Supreme Magus

by S.H.A aifu

MC is not an anti-hero or a hero.

9. 211

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Vinor almost choked from the surprise, many students stared at M'Rook like they were seeing a magical beast for the first time in their lives.

"Yeah, he can." Ironhelm corrected Vinor. "Minus two hundred points for lying to a teacher." The rest of Vinor's rings turned grey.

"How can you believe to stupid beast instead of a student? Are you even human? What side are you on?" Vinor whined, jumping away after hearing a snarl right beside his head.

"Who are you calling stupid?" M'Rook was so close that Vinor could smell his pungent breath. His lips were curled up, revealing fangs the size of a small dagger.

"Minus five hundred points for offending our protectors." Vinor's uniform turned from white to grey, losing all of its magical properties.

"Listen up, you idiots." Professor Ironhelm's voice roared.

"For the next three days, we are guests in this forest. Magical beasts are our landlords, protectors, and first line of defense. Whoever dares to attack another student or disrespects them will have all of their points null and void.

"It's time for you to learn that if a magical beast lives long enough, it develops mystical wisdom. They can talk, reason, and read, just like us humans. Before opening your stuck up mouths, remember where you are if you want to live.

"If they refuse to protect us because of your behavior, I'll gladly sacrifice an idiot or two to save everyone else. Is it clear?"

The students from the fourth and fifth year looked around, finally seeing that the town had no blind spots. Magical beasts could be seen soaring the skies, patrolling the streets, and even felt while tunneling underground.

Unlike inside the academy, every single move they made was watched, every word heard. Now they also knew that magical beast could talk, making them a living security system with heightened senses.

Lith walked away after giving M'Rook a polite bow, starting to look out for Phloria and the rest of the group.

- "If they live long enough. That's a good joke." Lith inwardly laughed at the charade magical beasts had put up for humans.

"Yeah, even Nok could talk and he was just a Byk cub." Solus smiled remembering their little friend. -

Meanwhile, Professor Ironhelm's curiosity had been piqued.

"Why didn't you intervene? If I hadn't stopped that icicle…"

"Nothing would have happened." M'Rook cut him short. "The oaf was a threat only to himself. I would kill him if I were you. He's a bad apple. He will bring only harm to your pack."

The Ry's words made another question arise.

"Why are you calling the big one 'oaf' and the other one 'young wolf'?"

"The big one is one of you, the small one is one of us." M'Rook snorted like someone had asked him if the water was wet.

"One of us?" Ironhelm was getting more confused by the second.

"The oaf is a human. Sees food, wants food. Sees female, wants female. Sees things, wants things. No matter if he needs them, he takes them with violence. That is human nature.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

We don't eat unless hungry, we have a mate for life, we don't need useless trinkets. He is one of us."

Professor Ironhelm felt slightly offended by M'Rook's words. They sounded a lot like racism. His problem was that he couldn't argue with them. Without law and order, the world of men would take days at most to plunge into chaos, while magical beasts lived according to unwritten rules that every one of them adhered to.

Lith was amazed by the total number of people the White Griffon hosted. The first three years were composed of at least one thousand students, making him doubt that the mining town could accommodate them all.

- "Damn, I'm here for less than five minutes and I am already lost. I hate crowded places. They give me a headache." Lith thought.

"We need to find a Professor and fast!"

"Or you could call them and ask them where they are." Solus suggested, making Lith sneer.

"My sweet, innocent Solus. If after carrying out this monumental work Linjos has left the communications open, he would be too much of an idiot to be the Headmaster."–

As Lith predicted, the communication amulet was as dead as a doornail.

"Lith, nice to meet you again. I wish our circumstances were better." Lith turned around, meeting the eyes of Colonel Varegrave.

"Colonel, this is an unexpected surprise. Is the army involved too?" Lith replied, giving him a small bow.

"Yes, of course. We cannot take any chances. I assume you already know everything." Lith nodded, asking him for help in finding his teammates.

"Not a problem." The Colonel touched his communication earpiece, requesting information. While waiting for the reply, he and Lith talked about the situation at hand.

"Can the Small World be used here?"

"Sadly, no." Varegrave sighed. "It works with principles similar to the academy's arrays, it's just more powerful. Those creatures would barely be slowed down, while we would be powerless.

Follow me, the show is about to begin."

Varegrave lead Lith to the town's outskirts where students and Professors were still waiting. Suddenly, the earth started to tremble and a rock plateau four meters (14 feet) high emerged from the ground.

Linjos had chosen a spot that allowed all those present to have a clear view and listen to his magically amplified voice.

"My dear students, this will be our home for the following days. The rules here are the same as the academy, but without lessons. At least for the fourth and fifth year students." At those words, most of the crowd erupted into groans, which Linjos ignored.

"You need to keep your hands and minds busy to avoid the stress from our current situation to eating you up from the inside. For this reason, fourth and fifth year students have two choices: help the Professors teaching their juniors the basics of magic, or mine magic crystals.

Both the endeavors will be awarded with magic crystals or points according to your contributions. I have assigned you your housing based on your social status and age, but don't misunderstand.

I did it only to prevent the seniors from harassing the younger students. All houses are identical and have the same comforts." More groans filled the air, many students spit on the ground, disgusted by Linjos's words.

They had hoped to get some fun at the expenses of the commoners.

"As Professor Ironhelm already pointed out, remember we are guests here. Allow me to introduce you to our Lord."

Scarlett the Scorpicore plunged from the skies, right beside Linjos, its landing as soft as a plume.

"I'll be brief, humans." Its voice was harsh but feminine, allowing the students to understand she was a female.

"Respect my rules and you won't even notice our presence. My rules are simple. One: do as Linjos says. Two: never harm a cub, human or otherwise, in my presence." One of the reasons the Scorpicore had decided to help the academy was that, having lost many of her offspring before turning into a Scorpicore, Scarlett had a soft spot for children.

The other was that, according to Linjos's words, the undead had too many abilities that reminded her of Abominations. She wanted to use that opportunity to check if the so-called god of death and her mysterious enemy were somehow related.

"Third: respect my underlings. They are risking their lives for you, those who do not appreciate their sacrifice can as well as die for what I care. If any of you needs help, whatever the reason, you can go to any of the magical beasts surrounding the city or my seconds in command."

Another monster descended from the skies on Scarlett's left side.

It was a giant wolf with two curved horns coming out of its forehead, right in front of the ears. Eagle-like feathered wings came out from his back and the tail seemed to be made out of dancing flames.

- "Ryman?"– Lith was shocked by his friend's arrival.

"He is Protector the Skoll. He will lead my troops in battle since I am forced to mantain all the protective arrays by myself." It was actually a lie. Many had contributed to securing the zone. Scarlett said that because she knew humans needed to be impressed to obtain their respect.

Also, it would make it easier to find out traitors since she had just made herself a target, pretending that her energies were all directed at the arrays.

A second creature appeared, this time slowly emerging from the ground.

It was a huge mass of shadows as big as a small house, which kept shapeshifting until it resembled a bear. Its only distinctive features were the glowing red eyes and its massive skeleton that glimpses could be caught of from time to time underneath the ever-changing darkness composing its body.

"This is Kalla the Wraith, our resident expert in the field of undead. She'll secure the perimeter in case things go south. Goodbye."

- "Kalla?" Her new appearance had shocked Lith, who was now fearing the worst.

"Is that an evolution or has she turned into an undead?"

"An evolution." Solus replied. "She now has a blue mana core, not a blood core. Yet judging from the red eyes and the black smoke exuding from her body, I'd say she's somehow related to them."–

The three Monsters disappeared as fast as they had arrived, leaving the center of the scene to Linjos again. With a clap of his hands, several boards materialized from thin air. Each one of them was a huge list of names in alphabetical order.

Beside each name, there was a number associated with one of the houses indicated on the map. Much to his surprise, Lith discovered that his housing was marked as one of an old noble family.

The Ernas couple had threatened the poor Headmaster, each one their own way, leaving him still pondering if to find Orion's yells or Jirni's subtle insinuations more menacing.

Having faced and lost against both in the past, he had made no objection to their request to keep together the five youths despite their different social status. When Archmage Deirus had also pressed Linjos towards such accommodation, there was very little he could do.

Putting together three members of an old noble family, albeit one in name only, one of a young noble family, and a commoner was something that he would never allow if not for their excellent relationship.

The hours passed until evening arrived. Lith worked in the mines, preferring to avoid both nobles and kids. Quylla and Yurial chose to help the Professors to teach the basics of magic.

Quylla was considering to pursuing an academic career. All the dangers she was going through were making her understand how much she loved her peaceful life inside the academy, away from bloodsheds and fights. Those things made her feel out of place.

Yurial's situation was different though. After having dined with his fiancé, his mind was a mess.

- "Libea has grown even more arrogant and stuck up than I remembered her. Thank the gods I didn't introduce her to Lith or Quylla, or we would have quarreled until her departure. I wish there was a way out of this engagement."– He thought.

The idea of spending his life with a girl he could barely stand, forced to search for his happiness in the arms of a mistress that he would be forced to keep hidden from the rest of the world, made him feel miserable.

Yurial had always known how caged his existence would be, but now that he could see its bars up close, he couldn't avoid searching for a loophole. Between spending his day alone in a dark mine and nurturing youths, he chose the second option.

- "I need to enjoy the sun as much as I can. Also, it will be a good practice for when I'll have children of my own."– He sighed.

Friya too went to the mines. Refining crystals required focus and isolation, allowing her to have a respite from the constant struggles with her inner demons. She was a noble, but didn't feel like one. She had a family, but it wasn't her own.

Her life was changing too fast and for the first time in her life, her future was a blur. Abandoning house Ernas would be a despicable act after all the attentions Orion had poured into her, treating Friya like she was his own.

It would also mean abandoning Quylla, the closest thing to a family she had left. Now, with the threat of the god of death, she didn't know if to be more afraid of her future or of her present.

Phloria followed Lith into the mines, spending most of her time watching him. Unlike the others, he didn't seem scared. Not even Balkor's shadow seemed capable of snuffing out the greed in his eyes whenever he met a high quality crystal.

She found it shallow and insensitive of him, yet incredibly soothing for her heart.

- "This is so stupid of me, but I don't know what else to do. My hands tremble too much at the idea of what is going to happen two nights from now to handle a crystal. Teaching is also useless.

I don't want to grow fond of people that could die anytime soon. I just wanted to quietly spend the rest of my time at the academy trying not to think about death. Yet it comes looking for me instead." –

Phloria felt on the verge of tears, so she sat right next to Lith, putting her head on his shoulder. His steady heartbeat was like a lullaby to her ears, her hands stopped shaking, the fear faded away.

"Do you mind if I remain like this?"

"No, be my guest." Lith managed to kiss the top of her head without needing to stop the cutting process, making her giggle.

"At this point, you should put the crystal down and hold me, you jerk."

Lith was about to joke about how he would have never expected her to be a high-maintenance girlfriend when his ears perceived something.

"Do you hear that?" He asked, suddenly tensing up.

Phloria tried to listen. They weren't very deep in the mine but there were still a lot of echoes.

"No, what?"

"Screams."

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Suddenly, all the communication amulets that were supposed to be offline projected the image of Headmaster Linjos, repeating the same message over and over.

"To all students, we are under attack. Return to your housing immediately. If that's not possible, seek shelter in the nearest building. To all students…"

While the others were still staring at the Headmaster's hologram, Lith grabbed Phloria's hand and made a rush for the exit.

"Wait, there are still people in the mine!" Phloria blurted, out trying to keep up with his pace.

"So what? Do you really think we can protect everyone? If they are stupid enough to freeze out of panic, they would not last long anyway!" Phloria was about to reply, but while squeezing Lith's fingers she remembered she didn't want to die.

Once outside, the scene in front of them seemed out of a post apocalyptic movie. People were screaming and running, trampling over all those that fell on the ground or moved too slow, hindering their escape.

The whole town was enveloped by a golden spherical barrier that was now visible to the naked eye. The mine entrance was a wide tunnel that opened in the ground near the outskirts, so it was covered by the array.

The sun was still visible above the horizon, yet black things were swarming the camp, attacking from all directions. Their bodies were naked, resembling only a human figure because they had arms and legs.

They had no facial feature, body hair, or reproductive organs, moving on all four with insect-like movements. Some had remained near the mine, ambushing those that were coming out of it.

A couple of undead jumped towards Lith and Phlroia, emitting a humming sound.

"Stand b…" Lith tried to say.

"Stand behind me!" Phloria cut him short, pulling him back and slamming her conjured tower shield in the face of the first creature. The blue aura from Full Guard was already gushing all around her body, allowing Phloria to perceive every movement around her, leaving no blind spots.

After spending so much time with her father and Lith, she had learned to always expect the worst. Despite the run at breakneck speed, she had managed cast all her best spells, just in case.

Her estoc made short work of the second creature. The gemstones in the hilt emitted a bright light while releasing their power, allowing the blade to cut through their stone-hard skin like it was paper.

- "How can a girl that's always so afraid of dying charge forward like that?" Lith thought.

"Probably because she has someone important to protect." Solus pointed out. "There's something wrong with our assailants. Their movements are sloppy and predictable. Far from what Orion described to us."–

Lith didn't remain idle either. His eyes were checking out the surroundings while studying the creatures and Orion's blades at the same time.

There were no more undead targeting the couple, but Lith didn't miss how all of them had some kind of mystical ropes wrapped around their limbs, limiting their movements.

"The first barrier makes them weak! Let's go!" Phloria was about to move when Lith pulled her back.

"Watch out!" Several Plague Arrows, Lith's fastest darkness spell, struck the two undead laying on the ground.

Phloria only noticed then that each piece, no matter the size, was exuding black tendrils that allowed it to reattach itself to the rest of the body, making all the damage she had inflicted to them meaningless.

Even with their limbs and heads only connected by the tendrils, the creatures were already back at their peak condition. They had simply laid in ambush waiting for their prey.

The darkness contained in the bolts fought against the one reanimating the corpses, making their humming turn into a shrill sound.

Lith barely pretended to chant and form hand signs, quickly unleashing a barrage of Plague arrows on the still writhing creatures.

"Never lower your guard until the enemy turns to dust. Never!" Lith took out the shotel Orion had entrusted him from his pocket dimension.

The death cries of the undead had caused the other creatures to stop their attacks, hissing with hate at the sight of the two running away. They moved to intercept them, only to be cut down like ripe wheat.

Phloria's movements were small and precise. Years of practice allowed her swordplay to be shapeless, like water. Her form relentlessly changed according to the situation, switching from close combat shield bashing to quick stabs to exploit the range advantage the sword gave her.

With every strike, she released a pulse of darkness magic that was greatly amplified by the blade's magic, causing the small puncture wounds to turn into gaping holes. The lingering energy ate away the surrounding flesh, shortening the creatures' life span and making their regeneration slower.

Lith's movements were rough and amateurish. He only knew a few techniques learned on Earth alongside the basics that Phloria had taught him months ago. Yet he moved like a storm.

To the trained eye, his moves were too big, with lots of unnecessary movements, making them telegraphed. The undead were no experts though. Being short lived like butterflies, they relied on their superior physical prowess to overpower the opponent.

Thanks to the array restricting their movements, Lith was already faster and stronger than them in his natural state. Once he infused himself with fusion magic, the creatures could barely follow his movements.

A thick layer of darkness magic engulfed his shotel and it only grew stronger with each strike. Solus had linked herself to the blade, keeping an eye on its pseudo core, preventing the sword's control gemstones from overloading from the massive amount of mana Lith was pouring into it.

Each creature that barred his way received at least ten slashes, their bodies turning to ashes before they could even notice having been hit.

Phloria was too busy handling her share of undead to pay too much attention to him, throwing only the occasional glance to be sure Lith was all right. His technique was a mess, but the results left her in awe every time.

If the enemy closed in, the sword would mow them down in a flash. If they retreated, bolts of darkness would send them sprawling on the ground, shrieking in agony.

- "How the heck does he manage to cast that fast even while wielding a sword? His magic storing rings should already be depleted."– Her confusion didn't make Phloria lose focus. More and more creatures were coming out of the forest, closing any gap in the encirclement as soon as it formed.

"There's no end to them!" She barely had the time to yell that hell broke loose.

Professor Ironhelm appeared while riding M'Rook the Ry, followed by a pack of magical beasts. He was wielding a sword and a shield, but with the Ry protecting him, he could focus on the attack, wiping out dozens of undead in a matter of seconds.

"Run away, kids! Don't look back! I'll take care of the survivors."

Lith sprinted forward, storing the sword back in the pocket dimension and taking Phloria's hand to be certain of not losing her amid the chaos. The closer they got to the town, the more magical beasts they encountered.

Past a certain point, the bindings grew so strong that the undead became even slower than an average human, making it child's play for beasts and Professors alike to turn them into mincemeat.

Phloria regretted leaving behind her fellow students, but Lith didn't allow her to slow down for even a second. They reached their house, stopping only to open the door and ran inside as soon as the magic lock recognized them.

Even under the adrenaline rush, they couldn't help but stare at their new surroundings. The inside was much bigger than the outside. The hallway they were in was at least one hundred meters (328 feet) long and five (16.4 feet) wide.

It was a dimensional magic masterpiece, stretching the space enough to turn the small cottage into a single floor hotel. Each side of the corridor had ten doors, leading to as many apartments. The furniture was rustic. Aside from a long carpet on the floor and magical stones to light it, the hallway was empty.

They couldn't care less, starting to search for their name tags on the doors. They would have been quicker if they checked one side each, but their hands seemed to be glued together.

Their room was almost a replica of the one they lived in at the academy, just five times bigger. The furniture consisted of five beds with as many nightstands and closets. There were only two bathrooms though. One for the girls, one for the boys.

"What took you so long?" Friya asked them with a tired expression on her face.

An unbearable sense of guilt gripped Phloria's stomach. She had completely forgotten that her sister was with them in the mine. She hugged Friya so hard she squeezed the air out of her lungs.

"I'm so sorry, sis. I didn't mean to leave you behind! I'm so glad you are all right. Please forgive me." Phloria sobbed, leaving Friya flabbergasted.

Lith instead was amazed by how she was still without a scratch, just like them, but had managed to beat them to the house without even breaking a sweat. Even he was still panting from the mad rush.

"What are you talking about? You'll cry later, Quylla and Yurial need our help."

She pointed at the two youths, laying on their beds. Their uniforms were torn up in multiple spots, showing the signs of a lost fight. Their skin was deadly pale, their breath was short and shallow.

"Those idiots actually ran to get to the house, almost getting killed. They should have Blinked, just like us!" At those words, Lith and Phloria became beet red from embarrassment. In the heat of the moment, they had completely forgotten about the spell, relying by instinct on much cruder methods to escape.

"I already closed their wounds, but I can't give them any more life force without endangering myself. They need your help, Lith."

Lith nodded, chanting the spell and using Invigoration at the same time to check his companions' conditions. The situation was more dire than Friya believed. Not only was their life force fading away, but also some kind of toxin was attacking their mana cores.

Lith was shocked by the discovery, the god of death was supposed to be a fake mage. He neutralized the toxin, extracting it from their bodies before injecting part of his life force. Their breathing immediately became regular, their complexion healthy.

Friya was about to ask about the liquid floating over Lith's hand when someone knocked on the door.

"Is there any injured here? I'm Professor Vastor, let me in please."

Professor Vastor was still as round and bald as an egg, his waxed handlebar mustaches were still flawless despite the sweat running from his head.

"Oh gods, not my precious stars!" He rushed to the beds as soon as he recognized his students. Only after performing a complete check up, Vastor sighed in relief, sitting on a bed to catch his breath.

"Great job removing the toxins, guys. Most people would miss it until it's too late. Those goddamned undead freaks. Only a madman would create such creatures. Too dangerous and wasteful." His comments left them speechless, but only for a second.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Who cares for their efficiency!" Phloria yelled. "Are Quylla and Yurial going to be all right?"

"What the heck happened?" Friya joined the fray. "Wasn't the attack supposed to happen only during the anniversary?"

"Can I keep the toxin?" Lith chimed in, storing half of it in his pocket dimension, just in case. "I would only use it for research purposes. I promise."

- "I wish I had a body to bash your head right now."– Solus scolded him.

The girls glared at him, clearly sharing Solus's outrage.

Vastor laughed out loud, dissolving the tension.

"Yes, of course they are all right. Otherwise I wouldn't be so calm. As for your other questions, I only have bad news. First, every time the god of death changes his target, he launches probing attacks before the anniversary. Consider today's invasion as a rehearsal.

Otherwise we wouldn't have moved so far in advance. I wonder how he managed to find us that quickly."

"That was just probing?" Phloria felt weak in the knees.

Vastor nodded.

"Well, yeah. Those are hardly greater undead. No magical powers, limited intelligence, no strategy at all. They simply swarmed the camp to test our defenses and reaction time. As for you, mister Lith, my answer is a no.

"One hundred points for extracting the toxin in such an unaltered state. The alchemists will wet themselves in excitement when they see it." Vastor's eyes shined like a kid unwrapping his Christmas present while storing the toxin in an alchemic vial.

"It was a group effort." Lith said, hoping to quench the three girls' anger.

- "Nice try, Scrooge. I don't buy it." Solus pouted. –

"Then one hundred points to each of you." Vastor said, too happy to even bother to remember that Phloria wasn't part of the Healer specialization.

Phloria and Friya smiled, accompanying the Professor to the door. One could never get enough points.

- "Two out of three is still a good result." Lith thought. –

"Jerk!" They said to Lith in unison as soon as the door was closed.

"Girls, the rooms aren't soundproof for security reasons. Wait for me to get away before beating him." Vastor yelled.

- "Or not."–

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Griffon Kingdom, Royal Palace. After the attack.

King Meron had sought an audience with Tyris for weeks, but her private chambers had always remained sealed. After returning from the Blood Desert, she had been too busy dismantling the secret lab first and checking the records about who had studied Arthan's Madness later to bother with his yearly worries.

Finding clues about the identity of the mastermind behind the Abominations was her priority, especially since the Council had washed their hands of the matter. She only yielded because of his unrelenting pestering of her 24/7.

King Meron couldn't help but think about Count Lark and how he must have felt after being rejected over and over by the Court just a few months prior.

Tyris's throne room was a perfect replica of the one the Royal family used during social events, except for the fact that every piece of furniture was made of stone. Even the throne itself was no exception.

Carpets, tapestries, even the ceremonial armors along the hallway seemed to have been carved down to the finest detail. More than once, the King had wondered if there was a secret behind the second throne room and which one of them was sitting on the real throne.

"First Queen, forgive my insistence, but I bring dire news." Meron knelt on the ground even though he knew that formalities were meaningless to her. Yet in his desperation, he wasn't willing to leave a single stone unturned.

"Let me guess, someone has died today." She snorted without stopping to look at the archives.

"The god of death…" A furious glance from Tyris stopped him.

"There are no gods. I know that all too well. Use his real name instead of that pompous title." The First Queen hated how easily men handed out godhood. The Great Mother, as humans and beasts alike referred to the planet's will, was the closest thing to a god she had ever met.

At the same time, it was the most indifferent and uncaring being she had ever interacted with, only thinking about the bigger picture and ignoring the single individuals, even the Guardians, unless they served to its purpose.

"This evening, Ilyum Balkor has attacked all the six great academies at once. Thank the g…" Another glare made Meron curse at his own stupid tongue.

"Thank heavens the number of casualties is low, at least for those that followed Linjos's protocol. The Earth and Crystal Griffon didn't though. Almost all the Professors died during the attack."

"Why should I care?" Tyris snorted, making the room tremble.

"I told you royal idiots centuries ago to follow Leegaain's advice and reform the nobility and academy system, but it was never the right time. Famine, internal strife, the royal baby. Any excuse was good to postpone your duties.

You and your ancestors have made your bed, now lie in it."

"Your Majesty, your subjects, innocent kids at that, are dying at the hand of a madman! You must do something!" He stood up, hurt by her indifference and most of all, by the truth behind her words.

"A madman? What if it was your family to have died for a practical joke? What if everything and everyone you loved had been defiled, gutted and left to be burned alive? What would have you done in his shoes?"

Her eyes were reduced to two fiery slits brimming with mana.

