Luciel lay sprawled on the floating boulder, his gaze drifting to the sky above him. Because he had travelled far away in a short time, despite departing Spes late morning, here on the other side of the world, it was already late at night. Therefore, his eyes were filled with the sight of an endless ocean of stars, twinkling high in the night sky. It was a moonless night, causing the splendour of the stars to shine more clearly than normal.

At the place where Luciel’s intended destination was located, an enchanting aurora danced in the starlight. Still some distance to go until the archives, luckily the air up here is abundant with pure mana that I can absorb. Damn Leviathan, it just had to be passing through at that moment. Luciel sulked to himself as he restored his mana.

Luciel rested for an hour before his mana was fully restored, which proved how pure the mana in the air was. Back on the ground, unless you were in a particularly spiritual and natural location, to recover the amount of mana that Luciel used would require constant absorption of mana for the minimum of 2 days. With how long this has taken, I'm using the lazy way home. Otherwise, I won't be home in time for dinner, and my big bear will be upset.

Luciel stood up and stretched all his limbs as his wings re-materialized. He gathered his mana at his feet and in his wings as he unfurled them. He kicked off from the floating boulder and shot up towards the aurora. With no more obstacles, it didn’t take him long to reach his destination.

Beneath the dancing aurora stood a magnificent translucent crystal-like tree that was the size of a large mountain. In its thick trunk was a giant quartz door engraved with runes. Luciel landed on the ground just before the tree and walked to the door. He stopped in front of the door and concentrated his mana on himself. After a few minutes, starting from Luciel’s forehead, flowering vine like glowing markings appeared and spread across his entire body as if it were following the path of his veins. The markings spread to his wings and to the tip of his tail, even his blade-like horns were not spared.

Luciel placed his hand upon the door. The moment he did, the flowering vine markings spread from his body to the door, reaching every rune activating them in a certain sequence. Once all runes were activated, Luciel released his hand, standing back as the door vibrated and rumbled. The door parted inwards, showing a cave like structure within.

Luciel headed to the centre of the cave as the door closed behind him. The inside of the crystal tree, that is, the cave, was vastly spacious and gently illuminated by glowing crystals sprouting from the walls and ceiling. The cave was littered with an endless amount of crystals. At the centre of the cave, stood a humongous crystal, a dancing aurora within it fluctuated.

Luciel placed his hand upon the crystal, smiling gently.

“Hello, Old Friend.”

In response, the crystal conveyed a sound as if the strings of a crystal harp were strummed, accompanied by an angelic high-pitched hum. It sounded cheerful.

“Nice to see you too.” Luciel’s eyes softened. “It's been a long time since I used the traditional route to come here, bumped into the Leviathan what doing so.”

The crystal hummed worriedly.

“I'm fine, however, I think I'll continue to use the lazy route in the future.” Luciel chuckled.

The crystal hummed a happy tune in agreement, you could almost imagine it nodding its head vigorously if it had one.

“Now then, what should I write next time?” Luciel asked the crystal.

The crystal hummed in thought and released some mana. One of the many crystals dislodged itself from the wall and placed itself into Luciel’s palm. It was actually a mana crystal, shining a blue hued white, its surface covered in runes.

“This one?” Luciel confirmed.

The giant crystal hummed positively in response.

“OK I'll use this one.” Luciel put the mana crystal into his magic bag for safe keeping.

The crystal hummed softly.

“It's fine.” Luciel patted the surface of the crystal. “I enjoy coming here to see you and being given the task of conveying the events recorded in these crystals is a win-win situation for me.”

The crystal made a hum, sounding as if it had perked up.

“I can't stay that long this time though.” Luciel sighed. “In fact, now that I've got the crystal, I need to go home now.”

The crystal hummed in a low tone.

“I'll come again soon!” Luciel giggled. The core really acts like my big bear at times. “It's just that this time, it really took too long for me to get here. If I don't go now, I'll miss dinner and cause my family to worry.”

The crystal hummed in reluctance.

“Of course, I love you as much as I do my family! I’ve known you since I was a toddler!” Luciel pursed his lips and pecked the crystal. “I should go back now.”

The crystal hummed happily.

Luciel walked back to the door and opened it easily from within. He left through the door, paused, and turned around.

“I'll see you again soon!” Luciel waved towards the giant crystal.

The crystal hummed loudly.

The doors closed behind Luciel as he walked to the edge, looking down at the vast Dark Cloud Sea. Unlike below the Dark Cloud Sea, where Skislands were dotted about all over the place, up here, other than floating boulders and the Skisland where the crystal tree was located, there were no other landforms in sight. Nothing but the starry sky could be seen stretching beyond the horizon.

Luciel took a deep breath, spread his wings, and once more gathered his mana. This time I'll just directly fly to Spes's airspace, after that, I'll use a long-range teleportation spell to get to the ground. Luciel planned his course of action as he kicked off from the Skisland and shot towards Spes like a straight arrow released from a taut bow.

What should I make for dinner tonight?