Supreme Magus

by S.H.A aifu

MC is not an anti-hero or a hero.

12. 294

Read Supreme Magus - Chapter 294 Bonding Part 1 online free - Novel Full.

"What? Why?" She couldn't believe her own ears.

"Do you know what happened today at Xenatos?"

Jirni nodded.

"Well, it seems that one of my swords was decisive in slaying a wyvern and now everyone wants one!"

"How is that bad news?" Jirni laughed, her fears were relieved.

"It's not bad news, it just doesn't make sense. The Gatekeeper is something I made to keep you and our little Flower happy. Since Lith is no swordsman and can't use spells with only one hand, its only ability is to channel and amplify first magic.

Phloria always says he is very good at it." What Orion didn't know, was that true and first magic worked through the same principles, making the Gatekeeper the perfect weapon for an Awakened one.

"Only ability? Do you mean you realized something that boosts the effects of the only kind of magic anyone can use and which can be cast silently, taking the opponent by surprise?"

"Yes. Even though when you put it that way, you make me feel quite dumb."

"Why didn't you make one for me too?" Jirni almost felt jealous.

"Because it's just a jack of all trades but master of none. I made you much better weapons!" Orion almost felt offended. Jirni's needles were among his masterpieces.

They amplified her light magic, allowing Jirni to stimulate the victim's pain receptors maximizing the effects of her interrogation techniques and healing most of the damage dealt at the same time. it was just one of their functions.

"Still, I could use a Gatekeeper." Jirni added. "I think you simply underestimate your talents dear. Why the suspension, though?"

"That's the odd thing. I'm assigned at Forgemastering duty until I deliver nine blades like that to the Crown."

White Griffon Academy

Lith was really happy to have managed to tell most of the story on the way to the canteen, otherwise lunch would have taken forever. After sustaining so many wounds and consuming so much mana, he ate the equivalent of a whole turkey by himself.

By sharing with him part of his life force earlier, Vastor had replenished Lith's stamina, not his nutrients reserve. Magic couldn't create life, only enhance or alter it.

"Just how badly did the wyvern hurt you?" Phloria was worried. The few times she had seen him eat like two Quylla was when he had been pushed an inch from death.

Lith shrugged. He had nothing to add to his report.

"Okay, that's it. Luckily, there is still quite some time before the next lesson." She stood up dragging him by the arm.

"Sorry, guys. Lith needs to rest and I'm going to make sure he doesn't do something stupid like training or studying."

They got out of the canteen so fast that Lith had just the time to say:

"See you later!"

Quylla and Friya giggled like crazy at the scene.

"I swear, sometimes they look identical to mom and dad." Quylla was truly happy for her sister. Over time, she had outgrown her puppy love for Lith. Her new family had quenched Quylla's desperate desire for affection, allowing her to understand better her own feelings.

"If only their heights could be swapped it would be a perfect match." Friya added, making them laugh even harder.

"Is it me or Phloria got prettier?" Yurial felt uneasy asking such a question.

"Did you notice too?" Friya nodded. "After Balkor's attack, she's lost part of her edginess. Mom says it's because when a woman falls in love, she becomes more dazzling."

"The real question is: why do you care? Do you have a crush on her?" Quylla was a bit annoyed. After a whole year using Vastor's tonic and proper feeding, she was the one that had improved the most among the three girls.

She not only had become taller, but also her body had developed enough to make her look like a young girl instead of a child. Yet no one seemed to have noticed, even after the winter break.

"No, but I'm afraid I may be developing it." He sighed.

"What?" Friya was flabbergasted by his answer, but most of all by his honesty.

"I thought she wasn't even your type."

"She doesn't even get close. It's just that I'm desperate at the idea that I never had anyone that cared so much for me and probably I never will."

Lith was forced to spend the time before the Forgemastering lesson sleeping. Phloria had managed to knock him out with a clever trick. As soon as they started cuddling, she told him about her day and all the archiving protocols she had learned about.

Lith's mind didn't last five minutes.

Despite Invigoration, he still felt fuzzy.

'Damn, she was right. I really needed to…'

The moment he stepped into the class, Lith was assaulted by enough hostility to give him the creeps. There were less than twenty people, no one seemed to pay him any attention. Yet his instincts were warning him about an impending danger.

'There is no hidden threat.' Solus kept scanning their surroundings to no avail.

'I can get some of these spoiled brats are angry at me, but this much? It's not a single individual, more like a collective will. A shared emotion.' Lith thought.

"Why are you blocking the door?" Lith turned around, discovering that Professor Wanemyre was right behind him. He was so tense to not even notice her arrival.

"Sorry." He walked to the nearest desk. The hostility had disappeared, but he still felt nervous.

"Welcome back, future Forgemasters." Wanemyre was back in her prime. The effects of the toxin had completely disappeared.

"Today I'll explain to you the true value of magic crystals and how to employ them in your creations." Lith carefully observed her and all of those present. No one seemed to be aware of what had just happened.

"What you are going to learn today, requires you to have mastered everything we practiced during the fourth year. We are going to expand and revise your foundations of Forgemastering. From here, the sky and your talent are the only limits.

"First of all, why are magic crystals so important for us? Because as I previously explained, unanimated matter resists to our attempts to imbue it with external magical power.

"That's why without a crystal you can't put more than one spell per item, why the time window for the enchantments is so short. Forgemastering requires the strength and the skill to permanently force your magic onto something.

"Let's make an example with made up numbers. An iron sword has an innate magic of ten, while a tier three spell requires one hundred. This means that creating an iron sword capable of shooting lightning requires infusing it with a magical force ten times its natural capacity.

"It makes the process difficult and limited. Difficult because the sword will attempt to reject nine tenths of the spell, limited because if I try to infuse a magical force above the tenfold threshold the item will break."

'I wish I knew all this earlier.' Lith inwardly sighed. He remembered how many materials he wasted before discovering that silver was the best suited element for hosting great magical forces without the support of a crystal.

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"Magic crystals allow us to overcome this issue. Forgemasters and Alchemists both consider a crystal as a beating magical heart in search of a body. The more powerful the gemstone, the greater the number and quality of enchantments it can sustain.

"That is also the reason why Alchemical tools mostly use up to yellow gemstones, because it would be a waste otherwise. Alchemical tools are meant to be cheap and mass produced.

"Using green crystals or above for a single spell would defy everything Alchemy stands for. The cost of the gemstone alone would be enough to buy a better Forgemastered item.

"Embedding a crystal is a delicate and irreversible process in Forgemastering. Once the heart has a body, they become one. If the iron sword of my previous example were embedded with a green crystal, its innate magic would raise to one thousand.

This means that we can now infuse into it a magical force up to ten thousand. It makes it possible to imbue the sword with multiple spells."

"How does a crystal fix the problem of the limited time window for enchanting an item?" Asked a chestnut haired boy.

"Once one or more crystals are embedded, the Forgemaster no longer channels their magic directly through the object, but through the gemstones instead. They are also amazing magical conductors that widen the time window from a few seconds up to a few days, depending on their strength.

"Otherwise it would be impossible for a single Forgemaster to have enough mana to imbue so many spells at once. Another reason for using mana crystals is because they are a power source.

"If you remember, the elemental weapons you crafted during the past third trimester, can be only used two, three times a day tops. Gemstones allow using multiple spells in a short time frame with no mana expenditure from the user.

"Good magical items, like your communication amulets, require one blue gemstone minimum. Blue and violet gemstones are expensive, but they absorb mana very quickly from the environment, making it possible to keep an enchanted item active almost indefinitely.

"Green and cyan crystals are employed only for making toys or ceremonial weapons. Any more questions before we move to a practical demonstration?"

Lith raised his hand while Solus left his finger to take a closer look at the students. Her mana sense perceived a familiar sensation, but it was too faint to recognize it from a distance.

"Does it mean that crystal embedded Forgemastered items can last forever?" Lith's question was linked to Solus's nature.

'What Wanemyre explained doesn't make sense. Thanks to true magic I know that without the imprinting from the mage, the mana pathways fade away with time and the pseudo core dissipates. If crystals are also power sources, why Solus almost died?' He thought.

"I would have talked about this before we studied constructs, like golems or gargoyles. No harm in moving a little ahead of time, though. The answer is no, they don't. Most stories about heroes finding legendary equipment laying on the floor are just stories.

"Without a user, an artifact will degrade over time, magical gemstone or not. It happens because all items have passive properties that are always kept active, like weight reduction, self repair, or enhanced resistance.

"Usually, the more powerful the artifact, the more passive abilities it has. It means that magical gemstones alone cannot keep up with the mana expenditure. That's why golems require arrays that serve as recharge pods.

"Unlike artifacts, arrays have a single function making them easier to preserve. Ancient noble households are protected by several arrays, but each one has its own magical stones and requires maintenance. Anything else?"

Lith shook his head.

'The tower from her memories was so big and powerful that probably it would have required a whole crystal mine to keep it active. Especially since Solus cannot go in stand by mode. It would mean her death.'

By the end of Wanemyre explanation, Solus had returned.

"Yes." Asked a black haired girl. "Why not just enable passive abilities to be turned off whenever the object is not imprinted?"

"Because most of those spells are needed to preserve the magical item. Even if you do not notice it, imbuing an object with a great magical force causes a constant erosion. If an artifact sustains too much damage, it loses all its magical properties.

"The only way to preserve it from the passage of time is either to pass it to a new owner or use an array. Both solutions require for the original user to die in a manner convenient enough to allow for the artifact to be preserved. Useless to say, it doesn't happen often."

Then, Professor Wanemyre proceeded to teach them the Bonding spell before giving a practical demonstration. She placed an amulet and a green gemstone inside a magic circle entirely made of runes of power. They were so tightly packed to almost resemble a straight line.

"I hope you learned to use water magic well, or drawing this kind of circles will take you days." Wanemyre grinned seeing many quivering at her words.

She didn't need to charge the magic circle with mana. Wanemyre directly chanted instead.

The amulet and the gemstone started to float in mid air, orbiting around each other like twin stars while the runes turned into threads of blue light. The threads pierced both items, passing through them over and over again.

After each passage, the amulet and the crystal neared each other until they came into contact. Then, Wanemyre chanted a different spell. The threads entered inside the gemstone, painting it blue before spreading to the whole surface of the amulet.

Lith could see the lines of power even without Life Vision, finally understanding why crafters considered magic crystals like living hearts. The threads had formed the equivalent of a mana circulatory system, allowing the gemstone to fill the amulet/body with its power.

The lines turned from blue to green before disappearing, while the amulet returned on the flat surface of the black Forgemastering table.

'It's just as she said.' Solus was amazed. 'I can see with my mana sense that the amulet has now a powerful magical aura. In a way, it reminds me of ourselves.'

"Now the amulet is ready to be enchanted. The use of the Bonding spell does not imply the need to imbue spells right off the bat. Bonding and Forgemastering can be considered two separate processes.

"Now it's your turn to try. This is tier five magic, so remember that the spell requires from you to generate as many threads you can control. The greater the number, the better the Bonding. A Forgemaster like me can generate one thread per each rune.

"In your case, since it's your first attempt, one out of four runes can be considered a passing grade, but only if the Bonding is successful. All the threads must always go through both targets. If even one misses, the spell will fail. Who wants to go first?"

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Lith stood up, eager to put his talent as Forgemaster to the test. The pattern of the spell was simple, but the execution was complex. It allowed the mage to choose if to power up the runes one by one like Wanemyre just did, or to group them up as she suggested.

Making a single strand out of four runes meant a lesser strain on the mage during the first chant, since it required an average level of multi casting, but it made things more complicated during the second spell.

It would generate a thread four times thicker and likely four times harder to control. The second spell was just a crutch for the mage's willpower, making it easier to control the conjured energies.

After learning the spells, Lith went all out. His multi casting ability allowed him to control ten spells at once, one for each finger. He created one thread out of two runes, twice the number Wanemyre required.

Lith could have conjured more, but it would have meant risking to fail. Since it wasn't a life or death situation, there was no need to bite more than he was certain to be able to chew.

When Wanemyre performed the spell, the resulting energy strands were as thick as hairs and moved in unison, like they shared a hive mind. Lith's performance turned out much different.

Each strand was as thick as a finger and moved like a snake slithering for its life while having a seizure.

'Damn! I thought that my experience with true magic would make things easier. It's the first time I meet such wild energies. Let's hope the second spell helps.'

Lith started the next chant. He had a hard time just to prevent the blue threads from crashing against the walls of the classroom, marking the failure of his attempt.

"This is a classic rookie mistake." Wanemyre explained to the rest of the students.

"Always remember to commence the second spell as soon as you finish the first, otherwise the Bonding spell goes rampant." Contrary to the expectations of most, she didn't deduct any points from Lith.

The second chant was a revelation for him. He could feel small tendrils of pure mana emanating from his body. They latched themselves on the wild energy threads, taming them like trained dogs on a leash.

'I never thought it was possible to use spirit magic to control remotely another spell!' Lith was overjoyed. 'I have to master this Leash spell as soon as I can. It has countless applications!'

From that point onwards, the rest was easy. Lith successfully completed the Bonding spell, but the difference between his product and Wanemyre's was like heaven and earth.

Lith's amulet had a much weaker magical aura, not even half as strong as the one the Professor made. The mana vessels he created were fewer, smaller, and formed a less complex pattern compared to hers.

'Seems the results of the Bonding spell aren't linearly proportional to the number of threads generated, as much as exponentially.' He thought.

"Outstanding job!" Wanemyre clapped her hands with a big smile on her face.

"Thirty points for handling so many threads at the first attempt, thirty for succeeding at the first try, and another forty for achieving all the above despite my mistake."

"Your mistake?" Lith raised an eyebrow in confusion, while the rest of the class heard nothing after realizing the total sum was one hundred points.

"Yes." She nodded.

"I forgot to point out the importance of the timing for a successful Bonding. Unlike everything you have attempted before, the two spells are interlinked. My blunder affected negatively your odds of success. Hence the forty points.

"Now let's see how those that were so smug while you were about to fail perform. I expect great things from them." She threw a cold look to a few students that went immediately pale.

Lith turned around to go back at his desk, when suddenly the hostility returned. The threat was as close as pressing, forcing him to perform a quick 180 turn by pivoting on his front leg.

Wanemyre looked at his arms raised in a guard position with a puzzled look. The feeling of danger coming from behind had disappeared.

"Is it something wrong?" She tilted her head in confusion.

Lith shook briefly his head before returning to his station.

'Okay, something is f*cking wrong here. First the brats, now the Professor. Solus?'

'I was going to wait until the end of the lesson to tell you, but at this point we cannot take any more risks.' Lith could feel Solus using all of her senses to keep the whole classroom under surveillance.

'Do you remember I told you there was something familiar? Well, I was right. When I went checking your colleagues, I noticed that at least five of them wear trinkets bearing the same pseudo core of those we found in the boxes. I have no idea what they do, but this can't be a coincidence.

'Until we figure it out, I want you to wear your paranoia cap and never take it off.'

Lith inwardly cursed. He hated being forced on the defense, but there was nothing he could do. Lith had no reason to report them, nor he could explain in any way the significance of the trinkets they wore.

'Even worse, we recognize them only because we can see their pseudo cores. I have no plausible way to justify how I know that completely different items all do the same thing. Do you think Wanemyre is involved in this too?'

'I can't be sure.' Solus replied. 'I didn't take a close look at that betrothal gift of hers back then, but I remember its vibe. It's definitely possible.'

Those words were enough to make Lith shiver. It was only the second day he had returned at the academy, yet another storm was already brewing at the horizon.

Meanwhile, in the Headmaster's office, Linjos was even more worried than Lith. Despite taking all the necessary precautions, he could feel the control of the academy slipping through his fingers.

He had spent the winter break personally crafting the new Ballots, giving them to students and Professors alike to make it possible for them to record any suspicious activity they may encounter, but to no avail.

An academy's power core was a priceless treasure for the Griffon Kingdom. To avoid enemies or spies from tampering it, in times of crisis only the Headmaster could access it. It was the reason why one of the qualifications for becoming a Headmaster was to also be a Forgemaster.

"Today's attempt on Lith's life it's undeniable proof that traitors are still operating within these walls." He said to Marchioness Distar. Linjos was one of the few people aware of her real nature of mage and of her role as Lord Commander of the Queen's corps.

"Constable Ernas's investigation proves that the real target was Captain Yerna, but to assign Lith to a slaughterhouse, those nobles needed help from inside the academy."

"Agreed." The Marchioness nodded. "Even sending Professors to do a clerk's job didn't help. Let's admit it, our opponent beat us at our own game. Information keeps leaking and now you tell me materials have started to disappear?"

"Yes." Linjos sighed deeply. "Small quantities at a time, but what worries me the most is that they are all ingredients necessary for making weapons. Military weapons at that."

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Mirim Distar slammed her fist on the armrest of her chair.

"Fine. If they want war, then war it is. Enough with finesse and schemes. I'm going to make all the necessary preparations to detain and quarantine all the academy staff until the traitors have been found."

"This… this will have terrible consequences for the academy's reputation and the students!" Linjos stuttered in bewilderment. "Classes will be suspended, exams delayed. Not to mention we have yet to prepare for Balkor's incoming attack!"

"Not as terrible as more dead students would, Linjos." The Marchioness understood his concerns, but she could see the bigger picture.

"A reputation can be rebuilt, the same applies to an academy. The dead though, have no such luxury. I don't want any more students endangered by political plays, nor the White Griffon to suffer from sabotage like last year.

"Get rid of some of the most useless members of your staff. I'm going to replace them with constables, some undercover, some not. We have an advantage our opponent lacks: we are the ones making the rules of this game."

Linjos opened the Warp Gate of his office, allowing the Marchioness to get straight to her mansion.

'Gods, I hate how right she is.' Linjos held his head between his hands in despair. All his hopes, his ideals were shattering one after the other against the harshness of reality.

'At this point, I can trust no one. Not even my inner circle. I'm completely alone, surrounded by enemies!' He banged his head against the desk, realizing how devious was the human heart.

'At this point, we can trust no one. Not even the Professors. We are surrounded by enemies.' Solus thought with a sigh.

'Yeah. Same old same old.' Lith shrugged. 'The trick is to keep our eyes wide open and our buttocks tightly closed, so no one scr*ws us from behind.'

Lith took off, flying at break neck speed towards the Mage Knight training hall. Since Wanemyre gave the students a single attempt at Bonding, the Forgemastering class ended before the gong resounded.

While she explained to those who had failed their mistakes, the others were free to leave. Thanks to the map in Soluspedia, Lith always knew the shortest path to his destination while his senses allowed him to avoid collisions in mid air with other students.

When Friya and Phloria came out of the hall, they were in the middle of a lively conversation about some technique they had recently practiced. Their faces were drenched with sweat which they dabbed with a towel around their necks.

All the students had an exhausted look. Most had bruises visible on their exposed skin, especially on the arms. Combat specializations were demanding both physically and mentally, often involving getting hit at the slightest mistake.

"Hi, girls." Lith drew on himself hateful looks. Most of the boys hated his guts from the fourth year. Despite being three years younger than them, with his 1.66 meters (5'5") was already taller and with a better physique than them.

On Mogar, youths developed mostly during their thirteenth year. After that, there could be small adjustments until the sixteenth one. It was the limit after which the body stopped growing.

All of them hoped to become elite troops and while being tall wasn't necessary, it sure helped. They could only envy the kind of monster Lith would grow into.

"Hi, Lith!" Phloria was pleasantly surprised. Usually in their relationship it was up to her to take the initiative.

"If you give me an hour to catch my breath, we can train together with the sword before dinner." She knew Lith was a workaholic. Phloria assumed that after his fight with the wyvern, he was eager to accept her offer to train him.

"Who do you take me for? Some battle maniac? Thanks, but no thanks. I had enough for today. I was more thinking about taking advantage of the lack of homework to take you out for dinner."

Invigoration or not, Lith felt the need to rest. Phloria was the only person beside Solus with whom he was able to lower his guard. He wanted to go outside the academy to relax and talk freely.

Lith also used the assembly to have Solus scan the students for the mysterious items. He suspected there were more involved in the poisoning who Linjos hadn't managed to smoke out.

He was right. Solus spotted four more.

"Really? I mean, sure." She replied with a dazzling smile from ear to ear.

"I still need an hour to make myself presentable." Phloria drew on herself hateful looks. Most of the girls of the fifth year hated her guts. How such a plain looking girl managed to date a pin wearer was a mystery to them.

From Lith's dating experience on Earth, one hour was an optimistic estimate for an improvised date.

"Sure. I'll go visit Yurial in the meantime. Call me when you are ready. There is no rush." He wiped a drop of sweat that was streaming along her cheek with his thumb. All the bruises on her body healed, her muscles and joints stopped aching.

Instead of getting tired because of the light spell, Phloria felt her fatigue disappear.

