Chapter - 1953

"Your story is too convenient to be true, 'Elphyn'. I need proof of your identity. Tell me something that only Menadion would know." Tryssa said.

"Like what?" Solus replied with a scoff. "I won't share my legacy's secrets with you and even if I did, it's all outdated knowledge. Whatever I say, you could just claim that I'm making it up or that's not enough until you learn what little I've left of my mother's work.

"If it's proof that you want, I can give you plenty, though. I can call Lochra Silverwing and Baba Yaga to vouch for me. I can even call Overlord Salaark to testify about my identity and how my mother entrusted me to her."

Solus didn't actually have their contact runes, but Zoreth could ask Nandi to summon Baba Yaga who in turn knew where to find Silverwing. As for Salaark, her rune was on the speed dial.

Seeing the rune of the Guardian on Solus' amulet sent Tryssa into such a panic that she lost control over her shapeshifting and her skin slowly turned from brown to green.

Arguing over the ownership of the mouth with the Garlen Council was one thing. Making an enemy of one of the original six Guardians and two white cored Awakened was another.

If the young woman in front of Tryssa really was Elphyn Menadion, her claim had solid grounds that couldn't be denied.

"Heck, if among your ranks there's someone who met me in person, ask them to come here. They'll recognize my energy signature. That's something that no shapeshifting can change." Solus turned around and went back to her seat.

"This is a complicated matter that's clearly above my authority." Tryssa decided to swallow her pride and bail out.

If she agreed on giving back the Mouth, the Council would kill her. If she refused to give it back and triggered a war, the Council would kill her. Allying with Thrud was but a bluff.

The Verendi Council knew that once the Mad Queen claimed Garlen, they would be next. They looked at the War of the Griffons in fear and wanted Thrud defeated. They didn't intervene because distance made them feel safe and wanted to preserve their numbers.

If the Garlen Council lost its power, part of its territories would be up for the taking and many Awakened would move from Verendi to take them.

An all-out war between Awakened Councils, instead, would have thinned their already small numbers and paved the road to conquest for the Mad Queen. A nightmare scenario that had to be avoided at all cost.

"That's none of our problem." Zoreth shook her head. "Elphyn waited 700 years to get her life back and she's not going to wait for you. Her homeland is in danger and there's no time to waste.

"You have 24 hours to come back with a declaration of war or the Mouth. After that, we'll reveal everything to the Garlen Council. She might lose the Mouth, but it's still better than leaving it with you.

"Also, know that you won't face just the Council of the Awakened but also the Master's Organization." Zoreth noticed that Tryssa didn't seem impressed so she raised the ante.

"I don't come to Verendi for over a century, but I bet that you heard about the Final Smile." She shapeshifted into her old Eldritch form.

It resembled a humanoid with a small torso, huge claw-ending limbs, and two membranous wings on its back. Even before undergoing the Master's experiments, turning into an Eldritch had restored part of Zoreth's draconic nature.

The four white eyes and the monstrous row of teeth on the Eldritch's oversized head resembled a distorted face wearing a cruel smile. It was the last thing that Xenagrosh's victims would see and that gave her the nickname.

Tryssa recognized the ancient monster from the surveillance footage that she had studied during her apprenticeship and shivered in fear. The black aura that Zoreth now exuded made it hard for her to breathe.

"I'm not as famous, but I hope you haven't forgotten about the White Lightning of Verendi." Bytra shapeshifted as well, turning into Korgh's form.

She now looked like a pitch-black humanoid covered with small scales and long silver hair. Her horns were much smaller than a Raiju's but they sparked with a pristine electricity that only Chaos could trigger after robbing it of its light.

Another black aura spread, covering Tryssa in a cold sweat and making her grip a nearby chair so hard that it turned into splinters.

"Also, you'll have to fight me. The Red Carnival." Theseus stood up, turning into his old appearance, that of an unnaturally tall and thin man with limbs as thin as a twig.

White stripes alternated with the blackness of his body, giving the impression he was wearing a suit. His head was elongated as well, looking like a cylinder with two 10 cm (4') long shiny slits that were actually his eyes.

The Fae jumped back in terror and reverted to her true form, ready to fight for her life. The Final Smile and the White Lightning were famous Eldritches who had done lots of damage in Verendi, but their visits never lasted.

They were considered natural disasters, something that was more convenient to wait to be over than to fight against. The Red Carnival, however, was a scourge that had plagued Verendi for millennia.

A rot that had resisted every attempt of the Council to excise it. Paquut's feats were well known. He would reach a city at sundown and by daylight, its inhabitants would be gone forever.

He used their entrails as festoons, decorating the main roads. He painted the biggest walls he found using bile, blood, and every bodily fluid he could squeeze out of his victims instead of colors.

Yet the worst part was the carnival rides. They were the results of the bodies of the citizens fused with Body Sculpting and turned into living carousels that emitted agonized moans instead of music.

Their bones would break and their organs collapse, unable to sustain such an unnatural and complex form for long. Yet Paquut always made sure to have an audience.

That a few hapless travelers would witness his work until he made the bodies explode into what he considered the closing time fireworks.

His name was that of the bogeyman mothers would use to scare their unruly children and Awakened masters to threaten their disciples.

Theseus quickly reverted back to his human form and sat down again. Only then did Tryssa manage to stop quivering like a leaf in a storm.

She was glad to be a plant instead of a human because otherwise she would have lost control of her bladder and would have fainted from the lack of oxygen. She had stopped breathing for a while, but Faes could do it from their skin even when their lungs refused to move.

Once she managed to regain her cool, Tryssa noticed that one of the men at the table was almost as flabbergasted as she was while the other looked completely unfazed. He had listened to all those ancient names without batting an eye.

'He must be so powerful that even such an assembly of monsters poses no threat to him.'
Chapter 1954: Nineteen (Part 2)
'Maybe he's even the Master they are talking about. That or he's the bravest man on Mogar.' Tryssa had no idea that Lith was simply ignorant.

Names that would scare a wiser and older man were just cringy to him.

She couldn't afford to underestimate her opponents anymore so she took a long look at Lith with Life Vision. He was the second weakest of the group after Elphyn, but that could be explained by a cloaking ring.

Tryssa ignored her sight and focused on her nose, smelling a faint trace of Eldritch Abomination from him.

'I knew it! As long as they are in human form, their power is suppressed but they can't hide their smell.' She thought, finding no joy in her discovery.

"What are you exactly?" Tryssa asked Lith. "Before I go back to the Council, I need to know who we are dealing with."

"I'm nineteen." He gave the flabbergasted Fae thumbs up without moving from his chair.

Tryssa racked her brain to make sense of those words, but to no avail. Every famous monster, Abomination, and Eldritch had a nickname that represented their madness, not a mere number.

For a second, she assumed that it might have been the mysterious Eldritch's body count, but then she realized that two digits weren't something even an Awakened would brag about.

"As in there are nineteen more of you? Or is it your position in this Organization?" Self-duplicating or ranking was the only logical explanation.

"No, as in I'm nineteen years old." Lith shook his head as he stood up.

He released his violet aura while unfolding his four wings and opening his seven eyes.

"I am probably younger than most of the hotel staff, but I reached this level on my own. I am no legacy heir. I Awakened and developed on my own until the Garlen Council found me."