Meron didn't reply. The only way not to prove her point was lying, but she would notice, making his effort useless.

"Please, think of the children. They are innocent!" He played his last card.

"Innocent? Rotten apples from rotten trees. Wasn't Balkor a child too? What about all those that died that day and keep dying up to date because nobles value their status more than human life?

"My answer is still no. I will not solve the problems that you created by ignoring my advice. Otherwise I might as well take back the throne and do your job for you. By letting so many monstrous acts slide, you have created a monster.

Think about it, the next time someone asks for a royal pardon."

Before King Meron could reply, he found himself back in his bedroom. His sudden appearance almost made Sylpha stab him out of surprise.

"The first day has yet to pass and so many died already." King Meron sobbed, seeking comfort in his wife's embrace.

"We are alone. Our goddess has forsaken us."

Lith spent an awkward supper. All of his companions were having a hard time letting his blunder slide.

"Thanks for saving my life, man. Yet I would have appreciated more concern for my well-being and less for academic research." Yurial sighed, knowing it was like talking to a wall.

"You guys are blowing this story out of proportions. I wasn't concerned because there was no need to. I'm the best diagnostician I know, besides Manohar. I had triple checked you two from head to toe and removed every single drop of poison.

What was I supposed to be worried about? The softness of your pillows?"

Being scolded by his friends didn't bother him as much as Solus's mind pouting did. She was supposed to be on his side, not theirs.

"Believe me, no one appreciates your professionalism as much as I do, but if you don't want to end up like Manohar, you must learn to shut up from time to time." Phloria kept playing with her food. The near death experience had made her lose her appetite.

"Phloria, do you realize we are at war?" Lith stared intently at her.

"That poison could save our lives in the future, I had to try to butter up Vastor while I still had the chance. Now everything is lost. Sorry if I prioritize keeping you guys alive rather than coddle your feelings." He snarled loud enough for everyone to hear.

They looked at him, realizing that maybe Lith was a jerk, but a jerk with a damn good reason.

"You really sound like mother." His words reminded Quylla of the creepy lesson Lady Ernas had imparted her before leaving. About how and where to strike humans and beast alike to inflict the maximum pain.

"Your bedside manners are terrible, but thanks for saving my life."

"Thank Friya instead. She almost fainted to keep you two alive until our arrival."

"Thanks, Friya. You are the best sister I could hope for." Quylla embraced Friya, relieving the cold grip she always felt clenching her soul and making Phloria's gut twist in a knot at the same time.

She still couldn't forgive herself for forgetting about Friya when they were still in the mine. She felt like the worst sister ever.

The mood in the makeshift canteen was gloomy. A few students that had ignored Linjos's orders and got out of the town had died during the attack. Many others had been gravely injured and because the poison hadn't been promptly cleansed, their lives were hanging on a thread.

A sudden wail followed by sobbing coming from the infirmary told them that another one didn't make it. A small boy ran from the field hospital, hugging M'Rook and hiding his face into the thick fur.

The Ry let the kid be, gently stroking his head with his muzzle.

- "Poor kid. His friend must have succumbed to the poison." Solus said.

"Yeah. Something that damages the mana core is unheard of since we faced those parasites. Now you understand why we need a sample of that poison? We cannot trust anyone for our survival." Lith was still angry at her.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Did you really have to bargain over your friends' still recovering bodies? Why didn't you store all the poison instead of half if it's so important?"

Solus knew he was right, but she didn't want for Lith to keep trampling the feelings of his companions without even a tinge of remorse.

"Because Vastor knows of the plague and the role I played in it. Because by giving him that half, I once again proved my value and showed my alleged loyalty to the Kingdom. It will earn me merits and points. As simple as that."–

Solus sighed.

- "In times of peace, I would be right. Right now, we are at war with death itself though. My mindset is a liability. I hope that Phloria manages to help Lith keep his humanity. It's in moments like this that I feel he is slipping away."–

Unlike the others, Lith wasn't scared. On the contrary, he was very calm. In his mind, the other students were just tools. He planned to use them to raise his status or as sacrificial pawns. He only cared for those at his table.

Some of his plans creeped Solus out.

"Long time no see, Scourge." Kalla appeared beside them, making the group flinch.

"You have changed a lot from our last encounter, Kalla." Lith replied without stopping to eat.

"Yes, and so have you. When this is over, we have much to talk about."

Kalla disappeared after fusing with the shadow of their table, leaving Lith eager for a new lesson about true Necromancy.

"Scourge?" Yurial asked.

"Yeah, it's a long story." Lith sighed, suddenly not so happy anymore. He hated being forced to share bits of his past.

After returning to their room, Lith told them about his first encounter with Kalla and how magical beasts had named him "Scourge". He told them only the truth, but omitted all the parts about true magic and learning Necromancy from the Byk before her evolution.

"Why have you never told us magical beasts can talk?" Phloria felt a little hurt by his lack of trust.

"Because they trusted me not to." He replied.

"Also, because you wouldn't have believed me. Unlike Phillard, usually they are very careful about who they talk to. They probably would have kept silent, if not for the emergency." The memory of the Kroxy made them shudder.

Everyone was dead tired, so they decided to go to sleep early. They needed all of their strength for the attack that would come the following day.

Everyone was flabbergasted at Lith's pajamas.

"Are you really going to sleep with your uniform on?" Because of the mixed accommodation, Yurial had brought a thick nightgown.

"It's more practical this way. If anything happens, I don't have to waste time changing. Also, thanks to its magic, the uniform is always spotless, so why not?"

"You really are like my dad." Phloria laughed. "Every time he comes back from the battlefield, mom always complains about how hard it is to make him sleep without his uniform on and the sword on the bedside."

After everyone had their turn mocking Lith for his paranoia, they turned off the lights. Lith had waited all day for that moment.

He took the shotel out of the pocket dimension, using Invigoration to start collecting data about its pseudo core and how the mana crystals interacted with the spell matrix structure.

He had just started taking notes, after testing and probing the internal structure, when Solus warned him.

- "Watch out! Someone is getting up."– Cursing his bad luck, Lith put everything back in the pocket dimension, pretending to be asleep. There was almost no light in the room, but he was still able to see.

- "False alarm. Quylla went to Friya's bed. Probably she is too scared to sleep alone tonight."– Lith was still sighing in relief when everything went crazy.

Someone was pulling the blankets, cuddling up to him.

"Make a little room for me, jerk." Phloria's whisper sounded like thunder to his ears. He quickly used Hush to prevent the others from noticing what was happening.

"Are you crazy? What do you think you are doing?" Keeping his hands under control was a mammoth task. He couldn't stop his mind from picturing her naked body that, for some reason, he had never managed to forget.

"Don't worry. I used all the spells you taught me to move unnoticed. It happened during the mock exam. Do you remember it?" Her hands caressed his hair, causing his hand to tremble and his nether regions to go into an uproar.

"Of course I do, but I don't think you should be here." He kept whispering despite both of them knowing of the Hush spell.

"Then when would be the right moment? So many people died today. Quylla and Yurial barely escaped death. What if I die tomorrow?"

Solus was so envious of Phloria. Even if she had a body, she would never be so decisive.

Phloria's words made sense, so Lith embraced her while trying to kiss her, finding two unexpected surprises.

"After mocking me for it, are you wearing your uniform too?" He said with her hand pressing against his mouth.

"Your reasoning was flawless. Also, what did you expect? That I would jump on you in my birthday suit? You really have a perverted mind." Lith didn't reply, stopping his attempts for intimacy.

"Sorry, but no kisses. I don't know if I would be able to hold myself back if we start." She blushed violently, searching for his embrace again.

"I'm not ready for that. I just want to sleep beside you, not with you. Is it fine with you?" The sweet scent of her hair was driving him insane.

"No problem." He lied through his teeth, counting backward from one hundred while reminding himself of their age gap.

Contrary to his expectations, Phloria fell asleep almost instantly. Hours passed, Lith had constantly to keep himself in check while whining for all the lost time. There was no way he could study Orion's sword in that situation.

Then, a loud explosion shook the house to its foundations. Inhuman and human screams filled the air. Everyone got up in a rush, something was clawing through the walls and the ceiling at the same time.

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Something was swarming the house from all directions, making it tremble like during an earthquake.

"They are disrupting the dimensional spell that keeps the house together!" Quylla yelled, running along with Friya to the bathroom to change their clothes.

"If it keeps like this, the place will either implode or explode. We need to get out of here and fast!"

"Ready when you are!" Phloria, like Lith, only had to take out her shoes from the dimensional amulet to be ready for action.

"I really hate being the fifth wheel!" Yurial rushed to the other bathroom, cursing his own bad luck. He knew that Friya and Quylla weren't romantically involved, but after seeing Lith and Phloria sleeping together, he would have paid his weight in gold to switch places with Quylla.

His blood was boiling to the point that he craved to kill some undead, just to blow off some steam.

- "Every time Phloria makes a move on me, something happens. If it wasn't for Balkor being on a schedule, I'd say the universe is c*ckblocking me!"– Lith thought, checking the outside hallway.

It was full of students. Some were panicking so much, they were running around while still wearing nightgowns.

The communication amulets came back to life once again.

"To all students, we are under attack. Return to your rooms immediately. If the necessity arises, a Warp Step will lead you to safety. Please, be ready to defend yourselves. To all students…"

Linjos's hologram was the wake-up call they needed. They all went back to their rooms, dressing up as fast as possible.

When the tremors intensified, a Warp Steps appeared in the middle of the room as promised, leading them to the Town plaza. The moon was still high and the sky was clear, allowing them to witness the horror unfolding around them.

The black creatures were back, but this time their numbers were beyond calculation. Thanks to his heightened sense, Lith could see that they were not the same as the last time. They had a lipless mouth, filled with multiple rows of fang-like teeth and a single red eye shining in the middle of the forehead.

The mystical bindings were still restricting them, but they were simply too many compared to the defenders. Each beast and Professor would kill dozens of undead and hold back twice as much, yet many still managed to bypass them.

They were getting closer to the students by the second.

"F*ck waiting!" Phillard the Kroxy yelled in outrage.

"You hatchlings wait here and prepare to fight. I'll try to slow them down as long as I can."

Those present were panicking to the point that even a humanoid alligator 2.5 meters (8'2") high had managed to go unnoticed. Phillard took his axes and charged forward. His fighting style was crude but effective.

Each swing of his weapons would cleave several creatures in half at the same time. Those that managed to regenerate would have their head bitten off and gulped down. After that, the corpses would quickly fade away.

"Man, you taste like sh*t, but I had worse and lived to tell the tale!" The Kroxy laughed merrily while slaughtering everything that dared to come close to him.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Even when he missed a target, his weapons would make spikes of earth or ice erupt from the ground, impaling those that had managed to dodge, making them easy marks for the following attacks.

Lith didn't like that situation at all. Linjos had clearly placed all the students at the center of the arrays to better protect them, but at the same time, if the enemy managed to get past all the defensive lines, they would be trapped without a way out.

- "Something isn't right. Solus, can you spot where Scarlett, Ryman, and Kalla are? Why are they not taking part in the battle? They are supposed to be our heavy artillery." Lith thought.

"Sorry, I can't. Either they are hiding or they are too far away." Solus replied. –

Countless creatures kept swarming out of the forest surrounding the mining town. Lith noticed Colonel Varegrave standing on a roof with Captain Kilian right next to him. When they finished chanting, several dozen fireballs with a radius of ten meters (33 feet) rained from the sky like falling stars.

Each of them produced a loud explosion, turning the army of creatures into chunks of meat and black gas. When the smoke from the explosions dissipated, a new wave of undead entered the array.

"How are we supposed to fight against so many of them? Where is the Scorpicore? Where is Linjos?" Varegrave yelled in desperation.

Scarlett, Linjos, and the most powerful individuals of both the forest and the academy were watching the fight from a distance. Linjos and Scarlett were deep in a coded conversation that made sense only to the two of them.

"Why are we still here?" Protector growled. "The cubs need us!"

"Patience, Protector." Scarlett's tone was calm and confident.

"If we rush in, we would just follow the enemy's script. Remember that this is still the first day. What do you think of the enemy's plan?"

"What plan? He is trying to beat us with sheer numbers. Those creatures are mindless!" Protector snarled.

"My point exactly." Scarlett nodded. "They would make a great vanguard to exhaust us before the final attack, yet he is sending them out now. Our enemy is supposed to be a genius, yet his plan is apparently idiotic."

"Scarlett is right." Linjos chimed in, seeing that most of the Professors didn't seem to trust the Scorpicore's wisdom.

"If Balkor keeps his cards hidden, we must do the same. At least until we understand his endgame." None liked the idea of using the students as bait, but it was the only option they had to force the god of death to reveal his hand.

Watching the battle unfolding in front of his eyes, Lith felt helpless. He had a very limited number of options. Joining the fight would be his last resort. Because of the witnesses, he couldn't go all out.

Even if he did, the enemies were just too many. The second option was to provide cover fire for his allies. The last one was running away.

"F*ck Linjos!" He yelled making the group huddle up.

"We need a contingency plan. Friya, you are the best dimensional mage among us. How far can you Warp us away?"

Friya pondered for a while before answering.

"I could get us back to the academy, but it's too risky. There is a zone of the forest I'm the most familiar with since I spent most of my mock exam there. It's about ten kilometers from here. Is it okay?"

"It's perfect. Remember to close the portal right behind us."

"What about the others?" Quylla shuddered at the idea of leaving their juniors behind.

"First, Friya can't hold it that long. Second, what's the point of that? The creatures would follow us and the battle would just change location. I'm talking about saving our lives, not playing heroes."

Lith's tone was harsh like he was scolding a pampered child.

No one made further objections, but the mood became even more gloomy.

- "Solus, there's something wrong with Balkor's plan. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm sure there's a catch."–

Lith took out his staff from his dimensional pocket, unleashing a barrage of ice shards that once they hit a target, they would expand locking it into place. Once paralyzed, the undead were easily dispatched by the beasts or the Professors fighting in the front line.

It was just a way of stalling for time, but it allowed him to notice that something was wrong.

Every time he cast the spell, more and more ice shards would miss their target.

"What the heck?" Lith blurted, a crazy idea was taking form in his mind.

Suddenly, he dashed outside the Town square, going shoulder to shoulder with Phillard.

"What are you doing here? This is no place for hatchlings!" The Kroxy was panting heavily, his body covered in injuries. The creatures were capable of spitting a toxic substance that was seeping through his wounds, slowly sapping his strength.

To make things worse, they were also capable of storing and compressing their life force in the forehead, shooting it out like a laser. Doing it made them weaker and shortened their lifespan, but with each strike, their enemy was more and more debilitated. Soon a new wave of undead would come and Phillard would be too weak to stop them.

The creatures had no survival instinct, they were just obeying a single order: kill.

"For conquest!" Lith heard one of the creatures say right before jumping on Phillard and self-detonating, using the last of its darkness magic to cripple the enemy.

"For revenge!" Another said, shooting a beam of darkness magic before turning to smoke.

"For Balkor!" The undead chanted together before rushing in for the finishing strike.

Lith touched Phillard, removing the toxin while healing his wounds and filling him with life force at the same time. He could give him only two Invigoration breaths worth of energy, but it was all that it needed.

"I take back everything I said, but now take cover!" Between the arrays weakening them and the Kroxy's renewed strength, the undead were no match for him again. Lith kept close to him, using air magic to deflect the toxic spits and earth magic to shield Phillard from the darkness rays from time to time.

His real aim was studying the fight up close.

Meanwhile, the rest of his group was worried to death. Friya could use force to prevent Quylla from helping Lith, but Yurial could only talk Phloria out of it. She was way taller and stronger than him. If he ticked her off, Phloria was likely to send him flying.

"If he needs our help, he'll ask for it." Yurial tried to block her line of sight to the battlefield with his body.

"If you go out there, you'll only become a burden to him."

"Are you saying I should just stay here like a damsel in distress?" She roared.

"We all are. In distress, I mean. Not damsels." Yurial shrugged. "Worst case scenario, Lith will Blink here and Friya will take us away."

Phloria snorted. Suddenly death wasn't so scary anymore.

- "What meaning can life possibly have if I have to spend it alone? I can't back off every time I'm not sure of winning. Not when that crazy head is fighting for us all."–

Lith was actually fighting for himself. With the contingency plan already in motion, he was certain to be able to leave anytime he wanted. The god of death was the strongest fake mage he had ever met.

Even by fighting his proxies, Lith had already learned a lot about Necromancy's true potential and was now eager to see if his idea about Balkor's plan was correct.

Phloria's feelings were clouding her judgment, but at the same time, they were helping her to realize that the only thing she had to fear was fear itself. Yurial noticed her inner conflict, so he played his last card.

"Look, sometimes the most difficult thing to do is doing nothing. We are just children caught up in a war we didn't even know about, while Lith is… Lith. If you remain here and something bad happens, you can Blink in and out and take him to safety.

If you go there, well, we'll have to save both of you before getting out of here." Phloria nodded, moving her hand away from the hilt of her sword while flexing her fingers. She had to be ready to step in.

"By the Great Mother." Scarlett blurted out after finally uncovering the last piece of the puzzle. She quickly explained everything to those present, leaving them in awe.

"This god of death is too dangerous." Protector said. "We need to end this battle fast!"

"My thought exactly." Scarlett nodded. "We must resolve everything before he can suspect that we are aware of his endgame."

"How do you plan to do it exactly?" Linjos asked. "I mean without revealing our hand."

"It's actually quite simple." Scarlett grinned. "Balkor is not the only one that can think outside of the box."

Meanwhile, Lith needed only a final test to prove his theory. He asked Phillard to let through one undead at a time and the Kroxy delivered. Lith used one of the basic forms Phloria had taught him, easily killing the enemy with a few strikes.

He used the same form, again and again, noticing how the next one would manage to dodge his strikes and ignore his feints, gaining the upper hand until he added a new set of movements.

"Son of a b*tch!" He yelled after destroying the tenth undead in a row. He pretended to use one of his rings, cutting it to pieces with air magic before bombarding it with darkness magic from his free hand.

"Phillard, stop! There's something you need to know!"

"Oh gods no!" Scarlett's enhanced hearing had allowed her to listen to Lith swearing, moving her surveillance mirror just in time to see the results of his latest experiment.

"Kalla, go! Before the cub ruins everything!"

Kalla nodded, disappearing in the shadows.

"I told you that Scourge was not to be underestimated." Her voice faded away along with her body.

"What scourge is she talking about? The undead?" Linjos had been talking with the Professors, so he was unaware of the latest events.

"Wish I knew the answer." Scarlett replied, pondering about what Lith's real nature could possibly be.

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Kalla's arrival was loud like thunder and fast like lightning.

"Rise my legions!" A command from her voice and two taps on the ground was all that it took for the undead army buried under the mining town to awake and fight for their master.

The bulk of her force was made up of Skeletal Knights, a class of undead that was not only physically superior to normal skeletons, but also could be imparted skills and techniques their maker was capable of executing.

Their strongest point was the ability to wield and use equipment properly. The academy had provided a huge number of enchanted weapons and armors, making them a force to be reckoned with.

Kalla's elite forces were the Wights, black hooded figures molded out of darkness magic and hatred. They would either fly or float mid air. Aside from their hands and heads, they had no body. Whatever they touched, it would wither and die.

Because of the unforgiving nature of the arrays, Kalla's thralls were weakened as well while under the mystical dome.

Both armies were fearless and unrelenting, but only one was backed by its own master. While Balkor's troops grew weaker with every passing second, Kalla's army was constantly fueled with new energy thanks to her constant use of Invigoration.

Every time one of her soldiers fell, she would simply raise it again after fixing the damage it had sustained.

Her mastery of Necromancy also allowed her to possess the bodies of her undead, making them use darkness magic like she was among them. Balkor's minions were designed to fight humans, hence they were ineffective against other undead who weren't affected by their aura of fear, the toxic spit, or the venom in their claws.

The battle ended as quickly as it had begun, with a one sided slaughter. Scarlett's plan had been a complete success. There had been no casualties. Only a few among the beasts and the soldiers had been injured, but they were promptly cured and brought back to their peak condition.

Kalla threw Lith a very meaningful glance, freezing him on the spot.

- "What a dirty son of a gun!" Lith thought, realizing the blunder he had almost made.

"Not only his creatures share a hive mind, learning about all of our tactics and security measures each time they force us to employ a new one, but they all also act as Balkor's eyes and ears!" -

Blood Desert, Balkor's secret lab

"What in the Great Mother's name has just happened?" Ilyum Balkor couldn't believe his own eyes.

"That bear-thing seems to be a Necromancer too, but none of its work makes sense. Only greater undead can use magic, yet its creatures defied such basic principle time and time again. Also, how could it possibly raise so many corpses at once?

It takes me a whole year to prepare this many troops, not to mention I need to put them into stasis to prevent them from burning out of energy. Things couldn't get any worse!"

Balkor Warped out of the lab, inwardly listing all the setbacks he had met so far.

First, there were those arrays that limited the strength of his troops, but that was a secondary issue. He had long learned how to adjust his thralls' defenses to ignore most of those annoying Warden formations.

Second, he had never taken into account that magical beasts could meddle in human squabbles. There was only a limited number of modifications he could apply to his creatures between each attack. Now he was forced to split his focus into three.

Anti human undead were easy prey for a magical beast and sitting ducks against other undead. Last, but not least, the battle had ended before he could collect any data about his opponents' real capabilities.

They had won relying on basic military strategies and on the hidden undead army, not letting him catch even a glimpse of the White Griffon's Archmages' strongest spells. The secret of Balkor's success had always been his meticulous preparation and data collection, but this time he had come back empty handed.

Walking back to his home in the Forgotten Plume tribe, he couldn't help but smile seeing his kids running towards him with their little arms spread in the air.

"Dad, dad! Where have you been?" Cyrl wanted his father to hold him and Balkor was happy to comply.

"I was paying my respects to your grandparents, but now I'm all yours. Let's see what mom has prepared for dinner." He walked inside his tent, holding the child in his arms.

Ilyum Balkor had many things to be happy about. After the first raid, the students of the Crystal and Earth Griffon had fled, leaving the academies empty. Balkor had an easy time butchering the remaining defense forces and destroying the power cores with minimal losses.

Two out of the six great academies were now just a bunch of stones, unable to nurture mages anymore. The remaining academies were proving to be a tough cookie, but he still had two days to complete his life's work.

Capturing and studying Abominations had been a mammoth task. Fusing part of them with his undead had proved to be even more difficult. Balkor wasn't new to pain and was more than willing to make some personal sacrifices.

Controlling all those undead at once, spying on his enemies' every move, using so many Warping arrays to move his troops, was too much for a single man.

Each attack took away years of Balkor's life span, but he didn't care. His job was almost done. After that, he would forget about the accursed Griffon Kingdom and spend the time he had left watching his children grow.

After the end of the battle, all the students rejoiced together, chanting Kalla's name like it was a good luck charm. At that moment, no one cared about her being a Wraith-like monster, nor about her army being quite similar to the enemy one.

For a few hours, nobles and commoners alike loved her like a hero, setting aside differences concerning social status, humans, or beasts. The only thing that mattered was being alive and well.

The students returned to their apartments, discovering that while some houses had been heavily damaged, they were already self repairing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The damage sustained hadn't compromised the structural integrity of the houses nor of the dimensional magic, allowing everyone to go back to the safety of their rooms. The night was still very young, only an hour had passed since the start of the attack.

Lith's group had tried more than once to question him about what he was going to yell earlier, but he refused to speak until they arrived at their destination.

- "Solus, it's impossible for Balkor to hear us while we are in here, right?" Lith asked.

"Based on what we know about dimensional magic, I'd say yes.

Even if you are right and every undead thrall is a recording device, we are alone now. This room is enveloped in the dimensional and the protective enchantments. It's like being in a parallel dimension."

"My thought exactly." –

Lith chanted the Hush spell anyway, just to be safe. He and Solus could still be wrong, but even if that wasn't the case, he didn't trust anyone outside the room. Not after how Kalla had looked at him.

Lith sighed, taking away his shoes and lying on his bed while trying to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. He was searching for the right words to make the others understand his intuition without freaking out. At least not too much.

He was still thinking about it, drumming with his fingers on the nearby wall, when Phloria coddled up to him, drawing the gazes of all those present.