"How did you do it?" She was amazed. Lith hadn't used any sign or magical words.

"We are inside one of the great academies, so I'll go with magic." He shrugged.

"What about me?" Friya hadn't missed how Phloria's breathing was back to normal or that she had stopped sweating.

"Sorry, three is a crowd. Find yourself a boyfriend." He said taking off before she could give him the finger.

"I meant the healing, jacka*s!" She yelled even though Lith was already too far.

Yurial was pleasantly surprised to see Lith too. It was rare of him to seek Yurial's advice or help, which made him happy to oblige.

After the fight with Gadorf, Lith understood he needed a better grasp of the power of arrays. Since he was still stuck with Silverwing's Hexagram, Lith decided it was time to ask the opinion of an expert.

"Can you check if this is an array?" Lith asked after materializing a small golden hexagram between his hands.

"Sure thing. It's unlikely though." Yurial's array detecting spell begged to differ.

"I stand corrected. This is an array and an impossible one at that."

"What's an impossible array?" Lith asked.

"Arrays are spells that require a long cast time and that can be placed in a specific spot for a time. This one defies all the above. It disappears as soon as you stop spending mana and appears relatively quickly." Yurial explained.

"There are several recordings of impossible arrays like this one, all left by past Magi. They are only used as training material for multi casting, though. They have no practical use and are considered nothing more than magic tricks."

"How so?"

"Because they come with no explanation, no hand signs, nor magical words. Even if they had a decent effect, they can only be used with first magic. Turning them into real arrays would require to study their properties and then find signs and words to match.

"It's much easier creating a new one from scratch. Also, what use could possibly have an array that requires constant chanting and mana expenditure? The mage couldn't even move, being forced to become an easy target."

"Maybe. Maybe not." Lith pondered.

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"Can you help me discover what Silverwing's Hexagram does?" Lith asked.

"Sure, no problem." Yurial was happy to be finally able to repay his friend of all the help he received in the past, even if it was for a fool's errand.

"I'd also like to see those impossible arrays you mentioned earlier." Lith was sure to have struck a gold mine. Having true arrays in his arsenal was an opportunity he couldn't miss.

Lith kept the Hexagram active, making it possible for Yurial to perform a series of experiments and spells to determine the newfound array's properties. While Yurial studied it from the outside, Lith could perceive from the inside the changes in the mana flow each test produced.

After a while, they compared notes about their initial findings.

They were still discussing the details when Lith received Phloria's call.

'Ugh, I wish I knew how much time has passed. I have to make myself a damn clock or something.' Thirteen years after his third birth, Lith was still unable to tell the time without looking at the sun.

It frustrated him beyond reason.

When he went to pick her up, Phloria was wearing her uniform, just like him. She wore her waist long black hair down. Her wavy hair reflected the academy's light, giving them a silky look.

Phloria emanated a delicate flowery scent that Lith found surprisingly relaxing. Even before he obtained an enhanced sense of smell, Lith had always found perfumes to be too strong. Their sweet scent was nauseating for him, just like a man using too much cologne.

She wore little make up. Just enough to make her features appear more delicate and her eyes bigger. Her lips shined under the effect of lip gloss.

"How do I look?" She asked with an expectant look.

"You look gorgeous." Lith honestly replied.

Lith took her to the lagoon city of Vinea that he had visited during the fourth year's house calls. With its many small canals and boats, it was the most romantic place he knew.

It reminded him of the Italian city of Venice he had seen in many movies back on Earth.

Also, it was located quite far from the academy, so the odds of meeting someone they knew were very low. Lith wanted some peace and quiet. They chose a restaurant with outside tables to enjoy the scenery. Being still early spring, the air was a bit chilly.

It took Phloria just a wave of the hand to warm the air around them and make so that the heat wasn't dispersed. Lith took care of the lights, summoning small silvery moons around them.

The poor waiter assigned to them was so flabbergasted by their uniforms and display of power that it took a while to manage to order some food.

"Not to complain, but this is not like you. Taking me outside the academy, in a romantic city instead of ordering food from the canteen and eating it in one of our rooms. What's wrong?" She asked extending her hand across the table to take his.

'Am I really such a cheapskate?' Lith thought. Solus's silence spoke volumes about the matter.

"I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but there's something you need to know." Lith told her about the hostility he had perceived from Wanemyre and the other students.

"It's no coincidence, all of them wear accessories that give me a bad vibe."

"They wear matching items? How did no one notice them before?" She was surprised, it was quite the dumb move on their side. It made them recognizable.

"Not matching, but I'm positive they have the same properties. I want you to be wary of all of them." Lith gave her the names and a physical description of those he had identified.

"Then how do you know they are linked?" She asked.

"I just know."

"Is this another of your secrets, like your physical abilities and your mysterious brother?"

Lith just nodded.

"Okay, I believe you." She replied with a radiant smile.

"This is actually a piece of good news."

"How so?" Lith was stunned by her positive reaction. He had expected her to doubt his words. Phloria was aware of how paranoid Lith was and he had offered her no proof aside from a nondescript bad feeling.

Even if she believed him, he was afraid the new impending threat would ruin the mood.

"Because at least now we know whose as*es we have to kick. It was no mystery there are traitors at the academy nor that some of the students were involved in the poisoning. It's the first lead we got. Thanks for trusting me enough to share it with me."

Her response almost made him feel guilty for hiding so many things from her. Aside from Solus, she was the person that trusted him the most, no matter how many shadows Lith left lingering between them.

She was the first girl on Mogar that had gifted him with a gentle touch and a warm embrace. Even when he had almost lost it after Protector's fake death, Phloria had never left his side.

Lith sighed, finally ready to admit with himself that he cared for her. Over time, Phloria had become his home away from home. Someone to return to, without worrying about how to act or what to say. He could just be himself.

Phloria giggled, closing with her hand Lith's mouth that had remained agape since her reply.

"No, thank you for believing me. Now that I said out loud, I realize how insane this story sounds." Lith felt a sting in his heart, but it was a pleasant one.

"I would believe you even if you told me some monster kidnapped you overnight. Otherwise, what are girlfriends for?" She held his hand tightly.

"I was thinking we could use this knowledge to unleash my mom against them."

"I doubt she would act just because I have a bad feeling." Lith sighed.

"True, but my mother is even more paranoid than you are. If I tell her that the bad feeling is mine and that those people acted in a suspicious manner, she'll come running. She's overprotective since your vision…" Phloria suddenly stopped, dropping the fork on the ground.

"That's it! Your vision just got updated!"

"I beg your pardon?" Lith had just reached the same conclusion, yet he was curious to see how far she was willing to push that lie.

"We can say that your vision showed you something about those items. It will be more than enough to give mom everything she needs."

"What if I'm wrong and they are actually innocent? Wouldn't you feel guilty for throwing them in Jirni's maw?" Lith's care for their well being was on par with what he felt toward the game he was eating. He only wanted to make sure Phloria realized the implications of her idea.

"No." She shrugged. "They can do like me and blame those damn dryads for not giving us much to work on."

"Someone is getting crafty and manipulative." Lith said, laughing.

"What can I say? Between you and mom, bad habits rub off."

They spent the rest of the dinner talking about their respective specializations and families.

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After Lith paid the bill, they took a stroll along the promenade. Despite the late hour, the city was still bustling with carriages and small taxi boats.

Everything moved slowly. Unlike Earth's metropolis, nor the coachmen or the ferrymen seemed to be in a hurry and so were their passengers. To Lith, it almost appeared as the city of Vinea was lazily falling asleep.

Suddenly the silence between the two was broken by a sigh, shortly followed by another.

"What's wrong? Having second thoughts about the plan?" Lith asked.

"No." Phloria shook her head. "It's so odd. I feel so happy yet so scared at the same time." She sat on a wooden bench, inviting him to do the same.

"I'm happy because despite last year has been a nightmare, it made me realize how lucky I am. I have a loving family, wealth, status, and talent. All things that I took for granted before meeting you guys." She leaned against Lith, putting her head on his shoulder.

"I even managed to get this old without being forced to kill another human being." Lith had still a hard time hearing a sixteen year girl calling herself 'old', but after Rena's marriage, he was starting to wrap his head around it.

Especially after his sister got pregnant.

"The reason I'm afraid, it's because I know the fairy tale that has been my life is going to end soon." She sighed again.

"I finally understand why my mom is so pushy and my dad is so lenient. They are both trying to protect me their own way from life as they know it. Since I'm almost an adult, I must start acting like one. I can't keep relying on others for protection.

"Once I graduate, the army will send me away from home for the gods know how long. It will not be like with the academy, I will not be able to come back for months. For the first time in my life, I will be really alone.

"No matter my family name, my path is my own. Every decision I make will have consequences and I must be strong enough to live with them."

She paused for a moment, looking at the stars shining over their heads, while the crescent moon was partially covered by a passing cloud.

"It's so quiet tonight, while my future is so scary. I would like for this moment to last forever, but I know it's impossible."

Lith said nothing, his mind was blank. Even though he wanted nothing more than for the fifth year to end, to get over the accursed vision, the idea they had less than nine months together before breaking up made him feel empty.

The next morning, Lith served as a clerk for the Mage Association. It was the hardest thing he had ever done in all his three lives. He would receive new documents every few seconds, give his magical stamp as proof of receipt, and then catalog them according to protocol.

After that, he had to read them and forward the paperwork based on their priority. Despite the senior clerks provided him with an amulet that allowed him to easily find the correct rules and regulations for each document, the job was mind numbing.

Seconds seemed to last hours, while the two hours of duty could as well been years. He returned to the academy, feeling as his soul had been sucked dry.

'I'd rather fight another wyvern than do this sh*t again.' Lith thought. 'At least once you slay the beast it stays dead, those papers kept coming like a flood. It's much better a swift death by claw rather than slowly drowning in an ocean of boredom.'

'Cheer up! You had me and Soluspedia to help you remember what goes where. Imagine how does it feel for the others.' Solus chuckled.

During the healer specialization, they kept treating their slimes. The more Lith became accustomed to the procedure, the more often he was able to switch from Scanner to Invigoration.

He and Solus had discussed at length about Body Sculpting during their morning torture. They both thought the subject held one of the missing pieces of the puzzle that true magic was.

'The way Protector changed his form and the wyvern did are completely different. Protector shapeshifted at once, like water going from one vessel to another. The wyvern changed in small bursts instead, like a werewolf in a horror B movie.

'I think both manipulated their life forces, but employed different techniques. Protector is an Awakened one and Scarlett taught him how to change form, while the wyvern wasn't Awakened and had no access to his mana core.

'Probably the reason why Protector wasn't able to teach me how to shapeshift wasn't related to the refining stage of my core, but rather to my inability to control my life force. I must learn how to perceive it as a whole, not just a single limb at a time.

'Also, I need to find a way to create a backup of my human body's life force pattern or I risk losing myself forever.'

Lith used the Chisel spell as a sewing kit, joining the red bricks composing the tendrils of the slime with those of its main body by creating threads of cyan mana between them. As soon as the connection was properly established, the life force flowed like blood in the new vessels, turning them red.

By the end of the lesson, Lith's proficiency with the slime had greatly improved, yet he hadn't got halfway through the task. Oddly, the class' ranking was reversed. Those less skilled had almost finished, while Lith, Quylla, and the others had still much to do.

Even more oddly, Vastor didn't seem surprised nor worried by the turn of the events.

"Excellent, excellent!" He patted Quylla's back enthusiastically.

"I don't get it, Professor. I'm behind most of the class, why are you complimenting me?"

"Because you and the good ones are focusing on the how and why, rather than on the what." He explained placing his hand over her fish tank.

"As I expected. Your slime suffered minimal shock. You are not slow, Quylla, you are meticulous. There's a big difference between the two. Don't doubt yourself and stand tall." Vastor pushed up her chin, stopping Quylla from staring at the ground.

The Professor then checked all the slimes, complimenting most of the slow students and scolding all the fast ones.

"Your slimes aren't healed, more like patched up. If this was a more delicate procedure or a less durable creature, it would be long dead." Vastor shook his head, proceeding to ease the pain of the slimes by fixing the major mistakes.

Lith's group left the Healing lab in high spirits. The others because of Vastor's words, Lith because despite making no progress with Invigoration, he felt he was on the right path toward the discovery of how to shapeshift.

The next subject was the first practical lesson about how to create their own personal spells. Lith was eager to discover if he could learn something about true magic from it. Up to that point, all the academy courses had helped him to broaden his horizons.

They went to the Lecture Hall, where Professor Nalear was waiting for them. Once all the students arrived, Nalear opened a Warp Steps moving them to the most absurd training hall any of them had ever seen.

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The Training Hall the students walked into reminded them of the one they used for practicing dimensional magic.

The room was 30 meters (98 feet) long and 20 meters (66 feet) wide. It was big enough to easily accommodate double their numbers. However, while the dimensional magic Training Hall was completely empty, the Magic Creation one was filled with what looked like an old telephone box made of transparent crystal.

Right in front of each telephone box, there was a holographic horizontal bar that reminded Lith the combo counter of games like "Dance Dancer Uprising". All in all, the place looked more like an arcade rather than an academy's facility.

"First things first, you should take out your own Codex." Professor Nalear showed them the book she had distributed during the first lesson.

"As a warm up exercise, each one of you will pick two magical words of their own choice from their Codex and input them in the Sensor Booth." She pointed at the crystal phone box.

"All the possible combinations are known. They generate a mana flow that has been thoroughly researched and the Booths are capable of sensing. Let me give you an example." She walked inside an empty Booth, leaving the door open.

Nalear placed her hand on the crystal wall in front of the holographic counter.

"First, you need to imprint your station with your mana. Then say out loud the spell you have decided to create. In my case is Infiro Gata." According to the Codex, it was supposed to create a ring of fire. The Booth emitted a red glow while powering up and so did the holographic counter.

"Now the device knows what kind of energies are going to be employed and how to protect me from them. I suppose you all remember the dangers of casting a spell incorrectly."

The class nodded in unison. Lith too had almost died multiple times while learning his first tier one fake magic spell when he was still six years old. A mistake in the magic words' pronunciation or in the hand seals could have unpredictable consequences.

"Well, creating a new spell is even more dangerous, that's why it's a subject explored only during the fifth year. A complete spell is safe for the caster. Even if you mess up with it the worst it can happen is for its effect to go haywire.

"The magic signs for low tier spells determine the amount of mana which will be employed and how it interacts with the elemental energies. Using the wrong signs can directly harm your bodies. The bigger the mistake, the bigger the damage you may sustain. This is especially troublesome for attack spells.

"That's why we'll start with spells that are barely tier one to give you solid foundations. I'd like to tell you that the Sensor Booths can block anything, but it would be a lie. They can only shield you up to tier two spells and some of the weaker tier three ones.

"The purpose of this exercise is to let you safely experience the flow of your mana while you are creating low tier spells. Only then we will move to more powerful spells against which there is no protection but skill and experience.

"It's important you become familiar with identifying the correct signs and finding the right words. The Codex only contains the most common and safe magical words. Truly powerful spells require you to make adjustments."

"I have always thought that spells made from our own mana couldn't harm us." Quylla asked. "Why is this different?"

"Because a correctly performed spell is part of you, like your hair or your skin. A messed up spell is composed of discordant energies which make no distinction between friend and foe."

"Did I risk my life while creating my personal spells back at my village?" Quylla shivered at the thought of how dangerous ignorance was.

"Not really." Nalear patted her shoulder, trying to reassure Quylla.

"Light magic is the magic of life, it's mostly harmless. It requires a monster failure to inflict damages with a low tier light spell, otherwise a failed chant simply has no effect. You and Lith are lucky.

"Being healers, you followed the safest path. It made it possible for you to later create even offensive spells with ease thanks to your prior experience." Quylla thought back when she created her first offensive ice spell.

She had suffered from pain and discomfort from time to time, but she had always managed to stop before things got out of hand. She never reported injuries during her experiments, only minor frostbites.

"Creating personal spells before even enrolling in an academy it's what means being talented." Nalear said to the rest of the class.

"Let me finish my demonstration please." Her hands drew an S in the air, filling the holographic combo bar by a third. "This means the signs are correct."

She then repeated the magical words while drawing and S followed by a circle. The combo bar flashed red and emptied.

"This happens when the signs are wrong."

The third time she drew a doodle after the S. Everything flashed red a few times, a warning sign filled the counter.

"Guess what? That was a major blunder. Without the Booth I would have got injured. If there aren't any more questions, get in the booths and start practicing. Choosing two words that form a universally known spell will not count as a success.

To get a passing grade you need to complete at least two new spells. Begin!"

The moment Nalear walked out of the Booth, it glowed with white light. The following text appeared inside the holographic display:

Attempted spells: Infiro Gata. Completed spells: None. Final Grade: F. Imprint successfully reset, ready for a new student.

Several students swallowed a lump of saliva, Lith included. Cheating wasn't an option, the system registered everything.

Lith inwardly cursed at his bad luck.

'I'm not Quylla, I never created fake spells besides those I taught Tista. Let's hope it's enough.'

He took a deep breath to calm himself down, then Lith imprinted the terminal with his mana.

"Jorun Ka." According to the Codex, the spell would create an ice cube the size of a table. Lith started to form all the signs he knew, discovering that such a brute force method was unpractical.

Every failed attempt consumed part of his mana. Taken individually, a failure was nothing to him. Hundreds of failures in a row were quite tiring though. After an hour Lith had wasted a quarter of his mana reserve and completed a single spell.

'Calm down, you idiot.' Lith scolded himself. 'Don't panic like a drowning man. This is just the first lesson. Worst case scenario you'll get a failing grade, but there's always next time. Focus on the task at hand.'

Lith recalled Vastor's words about the difference between being slow and being meticulous. Then about the purpose of the exercise. They weren't practicing for a guessing game. They were there to learn to perceive the mana flow inside their own bodies.

The fourth year classes required to sense the mana once they projected it outside, Magic Creation was the opposite.

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'This exercise is just like a math problem. I can either learn by rote all the equations or I can understand the underlying principles of the main formula and derive from it everything I need. So far the first method failed me, time to give the second one a try.'

Lith closed his eyes, ignoring the combo bar in from of him and focusing on his mana core instead. The second spell of his choosing was Jorun Bat, a useless spell that would generate coin shaped icicles.

It was similar enough to the previous one to make it possible for him to at least reuse the first hand seal. Lith drew the symbol in the air slowly, feeling a small amount of mana departing from his core.

Then, he almost stopped his hands, making one small movement at a time and observing how the mana strand reacted. He discarded all the signs that caused it to bloat or collapse, following only those which made it move outwards.

Lith had no idea how much time had passed when he heard the sound announcing the completion of the second spell. He opened his eyes just for the time necessary to pick the next two words from the Codex and transmit them to the Booth.

He kept practicing ice spells only, observing each time with more clarity the shape the mana strand assumed with each different spell. The revelation struck him like a hammer.

Most of the movements composing a single hand sign were useless. They had likely been added to make it easier to remember, to mask the important parts from prying eyes, or both.

What mattered were the movements that altered the shape of the mana strand, adding to it twists and turns until its flow resembled that of a true magic spell. Lith decided to put his theory to test.

He picked another couple of words forming a simple ice spell. Lith mentally visualized how he needed to manipulate his mana flow to obtain with true magic the same effect the fake spell would have. Next, he pronounced the magic words while using both hands to shape the mana strand like the true spell he just created.

The Booth signaled his success coincided with the gong marking the end of the lesson. Lith found himself drenched in sweat. His mana reserve was low enough to give him a splitting headache.

Yet he was pleased with his results.

'The bad news is that I can't use the same technique for higher tier magic. It takes me a minute to whip up a tier one true spell, but the same can't be said for the upper tiers. It means I must really learn how to create fake spells.' Lith thought.

'This not only will come in handy to pass this subject, but also as a way to obtain credits by sharing spells if I ever need something from the Association. The good news is that now I found a much quicker way to turn fake magic into true magic and vice versa.

'It seems my original theory was right. Fake magic's foundations are the same as true magic and the whole tier system is a ladder that leads to the discovery of the mana core.'

Lith walked out of his Booth, waiting for the hologram to project his results.

Attempted spells: Fifteen. Completed spells: All. Final Grade: B. Imprint successfully reset, ready for a new student.

'Not bad for someone who spent half the lesson to get a single spell right.' Solus tried to cheer him up. B was the lowest score they ever got, yet she was proud of him. Lith had achieved that grade all by himself, without asking her help.

'It's better to wait after dinner before asking him if he did it on purpose or he was simply so focused to forget about me.' She thought in a hidden corner of her mind.

Lith turned to watch how the others performed. Quylla's hologram reported:

Attempted spells: Twenty two. Completed spells: All. Final Grade: A.

"Amazing as always, Quylla. I suck so bad at this subject. I need to work harder." He shook her hand with a tinge of envy in his voice.

