over eight years.