After two long months of training the day had arrived, it was time for the relic tomb dive. Near the training building the gate stood cold and lifeless, until Arthur eventually arrives to ignite the runes. Tables were set up full of supplies that they would need. Everything from rations, to basic medical supplies, canteens full of water, and a few other necessities. Because of the nature of the mission to lighten everyone's loads, if they didn't have their own they were issued dimensional rings. But this was only for the combat mages, the miners would still have to carry their own gear.

As most people were ready they were meandering around, waiting for their fearless leader and his wife to arrive. During the entire time they were in the sanctuary Arthur abided by the rules he set forth, specifically the ones related to coming and going from the sanctuary. Even though it was not convenient, Arthur usually waited till the one time a day where the gate was active. This however didn't apply to today, and he opened his own portal for them into their apartment, as he didn't want to draw attention to his aetheric spells.

The two approached the crowd of adventurers and miners, and they all parted as they grew closer. As a change to her attire she wore while clearing dungeons with the Trailblazers, Tess was wearing black boots, white leather pants with a black belt that held a leather pouch which contained her seeds for easy access. Her top was a black leather armor with gold trim that stopped right above her bust, with a white mantle with gold trim that ended halfway between her shoulders and elbows. She wore black fingerless gloves with a diamond cut out on the back of her hands with gold detailing, and lastly her half of the heart necklace Arthur gave her on their first date back during their summer break.

In contrast Arthur walked in wearing a dark brown tunic and black pants, essentially the same kind of clothes he wore everyday. Due to the dangerous nature of the relic tombs everyone had expected him to wear some kind of armor, but he was wearing clothes that looked like something that someone would wear while doing manual labor. Those who had seen him in battle understood that armor could inhibit his ability to fight at his best, but would have expected him to at least wear something that reflected his new royal status.

"Whoa everyone, make a hole make a hole, the newlywed prince and princess of Elenoir are coming through," Claire teased as she brought attention to them.

"Haha," Tess laughed awkwardly. "You know you don't need to do that right?"

"Oh of course," Claire replied dismissively, then showing a glint in her eye. "I just wanted everyone to see you, so they knew not to worry when you two came up missing down there."

"Missing?" Arthur asked, sounding confused.

"Art, have you not looked at your wife today?" Claire asked, and pulled her over and had her spin around. "Seriously, I'm amazed you two even made it out of your bedroom. She's looking so hot in this armor even, I'm thinking of switching teams."

Art and Tess gave awkward smiles and looked away to avoid eye contact with them. Tess had to put her armor on twice this morning, since Arthur lost control of himself because of how amazing she looked.

"Hahaha, nice!" Regis laughed as he walked over. "So how much of her armor were you able to take off before you just did her?"

"Apparently you've forgotten how to filter your words," Arthur said as Tess blushed madly.

"It's not my fault! I'm the one with your taste in woman and no way to release all my sexual frustration!" Regis replied angrily.

This immediately made just about everyone feel awkward and walk away.

"Well, that was lovely," Curtis commented sarcastically as he got closer. "Anyway, welcome back from your honeymoon. Happy you two tore yourselves away from your bedroom," he teased.

"Thanks," Arthur replied as he and Tess walked to the supply tables.

"But Arthur, after we get back you and I have some work to do."

"What kind of work?" Arthur asked as he started loading rations into his rune. It wasn't that he needed food, more so his supplies were a backup incase they needed more.

"You clearly need to work on your look. You're a prince now, remember?"

"I remember, but what's wrong with my look? We're going on a dive, it's not like I want to wear nice clothes."

"No, but look at me. I had this armor forged just for the occasion."

Curtis was wearing polished black steel armor, with matching bracers and shin guards, and a long red cape, all with gold trim. On his chest plate was a golden world lion, with a head on both bracers, and his cape.

"You really love Grawder don't you?" Arthur commented after looking, then got back to loading supplies.