'She's more talented than me, has more experience than me in creating fake spells, and she didn't waste time panicking. I wonder how powerful will she beco…'

Lith's train of thought was interrupted by Quylla, who gave him a weak kick on the shin. The way she compulsively tilted her head made him think Quylla was having a stroke or something.

'Turn around, idiot.' Lith followed Solus's order, finally noticing the other stations too. There were a lot of holographic Ds, Es, and even some Fs.

"What the heck?" Lith blurted out. It required at least four completed spells to get an E, eight to get a D. Everyone was staring at him with pure hatred.

"I told you people, talent." Nalear patted their backs.

"As I said earlier, two completed spells are enough for a passing grade during the first lesson. The machines are calibrated for the final exam, though." She chuckled at his bewildered expression.

Later, while the students were enjoying their dinner, the traitor inside the academy could finally sigh in relief. After the streak of failures during the past year, all their meticulous planning was giving its fruits.

Based on their most recent intel, Linjos was still unaware of their plans to build military grade weapons to employ during the final act. Ever since they had joined Lukart's wild goose chase everything had gone south.

Lukart, the Archmage idiot who dreamed to be King. The traitor had joined him because they too wanted the civil war to happen, but for an entirely different reason. The traitor firmly believed that the Griffon Kingdom was beyond saving.

It was like a horrible painting drawn by an incompetent artist. More brushstrokes could only make it even messier. What the Kingdom needed was to burn the old canvas and start again with a new one.

Blinded by his own arrogance, Lukart had never expected that his ally was slowly siphoning his funds and assets. Turning Lukart's accomplices into obedient slaves. The plan was brilliant in its simplicity.

When the civil war would start, the traitor would have all the necessary means to make his side prevail, wiping off the board both Lukart and the corrupted Royals.

After the incident in Kandria, they had been forced to change approach. With the parasites discovered and a cure already available, the original plan was ruined. When Balkor had revealed his new target, the traitor assumed the heaves were giving them a sign.

By moving their pawns, they had weakened all the academies, making them easy prey for the undead. The traitor assumed that once the six great academies were lost, the other great Countries would invade the Griffon Kingdom.

Nobles and commoners would have been united in grief, forced to ally against a common enemy. The outcome of the battle wasn't important, what mattered was to destroy the status quo. Yet the damned Linjos had ruined everything by allying himself with the Lord of the forest, leading the other Headmasters by example.

The traitor had spent the last months building the strength they needed to plunge the Kingdom into chaos. If revolution was impossible to achieve, the traitor was willing to settle with revenge.

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White Griffon academy. Over a month later, one week before the first exam of the fifth year.

The life of Friya Solivar Ernas had always been an emotional rollercoaster. A speeding trap that kept her dozens of meters above the ground and which would never stop, no matter how much she screamed, cried or barfed.

Sometimes it would slow down, but only because another big fall was nearing. She had wasted her childhood attempting the impossible task of earning her mother's affection.

After she turned twelve, she had been thrown in a dog eats dog environment. Everyone in the academy wanted her to fail, hoping to get her place in the rankings. Everyone in the Solivar Household wanted her dead.

Her brothers and sisters were afraid of the status she would achieve by becoming the first mage in the history of the household. If Friya succeeded, being the firstborn or the line of succession would become meaningless.

She would become Duchess Solivar's right hand mage and inherit everything when mommy dearest took her leave.

Friya had spent so much time watching her back that her encounter with Yurial had been like seeing the sun after a perennial winter. Thanks to his status and power, the environment turned peaceful, giving her the opportunity to relax. Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Meeting Quylla saved her soul. Despite having a much harsher life than Friya, Quylla still had a gentle heart and only strived for affection. She restored Friya's faith in mankind.

After giving her the equivalent of a sugar candy, the fourth year turned out to be the apex of her misery. First, she had lost her family. Being branded like a traitor, she had been forced to accept Lady Ernas's offer to adopt her.

Then, she had killed her first human in cold blood and lastly came Balkor. Alas, the worse had yet to come.

All those events had pushed her to the brink, yet they also helped Friya to open up with her new parents and sister. They had grown closer over time until she had stopped feeling a prisoner and became part of something bigger.

Until she felt part of the Ernas family.

Being loved unconditionally, having the freedom to decide about her future was something that in the past she could only dream about. Now that she had everything, Friya was scared to death.

Scared to lose that safe haven and return to a cruel world that didn't give a damn about her. She had no idea what to do with her life.

'Being a Healer is a quiet job, but quite boring.' She would often mentally list all the pros and cons of her available choices.

'Also, I don't like people very much. Spending my life helping others sounds like a waste of time. The career of a Mage Knight is even worse, I would be killing people for a living. I'm sick and tired of fighting, I just want some peace.

'It's absurd to ask a sixteen years old girl to decide her future. Maybe I should take a sabbatical. Until I find my answer, I can always be the Ernas Household's private magician. Besides, the fifth year is still long. I have all the time I need.'

Quylla Ernas was having the time of her life. She had a doting father, a creepy but caring mother, two wonderful sisters, and the house of her dreams. Despite all the bad things that had happened, the fourth year had been the happiest of her life.

It had given her a place where she belonged and more importantly, a family.

She still had three more years before being considered an adult, but she had already planned her future. After graduating, Quylla had decided to work as an assistant at the White Griffon's light department until she was old enough to apply as a Professor.

She had already discussed it with her mentors. Even Manohar was enthusiastic at the idea and promised to endorse her application. The thought actually scared her. With the fickle genius' reputation, his approval could do more harm than good.

Being a Healer and a teacher was her dream job. It would give her the opportunity to improve the world around her while leaving her the time to start and nurture her own family.

After the winter break, with the start of her growth spurt, her confidence in her looks and talent skyrocketed. Quylla was looking around for a boyfriend, but with little luck so far.

Orion apprentices were kind boys, but only saw her as a child. As for her colleagues, those she liked didn't return her interest and vice versa. Like a very shy fourteen year old boy that had already asked her out a couple of times.

Quylla would have preferred someone more assertive. She was fed up enough with her own shyness to put up with that of others. Yet his last move was bold enough to convince Quylla to give him a chance.

Xodard had gifted her a small ring. I was nothing fancy, just a trinket a student of humble origins could afford. It was the note it was wrapped in that mattered.

"A charmed ring for a charming girl."

'A cheesy pick up line, but it's still cute. I'll wear the ring for our first date.' She thought. 'If things don't work out, I can always give it back.'

The fifth year's subjects were demanding, but, unlike during the fourth one, no Professor assigned homework. That left Yurial plenty of time to practice his skills as a Warden in the lab built inside his living quarter and to help Lith with his research.

'It's amazing how the so called "impossible arrays" all require at least hexacasting and fine control over all the different mana flows. Yet Lith manages to perform them at the first attempt thanks to his mastery of first magic. Maybe I was wrong always dismissing it as inferior magic.'

Their research progressed slowly. Unlike everything Yurial had learned so far, each array seemed to have a complex function. Casting them wasn't enough to obtain results. To respond to an external trigger, the energies that formed the arrays had to be properly manipulated while holding the balance of the overall structure.

Over time Yurial became fascinated with them and learned how to cast them by himself, to experiment even when Lith was otherwise occupied. Thanks to that exercises, Yurial's mastery of tier four and five arrays improved by leaps and bounds.

Sometimes, when he was focused on the mystical patterns, he could feel a burning sensation located near his solar plexus. At first, he thought it was a coincidence. After the phenomenon happened several times, he tried all of his diagnostic spells.

When none of them detected any anomalies, Yurial even asked for Manohar's second opinion. Even according to the god of healing, there was nothing wrong with him.

Distar Household

The royal constable Jirni Ernas was nervously drumming her fingers on the armrest of her chair. It was unusual for her being nervous, let alone impatient. Like every predator, she knew the importance of biding her time, of choosing the time and place of the attack to not leave the prey the slightest chance of survival.

Yet all that waiting was wearing down her nerves.

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"The vision changed almost a month ago. Why are we doing nothing?" Jirni's anger was barely contained. It took all of her willpower to prevent it to show on the outside.

"Because based on all we know, it's likely we are about to face the threat of slave collars, like those the Pontus Household purchased from the missing Alchemist Hatorne." Duchess Distar was disgusted by her own words.

Just like Jirni, she hated feeling helpless.

"Whoever the traitors are, they have managed to slip out of our net too many times. Linjos needs time to remove enough members of his staff to require an official turn over without arising suspicions.

"If we act rashly, we risk alerting them. They would only need to activate the collars to force us to butcher innocents while they escape under the cover of the ensuing chaos.

"We are lulling them into a false sense of confidence, so that our first strike will also be the last." Her hands were clenched so hard they were white, the blood drained from her fingers.

"Easy for you to say. It's my little girls that live in that death trap, not yours. Why can't we at least warn them?"

"To achieve what? Spook them? Spook the traitors? We may be wrong about the collars. So far all the security sweeps came out negative." Mirim Distar shook her head.

"It's not only your daughters who are in danger, but every single student in all the remaining four academies. If you can't keep your personal and professional life separated, maybe you should recuse yourself from the case."

Jirni Distar knew that Mirim was right and hated her for that.

"How long before we move?" She asked.

"Very soon."

Village of Lutia.

Lith considered the idea of becoming an elder brother and an uncle almost at the same time disturbing at best. When during the second month of winter Elina noticed she had skipped her period, Lith knew he had succeeded.

Both his mother and sister were nervous. The former considered her pregnancy like a miracle while the latter was on edge being her first time. Lith was basically on call 24/7, but luckily nothing happened in his absence that Nana or Tista couldn't handle.

Lith would go back to his village at least once a week, during the weekend to perform a complete check up on both women.

"Everything is fine. Again." Lith snorted.

"I'm so sorry, dear. I didn't mean to rush you." Elina apologized with such a merry voice it sounded fake, but she was actually sincere. She was just too happy with the good news.

"Do you want to know the gender of the babies?" Lith asked.

"Do you know it already?" Judging by their enthusiasm he had just asked a rhetorical question.

"Male. Female." He pointed at Elina first and at Rena second.

'Ugh. My family so far had bad luck with males. Orpal, Trion, and then me. Let's hope the little one grows into a better man than us. It doesn't take much, after all.' Lith thought.

'How dare you!' Solus scolded him. Not even reminding her of his body count spared him from a lecture.

Both families didn't share Lith's negative outlook on life. They celebrated together until late.

The next day, after the end of the lessons Lith went to Phloria's room to share the latest news and give her an early birthday present. In a few days, she would turn sixteen, becoming an adult according to Mogar's standards.

"Congratulations, you must be thrilled." Phloria embraced him tightly. For a moment, Lith lost himself in the delicate fragrance of her hair.

"Not really." He didn't want to spoil the mood for his family, but at least with Solus and Phloria he could be honest.

"I'm scared at the idea of having another brother. I almost have only bad memories about them." Most of all, he was scared of loving and losing his little brother. Lith was certain he couldn't take it again.

"As for my niece, I don't know. I'm afraid the baby will take a lot of her time and we will grow even further apart."

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Phloria sighed. "You can't keep your loved ones under a rock. You must learn to let them go. You are not losing a sister but gaining a niece."

Lith didn't reply. It was a matter on which they had to agree to disagree.

"I have also come to give you your birthday present." Lith took out from his pocket a small box, handing it to her.

"Why so early? Don't you know it's bad luck?" She giggled, rushing to opening the box.

It contained a lily shaped gold pendant. Rena's father in law had melted and purified the gold, while Lith had shaped it with magic. It was so lifelike that Phloria attempted to smell it.

"I researched the etymology of your name. This flower symbolizes the goddess you are named after. It's also enchanted to be durable and as a dimensional amulet with a capacity of fifty square meters." It was the highest grade dimensional item Lith could create without making a fuss.

"Thanks! It's a wonderful gift!" She attempted to kiss him, but Lith stopped her.

"That's just my cover story gift. Otherwise people would think I'm even more of a cheapskate than I already am."

"What's the real gift, then?" Phloria was puzzled.

"I know I can't Forgemaster anything your father couldn't do better, not I can afford something you couldn't buy on your own. The only thing I can offer you is my trust. Please, close your eyes and give me your hands."

Phloria did as instructed, while Lith activated Invigoration on her.

'What the heck?' What he saw left him flabbergasted. Compared to the last time he had visited her, most of the impurities in her body were converging towards the mana core. They hadn't moved much, but the movement was as clear as the day.

'It's just as I feared.' Solus sighed. 'The prolonged exposure to you, combined with the repeated use of Invigoration and the practice of high level magic seems to stimulate other people's cores.'

'Exposure to me? Invigoration?' Lith was still stunned.

'Do you remember Balkor's attack? To save her and Yurial, you had to use Invigoration a lot. Also, since she asked you out, the two of you spend a lot of time together. Protector told us that the key to Awakening is a high mana density.

'Compared to a normal mage whose core is dormant, yours is a small mana geyser.'

'Doesn't this mean that Tista is likely to Awaken? Compared to them, she has been much closer to me.'

'If she enters the White Griffon, I think it's a reasonable assumption.' Solus replied.

'It also depends on her talent and luck. Tista hasn't Awakened in years and Phloria's impurities have barely moved. Don't' overthink it.'

Lith took a deep breath to calm himself before proceeding. He used Invigoration to remove the most external impurities from her hair and skin, destroying them as soon as they emerged.

"What's this smell?" Phloria had no idea why she was feeling so hot and fuzzy, but the stench was out of this world.

"This is my gift. I'd like for it to remain a secret between the two of us." He said bringing her in front of the mirror.

"I don't feel any different." Phloria looked her reflection without noticing anything.

"Take a bath and let me know in the morning. Doctor's order." Lith kissed her deeply, tasting her fragrance before leaving her room.

He took off, flying along the corridor towards his living quarters.

'I'm proud of you, taking such a leap of f… Watch out!' Solus yelled.

Lith reacted swift as the wind dodging a barrage of icicles, only to feel an invisible grip blocking his limbs. He immediately activated fusion magic to neutralize the effects of the spirit magic holding him.

The person using it was an expert. They slammed him against the walls and the ceiling before he could react.

"I bet you didn't expect to meet another Awakened one, did you?" A too familiar voice said while the world around him faded to black.

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The attack had been ruthless, quick, and carefully planned. The barrage of attacks had thrown Lith out of balance, while the spirit magic throw exploited the momentum of his own dodge to slam him against the nearest wall.

The impact sucked the air out of Lith's lungs, making him lose focus at the same time. Solus had been helpless against the ambush. The attacks had come out from the occupants of the rooms they always passed by on their way back.

She had no reason to be vigilant of them. Solus would rather focus on those hiding behind corners or pillars, but the coast was clear. Or so she believed until the attack came.

Lith was about to lose consciousness, but thanks to the prompt use of fusion magic and the Skinwalker armor, he managed to heal himself at the last moment. Lith stood his ground, assessing his predicament.

Mana sense and Life Vision both told him the situation was desperate. He was surrounded by all sides with no way out. The students weren't a problem, but the person in front of him was.

Professor Valesa Nalear had already weaved several spells while he was still trying to get up.

"Dodging was dumb of you." A cruel smile distorted her usually kind features.

"Buying that armor was dumb of you. Thanks for making everything easier for me." Her voice was carefree like they were playing a game.

Several fireballs appeared around him, exploding at the same time.

"I really like this spell of yours. I hope you don't mind I copied it."

Lith took out the Gatekeeper sword from his pocket dimension, imbuing it with enough water magic to instantly conjure an ice coffin around himself while using air magic to protect his ears from the explosions.

'What the heck is she saying? I'm making her job easier? At least she's dumb enough to use one of my spells. I know exactly how to counter it.' He thought.

Alas, Nalear wasn't stupid. As soon as the coffin formed, she unleashed a river of lightning that used Lith's own barrier to bypass the armor's protection.

"Another dumb move. Should I think you still have a crush on me?" Her laughter was cruel, oozing mockery.

Lith inwardly cursed at himself. He could only endure the spells by using earth fusion. He was taking damage after damage. Up to that point, he was stuck on the receiving end of the battle.

'Damn, she has silenced the whole area. No matter how much noise she does, no one will hear a thing.' Solus thought, racking her brain for a solution.

'I think I know why she said you are making her job easier. She can't kill you because of the academy's arrays. If she attempts to, they will protect you and send a distress signal!'

Lith had almost forgotten about the academy's protection, he never needed them. Wind blades shattered the ice coffin. He was tempted to offer them no resistance to activate the protective arrays, but he felt something was wrong.

Nalear was taunting him, she was likely to have taken precautions. Lith parried them with the blade, discovering he was right. They were too weak to inflict him a serious injury, she was aiming to make him faint.

"You know, I can't believe it took me so long to realize we are cut out of the same mold. Two Awakened ones." Lith ignored her words, distraction tactics were one of his specialties too.

"How you survived the Talons, helped find a cure for the parasites, or saving the life of that Deirus idiot. Everyone believes you are the next Manohar, but I knew it couldn't be the case. You are too normal, too sane to be a genius."

Lith moved his hand behind his back, taking the Ballot out of the pocket dimension, only for it to be ripped away from his fingers by Nalear's spirit magic.

"That was rude. Time to finish this." He ignored her words again, pretending just for a second to be willing to fight for the Ballot in a spirit magic tug of war before jumping towards the nearest student.

'The arrays work for everyone. It means if I strike one of them down it will activate anyway!' Lith thought.

The student was startled. Lith moved too fast for her eyes. Yet before his sword could reach the girl, he felt an agonizing pain from his back. Several knives stabbed him. Their enchantment was strong enough to piece his armor while their blades were too short to do serious damage.

Nalear pulled out the blades with her spirit magic, activating their second spell. Healing magic from the knives closed all of Lith's wound, completely restoring his body. At the same time, the healing weakened him even more, sapping his strength.

"I call them the 'anti-academy' weapons. Strong enough to knock you out, but not enough to trigger the arrays. You have no idea how much trial and error I had my little lambs go through before Wanemyre perfected them.

So many of them got reprimanded or expelled for hurting their own friends." She chuckled.

"Sacrifices must be made sometimes. Right, little lambs?" The students' faces were like stone, yet their eyes were crying in fear.

She struck Lith's temple with an enchanted leather club, making him lose consciousness.

'He fell for my trap, just like I expected. The students weren't here to trap him, they only served as bait. Now that he's out of the picture, I'm not going to let him ruin my plan. An Awakened one is an unpredictable wild card. I have no intention to discover if a slave collar works on us or not.

'If not for these damned arrays I would kill him right now.' Nalear sighed.

She brought Lith in her apartments, bringing along a few students. During the winter break, she had everything prepared in advance. It was impossible to have a secret compartment made without the power core of the academy detecting it.

Yet she could easily turn one of her closets into an excellent prison. Short chains were hanging from the wall, blocking Lith's neck, waist, legs, and arms. Then, Nalear proceeded removing all of his enchanted items.

The dimensional amulet, the magic storing rings (AN: rings that store spells), and lastly his Skinwalker armor, leaving Lith naked while his possessions were stored inside her dimensional amulet.

"It makes you wonder how pretty would I have become if I Awakened earlier." She sighed, looking at his broad shoulders and chiseled body.

Nalear attempted to remove Solus's ring with spirit magic but to no avail.

"Want to play hard to get? Fine by me. Cutting a finger or two makes no difference." A jagged blade appeared in her hand, making Solus desperate.

She had been fuming with rage from the beginning of the fight, hoping Nalear would come close enough for a sneak attack. Yet the Professor had Lith always moved by the students or with spirit magic, she never came close enough.

Wishing she could use Lith's mana when he was unconscious or at least move his body, Solus's only real option was to perform an all out attack.

As soon as the blade cut the skin, Solus shapeshifted from ring to a stone scorpion attacking Nalear physically and magically at the same time.

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Nalear had been on guard the whole time. Life Vision had allowed her to notice how the ring was full of energies since day one.

She used her blade to pin Solus to the wall and the students as human shields against her spells. They were badly hurt, but thanks to their uniforms there wasn't much tier two spells could do.

Solus's yellow core limited her greatly.

"What a marvelous object." Nalear blocked Solus with spirit magic.

"It's not only capable to store the user's mana but also to move on its own? It will be an excellent addition to my collection." Solus could only curse her bad luck. If only Lith's and her energies weren't as one, she could have hurt him enough to activate the array and save him.

When Nalear tried to store Solus inside her dimensional amulet, she was in for another surprise. The amulet didn't respond and Solus kept floating in mid air.

"It's impossible! Is this thing really alive? Good thing I'm always prepared." She took out a mystical wooden box out of her dimensional amulet. It was engraved with silver runes of power. A blue mana crystal the size of a tennis ball was embedded on its lid.

When Nalear opened it, it generated strings of blue energy that trapped Solus, dragging her inside the box before it closed on itself. She attempted to shapeshift multiple times, but the strings relentlessly followed her, adapting to her every change.

