[Realm of death]
With the realm of death around him being fully unveiled, Darganth knew that the death nexus he was floating in had stopped expanding. Though not yet a stable bridge between reality and the realm of death, its chain reaction had stopped, allowing him to mobilize his mana without having to worry about accidentally interfering with its creation.
As such, he didn't waste much time before transforming. While the death nexus was large, it was only barely large enough for his true body to fit into, forcing him to keep his wings and legs tucked close to his body, bend his head forward, and keep his tail coiled up. All in all, it forced him into a rather uncomfortable posture, causing him to quickly return to his usual humanoid form the moment he could.
Now with space to move, he slowly floated forward until he hovered at the edge of the elemental nexus. Reaching out, he placed one hand against the thin film of death attuned mana that marked the border to the realm of death. Feeling no more resistance than a strong gust of wind would provide, he reached through it.
Immediately, he felt the difference in atmosphere. Instead of matter, raw death elemental energy filled the realm, replacing everything from air to the soil with mimicries that replicate their appearance and function.
However, when it came into contact with actual physical matter in the form of Darganth's hand, the elemental energy showed its true nature as it began violently ripping into his flesh and converting its mass into more elemental energy. Furthermore, even in this upper layer of the elemental realm he found himself in, this happened at rapid speeds, with the speed at which his flesh evaporated surpassing the rate at which Darganth could regenerate it.
Thus, by the time he pulled it back into the elemental nexus after a second, entire patches of skin were already missing. Healing this damage with a quick application of time magic, he reached out for the border one more. This time, he conjured a thin film of death magic around his arm before reaching through.
With this, the sting of his skin being flayed off his flesh remained absent. Only briefly nodding in response to this result, Darganth remained largely indifferent as he again pulled back his hand.
This time, he didn't remain at the edge of the death nexus after the test. Having confirmed that everything was still how he remembered it, he instead focused while turning around. As he did, the area around the magical nexus shifted, with the realm of death disappearing in a blur and turning back into the mana spring from which he had entered.
With it, the forms of Allaire and Yldra became visible. Lying almost horizontally in the air, they flew toward Darganth, held aloft by their control over the ambient mana in their immediate vicinity. Thus, when they reached the death nexus after a few seconds, both abruptly lurched downward as their method of flight failed, with Yldra extending her wings to catch herself while Allaire conjured an aura construct beneath her to land on.
Spending a second or two feeling out the magical nature of the new environment, she soon managed to reestablish control over her surroundings. When she then lightly pushed off the ground, the death magic attuned mana responded to her commands as pure mana would, allowing her to float back toward Yldra just as Darganth arrived near them.
"This is what a magical nexus feels like?" Yldra asked Darganth in a somewhat disappointing tone when he came to a stop in front of her.
"What did you expect?" Darganth responded.
"More. Of anything. I remember being told to never create one when I started learning magic, so I expected a constantly expanding force of destruction or something like that."
"That's a good general rule to follow, but not because of the danger. Rather, it's the fact that once created, it is damn near impossible to get rid of a magical nexus, so it makes the nearby land more or less unusable forever. Just look at this mana spring, I've cut its mana output by around a quarter by doing this. And that despite the fact that the death nexus here is still small compared to some of the other magical nexuses I've seen."
Upon hearing this, a slight grin crept onto Yldra's lips. "When you say near impossible to get rid of, do you mean that in the sense that it would be difficult even for my father or just that the majority of mana users won't be able to?"
Getting a bad premonition due to the highly specific example Yldra used, Darganth shook his head with a sigh. While he trusted Yldra not to do something too drastic, he knew well that she lived for the thrill and that annoying Irsyr was an easy way to experience that.
Despite this, he answered, "It depends somewhat, but it leans toward the second case. Though I once encountered a place where someone had managed to turn an entire planet into a magical nexus, that took me almost a month to undo back then. Admittedly, it was quite a long time before my death, so I was far from my peak of power back then, and Irysr has long since surpassed the me of these days in power, but it would probably still take him a week or two now."
"That's good to know." Yldra said with a grin.
Having similar reservations as Darganth, Allaire questioningly raised an eyebrow as she glanced toward him. Noticing this, Yldra rolled her eyes and interrupted before Darganth could speak.
"I know when it isn't the right time for something. This is for the future, so trust me." The dragoness said.
"Just wanted to make sure before we continue on the actual matter at hand." Darganth said.
Nodding in response to his words, Yldra took it as a cue for them to move on to the next topic. Turning toward Allaire, she waited and let the beastwoman explain the state of affairs in dealing with the metal Elementals.