"Imagine what I'll become tomorrow." Lith stared at her, opening his face-mask and letting small bursts of Origin Flames come out.

Tryssa furrowed her brows for a second before her eyes went wide in surprise.

'Great Mother almighty!' She inwardly reassessed the threat level of each one of the invaders. 'If what this guy says is true, then he might be the second weakest of the group, but he's also the scariest.

'Elphyn has Menadion's legacy to back her while the others are old monsters who built their power through the centuries. Their strength makes sense. Reaching the violet so soon and developing a unique bloodline it's unheard of, instead.

'He's wearing no cloaking device and I can tell that his physical prowess is at the level of a Divine Beast. I can't believe that someone who is less than one-fifth of my age can kill me with the flick of a finger.'

The Fae had come to the Winged Boar hotel to intimidate and humiliate the arrogant Shadow Dragon who had dared to demand an audience with the Council instead of requesting it.

Yet she was about to leave the building after having been scared to death and thoroughly humiliated. The Final Smile had played her like a fiddle from the beginning and exploited her ignorance to corner the Council.

On top of that, every single member of that unlikely group made her look like a child who threatened adults while throwing a tantrum.

"You'll receive the Council's answer within the next 24 hours as per your request. I can't do more, I'm sorry." Tryssa needed sheer willpower to turn around and walk out of there as slowly as she had entered instead of running for her life.

"I suppose that you're also like Bytra and Theseus." Dolgus stared at Zoreth with suspicion. "You are a clone who has devoured her original, correct?"

"Wrong." The Shadow Dragon shrugged. "I'm exactly the monster you think I am and even though I'm not proud of some of my past deeds, I'm not ashamed of them either.

"I did what I had to survive and I owe no explanation to the likes of you. Be grateful that I devoured my clone, because she would have turned Mogar upside down just for the fun of it."

.

"How can you say that after what you did to the Kingdom and to countless people?" Rage and Life Maelstrom coursed through the Griffon's body with greater intensity with each word he spoke. "You-"

"She's my wife and savior." Bytra stepped in front of him. "I don't care what she did in the past, now she's a better person. Those like you who have no idea of the hunger an Abomination suffers their whole life and the things that it forces us to do just to survive has no right to judge her."

"She's also part of my family, in a way." Lith said. "Attacking her would mean facing all of us. Even in the ridiculous case you win, everything we have done so far would be meaningless.

"Verendi's Council would keep the Mouth, the Organization and the Garlen's Council would lose some of their best warriors, and Theseus would have no place where to go. The only person who would be grateful to you would be Thrud."

A tense silence ensued while Dolgus mulled over his chances of victory and the consequences of his actions. He kept circulating the Life Maelstrom and weaving spells for a few seconds before letting them fade away.

"Fine, but whatever happens next, don't count on my help. I'll protect Theseus and Elphyn, but that's it." He said.

"By the way, there's something I don't understand." Lith said as everyone went back to their human form and dispelled the cloaked area. "Your power move was amazing, sure, but the Council will never give up on such a precious artifact.

"Based on what you said earlier, I assumed you had an ace in the hole. Something that would force their hand. Yet aside from showing off you achieved nothing."

"You wish." Dolgus said, having a hard time believing that someone so powerful could also be so young and naïve. "By revealing her true identity, she has given the Council the grounds for a killing order.

"Our Eldritch 'friends' here are all wanted in Verendi, especially Theseus. Tryssa may have been scared witless, but her master won't miss the opportunity to attack you on sight in the name of justice."

"Is he telling the truth?" Lith couldn't believe that Zoreth had made such a stupid mistake.

"The two of you are right, but you are also wrong." Zoreth said as a cruel smile appeared on her face. "As I told you earlier, we Abominations don't hide nor cower. It was all intentional.

"I introduced myself as a member of Garlen's Council and I didn't strike first because I can't afford to ruin all of the Master's hard work. If they attack us, however, ignoring our rights as members of another Council, they'll give the Organization the grounds to retaliate.

"Verendi can't attack us without Garlen's approval, but they'll never give it. If they don't follow protocol, once we strike back, Garlen will consider the issue as between us and Verendi.

"I demanded an audience with the Council because Verendi is too big to search it in a brief time. Because this way, not only will Bytra and I have the perfect opportunity to test our new powers against a worthy enemy, but we will also have free reins in Verendi once the problem with Thrud will be dealt with."
Chapter 1955: Climbing the Ranks (part 1)
"At that point, no matter how long it takes, I'll find the Mouth of Menadion and give it to you, Solus." Bytra said

***

Griffon Kingdom, above a mana geyser in the Nestrar region, Golden Griffon.

Thrud came several times a day to check on the Arthan's Madness pods where her generals were being injected with the ambrosia in order to become Divine Beasts. The academy was automated and Hystar checked on their vitals 24/7, ready to alert her in case something went wrong.

Yet it wasn't enough to keep Thrud calm.

After spending so much time with those Emperor Beasts before the start of the war, being their mentor, friend, and leader, they had become more than mere soldiers in the Mad Queen's heart.

They had had countless opportunities to defect once outside the Golden Griffon or whenever she removed the effects of the Unwavering Loyalty array from their bodies. Instead, they had served her faithfully, putting their hearts and souls into her master plan as if her life dream was their own.

Her soldiers would often return from the battlefield with mangled bodies and leave after a single night of sleep.

Even when they met one of the old monsters of the Awakened Council, they would fight until their last breath and appear in the academy's regeneration chamber after having been shredded to pieces.

Not one of the Mad Queen's champions had put their own pain above the mission, sacrificing themselves, again and again, no matter how traumatic their death would be. Thrud considered them as her friends, people who she wanted to share the final victory and its spoils with.

She felt responsible for the lives that they had once again put into her hands without a second thought, and the burden was almost crushing her. Thrud knew how dangerous the procedure was and had set the Madness' settings to as slow and steady as she could.

Emperor Beasts were usually bigger than a human, but compared to a Divine Beasts they were mere pups. For their body to grow in size so much, to develop strong muscles and bones capable of sustaining it, they usually needed Mogar's help.

It was the planet that would rearrange the body of an evolving creature, making sure that their organs wouldn't collapse due to the strain and keeping their proportions perfect.

Mogar wasn't going to help Thrud's soldiers, though, and it was up to the Mad Queen to make sure that everything went without a hitch. One small mistake and her generals would emerge with imperfect bodies.

Xedros' procedure had taken half that long, but once he had come out of his pod, his new mass was the same of a non-Awakened Dragon, with no trace of body refinement and he had died for it.

Iata and the others, instead, had developed their new body slowly, allowing them to use Accumulation during all that time and filtering the impurities from their flesh and bones the moment they formed.

Just like when she had given birth to Valeron, the closer the final day the more anxious she would get. The Madness wasn't her womb, but it was still Thrud's life work and the legacy that her father had entrusted her with.

Her generals were about to be reborn through her own version of the Madness and that made them her children as well.

Now that the timers counted down the minutes before the pods would open, she couldn't stop pacing nervously in front of the line of Arthan's Madnesses, biting her nails in frustration.