The blue gemstone powered up the runes, sealing its content from the outside world.

The bond between Lith and Solus was broken. The backlash gave Solus a seizure while Lith suddenly woke up, roaring like a wounded beast.

The killing intent he released made two of the students faint. The spirit magic blast he generated made everyone but Nalear fly against a wall and lose consciousness. She sneered at his swan's song, hitting him on the head with the leather club again and again.

The club was another enchanted item she had prepared. It was made so that it would inflict a lot of pain but no harm, draining the victim of their vitality.

What she didn't expect was for Lith's mouth to suddenly open like a maw, filled with fangs instead of teeth. The moment her hand was close enough, he bit her deeply. The fangs dug into her flesh until they reached the bones while seven eyes stared at her with hatred.

Nalear ignored the pain, passing the club to the free hand, resuming the beating. The eyes burned bright in defiance, refusing to let go. The maw was almost closed when the head fell limp again. Even fury had its limits.

"What the f*ck are you?" Nalear cursed while using Invigoration to close her wounds and restore her strength. It took her less than a minute to heal the injured students and replenish their life forces with Invigoration.

They had spent no mana, so they were still in their peak condition.

"Here are your orders, my little lambs. These chains are strong enough to hold an angry Byk, but what's even more important it's their color." She pointed at the mystical aura surrounding the shackles and the chains both.

"When it's red it means Lith is unconscious. When it turns green, it means he is awake. As soon as it happens, you have to stab him with these knives."

She handed them the anti-academy knives.

"Don't stop until it turns red again. Wait for my signal. Only then you can kill him. Cut his head and pierce his heart. Just to be safe." The five students nodded in unison.

"After you are done with him, return to your rooms and wait further instructions. Tomorrow is the big day."

The next morning, Phloria hummed all the time while she was walking to pick Lith up for their morning stroll before breakfast. She wore the golden lily pendant over her uniform. It didn't matter to her that wearing an early present was bad luck, Phloria was too happy to care about silly superstitions.

'I don't know what Lith did, but my skin had never been so smooth nor my hair so silky and easy to comb. My sisters are going to be so jealous.' She inwardly giggled. What made her so happy wasn't the beauty treatment itself.

The changes were so slight it was unlikely for anyone to notice them and she knew it. The reason behind her happiness was Phloria felt something had changed between them after the date in Vinea.

Lith was a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but he was finally starting to unravel himself. When she knocked at his door and no response came from inside, it didn't spoil her good mood.

After ten minutes of knocking, she started to worry.

'Maybe he is just too tired. It's no big deal, we'll see each other for breakfast.' Phloria didn't believe her own thoughts. Lith had never stood her up before.

When he missed breakfast too, she was close to panic. The others tried to reassure her everything was fine and called Lith's on his communication amulet. Yet he never answered.

Fear started to spread, like fire through dried grass. The second gong signalling the start of the Code of Practice without him attending was the final straw.

"Where do you think you are going, Lady Ernas?" Professor Farg yelled at Phloria who was walking away.

"Enter the Warp Gate now or I'll make sure you lose more than a lesson's worth in points!"

"Feel free to report me to Linjos." Phloria retorted. "It will save me the time to explain to him what's happening! Maybe if two students disappear at once he'll move his lazy a*s."

Farg attempted to localize Lith with the artifact Lady Tyris had given her, but to no avail.

'It's impossible!' She thought. 'For his hybrid aura to disappear like this, he should be dead. No one can die inside an academy. I have to warn Lady Tyris immediately.'

Phloria had no Guardian to summon by her side, but she had the next best thing.

Jirni Ernas walked through the Warp Gate leading to Linjos's office less than five minutes later, wearing her royal constable badge on her chest, right above the heart.

"What's the meaning of this?" Linjos jumped from his chair. The Gate had opened without his consent.

"Royal override code." Jirni replied with a stone cold voice.

"I'm constable Ernas, investigating on a missing student case. Hope you remember my husband."

Linjos turned pale seeing Orion standing right behind her. The memory of him beating the Headmaster an inch from death was still vivid.

"What are you talking about? What case? Do you realize what you coming here could cause? You may have ruined a month of hard work!"

"Not at all. I have here a missing person report and the authorization to investigate." She slammed on his desk Phloria's statement and Elina's request for intervention. The two women had always kept in contact and after hearing about her son's disappearance, Elina would have even signed a deal with the devil to have him back.

"I have all the necessary paperwork. Find me Lith and I'll walk away before the Gate even closes."

Linjos had no choice but to comply. He attempted to activate the tracker in Lith's uniform and when it didn't work, he checked all the records about who had got in and out since his last sighting.

"This makes no sense. The tracker can't find him and no one has left the academy unsupervised yet."

"Well, the good news is that he is still alive and somewhere inside the academy. The even better news is that I finally have a reason to turn this place upside down. Tell Distar that I'm done waiting. Now we are going to play by my rules."

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Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

That was how Nalear had defeated Lith, but also the way Jirni Ernas planned to smoke out the traitor.

The arrival of constable Ernas was a big enough monkey wrench in Nalear's plot to put both her master and contingency plan at risk. It was impossible to use dimensional magic inside the academy because of the array blocking it.

The only way out was using the Warp Gate, but even with the help of her little lambs, it was impossible for her to drag away Lith unnoticed. Her teacher ring was useless too. It not only would leave a record of her position, but also could move her inside the fifth floor only.

'Each floor of the castle is huge, but with enough time they can search every nook and cranny of it. I can't hide Lith forever nor can I kill him and store his body in a dimensional item. I can't believe months of careful planning are about to be crushed because of a stupid girl!'

Nalear had underestimated the depth of the bond between Lith and Phloria, dismissing it as a simple crush. She was also unaware of Marchioness Distar's plan of putting the academy in lockdown to search for the traitor.

The information blackout had worked like a charm. The problem was the Marchioness had no way to know what the enemy intentions were. It almost resulted in a perfect set up to douse the fire yet to have it ready after the house was completely burned down.

Almost.

Lady Ernas was a decisive woman. The moment Phloria contacted her, she put her first contingency plan in motion, pulling a lot of strings and calling in as many favors. She knew Lith well enough to know that he wouldn't leave the academy without letting her little Flower or at least his mother know.

His disappearance could only mean something big was about to happen. Taking out someone of his caliber in such a clear manner, inside an academy at that, meant the enemy was as strong as well prepared.

Lady Ernas was certain she had not a second to spare. Alas, she was right.

Professor Amyla Farg contacted Tyris as soon as Phloria left, reporting to her everything she knew.

"What are your orders, my liege?" Farg asked.

"I'll be there in a while." Tyris sighed. From her throne, she could feel the air in the Kingdom turning heavier by the second.

"I mean to spectate, not to intervene. I feel that what's happening at the White Griffon is similar to Balkor's attacks. A reckoning. Humans are bound to make mistakes and it's only by suffering the consequences of their choices that they have the opportunity to grow.

"I don't plan of doing like Salaark and treat them like a bunch of kids that need to be held by hand. As for you, Amyla, do whatever you think it's right. You have my permission to use the full scope of your abilities."

After closing the call with Farg, Tyris called her only two friends. The fall of one of the Great Countries might be something all Guardians would like to bear witness.

Inside the enchanted box, Solus had long recovered her senses. Without her bond with Lith, she couldn't feed nor she could grow stronger. Only weaker.

That didn't mean she was powerless, though. She had still all the abilities of a yellow cored Awakened one. Invigoration didn't allow her to recover her strength but was a crucial instrument for her survival nonetheless.

She had spent months studying the boxes together with Lith, attended the same lessons, and followed all of his steps towards becoming a Forgemaster. Invigoration made it possible for her to study the lock keeping her sealed.

Solus wasted no time crying or despairing. She had spent the last few hours planning her escape.

'"Always prepared" my… whatever my a*s looks like, you witch!' Solus had never been so angry in her whole life. It could be said that even though she had developed the whole spectrum of human emotions, she was uncapable of hate.

At least until that moment.

Hatred was something usually Lith generated enough to supply a small army, something she was used to contain, being careful not being infected with. Now it burned through the very core of her being like molten lava.

She would have loved for life to be like those comics Lith liked so much as a kid. Where trivial things like love, friendship, or rage could produce miracles giving the hero endless strength.

If love could do any good, Nalear wouldn't ever managed to take them apart. If rage was worth something, Solus would have already turned the box into cinders to be reunited with her other half.

'Feelings have no power per se. They are only what drives you towards your goals. I have to do like Lith always does. Not let myself be controlled by them but harness them to keep my mind focused.' She thought.

'Luckily for me, this box has been built to be difficult to open from the outside, not from the inside. I also doubt Nalear ever suspected that the dimensional amulet she stole from us is actually empty.

'I still have access to a dimensional pocket full with everything a compulsive hoarder with full blown paranoia prepared "just in case".

'Wait for me, Lith. I'm coming for you.'

Tendrils of darkness magic emanated from her body, relentlessly eroding the internal safeguards of the box. Solus only had to make sure to survive the conflagration. To her it didn't matter who or what was outside the box.

The whole Mogar could burn for all she cared.

City of Valeron. Capitol of the Griffon Kingdom. Inside the King's quarters.

"Are you sure giving constable Ernas the royal override code was the right thing to do?" Queen Sylpha asked.

"Absolutely." King Meron nodded. He was engrossed in testing his Gatekeeper longsword potential.

"The more I read the reports about this Lith, the more I'm inclined to believe he is a natural Awakened one. Traitors come and go, we fight them on a daily basis. Awakened ones are too precious to be lost.

"If I'm right, he would be the first one we know about inside the whole Kingdom. We could even pitch him against the Magic Empress, if we play our cards right." The Magic Empress was the only known natural Awakened on the Garlen continent.

"How could he be an Awakened one if some kids are strong enough to take him down?" Sylpha found the idea simply absurd.

"Maybe he is not an Awakened. Or maybe the traitors have developed a weapon capable of defeating one." Meron replied.

"Whatever it is, we can't afford to stay idle. We are already left with only four of the six great academies. Losing the White Griffon and the most promising student in one fell swoop may be a blow that we could not be able to bear. Not now.

"We are already stripping the ancient noble households of their privileges bit by bit, redistributing them according to merits and loyalty. The Kingdom is still too unstable. If the traitor threatens one of our assets, we must react swiftly."

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"If there really is a weapon capable of defeating an Awakened, we must get to it first. That's why I've given her the royal override and control over a division of the royal army. We cannot afford any more failures."

Queen Sylpha pondered on those words, before agreeing with her husband. The Royals needed all the power they could muster to survive the impending crisis.

"Mom, dad! Thank the gods you are here!" Phloria quickly embraced them both. Their presence was enough to mitigate her fears.

"I'm glad to see you too, my little Flower." Jirni returned her embrace, feeling something was different about Phloria.

"There isn't a moment to lose. Mom, this is the list of all those Lith had marked as suspicious." She handed Jirni a list of names followed by their addresses in the academy. Phloria hadn't been idle either, collecting all the intel she could while waiting.

"This one is the closest one to my room." She pointed a name in the middle.

"Dad, whatever happened, it must have taken place between my room and his. I can guide you there."

"There is no need." Orion replied. "My amulet already contains all the blueprints of the fifth floor and the list of its residents. I'll go check on my own, you go with your mother. You are the only one that knows these kids. Maybe you can notice if anything is out of the ordinary."

'And maybe keep your mother in check.' He inwardly added.

Orion took off, quickly reaching Lith's room and moving from there towards Phloria's after taking out his equipment. Open spaces were a nightmare to investigate, too many things could go wrong.

Animals, bad weather, worst case scenario the culprit could burn everything. A closed space, an academy at that, was another matter entirely. Orion didn't take much to find the place of the ambush.

"What a smart son of a dragon." Orion smirked while finding a cut alongside the stones on the floor. Before falling, Lith had employed his failed slash against the girl to leave a mark behind. Darkness magic could delete many things, but couldn't hasten the academy self repair mechanism.

Starting from there, Orion found traces of water marking the use of ice magic and small burnt marks in the crevices between the rocks. That coupled with the lingering traces of ozone indicated a powerful lightning had been employed.

'Whoever attempted to clean the scene is an amateur. Either they know nothing about our investigation methods or they didn't expect an investigation at all.' Orion's guesses were actually both right.

Nalear had cleaned the crime scene to the best of her abilities, but not being a Forgemaster, she had a limited idea of what they could achieve, aside from what Wanemyre knew.

Professor Wanemyre was many things, but not a member of the Knight's Guard.

Hung on the wall, Lith had already undergone several cycles of regaining consciousness just to be knocked out by the anti-academy weapons again. Nalear's little lambs weren't allowed much freedom of thought or movement.

They were trapped in a nightmare of their own creation. When they accepted to follow Archmage Lukart's plan to trigger the civil war, only a few raised objections about the use of slave collars.

Even then, it was only because slave collars were one of the most universally despised versions of forbidden magic. Simply owning one carried the death penalty, if not for the whole families to be stripped of their titles and wealth before being executed.

Most of the little lambs considered slave collars the most natural course of action. Each one of them would receive a Master ring, allowing them absolute control over their victims. Just considering all the possible uses an obedient slave could have made their mouths watery.

Little did they know that even their Master rings had been replaced with normal slave items. Nalear made sure no little idiot could endanger her plan out of lust or cruelty. She hated nobles the most, so she had always intended to use them as cannon fodder, in case something went wrong.

Once the little lambs discovered the truth about their rings it was already too late. They had been trapped in their own bodies from months, drowning themselves in self-pity, which made them more than happy to vent out their frustration on Lith.

Between their rage and the boredom of the task, they didn't notice that every time it took them a little longer to make him faint again.

Unlike Nalear, who had Awakened at fifteen years of age with an already cyan core, Lith was Awakened from birth, starting with a measly red core. It meant that his body had all the time to adapt to the changes, expelling impurities little by little.

So far, Nalear's core had progressed only once because of the long time it took for her body to adjust from a dormant cyan core to an active one. It also meant that she had expelled impurities only a few times.

She was magically superior to Lith, thanks to her blue core, but her body was weaker. When she planned how to keep him prisoner, Nalear used herself as a standard. According to her calculations, the pain would keep him from casting spells before losing consciousness.

Lith's pain tolerance, however, was higher than hers, especially since the bond with Solus had been broken. The emotional pain he was experiencing, together with the endless void her absence left behind, allowed him to clench his teeth and emit small bursts of darkness magic inside his body.

With every cycle, Lith was able to shut down more and more pain receptors. At first, he would last barely a few seconds, too weak to project magic on the outside.

Soon, the pain wouldn't break his focus anymore.

Soon.

As soon as constable Ernas arrived, Nalear knew she had to move ahead of schedule, even if it meant endangering her master plan. Her lambs on the outside had warned her about an incoming division of royal guards. They would reach the White Griffon any minute.

Too many external witnesses would ruin everything. All of her planning was based on each floor of the academy being strictly isolated from the others and the outside world alike. The only silver lining in all that situation was that the Code of Practice had been suspended.

All the students were still present, making her plot still feasible.

She walked right behind Wanemyre, who knocked out Balfas, Linjos's secretary on their way in.

"Headmaster, we heard the news. Is there anything we can do to help?" Wanemyre voice was genuinely worried, yet her hands kept trembling, one of her eyes twitching.

"I wish." Linjos sighed, not missing any of the odd details of that meeting.

The two Professors had never been close. Quite the contrary, he was pretty sure that being Wanemyre from an ancient noble family didn't make her pleasant company for a self made woman like Nalear.

"Please, return to your apartments. You'll be contacted when your turn to be interrogated comes. I can't believe this is happening. Never before a student has disappeared like this inside an academy."

Those words triggered Nalear's rage.

"Yeah, if it happened outside, it would have made things a lot easier for you." Her voice was full of contempt.

"Nalear, I know what happened to you and it was terrible. Now things are different..."

A shower of lightning and ice rained down on the Headmaster while he was still talking. All he needed was to activate his Headmaster ring to trigger the defensive arrays and make the attacks vanish into thin air.

"How did you silently cast such a powerful spell?" Another wave of Linjos's hand and both Professors were trapped inside a circle of light. He hadn't missed how Wanemyre just stood there while he was being attacked.

Whatever was going on, he wasn't willing to take any chances.

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"So it's true." Nalear laughed maniacally, giving Linjos the creeps.

"A Headmaster is like a god inside their own academy. Sorry to break it for you, dear Linjos." Nalear took out from her pocket a magic crystal so finely chiseled it resembled a diamond. Each facet had a rune of power engraved on it.

"That's a power core unit. Where did you take it from?" Linjos was horrified by the implications the gem had.

"There are no gods in this world!" She ignored him, breaking the gem and causing the power core to temporarily shut down, bringing all the arrays offline at the same time.

Ever since the sabotage of the dimensional magic training hall, Linjos knew that something was wrong with the power core of the academy. That was why even when there was a desperate demand of Ballots, he couldn't allow having more produced.

Usually, the academy's Forgemasters would be granted access to the power core for several reasons. To create items linked to the power core, like the staff rings or the Ballots, for the maintenance of the array departing from it, or of the power core itself.

After the sabotage, Linjos had blocked the access to the academy's heart, adding such duty to everything he already did as Headmaster. The effort drained his mind and body, causing his premature aging.

Yet he did it anyway, for the students and for the future of the Kingdom he believed in.

'As soon as the crisis is resolved, I'll have the time to rest.' Linjos repeated to himself over the months.

All that pain, all those sacrifices, were for naught.

Nalear had already made Wanemyre tamper with the power core enough to create a power core unit. Despite its insane complexity, it was a pale imitation of the Headmaster ring, but with only one function.

Nalear unleashed a new wave of spells against the Headmaster. She had to be quick and kill him before the power core activated again.

Cursing his bad luck, Linjos could only Blink away to safety. The whole situation was a nightmare. He couldn't understand how Nalear managed to silently cast one spell after the other, without giving him any time to fight back.

Nalear too was cursing her bad luck. Her original plan was to lure Linjos away from his office and backstab him. Nalear would have framed Wanemyre for the murder thanks to the Ballot she carried with herself.

With the Headmaster dead, her little lambs would have the opportunity to butcher all the students of commoner origins or those from new magical bloodlines. It would make it appear as even after Balkor there was still a radical faction among the ancient noble households not willing to back down.

Her hope was that the massacre would reopen the divide between social classes and trigger the civil war. After all, Wanemyre and the lambs all came from influential families. The surviving students would be found in possession of slave items they brought themselves inside the academy.

All the evidence would lead to Archmage Lukart and his allies, there was nothing left indicating Nalear's involvement. Especially after she would have made sure Wanemyre and the few little lambs that worked with her died in the ensuing fight to save the academy.

A head on fight was something she wanted to avoid. The Headmaster robe was a masterpiece. It not only offered great protection from physical and magical damage, but also constantly boosted Linjos like potions would, making him immune to spirit magic.

Not to mention Linjos was one of the best young mages of the Kingdom.

The Headmaster didn't mindlessly Blink. The spell was too expensive to use it recklessly. He used it to keep his distance and reach hidden stashes in his office.

'Whatever she is doing, it's a game two can play.' Linjos unleashed a barrage of ice, fire, and lightning generated by alchemical tools. Just like true magic, they had no cast time. Nalear cursed, she was forced on the defense after barely three exchanges.

Each one of them was at the peak of tier three spells in terms of power and there were so many that not even an Awakened one wearing a Professor robe could tank them without risking their life.

Thanks to the defensive spells she had ready at hand, Nalear avoided the brunt of the damage, but Wanemyre wasn't so lucky. Even with the protection from her magical items, she was slammed against the wall and on the verge of unconsciousness.

To make things even worse, the smoke the spells generated engulfed the whole room, making them all blind. Or so Linjos thought.

Nalear activated Life Vision, making the figure of the Headmaster appear as clear as the day. She could see him casting an unknown spell.

"Just like Lith, you are making my life easy with your stupid moves." Nalear's voice was stone cold.

Her hands emitted a pillar of fire. It was her personal spell, tier five Searing Gale. It was a mix of air and fire magic, generating a small sized tornado of a temperature capable of melting stone.

Its tip rotated at high speed, making it capable of drilling through every defense she had ever met in battle. Even if the victim somehow survived, the lightning bolts hidden inside the vortex would fry or at least temporarily incapacitate the victim.

The spell struck Linjos's chest with surgical precision, yet the Headmaster didn't flinch. Searing Gale was being sucked in by a Warp Steps in front of him and unleashed on Wanemyre's right arm, turning it into cinder.

The shock from the pain of the amputation almost killed her. Only her Professor robe and the items she had Forgemastered for herself saved her life.

Linjos didn't mean to slay Wanemyre, only to incapacitate her. Alas, he had no idea what spell Nalear would cast next. The only thing he could do was to make sure that Wanemyre wouldn't be struck anywhere vital. He chose the right arm because a mage without their hands or voice was usually helpless.