"What are you staring at?" She rebuked them. "You already saw that I was sleeping beside him, there's no reason to wait for the lights to be turned off again. I want to spend all the time that I can with my boyfriend, whether you like it or not."

- "I guess I am not going to study my shotel anytime soon."– Lith sighed again, while his hand moved like it had a life of its own, caressing Phloria's back and hair. She snuggled even tighter to him, emitting a purring sound of delight.

"So, what's all this secrecy about?" Yurial was having a hard time taking the edge off of his voice. He had never felt so envious and alone in his whole life.

Lith explained to them how he was certain that Balkor's so called 'lesser undead' weren't mindless creatures. Each of them was part of a hive mind that had collected data about all the spells and techniques used during both assaults.

"I also noticed that this time the array was less effective. The creatures were still very nimble and strong despite being so close to the town square.

"My hypothesis is that during the third attack, the array will be mostly useless and that when Balkor will use his real ace in the hole, his undead will have the collective memories of all the previous attacks, making most of our strategies obsolete."

"Good gods! How did you notice that?" Not even such a frightening piece of news managed to stop Friya from staring at Phloria in envy. Not because of Lith. Unlike the others, she still had a hard time accepting his switch-like personality.

One second he was a caring friend, the next one he turned into a murdering machine.

The jury was still out on which one was his real face. The reason for her envy was that she had never been that close to anyone. After so many near death experiences, she was starting to long for someone she could blindly trust, just like Phloria did.

"Because I suck as a swordsman and I completely fell for Balkor's 'mindless creatures' charade." Lith explained.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Even during my first clash with the undead, I noticed that hitting them became harder with each one I killed. I didn't think much of it until tonight when they started to dodge my ice shards simply because I was too conceited to bother changing their pattern."

"So?" Quylla soldiered up without averting her gaze, despite being reduced to a lump of envy and hindsight about her lack of decisiveness.

"So, while people like Phloria, Friya, or Phillard are so good with their weapons that the skill gap between them and the lesser undead is insurmountable, I suck so bad at it that I could notice it closing every time I used one of the few forms I know."

"Where does that leave us?" Phloria mumbled with a sleepy voice that was in heavy contrast with the mood of the room. During the last attack, she had truly feared of she might lose Lith for good, so she was determined to make her move once the others went to sleep.

Yet everyone could soon hear a soft snoring coming from her.

"In a very rough patch." Lith replied to the sleeping Phloria, casting Hush on her ears to prevent her from waking up because of the conversation.

"We have only two options: one, Linjos and Scarlett have a very good plan that will save us all with a minimum contribution on our side. Two, we run away as soon as option one turns out to be wishful thinking.

"There are very few things I'm not confident to be able to kill, but sadly a whole army of lesser undead or a few greater ones crafted by a mad genius are among them."

The room's occupants sighed in unison. They had hoped for another one of Lith's miracles, but it seemed he was out of stock. They decided to go back to bed to catch some sleep before the next attack.

The following morning, despite being the only one that had slept like a log until the breakfast call, Phloria was in a bad mood.

- "I can't believe I missed my chance like that. Now I have to wait until after the next attack to get him in the right mood. I can't jump on Lith in the middle of the day like any Yurial would."– She thought.

Suddenly, the communication amulets lit up in unison, projecting Linjos's image.

"Good morning, dear students. Today's activities will take place just like yesterday, with only one difference. We cannot risk another surprise attack, so I instruct you to go back to your housing after the afternoon call, while the sun is still high.

Please, do not go out of town as your fallen companions did. I already lost enough students."

After the Headmaster's hologram disappeared, the dining room resounded with: "Morons!". The students were growing closer to each other and now had a hard time believing that the day before, so many had thrown away their lives just to spite Linjos's orders.

Lith, Phloria, and Friya were going back to the mine when Kalla approached them.

"I'm sorry Scourge, but there is little time left. We need to talk. Now."

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Without waiting for a reply, Kalla Warped Lith to Scarlett's headquarters. It was located in a secret building underground the mining town, kept out of phase with the outside world thanks to dimensional magic.

"I'm sorry for the rush, but there are many things I have to explain to you and a favor to ask." Kalla explained.

"What are you talking about?" Lith replied, being still a bit shocked by the sudden turn of events.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"I know from your smell that you have become a Necromancer too. Also, I learned from Protector about the changes you experienced. I have yet to completely master higher Necromancy, but my teachings could still benefit you greatly, at least to avoid repeating my mistakes.

"Power comes with a price and responsibilities, though. Are you willing to pay it?" She stared at him, waiting for a reply.

"What do you mean?"

"After yesterday's attack, I'm pretty sure that this Balkor guy will make me his primary target. My skills are the perfect counter to his own and now he is aware of my existence. I trust Scarlett, her strategy is sound.

Yet I want a contingency plan, in case something happens to me. I want you to teach to my children in my stead. I'm entrusting to you the core of my knowledge for it to be passed down to them."

"Do you mean Nok?" Lith still couldn't make heads or tails of her request.

"I have more than one, but yes. I'm worried about Nok too."

"Sure, okay. I like that furball and teaching one or two of them makes no difference." Lith was glad to accept her deal. He couldn't even imagine a fake mage defeating an Awakened one as strong as Kalla. There was little he wouldn't do for power and knowledge, helping the young Byk was nothing to him.

"First, I have captured and experimented on the thralls of the 'god of death'…'" Judging by her sneer, Kalla seemed to find the moniker quite hilarious.

"…and discovered a great flaw in his creations. A flaw that proves he is a fake mage, not one of us." By waving her paw, she opened a dimensional vortex, conjuring one of Balkor's undead between them.

It was completely bound and blinded like a pig ready to be roasted.

"Unlike true mages that mix light and darkness magic when they raise undead, fake mages need a mark to control them." Kalla touched the undead, making several runes made of light appear on its forehead.

"Yes." Lith nodded.

"Have you ever tried to add your mark on a creature that already bears one?"

"No." Lith cursed at his own stupidity for not having thought of it by himself.

"Try it. Either the fake spell or the one I taught you. Both work just fine."

Lith did as instructed, using the fake spell to check such knowledge could be useful also to Tista and the other non Awakened. As soon as the second mark appeared, Kalla let go of the creature which started to shiver uncontrollably until it turned into smoke.

"Undead created with human magic can bear more than one mark. That makes them unable to attack both the new and the old master. Since their nature is to blindly serve, the inner conflict kills them." Kalla explained.

"Does it work on greater undead too?" Lith's eyes shined with hope. Maybe he had found a way out in case Balkor's creatures managed to reach him.

"Sadly, no. This applies only on creatures without an ego. A greater undead can use its will to refuse the second mark, sorry." Kalla shook her head.

"Don't underestimate this knowledge just because you are strong. Imagine if you were weak, alone, against one of those creatures. Do you realize you would still come out victorious? There's no need to destroy them with sword or magic, just a single spell."

Lith pondered about her words, recognizing their truth.

"Now I will teach you how to create a greater undead."

"What?" He couldn't believe his ears. He could solve Solus's problem and his own in one fell swoop.

"Scarlett told me about the friend you carry in your ring. I'm afraid you will not like what I'm going to tell you. Don't make the same mistake I did. Never create a greater undead. Please, I beg of you."

"Then why teach me how to do it?" Kalla was not making any sense to him.

"Because if you don't know how to create them, you can't learn how to destroy them if the necessity arises. Knowledge is power. You and I are similar, we never get tired of accumulating both, but I digress."

Kalla shook her muzzle putting her paws close to Lith.

"First, you need a corpse. The fresher it is the better. You can even use it on a live subject, but the only difference will be inflicting them an enormous and useless amount of pain.

Then, you need to infuse darkness magic, as you have already done the first time we met, but as soon as the blood core starts to form you must stop using darkness magic and inject light magic until the balance is reached."

Her right paw generated a small sphere of darkness, that became greyer the more light magic the left one infused until the color became uniform.

"Only then you'll make the blood core grow using both the elements at the same time until the undead comes to life." She held the sphere between both her paws, growing it until it was as big as an apple.

"That's it?" Lith was incredulous.

"Yes, but it's an incredibly delicate process. One mistake and either you'll create a crazy beast that needs to be put down or destroy the corpse. It took me several tries before succeeding and I spent weeks with greater undead, studying their rituals and cores.

Do you think you can do any better?"

Her tone wasn't angry or sarcastic. Kalla reminded him of Elina when she was teaching him how to take care of Tista.

"Considering that unlike you, I'm not attuned with any element, no." Lith admitted.

"Do not feel ashamed. Acknowledging your limits is the first step to overcome them." The more Kalla talked, the more she reminded him of his mother.

"As for the why you shouldn't raise greater undead, you deserve an explanation. During my travels, after I evolved, I met a clan of vampires. I stayed with them for a while, learning as much as I could from them about Necromancy and darkness magic.

"After witnessing how they turn a human into one of their own kind, I decided to replicate the process, just like I have shown you. After several attempts on the corpses of a group of hunters that had been chasing me, I finally succeeded.

"My test subject was a horrible person, a deranged human that only brought misery to others. Only one death wasn't enough, so I raised it back. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that unlike vampires, when a Necromancer creates a vampire, it's not the same person it was when it was alive.

"My hypothesis is that vampires turn living humans into undead, while I raised a corpse. Maybe the soul had already left its shell, or maybe my magic summoned another one with a stronger will to live.

"Whatever the reason, I immediately understood my mistake. I'm a mother, so when she came back to life, I recognized that feeling. She was naïve, innocent like a baby, her mind was a blank slate, completely dependent on my life force to survive.

"Creating a greater undead is like giving birth. It's a new lifeform entirely, completely unrelated to the corpse's previous existence. I am bound to her like she is to me. I couldn't hurt or kill her anymore."

"What did you do with it?" Lith shrugged.

"I adopted her. It's the other child I told you about."

"What?" Lith was flabbergasted.

"That's why I advise you not to use that spell and why higher Necromancy will not help your friend. The corpses you would raise will already have a soul of their own, you can't just create an empty vessel. Nature abhors the void, in all of its forms."

Lith sighed. Suddenly lesser Necromancy was much more alluring. Mindless thralls were much easier to handle compared to sentient undead that would look at him as a father.

The idea of nurturing such creatures just to dispose of them like trash was cruel even for him.

- "I'm so sorry, Solus." Lith thought. I really hoped to give you a body through Necromancy. Kalla hasn't evolved from long, though. She might be wrong, maybe there is a way to give you a physical form. Are you sure you don't want to try a construct or something?"

Solus didn't know whether to laugh or cry at Lith's stubbornness.

"I told you countless times: I already feel like a monster. I have the body of a construct, I feed off your mana like an undead or a construct would. I want to get out of my cage, not exchange it for a new one."

Seeing that Lith was even more disappointed than she was, Solus embraced his soul with her own. A warm sensation invaded Lith's being.

"Stop worrying about me. I'm fine, I really am. You are already giving me so much, sharing your life with me, your joy, sadness, and tears. My tower form is slowly recovering, who knows if sooner or later my wisp form will evolve into something more?

"If you really want to make me happy, live your life to its fullest. Enjoy what you now have with Phloria. It should be most precious to you because it's completely unexpected. That girl is rushing a little too much, but she really cares about you. She's a keeper."–

Lith could agree on the rushing part, but the rest? He had never discussed his love life even with Carl, let alone with another girl. He found most embarrassing that his hormones and loneliness were making him crave for intimacy with Phloria.

- "I guess that not being with a woman for thirteen year and a few months it's really taking a toll on me. I even keep counting. Maybe Phloria is right, I do have a perverted mind."–

"Scourge?" Kalla called him, noticing he was spacing out.

"Please continue."

"Another thing I discovered during my travels, is that greater undead can actually be harmed by light magic, but not in the way that you may think. If used directly, light magic works on them like it would on lesser undead. It would feed their hunger, making them stronger.

"But if you use it on their blood cores instead, you can temporarily fix the unbalance that is their existence. When a ghoul eats living flesh, a vampire drinks blood, or a Wraith drains life force with its touch, they are all doing the same thing:

"Consuming the light energy that living being possess to keep their blood cores from collapsing. Even if it's an oversimplification, let's just say that undeath at its core is a condition where the body becomes incapable of producing light magic.

"Without its counterpart, the darkness magic that's naturally produced keeps eroding both the core and the body, needing constant transfusions of light magic from an external source to survive."

"Are you saying that…" Lith's hopes were almost restored.

"Yes, I am. If you use light magic on their blood core, they regain most of their emotions, lose their hunger, and can even eat normally for a while, be they beasts or humans.

"Yet it comes with a price. As long as their blood core is balanced, they also lose most of their powers, becoming vulnerable and mortal again."

"Why are you researching this field? It's almost impossible to direct mana to a core in battle. We need to use Invigoration to find it first and then send the light energy. It's not like you can ask the enemy to stay still for a minute or two."

Lith was fascinated by the theoretical implications, but at the moment he found all that chat useless. He desperately needed an edge against Balkor's creatures if he wanted to survive.

"Because for some undeath is a blessing, for others it's a curse. I don't want my child to live forever in the shadows, hiding from the living like a rabid beast. My goal is to find a way to turn her back to human, giving her a chance to a normal life."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Lith could understand Kalla being grateful to him for saving Nok. He could also appreciate her seeing a kindred spirit in him, but the knowledge and the burden she was imparting him were too much.

"Because, just like me, you are different from the others. I'm one of the few magical beasts whose evolution borders with undeath, yet you treat me no differently from before, unlike even those of my own kind.

"I don't care if you are a human like your friends think, a beast like Protector says, or a new kind of monster like Scarlett fears. You are someone capable of befriending magical beasts without looking down on us, of carrying an unknown life form at your finger and calling her a friend.

That's why I trust you to teach and care for my offspring like I would."

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Kalla interrupted her lesson briefly, to allow Lith to have lunch and resuming immediately after he had finished. Lith filled several notebooks with his notes, describing all the spells she was teaching him, the feeling it gave when she used them on him or on a test subject, and the differences with his own performance.

Learning from true magic was both harder and easier compared to fake magic. Lith hadn't to memorize any magical word, accent, or hand sign, but he needed a deep understanding of the how and why the mana had to flow in a certain way rather than another.

Kalla knew that she couldn't possibly teach him in a day what she had learned in months during her travels or thanks to Scarlett mentoring her. So she imparted him the most solid foundations she could about her work, hoping he could achieve the same results through study and effort.

Meanwhile, inside the headquarters, Scarlett was teaching Protector how to use his newfound powers. Unlike Kalla, he lacked an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. After evolving, he had been content enjoying his life with Selia, studying magic only during his free time.

- "Damn, this country bumpkin of a Skoll is like the proverbial frog in the well." Scarlett inwardly cursed. "If after discovering the outside world the frog decided to not give a damn about it, of course. He is by far the weakest of us three, I need to bring him up to speed and fast!"–

Scarlett was dissecting one of Balkor's thralls they had captured, using her enchanted pince-nez to better understand the structure of the spells that kept the undead together along with its abnormal blood core. She would pass it to Protector from time to time, showing him how to recognize a spell's keystones.

"I knew there was something wrong with Balkor the moment Linjos described to me his creations." Scarlett explained.

"Lesser undead that requires flesh and blood to work, able to regenerate and ignore arrays. None of it made sense. Necromancy doesn't work like that. Do you see that?" Scarlett pointed to a black piece of flesh right besides were the blood core was.

"Yes." Protector replied while wearing the pince-nez. "It smells like an Abomination."

"Because it is one, or at last a fragment of it. This madman must have found an Abomination naturally resistant to magic, captured it, and integrated its abilities with his thralls.

"Abominations constantly need life force to survive while undead bear the spark of their maker as a mark. He used his own life force to keep together the blood core and the Abomination's unique abilities. This is the secret behind their powers and limited life span.

"As soon as Balkor's life force runs out, the Abomination fragment goes wild, destroying the undead and making impossible a full examination like the one we are performing right now. Whoever he is, this guy is insane."

"Don't you mean a genius?" Protector was barely understanding half of what Scarlett was saying. "Also, why is this thing still intact? Shouldn't have already self-destructed?"

"He is definitely insane. He didn't use light magic, but his own life force. It means that with each undead he makes, his life gets shorter. As for your second question, it should, but Kalla's array slowed down the decay process enough for us to collect all the data we need.

"The good news is that Balkor isn't the one I'm looking for. He isn't looking for immortality, rather he seeks the death of his enemies even if it costs him his own life. The bad news is that now I must add him to my 'to do' list." Scarlett sighed.

Blood Desert, Balkor's secret lab

Despite what Scarlett thought, Balkor didn't consider integrating undead and Abominations as his masterpiece. Finding the array resistant creature had just been a fluke. He viewed it as a sign that the heavens sought justice as much as he did.

What he considered his magnum opus, the only thing that he deeply regretted not being able to share with the rest of the world, was turning magic crystals into memory crystals.

They allowed his creations to act as one, learn from each other's experiences, and pass that knowledge to others. With each wave he sent there would be a few undead embedded with a memory crystal, the Controllers, that would keep themselves away from the fight while collecting and sharing the data.

Without the memory crystals, he would have never managed to give his thralls a hive mind, nor to be so successful in his endeavor. The first wave had been composed of Crawlers, whose purpose was testing the defenders' reaction speed and teamwork.

He had never expected the Crystal and Earth Griffon's Headmasters to be so stupid to hole themselves up in a confined space, making the number advantage overwhelming and letting themselves get butchered right off the bat.

The Tox Spitters of the second wave were supposed to do the heavy lifting, weakening the defence forces during the two following nights and making them reveal their aces in the hole.

Alas, the remaining four academies had foiled his plans by allying themselves with the beasts.

It was still the second act, yet Balkor was already forced to employ his strongest soldiers, the Valors. The silver lining was that after the fall of the two academies, he had a lot of Tox Spitters left that had almost half of their life span left.

He placed the memory crystals in the center of the array, awakening the sleeping warriors from their stasis and infusing them with all the techniques and spells learned during the first two waves plus a little something of his own.

All Valors had human appearance. They had been crafted to resemble Balkor, were animated by his very life force and now shared with him all of his hatred for the Griffon Kingdom.

The undead knelt to their master, eager to carry out his revenge.

"Let the Spitters be your meat shield. Do not risk your lives. Tonight is just a rehearsal for tomorrow's grand finale." Balkor instructed them while handing them the best equipment money could buy.

"Your goal is to force our enemies to reveal their hand and get rid of that annoying bear Wraith." His voice was feeble. Empowering them had added another grey streak to his hair. He had no idea how much life was left in him, but it couldn't be much.

"If the task proves to be too dangerous, do not hesitate to retreat. There is just ten of you for each academy and I'm at the end of my rope. If you fail, there will be no second chance. Now go."

The Valors nodded in unison, walking in the Warp arrays ready to inflict to others the pain that was ravaging their hearts.

"I'm sorry, Scourge. We have to end the lesson here. We'll continue it tomorrow, if both of us are still alive." Kalla tapped her paw, making the shadows swirl into a portal.

"Wait, why you didn't teach me how to do that?" Lith had been so engrossed by his first lesson of true magic to almost forget about the shadow gates.

"Teach you what, exactly?" Kalla was confused by his words.

"How to merge with the shadows and use them to move across space." Kalla laughed out loud, almost scaring Lith to death. It was the first time that he had ever seen her expressing any emotion.

"That's just a Warp Steps. I just mix it with light and darkness magic to make impossible to predict my exit point with Life Vision (*). Only a non Awakened one can afford not to. Otherwise, it would mean to throw yourself in the opponent's maws."

Lith lowered his eyes in embarrassment. He had only recently mastered Warp Steps and Blink. He had yet to find the time to convert them into true magic. Also, he had never even considered the possibility of covering his tracks while using dimensional magic.

"Damn. I forgot that, unlike me, you had no mentor." Kalla sighed. "I'll teach you dimensional magic first thing tomorrow morning. Now go, I have much work to do before dusk."

After Lith left, Kalla started modifying her Deathbane array. She was certain that Balkor expected her tricks to not work anymore on his thralls, but he was in for a surprise.

Kalla's Warp Step brought Lith back in the middle of the group, making them flinch.

- "Kalla is right, it's dumb to always open a Warp Step vertically. I should have thought about it by myself, but I always have too much on my plate. I'll think about it as soon the crisis is over." Lith thought.

"By my maker!" Solus was brimming with joy. "Finally you are accepting your limits instead of whining for not being perfect. Today is a red-letter day for you."- She wasn't even being sarcastic, which made her remark even more annoying.

"Where the heck have you been all day?" Yurial grabbed Lith by the shoulders, shaking him like a maraca.

"Yurial, have you lost it or what?" Lith angrily pushed him away.

"After your disappearance, Phloria almost drove us all insane with her nagging!"

"I don't nag!" Phloria's embarrassed look made her retort sound fake like a three dollar bill.

"Yes, you do." Friya sneered. "We resisted the temptation to knock you out only because none of us is strong enough to carry you around in case the enemy attacked while you were still unconscious."

The group started quarreling, giving Lith the time to think of an excuse for his sudden leave.

"I'm sorry to have made you worry, but Kalla and I had some unfinished business." Lith lied through his teeth.

"She confirmed my hypothesis." He winked to them, referring to the undead's hive mind, hoping it wasn't all in his head.

"Also, she told me that Balkor is likely to target her from now on, so she asked me to take care of her children in case something happens to her."Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Why you, of all people?" Quylla asked.

"She is afraid that because of her evolved form, other beasts could ostracize them and I'm the only human she trusts." Once again, he chose to mix together truth and lies to make his story easy to remember and play their feelings like a fiddle.

The always lingering fear of death and the sobbing story Lith made up about the cruel fate that would await Nok without his help, prevented them from asking questions he wouldn't know how to answer.

The mood turned gloomy, but even Solus agreed it was a small price to pay for lessons about true magic.

They had barely finished eating, when the alarm resounded, prompting the students to go back to the town plaza.

Soon the array was visible again, making them realize that Balkor's undead had already entered its perimeter. Lith trusted Kalla's judgment about Scarlett's strategy, but he reminded everyone about their contingency plan, just in case.

"I don't know what the master plan is and honestly, I don't care." Lith said.

"If anything happens to Kalla, that's our cue. It's better to run away to live and fight another day than dying an idiot's death." Everyone nodded, agreeing with the plan.

The seconds turned into minutes, but nothing happened. This time, instead of simply swarming the place, the Tox Spitters slowly marched into the town under the Valors' supervision.

Back in his lab, Balkor was amazed discovering that despite the modifications he had applied to his creatures, the array was back to full force. Yet it was within his calculations. The Valors had the Spitters positioning themselves in the key points of the array, before forcing them to self-detonate.

Kalla's Deathbane array crumbled, plunging the town into darkness. Back at full strength, the undead attacked with unparalleled vigor, easily cutting through the enemy lines.

Without support from the array, beasts and Professors quickly found themselves on the back foot. A single Spitter was nothing compared to their strength, but they were outnumbered over ten to one and every wound they suffered required specialized medical attention.

"Rise my legions!" Kalla roared, calling forth his undead army once again.

Two Valors approached her, moving so fast that none of the lesser undead at her command could react quickly enough to even slow them down.

"Filthy beast, your time has come." Said the first Valor.

"Filthy beast, your time is now." They both unsheathed their swords, moving in unison. The Valors attacked her at the same time from opposite directions, leaving Kalla no chance to defend herself.

Two deep wounds opened on Kalla's front shoulder and her back.

Kalla laughed bitterly, admitting her defeat. If she stayed, she would definitely die. Even if created with fake magic, those creatures were greater undead. Kalla had only recently become an Awakened one, she was still too weak to fight them and control her army at the same time.

If she left, her army would crumble, leaving her allies without any hope of victory.

Whatever choice she made, without her guidance, the lesser undead she had reanimated would attack indiscriminately friend or foes.

"Well, played creatures." Kalla's tone was sad, but devoid of despair.

"You have destroyed my array and turned my carefully prepared army into a liability in one fell swoop. It seems I have underestimated Balkor's ingenuity, but alas, he made my same mistake.

"Your master should have known that a cornered beast is the most dangerous one. I'm really curious to see if his plan can survive losing two of you right off the bat!"

