The Divine Wolf...or?

After the elevator stopped completely, they walked out into a small reception room. Behind a small desk in the room, a young woman worked away at a stack of papers. Seeing the lady and the young man come back with even more people, the young woman only glanced at them shortly before continuing her work again. Thufrat and Alenia were like small children as they eagerly took in all the sights around them.

After walking through another door, they entered the Heavenly Beast Master's office. As they did, the reality of what they came here for suddenly dawned on them. Both of them were incredibly nervous in their own rights, but Alenia was a bit sadder than she was nervous. It was apparent from her reaction that the Heavenly Beast Master was really close with her mom, and to tell her the news of her death, certainly wasn't going to be easy.

The young man sat down in a comfy leather chair in a corner of the room. He knew his place, these people were probably here for important business, and he didn't want to interfere in any way. After seating themselves comfortably, both the young man and The Heavenly Beast Master took off their hoods, revealing their facial features. The lady looked fairly ordinary if you considered the immense status and power she held. Slightly flabby cheeks and angular black eyes adorned her face, making her more of a cutie than a beauty. Her name was actually Laurelia, though not many people have the slightest idea.

The young man was about 1,8 meters tall, with a head of glossy black hair and brown eyes. Fairly handsome, yet pretty normal, this was Leo. Ark would've instantly recognized this young man as the one he met when he was still new to this world, one of the summoned heroes from his original world that got left behind. What was shocking was that the young man had worked hard and gone from some random nobody that got left behind, to the only disciple of the Heavenly Beast Master. Even though he was her disciple, she treated him like her own son.

After some awkward silence, Laurelia stood up from behind her desk. "Alenia! What brings you here? It's been a while since I've seen your mother, how is she doing nowadays?" The enthusiasm in her voice only made it harder for Alenia to actually speak up.

On the verge of tears, Alenia just stood there in silence, not managing to gather the courage she needed. Laurelia obviously noticed this, and she started to worry, something was up. "Is something the matter Alenia?" She asked, her voice laden with worry.

She couldn't hold her tears back anymore, and they started to flow by themselves. "She... she... she's gone" was all she could say before she started to sob. Laurelia frowned when she heard this, she was hoping that she had heard wrong, but she was a pessimistic person, and she couldn't help but worry.

"Uhmm, sorry what did you say?" She asked with trepidation evident in her voice. 

"Mom... she's gone, forever." Alenia managed to squeeze out in-between her sobs. Laurelia was sure that she had heard right this time. Slumping down into her chair, her expression was incredulous. Small tears started streaming down her face, and she bit her lip hard, almost to the point of starting to bleed. Leo just sat in the corner, worried about Laurelia. He didn't open his mouth to say anything, this wasn't his place to speak, even if it was only to comfort. He had no idea who this girl's mother was anyway, so his words of comfort would hold no significance.

5 minutes passed by in the blink of an eye. Both Alenia and Laurelia had calmed down by now, but their immense grief hadn't passed in the slightest. Laurelia wasn't stupid, she could sense that they didn't just come here because of her mother's death. Alenia had never really spoken with her before after all. She hadn't introduced the dwarf that stood behind her either.

Standing up again, with a gentle gaze in her eyes this time, she started speaking again. "Be honest with me Alenia, why did you really come here, it couldn't have been for just this right?" 

Before Alenia could say anything, Thufrat bowed as deeply as he could. "Please help me!" Was all he uttered with a steadfast attitude.

Laurelia was taken aback, but she only looked at Alenia, waiting for an explanation. 

"This is my savior Thufrat. After my mother was murdered, he helped me fight off the elves that were after my life. He's a nice person, and he needs help saving a friend. Please help him!" Toward the end of her last sentence, Alenia also bowed deeply.

"Since the daughter of my best friend is asking me for a favor, then how could I ever disappoint? I'll see what I can do to help your friend." With a sincere expression, she walked up to Alenia and gave her a hug.

"I'll need to know the situation though if I'm gonna help."

Thufrat didn't waste any time and quickly explained what had happened with Ark, excluding the fact that he could turn into a human since he didn't know what the consequences of such actions would be. Laurelia pondered for a while when she heard this, but she soon looked enlightened. She gave Thufrat a weird look, before asking him a question.

"This wolf companion of yours, wouldn't happen to be able to turn into a human right?"

Thufrat was scared out of his wits when he heard this. How did she find out? Did he say something wrong? Since the cat was already out of the bag, Thufrat told her a little about Ark, only some general parts though. Since he came clean, Laurelia knew how to help Ark, it was a very special case, but it wasn't hard to treat, not considering her skills at least.

After some deliberation, she agreed to help Ark. Both Alenia and Thufrat were happy beyond belief. Alenia was mostly just happy for Thufrat's sake though. Not wasting any more time, Laurelia left her office, with everyone else in tow. They all stepped into the elevator again, but instead of going downward like they thought they would, they kept going up. This time, the ride only lasted a couple of seconds before it swiftly stopped on another floor.

Instead of a wooden door, this floor had a pure metallic door, that weighed over a hundred kilograms, but Laurelia pushed it open without even breaking a sweat. Behind the door was a large spacious room. This room was at the very top of the tower. With next to no decorations, the only thing that stood out about the room was the large purple runes and circles that covered the entire floor fo the room.

Before anyone had the chance to react, Laurelia started chanting some weird words, before the entire floor erupted with a purple glow. The resplendent glow was blinding, to say the least, and Thufrat and Alenia who hadn't been prepared were both scared by the sudden light. Before long, they could feel a weird twisting aura enveloping them before they completely disappeared from their previous spots.

From an outsider's perspective, the peak of the mysterious black tower had suddenly erupted with immense purple light, before a shockwave of light was shot out in all directions.. The black tower then went back to its previous complete silence.