Nalear cursed again, dispersing the smoke with air magic since it clearly was of no advantage to her. The room cleared, revealing Linjos wearing some kind of odd looking glasses while holding what seemed to be a steel tube.

"Hello there, young miss." Linjos's words were followed by a series of sonic blasts coming from the tube. Nalear found herself kneeling while holding her ears. The sonic booms were making her bleed from the eyes, nostrils, and ears.

They also shattered her eardrums and balance alike.

'Damn Forgemasters! Damn them and their creations!' Nalear knew how dangerous a Forgemaster with a dimensional amulet was. It was the reason she brought Wanemyre along. They were walking armouries and Wanemyre was supposed to be as good as the Headmaster.

Linjos was even younger than her, yet he had left his fellow Forgemaster no time to act. Linjos fired his weapon over and over again, until he was sure Nalear was in no condition to fight back.

He took out from his dimensional amulet a rope that bound Wanemyre by itself and another for Nalear.

"You have much to explain. I'm sure Lady Ernas will be able to learn from you everything we need to save the country."

Alas, Linjos didn't know that the only thing that Nalear needed to recover was to breathe. He had stopped his attack thinking that even if she had the means to heal such extensive wounds, exhaustion would have been the death of her.

Yet thanks to Invigoration, with every breath her body healed. With every breath, her strength returned.

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Linjos took out his communication amulet to call for reinforcements when Nalear's sword moved by spirit magic impaled him from the back. The Headmaster fell on his knees, coughing blood. The surprise almost made him ignore the pain.

"How? Why?" Were his final words.

Nalear freed herself and Wanemyre from the ropes, moving the unconscious Professor like a puppet thanks to spirit magic. Wanemyre remaining arm easily lifted the sword, decapitating Linjos with a single swing.

Blood spurted like a fountain, painting the room red.

"It is done!" Nalear laughed maniacally.

"Linjos died by your hand! By your sword! Oh Lyca, if only you could see. I'd kill you right now, but you need to make a statement to not leave any doubts about what happened here." Nalear took out her communication amulet.

"Rise, my little lambs! The time has come. Your final order is the following: do whatever your heart wants! R*pe, kill, steal! Have no fear for tomorrow because you don't have one. Show the whole world what kind of monsters you really are!"

And so, the final part of her plan began.

Outside the White Griffon academy, Lady Tyris wept warm tears for Linjos's death.

"Nice order! If it wasn't for her being raving mad and using slave items, I could almost admire her cleverness." Salaark said with a disgusted expression on her face.

"Watch and learn, girl. This is why I lead my country with an iron fist and why Leegaain abandoned the Gorgon Empire." She said to Milea Genys, the Magic Empress and also the only human among the spectators.

"Humans are cruel beings that inflict pain on their kin not out of necessity, but simply because they can. They can't feel good with themselves unless they stand atop others."

"Indeed." Leegaain nodded. "Violence only begets more violence. Abuses breed monsters in an endless cycle of blood and chaos."

White Griffon academy, right after Orion left and before Nalear entered Linjos's office.

Jirni compared Phloria's list with the one on her amulet.

"Good thinking, my little Flower. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, mom. I think we should start with this girl because not only she's close to the scene, but she also belongs to a very powerful family. It means that if she is involved, she has a lot to lose. You can use it as leverage." Phloria pointed out.

'By the gods, she is really getting crafty.' Jirni didn't miss her daughter becoming mature, nor the lily pendant at her neck.

'Let's just hope her bull-headed father doesn't make a fuss when he notices it too.' She inwardly sighed.

The two women quickly reached the room of Leflia Quaroon, daughter of Duchess Quaroon, an influential figure among the ancient noble households. While Phloria made way, Jirni studied Leflia's family file without finding anything unusual.

According to her personal file, Leflia was a tall sixteen year old girl with black hair and chestnut eyes. In a way, she reminded Jirni of her own daughter. She had flunked her Battle Mage class, hence she could only graduate as an unspecialized mage.

It made it impossible for her to achieve a high ranking.

The moment the door opened, Leflia's lineaments contracted for a split second. Behind the girl's meek appearance, Jirni recognized hatred and envy.

"Is there something wrong, Ernas?" Her voice was low and sweet.

"Royal constable Jirni Ernas. We need to talk about what happened last night." Jirni stood in front of Phloria, tapping her index on her badge.

"I'm sorry, I know nothing about it." Leflia opened the door, inviting them to come in. Jirni didn't miss her eye twitching for a second.

"The rooms are soundproof, inside and out." She was still denying when Nalear voice came out of her communication amulet, giving the final order.

The change was like a switch had been pressed. Leflia's features turned into a mask of wrath. She took out a short sword from her dimensional amulet, attacking Phloria in a frenzy.

Phloria didn't even flinch. She grabbed and twisted the opponent's wrist with the left hand, making her drop the blade. At the same time, she grabbed Leflia's neck with the right one, raising her from the ground with a single arm.

"You better start talking or I'll start squeezing." Phloria's voice was stone cold. She was barely letting Leflia breathe.

"I'll never talk, you wh*re! You don't deserve what you've got. You sucked up to two filthy commoners to improve your grades." Another twitch happened.

"Keep her hanging, darling. Do not let her go, no matter the reason." Jirni took her badge and passed it over Leflia's neck before moving to her hands.

"We are lucky." The badge had just emitted a ping while Jirni waved it over the left hand.

"It's only a slave ring."

"What?" Phloria was shocked. She had only read about them in history books.

"Why lucky?"

Jirni didn't reply. She stabbed the girl's arm with one of her needles, which acted as a nerve blocker. It immediately became limp.

"Because otherwise, I couldn't do this." She cut off the ring finger with a single movement. Only then the slave item could be removed.

"Why do you think they used collars in the past?"

After the amputation, Leflia changed again, sobbing desperately.

"It's Nalear! She made me do it. Lith is kept prisoner inside her apartments!"

Phloria was shocked by the turn of events, yet she retained the presence of spirit to stop the bleeding and reattach the finger with light magic. The cut was so clean the extremities took little effort to heal.

The moment Jirni stepped away, Leflia turned hysterical again.

"Don't leave me! She'll be back! They'll kill you. They'll kill us! Don't leave me!" She threw herself at Jirni's legs, hugging them desperately.

Lady Ernas took the needle out of her arm and into her neck. Leflia's pupil suddenly dilated while her body relaxed.

"Who is going to kill us?" She asked placing the girl on her bed.

"Everyone."

Nalear's apartments, in the same moment.

Lith's eyes opened, staring at the tireless efforts of his captors to make him unconscious again. They could stab all they wanted; he felt no pain. With his focus finally restored, all he needed to do was breathe.

With every breath, his body healed. With every breath, his strength returned. As soon as he had enough strength, he grabbed one of his captors with spirit magic, pinning her against the wall.

One by one, they all found themselves hung on the walls or the ceiling, just like him.

When Lith returned to his full strength, he started studying the locks. His mind was cold and rational, while his heart was scorching hot with rage.

Yet the void inside him devoured everything. The hunger consumed all other feelings.

Black tendrils came out of his body, eroding the pseudo cores on his wrists, legs, and waist until they exploded. Between his body being fully empowered by earth fusion and the use of Invigoration, he didn't care for the damage sustained.

The first lock almost cut off his left foot, the second one only gave him a third burn degree and some metal shards stuck in his flesh. With each lock he learned more, taking less damage opening the next one.

His fury didn't make him stupid; he kept the neck for last. The left wrist was barely scratched, the right one remained unscathed.

Lith grabbed the shackles at his throat turning them into dust before speaking.

His voice was coarse and guttural, his words growled more than spoken.

"Where… is… my… ring?"

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"My… stone ring. Where is it?" Speaking was a mammoth task for Lith. He had to focus and spit the words one by one while suppressing the urge to tear those present apart, limb from limb.

The fury running through his veins only steeled his willpower to find Solus first and butcher Nalear later. First things first.

The students were shivering in fear, but because of the set of orders they had received, they were unable to speak. At least until Nalear's final order came out of their communication amulets.

"Do whatever your heart wants."

"Set me free, you f*cking monster! Or my mother will have you and your family beg for death!" Some said.

"I beg of you, have mercy. Nalear made me do it." The others sobbed.

Two girls out of five students were cold blooded enough to release the spells stored inside their magic rings, uncaring for what would happen to their comrades. The shroud of darkness enveloping Lith engulfed their magic attacks, eating away most of their destructive power before they struck.

Yet because of the short range, they were more than enough to make him bleed, to rip his flesh apart, and expose his muscles. Lith reacted sending the darkness towards his attackers.

The tendrils pierced the two students, robbing them of their vitality while transferring it to Lith and healing his wounds. The girls withered liked dried up mummies in a matter of seconds, before turning to ashes together with their uniforms.

Feeding off someone's life force not only allowed Lith to recover without becoming more fatigued, but also restored his body's stamina as if he had a short rest.

'I have already used Invigoration too much. I need more energy. I still hunger.' Lith thought.

The remaining three became hysterical, screaming and crying for help. Lith had the darkness engulf them without inflicting any harm. The coldness it emitted amplified their fear, but at the same time made them snap out of panic.

"I'll ask it only once more. Where is my ring?"

"I don't know. I swear." Sobbed a red haired boy.

"Then you are useless."

The boy only managed to emit a short yelp before disappearing in the shadows. Lith's complexion was getting better with every meal.

Soon, it was clear they had no knowledge about Nalear's plan or Solus's whereabouts.

'Leave no loose ends.' Lith thought before killing them. He took a blanket to cover himself, before looking for food.

'Invigoration can give me back my strength and mana, Vampiric Touch can restore my fatigue, but none of them can replenish my nutrients. I need all the advantages I can get before confronting Nalear again.

'Judging by her order, Linjos is dead and the academy is about to fall. I won't let that witch get away with this, nor the vision to come true. Solus, Phloria, wait for me. I'm coming for you.'

After eating everything edible he managed to find inside Nalear's apartment, Lith stepped into the chaos the White Griffon academy had become.

Solus's patience had run out from hours, yet she endured. She could feel her strength dripping away, but so was the spell keeping her prisoner. Unlike Lith, she couldn't heal or recover her mana indefinitely, so she had to take a surgical approach.

First, she had to probe the mana crystal and the pseudo core's pathways, looking for weak spots. Only then Solus could open countless small holes, making the energies that empowered the box dwindle.

Each hole was too small to make the structure unstable enough to explode, but together they drained the magical prison at a faster rate than Solus's energy consumption.

The moment Solus broke the lock, the mystical box exploded outwards in a shower of flaming splinters. She found herself in the room of one of Nalear's little lambs. She had decided it was best to keep Lith and the artifact as far as possible from each other.

Giving the box to a lamb was her insurance that even if something went wrong, it would be impossible for Lith to find it.

Her jailer was a chestnut haired fifteen year old boy that was currently busy taking off the pants from an unconscious girl that was lying on his bed. She was also bleeding profusely from a head injury.

The moment the boy saw Solus, Nalear's highest priority order took effect. He took out his communication amulet to alert his master when Solus drove one of Lith's elemental blades through his throat with spirit magic.

The fire enchanted dagger made short work of the uniform's defenses, killing the boy in one blow. Solus was shocked. She knew Nalear's lambs were mind controlled and likely not to be entirely responsible for their actions.

She had expected the arrays to activate, saving Lith, the girl on the bed, and the lamb in one fell swoop.

'The only possible explanation is that Linjos is dead.' Solus inwardly cried. She really liked the Headmaster.

Having no time or mana to spare, she quickly poured a healing potion down the girl's throat before leaving the room. Solus discovered that closing the door was useless. The locks were offline, like everything else in the academy.

'Sorry, kid. I have no time to babysit you.'

She turned into her spider form and activated her mana sense. She could fly, but had no idea where to go. Walking on the ceiling would allow her to avoid being spotted while looking around for Lith. She wanted to find him as soon as possible.

"Fascinating, isn't he?" Tyris said pointing at Lith, who was walking double time through the corridor, slaughtering all those who attempted to attack him.

"Indeed." Leegaain used Life Vision, watching Lith's second form bulge from his aura, clawing to escape.

"He really is like a magical beast. I'd say his natural elements are fire and darkness." Unlike humans who were equally attuned with all elements, after evolving from their animal form, magical beasts would be limited to two.

At least until their further evolution into Evolved Monsters. Even the Guardians were no different. Salaark elements had always been light and darkness. They made her a literal embodiment of the cycle of death and rebirth, even before she became a phoenix.

Leegaain was a creature of fire and air, while Tyris's foundations were air and light magic.

"Isn't that the living artifact you told me about?" The dragon pointed his finger at Solus who had just escaped the room.

"You know what it is?" Tyris raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Sure I do. It's Menadion's Desperation. Her story is long but interesting…"

"Then, save it for another moment." Salaark cut him short.

"I'll call your father and Friya. You alert Quylla of the danger. If Nalear's pawns get to her first she is as good as dead." After hearing from Leflia what the traitorous Professor had made her do, Jirni had a grasp on her intentions.

After her sister, Phloria warned Yurial too. She hadn't forgotten about Lith's vision. As far as she knew, any of them could die at any moment.

"How did you know she was controlled?" Phloria asked after arranging a meeting point with the rest of her family.

"The twitch in her eye. Not even a strong willed person can resist a slave item, but they can signal their distress through small movements of the hands or the eyes. I know it from experience."

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"Did someone enslave you in the past?" Phloria felt her heart tighten at the idea.

"No, but every constable has to train against such devices to let their colleagues know about their predicament at their first meeting. Enough talking, listen to my words and do it carefully." Jirni grabbed Phloria's shoulders looking her in the eyes.

"Once we are out there, attack to kill. At this point, it's too late to save any of them."

"Aren't they victims? Just like her?" Phloria was having a hard time adapting at the circumstances.

"No, dear. They were ready to enslave people. They are as bad as Nalear is." Jirni shook her head.

"Also, if you show any mercy, they will not return you the favor. You heard her command, they'll kill us even if it costs them their lives. You have no idea what wearing one of those things feels like.

"You became a stranger in your own body, forced to do whatever the owner of the master ring wants. Most victims of a slave item commit suicide within a year from their rescue. It's like being r*ped in the mind and the body, every single moment."

Phloria unsheathed her estoc, taking a deep breath while thinking about her family and Lith. She hoped they would give her the strength to do what had to be done.

The mayhem taking place in the corridors soon turned the academy into a warzone. No one could be trusted, fear and paranoia made even the non mind controlled students attack anyone on sight.

There were more spells flying in the air than rice at a wedding ceremony. Solus didn't stop to watch at all the acts of violence, yet every one of the crimes she witnessed reinforced her hatred.

Stopping Nalear wasn't enough, Solus wanted to kill her.

Solus was getting more desperate by the second. She hadn't much mana left and still couldn't find any trace of Lith. Soon, she would be forced to trade her own memories to obtain the power she needed to keep moving.

'How can I sacrifice even one of them?' She inwardly cried.

'What if I choose the wrong one and become another person? What if I forget the reason why I'm even moving? By my maker, where the heck is he?'

She could still bond to another person, but it would mean losing him forever and giving someone access to all their secrets and most private moments. Solus would rather die than betray their bond.

When it happened, she couldn't believe her own fourteen senses. Solus could finally pick up an aura that she would recognize among thousands. Lith was just a few hundred meters in front of her.

She let go of the ceiling while casting their personal flight spell, soaring through the air like a small meteor. Solus felt so happy, so relieved to forget about everything else. Her other half was so close she could almost feel his touch again.

Alas, that cost her everything.

"Where do you think you are going, little one?" Nalear's cruel voice shattered Solus's hopes. Her spirit magic stopped Solus in mid air, pulling her toward the Professor's open palm.

"Who would have thought I would find you while looking for that damn constable? Heavens sure are on my side today." Even if she had been at her peak condition, Solus wouldn't have the strength to escape her pull.

She offered no resistance, letting herself be reeled in like an exhausted fish.

'F*ck the heavens and f*ck you a hundred times over!' Solus thought.

The moment before Nalear's pure mana could solidify enough to block her movements, Solus revealed her trump card.

She opened her pocket dimension, using spirit magic to unleash on the bewildered Professor every single weapon that Lith had Forgemastered and alchemical tool she had realized.

They were all medium low quality items, each one would have negligible effects on someone of Nalear's caliber. Their sheer numbers, however, were a force to be reckoned with.

"Where the f*ck all this stuff comes from?" Nalear's hate for the magical crafting arts knew no bounds that day.

Exploiting her enemy's distraction, Solus assumed the form of a snake, biting Nalear with all her strength. She still had the sample of Balkor's venom in its purest form. Solus pumped it all in the Professor's bloodstream, just to be safe.

The numbing sensation quickly spread through her hand, triggering Nalear into a panic. She had almost died once from the venom to keep her cover during Balkor's attack. Nalear knew she had no time to lose. If the poison reached her core she would die.

Also, she was no Healer. Nalear didn't have any mean to extract the venom aside from Invigoration, but it was hard to focus on a respiration technique while deadly blades and energy blasts were raining on her.

Solus turned tail, searching for Lith's energy signature again. Luckily, he hadn't gotten far, she still had enough energy to reach him. Solus flew as fast as she could, even resorting to employ her distress signal.

The one that had brought them to meet so many years prior. Anyone in the academy could hear it, but Solus didn't care. She wanted to get his attention before it was too late.

Yet it was a quarter past late. Nalear Warped in front of her, clutching her tight with an iron glove surrounded by a mystical aura.

"Damn Forgemasters. Can't live with them, can't live without them." Nalear spat in disgust. She had managed to move so fast only by employing the barrier built in Wanemyre's masterpiece while using Invigoration to expel the venom.

It was one of her strongest artifacts, along with the glove she was currently wearing.

"Thanks for making it easier to find you, stupid piece of rock." Nalear sneered.

"Indeed." Said a voice from another Warp Steps, shutting her mouth with a fist that sent Nalear tumbling on the ground for several meters despite the barrier shielding her.

Solus escaped her grip just for a split second before finding her into another one.

The contact triggered the bonding, making them whole again. For Solus, it was like being able to breathe again after almost drowning. For Lith, it was like seeing the sun at the end of an endless winter.

They became one, their minds fused in joy and hatred, allowing their cores to beat as one. Solus covered his hand, but this time it wasn't a glove.

The gauntlet covered Lith's arm up until the elbow. Its fingers ended in razor sharp claws and small blades came out from its ulna.

The gemstone resting on its center wasn't yellow anymore, but of a deep shade of green.

A split second later, the Gatekeeper sword was back in Lith's hand and the Skinwalker armor replaced the shroud.

Lith didn't waste time asking himself how it was possible nor losing himself in Solus's warm embrace. Not like she would allow him anyway.

They were one, which meant they shared their every thought, including the burning desire to kill Nalear.

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Nalear's own words echoed in her head, but now they sounded more sarcastic than triumphant.

'Like heck the heavens are on my side. What's happening here?'

The entire world seemed to have turned upside down in less than a minute.

Lith's corpse was supposed to be hung to a wall, yet he was jumping with the bastard sword aimed at her neck. He was also wearing the Skinwalker armor that until a moment ago she was certain it was safe inside her dimensional amulet.

Nalear had no way to know Lith and Solus shared a pocket dimension and thus the dimensional amulet he always carried around was merely a decoy. After Lith had lost consciousness, Solus had stored away the Gatekeeper, making it appear as it was Lith's final act before fainting.

When Nalear had taken away the rest of his equipment, Solus had bid her time, letting her store away the magical rings while mana sense allowed her to study the timing with which Nalear opened her dimensional space.

The moment Solus saw with mana sense the glow preceding the opening of the dimensional rift, she had recovered the Skinwalker armor just a split second before it could be stolen.

Nalear never bothered checking her loot because until Lith was alive, the magical items would bear his imprint, making it impossible for anyone else to use them.

The Professor was shocked by the sudden turn of events, yet she managed to activate the barrier in time, blocking Lith's first attack without a scratch. She still felt the impact, realizing that his strength was above hers.

'This doesn't make any sense. I Awakened almost nine years ago while he can't be Awakened from more than six years. It can't be just because he is a man. It doesn't matter. He is still just a student while I practiced magic for almost twenty years.

'While he spent the whole night getting stabbed, I had a good sleep. Whatever that stupid piece of stone does I still hold all the advantages!'

Nalear's reasoning wasn't wrong, but it wasn't entirely right either. Having graduated from the academy seven years prior, she indeed had a stronger core and more experience with using high level true magic.

However, Lith had a stronger body, all the knowledge from his previous life, and a rich combat experience. Not to mention that fighting Linjos and patching up Wanemyre had already cost her quite some energy, while Lith partially recovered from feeding on her little lambs' life force.