"Is this how a father feels?" She thought out loud. "Completely helpless while waiting for the dice to roll?"

"Calm down, mother. I'm sure that everything will be alright. Worst case scenario, the Unwavering Loyalty array will fix them." Protheus, the First Doppelganger said.

He looked like a mix of Thrud and Jormun, with silver eyes and light green hair. The androgynous features of his human body made it hard to understand his gender and usually, he had none.

Protheus took from his stepfather when he needed to console his mother or play with Valeron while from Thrud when he had to deal with the troops.

"You don't get it, Protheus." She shook her head. "Worst case scenario, they will be trapped into faulty bodies that will make their life an eternal nightmare. Chronic pain, dementia, and madness are only a few of the-"

The sound of the liquid filling the pods being drained told Thrud that the procedure was over and fear cut her short. The beeping of the capsules as air filled them sounded like the executioner's steps to her.

As the safety locks were released one at a time with a click, Thrud became so nervous that she was covered in a cold sweat, eager to know if years of preparation and almost one month of motherly care had paid off.

"Good morning, my liege." Iata the Scorpicore said, walking out of the pod in her human form. "Or is it evening already? It's hard to track time in here."

"Who gives a damn about the hour and the weather? Just tell me how you feel." Thrud walked to her, using her breathing technique, Regal Flow, to check the condition of each and every one of her generals.

"I feel incredible." Iata replied. "All I need is a real meal and I'll be ready to train with my new body. I'm sick and tired of drinking goo."

"Nonsense." Thrud shook her head. "Training can wait, you need rest!"

"We spent the last month sleeping most of the time!" Ufyl the Hydra said. "If I see a bed or a fucking bathtub, I'll go nuts. I've been soaked for so long that a little dirt and sweat sounds nice."

"Don't worry, Mom, we'll be fine." Leari the Firebird said with a mocking tone. "I promise you that the moment we feel something is wrong, we'll tell you. The past few weeks felt like death. What we need now is to live a little."

Th word struck the Mad Queen like a punch to the guts, freezing her in place until all of them walked out of the room in search of food and company. They had spent a lot of time sealed in a transparent capsule alone and their stomachs weren't the only part of their bodies that demanded its due.

"Gods, they grow so fast." Thrud said as a silent tear streaked down her eyes.

"Yeah." Jormun replied while carrying their baby between his arms and handing Valeron to her to calm her down. "From 20 (66') to 30 (100') meters in one month is one heck of a growth spurt."

"Take your time and enjoy being a kid, Valeron." She said while lulling the baby. "Grown-ups have lots of work and sacrifices to do."

The Doppelganger looked at the family scene and the Madness with envy. Everyone was growing more powerful while his mana core had just entered the green. With so many potential Divine Beasts, Protheus feared that now he had become irrelevant.

Death didn't scare him compared to the idea of being left out of the war and watching powerlessly from the sidelines.

Thrud noticed his distress and patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry, my child. We have still much to do."
Chapter 1956: Climbing the Ranks (part 2)
"We?" He asked in confusion. "My doppelgangers have lost their effectiveness as undercover agents since Manohar taught everyone how to expose us. Our cores are still weak and our magic is lacking. There's no we. Not anymore." He replied.

"You are wrong." Thrud took the last batch of ambrosia out of her dimensional amulet and handed it to Protheus.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" He asked.

"Why do you think I waited for them to come out to show it to you? Because now you have access not just to my Golden Griffon, Valeron's Bahamut, and Jormun's Emerald Dragon's bloodline, but to over 30 different Divine Beasts.

"I'll be honest with you. I didn't plan to give you your powers nor to use ambrosia on you, but fate decided otherwise." Thrud said. "You can store and access the forms of the most powerful creatures of Mogar and with the ambrosia, you might even gain their bloodline abilities."

At those words, Protheus' eyes sparkled with greed. He would be back being her champion and his power would be unmatched. On top of that, if the ambrosia worked, all of his descendants would inherit the ability to recreate mana organs as well.

"Don't act rashly, though. Remember what happened with Verhen's tissues." Thrud said, snapping him out of his reverie. "Also, you have no real Guardian blood, just tissue samples.

"What I said earlier about pain and madness applies to you as well. I have no idea how ambrosia will interact with your body and powers. You might become the supreme being just like you could turn into a mindless jigsaw creature."

"How long would the procedure take?" Protheus had already made his mind.

The only question left was if he would come out in time for his presence to tip the scales of the war, otherwise the ambrosia would have had to wait. He couldn't lay asleep while his family risked their life.

"A few days at most." The Mad Queen replied. "You already have all the mass you need and it's already refined. The only step you'll undergo is the bloodline awakening. Please, think this through before-"

The Doppelganger placed the vial in the Madness, starting the preparatory steps of the procedure.

"I had one month to dream for this moment and I'm not going to wait for a second longer. Only for the time that I need to collect the samples from my newfound siblings."

***

Verendi Continent, deep underground in the Zagovia plains, Council Hall.

After hearing Tryssa's report, the representative of the five races had rushed to meet, dropping whatever they were doing no matter how delicate the step of their research was.

Sending a youth to deal with old monsters had been a mistake and they had less than 23 hours before that bomb exploded in their faces.

"This is bad." Ozak Estus, the human representative said. "We are stuck in a lose-lose scenario. If we surrender the Mouth of Menadion and its owner, we'll not only lose a powerful artifact, but we'll also go back on our word.

"We had promised Visante our protection and a full pardon for his crimes. No one will ever trust us after this." Worry made deep wrinkles appear in his otherwise handsome features.

Ozak was over 600 years old, but his smooth dark skin and his muscular body were flawless. Aside from the grey patches along with the silver, orange, and blue streaks on his black hair, it was hard considering him one day over forty.

"I disagree." Xergov the Dullahan, the undead representative said. "This is much worse. Our Council can't afford to lose the Mouth. It's the second wind we have been expecting for decades.

"Without it, soon even Jiera will surpass us. Garlen with its three Guardians and its three countries has always been a nightmare for us. The number of mines our fellow Awakened can exploit and the infrastructures they enjoy are incomparable to ours.

"We have so many fucking borders to cross, so many governments to infiltrate for a single delivery that our progress has always been slow. To make matters worse, these constant territorial wars are a pain in our ass.

"We lost a lot of potential Awakened candidates among the war victims."

"Indeed." Senara the Firbolg, Tryssa's mentor, nodded. "Until a while ago, we could console ourselves that Jiera fared no better, but now things have changed. The plague has erased their cultural differences and driven out the undead, leaving the Council free reins.

"Ever since they overcame the crisis of the aftermath, their development is progressing by leaps and bounds. Awakened can now reclaim and mine all kinds of magical resources in broad daylight.

"The number of Awakened in Jiera has boomed and soon they'll become as strong as Garlen. I heard That Zagran the Garuda is actively helping them and wants to follow in Salaark's footsteps to give her own Kingdom a go."

"They'll never reach Garlen's prowess." Ileza, Guardian of Life and Mother of all the Bastets said. "The War of the Griffons has weakened their Council, but once it ends, they'll come out stronger than ever.

"They have now a regular army, they are sharing their knowledge as I suggested you to do for millennia, and they even added the Abominations to their folds. Yet the crown jewel of all this will be the union between beasts, plants, and humans.