"Everything in the physical realm is under control, so you don't have to worry about any of that. Yldra and the others even moved to help you and Venrie once the initial tide was pushed back, though that turned out to be unnecessary. Alicia, Scalladras, and I were meanwhile destroying the increasingly few Elementals that still crossed over, so it's all within expectations. What is more interesting is how far you've managed to push the nexus and how long it'll take to become a permanent connection between the realms."
"See for yourself." Darganth said, his tone showing hints of dissatisfaction.
Prompted by his words, Yldra took the lead in floating toward the nearest edge of the death nexus. Stopping Darganth's warning about the environment on the other side by raising her arm and covering it with a protective layer of death magic, she arrived at her destination moments later. Briefly glancing behind her and seeing Darganth nod, she then tried to reach into the realm of death.
To her surprise, however, when her fingers touched the barrier around the magical nexus, a jolt shot through her. Flinching back at the sting of death magic flooding into her mana pathways, she stared at the barrier with wide eyes and froze.
Only slowly regaining her composure over the next second or two, she then let her gaze drift toward her still outstretched hand. Confused, she inspected it to make sure she hadn't accidentally cast the spell wrong before reaching out once more, this time with her dragon eyes fixed on her fingers.
"Don't bother, your spell was already correct in the first attempt." Darganth said in that moment, causing Yldra's fingers to pause mere centimeters away from the barrier.
"Then what is happening?" Yldra asked frustrated.
"While the nexus itself is stable, the connection between the apparently realms isn't even fully established. I wasn't entirely sure before, but your attempt just confirmed it." Darganth said with a frown.
Upon hearing this, Yldra leaned her head back with a sigh and let her shoulders slump.
"Seriously?"
"The calculations based on our assumptions of how strong the veil is here didn't have much margin for error in the first place, so we should've seen it coming. But yes, seriously."
Listening to their exchange from the sidelines, Allaire only partially understood what the two were saying. Though what she did pick up on was that it didn't mean anything good for their plans, even if she didn't understand the exact consequences of the scenario Darganth was describing.
"What does that mean for us? I'm guessing a delay in our timetable, but by what?" She thus asked.
"Potentially not that much actually. The problem is that due to the incomplete connection, neither the physical realm nor the realm of death allows anyone not from there entry. Well, with one notable exception." Darganth said.
"Namely you." Yldra said before turning to Allaire to explain, "Because he was in the magic nexus when it was created, it doesn't have an entry realm to go off when determining to which realm he belongs. As such, he can enter either. The problem is that he can't enter both, as the moment he steps out of here, the veil will know which realm to keep him in."
Understanding the implications of this, Allaire's eyes widened. Turning toward Darganth, she met his gaze with a sigh.
"You'll hurry, alright?" She said after a short pause.
"Of course. I know this isn't a situation you had hoped for, but-"
"You don't have to console me." Allarie interrupted, "Jennia and Serania already had to stay behind to help the ogres, and it'll shorten the time until we can enjoy life without hiding from the primordials, so it's not like I can be too angry that I can't join you. Besides, it might be better for my first meeting with Cehlya not to be in her kingdom, that might become awkward if she doesn't like me."
Not believing even for a moment that the worry of her last sentence might happen, Darganth chuckled lightly as he shook his head. Pulling Allaire into a hug, he gave her a quick kiss before reassuring her.
"That won't happen. For one, she didn't hold it against any of my lovers that they were sleeping with me before, and I doubt that has changed. And secondly, I know you. Just you being yourself will leave a positive impression within ten minutes of a conversation, so I doubt Cehlya will dislike you once you meet." Darganth said.
"I hope you're right." Allaire responded.
In the silence that followed their conversation, Allaire slowly floated backward, pulling apart her embrace with Darganth.
As she did, he suddenly said, "When I'm back, we should make time for a date week with Serania and Jennia. We didn't have one since setting off, and for once, there won't be anything we need to work on. Might be a bit limited considering we'd have to stay in here, but we'll find a way."
"If need be, I'll just ask Venrie to conjure a wooden house and either fly it into here myself or have Yldra do it. And yes, I like the idea." Allaire said.
"Thought so. Can you tell Serania and Jennia later?" Darganth said, before briefly pausing and turning toward Yldra, "Or better yet, could you get them? And maybe also bring the others along? While I can't go out to meet them as intended, I'd still like to say farewell before leaving for possibly weeks."
"Can do."
With these words, Yldra turned into the direction from which she and Allaire had come before dashing back out into the physical realm, leaving Darganth and Allaire floating there as they waited for their entire group to gather.