"What I'm trying to say is, you need to look the part. Even Tess had new armor for today."

"So what you're saying is I blend in too much with everyday people, so I should wear something to at least stand out and look like a royal going into battle?"

"Kind of. And you don't need to match Tess or anything, a contrasting look would be complementary."

"Hmm, I think I get it," Arthur replied with a smile.

"Uh oh, it's big dick time," Regis replied, sounding amused.

Everyone was a little confused by what the comment meant, but instantly became distracted from it by what happened next.

Arthur's body began to shimmer as black scales, resembling Sylvie's when she took on her dragon form, formed on his body with matching horns along his jawline. He moved his arms out so everyone could see his armor, revealing a gold shimmer between the scales where he moved.

Everyone was awestruck, even Tess who had only ever heard of this armor. Not only was the armor more majestic than anything the greatest blacksmiths of Dicathen could ever forge, but it appeared to have formed out of thin air.

"So how does this work? Does it meet your standards?" Arthur asked smuggly.

"Y-y-yeah, that works," Curtis replied in shock.

"I think that's way past everyone's standards," Claire added.

"Arthur!"

Out of nowhere Gideon came running at a speed unexpected for an artificer of his age.

"What in the world? How did you..." Gideon was at a loss for words as he looked Arthur over in his armor.

"Ancient mage armor I acquired in another relic tomb," Arthur replied, understanding enough of what Gideon wanted to ask.

After hearing this the adventurers on the mission became excited. The fact that Arthur found such an artifact in a relic tomb meant that there must be many more amazing artifacts just waiting to be discovered. Whether they were thinking of the wealth they would gain from selling, pride and honor of being able to use it themselves, or just being put down in history for finding an artifact that could better Dicathen, they all hungered to find their own artifacts now.

"Did you say ancient mage?!" Gideon's eyes lit up with excitement. "I need to study this armor. Maybe some time after your mission."

"I'm sorry, but the armor is connected to my core now. I can put it away and summon it, but I can't take it off for someone else to handle or even give it up."

"Then come to my lab after you get back," he said eagerly. "I can study it while it's on you then."

"Are you trying to turn me into some kind of experiment? A test subject?" Arthur said in a threatening tone laced with aether.

Secrets could never be kept forever. Rumors had been circulating that at some point Arthur was captured and experimented on by Alacryans. No one had any idea when this could have happened, or how they even managed it, but with his sudden new abilities the rumors became more credible. So when Gideon said those words, sounding like he wanted to experiment on Arthur, it was amazing he responded so mildly.

"N-no, of course not," Gideon studded as he shrank back in fear. "I just got a little ahead of myself. Ancient mage artifacts don't come around everyday you know," he said with a nervous chuckle.

Arthur took a deep breath. "I get it. Hopefully we can find another artifact for you to tinker with, but my armor is off limits."

"Of course," Gideon replied as he bowed his head and backed away.

Arthur moved on to gathering some canteens of water, but it was a little harder for everyone else to resume. The atmosphere of the area shifted drastically after Arthur's altercation with Gideon. Seeing this and how it may affect Arthur later, Regis took action.

"Hey Gecko, get over here I need some help," Regis called out.

"What do you want?" She asked as she appeared beside him with aetheric wisps dissipating.

"Yes! For the first time ever, The Horny trio!" Regis announced.

People looked and a few laughed, but not Arthur or Sylvie.

"Idiot," Arthur and Sylvie said together.

"Oh come on, it's funny. All three of us have horns now!" Regis whined.

"Oh I get it," Arthur replied.

"It's just not funny," Sylvie finished.

"Don't worry Regis," Elijah said, patting his head. "I thought it was funny."

Regis looked up at his smiling face. "Figures you'd find it funny."

"So Sylvie," Arthur said as he packed his bedroll. "When did you learn god step?"

"You noticed!" She replied beaming with pride.

"It was hard not to. You came out of nowhere just now."