"It doesn't matter who wins, Garlen will be the first developed continent to overcome specism and its prejudices. If they stop living as three separate races and become one great society, they'll thrive like never before."

"What about Jiera?" Rokuno the Jotunn, the beast representative asked. "They have already built a society where all four races live together and Awakened teach magic to fake mages."

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"Do you really want to compare a bunch of ruins to a flourishing culture?" Ileza said with a sneer. "That's why I said developed continent. Jiera is ahead of Garlen, but it's incapable of facing an invasion.

"What they have built is wonderful, but it will crumble at the first gust of storm."

"Enough spreading salt on our wounds, Guardian!" Xergov said. "Instead of reminding us how much we suck, offer us a solution. Who knows, maybe if you were as good at your job as Tyris, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"I am Verendi's Guardian of Life, but I'm no Great Mother." She gave the goddess a small bow while mentioning her name. "Also, I have told you idiots and your predecessors countless times what our continent needs.

"It's you who refused to listen and take action. If you expect me to do all the hard work and the sacrifices, letting you reap the benefits, you'll wait until the end of times!"

"Easy for you to talk!" The plant representative said. "You are a Guardian and have eternal life along with amazing powers. What would take you a finger snap to achieve takes us decades.

"Also, it's not our fault if Garlen's Guardians are better than our own. The Master overcame the limits of undeath, the Tiamat is a brand-new race that has no equal, and Thrud's child might be his peer if not even his better!

"All three of them came to be because of Tyris, Leegaain, and Salaark. While your offspring slaughtered innocents, theirs achieved great things!"
Chapter 1957: The Die is Cast (part 1)
"Enough!" Ozak slammed his heavy fist on the Adamant table to quell the anger of his peers. "Let's reconsider the situation from the beginning and make a decision instead of wasting more time with recriminations.

"The past is beyond our reach and if we don't focus on the present, we'll have no future because we'll be all dead."

After silence returned to the Council Hall, the human representative continued:

"The situation is not as dire as it seems. Our agents in Garlen have confirmed that the local Council is still unaware that we are in possession of the Mouth of Menadion. Our 'guests' want to keep the information and the artifact for themselves and this plays in our favor.

"Also, where you guys only see a disaster, I see an opportunity. If we get rid of the intruders, we'll kill several birds with one stone. Their death will weaken the Garlen Council, the Organization, and we'll finally get justice for the countless lives that those Eldritches took through the centuries.

"After that, we just need to be careful with the Mouth and sell the artifacts crafted with it solely to trustworthy people who will keep the secret about their origin. The War of the Griffons is a blessing in disguise because it gives us the time that we need to step up our game.

"As long as Garlen has to face Thrud, a political matter like the death of a few ambassadors will have to wait. Once the war ends, we just have to strike before the winner recovers, no matter who it is, to achieve a quick victory."

"I like your idea." Xergov's severed head rested on the table so her body had to lift it and shake it with its hands to make her nod. "But there's another way that would avoid a pointless war. We can just claim that we played no role in the attack.

"That the grief-stricken families of the victims acted on their own after learning of the presence of their sworn enemies. At that point, we might even close the issue by offering a few scapegoats.

"After all, if we leave no witnesses, no one will trigger a full-scale conflict based on hearsay."

"Agreed." Rokuno said. "But we must act swiftly and decisively. If even one of them survives and manages to escape to Garlen, things will escalate. Even if we win, many of us might not come out of it alive.

"It would be of great help to the cause if you joined our efforts, Ileza. You are the Guardian of Life and avoiding the conflict between Councils would save countless lives."

"Nice try, but no. I'm not an idiot and this is your agenda, not mine." The Bastet's eyes flared with mana and fury, making the other representatives quiver in their boots.

"Fine." Senara raised her hands in surrender. "You could at least clean up your own home and get rid of the Red Carnival for us. Theseus is your son. His actions and the blood on his hands also fall on you."

"I would agree if it was still the old him." Ileza said. "My son had taken a path from which there was no redemption and I've sworn to kill him with my own hands if I ever found him again.

"Thanks to the Master, however, he's gotten a fresh start, and the illness that twisted his mind is gone. I will always be grateful to the Master for saving my child and I'm not going to harm this new Theseus unless he proves to be no different from the old one.

"Besides, it was you who against my advice granted Visante a full pardon and your protection in exchange for his services. You glossed over his crimes so that he could grow your power by sharing the Mouth with each one of you in turns.

"He is now a respected mage of our community and if the truth about him were to be revealed, you would be all in trouble. Elphyn Menadion is the legitimate heir of the Mouth and I won't move a finger against her either."

"Do you mean that she's the real deal? Does she have the tower?" Senara asked and the others nodded, their eyes lit by greed like a bunch of Dragons.

"She's the real deal but the tower is lost. The killer took it away" Senara lied through her teeth, unwilling to cause Elphyn any trouble.

"So you are going to abandon us, like always." Xergov the Dullahan said.

"I'm not abandoning you. You have decided to ride toward a cliff and I refuse to follow, end of the story." The Bastet stood up, opening a Warp Gate back to her lair. "One last word of advice.

"My son was brilliant as a Bastet and once he turned into an Abomination, his brilliance was twisted into a monstrosity. He became more powerful and more dangerous than he had ever been.

"Now, he has transcended beyond even that. I wouldn't cross him if I were you."

Then, she left before they could reply. ReadNovelFull.com

"All in favor to get rid of the intruders before Garlen learns about the Mouth?" Ozak asked, and the motion was unanimously approved.

***

Penaka hill, in the middle of nowhere and of the Seota plains.

The more Lith studied the area that the Council had chosen as neutral ground for the negotiations, the more it looked like the perfect place for a trap.

There was no settlement nearby so no witnesses either. The Penaka hill was an isolated plateau far from the borders of Garlen, with nowhere to hide for dozens of kilometers.

In the case someone was forced to run, the pursuers would have a clear line of sight on their target. No matter if one flew at high speed or Blinked, it would take a miracle to escape.

"Now I understand why you decided to come here as soon as they communicated to us the meeting place even though we are hours early." Lith said. "You didn't want to give them the time to prepare traps."

"Correct." Zoreth nodded. "I gave them such a short deadline so that they were forced to improvise. Even if they contacted us after starting the preparations, building huge arrays isn't something that you can do in a few hours.

"Even if they sent us to some secluded execution spot, we've cast array detection spells on our way here to avoid surprises."

"This is still a trap, though." Lith replied.

"Most likely. The alleged reason for choosing this place is to allow us to have a clear sight of the members of the delegation and have many escape routes if something goes south.

"Yet we know that even if they send just one person, it takes a single Warping array to move dozens if not hundreds of Awakened at a time." Zoreth said.

"If this is a trap and we know it, why are we even here?" Theseus asked. "Between Chaos and Spirit Warp, there's nothing that can stop us from reaching Garlen. Let's spill the beans with the Council and let them sort this out."

"I agree." Solus said.

"Me too. This will be a pointless battle." Dolgus sighed.

