A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

First, Eira took them to a large hall, but different from the one Erik and the others just left. The general aesthetics were the same—with pillars and burning braziers lining the sides—but there was no throne.

Rather, the centre of the hall was filled with a large, pulsating crystal, and several smaller crystals floating around it. Just as with the throne hall, there were no doors here, once again reinforcing the idea that every separate room in the facility is meant to only be accessible through the internal teleportation system.

Yet, while the throne hall's walls were empty, this one actually possessed large magic circles filling evenly sized squares that reached to the hall's ceiling.

Erik and the others looked around with some surprise. The only ones who knew where they appeared were Naeku and Eira. Right now, Erik didn't even know yet why Naeku was so sure that the trio from Maghreb wouldn't show up again.

"What room is this?" he asked Naeku curiously, an eyebrow cocked.

Naeku parted her lips to answer, but Elora was faster. "That's a transference core!" she cried out excitedly once she noticed the crystal. With wide eyes and a grin, she flew up to it in her smaller form.

Naeku blinked, and then shrugged. "I don't know about that, but the information in my inheritance says this is the teleportation room. The reason that trio can't come back, is—"

"This can take us all over the world!" Elora interrupted her, now staring feverishly at Erik. "Transference cores are built from crystals infused with the spatial affinity, and they work to amplify the power of teleportation sigils! Previously, I believed the teleportation sigil linking this place with Maghreb was the farthest we'd be able to go, but no!"

She pointed several times at the crystal excitedly. "This is our ticket to ruling Earth and uniting it before the world fully awakens! On Söl, only the largest metropolises, ruled by the richest and most powerful, have crystals like this! We can reach the entire world from here!"

Everyone looked at her in shock, but before Erik could even respond, Elora enlarged herself and charged him. Instinctively, he caught her, and she pressed her lips against his in a passionate kiss.

Naeku looked at this display with strange feelings. "W— Well… I guess I'll wait? W— With the explanation, I mean!"

Astrid, Emily, and Runa snickered at the display, but Ankhur and his family looked a little wryly. This facility and its contents, including this crystal, were their inheritance, but because they weren't able to defend themselves, the benefits now largely went to Erik.

Still, Ankhur was wise and collected enough to quickly accept this situation. Inwardly, he was thankful Enkai wasn't here now, as he would have surely created another conflict with Erik.

Besides, Ankhur didn't really have any desires for world domination, anyway. Mostly, he just wanted his people safe and happy. A small part of him also wanted revenge against the other African factions for leaving them alone in their time of need, but Naeku was the real instigator of that desire.

After a few moments, Erik and Elora's lips separated once more. Elora was grinning as Erik smirked. "It sounds amazing, my love," he chuckled, and pecked her lips once more.

But then he cocked an eyebrow curiously. "But if you say this crystal amplifies the power of teleportation sigils, wouldn't we need those sigils first? I thought you couldn't create those yet."

Unperturbed, Elora stepped back and waved her hands at the surroundings. "Look around you! Those massive magic circles are all teleportation sigils! There's eight of them! I don't know where each of goes, but I refuse to believe all their destinations are in Africa! There'd be no point to the transference core, then!"

She looked at Naeku passionately, hoping for confirmation. "Right?!"

Naeku, finally able to get a word in, could only shrug. "I have no idea? I haven't really had the chance to look into the inheritance yet."

Elora quickly turned to the Minotaur in the room. "Eira?!"

Eira, a little started by Elora's forcefulness, quickly blinked as she searched the information available to her. "U— Uhm…" she eventually stammered. "The sigils have names attached to them, but I doubt whatever places they connect to are still called the same…"

Elora deflated a little. "Right…" she grumbled, but then shook her head. "Whatever. We can just discover it by stepping through them!"

Before Erik could even complain about such a reckless action, Eira shook her head apologetically. "N— No, uhm… right now, only one of these sigils actually works. I've tried activating the others, but they won't connect."

"Uuugh," the fairy immediately groaned, letting her upper body go slack in frustration and helplessness. "It's always something!"

Erik sighed and hugged Elora from behind to comfort her. "It's not surprising, right? Any number of things could have happened in the tens-of-thousands of years since this place was active."

Still frustrated, but leaning into his touch, Elora grumbled. "I know, I know…" After a few moments, she shook her head and stepped out of Erik's arms.

"Whatever!" she exclaimed, slapping her own cheeks several times to get her mind off it. "We just need to find these places and see what's wrong! Assuming they didn't sink to the bottom of the ocean, I'm sure we can restore them! We might not be able to travel all over immediately, but this place is still the key to our victory!"

Erik nodded, grinning as her excitement spilled over to him. "True. Plus, we might get lucky. That trio from Maghreb activated one of them, who's to say it can't happen somewhere else, too?"

He glanced at Eira questioningly. "At least, I assume the only working sigil is the Maghreb one?"

Eira shrugged helplessly. "Probably?"

"Right…" both Erik and Elora nodded with reluctant sighs.

Meanwhile, Naeku was pouting a little over the fact that it was so much easier for Eira to find information about this place because the construct didn't need to spit through a storage ring for it.

She wanted to tell them about this place herself and vowed to check any information about this place thoroughly later.

Erik was still confused about something, as he looked around strangely. "By the way… This doesn't look like that small room the Maghreb trio teleported to, right? So where is that, then?"

Naeku quickly perked up. This was something she'd already found out through a cursory glance into her inheritance. "Oh!" she exclaimed with a wide smile. "That's the reason I'm saying they can't come back without our permission…!"