Nalear infused herself with air, fire, and earth magic, intercepting Lith's sword with her own. The impact made her slid a few meters backward, almost making her lose the grip on the weapon.

"What the f*ck are you?" Nalear extended her left hand, pointing the iron glove against him. A series of shockwaves struck Lith, like several cars were ramming against him one after the other.

Solus used her spirit magic to create a force field while Lith used his own air magic to disrupt the attack, making it lose part of its strength. Yet the remaining force was enough to make him crash against a wall, bleeding from his mouth and nostrils.

'F*ck! It's the first time I fight an Awakened with this much experience. Magical beasts were always limited to two elements while the Clacker Queen was as inexperienced as Protector.

'In a battle between Awakened ones, experience and equipment can easily turn the tables. I have yet to create a single damn tier five spell!' He thought.

'Do you think we should retreat?' Solus didn't like the idea one bit. She wanted Nalear to suffer an agonizing death, but the short exchange had shown her a gap between the two that fury alone couldn't overcome.

They needed a plan, a diversion, or both.

'No way.' Lith replied. 'The vision showed me someone capable of killing the Queen's corps before slaughtering my family. I bet we are staring at her.'

A couple of Nalear's little lambs joined the fray, showering Lith with a torrent of fire and lightning respectively. He kicked the wall behind him, managing to dodge both the attacks by jumping above them.

He impaled the students with the darkness imbued Gatekeeper, sucking away their life forces to restore his own. Nalear used the split second of distraction to Blink behind his back and decapitate Lith with a horizontal slash.

Or so she planned. This time Lith was ready. Just like her, he was silently weaving spell after spell from the moment they had met. Her blade struck Solus's spirit magic force field which made it lose momentum, allowing Lith to briefly touch her weapon.

His hand released a small but powerful globular lightning that traveled through the metal bypassing all of her protections. Thanks to earth fusion, Nalear managed to avoid the brunt of the damage.

Yet the moment the spell struck, it stopped her movements long enough to put her on the back foot again.

Yurial had yet to recover from the shocking news Phloria told him about when all hell broke loose. The door of his room opened, letting two students in. With the academy's power core down, the locks had stopped working.

Yurial knew the invaders pretty well. One was Lyam Lukart's cousin, a brawny fifteen year old boy. The other was a very cute girl he dated the previous year.

"You'll pay for what you did to the Lukart family, Deirus!" The boy said unleashing a fireball from one of his rings.

"How could you play with my feelings and toss me away like garbage? You said you loved me!" The girl conjured a swarm of small ice blades. They were all aimed to Yurial's nether regions.

Luckily, Yurial had taken Lith's vision very seriously. He had stockpiled his dimensional amulet with the best tools money could afford. Arrays were too slow to cast and healing magic dealt no damage. Since his specializations were useless in case of ambush, he could only be prepared for the worst.

The moment he realized the danger he was in, Yurial Blinked twice. The first moved him behind his assailants, leaving a Fire Seed at their feet, while the second brought him outside the room, just in time to close the door behind himself.

The three fireballs exploded almost at the same time, making the walls tremble.

'I know you probably were out of your minds, but I really want to live. I'm sorry I'm not a fighter good enough to have the luxury of mercy.' He inwardly prayed for their souls.

Yurial could hear terrible screams, some of pain, other desperately calling for help. He felt terrible ignoring them, but he did it nonetheless. After finding an isolated corner, Yurial opened a Warp Steps to the arranged meeting point.

He didn't immediately cross it. Yurial simply used it to peek if someone else was already there. It was only when he spotted Friya and Quylla that Yurial moved to the other side, happy to see again his loyal friends.

Friya was deadly pale. The rapier in her hand was dripping with fresh blood and her clothes were tore in multiple points. Quylla was doing her best to hold back the tears, clenching her knife with so much strength her hand was white.

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As soon as they saw Yurial, they immediately pointed their blades at him.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Yurial managed to stop at the last second before getting stabbed.

Seeing surprise instead of lust in his eyes, Freya sighed in relief.

"Didn't you hear that crazy b*tch command? I almost got r*ped thrice in the last five minutes. If it wasn't for Quylla I would be already dead, or worse."

Both the girls had Warped to the destination as soon as Jirni contacted them, trying to keep themselves out of sight and out of troubles. What they didn't expect was for every single mind controlled boy to recklessly converge on Friya on sight.

Her biggest mistake had been using a spell to kill the first assailant. The noise had revealed her position, multiplying the number of enemies. They had kept warping and fighting until that moment, managing to survive only because they wanted her body intact and because they completely ignored Quylla.

She had never been so happy for not being very attractive.

Phloria, Jirni, and Orion Warped there too a few seconds later. Aside from Jirni, they were all deadly pale and covered in blood.

"Glad to see you are all right, girls." Jirni checked her daughters and husband, almost ignoring Yurial.

"It's the only piece of good news so far. The power core is down and so are the Warp Gates leading here. It will take a while for the reinforcements to get here. I'm afraid when they arrive it will be already too late. I contacted Manohar on the way here.

He says they have their hands full treating wounded students and neutralizing the Professors under Nalear's influence. Trust no one. Anyone here could be an enemy."

They all nodded in unison.

"We have only two options run to the forest and get ourselves to safety or find Nalear and kill her. If she dies, all those under the influence of a slave ring will be freed."

"No, there is a third option." Orion chimed in. "The kids save themselves by hiding in the forest while we stop that madwoman."

"Don't go, please." Quylla sobbed desperately. "I don't want to lose my family again. Please, don't leave me."

Jirni hugged Quylla, trying to calm her down.

"We'll never leave you alone, darling. Our duty is…" Jirni stopped her eyes wide in surprise.

Quylla's blade had pierced her lung and heart, striking from the blind spot created in the stomach area when Jirni embraced her. There was a reason if Quylla had ignored Nalear's final command. Her duty was getting rid of constable Ernas all along.

After Lith, Nalear considered Jirni the biggest threat to her plan. She had come too close to the truth too many times. Nalear knew that the only way to kill someone so meticulous was to exploit her only weak spot. Jirni's love for her family.

While everyone was still too shocked to react, Quylla Blinked behind Yurial's back, cutting his throat from ear to ear. Blood spurted everywhere, blinding Phloria and Friya while Orion attempted to save his wife.

Quylla Blinked again, this time going for Friya's life. Nalear had given her precise orders. To make sure Jirni was beyond saving, Quylla had to kill all the Healers.

Lith pressed the advantage by activating his tier four true magic spell Burning Prison. Six fireballs appeared at the same time around Nalear, one above, one below and the others in a square shape. The fireballs exploded simultaneously, one reinforcing the effect of the other.

It was the same tactic Nalear had employed in her ambush and now it was Lith's turn to exploit the spell's nature to predict her next move. If she used ice to counter the fire, he would use lightning. If she Blinked, he would follow suit, stabbing her the moment Nalear reappeared.

Thanks to Life Vision, an Awakened one could see the exit point of a Blink, making the first one to employ such spell an easy target. Yet she did neither. Nalear activated once again her sword's barrier, using it to take the brunt of the damage.

It was one of Lith's best spells, yet she came out of it almost unscathed.

Almost.

Lith bolted forward boosted by air fusion, but Nalear was ready for him. With an upwards swing of her sword, while she was still in a crouched position, she managed to deflect the Gatekeeper and aim for his right arm at the same time.

There was no time to adjust his stance, Lith could only let go of the blade to prevent his limb from being cut off. Nalear smiled in triumph, aiming to Lith's head next.

That until she saw the Gatekeeper plunging from the air as quick as a bullet toward her heart. Only then she noticed Lith's right hand was bare, the gauntlet was gone. Cursing at herself for falling into such stupid trap, Nalear blocked the falling blade, leaving her side exposed in the process.

Lith punched her in the ribs with all his strength, cracking three of them. His aim was to break the ribs and use them to puncture her lung, but Nalear managed to fly backward at the last second reducing the damage.

'Damn! At least she took a solid hit. Sooner or later she will have to use Invigoration and that will be my only chance to take her out.' Lith thought.

Alas, Nalear was well aware of such a possibility as well.

Solus returned to Lith's hand, who was flying towards the enemy at full speed to not give her a single moment of rest.

Thorman, the Professor of the Mage Knight specialization, flew against Lith enveloped in a sphere composed by conjured shields which rotated at high speed. It was the tier five Mage Knight spell Revolving Fortress.

Lith cursed when Solus pointed out the Professor was wearing a slave item too. Now that they were activated, she only needed a glance to recognize them. Lith attempted to dodge, but the shields broke the formation barring his way.

At the same time, Professor Binlow of the Mage Knight class unleashed against him several armor shaped constructs. Each one was armed to the teeth but frail. Lith needed only a few slashes to wipe out shields and construct alike, but it gave Nalear the time to get back at her peak condition.

Binlow sent a pulse of mana, allowing the constructs from his tier five Personal Army spell to repair all the damage they had sustained.

"Sorry, Lith." Said Nalear with a smug expression.

"You are not the only one who has brought friends to the party."

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Going toe to toe with an Awakened one who possessed a stronger mana core and was more experienced with magic had already pushed Lith to his limits just to keep up. Even with his core and Solus's resonating, he was barely at the cyan upper stages, while Nalear had a blue core.

Now that he had to face her along two other Professors, Lith felt his heart sink. He had long learned not to underestimate fake mages. The only advantage he had against stronger mages was usually the surprise effect, but Nalear countered that.

There was nothing he could do that she couldn't, making his odds of victory non-existent.

'Damn! If I put my life on the line, I can kill one of the Professors, maybe both. Not Nalear, thought. She can always use them as meat shields to buy time and recover.' Lith thought.

'Should we run away?' Solus hated not being strong enough to help him. Reality was a harsh mistress, all her battle spirit meant nothing in the face of true power. It was better to survive to fight another day.

'Exposing our back? No, thanks. A tactical retreat may help, though. Divide and conquer. If I manage to fight them one by one, we can still do it.'

'It's a big if.' Solus was worried, the three Professors were all casting something big.

Meanwhile, Jirni and Yurial were quickly bleeding out.

Orion was using all his medical skills in an attempt to save them. He forced Jirni to drink top class healing potions while he used magic on Yurial's neck. Neither seemed to work well.

"Her organs are too damaged. She needs tier four magic." His wife was dying in his arms, but Orion managed to keep his emotions in check, assessing the situation.

"Yurial too is in a bad shape. The wound is too wide and is sapping his life force very fast. We need a Healer, fast!"

Phloria felt the ground crumbling under her feet. Her whole life was going down the gutter and there was nothing she could do about it.

'Why didn't I learn healing magic too? Is my mom going to die because I didn't push myself hard enough?' She thought. The truth was she never showed particular talent toward healing magic.

The academy was a demanding environment, so Phloria had applied to the Mage Knight specialization only to not waste her energies. Even if she did try the Healer specialization, she would have flunked after the first trimester.

It was just her helplessness talking, filling her mind with "ifs" and "buts" about what she could have done in the past to have control over an uncontrollable present.

Instead of despairing, Phloria activated Full Guard before Yurial's body could even hit the ground, quickly moving near Friya. Nalear plan was the basic of the basic: always get rid of the Healer first.

Since Lith had told her about his vision, she had practiced Full Guard relentlessly, even creating a better version of it. The moment Phloria touched Friya, the blue aura expanding from her body enveloped her sister too, allowing Phloria to share her multi sensory awareness of the space in a two meters radius around them.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, Quylla didn't strike immediately, retreating to a safe distance instead.

"She wants to prevent us from receiving help." Phloria understood what was happening. "Friya, go save mom. Now!"

Friya was still frozen in place. She had no idea what to do. She could only save one of them. The situation forced her to take an impossible choice. Phloria's order nudged the balance in Jirni's favor.

"Dad, give Friya some space and call Manohar. We need all the help we can get. I'll keep Yurial alive."

Orion nodded, understanding his daughter's plan. It was unlikely for Manohar, or anyone else for that matter, to have the time and the strength to help them. Moving them while in critical condition was also out of the question.

It was only a trap to trigger Nalear's orders.

'Quylla is a Healer too. If we snap her out of the slave item control, we can save them both. My little Flower has grown into a capable leader.' He thought.

Quylla Blinked, appearing at Friya's back only to find Phloria waiting for her. She struck Quylla's throat with her extended fingers, preventing her from spellcasting without doing her any real harm.

Only then she grabbed Quylla by the arm, twisting it into a submission hold and forcing her face down on the ground.

"Dad, search for a ring, a bracelet. Anything! If it's on the neck we're doomed."

Quylla struggled like a mad beast, but Phloria was taller, stronger, and ruthless. She pushed her full weight on the knee pressed against Quylla's back to keep her pinned on the floor.

Orion took off Quylla's rings one by one until he found one that couldn't be moved. A quick spell later, he knew what he was dealing with.

'It's the same model that Poltus guy purchased. Finally some good news.' Orion took out a tool looking like pincer clamps from his dimensional amulet, using it to grab Quylla's ring. He then channeled a Forgemaster spell that temporarily neutralized the slave item, allowing his daughter to regain her free will.

Amyla Farg had done her best, saving as many students as she could and bringing them to safety. The chaos and violence were overwhelming. Despite her efforts, she felt like she was trying to stop the tide using a spoon.

The mind controlled students would either Warp away from her or attack innocents, forcing her to defend them while they got away and found another victim.

She was starting to fear everything was lost when the artifact Tyris had entrusted to her picked Lith's signal again.

'Thank the gods he hasn't run away, yet. If I can convince him to help me, maybe together we stand a chance.' Professor Farg chose to fly instead of Warping, she had already consumed part of her mana trying to stop the disorders.

The scene at her arrival made even too much sense. Three Professors against one student, keeping him on the defensive. Farg recognized the crazed look in her colleagues' eyes. The thought of how deep the scheme was made her shiver.

It didn't take her much time to understand Nalear was in control of the slave rings. Cursing at the Kingdom's bad luck, she unleashed three tier four true spells, one for each target.

Sunray generated a white hot beam aimed at Nalear's back. Stormclaw conjured a small tornado which released wind blades in all directions. Lastly, Thundersnap released a chain of lightning that engulfed the whole corridor.

Farg would have replaced Thundersnap with an earth based spell, to maximize the destructive power of her combo, but inside the academy there was no earth to manipulate. The stones composing the castle were resistant to magic, even with the power core offline.

"Watch out!" Nalear warned her minions who otherwise would have no regard for their personal safety. The three spells converged a few meters in front of them, causing a chain reaction.

Stormclaw absorbed the massive heat from Sunray, exploding outwards in a massive fire pillar releasing scorching shockwaves while Thundersnap bounced off the walls, attacking the Professors from all sides.

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Thorman used his conjured tower shields to block the whole corridor and Binlow hastily activated a spell from one of his rings to conjure an ice wall one meter (3.3 feet) thick to stop the blast.

Lith could have used the diversion to escape, but charged forward instead. He imbued the Gatekeeper with water magic to conjure a cold aura and himself with earth magic. The combined effects were supposed to protect him from the brunt of the damage.

The fire pillar crushed the shields and melted the ice, yet it still had enough power to turn Binlow's constructs into gas. Nalear gritted her teeth, activating once again the magic shield of her sword while her minions conjured more protections.

Lith struck them from behind with the Gatekeeper, overloading Nalear's sword core and interrupting the Professor's spells. The barrier shattered and the explosion engulfed the four of them, but Lith made sure to stand right behind Nalear.

With the barrier down, she could either protect herself from the blast or from him, but not from both. She would also become his human shield, making it a trade worth Lith's while. Lith released all the spells he had ready, only to see them crushed by Nalear's glove.

Its magic could be used as a sword but also as a shield.

Then, the blast struck them and the four mages were slammed against the walls. As soon as the smoke dissipated, the corridor was peaceful again. Farg was satisfied with the results of her sneak attack. Every enemy was down and accounted for.

There was just one thing that didn't add up.

"Why didn't you run away?" She asked Lith. "Throwing yourself in the middle of my spell was incredibly dumb. You could have di…"

Despite Solus's force field and light fusion, Lith's ears were still ringing. Solus had no such problem allowing him to understand what was happening and cut Farg short.

"Don't let her recover, you idiot! She's the mastermind!" Lith pointed at Nalear's body.

Only then Farg reactivated Life Vision, noticing that Lith and Nalear both were getting stronger by the second, their wounds closing at a speed visible at the naked eye.

'Another Awakened one? This is a nightmare!' Farg unleashed all the spells she had left, but it was too little and too late.

Nalear raised her iron glove, hitting Farg with a series of shockwaves which crushed her attacks and sent Farg sprawling on the floor, bleeding from the nose, ears, and mouth.

"Seems it's just the two of us again, dear Lith." Nalear smiled without stopping to use Invigoration. Lith was still sitting on the floor, clearly the blast had somehow dealt him more damage than she had expected.

Lith took a deep breath. Talking was cheap while spells spoke loudly.

"Arise." He carefully avoided breaking his use of Invigoration, while all the fallen one rose on their feet to serve their master.

As soon as Quylla was freed from the slave ring, her mind collapsed under the weight of her actions. Ever since the previous weekend, her life had turned into a nightmare. The moment she wore the ring, she had been under Nalear's thumb.

She had fought the ring's influence the whole time. Yet her struggle didn't prevent her from feeling Jirni's blood and guts cover her hands nor Yurial's flesh tear up like paper under the enchanted blade.

Quylla stopped struggling. She broke into tears while desperately trying to apologize.

Meanwhile, Friya was already deadly pale. Regenerating Jirni's heart and lungs also required her to share part of her life force to prevent her mother from dying of weakness.

'How the f*ck does Lith to make it always look so simple?' She inwardly cursed. She was doing alone something that the academy trained her to do with two teams of three persons each.

"Feel free to take my life force." Orion had already done all that he could to stabilize Yurial. Friya thankfully nodded, taking only what she needed to keep her and her mother alive.

Phloria only wanted to hug Quylla tightly, to calm her down and tell her that it wasn't her fault. That everything was going to be all right. Alas, there is no time for kindness in war.

Phloria slapped her instead, hoping to snap her out of it before it was too late.

"Quylla, you are my sister and I know how this is hard on you." She held Quylla's face with both hands, forcing her sister to look her in the eyes.

"Now it's not the time for tears. You must decide how you want to remember this moment. If as the day when you saved your friend's life or the one when you killed your first human."

Quylla nodded her head, choking back the tears and the snot running down her face.

She placed her hands on Yurial, activating her diagnostic spell to understand how deep the damage was.

The spell gave her no reply.

She cast it a second and a third time, before finding the strength to put her hand on his heart. There was no pulse, Yurial was gone.

Quylla stood there for a few seconds, incapable of answering to their expectant looks. She felt something die inside of her. She had betrayed her family, her friends.

'How could I be so stupid to wear an enchanted item without even knowing what it did?' She thought in hindsight. None of the group had ever heard about slave items, otherwise Lith would have warned them.

Even his paranoia could do nothing against what he was unaware of.

Quylla joined Friya, giving her life force to both women to help them to recover.

Phloria and Orion understood what had happened, but there was no time for mourning their loss. They stood guard against the chaos surrounding them, blocking anyone that could threaten the ongoing treatment.

For Orion they were just kids, for Phloria were familiar faces she had seen every day for the past two years. Yet they killed them nonetheless. Only death awaited those who ignored their warning and entered the range of their spells.

Jirni regained her sense, coughing out the blood that had invaded her lungs.

'What happened?' Her mind immediately recalled the events leading to her near death experience.

'The wound was deep, yet I feel good. Too good.' Lady Ernas swiftly struck Quylla's stomach, making her faint and preventing her suicide attempt.

"My poor child, what have they done to you?" Jirni hugged her daughter's small body and kissed her head. Quylla was reduced to a pale husk, her skin was deadly cold.

Jirni stood up, letting her family embrace her. There was relief in their faces and warmth in their touch, but no joy in the reunion. Watching Yurial's corpse, Jirni knew there had never been a chance to save them both.

She could tell by looking at the guilt in Phloria's eyes that it was her taking an impossible decision in the heat of the battle.

'I don't know if Phloria or Quylla will be able to live with what happened today. I can't do anything to change the past. The only thing I can do is to make Phloria's choice matter.'

Following her directives, Friya stored Yurial corpse in her dimensional amulet. They wouldn't let anyone harm him anymore. Then, she had Phloria open a Warp Steps to the forest, to send the girls to safety.

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Friya was too weak to fight and Quylla was barely alive. They would be dead weight in the battle that was still ahead of them.

As soon as they crossed over, Phloria closed the Warp Steps.

"What do you think you are doing?" Orion was shocked.

"I already lost too much today." Phloria's eyes kept weeping, but her voice was steady.

"I'm not going to hide somewhere while you two risk your lives. Mom, dad. I couldn't live with myself if anything happens to you. Not while knowing I could have made a difference. Yurial is dead because of me."