"Not really." Lith shook his head as he turned around to look Solus in the eyes.
Chapter 1958: The Die is Cast (part 2)
"If in my previous battle I needed to check how I fare against a human army, now I can experience the Awakened's tactics and put mine to the test. Royal Pardon or not, I'm going to fight Thrud and I need all the practice I can get against an Awakened army."

"Is it still worth risking your life for?" Solus fiddled with her hair, finding it uncomfortable having only two colored streaks due to Body Sculpting.

"I'm going to risk my life anyway in the War of the Griffons." Lith shrugged. "At least now I have three powerful Eldritches and you by my side. It's much safer than on any battlefield I will ever step into."

"Why not just leave it to the Council?" She looked unconvinced.

"Because the Mouth is yours, Solus, and if they knew about such a powerful artifact, they would take it for themselves. As I've always said, nothing that's worth having comes easy, but once you reach our level, you often have to fight for it.

"People will not let you have good things out of the goodness of their heart, not even those you deserve. If you don't stand up for yourself, they'll take everything away from you."

"Is it an artifact really worthy of shedding so much blood? How are you any different from the Council?" Theseus chimed in, feeling conflicted.

"The artifact? No, but that's not on me. We gave them proof of Solus' rightful claim, we gave them a choice to end things peacefully, and they turned it down." Lith replied. "I'm different from the Council because I'm not the one seeking battle.

"I can't decide how people live, but for sure I can decide how people who raise their hand against me die. I don't enjoy violence, but if you start avoiding conflict, you'll end up with nothing but the clothes you wear. If you are lucky."

Solus was still mulling over Lith's words when Bytra approached her. The Raiju kept her distance until Solus allowed her to come close.

"What do you want?" Her voice came out way ruder and colder than she intended.

"This is going to be a difficult battle and I will need to use the Absolution." Bytra replied while offering Solus the hammer once again. "To do that, I need your permission."

"Why do you need my permission to use your weapon?" Solus furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Because I consider the Absolution a part of Menadion's legacy." The Raiju said. "I could only make it because I stole the Fury and studied it for years. Like you always said to me, I have no creativity.

"I upgraded your mother's runes to become the Fourth Ruler of the Flames just like I simply upgraded your mother's hammer to craft the Absolution. It belongs to you not me and I don't want to take anything away from you anymore."

Solus flushed in embarrassment at the rudeness of the words of her past self. After spending years with Lith and working hard to understand the secrets of Forgemastery, she knew how hard it was to upgrade something.

Most of their best pieces were "just upgrades" like the Orichalcum Skinwalker armor from which they had derived all the others. On top of that, the Raiju's thoughtfulness moved her.

Bytra was willing to put Solus' feelings first and her own survival second in order to redeem herself.

'I really was a jerk to Bytra.' Solus thought and was about to apologize when rage replaced shame.

Seeing the Absolution and its bare aura of power that matched that of her Fury, filled Solus with anger.

'Jerk or not, Bytra is right. She's no better than those bastards of the Verendi Council. She stole the Fury and the Council the Mouth, using enjoying the artifacts without a care for how they got them.

'Neither of them is entitled to Mom's legacy. The Mouth is mine and so is the Absolution. I can't believe that Vastor managed to create something so powerful that it might even be better than my mother's work.' She thought.

Then, before cruel words that she wouldn't be able to take back left her mouth, Solus stopped for a second, putting her wounded ego aside.

'I stand corrected. Bytra and the Council are not the same. She's offered me the Absolution twice already and it was my choice to refuse it. She's here to fight for me, risking her life to get back the Mouth and try to fix our relationship.

'The Verendi Council, instead, even after learning who I was and how the Mouth ended up in their hands, want to kill me just to keep their new toy. Lith is right, they don't deserve my compassion.'

"Please, Bytra, use the Absolution and do everything you can to come out of this battle alive." Solus said after taking several deep breaths to calm down and take the edge off her words.

"You have stolen the Fury, but you also returned it to me the moment you learned that I was still alive. There's no way we can change the past, but there's no point in our enmity.

"The old Bytra is dead and you seem a great Forgemaster." She pointed at the Absolution and at the enchanted equipment that the two Abominations now wore. "Even if I had died that night, Ripha's legacy would still live through you.

"The Absolution is the proof that you didn't just uncover my mother's secrets, you also understood the spirit of her teachings. So stand up and fight."

"Thanks." Bytra hung the hammer at her hip and wiped her tears. "You have no idea how much these words mean to me."

"Believe me, I know. They mean a lot to me too." Solus still couldn't stand the Raiju, but she felt that the burden on her heart had lessened. ReadNovelFull.com

The scar that her mother's death had inflicted upon her would never disappear, but it had finally started to heal.

Theseus overheard them talking from a distance, feeling Bytra's relief as his own. The bond between Vastor's hybrids allowed him to perceive her sincerity and how Solus' partial forgiveness had soothed her spirit.

He had walked more than one mile in her shoes and now pondered whether to wish that none of his victims was still alive or to meet at least their descendants to make up for the suffering that Paquut had inflicted.

***

The rest of the time passed in silence. Everyone was tense and aside from eating and drinking, in order to retain their peak strength, they spent their time meditating. Dolgus had tried for a while to change Theseus' mind and avoid the conflict, yet the Bastet had been adamant in his decision.

After that, the only thing that the Griffon could do was to plan an escape route and keep his distance from the group.

The emissary of the Council came dead on time.

Senara the Firbolg, plant representative of Verendi, stepped through a Warp Steps that had appeared at a safe distance from the hill.

She looked like a beautiful woman in her early thirties, about 2 meters (6'7") tall with bright green skin, crimson red vines for hair, and full lips. The Fae exuded a bright violet aura that made everyone but the Abominations feel pressured.
Chapter 1959: Blight Flames (part 1)
'Damn. Is there really so much difference between the violet and the bright violet core?' Lith wondered as he used Life Vision, Death Vision, and shared Solus' mana vision.

The Firbolg's physical prowess was inferior to a Divine Beast's but it was nothing to scoff at. He witnessed her die in several different ways, but every one of them required her body to be reduced to shreds.

Even from that distance, Lith could see with the mana sense the Fae's body crackling with the hidden energy of the spells that she kept at the ready.

Also, judging from the full set of equipment she wore, Senara had come ready to battle in the case the negotiations failed.

The Firbolg didn't show any sign of hostility and released two seemingly harmless spells.

The first was an array detection spell while the other was a life detecting array. There was nothing odd in her actions, Senara might just be checking that her guests hadn't set up an ambush or a trap.

'In her shoes, I'd do the same. Life Vision has a limited range whereas a life sensing array can cover up to a kilometer. The question is if she used it to check for hidden reinforcements on our side or to make sure that there are no witnesses.

'As for the array detecting spell, I bet that if she found any, a well-placed Disarray spell would have turned our protections into the opening salvo of the conflict.' Lith thought and he was right.

Senara was truly disappointed to miss the opportunity to blow them up with minimal effort. She had conjured opened the Warp Steps away from the hill exactly to avoid being caught in the conflagration.

"Welcome to Verendi. I'm Senara the Firbolg, plant representative of the Council. My disciple, Tryssa, should have told you about me." She gave them a small but polite and graceful bow that they returned.

"Have you brought the Mouth of Menadion?" Solus asked.