Having her army become useless, Kalla recalled all the darkness magic she had infused into it back to her body, causing her mana core to overload. It resulted in a silent but massive explosion that engulfed all the nearby undead and briefly managed to cover the sky.

The collective death throes of the fallen threw both armies into chaos.

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"Gods, no!" Scarlett and Balkor screamed in unison, watching the scene unfold.

Everything had happened in just a few seconds from the moment the array had been destroyed, not leaving the Scorpicore the time to even think about sending reinforcements.

Losing Kalla was a huge blow for Scarlett's army. Despite the fact that she had only recently evolved, she was still the most talented Necromancer they had at hand.

Balkor had the advantage of experience and careful preparation. Their best counter was true magic's surprise effect and the versatility Kalla's true Necromancy had displayed earlier.

She had been able to reinforce her troops and change strategy according to the situation, while Balkor's thralls, without their master supervision, could only follow a script. The presence of greater undead had completely upset the balance.

"Damn you and your information, Linjos. The Valors weren't supposed to come out until the last day!" Scarlett roared.

"She has only recently evolved and close combat has never been her specialty. I only let her go alone because you guaranteed us that tonight we would face those black things again!"

"How I was supposed to know that Balkor would change his plans so much?" Linjos tried to defend himself.

"Look on the bright side, it means he is desperate. By butchering all of his Tox Spitters during the first day, you must have forced his hand. The Valors are his trump card. If we defeat them, the battle should be over. He shouldn't have stronger troops."

"What if he does? What if…" Scarlett stopped herself halfway. There was no time for recriminations.

"We can't afford to keep our cards hidden anymore. We can only go all out and pray that you are right."

Unbeknownst to Scarlett, Balkor's situation was even worse. Kalla's final move had been devastating to his plans. The massive release of darkness magic had destroyed all the Spitters attacking the north side along with the two Valors.

Unlike the lesser undead that required only a small spark of his life force, each Valor was empowered by a huge amount of it. It was a double-edged sword. On one hand, it allowed Balkor to share their senses and directly control them telepathically despite the distance.

On the other one, he would feel their lives slowly slipping away like they were his own. The sudden disappearance of so much of his life force further damaged his already compromised body. Balkor fell to the ground, convulsing and spitting blood non-stop.

With their mind link temporarily broken, the Valors were unaware of the huge blow their army had sustained. They continued to follow the original plan, going deeper and deeper into the enemy lines until retreating became almost impossible.

The same thing was happening on all four academy battlefields. The invaders were getting bolder, mistaking Balkor's sudden silence for approval. Despite their high intelligence and extensive combat expertise derived from the memory crystals, the Valors were still newborns.

By giving them his memories, Balkor had also infected them with his rage, a feeling they were incapable of controlling without their master's supervision.

Trasque, Nalear, Ironhelm, Linjos, and all the Professors with the richest combat experience finally came out of the headquarters, aiding the royal army and the magical beasts in holding their ground against the swarming enemies.

Only eight Valors remained, but each had strength on par with Protector, making them extremely dangerous. They looked exactly like Balkor did the day his family died.

Red-haired youths, barely sixteen years old with a naïve visage. They were about 1.67 meters (5'6") high with a skeletal build like they had long suffered from malnutrition. The red light burning inside their eyes and their savage visage revealed their true nature though.

"Thank the gods that Wraith warned us, otherwise I would be dead already." Professor Trasque had barely dodged the darkness bullet that the Valor had conjured at point-blank range.

Greater undead were naturally attuned with darkness magic, allowing them to use its true magic form even without being Awakened ones.

"That Wraith had a name! Couldn't you at least respect Kalla's memory, you oaf?" Ironhelm scolded him.

He had always considered magical beasts as inferior beings, but after witnessing their bravery and willingness to sacrifice themselves in a battle that wasn't their own, he now harbored a deep respect for them.

"If you have the strength to quarrel like an old couple, use it to destroy that thing!" Nalear scolded them both. They were three against one and under the effect of the best potions the White Griffon's Alchemists could provide. Yet they were still on the back foot.

The Valor displayed all the swordplay he had inherited thanks to the memory crystal, using dozens of techniques with such mastery that it was like he had practiced them for years. To make things worse, he was still faster and stronger than them.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

He was capable of shooting rays of darkness from his free hand, eyes, and mouth with barely a split second notice, easily interrupting their casting whenever they attempted a spell.

The only reason they were still alive was because of their teamwork.

"Resistance is futile, humans. Surrender and die!"

The Valor spread the fingers of his free hand, which turned into a mass of tendrils that whipped towards the trio to immobilize them. Nalear preferred to dodge, while Ironhelm and Trasque cut them down with their weapons.

Each amputated tendril emitted a shrill sound, like it was alive, spurting a purple liquid with a pungent smell. Ironhelm managed to block the liquid with his shield, but Trasque wasn't so lucky.

He was wielding dual sabers, so part of the liquid reached his face, turning out to be a powerful acid. Trasque screamed in pain, suddenly full of openings that the Valor didn't miss, focusing all the tendrils on him and piercing his lungs, heart, and stomach in multiple points.

"Vastor, where are you? We need help! Man down!" Nalear yelled into her communication earpiece, making Vastor Blink to the rescue and bringing what was left of Trasque to safety.

Without Trasque, their formation collapsed quickly, to the point that their efforts barely slowed the Valor from reaching the students.

"Where are the reinforcements?" Ironhelm yelled in his earpiece, his body covered in wounds.

"Sorry for the delay, folks." Protector swooped down from the sky, hitting the Valor with his full weight. Protector was engulfed by flames, his body infused with enough air magic to turn him into a living meteor.

The hit was supposed to blow the undead away, maybe even injure it. Yet the frost aura the Valor had conjured to weaken his human enemies easily snuffed out the flames. The Valor didn't even attempt to dodge, the strike was too fast for him.

The impact only managed to push the creature several meters away, leaving deep furrows in the ground. Protector felt the opponent's bones cracking and reforming almost at the same time.

The regeneration speed of the enemy was so fast it was hard to believe.

"Filthy beast!" The Valor struck Protector with a fist, making his head turn abruptly to the side with a cracking noise.

"Damn, I should have really paid attention to Scarlett when she tried to teach me how to Blink." Protector realized in hindsight.

"If that isn't our cue, I don't know what it is." First Kalla had disappeared, then Professor Trasque had been severely wounded, and now a creature the size of the Skoll was faltering after a single punch.

Friya had every reason to be scared and so did her group. She focused on the place where she wanted to go, bending space to her will and materializing a Warp Steps.

"Quick, get in! I have to go last or the gate will close behind me."

The group nodded, but before they could start moving, another Valor reached the town square.

"There is no escape for you, vermin!" He unleashed several streams of lightning from his hand that struck everyone but Lith, who managed to dodge thanks to his enhanced reflexes.

With Friya convulsing on the ground, the Warp Steps quickly disappeared, destroying their hope for survival.

"Relinquish your useless lives and join us. At least your death will be meaningful." The undead's voice was oozing spite. Lith could see, thanks to Life Vision, that darkness magic was focusing on his fingertips.

"Thanks, but no thanks!" He yelled, trying to draw the Valor's attention on himself. Lith took his shotel out of his pocket dimension, going all out right off the bat to cut down the Valor's extended arm.

The undead reacted quickly, but not quickly enough. Infused to the brim with air magic, Lith managed to cleave the arm a few centimeters below the elbow. The limb fell to the ground, while the accumulated darkness magic faded away.

"How did you do that?" The Valor raised an eyebrow, curious rather than worried. Despite Lith's slash having been infused with darkness magic, black tendrils came out of the amputated limb, reattaching itself as if nothing had happened.

"That hurt, I'll kill you first then." The Valor promised, rushing for the kill.

Lith soon found himself in the opposite situation compared to his Professors. The skill gap in swordplay between them was enormous, making him consider for dropping the shotel and fighting barehanded.

Thanks to fusion magic, the Valor was slower than him, making him vulnerable to the martial arts that Lith had learned on Earth.

According to Life Vision and mana sense, the Valor's blade glowed like a Christmas tree though. That and the purple liquid dripping from the undead's fingers, made Lith realize that such plan was beyond stupid.

- "That thing is almost as fast and strong as me under the effects of fusion magic." Lith thought. "I can't allow myself to get tired, get hit, or get poisoned. I need a distraction to…"–

His planning was interrupted by the terrified screams of the students that were scattering in all directions to get as far as possible from the undead monster.

"I said there is no escape!" Seeing his prey getting away filled the Valor with rage, to the point of ignoring Lith to shoot them in the back.

Lith inwardly smiled, grateful for their stupid sacrifice. He exploited that moment to Blink right behind the creature, cutting off his head and piercing his heart.

Before Lith could completely engulf the corpse in darkness magic, the Valor kicked violently towards his head, forcing him to block and cracking both of his arms. The pain was nothing compared to his surprise.

Despite the amount of darkness magic he had infused in his sword, the hole in the chest was already closed, the head was taking its sweet time to reattach itself still showing a wolfish smile.

"What are you exactly?" For the first time in his life, the undead experienced the feeling of amusement.

Protector's fight wasn't going much better either. Even with Nalear's and Ironhelm's help, they were barely on equal footing. Protector was unable to use dimensional magic and his favorite elements, fire and air, were almost useless against the undead.

The initial advantage due to fusion magic combined with his superior physical prowess had been quickly countered by the Valor's acid blood that returned each wound Protector inflicted twofold.

Several of his teeth had melted and his paws were bleeding profusely.

Nalear and Ironhelm Blinked around, searching for an opening to unleash their spells, but somehow the Valor always knew where they would appear. He didn't react fast enough to counterattack, but enough to move out of their line of fire in time.

"How the heck can he know our every move?" Nalear cursed, getting away from the undead and hoping to lure him away from the town square. Alas, the Valor wasn't interested in fighting the Professors, his only aim was the students a few hundred meters behind them.

As soon as Nalear's position was left open, the Valor rushed forward, ignoring both Protector and Ironhelm, releasing a barrage of darkness projectiles from his fingers aimed toward the youths amassed in front of him like lambs waiting for the slaughter.

While the duo bombarded the undead with their best spells, Nalear cursed again. She Blinked in front of the death wave and using one of her artifacts to block most of the attacks.

"Coward! Stop using children as a shield and fight us!" She yelled despite the ragged breath caused by the massive mana consumption from the artifact.

"In battle, there is no bravery or cowardice." The Valor mocked her. "Only victory and defeat. Stop me if you can!"

He had already been hit by over a hundred of spells during the fight, but taken separately, they were barely able to make him falter. Thanks to his Abomination powers, the Valor would take little damage from all elements except darkness, but such spells were too slow and the creature would dodge them every time with ease.

Physical attacks and spells had proven to be useless, any damage sustained would regenerate so fast that the undead was able to keep his full mobility.

Protector cursed at himself for his stupidity, not studying the books Lith had left for him and spending most of his time nurturing his newfound family life with Selia.

His only remaining option was to use his physical prowess to block the Valor in place long enough for the Professors to strike him down with darkness magic. However, the undead was well aware of their plan, so he employed a vicious hit and run tactic that the Crawlers had learned from Ironhelm himself during the first day to wear out the Skoll.

Protector's fur was already covered in cuts, some shallow, some deep. He had suffered most of the hits while trying to defend the students and the Professors behind him. The Valor had exploited his good heart to poison him multiple times and was now waiting for the inevitable to happen.

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"You are too fast to be human." The Valor said to Lith, using a childish voice that matched his face for the first time. Lith let him blabber on, using the idiotic bad guy monologue to activate Invigoration to mend his wounds and replenish his strength.

"You don't care for the young ones." The Valor shot another student in the back, pleasantly surprised to see that Lith didn't even flinch.

"Do you care for the older ones?" By using their hive mind, the Valor didn't even need to turn around to shoot Nalear in the back. What any Valor saw, every Valor knew. That was the reason why Blink had been of no use to the Professors so far.

Thanks to the hive mind, by watching each other's backs, the undead had no blind spots.

The darkness bullet was deflected by Nalear's armor, but still managed to pierce her shoulder, making her yell in pain and surprise. Their already weakened formation fell apart.

"No, you don't." The Valor nodded. "Do you care for those ones?" He pointed his fingers to the four youths still laying on the ground, finally obtaining a reaction. Lith stopped using Invigoration, dashing forward to intercept the spell and deflect it with his blade.

"This is going to be fun!" The Valor laughed heartily.

"Not for you though." Lith replied with a wolfish smile. He Blinked in front of the enemy and activated Death Zone and Death Call at the same time.

Several tentacles erupted from Lith's body, while a dense fog surrounded both him and the Valor. Lith had used that time to also cast his two most powerful darkness spells. The dark tentacles wrapped themselves around the Valor's limbs, draining his strength and making it impossible for him to run away.

Meanwhile, the highly concentrated darkness magic summoned by Death Zone was eating away the Valor's lifespan like a starving man at an all you can eat buffet.

"No, you can't do it! I'm not allowed to die!" Balkor's orders were absolute. The Valor struggled with all his might, trying to get away like his master had instructed him to do in case of danger.

Lith was done talking. He only focused on dodging and parrying the enemy's attacks while the undead withered more with every passing second.

Soon the physical gap between the two was so wide that Lith could afford to go on the offensive, slashing the Valor's body over and over with his darkness infused blade. Despite being an undead, the Valor experienced blinding pain and desperation.

Each hit would eat away a good chunk of his master's lifeforce, making the Abomination inside him go wild and inflicting on him an agony that every Valor would share.

Back in his lab, Balkor's convulsions rose in intensity until he bled from his ears, eyes, and mouth.

Feeling their companion's imminent death sent the other Valors into a frenzy. Because of the hive mind, they shared more than just their senses. They also shared their rage, joy, and fear.

Protector exploited the enemy's sudden madness to bite the Valor's chest hard and pin him to the ground, trapping the Valor's sword and tendrils inside his own body.

"Quick, finish him!" He yelled to Ironhelm. His eyes were sad, but unwavering.

Ironhelm understood his intentions, casting his strongest darkness spell, Dark Star. Ironhelm wanted to cry, but his voice remained steady and his hands firm for all the duration of the spell.

Dark Star generated a pillar of darkness with a radius of ten meters (33 feet) that engulfed both the warriors until the Valor was no more.

Protector remained true to his name until the end, standing proud even in defeat.

Meanwhile, Linjos and Rudd were mercilessly taking down two Valors at once. Linjos was the strongest Archmage of his academy. His personal spells were fast and deadly, there was only so much the undeads' magical registance could do against them.

To make things worse for the undead, although Rudd lacked his firepower, he had plenty of ingenuity and talent for dimensional magic. Whenever one of Linjos's spells were about to miss, a Warp Steps would open, redirecting it right into the back of a Valor.

Even trying to escape was useless, Rudd would simply Switch their positions with his own and Linjos's, who always took care to leave them a darkness based nasty surprise.

"Come on, that's all you can do?" Rudd sneered, opening many Warps Steps at a time, making the new barrage of Linjos's spells appear and disappear from thin air. When the Valors tried to escape in different directions, Linjos Switched their position, making them clash one against the other. Rudd exploited that moment to redirect the spells, which hit the Valors all at once and turned them to dust.

"Excellent work, Rudd." Linjos said.

"I'm glad to have you on my side."

"Two down, still six to go." The two Archmages Warped to the rescue of their colleagues, hoping the battle could be still won.

As soon as she came out of the headquarters, Scarlett hunted down the Valors one by one. Even with the hive mind supporting them, the other undead weren't much of a threat.

She hadn't missed how the destruction of the two Valors by the hand of Kalla had made the lesser undead revert to their frenzied fighting style and lose any semblance of order or discipline.

Of the eight remaining greater undead, two were keeping themselves at the outskirts of the mining town. Scarlett suspected that their refusal to budge even after losing two of their generals could depend on their role in keeping the hive mind active.

She Blinked behind their backs, infusing her roar with air magic, making them tumble on the ground like rag dolls.

- "If I'm right, they will attempt to run rather than fight. I must keep them away from their escape route and kill them as fast as I can."– Scarlett thought.

As she had predicted, the two attempted to cast a flying spell to get away from the Scorpicore, but she only needed another roar to send them tumbling again and interrupting their cast.

"Filthy beast, your time has come!" Said the first Valor unsheathing his sword.

"Filthy beast, your time is n…"

"Shut your trap." Scarlett cut the second Valor short, ripping the creature's head off with her claws. Her rage peaked when she heard those words again.

She wasn't sure if Kalla was dead or alive, only that if she had lost an Awakened because of humans squabbling between themselves, she would never forgive herself. A sudden sharp pain forced her to focus back on her enemies.

A big chunk of her paw was now missing, her flesh and bones melted by the powerful acid that ran inside the Valors' bodies instead of blood.

"Nice trick." She said, watching the bits of the undead's head reassemble themselves until no injury remained.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Want to see a better one?" Her paw exuded a white brilliance and in less than a second, she was healed too.

"As for my final act…" Scarlett weaved the Blink spell, but instead of Blinking herself she forced one of the Valors to appear right in front of her. Her paw pinned him down, while she used Invigoration to find the blood core and flood it with darkness magic.

It was something that only her overwhelming strength and over three hundred years of experience in manipulating cores allowed her to do. The undead experienced pain as if its very soul was being ripped to shreds, pulverized, turned into a bucket someone used as a chamber pot, and then turned to shreds again.

Its agony spread to all the remaining Valors, making them easy targets. While the first one was still turning to ashes, Scarlett repeated the procedure on the second one, making Balkor's mind fall into a coma to escape from that torture.

"Damn you! Damn you all! For Balkor!"

Lith didn't know why the Valor had started convulsing, nor did he care. What worried him was that now the creature was willingly burning his life force to break free from the restraints.

Lith focused even more, increasing the density of darkness magic surrounding them to put an end to the fight. He didn't know how long he could still hold the Valor in place. Keeping both the spells active while trading blows with the undead was quickly draining his strength.

The Valor shot several rays of darkness from his eyes until he slowly turned to smoke and ashes.

"At least I will not die alo…"

Lith didn't stop the attack until the Valor's blood core was no more. He never trusted monsters to stay dead, so besides confirming it with Life Vision, he also asked Solus to double check with mana sense.

- "By my maker! Lith, behind you!"– Despite being on the verge of exhaustion, Lith followed Solus's instructions, ready to fight with the last bits of power he had.

He only then realized that what Solus was referring to wasn't an enemy, but the members of his group. They had yet to wake up from the lightning bolts, so unlike the other students, they had remained on the attack site.

Suddenly the Valor's words made sense. They could be the only reason why the undead had wasted his life force to cast spells that he knew Lith could dodge with his eyes closed.

After a quick inspection, he discovered that only Yurial and Phloria had been hit. The creature had shot blind, so most of the rays had just hit the ground. Yurial had been grazed on a leg while Phloria on a shoulder.

The wounds were superficial, barely bleeding, but the flesh surrounding them was turning blue and the veins were bulging out. Lith used Invigoration to understand what was happening.

A mass made of darkness magic was ravaging their bodies while advancing towards their mana cores.

- "Damn b*stard!" Lith thought. "He invaded them with his life force. If I don't stop it immediately, they are either going to die or turn into undead."–

Lith saw several students, that had been killed earlier by the Valor, groggily stand up with their eyes shining with the red light of undeath.

"Damn! I hate always being right!" Lith opened a Warp Steps, but he was too weak to go far from the battlefield. His destination was their room in the mining town. He threw Friya and Quylla inside and on to their beds, more or less.

Then, he picked Phloria and Yurial up and ran away from the undead mob that was chasing them, closing the gate right behind him. The monsters were fast enough to compete with Lith in his exhausted state while burdened by his companions.

Some of them were already crossing the gate when it disappeared. A few heads and limbs fell on the floor, emitting a screeching sound before turning into black smoke and ashes.

"Just Balkor's style. He sacrifices undeath's eternal life in exchange for explosive power. The fallen students turning so fast can only be a bad omen."

Lith lay Phloria and Yurial on the floor, discovering that the black matter was already halfway towards their cores. The corruption was spreading at an alarming rate. Almost half of their bodies had turned blue, with black veins bulging all over them.

Cursing Balkor's name, Lith had no choice but to activate Invigoration and wait until he had regained enough strength to make his blurred eyesight return to normal before attempting a treatment.

He used that time to call for help with his communication amulet. This wasn't the academy's healers first rodeo. The light magic department was bound to know a cure for their affliction, after ten years of fighting the same kind of undead.

Alas, the amulet was once again offline.

"F*ck Linjos and his idiotic plan! F*ck Manohar! He's nowhere to be found when you really need him!" Lith's rage was almost out of control. In that moment, he hated everyone. The academy for failing to protect them, the nobles and the Crown for having caused the crisis, and Balkor for messing with his turf.

- "Calm down, Lith" Solus did her best, using their symbiotic bond to quell his anger. "Healing is a delicate process, you can't brute force your way to save someone. Letting yourself go can only do more harm to your friends."–

Lith still rejected that word, 'friends'. Yet denying his attachment to them was hypocritical, especially his fondness towards Phloria. Aside from Solus, no one outside of his family had ever made him feel so special since his rebirth in the new world.

Lith swallowed his anger, studying the black matter only to discover it was some kind of darkness magic he had never met before. Light magic would be useless, while Invigoration wasn't able to purge it because of its immaterial nature.

- "Solus, please help me!" What can I do?"– Their bodies kept turning, their breathing had almost stopped.

"You can only brute force your way." Solus sighed. It was a gamble, but also the only thing she could improvise with so little time at hand.

"Use your own darkness magic to stall and destroy the Valor's one while using light magic to immediately heal the damages the conflicting energies will cause. That kind of power isn't made to last, if you resist long enough it should self destruct."–

Lith commenced the procedure even before Solus had finished her explanation, he had already understood her idea from the first sentence. First, he attacked the black veins, preventing the affliction from spreading further, then he focused on the black mass.

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Handling two kinds of mana at once, on two different patients, was the hardest thing Lith had ever done. He had to repair all the injuries in a timely manner, using darkness magic against the wounds the Valor's life force caused, otherwise his companions would die of shock or organ failure.

At the same time, he couldn't relieve the pressure on the black mass, not even for a second. It was already only centimeters away from their cores, a single slip up and everything would be lost.

The memory of the kid dying in his arms during the plague was still etched into Lith's mind.

There was no way to repair a broken core. Lith only had one chance and had to make it count. His energy reserves were constantly depleted by his endeavor and replenished by Invigoration, but with every cycle, his breathing technique would lose part of its effectiveness.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Lith needed Solus's help from time to time, letting her take control of his mana flow whenever he felt his focus was slipping. Soon it became a battle of will, Balkor's against Lith's.

Ironhelm would have liked to let himself fall on the ground and rest, but Nalear was getting worse by the second. He placed his hand on the fallen Skoll's neck, caressing his soft fur for the first and last time before leaving.

Then, he felt a pulse. He immediately activated his communication earpiece.

"Manohar, Marth, get your as*es over here! Otherwise, I swear to the gods that I will kill you!"

Blood Desert, Balkor's secret lab

When Ilyum Balkor finally regained his senses, everything was already over. Kalla's opening move had caused a domino effect, making months of careful planning go to waste. The shock from the sudden death of the Valors had taken him out of the picture long enough for the battle to be lost.

Without his supervision, the Valors had let themselves be blinded by the hatred Balkor had infected them with, making them conceited and reckless. Each time one of them fell, all the others would become weaker, making it easier for the enemies to kill another one, rinse and repeat.

While trying to get up, he coughed blood again and again. Not only was almost all of his life force gone, but also most of his magic. It would take him years to recover, if that was even possible.

"Mother, father, my siblings, please forgive me." He wept uncontrollably.

"I have failed you. Tomorrow, no blood will be shed. Your deaths will be forgotten because of my incompetence!" The Lords of the forests had proven to be way stronger than he anticipated and so too were their minions.

Many Professors had fallen, even the Lightning Griffon Headmaster had died during the attack, but only a few students had been harmed. The four remaining academies had survived, all of Balkor's efforts had been for naught.

Following Linjos's protocol, the other Headmasters had removed the academies' power cores, entrusting them to the Crown. When Balkor's minions had stormed the academies' gates, the castles were empty shells.