"No, dear." Jirni caressed her shoulder, honoring her daughter's determination.

"Yurial is dead because of Nalear. You didn't make Quylla your slave. You didn't order her to hurt him nor you prevented the arrival of the healers who could have saved him. Let's put an end to this madness."

Milea Genys, the Magic Empress of the Gorgon Empire, had seen many awful things during her life as both wandering magician and ruler of her country. Yet seeing so many youths turned into beasts and lose their lives was a sight even her found disturbing.

"Leegaain, why did you bring me here? What's the point in watching this massacre and do nothing?" The fight between the two Awakened seemed out of a bard tale. Unlike the three Guardians, Milea couldn't avert her eyes from the bloodshed taking place on all five floors of the White Griffon.

"Because I wanted you to see first hand what was the Gorgon Empire when I left it. One thing is reading history books, another is living it." Leegaain explained.

"If you want to prevent such things from happening again during your rule, you must be brave enough to take unpopular decisions. Avoid grave problems long enough and everything will fester."

"Being a ruler it's not a popularity contest." Salaark snorted. "Those idiots of the Griffon Kingdom achieved such a long peace that they were afraid of the conflict with the noble households. Without conflict, there is no progress.

"They should have thought of the consequences of letting powerful people become even more powerful would have in the long term, instead of prioritizing the status quo. It ended with the Royal family almost losing its dominance.

"It would have caused a civil war that would have lasted years. Remember, powerful people already have all the means they need to protect themselves. If you let them, they'll drain your authority. A stable country requires balance and shared resources."

"Indeed." Tyris nodded. "My only hope is that, just like for Balkor, this bloodshed will bring some real changes. The royals have finally opened their eyes, now it's time for the nobles to see the errors of their way or get condemned by history."

Nalear was surrounded by undead students who stared at her with looks full of hunger and hatred. Their usually pristine white uniforms were tainted by blood and excrement, releasing a foul stench that would make hard for most people not to puke.

To Nalear it was just another day.

It was the exact same thing she felt every time she watched one of those disgusting stuck up noble kids walk along the corridors of the White Griffon like they owned the place. Nalear had suffered them ever since her first year of academy, back when she was just twelve years.

Her parents were employed as household staff of a minor noble and had been enthusiastic of their daughter becoming a mage. Nalear, not so much. Ever since the academy started, everyone treated her as a servant, not as a peer.

She hoped that with time she would manage to make some friends. That if she tried hard enough, people would see past her lack of a family name and respect her for her hard work.

Reality proved her wrong, turning her hope into despair.

She endured the hazing and the violence, only focusing on her studies. Magic was a fascinating subject, capable of taking her mind off the daily dose of misery. At least until it was night time.

In those hours, she would return to be just a little girl away from home. Nalear was completely alone, resorting even to eat in her room to avoid more "accidents." Most of the time, she would cry herself to sleep.

During the third year, her body bloomed and so did her magical talents. Things started with lecherous looks from the boys and harsh words from the girls, but quickly escalated.

Nalear was often groped while going to classes or before the lessons. Every attempt of self defense would end with her losing points and things getting worse. The Professors blamed her for being unable to fit in while the Headmistress condemned her overreacting over "practical jokes".

It was then that despair turned into hatred. When the academy turned out to be an enemy as much as her molesters were.

After a group of boys dragged her in an isolated room and almost r*ped her, the Headmistress finally gave her a Guilty Ballot. It wasn't something she could cover up, the wounds on Nalear's body spoke volume.

After healing the girl, Professor Vastor was ready to testify in Nalear's favor. His report would have likely put an end to many careers. It was only by offering a nice sum of money for her parents that the Headmistress managed to keep Nalear quiet.

The academy was still long and her family could use that gold to start a business. Nalear felt safe with the Ballot in hand, so she agreed. Her existence kept being isolated and miserable, but at least now everyone left her alone.

Nalear's hopes had long died, replaced by mistrust.

To never feel helpless again, she chose the Battle and War Mage specializations. Nalear quickly gained the recognition of her new Professors, Rudd included. Her mastery of dimensional magic surpassed even his hostility towards commoners.

Everything went fine until the end of the fourth year when the class went to the mining town to practice with mana crystals. Nalear had forgotten about the danger, of how outside the academy the Ballot was just a round stone.

It happened in the mines. Those who envied her talent, her ranking, or simply lusted for her beauty, ambushed her in a gallery. Their plan was to r*pe and kill her, disposing of the body in the forest.

Nalear fought back with everything she had. She managed to hurt some of her attackers, triggering their fury. They beat her an inch from death, until out of desperation she used her last ring to strike at a mana crystal, triggering a cave in.

The attackers managed to get away and left her for dead. They had dragged her into an isolated tunnel before she managed to regain consciousness. Deep enough to make sure no one would hear her screams.

They felt reassured when the cave in went unnoticed. They thought her death would be considered an accident.

Nalear survived. She remained there for over a week. Water wasn't a problem thanks to magic, but there was almost nothing to eat. Dimensional magic was blocked by the academy's array, so she had to survive by eating everything she could, even things that would make a goat throw up.

Rage kept her barely alive until she was rescued. After a week, the Professors responsible for her specialization courses got worried and investigated. Both the Headmistress and the Professor in charge of the Mana Crystal subject were fired, but the culprits got away with it for lack of proof.

Nalear spent all the time when she was recovering practicing true magic. Deep in the caves, surrounded by the mana coming out of Mogar, where it was so dense to take crystal form, she had relentlessly attempted to use dimensional magic to escape, until her rage and talent awakened her core.

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Because of the arrays, she couldn't kill her enemies, but now Nalear could ruin their lives. Spirit magic allowed her to make them fail every single subject they attended together. A nudge here, a push there was all it took to make them stutter or disrupt their hand signs.

Their performance during the final exams was so poor not even their parents could avoid their expulsion.

Yet it wasn't enough to quench her thirst for vengeance. She wanted them dead, alongside their families. During her imprisonment, something broke inside of her. As hope died, madness flourished.

Nalear joined the Association as soon as he could, racking merits by accomplishing the impossible over and over again despite her young age. The Crown attempted to recruit her, but she resented them for the academy system.

Nobles and mages alike fawned her, but she only wanted them dead. Her behavior left her alone, with a lot of enemies and no one watching her back. When she tried to convert her merits into titles and lands to put the families of her attackers under her thumb, only faraway lands in backwater regions were offered to her.

With no ally in the Court nor in the Association, no matter how much she achieved, her goals would always be outside of her grasp. She had tried to fight alone against the world and the world crushed her.

'I'm the victim! Why am I the one getting punished?' She thought while her madness and rage grew day by day.

When Linjos offered her a position as a Professor, she thought she could have a fresh start, but even under the naïve, gentle Headmaster things weren't much different from the past.

When Lukart offered her revenge in exchange for her help, Nalear accepted only to act as a double agent. She hated people like Lukart the most. Bringing down him and his associates was an opportunity she couldn't miss.

After seeing how deeply rooted was the rebellion, how mages like Hatorne were willing to sell their own kin for money, Nalear lost all hope and a plan formed in her mind.

Hatorne slave items were a terrible tool. She had managed to fuse Forgemastering and Alchemy to obtain some special pills that allowed to remove the cursed objects while keeping the victims under control.

Thanks to his associates, Lukart always knew when a security check was about to happen and had the slaves using the pills to pass the inspections. Nalear used the first batch of slave items she received on the students instead of her alleged targets, turning Lukart's accomplices inside the academy in her puppets and gaining control of every box that reached the academy.

After helping Lukart escape, he gave her his master ring. Just a second before she killed him and all his family with the tier five spell Raging Sun she had silently cast.

At that point, she had complete control over all of his assets, inside and outside the academies. She finally had the means to achieve her revenge. After capturing Lith, the Awakened one responsible of so many failures, and turning Quylla into an unwilling sleeper agent, Nalear's plan was bound to succeed.

Or at least so she thought, until Farg's unexpected arrival put down her minions, giving Lith the time to rise a small army of undead. Thanks to Life Vision, Nalear could see they were filled to the brim with darkness magic.

They were all lesser undead, nothing compared to Balkor's creations. Yet Nalear felt afraid. In a real battle, a moment of distraction was the difference between life and death.

With a wave of Lith's hand, the undead charged at her in a mad rush.

'It makes sense. He probably wants to stall for time, preventing me to focus while he cast his spells. Lith is using against me the same strategy I employed to capture him.' She inwardly smiled.

'He really is a good student. If only he didn't make friends with the enemy, he could have shared this moment with me. It's really a pity killing him but he left me no choice. He should have never got close to the noble scum.'

Even if its barrier was still offline, Nalear's sword had several tricks ups its sleeve. She needed but a thought to unleash part of the power the many mana crystals embedded on it stored. They generated a ice storm that was supposed to repel the wave and buy her enough time to complete her spells.

'There's nothing that Balkor did that I can't.' Lith thought.

With a snap of his fingers, all the undead close to her detonated, releasing a cloud of darkness magic that surrounded her. It negated the ice storm and sapped her strength.

At the same time, the rest of the undead shoot focused beams of dark energy from their eyes, replicating the effects of Lith's Plague Arrow spell. Unlike the Valors' attack, they were still slow and incapable of infecting their victims.

Nalear had no way to know it, she only saw Balkor's minions' attacks unfolding one after the other in front of her eyes, triggering her recent trauma. She went all out, releasing a blue aura while dodging or parrying all the Arrows thanks to air fusion, managing to complete her spell.

Final Sunset was Nalear's version of a tier five Battle Mage spell. It generated around her a globe made of darkness imbued flames that reduced to ashes all the undead that approached her.

Nalear could also consume part of the sphere, turning it into spikes made of black fire to attack her enemies from a distance. The two elements were fused together, allowing even the dark energies to move at a speed normally impossible.

Final Sunset was a perfect offense and defense that would stay up until all its mana was exhausted, but being a true spell Nalear could channel more energy into it at will. As long as she could use Invigoration, she was practically invincible.

She used her hands to better direct the flames, purging the corridor from the undead and the remaining corpses. Nalear wasn't going to underestimate Lith anymore, she now saw all the bodies lying around as potential traps.

Lith had a vague understanding of what was happening, yet he didn't panic. He kept his distance while making all the remaining undead detonate. They would do her no direct harm but they still forced her to consume mana to protect herself.

'It's nice trick, but it's far from perfect. To keep using Invigoration she can't move, making it impossible for her to hit me if I don't get close. Also, Invigoration can't be used for long. The more she uses it, the sooner she'll collapse'

Lith had just finished analysing the enemy's plan's weak spots when Life Vision showed him the exit point of a Blink quickly forming in front of him.

The dimensional fissure had yet to completely open, but the heat coming out of it almost burned his lungs.

'F*ck! I didn't consider Blink. She can still move without moving. Until that spell is active, I can't even get close to her.' Lith Blinked away, just a moment before the floor he had been standing on melted.

The fight had just turned into a deadly game of tag.

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Valesa Nalear had gained the upper hand, yet she couldn't stop cursing her eternal bad luck. Lith had yet to die, she had no idea if her plot against Constable Ernas succeeded, and it was only a matter of time before the academy's power core rebooted.

When that happened, the Warp Gates leading to the White Griffon would open again, allowing the royal forces to restore order. Nalear needed to make sure that by then the stage was perfect. Not a single detail could be overlooked or her death would be as slow as agonizing.

She was way behind schedule and the time at her disposal was quickly running out. Blinking consumed a lot of mana, but it was nothing compared to Final Sunset. She had already used Invigoration a lot of times.

To heal from the poison, from the damage she had exchanged with Lith, and lastly from Farg. She needed to eat and rest soon, otherwise she was bound to collapse. The raw amount of mana she was handling put a heavy burden on her body.

Lith was in her same boat, but his situation was even worse. His body had still to fully recover after he consumed so much life force to save Protector. To make things worse, he had spent the last night being tortured and his core was weaker than Nalear's to begin with.

Lith timed his Blinks with extreme precision, leaving behind darkness blasts whenever Nalear closed in. Another weak spot of her tactic that he had found, was that Blink's dimensional door would always appear very close to the mage.

It meant that a huge part of the sphere Final Sunset created was temporarily cut off until the spell reformed it. By leaving his spells near Nalear's exit points, Lith was sure he was chipping her strength bit by bit.

Even with Solus's help, it was still a mammoth task.

'Damn, if it keeps up like this I'm bound to lose. She knows even true dimensional magic, so while she can use Invigoration, I'm forced to keep moving to avoid getting incinerated and prepping my traps. Any idea, Solus?'

'None.' She snarled. 'We can't leave the sword in front of the exit point. She always keeps a fire spike in front of her before Blinking. The sword would be thrown away and I would take heavy damage.'

Lith nodded. He preferred to attempt to escape rather than putting Solus's life to risk.

'I can't believe there is only us fighting. Where is everyone?' For the first time since he started the academy, Lith wished for his companions to be by his side.

He needed only an opening to turn tables, but until he was alone, Nalear could focus on him. She was doing a damn fine job getting closer and closer. In a corner of his mind, Lith was afraid he had failed to prevent the vision from coming true.

Another exit point appeared in front of him. Lith was about to leave another Darkness bomb when Solus warned him.

'Behind you!' Thanks to being temporarily fused, he could actually use all of Solus's senses as his own. The warning was unnecessary, she did it only out of habit. A second exit point was forming at his back almost at the same time. Lith had no idea which was the real one.

If he picked the wrong direction to Blink, it would have been like throwing himself in the maws of the beast.

Darkness imbued flames came out from both dimensional doors at the same time, engulfing both ends of the corridors without leaving him no way out.

'F*ck, that's not Blink. She actually opened two Warp Steps at once. How powerful is she?' Lith inwardly cursed while their minds were spinning at top gear for a solution.

Alas, there was none. His line of sight was blocked by the flames and there was no one alive and close enough he could use as a benchmark for Blinking.

At least until Solus's mana sense spotted human figures closing in. They were still far, Blinking there was a big risk. The dimensional jump would take a huge toll on him and Lith could find himself surrounded by Nalear's puppets before having the time to react.

'In for a penny, in for a pound. "Maybe dead" always beats "dead as a doornail".'

Lith used most of his remaining energies for the farthest Blink he had ever attempted. Bending the fake spell limits put a huge strain on his mana and willpower, almost making him faint from the extortion.

Luckily, he found himself among friends. To find Nalear, the Ernas had moved towards the battle that produced the most noise. They had encountered and neutralized a few Professors before spotting Lith from a distance.

"Beware of her." Lith was wheezing, he was almost out of breath. The fresh air rejuvenated his lungs and reminded him how bad his throat was after being so close to a miniature sun for too long.

"She can silently cast any spell." He said while looking Phloria in the eyes. Seeing her alive made him happy beyond what words could express. Not seeing the other three sent a cold shiver down his spine, hence he warned his new allies at once.

Lith was risking to expose part of his secrets, but if he didn't, they wouldn't last long and neither would he. Just like the wyvern, Nalear was an opponent he couldn't face alone. The gap between the two of them was too big.

Phloria was brimming with joy too. She was starting to fear it was too late. That just like Yurial, Lith was lost to her. The relief she noticed when their eyes met told Phloria how worried about her he had been.

Jirni and Orion were surprised by finding him in such good shape after fighting an academy's Professor. Normally they would consider his words just a bunch of nonsense coming from a traumatized student.

An enemy capable of perfect silent casting outside first magic was more than unbelievable, it was something out of a nightmare. Yet they knew Lith better.

Even if what he said was absurd, it had to be the truth.

"Thanks, kid. Don't worry too much, in such an enclosed space most of her War Mage spells are useless. Also, Mage Knights are the natural counter to Battle Mages and I'm a Spellbreaker (AN: a mage experienced at killing other mages)."

Orion didn't believe much in his own words. Hunting down mages usually required a team of professionals, while his party was formed by two students and a non mage. As much as a formidable opponent Jirni was, she needed to get close first.

"Drink potions." Lith said to protect them from Nalear's first magic. He could see she had spotted them and he had barely regained two Invigoration breaths worth of energy.

"Thanks, but it's not our first job, Lith." The Ernas gulped down an oddly colored potion each. Lith could see their bodies brimming with mana.

Orion unsheathed his sword while his free hand composed the signs for a tier five spell at unbelievable speed. He had recognized Final Sunset's dark flames and knew how to stop it.

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Nalear walked slowly towards them, cursing at her bad luck. Quylla had failed, constable Ernas was still alive. In the face of so many opponents, Blink was a liability. Nalear needed to save as much of her strength as she could to make sure they couldn't escape.

Orion completed his spell. He conjured five shields made of ice, each one almost as big as the corridor was wide, that converged on Nalear from above and all the four sides.

'Fighting fire with ice is beyond dumb.' Nalear thought. 'As long I have mana, I can fuel my flames, melting his toys way before they can harm me.'

Much to her surprise, the shields' aim wasn't to hit. A Mage Knight was mostly a defender, they would attack only at close quarters once the enemy left them no choice. The shields grew in size and thickness according to Orion will.

Their edges merged, keeping themselves away from the Final Sunset spell's core while creating an air tight space. It was Orion's personal spell, Sealing Cube. Nalear's flames roared trying to consume the ice restricting them, only to disappear into nothingness.

'The stronger the fire, the more air it consumes.' Orion thought. 'Take away the air and a fire mage becomes helpless.'

Final Sunset failing her shocked Nalear, but not as much as finding herself suddenly gasping for air. The oxygen inside the cube wasn't even enough to sustain a candle, let alone the deep breaths Invigoration required.

Her vision became blurry, but she managed to activate the powers of her iron glove again, shattering her prison with a series of powerful shockwaves. Her freedom came at a heavy price, making it a hollow victory.

All the mana she had poured in Final Sunset was lost, Invigoration was broken, and she was coming dangerously close to exhausting her magical equipment. No matter how powerful the mana crystals were, they still needed some time to recharge and Nalear had been forced using the non stop.

To make things worse, Orion had devised Sealing Cube to implode rather than explode when subjected to extreme vibrations. Air and fire were the natural counters to ice, so he had made them their own worst enemy.

Nalear screamed in pain. Her body was pierced by countless ice shards, bleeding profusely. There was only so much damage her Professor robe could block. She activated her sword again, releasing a flurry of lightning to buy some time and recover.

Jirni had seen countless cornered magicians and outlived them all. As soon as she recognized the crackling sound, she struck four of her needles in the four corners of the corridor, channeling her own air magic inside them.

The needles were indeed one of Orion's best works. They acted as lightning rods, turning Nalear's desperation move into a fool's errand. The electricity was safely grounded, allowing Orion to cast his next spell while Phloria took the offensive.

She charged forward, keeping the enemy's attention on herself to buy her father the time he needed. Nalear was still catching her breath, her spell wasn't ready yet.

She moved her blade pretending she was going to execute a horizontal slash, while she used the momentum from her spin to lunge forward with her sword, adding it to the boost air and fire fusion granted her.

Phloria's swordsmanship was better, allowing her to read the enemy feint and dodged the blade by a hair, turning her body so that her back was against Nalear's chest. Phloria's right arm wrapped around Nalear's locking it in place.

Phloria switched her blade to her left hand, cutting off Nalear's right hand in one fluid movement. The agony didn't stop the traitorous Professor from striking her with the iron glove in the back with the strength of a charging bull.

Phloria was sent flying for several meters. She managed to remain conscious only thanks to her willpower and the powerful potion she had ingested earlier. Orion and Jirni were flabbergasted when they saw Nalear's severed hand go back into place, reattaching itself like nothing had happened.

Lith knew that it was thanks to spirit magic and Invigoration, just like he knew that her hand was far from being really useful. He had almost regained enough strength for a final attack.

Jirni rushed towards Nalear, fast enough to allow her to run on the sidewall while her needles returned to her hand on their own. They assembled together to the rest of the set, shapeshifting into a spear.

Jirni wasn't a mage, she needed all the range advantage she could get to keep enough distance to predict and evade the enemy's spells. She lunged it at Nalear's eye, to take her out in one blow.

Nalear didn't have enough strength in her left arm, so she was forced to use spirit magic to support her blade and deflect the attack. Phloria used that moment of distraction to Blink behind her back, her blade easily pierced through the Professor robe and her hardened skin alike.

Nalear managed to dodge at the last second, turning a fatal blow to the heart to one at her shoulder. Her right hand was still useless, her left arm fell limp, but she was still alive.

She roared in fury, unleashing a tier five spell while Orion did the same.

Nalear's Thunderdome was capable of trapping the surrounding enemies into a thick cover of lightning imbued ice. Unlike a normal thunder, it couldn't be avoided and continued to inflict damage until all the ice wasn't disposed of.

The cold surface formed a closed circuit that would allow the electricity to strike over and over until the enemy wasn't turned into charcoal.