"No, I came here to find a peaceful solution." She shook her head.

"There's nothing to talk about. Give me my mother's legacy back or we'll leave."

"Lady Menadion, I think you are rushing things a bit." Senara raised her hands in a peace gesture. "There's no reason to be enemies. You could just come to live here among us.

"We would gladly return the Mouth to you and you would not be involved in the pointless war that's ravaging Garlen. All of you are welcome to stay." She then turned toward the rest of the group.

"We heard a lot about Garlen's Tiamat and we are willing to offer you a seat in the Council. As for your Eldritches, your past crimes can be forgiven if you help us develop our continent and let us study your unique condition.

"You have already joined Garlen's Council and I can promise you that Verendi's will not treat you any worse."

"I'll tell you what I said Raagu when she made me the same offer. I'm not interested." Lith replied.

"I don't want to be part of your Council and I don't trust a bunch of thieves to keep their word. I bet that the moment I follow you, you would extort me of my mother's secrets and add the Fury to your collection." Solus showed Senara the reborn hammer and the Firbolg's eyes shone with unbridled greed.

"Even if we were seeking our redemption, the likes of you can't help us." Theseus knew that his destiny wouldn't be much different from Elphyn's.

The Council wanted to befriend him solely to discover the secret of his power that went beyond the limits of the bright violet core. They would turn him into a test subject and discard his remains once they were done with him.

"I'm truly sad." Senara sighed. "We could have achieved great things together, but you refused to take the hand that was offered to you even though it was the only thing that kept you alive."

A snap of her fingers caused dozens of Warping Arrays to appear. The magical circles were so close to each other that their borders almost touched and there were so many of them that the hill was completely surrounded from every side.

As the Council's elite corps of Awakened stepped out of the Warping arrays, Lith was amazed by their numbers. He had expected a small army, but it was barely a big platoon.

'What the fuck? Why so few of them and why are they arranged into teams of seven? It's a waste of manpower. Five is the best number per unit, like we did with the Hand of Fate to fight Orpal.' Lith had no idea of what was happening.

The reason there were so few people was simply that the Council couldn't afford to reveal the existence of the Mouth to other people. Only those who were already aware of the fact that the Council owned it and had benefitted from the artifacts it created had been summoned.

The more Awakened elders they involved, the more things they would have to explain and the less time their respective turn using the Mouth would last. Like Faluel always said, only an idiot never shared.

The Verendi Council had avoided infighting for the artifact by exploiting its nature as a teaching tool that allowed the Mouth to be used by multiple people.

Yet if too many mages were involved, there wouldn't be enough time for everyone.

"Now." Zoreth gave Lith the signal and he called upon the Void.

A dome of blackness erupted from his body, covering the entire Penaka hill and reaching the Awakened units.

"What the fuck?" Senara suddenly couldn't even see the hand in front of her nose.

No matter what kind of mystical sense she employed. Life Vision and Fire Vision were blocked while her enemies were too far away for Earth Vision to be effective. The elite units kept their cool, but when their own comrades touched them, several fights broke out.

They mistook the hands groping in the darkness for their enemy having exploited the situation to Blink behind them. The worst part about it was that they were right.

Lith was the only one still on the hill because the Call of the Void would always be centered around him. The others instead had Warped to the back of the enemy formation and escaped the encirclement.

Yet they had no intention to run away. ReadNovelFull.com

The blackness of the Void lit up with countless white eyes and maws that assaulted the Awakened from every side, throwing their formations into disarray. Each Demon was nothing compared to an Awakened, but there were hundreds of them.

Hundreds of black hands invisible in the darkness whose touch robbed their victims of their vigor and mana.

'This is the part that I like the less about the plan, but I must deal as much damage as I can before these old monsters find a counter to my Void.' Lith thought as he shapeshifted into his full size, standing 25 meters (82') tall and becoming visible above the black dome.

Exposing his position was very dangerous and painted a target on his chest, but it was a risk he had to take. He was the only one beside Solus who could see through the Call of the Void and the only one who could exploit the situation to its fullest.
Chapter 1960: Blight Flames (part 2)
As Lith used body and mind casting to weave his spells, he also took a deep breath. His black and silver eyes lit up, splitting the light from the darkness element in the world energy and sending them in different directions.

The black light moved from the Tiamat's mouth down his throat and into his lungs, erupting from between the scales as it coursed through his body. The silver light, instead, moved to his heart and from there focused into the feathered wings on his hips.

When Lith opened his mouth, a burst of Void Flames came out of it while a silvery stream of Blight Flames erupted from his wings.

The Origin Flames infected respectively by Chaos and Decay moved as fast as a bullet, striking two different Awakened units whose members were fighting back-to-back against the army of shadows.

The Void Flames exploded on hit, generating a shockwave that sent the Awakened flying. The black fire burned at everything from the outside, eroding their flesh, auras, and equipment.

The Blight Flames, instead, pierced through the blackness of the Void, allowing its flabbergasted victims to see what was happening around them. They believed that one of their allies was helping them to quickly dispose of the Demons.

Or so they thought until they noticed that the blinding light was eating at them from the inside while strengthening the shadows by the second. Decay was but nourishment for the Demons and death to anything else.

The silvery fire burned and healed them at the same time, consuming the flesh, metal, and enchantments just to force them to recover a split second after. They dealt no damage, but they inflicted a huge burden not only on the life force of their victims but on their cores as well.

Healing and repairing drained the energy respectively of the mana and the power cores.

Lith had always been able to use the Void Flames so learning how to conjure the Blight had been second nature to him the moment he had gained his second feathered wing.

Using two Cursed Flames at the same time required the help of his eyes, but it also lessened the burden on his life force. He didn't need to inject part of his Abomination side in the Origin Flames anymore because he had now a way to conjure the Chaos from the world energy and safely channel the Decay that the process created.

He took another deep breath, ready to unleash a second volley of twin Cursed flames when something hit him square in the chest. The impact was strong enough to lift the Tiamat off the ground and imbued with so much mana that it pierced through his chest despite the Voidwalker armor.

'What the fuck?' Lith thought as blood gurgled from his mouth and the Call of the Void faded.

Much to his surprise, both units he had attacked seemed tired but unscathed. It would take them just a few breaths of Invigoration to return to their peak condition.

'It's worse than I thought.' Zoreth told him via the mind link they had established in advance. 'There aren't many of them, but they can all use both Silverwing Annihilation and Bastion! That's why they formed seven-man units.'

Lith had no idea what she was talking about but thanks to the Monocle of Menadion that he shared with Solus, he could both replay the moment he had been taken down and analyze the unknown spells.

Annihilation and Bastion were part of the legacy that Lochra Silvering, the First Magus, had spread throughout Mogar. They required seven violet cored Awakened to be cast because each one of them would summon and fine-tune a different element.

They were known as anti-Guardian spells, intended to allow Awakened to fight a Guardian gone mad or at least survive the encounter. Their power matched that of Blade Tier spells but unlike them, they had no specific requirement.

Anyone skilled enough could use the Bastion and the Annihilation.

The Awakened groups had used the former to resist the Cursed Flames and the latter to bring down the Tiamat. Such formations were the standard procedure of the Council when dealing with Divine Beasts.