"I only have one choice left. I can't activate my last prototype. I would die in the process and without my control, it wouldn't be able to distinguish friend from foe. It could even harm my family. That accursed bear has ruined everything.

In the end, even the god of death dies."

Before Warping out of his lab, Balkor activated the self destruct mechanism. The memory crystals, his method to fuse Abominations and undead, his whole life work.

All of it was too dangerous to allow humans to ever get their hands on it.

"It all ends now." Watching the small mound collapse from afar, Balkor found himself sighing in relief. Even if things hadn't gone as planned, he still had his closure. Two of the six great academies were lost, several Archmages had died.

His legend would live on, instilling fear in the accursed old nobles' households for years to come. They would never know what had happened to him or why he had stopped his attacks.

For all they knew, the god of death would be biding his time, waiting for his enemies to lower their guard while building an even stronger army.

"Also, I would pay my weight in gold to see their terrified faces. Tomorrow night nothing will happen, yet their fear will make it the worst day of their lives."

Balkor laughed heartily, cleaning the blood from his clothes before returning home. His children deserved to finally have a full time father.

When Lith regained his senses, he had no idea how much time had passed. His body ached with every movement due to the strain of prolonged excessive mana use.

He barely had the mental energy to open his eyes. His vision was blurred from physical exhaustion and he had a splitting headache caused by the severe lack of mana. Human figures seemed to be moving around him, but because of the haze, he wasn't able to recognize any of them.

- "How… how long was I out?" Even in his own thoughts, Lith couldn't avoid stuttering. Thinking was a heavy burden, he just wanted to close his eyes and sleep.

"A few minutes." Solus replied.

"Just enough time for Friya and Quylla to wake up and infuse you with some of their life force. Try not to speak much, your core is almost empty. We already know what happens when someone forcefully goes beyond their limits."–

Solus was worried too. This time Lith had gone too far, treating his companions' condition until he had lost consciousness. She wanted him to be more human and compassionate, but not if the price was his life.

She had even given him part of her mana without him noticing. She didn't care about her own hunger or the weakness that was numbing her senses, she wanted for him to be alright.

Lith nodded, using Invigoration once again. His mana core was still empty and his body exhausted, but at least now he was able to see and talk properly.

"Lith what happened?" Both Friya and Quylla were worried to death.

"Why won't Yurial and Phloria wake up? No matter what spell we use, their condition does not improve, nor do we understand what's wrong with them. Also, how did you get so exhausted?" Friya asked.

"So nice of you to think about me too, even if only at the end." Lith rubbed his temples, trying to ease the pain.

Friya opened her mouth to reply in kind to his sarcastic remark, but remained silent.

- "Telling him that I can't help but see him as more of a monster than a human would be too cruel of a joke. Lith may be a bit scary sometimes, but he has always been nothing but a good friend to me. Thank the gods I can hold my stupid tongue."– Friya thought.

Lith used that respite to tell them about how he had escaped from the Valor bringing them with him. He also told them how the creature had infected their companions and his attempts to cure them.

Even if she meant it as a bad joke, Friya felt terrible for thinking those words.

"Please, go find a Professor. I don't know if I saved them or just bought them some more time. They need someone that knows what we are dealing with."

Friya nodded, leaving Quylla to take care of her friends while she Blinked right above their house, her rapier ready at hand. From the higher ground, she noticed that the battle seemed to be over. The town plaza was empty.

Some skirmishes were still going on between beasts, Professors, and lesser undead, but the black creatures were reduced to a few handfuls. From the moment Scarlett had killed the Controllers, the hive mind had collapsed.

Without it, the Tox Spitters had no combat awareness, they had reverted to mindless blank slates. It was only a matter of minutes before they got completely wiped out.

Friya identified a group of Professors and went to ask for their help, too late to notice that, what they were battling against, students that were turned into undead. Her rapier cut and stabbed the reanimated corpses mercilessly.

Her hand didn't even hesitate when she recognized some of them as her classmates. The only things Friya felt were the urgency to prevent her sister and friend from suffering the same fate and gratitude towards Orion.

The blade he had crafted for her fitted her hand like a glove. While the multiple enchantments he had forgemastered it with made short work of her enemies, turning them into dust and smoke.

- "I swear that if I get back home alive, I'll start calling Orion 'dad'."– Friya thought, realizing the depth of care and love her adoptive father held.

"Please, I need a healer! My friends have been hurt!" Realizing what was affecting her friends, Friya's worry increased tenfold.

Professor Wanemyre nodded, activating her communication earpiece.

"There isn't a second to lose, tell me where to find them."

It took less than a second for Professor Marth to join them and open a Warp Steps back to Lith's room.

"How long ago have they been struck?" Marth knew that, once the dark energy entered the bloodstream, it was only a matter of minutes before the victim died, almost instantly resurrecting as a lesser undead.

"I don't know." Friya pointed to him the two youths lying on their beds.

Marth cursed their bad luck, casting a diagnostic spell to see how severe their condition was, only to discover that their system was completely cleansed. The two students were simply exhausted beyond reason like they had fought and won the battle of a lifetime.

Marth had no idea what could have possibly happened, and he was simply too happy to care. His joy was short lived though. As soon as he saw Lith, sadness gripped Marth's heart.

Lith seemed exhausted too, he barely had the strength to eat the medical provisions Quylla was handing him. Marth didn't want to burden him further, but time was of the essence.

"Lith, I'm really sorry." Marth placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"One of your friends has been gravely injured. He doesn't have much time left and he is asking for you."

"A friend?" Lith's sleepy eyes were suddenly wide open, checking his surroundings.

"What's wrong with Yurial?" He couldn't help but be surprised by the worry he recognized in his own voice.

"Yurial is fine. Whatever you did, it worked. You don't know how proud I am of you." Marth smiled gently, he would have liked to ask him many things, but questions had to wait.

"I'm talking about Protector. He has something to say to you. I've never seen someone with such strong willpower. He is literally refusing to die before speaking with you one last time. Please follow me."

Something inside Lith snapped, making all of his exhaustion disappear. Solus knew it was only a placebo effect, caused by Lith's desire to cry clashing with his firm denial that something might have happened to his old friend.

"Take me to him."

Marth opened a Warp Steps, seeing ill concealed pain in Lith's eyes.

Protector's body was too big to fit in the field hospital and his condition was too severe to move him from the spot he had fallen. Lith's heart ached to see the flaming red fur blackened all over, the flames that made up the tails were reduced to embers. Protector's chest raised and lowered slowly, accompanied by heavy pants.

Manohar had done his best, arriving as soon as he had been summoned. He had used all his expertise to cleanse the toxin, close the wounds, and defuse the lethal effects that such a prolonged exposure to the Dark Star spell would induce.

He was called the god of healing, but he was no god. Just a gifted man that loved his job. There were things even he was helpless against.

"It's all your fault!" Manohar roared to Ironhelm.

"You should have called me earlier! I could have saved him. I never, ever fail!"

Manohar didn't care much for the Skoll's fate, nevertheless, he had done the best that he could. His work was his life, it defined what and who he was.

Lith pushed Manohar away, touching Protector to use Invigoration and check his condition. What he saw made his heart skip a beat. Protector's core was deeply cracked, his mana was slowly seeping out. It had already turned back to green and was losing strength with each passing second.

"Glad to see you before the end, Lith." Protector's voice was still calm and serene like the first time they had met.

"Don't be sad for me. I had a great life, a loving mate and many offspring. If it wasn't for Scarlett, I would already be dead. I was living on borrowed time. I am really happy to get the opportunity to return her favor."

Every one of his words was supposed to console Lith, to make him feel better. Yet every time he spoke, Lith felt a dagger piercing his heart. Tears started to stream from his eyes, but his voice was stone cold.

"This is all your fault!" He roared to Scarlett and Linjos that were standing at Protector's side after trying every single spell they knew to save his life.

"You screw up everything you touch! Who the f*ck is that dumb son of a b*tch that made you Headmaster?" Linjos could expel him for all he cared.

If something happened to Protector, Balkor would have to get in line to get his turn with the Headmaster.

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"Why did you ask for his help?" Lith yelled to Scarlett while his fury was peaking. "You knew he had never traveled outside the Trawn woods! This was too big for him, why didn't you leave him alone?"

Scarlett's guilt was already eating at her from the inside, she couldn't reply to Lith because she was thinking the same things.

However, when she felt a slight tremor in the ground, she was forced to speak.

"You are right, it's all my fault. Now please, try to calm down."

"Calm down?" Lith's roar was accompanied by another tremor, this time strong enough for everyone to feel it.

All of his mana was seething with anger, darkness magic exuded from every inch of Lith's body, spreading the killing intent of a mad beast desperate enough to throw away its life for a single chance to bite back its enemy.

All the Professors could feel it on their skin. The ones that were too injured from the recent fight to stand their ground, found themselves covered in cold sweat, retreating one step at the time.

Even Linjos's body reacted instinctively, a spell ready at hand to counter the imminent death threat.

- "I read the reports speaking about his ferocity, but this is unheard of for someone so young. His mana exudes such a powerful pressure that a normal man would have already run away out of fear." -

With a wave of her paw, Scarlett Warped all the humans back to their apartments and sealed the space around the mining town to prevent the use of dimensional magic. Being the Lord of the forest was much more than a mere title.

Like an academy empowered its headmaster, a forest empowered its lord. It was similar to being a Guardian, but instead of being recognized by the planet's will, the Lord had a very limited area of influence and much lesser powers.

Otherwise, Scarlett would have faced and destroyed Balkor's army alone.

"You can ask me to calm down only after I have ripped off your tail and forced you to eat it!" A mass of clouds started gathering in the sky.

Scarlett knew a world tribulation was about to happen. That was the reason why she had sent all the humans away. While she had no idea what was causing the tribulation, the one responsible had to be protected.

Even if he was a young human Abomination hybrid on the verge of madness.

"Lith, please stop." Protector coughed. Hearing his voice turned Lith's anger to pain. A pain he hadn't experienced since Carl's death.

"What do you think you are doing? I didn't ask for you because I want you to turn into the new Balkor. Revenge solves nothing. Did you ever pay attention when I spoke to you?" Protector attempted to laugh, but it soon turned into a dry cough that made him spit black blood.

"I just wanted to say goodbye and ask you for a favor. Please, tell Selia that I'm sorry. Also, make up one of your ridiculous lies to explain to her how I died. Tell her that I would have never abandoned her like this." A few tears streamed from the Skoll's eyes, before disappearing under his fur.

"Please, take care of our child. I never had one with a human, I don't know if they end up resembling their mother or father more. Male or female, they'll need your help."

"Why does everyone want me to take care of their offspring?" Lith's scream caused several bolts of lightning to light the sky.

"I don't want to! I hate children! Live and take care of them by yourself." Lith hugged Protector's body, bawling his eyes out.

"You are the first friend I ever had. You may be a magical beast, but you have always been like a brother to me. You always treated me as an adult, annoying me with your words of wisdom and trying to make me into a better person.

Why are you leaving me? Why?"

"It's not that I want to." Protector's panting worsened, every breath was a struggle.

"It's just that sometimes you can't win. Death is a part of life."

"I'm sick and tired of life trying to snatch away what's mine!" Lith ignored Protector, focusing only on Invigoration and the bleeding mana core.

"First, I wasn't old enough to protect my brother. Then, I wasn't rich and powerful enough to even give him the justice he deserved. After that, I was too weak to heal Tista, forcing me to watch her suffering for years!"

By remembering each of the people he loved, the hatred he felt towards everyone else increased without limit. His body started to reshape itself according to the burning wrath that was consuming him.

Black scales replaced Lith's exposed skin up to his neck, leaving only his face uncovered. His fingers grew longer and were now ending in razor-sharp claws.

Lith's eyes were now inhuman. They had no pupil, iris, or sclera, only a burning blue light remained.

"Now I'm strong enough!"

Lith used Invigoration to call upon the world energy, not using it to strengthen himself, but to surround Protector's mana core and stop the leak. He had just realized that, unlike the kid's core during the plague, Protector's had yet to turn grey.

Its bright yellow color gave Lith hope and the strength to attempt a desperate gamble. After doing his best to prevent the damaged core from weakening any further, he started to shape an artificial core like Kalla had shown him a few hours before.

Instead of crafting it out of light and darkness, he used the surrounding world energy and of all of Protector's mana that Lith was unable to contain. It was something incredibly difficult to achieve.

He couldn't force the mana to do anything without running the risk of contaminating it with his own, making Protector's core reject it. Lith could only slowly and gently guide it to its destination, making sure it didn't fade away by protecting it from all external influences.

The world energy was naturally shapeless, like water, it assumed the signature of whoever managed to call forth its power. As more and more of Protector's mana reached the fake core, it started to mutate until the two energy signatures perfectly matched.

Lith was experiencing an unbelievable amount of pain. Not only because his body was already battered and his mana core running on fumes, but also because he had to take all of the impurities the world energy contained into himself to shape the fake core, allowing only the purest and strongest mana to become part of his creation.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Lith accepted the pain with joy, it was still nothing compared to what the void had done to him in the years following his brother's death.

The last step was the most dangerous one. Lith knew that light magic wasn't enough to allow Protector's core and the fake one to merge. Just like during Forgemastering, he needed something to connect the spell with the item.

Having nothing left, he used his own life force as a tool to achieve his goal. When Lith's energy rekindled Protector's soul spark, Lith was able to experience the Skoll's life from the moment of his birth.

The joy of meeting his first mate and having pups together, followed by the pain of losing them to disease, hunger, or the hand of hunters. Lith could feel how happy Protector had been when he encountered Selia, how strong his desire for a new family was.

Such happiness was something that Lith firmly believed he would never have, so he pushed forward. He consumed more and more energy despite his whole body screaming in pain, begging him to stop, and his core began to crack.

Scarlett watched the whole process in awe. Part of her hoped for him to succeed. Another part of her hoped for him to fail, to get rid of the dangerous unknown factor Lith represented.

Yet all of Scarlett's being hated the world's will because once again it was just standing there doing nothing.

- "I have been through my fair share of tribulations and I have yet to understand why they are called so. It's not like the world puts you to the test or something, it just watches you while the worst sh*t happens to your life. Either you live or die, it never interferes, like our lives are nothing but a two-bit sideshow."– She thought.

From her throne in the underground dungeon, Tyris felt the second tribulation advent.

"That anomaly again." She thought out loud.

"It's better if I go check on it, before the others start pestering me about the lack of information." She stood up, appearing right before Scarlett. It was easy for a Guardian to ignore the Scorpicore's dimensional magic seal.

"What does this mean, Forest Lord?" She asked.

Scarlett instinctively knelt to her, explaining to Tyris all that had happened that night.

"I see. Another Abomination hybrid, it seems. But this one isn't a man-made fake Abomination, more like a jigsaw made of different pieces. He's already at the second tribulation, I wouldn't worry if I were you."

Tyris shrugged, preparing to leave.

"Wait, my Lady. What do you mean?" Scarlett was shocked by her indifference. Unlike Kalla and Protector, she had no affection toward Lith, but he still was a child trying to save a precious friend.

After witnessing so much death in a single night, she couldn't understand how the Guardian could leave without moving a finger. It would be easy for Tyris to save them both.

"You really don't know?" Tyris turned back, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Tribulations happen constantly to beasts, humans, plants, and undead alike. Every single day. They happen whenever Mogar, the world we live in, thinks that someone can be useful for its purposes.

"During every tribulation, Mogar evaluates the candidate's worth through their actions. Success or failure depends entirely on the candidate, though. The first tribulation is usually about the skill the world is interested in.

The second and usually last one, is about self-control."

"What self-control?" Scarlett was flabbergasted.

"The kid is killing himself, burning his own life as we speak! Shouldn't the tribulation be failed already?"

"You completely misunderstood the nature of tribulations." Tyris chuckled in amusement.

"A talent is worthless if someone lets it control their life, as most living beings do. My talent is to inspire the change, but it could be easily subverted into bringing chaos if I was never content with the status quo and I did not give the changes the time to prove their worth.

"Leegaain's talent is knowledge and preservation. Yet imagine how easy it would be for him to turn it into greed, hoarding everything and every life form for himself, turning from the keeper of the world into its warden.

"Salaark embodies the desire to rule and lead by example, but she could just as easily become a tyrant obsessed with world domination. The self-control I'm talking about is the will to resist the urges your talent pushes you towards and do the opposite.

"Take the kid, for example. Judging from his first two tribulations, the world seems to have chosen him to kill a lot of people, yet it's checking if he's just a soulless monster or if he has the will to choose the hard path and grant life instead.

"We all serve the balance. There would be no need for a Guardian of destruction, the races do an excellent job by themselves already. That's why you don't need to worry. If he ever succeeds in passing all the tribulations, we'll just have another Guardian."

"What if he fails? The prolonged exposure to the world's will has already altered him that much." Scarlett rebuked, pointing at Lith's scales covered body.

"Aren't you afraid of what he could do if he manages to control that kind of power?"

"No." Tyris shook her head. "That's just a promise of payment, barely cosmetic. As far as I know, you have passed all of your tribulations. Have you gotten any stronger?"

"No. I've learned how to shapeshift, but my strength is always the same, no matter the form I take."

"Exactly. Until he becomes a Guardian…" Tyris giggled at the idea.

"he will just remain whatever he is. While if he fails, he will die. As simple as that. There is no do-over with tribulations. The number of tribulations varies from person to person, but most fail at the second one. Even if he succeeds, he could fail at the next one, or at the one after that." Tyris disappeared, leaving Scarlett more nervous than ever.

"This is great. Now I not only have to worry about Scourge and Protector, but also about myself! I never imagined tribulations were so dangerous. Gods, I wish Kalla were here. She would know what to do."

"She would say to move your stinger-equipped a*s and help the child. You always whine about the world's will being indifferent, yet you stand there doing nothing. What's the difference between the two of you?" A limping Kalla pointed out.

Scarlett flinched at her appearance, but recovered quickly and did as instructed. Lith had already consumed several years of his lifespan to keep Protector alive and his core was about to crack too.

However, he had managed to fix Protector's core enough to allow Scarlett to finish the job. She saved both their lives at once, before questioning the Wraith.

"How did you survive that blast?"

"First, as you should know, no one can be harmed by their own mana. So the only damage I took was from overloading my mana core. It was a calculated risk. My odds of survival were pretty good since my undead nature makes it really hard to kill me with both conventional and unconventional means.

"Unlike you, I never trusted the men's words or underestimated a fellow Necromancer's madness. I had a contingency plan in case I was cornered and another one in the eventuality of my death." Kalla was referring to Lith's promise.

"Don't you mean your partial undead nature?" Scarlett corrected her friend.

"Have I already mentioned all Necromancers are a bit insane?"

Kalla used Invigoration to further her healing process, revealing to the shocked Scorpicore that her body held both a mana and a blood core.

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"I don't understand. What is that thing? How did you manage to survive the explosion?" Scarlett was happy to see Kalla alive, even if she was heavily injured.

Most of the shadow that usually covered her massive skeleton was gone, leaving it completely exposed. Only a faint mist covered the zone where her internal organs were supposed to be.

One of her front paws was missing and the red light that usually burned inside her eyes was almost gone.

When it started blinking, Kalla collapsed on the ground.

"Survive is a strong word. Let's just say I'm not completely dead. As for your questions, it's a bit complicated to explain. After my evolution, I have been shunned by humans and magical beasts alike.

"They don't see beyond my physical appearance, that's why I started spending so much time with the various tribes of higher undead. I felt like I didn't belong in the forest anymore, so I was searching for a new family."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier? I would have taught them a lesson!" Scarlett roared in outrage.

"To what end?" Kalla sneered. "Nothing would have changed. They would behave in front of you and keep ostracizing me as soon as you turned your back. I don't need anyone's pity nor protection."

Her voice was feeble, but filled with determination.

"However, greater undead always treated me with respect. After I adopted my daughter, I was seriously considering turning myself into a true undead instead of being stuck in this half baked form.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"So, I started researching the blood cores, experimenting on myself to see how they interact with a living body with an intact mana core. Worst case scenario, I would have become a real undead. Nothing would have changed for me.

"I would still be an Awakened one and Nok would follow me even if I had three heads. The actual result was quite underwhelming. The second core does nothing except take enough energy from me to sustain itself.

"Since it didn't seem to have any side effects, I kept it as a study subject for my research on how to cure Mina. It pains me to admit that I hope the same cure will help me too. It's so frustrating always being alone."

Kalla paused, the shadow inside her body kept getting thinner.

"It's only thanks to my experiments that, when I recalled the darkness magic animating my undead, I was able to avoid the overload by splitting the energy between both cores. That way even if one shattered, the other would remain.

The problem is that now that they have almost the same strength, I don't know which will prevail."

"How can I help you?" Scarlett asked, wishing she could do the same thing Lith had done for Protector.

"Not much. Just wait for me to come back and be my friend no matter what the result is. Also, I would greatly appreciate if you helped me find a safe place for me and Mina to live. Your forest doesn't suit any of us."

Kalla finally succumbed to exhaustion, the light in her eyes went out completely. If not for some shreds of darkness still lingering over her, it would have been impossible to distinguish her from an old carcass.

Scarlett felt a deep pain inside of her. By choosing to help the humans, she had endangered the lives of her underlings, causing the death of many of them. M'Rook had died fighting the Valors, leaving her without a second in command and many more had been gravely injured or maimed.

As long as they were alive, she could heal them, but it would take a long time for the forest to recover from its wounds. In just two days, the combat prowess of her turf had been halved.

Her dear friend Kalla was now on the brink of death, Protector had almost died, and she couldn't help but consider it as her fault. Her arrogance had blinded her. She had been so confident in her strength that she almost lost everything she had.

- "Now I understand why the members of the Council are so detached. The longer you live, the more painful it is when you lose someone. I've known M'Rook and Kalla since they were just cubs, and I raised them both like they were my own.

"Now M'Rook is dead. Kalla will survive or turn into a true undead, either way she will leave the forest forever. I've been so obsessed with the Abomination threat, by pursuing my 'master plan' and always thinking big picture that I've disregarded the details.

"Those small, precious details that make my life worth living. I've neglected both the lives of my subjects and their happiness. Maybe I have become too old to be a Lord of the forest. Maybe Leegaain is right, I should leave my turf to someone better than me and strive to become a Guardian.

"By the Great Mother, I never thought the day I would get tired of living could ever come."– Scarlett was lost in thought when she heard a movement from her right.

Protector was getting up and for the first time since they had known each other, he seemed to be out of his mind with rage.

"Don't worry, Protector. Your friend is fine, I made sure of that myself." Scarlett tried to calm him down.

"Fine? How dare you to call losing decades of his life being 'fine'? Why the heck didn't you stop him?" He pointed his muzzle to Lith's shrivelled body. He had lost so much of his body weight before losing consciousness that he was unrecognizable.

Protector was still as weak as a baby, his life hanging by a thread while his core could never recover completely from the damage it had suffered. Yet his rage was stronger than all that.

"You wanted him to die, you crazy f*cker! Did you think I have gone deaf? I heard your whole conversation with that pompous a*s, whoever she was. You can forget me helping you again in the future! If you don't want to make an enemy out of me, you'd better do as I say."

Scarlett nodded. Her guilt prevented her from even trying to defend her foolish actions.

"As soon as Lith wakes up, you'll tell him that I'm dead."

"What?" Scarlett didn't see that coming.

"What he did was stupid, reckless, and immature. He may act all wise and mighty, but his earlier actions were those of a child throwing a tantrum." By sharing their life forces, Protector had been able to see Lith's life just like Lith had seen his.

He still couldn't believe his friend was actually older than himself and an alien from a gods forsaken world at that. Yet the revelation hadn't changed the feelings Protector harbored toward Lith.

Quite to the contrary, it made them even deeper.

"He has gone through a lot of pain, maybe too much, but that's not justification enough to put an end to his own life in a mad attempt to save me. If Lith learns about my survival, he will not hesitate to repeat the same mistake.

I would have died, leaving my mate alone, but so what? He didn't stop for a second to think about what he was throwing away. All he cared about was keeping life and death in his own hands, like it was all a game and he refused to accept defeat.

