61 Chapter 61: Preparing

The air lied still for a few breaths. From Masamune, calmly analyzing how his magic was buoying the balloon, to Asmodeus enjoying the brisk night air most everyone was caught up in their own thoughts.

Finally Arith is the one that broke the silence. "Why doesn't my magic do that Master?" Such a simple question, but the answer is deceptively complex. This was a sticking point in the usage of magic that hadn't made sense to Masamune so far.

According to the setup that he had within his mind, taking the magical abilities from Beasts would allow his repertoire to grow. By gaining dominance over the creature, you could therefore have dominance over the element that the creature utilized. So far that had been born true through repeated experiment.

However, that did not seem to be the case with all of the druids. Simply by looking around Masamune could tell that what he had done was quite unexpected, but the reason of why was impossible to find. According to the information that was stuffed into his head, the only way for a Druid to get stronger was to make these contracts, to gain domination over the elements.

These steps were not possible for Arith however. Through the use of his skill, Masamune was certainly able to awaken druidic ability in Arith, but the way it functioned was vastly different to how it operated with Masamune.

When Arith crafts a spell, she does all the same steps. The architecture of the spell, the mana usage, and even the force of the spell are the exact the same. The difference seems to only exist within the scope of their Internal Forests ( A/N I'm gonna start using Groves for Internal Forest).

While within Masamune his Grove is able to expand easily. Either though gaining a Contract Beast or from increasing his own abilities through meditation. So the expansions happen with regularity, additionally inside of Masamune's forest there is now a host of woodland creatures. What Masamune had assumed at first, was that he was merely at the next level of Druid. Not for a second did Masamune think that he was on anything aside from the normal path of a druid.

Arith though, her Grove acted completely differently. Her grove never stopped expanding. Just like the slow subtle encroachment of vines on a building, her grove expands constantly in all directions regardless of anything else. Her growth is never ending, but her ability to gather Contract Beasts is completely non-existent.

Completing the exact same ritual in the exact same way as Masamune, had catastrophic results...Mainly for the Contract Beast in question. It was a tiny little Wind Beetle, however when the contract was completed there was no rush of power. The feeling of sky rocketing power, and invincibility, was replaced by a sadly exploded insect.

Arith was unable to cast spells for the next few weeks, whether that was due to a Mana recoil, or if it was simple heartache from losing her Wind Beetle, it was impossible to say.

As Asmodeus makes his gentle descent back to the ground, Masamune turns his head and seriously asks his wives, "Why are you looking at me like that."

Turning towards each other Maya, and Arith enter a heated discussion. All Masamune is able to pick out is. "No, you say it! Come on! You said that we would do this together!"

Masamune shrugs his head and begins to cast the issue to the back of his mind but he stops suddenly.

"I've been doing that kind of a lot recently....Just shrugging off problems, I bet if the big man up there saw me he'd be pretty pissed! "

Admonishing himself for once, Masamune doesn't notice that Asmodeus, Arith, Maya, Esmerelda, and even Marriot have formed an intimidating encirclement around himself.

Maya turns towards her sister wife, "Okay, you know the drill. We've gotta talk to him."

Masamune comes back to himself surprised at being surrounded by people all at once. Thankfully most of the time he gets lost in thought, there aren't any real consequences.

"Well with this little balloon we ought to be able to get a bit more control if....something...is...." Masamune slowly trails off. Arith and Maya both look quite strange, in fact this whole situation seems a bit strange....

"Masamune come with us okay." Maya says calmly. Masamune doesn't fight it, and merely follows. Inside, Masamune is incredibly confused. Everyone around him seems to be acting weird, but they won't tell him why...

Behind the walking pair, an adorable demon, and an enchanting elf whisper to each other. "How do ya think he'll take it?" The former whispers as quietly as he can. He's already been victim to Masamune's extraordinary senses before.

Arith shakes her head, sending her cascade of blonde hair to fall delicately over her face. "Who knows, with him? He could react fine, but if he's in one of his moods...well...then I doubt he'll be happy to find out that he's getting grounded. He he". She giggles into her hand.

Arith smiles fondly at her lover, and her friend. She had been discussing with Maya, for a long time on what to do about their husband. The problems they were facing, weren't really his fault. He merely flaunted what he was able to do, it was timing that was the real issue. Had Masamune been patient, then he could have slowly grown in power and wouldn't have been in danger. He wasn't.

Had Masamune been intelligent, he would have parlayed the good relationship he had with Ravvins daughter after the abduction attempt to get far more information about the king and his forces. He didn't.

Instead, he chose to train his own strength, and he was most certainly stronger. The problem lied, that in doing so he announced to the world where he was, who he was affiliated with, and that he didn't respect the king.

Not to even mention that stupid shit he did in calling himself the druid king. Though that one actually kind of worked out. Though that would be a part of this little fight too.

Arith gripped her hands and walked faster out pacing Asmodeus.