Sure, even Divine Beasts could use such spells but while the members of the Council lived as a community, the offspring of the Guardians lived on their own. It was rare finding two of them, let alone seven and willing to cooperate.

Both the Flames and the Void had failed to hurt the Awakened but the plan was still a success.

Senara noticed the disappearance of Solus and the others only once the shroud of the blackness had disappeared. During that time, they had finished preparing their spells and positioning themselves behind the enemy lines in order to strike them from the blind spot that the Call of the Void had created.

On top of that, the blackness that had robbed the Awakened of their senses had also been the only thing that had kept them safe from the Abominations. Now that Bytra and the others could see them again, the counterattack began. ReadNovelFull.com

Solus could see through the Void so she had already dealt her fist strike. She had activated one of the powers of her Fury, Burning Rain. After throwing the hammer, it had split into nine copies, each one with its mana crystals of a bright red.

The mystical gemstones sucked in the world energy, amplifying the fire element to the extreme until the Furies were engulfed in flames. The heat rose, turning the hammers from blood red to pristine white as they flew amid the enemies without touching them.

Then, once the Furies reached their true target, they exploded into countless flaming shards. Burning Rain turned the nine hammers into white-hot Davross shards that attacked the Awakened from every side.

The spell pierced through the protections and the flesh, making the blood of its victims boil. The Awakened soldiers had formed circles, leaning against each other to cover their backs but the Void blinded them and they couldn't see the Furies flying in the middle of their formation.

The very technique that was supposed to allow them to defend themselves at a moment's notice maximined Burning Rain's effects, hitting nine seven-man units at the same time when they were still huddled up.

When the Call of the Void started to fade, Zoreth and Bytra darted amid the Awakened who were rolling on the ground. The elite soldiers were trying to smother the flames while also using their respective breathing techniques to heal before it was too late.

The glove on Zoreth's hand extended its fingers into meters long claws that cut off five heads at a time with just a flick of her wrist. The new Sky Piercer was made of Adamant and so heavily enchanted that it had no problem cutting through the damaged enchanted armors.

Solus noticed how much it resembled the Hands of Menadion and wondered how much Bytra knew about her mother's work. There were many things that the Raiju would teach her, if only Solus managed to bear her presence.

As Zoreth reaped Awakened lives like ripened wheat, Bytra threw the Absolution. The enchanted hammer split into eight exact copies that were engulfed into Chaos energy, unleashing Bytra's version of the old Fury's Hammerfall spell, Ruination.
Chapter 1961: White Griffon (part 1)
The white crystal on the Absolution turned black as Ruination filled the hammer with Chaos energy. The enchantment split the light from the darkness, releasing the Decay produced in the form of silvery shockwaves that spread throughout the battlefield.

The eight copies of the Bytra's hammer pulsed in unison, using the Decay to weaken the enemy lines before striking at them with the full power of a Chaos spell.

Now that the Call of the Void had faded, however, the Awakened saw the incoming attack and managed to raise the Bastion in time. The hammers bounced off the mystical shield without even cracking them.

The Chaos was suddenly dispersed and with it the mana coursing through the Absolutions that merged into one before falling onto the ground.

The Raiju snarled and recalled the hammer to her hand.

"Please, I don't want to fight." Theseus said while dodging multiple attacks and refusing to fight back. "Stand down and I promise you that we'll leave peacefully."

The answer came in the form of seven tier five Spirit spells that blew him to smithereens, leaving only his feet intact. Which was more than enough for his Meneos side.

The world energy flooded the fuming extremities along with nutrients and countless vines sprouted from them. They collected every single bit of the scattered body, rebuilding it from scratch before the dust cloud caused by the spells could even settle.

"I gave you a choice and you chose death." The Bastet said as he shapeshifted into a 30 meters (100') tall humanoid titan. "I won't hold back anymore."

Seven more Spirit Spell struck while he was still healing, yet they didn't leave a single scratch on Theseus. The earth element of the world energy mixed with the Bastet's life force, bestowing upon him the Mana Body bloodline ability.

The elemental flow of the world energy flooded him and countered the Spirit Magic. A regular Divine Beast would have consumed a consistent amount of life force to neutralized so many powerful spells but Theseus was different.

His Meneos side naturally drained the surrounding world energy while also healing his life force, making the bloodline ability have no cost for him. A flick of his wrist and the space tore apart as if a giant finger had slashed through it.

The Bastet jumped inside the rift that immediately closed behind him. The Awakened prepared a Silverwing Annihilation while looking around for the exit point of the dimensional opening but found none.

'Has he run away?' One of them asked via the mind link.

The rules of dimensional magic were simple. One exit point and one entry point were formed at the same time. Life Vision was supposed to spot them both unless one of them was too far away, like it happened for a Warp Steps.

Ripple and Tear, however, worked differently.

The Bastet's tier five dimensional spell created one entry point and a dimensional pocket where the user could hide. Unlike normal dimensional areas, time inside the pocket flowed normally.

New tears appeared in the space and the Awakened had no way to know from which one Theseus would come out and which of them were just decoys. Tier four Chaos spells, Howling Void emerged from all of them, catching the Awakened by surprise.

The Chaos element was too quick to conjure a barrier and make short work of their armor. The lucky ones managed to partly dodge and only lost a limb while the others died on the spot.

They tried to return fire but the dimensional rifts closed before the spells reached them. New rifts opened into different positions and the onslaught of Chaos spears continued.<del>panda novel</del>

'Don't stand like idiots! Rat him out!' Senara combined mind and body casting to instantly weave a Collapsed Space spell and force Theseus out.

The spell made Ripple and Tear collapse in a powerful implosion that struck only the Diving Beast who fell to the ground with a boom of thunder. Whole tufts of hair were burned to the root and the Basted now missed several chunks of flesh.

Attacking from inside the rift was safe, but keeping it open required an enormous amount of energy that he couldn't recover while away from the ground. Theseus was still gasping for air when an Annihilation struck him.

He conjured Mana Body again while his Meneos side drained more world energy, but his body started to crumble.

Senara didn't miss how his feet were the only part of his massive body to be still unscathed and the fact they were the point from which the regeneration always started.

'Aim the Annihilation on his feet or make the Red Carnival fly!' She said. 'Once we get him off the ground, he's as good as dead.'

Dolgus however begged to differ.

He had no intention of taking part in the fight but the Awakened didn't know it and had attacked the Griffon as well. On top of that, even though he didn't approve of Lith's and Zoreth's plan, he had sworn to protect Theseus and Solus.

He abandoned his human form, revealing his nature as a White Griffon. The Emperor Beasts and the tree-tall Faes that until a second ago had towered over him were now overshadowed by his majestic figure.

The Griffon quickly shapeshifted into a bipedal form with prehensile hands, keeping the same mass of his four-legged form and reaching a height of 30 meters (100 feet). His head, neck, and forelimbs were covered in pristine white feathers that turned pitch-black toward the end.

His leonine body was covered in glistening amber colored fur that ended in a tail whose tip was made of pure white light, shining like a star.

Even though they had been together for a while, it was only then that Lith recognized Dolgus. The two had never met, but Lith had spent four years of his life surrounded by banners depicting Tyris' firstborn.