His obsession with control will sooner or later kill him. He needs to experience the pain of loss again to appreciate what he has. His family, his friends, the little female, and you, Solus." Protector said to the ring at Lith's finger, leaving Solus shocked.

"Solus?" Scarlett asked.

"The female that inhabits the ring. That's her name."

Scarlett pondered for a while. The name didn't ring any bells. She had no idea it was something Lith had come up with years ago, so all of her knowledge was useless in solving the mystery behind her existence.

"You too must keep my survival secret from him, otherwise he'll never change. So far, he has lived pushing everyone away, never letting people come close to him and making up one excuse after another to justify his actions.

He has lost years before appreciating even his own family. If he keeps acting like this, he will understand how much he cares for those around him only after he has lost them for good and then he will turn into another Balkor. Is this what you want for him, Solus?

A life of self-inflicted isolation followed by killing sprees with no care for the consequences?"

Even if Scarlett had allowed her to respond via a mind link, Solus didn't know what to say. Earlier she had tried to stop Lith, but she was too exhausted to push through the barrier the world's will had put him into to prevent her from interfering.

"Please Solus, listen to me." Protector continued.

"This is the only way to help him. By telling him of his success, you would be enabling his obsession. It would only be a matter of time before he does it again. He will suffer for my loss, yes, but it should act as a wake up call.

"He needs to stop indulging in his obsession. We exist to pass down our hopes and dreams for the future through our actions. Our lives are like rivers that cross paths, sometimes briefly, sometimes for a long time creating a bond.

Those bonds are what allows us to leave a part of ourselves behind.

"Our legacy is not limited to our offspring. Every person we meet changes us, as we change them. I know he will suffer for my loss, but it's not the end of the world.

Either he learns to open himself up to others, instead of trapping himself into plans and preparations for what may or may not happen, or he will end up cutting his ties with everyone to avoid getting hurt.

Whatever he decides, at least he will find his way in life. What we are going to offer him, is a chance to understand every day is precious and it should not be wasted on revenge and recrimination."

Solus didn't say a word, crying the whole time.

"Solus, these are my last words, so please find a way to pass them to Lith. Hate is a double edged sword. It can give you the strength to face your enemies and protect those you love. Yet if it becomes your reason for living instead of just a tool for survival, it will turn into a venom that will consume you.

Even if we met late in my life, even we aren't even of the same race, know this. I've always loved him as a son and I always will."

Solus was still hesitant, lying to Lith was something she had never thought about before. She didn't even know if she was capable of doing it.

"How many people has he ever called a friend?" Protector's voice resounded in her mind.

"Just you and me." She replied.

"Then you know that I'm right. Scarlett, send me back to Lutia. I'll move away with my mate to not let him discover the truth."

Scarlett dispelled the dimensional seal, sending Lith to the field hospital through a Warp Steps before opening another one for Protector. She decided that, if she managed to survive the third and final night, as soon as her forest was restored, she would hunt Balkor down like the monster he was.

Just as Balkor had predicted, the anniversary of the day his family died was the worst day that everyone in the four remaining academies had ever lived. The Professors spent the morning treating the injured, counting the dead, and notifying the families of the victims.

After the events of the last night, the survivors felt hopeless. Several Professors, including Trasque, had died, others, like Nalear, were so badly injured that they were not able to take part in the final stand.

The White Griffon academy had suffered the fewest casualties during the first day, but now its occupants felt like they had got the short end of the stick. Their academy was the only one to have lost all of its evolved monsters except the Lord of the forest.

Without Kalla, there would be no protective arrays to weaken the enemy or her undead army to take the brunt of the damage. Without Protector running like lightning through the battlefield, any delay in sending reinforcements could prove to be lethal.

Lith, Phloria, and Yurial were hospitalized and kept away from the battle. Phloria woke up around noon. Aside from crippling exhaustion, she felt fine. She had no idea what had happened after she had been struck by the lightning.

When she saw Lith laying in a bed nearby her own, her heart skipped a beat. He was deadly pale and he looked like a sixty year old man, his hair had become completely grey and some spots of his head were bald. With skin pulled tight over his bones, he appeared skeletal. His entire body burned with fever, drenching the bed with sweat.

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"What happened to Lith?" Phloria needed to lean against the walls or the beds to avoid falling on the ground. Every step she took towards his bed felt like she was trying to uproot a tree, making her sweat bullets. Yet she didn't stop until someone finally noticed her struggle.

"Good grief, you shouldn't strain yourself anymore, young lady. You are lucky to still be alive." Professor Vastor rushed to her aid, taking out a chair from his dimensional amulet to make her rest.

"Please Professor, tell me what happened." Phloria was on the verge of passing out again, but her tone was determined enough to not leave room for doubts. Vastor could only tell her the truth or sedate her, there was no other way to calm her down.

It was likely to be the last day all of them had to live. Vastor decided that forcing such a young girl to spend it unconscious in a bed would be too cruel. There was a reason why they couldn't just send the students back home.

They were still Balkor's target.

After the Earth and Crystal Griffon academies fell, their students had been Warped to the Royal palace to keep them out of harm's way. Some of the old noble families had decided to bring them home, only to be attacked during the second night by Balkor's Crawlers.

Only those that had timely fled to a different region or remained in the palace had been spared from the onslaught. The number of casualties was already in the hundreds and counting. Without the protection of the arrays, a noble house was as safe as a commoner one.

"I don't know, I really don't." He replied seeing the concern growing in her eyes.

"You and Lord Deirus were tainted by a Valor, but Lith somehow managed to prevent you from turning into undead. Then a friend of his called Lith on his deathbed. From what I heard, Lith freaked out.

Then, all that I know is that he arrived here like that."

"Is he going to die?" Her eyes were watery, but she was unwavering. She would not let Vastor get away with a vague answer.

"It's unlikely, but possible." He finally admitted after much thought.

"I've seen a similar condition in patients that had pushed themselves too hard using magic. The only thing we can do is let him rest.. He should get back to normal in a couple of weeks."

- "If he doesn't die tonight, either at the hand of Balkor's thralls or from going for broke to save your lives earlier."– Vastor inwardly added.

"Thanks, Professor." He had expected her to cry and whine like the little girl she was, yet Phloria smiled. It was something that Vastor hadn't seen in days.

"Can I stay here, please?" She took Lith's hand in her own, hoping he could feel her touch and somehow draw strength from it.

Usually Vastor would have scolded her and sent her back to her bed, but the sincerity of Phloria's feelings despite her own predicament had moved even his old, shriveled heart.

Vastor used magic to rearrange the beds, moving Phloria's right beside Lith's. He even gave her blankets large enough to cover both beds, turning them into a makeshift double bed.

"Just promise me you'll keep your hands where they belong. This is a hospital, after all." She turned beet red while Vastor laughed at his own joke. A short while later he finally left them alone.

He doubted Lith would wake up to enjoy her company, but if it that was going to be her last night on Mogar, Phloria had the right to spend it with someone she loved.

Without Kalla's arrays, there was no reason to keep all the students in one place. They had learned from the previous night that rounding them up like that without a rock solid defense was akin to wrapping them up and offering them as a present to the enemy.

This time they kept the students in their own housing, preparing multiple Warping arrays ahead of time to scatter them all around the forest in case the last line of defense fell again.

When the sun started to set, fear started to spread. When night fell, the fear turned into panic. Many students broke out into hysterics, forcing their roommates to knock them out before they hurt somebody.

When the night was about to end, even the Professors were drenched in cold sweat. The stress from the prolonged wait had tired them out almost as much actual combat.

"What the heck is he waiting for?" Linjos was a nervous wreck, pacing non stop inside the headquarters.

"Usually Balkor keeps the worst for the precise hour his family was killed, but we are way past that point!"

When daylight finally came, the whole Griffon Kingdom rejoiced. Four out of the six great academies were still standing and the anniversary had ended with no further bloodshed.

The Headmasters contacted the Crown, who ordered them to keep waiting and not lower their guard. Balkor's shadow was so deeply etched in their minds that the Royals couldn't believe their own luck.

It was noon before the King ordered them to send the students back home. The yearly god of death's threat was over, but the wounds he had left behind were deep. Many things had to be done before life could go back to normal.

After Balkor's eleventh assault was over, the smoldering embers of the civil war were almost completely extinguished.

During the first five years of the god of death's reign of terror, the ancient noble households didn't care much for his actions. There were too many of them, hence the odds of being Balkor's victim were low.

Most families would secretly pray for the god of death to get rid of their most dangerous competitors in their stead, so they could get hold of their lands and riches.

When the god of death started targeting the Crown and the Mage Association, the ancient noble households rejoiced. They even started to consider Balkor as their benefactor.

He had kept the Crown off their game for years, forcing them to invest more time and resources into defending themselves from the next attack rather than in investigating the nobles' schemes and illegal trafficking.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Balkor was the reason why the Crown had been weakened for so long, allowing Lukart to pursue his dream of becoming the next King. Balkor's anniversary had been a red-letter day for organized crime during the past five years.

However, when the god of death announced in his own twisted way that he would go after the academies, everything changed. The old noble families didn't need the Crown or the Mage Association to thrive, but without their most talented offspring, they were as good as dead.

Most of the students of the six great academies came from their ranks. They were the future family leaders and the only ones that could ensure their prosperity in a world where magic was the cornerstone for all lucrative business.

The ancient households' magical legacies amounted to nothing without heirs talented enough to wield them. The eleventh attack had proved to them how weak they actually were.

They were completely at the mercy of a madman, capable of destroying years worth of efforts nurturing a mage in a single night.

The new situation required reprioritization of both their short and long-term goals. Any attempt to overthrown the Crown or undermine its authority was now a liability for them too.

Only the Royal family and the Mage Association had managed to obtain samples from Balkor's creatures over the years. Further, they had been actively researching countermeasures against them.

Even the most radical among the old noble families had to be concerned with what Balkor would do next year. Many of them had chosen to send their heirs to the Crystal and Earth Griffon academies, away from the Queen's pet projects.

Not only had those academies fallen, but also more than half their students had perished during the second night. It was enough to bring the old families low, forcing them to have their magicless offspring marry mages and have them take the family name, even if they were of humble origins.

Their future had suddenly become an unknown variable. To improve their odds of survival, they were even willing to help the Crown with their personal funds to find and neutralize Balkor once and for all.

To make things worse for the ancient households, now they were also terrified at the idea that other Balkors could be born by their own hand.

Forbidding the practice of magic to commoners was impossible.

Without them, it would take barely a generation for the Griffon Kingdom to lose its military prowess and be conquered by the neighboring countries. The second and almost as important reason was that the survivors of the eleventh attack had learned their lesson.

Living together, fighting together, and dying together had overturned the noble youths' perspective on life. They had experienced first hand their own mortality and how their titles were nothing in front of true power.

Most of the children stopped pursuing their parents' agenda and dedicated their time to the study of the only thing that mattered: magic.

Ernas Mansion, the morning after the day of the anniversary

Like all those that were aware of the events taking place at the academies, the Ernas were living in a state of unrelenting terror, barely able to sleep or eat. Jirni and Orion had stopped working for the last three days. They were off their game, always worrying about the fate of their children.

When she learned from the report of the second day that Lith had saved Phloria, she was walking on air to the point that she recommended preparing a betrothal gift for Lith to Orion.

Orion was so moved by that little monster's care for his daughter that he almost agreed.

Both of them remained deeply shocked reading about how critical his condition was and how it was likely to be related to his effort to save Phloria's and Yurial's lives.

Jirni swore that if her daughters survived this hurdle, she would never meddle in their love lives again. They each seemed more than capable of finding a good man by themselves.

Orion swore to his wife that he would make no more objections to Lith's relationship with Phloria, as long as he brought their little Flower back home in one piece.

When the final report arrived and they learned that all three of their daughters were alive and well, the Ernas couple wept with joy for over an hour. Even as a royal constable, Jirni would only receive the status reports once a day after sunrise, just like any other royal servant.

They were so happy that they decided to take the rest of the week off, to welcome their daughters back and spend as much time with them as possible. The royal heralds called them more than once, saying that it was impossible to grant them another leave.

Every single civil servant with a child in an academy had had the same idea, either to spend some quality time with their families or to grieve their loss. The Ernas were among the most loyal subjects to the Crown, always putting duty above everything else during their long years of service.

This time, Jirni and Orion replied that the Kingdom could go f*ck itself off and refused all the following calls. Their move greatly embarrassed the Crown, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Most of the parents were ready to give their resignation rather than miss their children's homecoming.

Jirni spent the morning of the third day speaking with her daughters. While they were still in the forest for security reasons, the communicators were finally online again. She was deeply shocked to discover that Phloria was in such a pitiful state when she told her everything that had happened and how critical Lith's condition was.

Their mother-daughter relationship had been getting better, but such news was still something that Jirni would expect Phloria to speak about with Orion, not her.

Balkor's threat was over, so her concern faded away while a plan took form into her mind. She immediately had the servant prepare the best guest rooms of the house for their future occupants.

Jirni gave precise instructions to tone down the staff's dress code. She had also prepared clothes that she and Orion usually wore during their vacations to their country cottage, where they dedicated themselves only to their hobbies and were away from the prying eyes and the uncaring nature of the rules and etiquette their usual social life required.

It was Orion's and Phloria's happiest time of the year since the former could swear, get dirty and play with his children like a normal father, while the latter could avoid wearing dresses and act like a tomboy until their departure.

- "Lith's family should still not know anything about what happened. I think it's time I pay them a visit. It's better if the bearer of so much bad news is a mother who went through the same nightmare, rather than a royal messenger that has been forced to repeat the same script hundreds of times.

First impressions count, so I need to play this to perfection. If I get his mother on my side, it's game, set, and match. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity."– Jirni thought.

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Phloria, Friya, and Quylla returned home in the early afternoon. Much to their surprise, the academy had received instructions for the trio to bring Lith along with them. After getting the news, Phloria was overjoyed.

He had yet to regain his senses and his condition was still critical. He needed to regularly be forced to drink potions to sustain his life. Solus had been constantly using Invigoration to stabilize his mana core and mend the countless internal wounds that overexerting his body had caused.

- "The worst should be over. Lith now needs to rest." Solus would perform a full check up every hour.

"What worries me is his mind. He has yet to learn about Protector's alleged death, but I can feel his heart withering away. It's like he has never stopped grieving, even in his unconscious state."–

- "I take back most of the bad things I've thought about mom over the years. Not only did she bring Lith home with us, but she also assigned the best guest room to him."–

Phloria lay him on his bed before wiping off the sweat from his face with a wet cloth. She had learned how to feed him and keep him clean from the medical staff during the third day.

Phloria wouldn't let anyone else take care of him. She didn't want Lith to be alone when he woke up.

For a regular person incapable of using magic, reaching the village of Lutia would prove to be a long and boring journey. The village was in the middle of nowhere and the nearest branch of the Mage Association with a Warp Steps was hundreds of kilometers away.

Jirni Ernas wasn't regular and according to many, barely a person. To accomplish her goal, she contacted Captain Locrias, the leader of the Queen's corps unit in charge of protecting Lith's family, and had him open a Warp Steps for her.

Jirni was officially on leave, but her reputation as royal constable preceded her. Captain Locrias was aware of her amazing yet gruesome track record.

- "It's much better to be on the good side of such a person, rather than on her black list."–

Captain Locrias knew that he was likely to be forced to pay for the long range portable Gates out of his own pocket, but if it meant Jirni Ernas owed him a favor, it was worth the price.

Even with her plainest clothes, only someone deaf, dumb, and blind could mistake Jirni for a commoner. She was aware of this so, before knocking at the door, she had already handpicked the most suitable words to introduce herself.

"Good evening, my Lady. Are you lost?" Raaz recognized the woman in front of him as a noble at first sight. He hid his left hand behind his back, alerting Elina to pick a weapon and Tista to ready a spell.

"Good evening, good sir." Jirni brought out her best smile, creeping Raaz out. Despite her small size, he had an eerie feeling just by looking her in the eyes.

"My name is Jirni Ernas. I'm the mother of Phloria, Lith's girlfriend." In her experience, it was better to sandwich the bad news between good news, to lessen the impact.

Raaz looked at her like she was insane. Lith had no girlfriend, he was certain of that. The women of the family kept complaining that even if his thirteenth birthday was just around the corner, Lith had yet to date or even show interest in any girl.

On Mogar, the new world, teenagers' bodies would fully develop around their thirteenth year of age, but they wouldn't be considered adults until they turned sixteen.

The marrying age for both men and women ranged from sixteen to the twenty-five years of age. After that, it was considered a late marriage and it would be much harder to find a spouse unless of course, the betrothal gift was juicy enough to make the age gap irrelevant.

Raaz was about to rudely send her off when Tista pushed him away, inviting Jirni to come in.

"Lady Ernas, it's such a pleasure to finally meet you. Lith always talks fondly about you." Tista lied through her teeth, just like her brother had taught her over the years.

She had never heard Jirni's name before, but Lith had often talked with her about Phloria Ernas. She knew they were dating for a while and didn't want Raaz to ruin things for him.

Jirni recognized the lie, but appreciated the talent and the effort behind it.

"Thanks, dear Tista. It's better if you all sit down. We have a serious matter to discuss." The whole family turned as pale as a ghost. A mother visiting a young man's family talking about a serious matter could only mean one thing: pregnancy.

Raaz couldn't believe his ears, staring at Tista as though she had poisoned him.

"Wait, you knew about the two of them?"

"Yes." Tista nodded, feeling the need to sit down. Suddenly she had weak knees at the idea of having a nephew from her little brother.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Why didn't you tell us about it?" Elina was happy and scared at the same time. Happy because her cherished son had finally found someone to love. Scared because there was no way out of that situation but marriage.

Becoming a father would turn his life upside down , not to mention becoming part of the wife's family to preserve their honor and avoid the scandal.

"Because he told me not to! Lith said you would make a big deal out of this and he didn't want you to pester him about it." Tista was regretting keeping his secret for so long.

The truth was that Lith was worried about Tista. She kept idolizing him and disdaining the company of other boys. So, he had decided to help her grow out of her brother complex by telling her about his 'girlfriend' and exaggerating things a bit.

Now his plan was backfiring. Her parents could read Tista like a book, her panic spread like wildfire during a summer day. Elina tried to prepare some tea for their guest, but her hands trembled so much that she was unable to hold the small pot.

Jirni had purposely created the misunderstanding to have them all dancing in her palm.

"Don't worry, dear Elina. Let me take care of it." Jirni made them sit while she prepared the hot beverage. She spiked it with a powerful tranquilizer she always carried inside her dimensional ring.

- "Poor souls. After I tell them the truth, they will regret that my visit wasn't about our grandchild."–

After they took several sips of tea, the tranquilizer kicked in soothing their nerves. Only then did she explain Balkor's existence and what their son had gone through over the last few days. It took them a few minutes and a lot of spiked tea to recover from the shock.

"Why didn't he tell us anything? We thought he was taking the academy's third test." Elina broke into tears. Even knowing that her son was alive and well couldn't stop her from fearing for his fate and feeling hurt by his lies.

Jirni took Elina's hand between hers, trying to console her.

"He did it to protect you. There was nothing you could do for him, believe me. I spent the last three days crying and worrying I'd never see my little girls again. I had him moved to my house to make sure he receives the best treatments available.

"House Ernas has a private Warp Steps. It allows the finest healers of the Kingdom to reach the estate within a few seconds. I couldn't leave the man who saved my daughter's life in the hands of strangers.

Lith and Phloria have been dating for over a month and after all that has happened, we are basically family."

While Jirni's tone was full of sympathy and her voice almost broken with emotion, she was actually inwardly congratulating herself for her sob performance. By reading the mood in the living room, she decided it was time to land the final blow.

"Lith has yet to regain his senses, but I'm sure that when he does, he'll need his family to recover from the terrible experience he went through. I have already arranged our transportation. You will be my honored guests for all the time you need."

"Thank you, thank you so much." Elina clenched Jirni's hand like it was a lifeline,

"Lith is so lucky to have a friend like you. We'll never forget your generosity." She said while crying her eyes out.

- "One down, two more to go."– Jirni thought.

When Jirni arrived back home it was almost sundown. Winter was coming and the days were getting shorter. Even with the help of the tranquilizer, Lith's family had required some time before being able to move.

After informing Rena, she had insisted on accompanying them.

Jirni was pleasantly surprised to discover that Phloria was still at Lith's bedside, washing his chest and arms with a wet cloth to clean him from the sweat. She knew that Phloria was capable of doing it with magic.

It meant that, even if Phloria herself had yet to realize it, her daughter's affection for him was rooted deeply enough to feel reassured by the physical contact.

Jirni smiled, another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place by itself.

- "I love it when a plan comes together."– Jirni inwardly rejoiced.

"Phloria my dear, you need to rest." She said.

- "Those bags under your eyes and your dedication will surely win over your mother in law."– She actually thought.

"Thanks, mom. I was thinking about taking a nap as soon as I finish here." Phloria's smile was tired, yet she appreciated her mother's concern instead of her usual nagging. Since her visit to the academy, her mother had become as thoughtful as Orion.

"I'll immediately have a warm bath prepared, and fresh sheets placed on your bed. You deserve a good night's sleep." Phloria tensed up, just like Jirni had hoped.

"Thanks, but I think I will remain here." Phloria's voice lacked the earlier kindness and was now filled with the stubborn determination that Jirni had learned to love and hate over the years.

"It's not proper for a lady to sleep in the same room with a young man, even if he is unconscious."

Jirni faked her disapproval while keeping an ear on the approaching steps. According to her estimations, to take advantage of those unexpected circumstances, she needed to buy a few more seconds and poke Phloria once or twice.

"You have gone through a lot, yet you never left his side for almost two days." Jirni seemed to be genuinely worried, even making her eyes watery at will.

"You need to take better care of yourself. Let the medical staff replace you for a few hours, you need some rest. Lith is still going to be here when you wake up."

"I don't give a damn if it's proper or not!" Phloria yelled loud enough that even Captain Locrias back in Lutia could almost hear her.

"I'm not going out of here until he wakes up or his family arrives! I don't want him to wake up in a strange place surrounded by strangers!

I know it's just a superstition, but if there's even one chance in a million that having someone close that cares for him may help him recover, I'm willing to stay here as long as it takes!"

Phloria had yet to give her mother a piece of her mind, but Elina's sudden arrival stopped her in her tracks.

"My little Flower, I only meant that you should at least ask for his family's approval first." Jirni said with an apologetic tone like it was all a misunderstanding.

When a second later Lith's father and sisters entered the room, Phloria realized her mother had played her like a fiddle. She turned pale, emphasizing her bloodshot eyes and the dark bags below them.

Elina reached the bed, remaining horrified by her son's condition. His body looked like a dried up corpse, his hair had turned grey, and wrinkles had appeared on his face and hands. He seemed to have aged decades from the last time she had seen him.

His breathing was ragged, but regular. After Tista triple checked him, reassuring the rest of the family that Lith's life wasn't in danger despite his appearance, Elina turned to Phloria and took her hands between hers, kissing them non stop.

"Thank you so much for being by my son's side all this time. You have no idea how scared I was of him being alone in a moment like this. He is really a lucky boy to have found such a wonderful and beautiful girlfriend."

Then, Elina embraced her, soon followed by the whole family in a long group hug. Phloria had become beet red, not only was she embarassed to death by what she had said in front of Lith's family, but also because she couldn't help but compare herself with his sisters.

Aside from her height, they ran circles around her in every regard. Looks, curves, and even their natural scent were leagues above hers. Tista was the one that crushed her self esteem the most.

Having received Lith's treatments since she was very young, Tista had flawless skin, soft curves in all the right places, and was even almost as tall as Phloria.

Phloria was moved by their gratitude and kind words, but the insecure teenage girl inside her kept nagging at her, quoting Professor Manohar in calling her "a flat beanpole".

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Griffon Kingdom, Tyris's underground dungeon.

"Please, tell me that you found the time to go and check on the anomaly this time."

Leegaain was burning with curiosity.

"Yes, I did." Tyris nodded without moving her eyes from the archives' records of the last ten years. She was investigating those who had access to the remains of Arthan's Madness, hoping to find a clue about the mastermind behind the Abomination threat.

