An hour later and he was back to working on the seals, Miss Genie still hadn’t given them her name. But the two assumed she would upon being freed, it was only a matter of Ardonis keeping his end of their unspoken deal first. Lucy, for her part, was glad that the genie was still kind enough to give them a chance, despite what had happened to her.

  For several more hours, Ardonis worked on and off on the lamp. Until the last one, he took a breath and started pouring his mana into it like he had all the rest. Working through it and rewriting it so that he could get rid of it. However, the last one was a bit different than the others. It was stronger than the rest. He soon found that out as he was having to use more and more mana to make even a bit of progress. To the point where it was using up all he had.

  He grit his teeth as he poured even more mana into it, his reserves draining very quickly. Yet like a sponge, the seal simply drank it up. By now there was a visible aura of magic around Ardonis as he poured even more of his mana into it, digging deep into the bottom of what he had left. The lamp began to glow along with the seal and him.

  “Ardonis stop!” Lucy shouted. “If you go any further you’ll be using your very soul to power the spell!”

  He kept going, however, his eyes glowing with power as he stared down the brightly glowing seal. Blood began to run down his nose but he continued. “Ardonis, listen to me!” she shouted again, with much more desperation and fear. She began to rush toward him, but an arm from the genie stopped her.

  “You can’t, if you go over there now, not only will you be putting yourself in danger, but all of us. One wrong move and all of us are blown to the moons.“

  “Then what am I supposed to do? Watch from the side as he recklessly risks his very existence?” Lucy asked, tears falling down her face as she glared. “While he risks EVERYTHING for a person we just met? Someone, that he shouldn’t even be risking everything to save? Just for a hot chick who’s been locked up for tens of thousands of years?”

  The genie shook her head, clenching a shaking fist, “There’s nothing else we can do at the moment.”

  That was when Lucy realized what she had said and her eyes widened, “I-I’m so sorry I didn’t mean-”

  Ardonis ignored the increasing pain in both his mind and soul, ignoring the cries from his fiancé that broke his heart. He wasn’t just doing this to free the genie, he felt like he was on the cusp of something. He couldn’t explain it, but his senses screamed that if he backed down now, he would never get a chance like it again. Their power may be limited, but there was another mana source he hadn’t tapped into yet, his divine mana.

  And as he did so, the color began to change, from a galaxy blue to a whitish yellow. Though that lake of mana too was depleted very quickly and he had less than a quarter of the seal left. He clicked his tongue, deciding to do something that he had only read about. Something that very few attempted because of the danger involved. Combining the normal and divine mana pools, or rather, drawing on both of them at once and mixing them.

  It was highly dangerous as it not only made the magic more powerful, it made it much more volatile and harder to control. Many divine entities have lost their lives attempting such a thing. And even some gods have lost themselves for the attempt. But something deep within was telling Ardonis that this was the right thing to do. That he would succeed.

  With the last remnants of both mana pools, he let them both flow into the seal and combine. The very color of his aura, along with his eyes, changed from a darker galaxy blue to a sparkling lighter blue. Pain surged through his very being, but he grit his teeth and kept his focus as best he could. At a time like this, losing focus was what would kill him more so than combining the two different types of magic.

  A few agonizing and slow minutes later, the last of the seal was erased. The explosion of power behind him told him of his success, as all of the sealed power flowed back to its rightful owner instantly. However, that wasn’t all, thanks to that, plus his still combined magic, something else also happened.

  He grunted as an even worse pain than what he had just gone through coursed through him, and it was suddenly incredibly hard to breathe. His heart was beating at maximum speeds and both of his mana reserves that were entirely depleted, combined into one and suddenly filled to the brim with mana. A combination of both his regular and divine that sparkled much brighter. As it began to course through his veins, his body began to change.

  Adapting to the new mana and enhancing his body. When he finally opened his eyes and could breathe again, it had felt like an eternity. He suddenly felt arms wrap around him and found himself staring into the face and eyes of a very happy genie. “You did it, I can’t believe you actually did it! I’m free!” she laughed, letting go of him and spinning in the air.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The power that he felt coursing through her was even above what he and Lucy were at without their restriction. “My name is Viana Nu Beli, and I am eternally in your debt for freeing me. I will join you in your travels and happily become a member of your harem when the time is right.”

  “It’s good to have you with us Viana, I look forward to journeying with you,” Ardonis said, looking up at her with a smile.

