"Go on, it's completely safe." Alaric nudged him gently.
Asteria had gone through the portal-like apparition first, completely disappearing as the opacity of it engulfed her shape.
Alaric was standing by Yuki, trying to encourage him to walk in to the portal.
"Come on..." He was like a caring father teaching his child how to ride a bicycle for the first time.
Yuki almost, almost, choked on his own emotions again.
He hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly walked into the opaque portal, closing his eyes tightly shut as he walked in.
A weird sensation washed over him, dulling his senses, making his ears ring. Then it disappeared just as quickly it had taken hold of him.
When he opened his eyes again, the eerie rockscape was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, he was in a dimly lit room, and Asteria was standing right in front of him, her back turned to him, her arms flailing around as her frantic voice assaulted his disoriented—still ringing ears.
"I did not waste it! just listen to me for a moment!"
A short moment later, he heard Alaric walking in from behind, he turned around for a brief second, still completely dazed. Then stared at Asteria's back again.
She was still going on about something as the ringing in his ears died down.
"I couldn't have made her walk the length of the country right?"
There was silence for a moment, and the voice of a woman spoke from in front of Asteria.
"That will be all your allocated warps for this month."
Asteria sighed, then turned around, a meek smile painted on her sullen face as she walked over to where Yuki was standing.
She patted him in the head—again... for some reason.
"Let's get going shall we?"
***
They walked through ornate halls for a long time. The sound of their feet hitting the marble floor accompanying them as they travelled the length of the rigid hallways. Asteria and Alaric were walking in front, with Yuki trailing closely behind. His dazed mind struggling to catch up with the vistas he was seeing.
Alaric had then left them after a few minutes, giving Yuki a pat on the shoulder as he walked down the hallway opposite from them.
It was just him and Asteria now, the crisp sound of her metallic footsteps echoing through the grand hall, accompanied by the dull thump of Yuki's soft leather shoes.
He let his mind wander as he followed the tall figure of Asteria.
Now that he had properly walked for a while, and moved about in general, he was slowly getting used to the strangeness of this new body.
His gait was different, and even the rhythm of his walk was something new. Heck, he even had to focus to properly breathe.
It was a really bizarre feeling, keeping him grounded to reality amidst… whatever that was happening to him. Breathing exercises had always been something that helped him a lot. He could remember times when he was overwhelmed, and the breathing exercises he had learned from Atlas saving him from it.
Asteria suddenly came to a stop in front of him.
Yuki managed to stop himself right before he collided into her as well.
"This is our stop" She said before holding up her hand.
The next moment, a small bright glow enveloped in her palms, then an ornate key materialized in it.
Yuki blinked a couple of times.
"Did you just summon that out of thin air?"
"Out of my dimensional storage" Her tone was flat, like this was somehow common sense.
She didn't elaborate further, instead she inserted the key into the door in front of them, the click of it unlocking still lingering in their ears as she swung the door open.
The flood of light overwhelmed his eyes for a moment, then the room slowly came into view.
It was a beautiful room, one that was painfully so. The chamber itself was too vast to be called a simple room, to top it off—furnished with materials expensive beyond his wildest dream.
Yuki hesitated for a short moment, wondering whether it was alright for him to enter, only to be gently pushed inside by Asteria.
"Make yourself comfortable." She said without looking at him, walking in after him.
Yuki couldn't say much, because the first thing that Asteria did after entering the room was make her armour disappear into thin air, literally. He had barely managed catch it vanishing in his peripheral vision.
"What the hell?" His mouth was still agape, his eye's staring at the strangely formal attire that had replaced her archaic looking armour.
The white lines of Asteria's eyebrows raised a little.
"What?"
Yuki blinked struggling to find words.
"Where did your armour go?"
Asteria stared at him for a moment, giving him a questioning look before something that resembled surprise bloomed in her eyes.
"Right." She nodded to herself. "I forgot about your amnesia for a moment."
Asteria pointed to a bracelet in her hand.
"See this?"
Yuki nodded.
"This," She gave her wrist a small shake. "Is a soulbound relic."
"A what?"
"A soulbound relic, it's bound to my soul."
"Souls are real?"
Asteria blinked.
"Yes."
It was Yuki's turn to stare in stunned silence.
As far as he knew, souls were mythical concepts that old people used as a shallow argument for making kids do their bidding. He was sure that some kind of scientist, one way or another had been able to debunk it before the great erasure that wiped out all of humanity's most important knowledge.
It only made sense, believing in souls was not something normal for such an advanced society.
That prompted a thought.
"Is this Earth?"
Asteria tilted her head.
"You don't want to know about souls?"
Yuki gave her a deadpan stare.
"Alright alright." She let out a defeated sigh. "No, this is not Aerth. Is that where you are from?"
"Aerth?"
"Aerth, the kingdom?" She replied, confusion starting to bloom on her face.
"I meant Earth!"
"Yeah, Aerth." She repeated after him.
Yuki tried his best to not let out a frustrated scream.
What even the hell was happening to him!?
Right on cue, as if this whole scene had been orchestrated for perfect comedic timing, a knock came on the door.
"Yes?" Asteria said, straightening herself as she turned around.
"You are still to give your report, your highness."
The woman flinched, her expression twisting into surprised horror.
"Right." She turned to Yuki, "You stay here ok? I'll be right back."
Without even giving him a moment to reply, she immediately took off, her figure disappearing behind the closing door.