'Are you related to the White Griffon academy?' Lith asked as a silvery armor covered Dolgus and a pair of battle maces appeared in his hands.

ᴘ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀ ɴ ᴏᴠᴇʟ 'I was his first Headmaster after its foundation.' The White Griffon replied. 'My siblings took care of the other academies. Why do you ask?'

Lith didn't have time for talking as many attacks came in both his and Dolgus' direction. The Griffon snarled, knowing that even with the White Wind armor he couldn't afford to take seven Spirit Spell of that magnitude.

Every piece of his equipment was a gift from Tyris. She had given them to him as a reward for following in her footsteps and helping the people of Mogar. Their Adamant was heavily enchanted, but it still had limits.

Dolgus unleashed a stream of Life Maelstrom that empowered him, his equipment, and burst out into two more bolts of silver lightning that struck respectively Theseus and Solus.

At the same time, he used the tier five Light Mastery spell, Castle of Light, to shroud his maces into multiple layers of hard-light constructs. The perfectly balanced weapons moved non-stop, using each the momentum of the other to never slow down even after deflecting a spell.

Dolgus used one mace to strike at whoever dared come close enough and the other as a shield that blocked both magical and physical attacks.
Chapter 1962: White Griffon (part 2)
The two weapons emitted sparks of light with their every move that didn't fade away even after the Griffon had moved to another position.

'What in the Great Mother's name is happening?' Senara suddenly was afraid that even the elite units of the Council might not be enough to win her that battle. 'Three out of the four Abominations have transformed into Divine Beasts and the nameless man turned out to be a Griffon.

'Is Elphyn Menadion the only human in the group?'

The answer to her question came when Zoreth in her Shadow Dragon form and Bytra in her human form who stood above the Dragon's head started to move in unison. The Council representative noticed that there was something familiar in the spell they were casting but the realization arrived when it was too late.

Their arms had traced a six-pointed star that she had mistaken for Silverwing's Hexagram at first and then for Silverwing's Annihilation.

'It cannot be either! The Hexagram takes too long to cast and the Annihilation requires seven violet cored Awakened and Spirit Magic!' Senara thought, and she was right, but only in part.

White-cored Awakened had more than enough power to use Silverwing's legacy on their own and regular Eldritches were just as powerful. They couldn't use Annihilation simply because the light element the spell required was sealed by their ever-hungry black core and lacked Spirit Magic.

Bytra and Zoreth, however, were hybrids who could use light magic freely. They had yet to unlock the power of Spirit Magic, but after studying the anti-Guardian spells, Vastor had altered them in a form that his children could use.

The Shadow Dragon unleashed Chaos Annihilation in the form of a black pillar that cut through the battlefield. It left a dozen meters deep scar into the ground, almost pierced through the Bastions that the Awakened kept at the ready, and killed those who didn't.

The Chaos replaced the darkness and made up for the lack of Spirit Magic, bringing Vastor's variation of the Annihilation on par with the original. The seven-man units behind the Bastions replied with their own Annihilation, hoping to put the Dragon down just like they had done with the Tiamat.

Bytra's Corrupted Bastion stopped them all in their tracks, the cursed element of earth eroding the powers of the enemy's spells while also making the barrier harder than a diamond.

'Dammit!' Senara thought. 'No regular human can use Corruption and live to tell the tale. It means that the weak link of the chain is Elphyn Menadion, but I can't afford to kill her. Old magic or not, every piece of the First Ruler of the Flame's legacy is a priceless treasure.'

At the same time, Solus and Theseus received the Life Maelstrom. The Bastet's metabolism and bloodline abilities were now boosted to the point that his body instantly recovered from the injuries.

On top of that, he could now share his Mana Body with his allies, imbuing them with the passive effect of his bloodline ability, Mana Aura. Every member of the group was now infused with a massive amount of world energy and a spark of Theseus' life force.

It boosted their fusion magic and granted them resistance to elemental magic until the world energy he had bestowed upon them wouldn't run out. It had been the combination of Life Maelstrom and Mana Body that had allowed the two Divine Beast to survive until that moment despite Theseus' pitiful condition.

No matter the enemy they faced, Dolgus alone would become capable of standing against whole human armies and defending his friend at the same time. Now, however, Theseus wasn't in need of protection and they weren't alone anymore.Solus benefitted more than the others from the Bastet's bloodline ability because world energy was her source of power and the sudden influx made up for her cracked core.<del>panda novel</del>

'Lith, we must even the field and do it quickly!' She said via their mind link as she sent half of the Life Maelstrom that she had received to him.

'Got it!' Mana Aura and Life Maelstrom boosted the Tiamat's light fusion to the point that the hole in his chest healed as fast as if he had used Invigoration.

A seven-headed Hydra had used his long necks to restrain his limbs and the remaining three to bite into his exposed flesh, injecting him with deadly venom. While Lith lay helpless on the ground, the members of her unit had bombarded him with spells.

He was covered in wounds and the Voidwalker armor was riddled with more holes than Swiss cheese. Yet now that his lungs were fixed, Lith could finally breathe again.

He took a deep breath, but the Hydra read his move. One head conjured a muzzle of Spirit Magic that would keep his mouth shut while another buried his feathered wings underground with earth magic.

Unfortunately for her, Lith had never intended to release the burst of True Flames that way. The Cursed Flames burst out of his body in a circular eruption that burned the serpentine necks restricting him and inflicted heavy damage on the rest of the seven-man unit.

The Awakened screamed in pain as the Cinder in the Origin Flames drained their bodies of the water element, turning them into dried, highly inflammable plums. Even the Hydra, with one head focused solely on using his breathing technique, could barely withstand the pain.

So, when Lith stood up and freed his wings, the Awakened fell from the frying pan into the freezer. A shockwave of Frozen Flames hit the members of the seven-man unit who were already using water magic to douse the flames, causing a thermal shock that turned them into popsicles.

ᴘ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀ ɴ ᴏᴠᴇʟ Their bodies shattered like glass when Lith hit them with Double Edge. War had already taken its place inside the exoskeleton and had activated its Gleipnir ability to help its master to wave their Blade Tier Spell, Ruin.

Lith would have liked to wait for a moment when he was completely surrounded by enemies to inflict the maximum damage possible, but Life Maelstrom wouldn't last forever.

The extra power it bestowed upon him would more than make up for the strategic loss. Solus had shared the silver lightning with him and in turn, Lith shared it with War, allowing the blade to develop abilities that exceeded the normal output of its pseudo cores.

'A Blade Tier Spell empowered by Life Maelstrom?' A cold shiver ran down Senara's back and of those who received her warning. 'We have to stop the Tiamat at all costs! Those close enough focus only on Verhen, the rest prepare another Bastion!'

The idea was excellent, but in her panic, Senara had failed to consider that Lith wasn't the only player on the battlefield. The combination of Mana Body, Life Maelstrom, and his Meneos side made Theseus nigh-invulnerable.

Sure, while under the effects of the earth-based bloodline ability he couldn't weave spells, but he had no need for magic when his claws could tear apart metal and his Abomination Touch suck the life out of whoever came too close to him.

The Shadow Dragon breathed one burst of Origin Flames after the other, forcing the Awakened to dodge and disrupting their formations.