"It was nothing special. It was a male human Abomination hybrid, just as we sensed the first time. The only odd thing about it is that he underwent a tribulation similar to our own. The second test was about self control, like for evolved beasts."

"What happened then?" Leegaain was eager to hear the whole story.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I left while he was in the middle of an elaborate suicide attempt. He chose to trade his life to rescue someone from death. I don't have time to waste with the small stuff. He has failed the tribulation or he managed to save his friend, either way he is dead now."

"What?" Leegaain jumped in surprise, the combined impact of his four claws on the ground sent a small tremor through the Gorgon Empire's castle. Its inhabitants went into a panic, since floating castles weren't supposed to be affected by quakes.

"Tyris, old friend, after hearing your words I'm almost tempted to rule a country for the first time in my long life. It seems that between civil wars, plagues, gods of death, and the internal strife between the nobles and the Crown your life must be really exciting.

"Otherwise, how the heck could you brush off the existence of a new life form that has already undergone two tribulations within such a short time frame? What if he survived? What if he isn't Guardian material, but something else entirely?

"Very few beings manage to pass the second tribulation. Getting a hold on your own desires is one of the hardest things to do. We could likely have a being that could side with the Abominations and upset the balance permanently on our hands.

"If the anomaly is still alive, we must absolutely keep watch on his next tribulations to understand what the heck is going on. A human Guardian would already be a shocking enough piece of news, let alone a hybrid!"

Tyris froze for a second. Aside from his stupid jokes, Leegaain's words always held great significance.

"Maybe you are right." She replied trying to cover her blunder.

"I seem to remember he wore a White Griffon academy uniform. I'll send someone to keep an eye on him so, in case your fears come true, we can take him out before he becomes too dangerous."

During the following days, life was hectic for most of the Griffon Kingdom's upper echelons. Countless scouts were sent to the Blood Desert to search for Balkor's whereabouts. Killing him was the safest way to prevent the next attack from happening.

The Alchemists of the Mage Association were having a hard time studying the toxins extracted from the undead. With each passing year, the god of death would make them more complex and harder to cleanse. If they didn't keep up with him, their antidotes would become useless.

This time, the Healers had collected a great number of tissue samples from the captured undead. It had allowed them to discover the Abomination fragments mixed with the flesh, causing an uproar in the field of research. Until that moment, Abominations had simply been considered another species of monsters, a twisted evolution of magical beasts.

However, thanks to Balkor's effort to stabilize them and the ten year long experience of the royal Healers in preserving the samples, the human scientists managed to gain a deeper understanding of their nature.

Researching Abominations became the top priority. It would help the Wardens to create new defensive arrays capable of weakening, if not killing, Balkor's thralls.

The remaining four of the six great academies were in desperate need of staff. Between the injured, the dead, and those who had resigned to look for a less dangerous job, like hunting dragons or defusing explosive arrays, there were many classes left unattended.

Balkor's shadow made serving as Professor in an academy less of a prestigious position and more like a death sentence.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Among the Headmasters, Linjos had gotten the short end of the stick again. Not only did he have to find trustworthy mages to replace the Professors he lost during the attack, but he was constantly bothered by the other Headmasters.

His plan had saved their academies, their careers, and most importantly their lives.

They no longer saw him as a young, arrogant brat that had become the youngest Headmaster ever only because he was the Queen's new pet project. They finally recognized his worth and the brilliance of his mind.

They were willing to set aside their pride along with the old ways, often asking Linjos for advice about who to hire and how to change their academies for the better.

He was really flattered by all their attentions, but he was forced to spend half his time taking care of their academies instead of his own. Yet Linjos could only grin and bear with it, he knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

If he managed to obtain their trust and cooperation, the academy system could finally be changed for good. Once the Council of the Headmasters made a decision, the nobles could only comply.

It would solve one of the most pressing matters that had plagued the Kingdom for years. Sure, it would still take decades to iron out all the details and to win over enough of the old noble families to prevent other sabotages from happening, but it would still be a great start.

House Ernas, five days after the attack

Lith's condition was getting better with each day. The fever was gone and thanks to the constant care he received from both families and Solus, his shriveled body was slowly returning to normal.

Yet he still looked like an old man and gave no sign he would wake up any time soon. Jirni proved to be an amazing host, providing Lith's family with the best rooms and with everything they could need.

She had taken her time, showing them around the house little by little and telling them about its history.

Phloria spent a lot of time with Rena and Tista, since they would either help her to take care of Lith, or force her to take a break and rest while Elina and Friya would relieve her.

When Lith regained his senses in the afternoon, he already knew about his failure. His last memory before fainting was of Protector's still cracked core. Even burning his life force had not been enough to repair such extensive damage, not with his own core already running on fumes and his body on the verge of collapse.

Yet he had to ask.

- "Solus, is Protector…"

"Yes, he is gone." She replied, carefully avoiding to lying to him. "I'm so sorry for your loss." She wept remembering Protector's parting words. She had to find a way to pass them to Lith.

"I knew it. No matter how hard I work, no matter how much I try, I always fail when it really matters."- Tears ran along his cheeks, they were the first sign of life in more than five days.

"Lith, are you awake?" Normally, he would be surprised hearing Phloria's voice, but now he was too tired to care. His mind kept replaying Protector's last moments of life. The grief overwhelmed him again, making him feel like his heart was getting squeezed in a vice.

"Yes." Lith was unable to recognize his own voice. It was hoarse and feeble, like a hiss. He tried to get up, but his arms were too weak for the task. The attempt almost made him pass out from overexertion.

Lith took a deep breath, yet even that was too much for his current condition. He felt his lungs burn and he coughed uncontrollably. He heard the footsteps of someone running away and felt someone helping him lie down comfortably.

Lith recognized Tista's scent as soon as she got close.

"Don't push yourself, lil brother. Your condition is getting better every day, but you need to rest. Dad is going to be here soon."

Lith was too sad to ask why Phloria was in their home, or what had happened to him. The only thing he could think about was finding a way to make the pain stop. Ever since his rebirth, he had made sure to keep everyone and everything under his control.

He knew he wouldn't be able to endure what had happened to Carl again. His unquenchable hunger for power had started as a way to escape from the madness his death and rebirth cycle represented.

Over time, the love he had developed for his family had changed it into a way to create a small ecosystem where he was god and all those he cared about were bound to be safe.

First, he had taken care of the hunger, then he had cured Tista, and got rid of every single threat the new world posed to his family. Magical beasts, wanted felons, Abominations, he had taken care of them all, permanently.

With every success, Lith had grown more confident of his plan until he had managed to reassure himself that, as long as he followed that pattern, everything would be alright.

Protector's death had crushed that illusion, shattering the beliefs on which he had based his whole existence up until that point.

He kept weeping, not only for Protector, but also for himself.

- "If someone as strong as Ryman died so easily, there's no way I can keep my family safe. They are all so weak. It's only a matter of time before I lose them all. What's the point of trying so hard if I'm destined to fail? No matter what I do, I can only delay the inevitable."-

His constant weeping and sobbing were only interrupted by the cough.

Raaz arrived at his bedside, holding him to his chest to calm him down.

"Does it hurt so bad? Do you want some pain medication? Please, speak to me. Tell me what's wrong."

He was holding back his tears. Raaz had never seen Lith so weak, both physically and mentally. He was afraid that his condition could be even more severe than it appeared, but he didn't know what to do.

It was the first time that his son needed his help, yet Raaz felt completely useless. The only thing he could do was to stay strong in front of him. He didn't want to add himself to the list of Lith's worries.

"It's not my body that hurts, dad. It's the loss. My only true friend died today."

Phloria felt hurt by those words, but she kept silent. Lith's relationship with the evolved monster seemed to be deep and he was clearly confused, believing it was still the second day of the attack.

Before his brain could realize what he was doing, Lith let everything out. Telling Raaz about how he and Protector had fought when he was still four, how they had become friends when he was eight after he killed Gerda, and how from that moment onward they had spent more and more time together.

He told him about how Protector had taught him to be a better hunter, about all the creatures that they had fought together to keep the Trawn woods and their families safe until Lith had joined the academy.

Even if he managed to leave Solus and the Awakened ones out of his story, every memory he shared worsened the pain. Lith second guessed everything he had done to and with Protector.

"When we met, I just thought of turning him into warm fur for the winter. After he attempted to befriend me, I belittled him, only considering him as a means for an end. I exploited his kindness to bring food to our table and keep our family safe.

"When I understood he was much more than a tool, I never told him how important he was to me. How precious it was to have someone I could share my burden with, someone who I could talk about all the things I had to keep secret from you and mom to keep you from worrying.

"Now it's too late. I failed him the only time he needed me and now he is dead. It's all my fault. He wouldn't have left the Trawn woods if I didn't tell him about the academy.

"He wouldn't have died if I wasn't too weak to save him. He will never know how sorry I am for all the bad things I thought about him nor how meeting him has changed my life. All of it happened because of my weakness and cowardice.

I should be the one who died."

Lith was incapable of accepting that some things were inevitable, that life wasn't a game where he could save and load until he obtained the desired outcome. He needed someone to blame and his first choice was himself.

All those in the room were shocked to the bone. The events that Lith considered as fond memories were a parent's worst nightmare. He had candidly confessed how he had put his life at risk time and time again, revealing that his family's wealth was built on a pile of lies and bones.

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Raaz was mad at the idea of his son's double life outside of his family, doing things that no child should ever even attempt to do. What angered him the most weren't all the lies Lith had told him, Raaz was already way beyond that point, but how he spoke about fighting to the death as if it was perfectly normal.

He took deep breathes to control himself from time to time. His son needed to vent the pain that was eating at him from the inside. Raaz could always scold him later. Alas, Tista wasn't as strong as her father.

She started weeping together with Lith, needing Phloria's help to be able to stand.

"Why did you do all those things?" She blurted out.

"I would have rather starved than allow you to take so many risks. A few meals and some extra coins will never be worth your life. What if something happened to you?"

Tista only spoke out of concern, the revelation had been too shocking for her to accept it quietly. Yet to Lith's ears, her words sounded ungrateful like she was spitting on all the sacrifices he had made and the help Protector had given to him.

"Why do you ask?" He was already used to the cough, he kept his voice low and hissing so it didn't interrupt him again. Not now that he found someone else to blame.

"Have you already forgotten about the cold? About how sickly you were and how drafty our house was during winter? We were all so hungry that Orpal and Trion would steal eggs from the henhouse and milk from the stable whenever they could.

"Rena only took from the pantry what she needed to avoid fainting from hunger. Our parents knew it and they could only pretend everything was all right, but it was not! Why do you think Orpal was always picking on us?

"Someone had to do something, it just happened to be me! If it wasn't for Protector, all of us wouldn't even be here. How dare you whine in hindsight, now that you are healthy and well fed? You should be thanking me and grieving him!

"Stop being a baby and grow up, dammit! Everything in life comes at a price. The only reason you can allow yourself to be so naïve and carefree is because others have always paid it in your stead. If I died back then, there would have been more food left for the rest of you. It was a win-win situation."

Lith was so angry that he managed to stand up and open his eyes, staring at Tista with hatred. Phloria had to hold her tight to keep her calm. Tista had never seen Lith angry at her, nor had she ever witnessed the mad beast glare he used on others.

She had always been her brother's princess. The way he was speaking and acting towards her were ripping Tista's heart to shreds.

Raaz poked his forehead gently enough that Lith barely noticed the hit.

"Consider yourself slapped, young man." He said with a sad but firm tone.

"I'm sorry for all you went through. I must have been a horrible father to make you feel the need to sacrifice your childhood to give us a better life. I'll never be able to forgive myself for that. It's a father's duty to take care of his children, not the other way around."

He wiped off a silent tear off his own cheek, poking Lith's forehead again.

"However, what you just said to your sister was just cruel. The gods only know if she would still be alive without all the care you gave her. There is no one in the family that has ever overlooked your efforts, especially Tista.

You have always been her hero. What she was trying to say, is that you can't ask us to accept you risking your life like that. Yes, our life was harsh, but at least we had each other. You didn't have to push yourself so far, it wasn't worth it."

"I had no choice." Lith rebuked. "Someone had to do something."

"No, you had a choice." Another poke.

"You could have just followed your siblings' lead, helping with the farm. It was our duty as parents to find a solution, not yours. You chose to play god instead. I don't know if you did it because you are incredibly smart or arrogant, but lying to your family and taking so many risks was the wrong decision.

Even if you did it for the right reasons, it doesn't change anything. Gods, I'm so stupid."

Raaz pinched his own nose, closing his eyes to hold back the guilt that was ravaging his heart.

"When we saw that huge Byk pelt at Count Lark's mansion, we understood you were hiding many things from us. We choose to keep our eyes shut because we were so proud of your achievements that we feared our interference could ruin your future.

If you want to blame someone, blame me."

Seeing his father despair and his sister crying was too much for Lith. Even grief-stricken, he knew that Raaz was right. They had never asked anything of him aside from being a happy and healthy child.

It had been his decision to go hunting, just as it had been his decision to protect his family on his own. He knew the risks and had chosen to ignore them time and time again. Until Protector's death, his magic had made him overconfident.

There was no one to blame but himself. Lith suddenly felt like a child throwing a tantrum. His rage disappeared and with it the strength he had left. His head collapsed on the cushions with his eyes closed again.

"You are right, sorry." Was the only thing that he managed to say.

Raaz recovered quickly, poking him again.

"Don't you dare start blaming yourself, young man." Raaz held his hand, letting Lith notice for the first time how shriveled it was.

"It's not your fault if Protector died. From what you told me, he was a brave and smart beast. He wasn't your toy or your puppet. No one forced him to do anything. He knew the risks and he decided to help your academy anyway because he cared for you.

He sacrificed himself to let you and all the other kids survive. If there is someone whining in hindsight here, it's you. Lith, you have every right to cry and mourn, but don't try to inflict pain on those close to you just to relieve your frustration."

Lith felt deeply ashamed of his outburst. Taking it out on Tista and exposing his shared past with Protector had been childish. Yet, he felt better for it. Now he wasn't the only one who knew of Protector's gentle soul and valor.

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The last few days had helped Quylla to sort out her feelings. Unlike Phloria, she found herself too scared to spend so much time together with Lith's family. His mother and sisters were so beautiful that even the thought of being compared to them made her wish to disappear.

Also, while her heart was gripped by fear for Lith's condition, Quylla couldn't stand to see him in such a poor state. After he had woken up, things had gotten even worse. It wasn't only his body that had been hurt, but his spirit too.

Quylla had never seen Lith cry or mope before. Until that moment she had considered him unshakable, always confident, capable of going against any odds and coming out victorious. Now he was reduced to a shadow of himself, waiting for his death.

She felt mean and shallow for thinking such things, but she couldn't help herself. Quylla realized that because of her indecisiveness, their relationship had never become something more than a simple friendship.

Lith had no reason to let her into his life and she had always been too afraid of rejection to approach him. After Phloria had asked him out, they had grown even more distant. Quylla knew that her feelings for him were withering by the day.

In a way, she felt relieved. She and Phloria were sisters now, it would be terrible to force the rest of the family to pick a side between the two of them because of what she now understood had always been puppy love.

Yurial wasn't doing well either. After returning home, he had hoped the joy of his survival would have been sufficient to convince his father to change the plans for his future.

"Please, dad. Let's call the marriage with Libea off. She is indeed a beautiful young woman, but aside from that, we have nothing in common. She despises commoners, has no interest in magic, and cares more about looking pretty than about the prosperity of our lands.

I can't spend the rest of my life with such a shallow person."

Velan Deirus sighed, he understood his son's situation all too well. It was the same one he had found himself almost twenty-five years ago.

"Yurial, I know that, after what you have gone through, you feel the need to make changes in your life, but I need you to face reality. This marriage was arranged over ten years ago. You gave your approval and renewed your vow before departing.

"To cancel the agreement would mean losing a lot of face for our family. Who would trust someone that doesn't keep their word on such important matters? Not to mention that it would delay our plans for expansion by at least a generation.

"Magic doesn't allow us to perform miracles, we still need men and funds to improve our lands. Your marriage will open our way in the old system, making everything faster and easier. Why do you think I married your mother?"

Now it was Yurial's turn to sigh. There was little if no love between his parents. From the moment he had shown his magical potential, his mother had disappeared from his life. She had no role in raising Yurial, Velan was the only parent he ever had.

Considering that he had to share his father with Velan's magical research and his duties as a Grand Duke, it didn't amount to much. That was one of the reasons he had fought so hard to become the heir. He desperately wanted Velan's recognition and love.

His mother was at least able to manage the finances of the Grand Duchy, but the only reason she cared about magic was to flaunt her husband's skills and achievements in front of the other noble families.

"It's painful to hear it from your father, but remember that once you give the family an heir, you'll be free to have any woman or man that you want. Just be discreet about it and don't get caught. Being discovered or having a bastard would be a disgrace to our house."

Yurial nodded. Despite his young age, he had already had several lovers, but reality was proving to be a cruel mistress. The only thing he could do to fight the feeling of desperation gushing from his heart was to take a gulp of tranquilizer.

After killing a man during the second exam, Yurial had used several kinds of potions to keep his mind in check and had almost become addicted to them. It had taken him time and effort to progressively stop taking his medications, but after almost dying twice during the god of death's assaults he couldn't avoid a relapse.

He had yet to find the courage to check Lith's condition in person. Yurial felt responsible for what had happened to him and didn't know how to face his friend's family.

The Deirus household had done its best to help his savior recover, but when even Manohar had thrown in the towel, saying they could only wait and see, there wasn't much anyone could do.

Also, because Lith was currently living at house Ernas, Yurial could only talk to the girls via the communication amulet. That left him with nowhere to go and no one to turn to for help. He was trapped inside his own house, surrounded by servants but without a single friend.

- "Gods, why are you doing this to me? I spent my whole life preparing to become the Lord of these lands. I worked hard every day to make my dream come true, only for it to turn into my worst nightmare.

"I have only two choices in front of me. I can accept my fate, sacrificing my happiness to build a better future for my family, my subjects, and the Kingdom. Or I can leave everything behind, throwing away years of planning and study to become a vagrant mage.

"Whatever I decide, life as I know it will be over. I wish I had been born a commoner. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to enroll in an academy, but at least my destiny would be in my own hands.

"There are too many lives on the line, dad has no time to find a new heir. If I fold now, house Deirus will probably disappear the moment my father dies."

Cursing his fate, Yurial took several sips from the potion, until the intoxicating feeling of relaxation wiped away all of his worries.

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After Raaz's speech made Lith realize how self centered he had been, fatigue overcame him, making Lith fall asleep again.

When he woke up, only his mother stood beside him.

"Mom, what happened to me? Can I have a mirror?" Lith asked.

"That's something you should tell us, baby." Elina was happy to see him awake again so soon. The fever was finally gone.

"Your Professors say you were alright when they left you at Protector's deathbed, but when they found you, you were already in a terrible state. You have recovered greatly in the last five days, but I wouldn't look in the mirror if I were you."

"Please, I want to see the price of my foolishness with my own eyes." Lith squeezed her hand.

When Elina conjured a water mirror in front of him, Lith didn't even flinch.

Despite all the potions and the treatments he had received, he was still severely underweight. He had no more bald spots, his hair was regrowing fine, but it was still grey. Only his eyes were unchanged, cold and uncaring.

- "Solus, can I use Invigoration?"

"I don't know." She replied. "Your core is perfectly fine, but your body worries me. After burning so much of your life force, most of your healthy tissues are still recovering. You were left with mostly impurities. I'm afraid that by recovering so fast you may trigger a breakthrough."–

Lith mind nodded. Healing overnight would be impossible to explain, releasing so many impurities in front of witnesses even more so.

"I guess I'm finally as ugly on the outside as I am on the inside." He cruelly laughed at himself.

"Do you mind telling me what happened?" Elina changed the subject. In the past, she had experienced the pain of loss and how hard it could be for someone so young to face it.

- "Between his best friend's death and his current condition, there is no telling how he must be feeling. It's better for him to share whatever is burdening him. It should help him recover."– She thought.

For once, Lith was honest with her and told her how he had attempted to save Protector, giving it all he had and more.

"There's no need to scold me. Now I know that what I did was stupid and useless, just like me."

"No, you are wrong again." Elina lay on the bed beside him, hugging him tightly.

"Stupid? Yes. Reckless? Sure, but it wasn't useless. You did it out of love because you cared for him. I would do the same thing for any of my children if I had the opportunity. No parent should outlive their children, it's a pain too great to bear."

Lith nodded. Carl had been more like a son than a brother to him, his death still haunted him. He conjured another water mirror to look closely at himself. Maybe it was the aftermath of his failed spell, maybe it was because of the grieving, but for the first time, Lith felt his age weighing on him.

He felt old and tired. Too tired to keep fighting a losing battle. He thought about leaving the academy. Being there every day would remind him of Protector, also he didn't know how Linjos would punish him for his behavior.

He also thought about abandoning his family for good. It would mean no more chains, no more ties, no more weakness. He was already tall enough to pass for an adult and with his magic talent, money wouldn't be an issue.

Solus was deeply scared of his mental condition. She could sense his mind swinging back and forth from desperation to anger, Lith's calm was only an appearance. She had spent the last days pondering what to do.

Telling him the truth would lift his spirit, but what about the long term? What if one of his relatives suddenly died or they were beyond saving? Despite all of his power, despite his strength that grew by the day, Lith was far from invincible.

Solus had noticed right after he had been hospitalized that his body was rebuilding itself stronger than before, the problem was his mind. It was shattered once again, now another deep scar was engraved in his soul, but it also represented the opportunity for him to change.

Solus didn't want him to become a saint or a hero, nor to forget about his past. She just wanted him to live his life without letting Carl's death affect every important choice he made.

- "He needs to learn that loving someone means knowing when to let them go.

I don't know what I feel for him anymore. It could be love or the childish desire of a little daughter who wants her father all to herself. I know nothing about human relationships outside of what he has taught me.

Maybe I'm just scared at the idea we may grow apart once he has a real girlfriend instead of a high school sweetheart. Even if it's love, and even if he returned those feelings, I have nothing to offer him. I could have cried and begged him not to be with Phloria, but it would have been just cruel and egotistical.

She can give him everything I can't. A shoulder to cry on, the warmth of a real embrace, maybe some love. I don't care what he chooses to do, as long as he doesn't punish himself out of fear of being hurt."– She thought.

- "Life sure has a twisted sense of irony. It's only thanks to Balkor's past that my family is so heavily protected, yet it's also because of him that Protector died. I must remember to thank him before killing everyone and everything he holds dear in front of his eyes."– Lith thought.

From that day, Lith could finally start eating real food instead of being forced to drink potions while he was asleep. It took him less than two days to be able to walk again, even if he needed help to do it.

Lith would have liked a walking stick, but there was always someone offering their arm to him, to not leave him alone for even one second.

Even if his body was quickly recovering, his psychological trauma was only getting worse. Ever since he had regained his consciousness, his eyes kept acting weird. If he looked at someone long enough, Lith would start to see odd things.

The first time, it happened with Phloria, since she was the one spending the most time with him. She was telling him about what had happened to the academy and the Griffon Kingdom while he was unconscious when he saw an invisible hand cut her throat.

Blood spilled everywhere, leaving Lith incapable of moving from the shock. The moment he blinked, Phloria was alright again, like nothing had happened. Then, he watched her aging decades with each passing second.

Phloria turned into a nice looking woman, then into a mature lady, and into an old woman with a kind smile. Lith felt like he was living in a nightmare, but it became even worse when she turned into a corpse, her old body started to rot while fleas and maggots feasted on her flesh until only a skeleton remained.

Tears streamed down his face.

"What's wrong? Are you in pain? Is there something wrong with your body?" Phloria asked.

Blinking returned everything to normal again.

- "Solus, what the heck is happening?" He was too shocked to answer Phloria's worried questions. He needed to know if what he was seeing was real or if it was just madness seeping into his mind.

"Nothing happened." She replied not understanding the reason for the question. -

After checking his memories, Solus didn't have any idea what he had seen either. They both checked his body and brain, but aside from the after effects of his attempt to save Ryman there was nothing new.

Then, Lith watched Phloria's heart getting pierced by a sword, her head cut off by an ax. He was forced to watch her die in a different way over and over again, and there was nothing he could do.