"I gained it a few weeks ago. After I went through all of your memories I decided to start trying to use them as a template for me to try and gain my own runes."

"And how many do you have so far?"

"Just god step. I was going to tell you about it after I practiced some more. I'm trying to get as good as you using your memories with Three Steps."

Arthur turned to face her and went down to one knee. "That's pretty impressive that you were able to do that with just my memories, but how about you try to do it the easy way." Arthur held his right arm out activated his storage rune, and dropped five black crystals out. "I'll let you borrow these while I'm gone. Try and use them to gain some new runes."

"Thank you!" She exclaimed as she accepted, then wrapped her arms around his neck. "Be careful papa."

She then released him and then gave Tess a hug and wished her luck too. He smiled warmly, he didn't realize it when he turned back time how quickly he would feel the warmth he currently felt in his heart. The feeling of having his own family. Then looking beyond them he saw the rest of his family walking up.

"Mom, Ellie," Arthur greeted. "Coming to see us off?"

"Hardly," Ellie scoffed smuggly. "Just wanted to make sure you didn't try and leave without me."

"That's funny," Arthur replied with a smile as he tossled her hair.

"I'm serious! I met your standards! You promised!" She shouted.

Arthur checked her core. "How? How did you reach the light yellow stage already?" He then could feel some unease coming from Regis. "Regis, what did you do?"

"Umm, nothing really," he replied with an obvious suspicious tone.

"Don't get mad," Tess said from behind him. "After I reached the white core stage I kept absorbing mana from the horn, but I noticed how hard Ellie was trying with everything so she could come. With the complete lack of mana down here it's not easy to refine a mana core, so after a few days I gave her the horn."

"It would have taken cutiepie just one more sesson to finish it off, so it wasn't even very much," Regis added. "Then all I did was filter it."

"It's not a big deal brother. If I could have gotten ahold of a couple really good beast cores I could have done it with them instead."

"Fine," Arthur relented. "But that's only one of the conditions."

Ellie held her hand out hand focused. Sweat began dripping from her brow, but she did it, she managed to create a marble sized ball of aether.

"Damn. Talk about a complete backfire," Arthur replied in frustration.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ellie asked.

"I never expected you to be able to do it. It was suppose to be an impossible task during this amount of time."

"Arthur!" His mother scolded.

"She had the drive, no matter what it would have been good for her. And even if she did reach the dark yellow stage, I never expected her to learn to have any reasonable degree of aether manipulation in just two months. I expected I would be working on teaching her sometime after I got back, maybe a year later she'd be able to do it."

"Well I guess Elder Rinia is a better teacher than you? How long did it take you?"

"A day," he replied flatly. "But I didn't try to form a ball, just re enforce my body for attack and defense."

"You know that's actually just as hard to do right?" Rinia asked as she and the council walked up. "But I have no doubt Eleanor will be doing that soon too," she then patted her on the head. "She definitely has a talent for aether that I lack."

"So brother," an expectant smile forming on her face. "Will you be honoring our deal?"

Arthur groaned, "a deal is a deal."

"Yes!"

Arthur activated his storage rune and a white cloak fell out.

"And last stipulation, if you come you wear this," Arthur said as he draped it over her shoulders.

"Ooo," she said, admiring the cloak. "Fuzzy."

"It's more than a fashion statement, it helps to avoid detection. It doesn't make you invisible, but it will make it harder for the beasts to notice you."

"Thank you," she said as she gave him a hug.

Arthur then eyed his mother. "Why do I have the feeling that you aren't here to see us off?"

"Because you've always been such a smart son," she replied with a proud beaming smile. "I'll be coming as well."

"Why?" Arthur asked in confusion.

"Why wouldn't I? Both of my children are going into danger, I'm still fully capable of helping, and you could use another emitter."

Arthur groaned as he rubbed his temples. She wasn't wrong about the last part, there was only one emitter coming that came from Kaspian's team.

"Who in the hell is authorizing these changes to my mission without telling me?"