  Lucy appeared at his side and also wrapped him in a hug, although for an entirely different reason. “Don’t you ever do something like that again, do you hear me? I was so, so far beyond worried. I thought I was going to lose you. Especially when you began mixing your mana together.”

  He hugged her back, “I know, and I truly do apologize for that, it broke my heart to hear you shout like that. But I had to do it, It was a feeling that it must have been done.”

  She looked at him with confusion and he explained down to the last detail of how he felt. All the way to now, “Well I guess that explains the new hair color and eyes,” she said with a giggle.

  Instead of purplish blue hair, it had more of a light tint to it, making it appear brighter and more glowy than before. His eyes were like the new aura, they were also more vibrant, instead of two small galaxies, of blue with little white dots, they almost looked like two small universes. The blue was slightly brighter and there were far more little dots than before.

  “I think this new look suits you,” she said, lifting herself up slightly to kiss him. “Your eyes are even more enchanting than they were before.”

  She continued to pursue his lips for a while longer, Viana stood to the side somewhat awkwardly, but let them have their moment. Once Lucy was done confirming to herself that he was alive and calming herself down, she stopped kissing him. Her face was entirely flushed, “I-I’m sorry to make you uncomfortable like that Viana. I couldn’t hold myself back.”

  “Oh please, don’t mind me, you almost lost someone you care deeply about. And regardless of whether it was entirely to save me or not, the fact is, you still risked yourself for me Ardonis,” she said. “That means more than you think, especially to someone like me. So when I say that I’ll do what you want for the rest of eternity, it is the full truth.”

  She smiled, “You're stuck with me now whether you like it or not. And your power… it seems you broke all expectations. I bet you’re slightly confused at how you feel you have your unrestricted power right?”

  He nodded, “It does make me curious yes. Especially since I can still feel the restriction actively pushing against me like before. Are you saying that I managed to go up an advancement while restricted?”

  Her smile widened, “It would be more accurate to say that it is because of the restriction you were able to do so. That is the benefit of being born mortal or being restricted to a mortal level. You can make your own breakthroughs. That is the true reason why many gods visit or even decide to live in mortal realms.”

  “That said, there does come a point where there is no longer a benefit to this method, but for you two? You are thousands of years too early to worry about that. But there is more to what you did than mere advancement Ardonis. You did something very few gods have done before, you ascended. Ascension for a god is quite a sight to behold, as like in your case, it physically changes them. Even on your own level, you will find yourself more powerful than most of your peers.”

  “Combining your magic like that was very risky, but came with an amazing level of luck and skill, you managed to survive. Be warned, because of this you will no longer be able to hide your divinity. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if that goddess was currently keeping her eyes on us right now. That explosion of power certainly would have grabbed her attention. So I suggest we get out of here as fast as we can.”

  “I don’t know if she’d be able to trace it or not, but Lucy, you mind teleporting us instead? Just in case she can track my divinity because of the area and such.”

  She nodded, “Of course, that won’t be an issue at all.”

  A snap of a finger later and the three were outside of the entire forest and on the outskirts of the town. It was only then that Ardonis and Lucy realized that Viana had legs and was wearing shorts with sandals. She was also wearing a shirt now and not just a bra. She smirked at their realization. “There was never any mention that my bottom half had to stay wispy you know. I can change it at will. I mean, how would I get to have sex with harem man here if I couldn’t?”

  Lucy gave her a wide smile and double thumbs up while Ardonis rolled his eyes. “Remember my conditions, I want real love, so let’s just get to know each other before jumping ahead alright?”

  She giggled, “Of course, but that doesn’t mean I won’t tease you until that happens.”

  He sighed, shaking his head, he turned toward the town before realizing something and turned back toward Viana. “You wouldn’t happen to have any control over the forest right? Say for example the kinds of creatures that show up and where?”

  She shook her head, “I was merely trapped in the heart of it, I have no control over anything that goes on inside of it. Why?”

  He sighed again but explained the actual reason they had gone to check the source of the powerful magic. Viana nodded, “I see, it could have been wished for, but I’m no longer bound. Then again, even among wishes, there are limits. Especially right now I don’t want to tempt the goddess into doing something. Even if I have the power to fix it, as do you that matter Ardonis. But again, we should lie low for a while and possibly leave the continent for a bit for her eyes to go elsewhere. At the least to a different country.”

  “Aw, but I was just starting to get comfy here,” Lucy pouted. “Oh well, we became adventurers and I believe can consider this mission a success. Even if Nula won’t like the result as much as us.”