It happened the same way with everyone, be they members of his family, of the Ernas household or their staff. Soon Lith wasn't able to take it anymore and would keep his eyes closed most of the time, pretending to be tired.

- "Is my mind playing tricks on me or is this some kind of new power I developed? Seeing the death of the people close to me without any indication about how to stop it seems more like a curse than a power though. Solus, tell me the truth.

Am I losing my mind?"

Solus was hesitant to reply, she knew how fragile his psyche was.

"I think your mind is slipping, yes. I don't know if it's all in your head or it's somehow related to your current condition, but I believe you are torturing yourself. In a very twisted and cruel way, you are trying to get accustomed with the thought that sooner or later, everyone dies.

It's like your subconscious is showing you that some things are inevitable and there's nothing you can do about it ."–

Solus's words made sense. Lith was still conflicted between finding a way to hide everyone he loved away from the world to prevent them from getting hurt or just cutting his ties with his current life. If he was alone, then he had nothing to lose.

However, the thought of spending the rest of his life alone made death look alluring. Power and immortality had no meaning to him by themselves, they were just a means to an end. Lith's end had always been to find a place where he belonged and live a happy, quiet life.

He was only twelve yet had already experienced more battles to the death than most of Earth's professional soldiers. Lith wasn't willing to give up on life again, but he didn't know what he was fighting for anymore.

After she had returned home, Friya was giving her all practicing swordsmanship. She had too many thoughts crossing her mind to practice magic. She decided to keep her promise and use that unexpected free time to get to know Orion better.

Orion was overjoyed. It was the first time that his adoptive daughter had asked for his help. He knew that it was only a matter of time before Quylla joined them too. Those two were inseparable.

They spent the first day going through the basic forms. Only when Orion grasped what her skill level was, he decided what style was more suitable for Friya. Over the years of his military career, he had become proficient with most weapons

From the second day onwards, Quylla joined their practice as Orion had predicted. He had several of his subordinates come to his house to use them as sparring partners for Friya while he taught self defense to Quylla.

"I know you don't like fighting, little one,…" He caressed her head every time she learned a new move.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"…but there's no telling when it might come in handy."

As for Friya, her basics were solid. She had studied under a good master for years, after all. What she lacked was practical experience. Orion had arranged opponents of different genders and builds for her to help her learn how to adapt her style according to the situation.

Fighting someone smaller or bigger than Friya required adjustments that she needed to execute in a split second, otherwise a skilled enough opponent could take advantage of such an opening to put her on the back foot right from the start.

When Orion corrected Friya's mistakes during a sequence or a stance, she would only reply: "Thanks, dad." With a smile that almost moved him to tears. Until that moment, she had only called him by his first name.

Orion was happy that Friya was starting to accept her new family.

There were only two sore points in spending quality time with his two new daughters. The first was that Phloria wasn't willing to join them, spending all of her time taking care of Lith.

Orion dearly missed the good old times when his little Flower would only have her dad in her eyes and ignored all the stuck up brats that Jirni sent her way. Back then, they were like minded, only thinking about magic and sword.

Sure, he had to suffer Jirni's daily nagging every time she failed, but keeping his baby safe was worth the price. Now he and his wife had switched position. Jirni now gloated all day and he could only prepare for the worst.

The second one was that too many of his subordinates looked at Friya with lustful eyes. Orion had to admit that she was almost as beautiful as Phloria. His fatherly eyes still refused to accept that, while Phloria was a really cute girl, Friya was a true beauty.

The tiny droplets of sweats during the exercises would make Friya's visage sparkle under the sunlight.

Her long black hair framed her face, bringing out her fair skin and light chestnut eyes. Coupled with the grace and elegance of her movements, she was truly a sight to behold.

Most of the times it was enough for Orion to clear his throat to remind those idiots of his presence. Sometimes, he was forced to take Friya's place to show her what she was doing wrong and wipe the floor with their as*es.

He only did it for educational purposes, of course. Friya needed to learn her forms while the others their own place in the world.

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After the training session was over, Friya, Quylla, and Orion spent some more time together in the park nearby. House Ernas had two training areas. One indoors, to practice during bad weather or run fighting simulations in different scenarios.

The walls and the ceiling were enchanted, allowing them to shapeshift to recreate caves, narrow corridors, or small rooms.

The other one was located behind the house. It was a large clearing, with no vegetation or furnishing outside training dummies. It was the perfect place to practice magic and sword techniques in the open under different weather conditions, with complete freedom of movement.

"Dad, there's something I need to talk to you about." Friya sat on the ground in front of him with a sad expression on her face. Orion could tell there was something haunting her.

"During the last day of the attack, I killed a few undead. I wouldn't even mention it, if not for the fact that they were people I knew." She told him about what had happened while she was looking for a Healer to save Phloria and Yurial.

"When I killed that woman, during the second exam, I felt terrible. Some days, I can still see her terrified expression the moment before I executed her. This time I didn't feel anything. I know they had become monsters, but they were still my classmates.

"I should feel remorse, some pain for their deaths, something. Does this make me a bad person? Am I turning into a cold blooded killer?"

"No to both your questions." Orion shook his head without hesitation.

"It just means that you have got your priorities straight. On the battlefield, remorse or hesitation leads to premature death. Even if your enemies are humans, mercy is a luxury you can't afford.

"You killed the first woman in cold blood, you killed the others in self defense while trying to save the people you love.The two events are worlds apart. Also, they weren't your classmates. At least not anymore. They were just reanimated corpses, there's no reason to feel guilty. I'm proud of both of you."

He hugged them, kissing the top of their heads.

"Dad, I have something to say too." Quylla had never had a family before. She still found hard to believe that someone like Orion was her father now.

Orion was brimming with joy. Quylla had finally called him dad instead of father.

"Surviving the god of death's anniversary made me understand a few things. After so much death, I realized that I don't like fighting. Unlike my sisters, I'm not suited for the battlefield. I want to become a Healer and help people."

Orion nodded.

"It's good that you found your way so soon. Fighting is not everything. You must always think about your happiness and your future first."

"About that, I don't want to spend the next year only studying magic." She said averting her eyes and fiddling with her hair.

"There's more to life than grades and exams. Phloria is right, we have so little time left before our duty replaces our life. I want more. I can't just wait for good things to miraculously fall into my lap."

"Yeah, me too." Friya chimed in.

"Honestly, I never thought Lith's and Phloria's relationship would last this long, nor that it would become so special."

"No one did." They both blushed in embarrassment. They had secretly bet against it. Quylla had given them a week before breaking up, while Friya's wager was that their first date would also be the last.

"While we were at the mining town, I was so envious of them that more than once I daydreamed about being in Phloria's place. So there's one thing I have to ask you."

Friya looked resolute, making Orion worries go through the roof.

"So do I." Quylla became beet red. He could now only fear for the worst.

"Can you please bring us to social events during the weekends?" Friya said.

"I don't want to marry yet, but I want at least to start dating. Please dad, can you help us?"

Despite only just getting to know them, Orion felt like he was already losing them. Inwardly cursing his bad luck, he could only agree.

'It's time to hasten my recovery. To use Accumulation or Invigoration I need to be alone though. I cannot risk a breakthrough occurring in front of witnesses, it would raise too many questions. Loneliness is a luxury at the moment, but luckily, I know a heavy sleeper.'

Lith had noticed that his natural recovery had made most of his impurities nearly reach his core. Even if he did nothing, it was just a matter of time before a breakthrough happened. He decided to avoid relying on luck and take the matter in his own hands.

That evening, after a particularly large meal, Lith made his move.

"Mom, Lady Ernas, I'm really thankful for everything you have done for me so far. I think now I have recovered enough. It should be safe leaving me alone for a good night's sleep."

"I don't think that's true, young man. You could still have a relapse. It's better if someone keeps you company, so if anything bad happens, help will come immediately." Lady Ernas shook her head.

She was spending a lot of time with Elina these days. Which meant she also spent a lot of time with Lith and his sisters

He could clearly see what Jirni's goal was and he didn't like it one bit. Yet she was the reason why he had been able to improve so quickly while his family managed to remain so calm despite his situation.

Lith knew he was indebted to her and that she was going to use it as leverage to ask him for something in return at the right moment. It was exactly what he would have done in her shoes.

"Then what if only Phloria stays with me tonight? We have much to talk about, yet we never managed to get a little alone time." The cough was long gone, his voice back to normal too.

Yet Lith pretended to cough a couple of times, using that horrible raspy, hissing voice that had tormented him after he woke up to appear as harmless as possible.

Phloria and Elina turned beet reed, while Tista and Rena giggled like crazy. They whispered things among themselves that Lith had hoped his sisters would never think about him.

"When I say 'talk', I mean it." He coughed again, looking at them sourly.

"I'm still recovering. Not to mention that I look like a monster." Lith's hair had yet to regain their color. He didn't look like an old man anymore, but he had still a few wrinkles on his face and hands.

Because of the massive weight loss, Lith also had deep set eyes, like he had been recently resurrected from the grave. The only problem with his claims was that despite his visage being still quite unsettling, the rest of his body told a different story.

He had lost almost all of his body fat, so his physique was almost purely muscle. Lith was quite thin, but exactly because of that, he had a six pack for the first time in his life.

"If you call this being a monster, lil bro, you should have seen how yourself when you first arrived here. Yet your girlfriend never left you until we forced her to. You should really find a way to thank her properly." Tista giggled.

"Tista, what are you saying in front of our host?" Elina was embarrassed by her daughter's words and so was Jirni, at least apparently. Lady Ernas saw through his lie and inwardly nodded at Tista's words.

"Well, Elina, your son may be a little too bold, but he is right. We both know there are some things that a young couple shouldn't discuss in front of their parents, right?" Jirni whispered in Elina's ear.

When Lith and Phloria were left alone, Lith started wracking his brain about something to say. Also, he needed her to quickly fall asleep, since he had no idea how long he could last before fatigue overwhelmed him.

If he fell asleep first, he wouldn't wake up until the next morning, increasing the risks of a breakthrough. Both of them remained silent for a while until Lith found his answer.

"Why don't you come closer? Back at the mining town, you had no problem sleeping beside me. Or was I just some kind of teddy bear to you?" He said with his best smile. Lith knew from experience that Phloria was weak to cuddles.

They made her sleep like a baby.

Phloria swallowed a lump of saliva, taking only her shoes off before going under the blankets with him. She wrapped her arms around Lith, making him flinch.

The unexpected warm embrace soothed his restless spirit for the first time since he had regained his senses. Lith couldn't stop looking at her while she rubbed her body against his, making him feel pleasure and embarrassment at the same time.

"To think that you mocked me so badly for using my uniform as pajamas and now you do the same." He tried to stop her by caressing her hair and kissing her gently, but it only made things worse.

He heard her emit a soft moan while she shivered under his touch.

"You are right. It's a little hypocritical of me." Phloria's head disappeared under the sheets. Lith heard a rustling sound before seeing her naked arm throwing away the shirt first and the pants later.

"Is it better now?" She asked pressing her body against his again. Lith only wore light pajamas, there was little he couldn't feel through the fabric and the same could be said for her..

"I should have done this much earlier." She said giving him a gentle kiss, unsure how much he could take. In her eyes, Lith was like a cracked vase. Also, she had no idea what she was doing.

"I was so scared. I thought I had lost you for good." She started sobbing, clinging to him for comfort. Lith was moved by her boldness and at the same time frozen in surprise.

No matter how long he looked at her, nothing happened. Lith could see Phloria's body only down to her shoulders, the rest was covered by the sheets, but she was the picture of health and stayed that way.

He was so relieved that his hands wrapped her back, caressing it along the spine and enjoying her soft skin. He sensed her shivering again, but this time he was able to notice that it wasn't because of pleasure, she was wound up like a drum.

"Lith, I have to tell you before it's too late: I l…" Lith placed his hand on her lips, stopping her before it really was too late.

"No, you don't." He said as he never stopped caressing her head.

"It's a little too early for you to use that word. We met months ago, but we have only really known each other for barely a month. You are not ready for this and neither am I. You are just scared of the future, so you are rushing blindly to escape from your fears."

Lith didn't know whether he was talking to her or himself.

"I care too much about you to let you make this mistake. It would scar both of us and likely put an end to our relationship. Never make important decisions when you are angry or afraid.

"Those are not the kind of emotions you want to let cloud your judgment. They will always make you pick the wrong path. You deserve someone better than me, especially now that I look like your grandpa."

Phloria managed to chuckle even if she was still sobbing a little.

"The Phloria I know is bold, but not reckless. I'm not going to die anytime soon, so there's no reason to force yourself." He kissed her back gently, needing his sheer willpower to keep his hands on her head.

"All I want is for you to be happy. When you have calmed down, if you still think I can make you happy, we'll resume this conversation. I beg of you, remember that I am a broken person and that I have been broken once again.

You deserve someone normal and sane, while I could shatter anytime and hurt you."

Phloria never stopped sobbing, but he could sense her relaxing under his touch.

"There is only one thing that I must ask of you before the night ends." He said, wiping away her tears with his hands.

"Anything." She replied blushing violently.

"Please, put your clothes on, or when our mothers will enter this room tomorrow morning, they'll start arranging our wedding."

'Also, even in this debilitated state, I don't know how much longer I can hold myself back.'

Lith inwardly added. He knew that, between being emotionally vulnerable and the self-inflicted prolonged isolation from all kinds of human contact, he was really susceptible to temptations from the only girl that he had allowed to become close to him, both physically and emotionally.

There was only so much he could take before his pubescent body took the wheel. Phloria was well aware of this since she could feel something hard pressing against her abdomen from the moment she had taken off her clothes.

She turned off the lights before getting out of the bed. Luckily, she hadn't thrown her uniform far and it was designed to easily come on and off. Lith instantly started regretting what he had done and the fact that none of his abilities allowed him to see in the dark.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

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As soon as Phloria fell asleep, Lith got out of the bed and used Accumulation. This was the second time that a battle to the death had pushed him on the verge of a breakthrough. If not for his debilitated state, it would have already happened.

The process was even more painful than the last time. Not only his bones, but also his flesh kept being destroyed and regenerated almost at the same time to force the impurities out of his body.

Lith had enveloped himself inside the Hush spell, to prevent anyone from hearing his screams, but not before checking the room for listening or recording magical devices.

He had the feeling that there was very little Jirni Ernas wouldn't do to reach her goals. After finding none, Lith could afford to relax. He tasked Solus to get rid of the impurities as soon as they appeared, in case he didn't make it back to bed.

Leaving any kind of proof behind wasn't an option.

The process was slow and excruciating, but it brought him one step closer to the blue core. Lith didn't know if it was due to exhaustion or because of Phloria embracing him even in her sleep, however that night he finally felt at peace with himself.

The next morning, the awkward relationship Raaz and Orion had developed turned even more awkward. Unlike Jirni, who was able to talk about any topic, the two men had nothing in common outside of being both parents.

Yet their wives were spending a lot of time together and were pressing them to do the same. The only thing they could talk about was their children, their experiences in raising them, and their expectations about their future.

So, when they entered the room and found Lith and Phloria laying on the same bed, Raaz was really happy to see that she had slept above the sheets while Lith was under them. There was a throbbing vein on Orion's neck that didn't bode well.

"I swear to the gods, if it wasn't for the fact that he is my guest and he is already injured, I would be tempted to kill your son. How do you manage to be so calm despite having two daughters?" Orion asked.

"The gods seem to love me." Raaz scratched his head nervously.

"Rena didn't start dating until she became an adult while Tista doesn't seem interested in dating anyone. She has set her standards too high. She compares everyone to her brother. How can a country boy measure up to a magician?"

"Maybe I've failed as a father." Orion sighed. "She is still so young and yet so reckless. What did I do wrong?"

Raaz would have liked to reply that Phloria was already past fifteen years old. On Mogar, the new world, most girls that age would already be at their second or third relationship.

Being the father of the culprit and being Orion a head taller than him, Raaz preferred to remain silent. He knew what he would have done if their situations were reversed.

"Time to wake up, my little Flower. Breakfast is ready."

"Thanks, dad." Phloria was a bit embarrassed, making her cheeks turn red. Not about her father finding her on the bed, but at the thought of what had almost happened.

"How do you feel, son?" Raaz caressed Lith's grey hair. The refining process had boosted Lith's magical and physical abilities, but it had left him even more exhausted than the day before.

"Much better, thanks." Raaz didn't believe him, Lith was barely able to remain conscious. Yet he wasn't lying, his mental condition had greatly improved.

'What almost happened last night made me understand that dad is right. Protector's death isn't anyone's fault. I would have done anything to save Carl's life, even if it meant losing my own. I can't stop others from fighting for those they love.

'It would be as cruel as hypocritical of me. He sacrificed himself doing what he believed right, just like I almost did. Protecting someone is much harder than killing, too many things can go wrong. That's why I need power, much more than I already have!'

Lith smiled softly to his father, his mind was at peace. His body was a mess though. Right after a breakthrough, until the body naturally recovered its strength, Invigoration was useless.

In another couple of days, Lith was able to walk without help. His hair was returning to its natural color and most of the wrinkles were gone.

"Remarkable, simply outstanding." Manohar was enthusiast of his progress.

"Your recovery speed is unheard of. I had patients in a condition far less severe than yours and it took them weeks to get where you are now." He had become Lith's personal healer since the first day he had been bedridden.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Manohar was very fond of Lith, considering him one of the few people with enough brain it was worth talking to. Also, he was too scared of Lady Ernas to refuse her request.

She had even befriended his mother, the second person Manohar feared the most in the three great countries, right after Queen Sylpha. Unless he decided to disappear again, Jirni would always know where to find him.

Yet if he did, the Queen had promised him that she would make sure it be the last. She had already prepared the official document ordering his execution, it would only take a signature to make it effective.

Lith and Jirni spent quite some time together. She would often accompany him during his walks, discussing with him about many different topics. Thanks to Soluspedia, he rarely found himself at loss for words.

'I don't know if by meeting her expectations I'm improving our relationship or I'm digging my own grave.' Lith thought.

He continued to experience visions of the death of whoever he watched for too long. It required a lot of willpower to stop the phenomenon, leading him to believe it was all in his head.

He couldn't care for maids or butlers, but every time he saw a member of his family or Phloria die horribly, his heart would cringe. Even if he knew it was just an illusion, it didn't make it any less painful.

It was a mild form of torture that put his mind under serious stress while his body kept getting better by the day. A few days after the breakthrough, Lith had regained his old appearance, even getting a little taller.

'There are only two possibilities. This Death Vision thingy is caused by my mental trauma or it's a consequence of my attempt to save Protector. Either way, I can't wait for it to be gone.'

Lith had just seen Jirni die by poison, her face was blue and swollen in his eyes, bleeding from all her orifices. Talking to living corpses was too much even for someone as cynical as him.

"I'm pleased to see how knowledgeable you are." Jirni sat down on a wicker chair near a small table, prompting him to do the same. They had been walking in the park surrounding the mansion until they found a dining area.

"That's not enough though. I'm sorry for being so blunt while you are still recovering, but I couldn't help but notice how much my daughter cares for you. I want only the best for her and I need to know that we are on the same page about it.

"What are your intentions towards her? I know you are still young, but she is not. I have no problem if what's going between you it's just a fling. Phloria is completely inexperience about love. She has to start somewhere and sooner is better than later.

"However, I want you to be completely honest with me and of course with her too. If you are not serious about this relationship, she has the right to know it." Lith recognized how Jirni was looking at him.

It was the same way he did at everyone he met. She was trying to determine if he was someone valuable or just a disposable tool. Despite her tone was calm and her manners impeccable, Lith had never felt so pressured before.

Not even when Marchioness Distar had taken him prisoner in her house until he had cured her daughter. Lith pinched his nose, he needed to think without being haunted by ghastly visions.

"I really like your daughter, Lady Ernas. Both as a friend and as an invaluable companion. Yet I can't promise you or her anything. I have planned my future way ahead of time and I can tell you that marriage it's not part of the plan.

"Once I become an adult, I'll join the army. It will only be the beginning of my journey. There are things that I must do before settling down and I have no idea how long it will take. I can't ask Phloria, or anyone for that matters, to wait for me."

Jirni nodded, pleased by his honesty.

'At his age, most teenagers confuse daydreaming with planning, but if he's like me, then he is dead serious. I can't force him into marriage, it would mean making an enemy out of him and most importantly, it would make Phloria miserable.

'However, it is not over yet. There's no telling how their feelings can evolve, especially since they have yet to experience real intimacy.'

"Just make sure she is well aware of your intentions. The rest is up to her, Phloria is her own woman. Here, this is a token of my goodwill, in case you should change your mind." Jirni took out of her dimensional amulet a white hardcovered book, handing it to Lith with both her hands.

There was no title nor illustration on the front cover, making Lith curious about its nature. He only needed to open it to a random page to realize it was the new world equivalent of the Kamasutra for beginners.

"Well, well, well." Lady Ernas said with a surprised tone.

"You didn't become beet red nor I can see any sign of arousal after you watched at those pictures. This means that you are not a virgin or at least you are devoid of emotions. Remember my words: if you make my little Flower suffer and I will return everything in kind."

'Now I'm sure of it. I'm definitely digging my own grave.' Lith thought.

Another week passed, Lith had completely recovered from his condition. The only traces left of his trauma were the grey streaks between his hair and the Death Vision still plaguing every moment of his life he shared with others.

He seemed to have finally hit his growth spurt. His hunger was through the roof and he could feel his muscles and joints aching.

The White Griffon academy had reopened, allowing the students to go back for the last month of the last trimester. It had been a long year, no one was really in the mood for more studying, not even Lith.

Yet he was happy to be finally out of house Ernas. Lith was tired of Phloria's parents constantly staring at him, even though with completely different mindsets. Jirni had worked hard to give them some alone time whenever it was possible, while Orion had put as much effort to foil his wife's plans.

Also, he was eager to go back to his all-nighters to work on the boxes remaining in his pocket dimension. There was something scratching at the back of his head, telling him that something was wrong. He hadn't experienced any more visions, but it meant nothing.

'It could mean that I have succeeded in avoiding that future or that it's still pending. Whatever it is, I need to find out the truth and fast!'

Since his recovery, Lith had used all the alone time he had, including the bathroom breaks, to study with Invigoration the shotel Orion had borrowed to him. His heart bled when he had been forced to separate himself from that masterpiece, but he had no choice.

The sword had been specifically designed to counter Balkor's undead and Orion had no reason to gift him something so precious. He had managed to gather enough data about the pseudo cores and the magic crystals embedded in an item to be confident about opening the sealed boxes.

The first person he met on the fourth year floor was Yurial. Lith was so shocked by his appearance that he had to blink several times to make sure Death Vision wasn't responsible for what he was seeing.

Yurial had lost several kilograms, his eyes were bloodshot and dilated.

"Yurial, what the heck happened to you?" Lith asked.

"Nice to meet you too, old friend." Yurial hugged him, leaving Lith flabbergasted.

"Are you high or something?"

"Or something. Please, come to my room. I really need someone to talk to."

Lith had recognized the symptoms of drug abuse, so he followed him without asking any more questions.

Yurial told to Lith everything that had happened to him since his return home, from his efforts to change his father's mind to his tranquilizer addiction. His story was highlighted by many attempts to take a sip from a vial which Lith foiled every time.

"This is different from the second exam. Back then, I just had to get over my trauma and I had my father by my side. You have no idea how much it meant to me that for once he took some time to take care of me instead of give me lectures.

"Not to mention I had the girls to keep me company, I was never alone." Yurial half laughed and half cried the whole time.

"I can't get over my future. I'm scared sh*tless of it, I feel trapped like a mouse. I'm so sorry for never visiting you, but I didn't know what to say. I was too afraid you would have blamed me for your friend's death."

"Sadly, I would have probably done it." Lith sighed.

"I spent my first day awake trying to find a scapegoat. I'm still having a hard time accepting what happened." Lith shared with him the details about his Death Vision and how it was driving him insane.

"You see dead people?" Yurial offered Lith his potion.

"No. I don't see ghosts. I see how people may die according to my paranoia. In the last few minutes, I watched you die by poisoning, decapitation and an odd illness that covered your corpse with moss." Lith refused the tranquilizer.

If it actually worked, they would share the same addiction.

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