"That would be me, the commander that authorized this mission in the first place," Virion said smugly.

"Why did you feel this was a good idea? You know how hard I've worked to keep my family safe."

"You're taking my granddaughter."

"You approved of it."

"I knew she would have argued with both of us anyway. Since I'm her grandfather I do tend to spoil her a bit."

"Technically I'm your grandson now too, why not spoil me by keeping my family safe!"

"I spoiled you enough by letting you share that room with my granddaughter before you were married." Virion sighed. "And not even a great great grandchild came of it."

"Grandfather!" Tess shouted as she pinched his side and pulled down on his beard.

"Strangely, that just made me feel so much better," Arthur replied calmly.

"Although now I recommend you don't grow a beard, ever," Regis commented.

"I second that," Sylvie added.

The mood shifted drastically back to light hearted before the dangerous mission. Arthur may have been the one that made it awkward before, but it was him and his family that brought it back up.

Arthur glanced back to his mother and sister and sighed. Once again he has seen that despite his efforts, he can't seem to keep his family from running towards the danger.

"Just think of it. When you and your master start popping out babies, those kids will no doubt give you a head of grey in no time with all the trouble they'll get into," Regis laughed.

"Don't worry, I'll help protect my younger siblings."

"You two got your artifact from Gideon right?"

Alice and Ellie held them up to show. Arthur nodded and turned around.

"Alright let's get moving! Gideon, explain the artifacts please."

Arthur moved towards the gate, with Gideon moving to meet him there.

"Alright," Arthur said, using sound magic to amplify his voice. "I know you've all heard this before, but I'll say it again. The relic tombs are intended to protect the knowledge of the ancient mages, and one of their best safeguards is the gates." Arthur held up his artifact. "They will separate anyone who doesn't have one of these, so master Gideon will now explain them so we don't have any accidents."

Gideon took a step forward. "As you can all see, there are five different colored stones. With the Alacryan version they had to be within a few inches of each other when activated to sync with one another to keep a party together. Due to the large size of this group, as long as you're within the circle marked on the ground, when you all activate them you will all be in this party together." Everyone looked down, and several people moved closer to be within. "So right now, everyone press the red gem and hold it till it gives an audible beep."

Everyone did as they were told and after a few seconds there were a series of beeps in rapid succession.

"Congratulations, now you all won't get separated," Gideon concluded and stepped back and out of the way of the gate.

Arthur removed the silver sphere from his rune, opened it, and instead of it forming its own portal, one was formed within the gate.

"Hey I was wondering," Regis said as he walked up beside him. "After we drop everyone off, why don't we make a special trip to that other relic tomb where you got your armor and get it for your sexy master?"

"No way, that would create a paradox. Who knows what might happen. We might even blow up or be erased from existence," Arthur replied.

"Are you seriously basing this off of time travel movies?"

"Based on what I learned from the Aevum training cube, I don't think the ancient mages even tested what would happen. The last thing I want is to be the one to wipe out all existence just to try and protect my wife. But I would be open to the idea of meeting with that Dijin again and maybe learning how to make that armor."

With his talk with Regis over Arthur focused back on the mission.

"Combat mages first! Once through we'll secure the area, then send someone back to bring the mining team after we've determined it's safe. After the miners arrive, we'll do just like the teams

clearing dungeons in the beast glades. There are several of you with dimensional rings containing metal wall sections. Once the miners arrive we will all use the walls to secure the gate and establish our camp. The gate is our only way back home, so we can't afford to lose it. We will have more than enough sections for the camp, the remaining will be used after we find where we'll be mining."

Arthur looked out into the crowd as the combat mages moved forward. Many of these people were part of the dive in the previous timeline, so Arthur didn't want to fail them again. Tess came up beside him, and saw he was lost in thought.

"Are you ok?"

Arthur smiled back and took her hand. "I am now." He released her hand then turned to face the gate. "Alright everyone, let's move out!"