Orion's Nether Seal was an hexaelemental sphere that enveloped the opponent greatly reducing the area of effect of their spells. It required a precise timing and concentration.

It was a static spell, hence if cast too soon the enemy could simply move to avoid it. Too late and it would be useless.

That was the reason Orion didn't cast it even after completing the chant. He had only one chance and had to make it count. Nether Seal blocked Thunderdome, restricting it to barely one meter radius.

Jirni and Phloria needed a single backstep to get to safety.

"Why don't you just die?" Nalear felt she was going insane. As in, even more than she already was.

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Never before someone had fought his battles. In all his three lives, Derek McCoy AKA Lith had always been on the frontlines, be it to protect his brother Carl from his father or working his a*s off to give his sisters some meat and bread.

Sitting limply in a corner was a new experience for him. It moved something inside the rotten heart of his. In a way, the Ernas where the family he had always dreamed to have when he was a little child.

Super powered beings that fought the bad guys together, no matter the odds. Spectating their battle almost made him feel like he had found somewhere he belonged.

Almost.

What really amazed him was how quickly everything was happening. He and Solus barely had the time to appreciate Orion's strategic prowess, Jirni's amazing reaction speed, or Phloria's swordsmanship that the combat had already shifted from one side to another.

'F*ck. In those damn action movies, the actors dance with bad guys for minutes, while I only got four breaths worth of energy since the fighting started.' Lith knew that in such a short time frame Nalear couldn't have lost much of her strength.

She was an Awakened with a lot of mana and a deranged mind. He knew all too well what kind of nightmare she could unleash if she was given the slightest chance. Lith knew because he was one as well.

"Why don't you just die?"

Nalear's scream was his cue. That and the blue aura that enveloped her body like a blazing flame. Lith quickly stood up, weaving several spells at once while imbuing the Gatekeeper with part of his strength.

He was ready, yet he didn't move. Orion had reminded him of the importance of timing and precision against a superior opponent. Instead of charging blindly like a bull, Lith choose to wait for his opportunity to appear.

They had the situation under control, so he kept chanting while using Solus's senses to not miss a single detail. The information she could get by spending her mana was overwhelming.

The slight alteration in the room temperature, the mana density, and even things like neural pathways flaring up whenever someone was about to do something. Lith had no idea what most of it meant and neither did Solus.

The only thing he was certain of, was that if they weren't one, with Solus acting both as a source and as a filter, all that information would have burned his brain.

Nalear tried to snap Jirni's neck with spirit magic, but the mana running through her veins thanks to the potion reduced the pressure to an itch. Cursing Constable Ernas once again, Nalear unleashed a spirit magic blast by making her aura detonate.

It didn't inflict damage. It was just a very strong push, yet being invisible it took Jirni and Phloria by surprise, giving Nalear a moment to catch her breath.

Or at least so she hoped. Lith was already in front of her, releasing five different tier three spells, each one aimed at a different body part. Nalear was still weaving her next spell while drawing a deep breath. She had no time to move nor hidden card to play.

She used spirit magic on herself, moving her body as a puppet and raising her left arm in the nick of time. The iron glove emitted another series of shockwaves, blasting away Lith's spells before proceeding to do the same with him.

Nalear realized too late that a similar thing had happened earlier. Lith falling for the same trick twice was unlikely.

Indeed it was.

Lith released his sixth spell, conjuring a concave ice wall in front of himself. It was just a regular ice wall with a different shape, but Lith hoped it would be enough. Orion had shown him how the shockwaves were just sound.

Lith's plan was to weaken them with the five spells first and then bounce them back to the sender with the thick ice wall reinforced by Solus's spirit magic. It was an improvised spell born out of sudden inspiration, so even when it only partially succeeded, Lith still considered it a success.

The wall reflected only half of the shockwaves' strength while the other half struck Lith. Both the Awakened ones were sent flying, but only one of them had allies. The hit broke Nalear's focus disrupting her spell and breathing technique alike.

Phloria didn't miss the opportunity. She activated Blast Guard, a Mage Knight tier four spell that burned Nalear's back, bouncing her toward Jirni like a pinball. Jirni took out her Gatekeeper short sword, imbuing it with air magic to enhance its edge.

Even while moving at high speed, Nalear managed to alter her trajectory with spirit magic enough to avoid Jirni chopping off her head. Lady Ernas reacted in time, adjusting the angle of her slash, opening a deep cut in Nalear's side as consolation prize.

Nalear gritted her teeth, holding back tears of desperation.

'If I'm really going to die, I will take you all down with me.' She thought.

"When is he going to transform?" Milea asked.

"Transform?" The Guardians asked as one.

"Didn't you all come here to understand what he is? If there isn't going to be a world tribulation, what's the point of staying here?"

"Kid, if every time someone fights for their life a world tribulation started, there would be only Guardians left alive on Mogar." Salaark guffawed.

"We can study him from this distance even without a tribulation." Leegaain offered her his hand, which Milea took without hesitation. Thanks to that contact, she was able to share the Guardian's Soul Vision.

It showed her the real nature of things. The Guardians appeared in their true forms, humongous mass of power in the form of a Griffon, a Phoenix, and a Dragon. Each one of them was so big their heads seemed to reach the sky and their feet Mogar's core.

The White Griffon academy looked like a kneeling white knight, wounded all over. Their pristine armor was tainted by the red of blood and the black of death.

Lith was fully transformed in her eyes and so was Nalear. He was now over two meters tall (7 feet) and covered by black scales the tip of which was bright red from the scorching heat that coursed through them.

Two curved horns resided on his featureless head, together with seven yellow eyes and a maw opened in a cruel smile that revealed the fire burning within. Two pairs of upside down membranous wings came out of his back, as well as a long tail ending in several bone blades.

Nalear looked like herself, but she was wearing a long white tunic dirty with blood and mud. Her hair moved like she was in the middle of a storm, her eye sockets were empty black holes, shedding tears of blood while her mouth was wide open in an eternal silent scream.

"Teacher, he really looks like one of your humanoid forms, but her… Isn't that a banshee? Is she going to evolve into an undead Guardian?" Milea had no other explanation to such a vision.

Orion and Phloria appeared no different from their human form, while Jirni's skin appeared grey. Blood was constantly dripping from her hands.

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"Indeed, but at this point of his evolution it's too early to tell." Leegaain explained.

"Most of those traits are common in reptile Guardians. He may become a dragon, a basilisk, a leviathan, or maybe something new entirely. As for her, she hasn't undergone a single tribulation. What you see is a lost soul drove mad by pain.

"Her appearance means that her grudge is so deep not even death can stop it. That woman is likely to turn into an undead if her body isn't cleanly disposed of."

Nalear tumbled on the floor with Jirni in hot pursuit. Her blade followed Nalear's major arteries' every movement, ready to strike as soon as she was close enough. Nalear suddenly Blinked, but Jirni was expecting such a move.

She sidestepped while executing a circle slash, putting her back against the wall and hitting the space 180 around her at the same time. Yet Nalear wasn't there.

She appeared in front of a stunned Orion, hitting him squarely on the jaw with the iron gauntlet. He didn't lose consciousness, but he would be incapacitated for a few seconds. More than enough to put an end to the fight.

She Blinked again, a split second before Lith could exploit the opening at her back. He cursed his lack of true dimensional magic which made him slower than Nalear while using a healing spell on Orion, hastening his recovery.

Nalear Blinked back to Jirni, a knife dripping poison in the left hand and the sword in the right one. Normally Lith would have admired her mastery of spirit magic, which allowed Nalear to move even better than when she was unscathed.

The burden on her body had to be enormous and so the pain, yet she endured it like it was nothing. The knife was all Lith needed to set his course of action.

He interrupted the healing and prepared the next spell as fast as he could.

Nalear clashed with Jirni for a split second, disappearing again just to reappear behind Phloria's back with her knife already lunging forward. Instead of Phloria's flesh, the knife bit Lith's stone gauntlet, making sparks but no damage.

Lith had Switched with Phloria at the last second, headbutting Nalear in the nose before she could recover from the surprise and Blink again. The nose broke, filling Nalear's eyes with tears and her mouth with blood, making it difficult for her to breathe.

Lith slashed downwards while holding the Gatekeeper with both hands, aiming for her neck. She used her own blade to block, reinforcing her weakened arms with spirit magic. Lith followed suit.

The Gatekeeper was already infused with great elemental energies and now was boosted by Lith's enhanced body, fusion, and spirit magic, while Nalear's sword was at its weakest.

The blade shattered on impact, still exerting enough resistance to deflect the hit but not enough to prevent Lith to adjust the trajectory and cut Nalear's left arm. Before the glove could reach the ground and emit a metallic clang, Lith spun on himself to exploit his own momentum.

The Gatekeeper rose and fell again, this time chopping Nalear diagonally from the right shoulder to the left hip. Lith had the sword reduce its size, short enough to decapitate her and stab her heart in a single fluid motion.

The energies coursing through the blade consumed the corpse like fire burning dried grass until nothing remained.

"Does that qualify as 'clean disposal'?" Milea asked.

"It surely does." Tyris nodded.

Nalear's death marked the end of the hostilities inside the White Griffon. Once the master ring lost her imprint, it turned to dust and so did all the slave items. It was one of Hatorne's safety features to leave behind no traces after the deed was done.

Lith fell on his knees. The rushed Switch and the use of spirit magic to overcome his limits had drained him of any strength. Phloria helped him to get up. His legs were too shaky to sustain Lith anymore.

The gauntlet disappeared. With Nalear's death, the bond was back to its usual strength. Solus went back being a ring, her core reverting to yellow just as Lith's turned from bright cyan to just cyan.

As he gasped for air, feeling his arms as heavy as lead, his mind was once again assaulted by the vision. This time the images didn't fade away. Every single one of them shattered like broken glass.

The academy burning, Phloria's death as well as Lith's family's slaughter. Everything crumbled, replaced by a blank slate. Lith and Solus instinctively knew it was because the threat was over. Lith's soul was finally at rest and the future unknown as it was supposed to be.

"What you did was crazy dangerous." Phloria was still terrified.

"How did you know where she would reappear and the angle of the strike? One mistake and she would have stabbed you instead."

"The vision." Lith replied. "I replayed in my mind the part where you got stabbed so many times I could follow her blade with my eyes closed."

It was far from a romantic phrase, yet Phloria felt her heart flutter.

"Where are the others?" Lith asked.

"They are safe." Phloria chose her words carefully, trying to hide the pain gripping her voice the best that she could. Her heart sank as soon as the adrenaline from the battle started to fade away.

Phloria was ridden by guilt for her choice of putting her mother above her friend's life. Lith didn't miss her distress. The cheeks that were just turning red were now pale.

"What happened?" He asked. Orion could see his daughter struggling to find the words and stepped forward to take the burden off her shoulders.

"Don't." Jirni stopped him. "I know that it's painful, but she has to live with it. The sooner she faces reality the better. We can't protect her forever."

Orion held his wife's hand tight, nodding. He didn't like Lith one bit. Orion had read his personal file, watched all the recordings related to him and found his evaluation accurate.

Yet after all he did for Orion's little Flower during Balkor's attack, after seeing Lith in action, spitting blood to protect his family, Orion had come to respect Lith. He treated Phloria right and made her happy as Orion had never seen her before.

He couldn't ask for more, not without feeling a sadistic hypocrite.

Orion couldn't stand the thought that just after being reunited such a revelation could split them apart forever.

Phloria led Lith to a corner, making him sit before telling him the whole story. Her voice was shaky, the pain and regret palpable, yet she managed not to cry.

Lith said nothing. His mind believed her, Phloria would never pull such a cruel joke on him. His heart, however, was struck in denial.

"Can I see his body?" Lith had managed to prevent the vision from coming true, yet it felt a hollow victory to him.

"I'm sorry. I'm too weak to open a Warp Steps right now." Phloria shook her head.

"I'm so sorry. I'm always so useless." Tears started to streak from her eyes.

"No, you are not." Lith forced himself to stand up, hugging her and letting Phloria bury her head on his shoulder.

"It's all my fault." She sobbed, searching for his warmth.

"If that's true, then I'm as responsible for Yurial's death as you are. If only I cared for him a bit more, then maybe my vision would have shown us his fate too. Maybe, his father would have allowed him to stay home."

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"How can it be your fault?" Phloria raised her head, looking Lith in the eyes.

"You warned us multiple times. You wanted us to stay away from the academy."

"How can it be your fault?" Lith took her face between his hands, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs.

"You did all you could in an impossible situation. In your shoes, I would have done the same thing. We always give priority to those we love the most. My vision is a perfect example of it."

"I don't know about you two, but I'm dead tired. Taking down crazy Professors is way harder than I imagined." Jirni sat down, leaning her back against the wall and dragging Orion to her side.

She was happy the kids were having a moment, but she couldn't allow them to keep beating themselves up. They were clearly exhausted, both mentally and physically.

'Phloria has too much on her plate already. Yurial's death, killing humans for the first time, spectating all the horrors humans inflict on their own kind. If she doesn't rest a bit, when the nervous breakdown hits her it could be fatal.' Jirni knew her daughter well.

It wasn't a matter of 'if', the only variable was 'when'.

Phloria followed suit. There was nothing she wanted to say or hear anymore. She was so tired that words, like violence, could only cause her more pain. Phloria and Lith fell asleep almost immediately, leaning against each other while clenching their hands like they were a lifeline.

Jirni looked at them with a tender expression, before turning to Orion with her trademark "I told you so" grin.

"He snores." It was all he could think about for a snarky reply.

"And so does she. They make a fine tune nonetheless." Jirni rebuked.

"Look, I'm too tired to play this game." Orion sighed. "Why don't we follow their lead and get a little shut eye?"

"Because we are the adults and because we don't know if Nalear had associates or a back up plan. I'm not lowering my guard until we are back home."

Tyris appeared next to Amyla Farg, bringing her back to her peak condition with a simple touch.

She woke up abruptly, a Gatekeeper longsword appeared in her hand while she looked around for the enemy.

"I hope you have learned your lesson." Tyris said with a gentle smile.

"I hope everyone will." She sighed, looking at Billow and Thorman still laying on the ground, alive but unconscious.

"What happened? How could she recover like that?" Farg was shocked. She was still a rookie in the Corpse. She never expected for natural Awakened to be so different from the artificial ones.

"Awakening it's the first step towards becoming one with Mogar. She was a much lesser version of a Guardian, but still had access to an almost endless supply of mana." Tyris's explanation was cryptic on purpose.

She wanted Farg to understand her limits without giving her any hints about the Awakening process. Tyris had learned from experience that power couldn't be gifted recklessly. It had to be earned.

"What?" Farg felt her heart skip a beat, promising herself that from that moment onwards she would always put down an unknown enemy unless ordered otherwise.

"Almost." Tyris repeated herself. "Follow me, there is still much I have to teach you before the academy starts again."

Jirni's worries turned out to be groundless. Nothing happened for several minutes, until the academy's power core turned back online. It allowed the members of the army to cross the Warp Gate and secure the place.

Thanks to the royal override code, Jirni could temporarily turn off the arrays, making it possible for Phloria to bring Friya and Quylla back. Friya was barely able to walk, while Quylla was still out cold.

Jirni moved them all to the White Griffon hospital with a Warp Steps. For the first time in its history, the hospital was understaffed and unprepared to handle an emergency of such a scale.

There wasn't a single free spot. Its wings usually so orderly and quiet were now a chaotic mess. Manohar managed to check them up, marking Quylla as the only one in need of urgent medical attention.

After stabilizing her condition, he immediately returned to his most severe cases. Jirni had let them sleep until the whole academy was safe again, so Lith had regained a part of his strength.

'My body is still battered. Even with Invigoration, I can barely access to 60% of my full power. It's still much better than when I saved Protector. Yurial's body is inside a dimensional amulet, so there isn't much hope. If there is even a ghost of a chance, I must give it a try.

'I wish I knew how to contact Scarlett.' Lith sighed.

The Lord of the forest had saved him and Protector in the past. Her expertise with true magic was unparalleled.

Friya took out Yurial's corpse from her dimensional amulet, laying it on a bed.

Lith used Invigoration together with all the diagnostic spells he knew. Nothing worked. There was no life force, no mana core, nothing he could rejuvenate.

"He's really dead." Lith shook his head. He covered Yurial's corpse with a sheet, hiding the gaping wound that lesser healing magic had failed to treat.

The surviving members of the group hugged each other, sharing their pain. All hope was lost, the only thing left to do for them was grieving.

The following days were hectic, at least for the Royals and the staff of the White Griffon academy. Nalear's contingency plan consisted in releasing to the public all the video recordings and documents connecting many of the most powerful noble households to Archmage Lukart.

They revealed their plans for the civil war, proving the involvement of many influential nobles in funding Hatorne's work and providing her the necessary materials to realize the improved slave items.

Everything had to be double checked, since the source of the evidence was still a traitorous mass murder. The detailed financial records and shipments tracking documents made it easy for the Royal Constables to verify the information.

The Crown was finally able to purge many of the most dangerous elements of the Court, stripping their families of a considerable portion of their authority. In any other circumstances, the nobles would have rebelled, but they were caught in a perfect storm.

The Crown suppressed their finances, the army and the Mage Association ostracized their members, while commoners and the new magical bloodlines were just expecting the nobles to give them an excuse to burn them at the stakes.

Too many had died in a single day. The blame fell on them like the ax of the executioner, crippling the noble households.

One fourth of the White Griffon students and Professors were dead or mentally scarred to the point of being barely functional. Most of the survivors among the slave items bearers were quarantined, waiting to be interrogated.

"Nalear made me do it." Was too cheap an excuse. The documents proved that while some were truly victims, others were just perpetrators caught in their own scheme.

Professor Duke Marth was promoted to the role of new Headmaster. He was perfect for the role. Not too young nor too old, well liked, brilliant in his field and also a Forgemaster.

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Vastor and Rudd were deemed too old for the role, plus their love for ancient magical bloodlines was well known. It made them even more undesirable than they already were, even as simple Professors.

Their ties with many of the families implicated with the scandal made their positions precarious at best.

Manohar was considered a visionary in the healing hearts, a true genius, or, to put it in less kind words, a complete nutjob. He was fickle and unreliable, not to mention his biography was full of social blunders to the point of being universally considered an etiquette book about how not to behave.

He resented the Crown judgment, but only until his first visit to Marth's new office. Just seeing how busy his schedule was and the amount of paperwork being Headmaster involved, Manohar was tempted to taking another "vacation."

The Crown had no time to waste with him, so the literally chained Manohar to the academy, just to stay safe.

Professor Wanemyre was among the mentally and physically scarred. Regrowing her arm was easy, but the memories of all Nalear had made her do almost destroyed her. She was forced to take a sabbatical, receiving the best care and counseling the Griffon Kingdom could offer.

Lith moved with his whole family to the Ernas Household again. Even Rena and her husband were forced to relocate. Lith wouldn't let his sister and niece be further than his arm's reach.

Yurial's loss wasn't devastating for him as losing Protector was. They had known each other for barely a year and their relationship had been shallow until the fourth year's second exam.

Still, Yurial was the first man Lith was almost ready to call a friend, someone he went through thick and thin together. Lith wasn't responsible in any way for his death and not being present when it happened made it easier for him to feel detached.

At least until Archmage Deirus went to visit him. Lith's first impulse was to kick the man in the groin and beat him to death. An impulse he quickly suppressed. Velan Deirus was guilty of being an uncaring father, but nothing more.

Lith knew that just like after Protector's disappearance, his first instinct was to find someone to put the blame on. The visit was very brief. Lith could control his violent impulses, but his eyes were filled with scorn and reproach.

Archmage Deirus couldn't stand those eyes. They were identical to those that pierced his soul every time he was in front of a mirror. He remained only the time necessary to give Lith a small package.

It was full of notebooks filled with Yurial's handwriting. They contained all the knowledge he had acquired about the impossible arrays, the results of his experiments, and his suggestions about how to further the research.

Deirus knew who to give them because on the first page of each of them was written in big letters: "For Lith". He had found them once he opened his son's dimensional amulet after recovering his body.

Velan had also found Yurial's diaries, discovering how painful his existence had been, how neglected he had felt. How despite having found a better family within the academy walls rather than inside his own Household, Yurial was still ready to perform his duty.

Yurial's love for his father and his people was greater than everything life had put him through. Velan Deirus cried a lot reading his son's most private thoughts, finding himself more monstrous than any of those involved in Yurial's death.

He had nurtured a future leader, a great mage, but at the same time, he had shown no care for the man destined to bear those pompous titles. Velan realized to have killed his own son multiple times over the years, always putting his own interests over Yurial's well being.

After Velan left, Lith made one of the biggest mistakes in his life. He put the notebooks inside Soluspedia, accessing at all of them at once. In between of his research notes, Yurial had also written all the things that he wanted to share with Lith.

All the thoughts they never had the time to talk about because of the academy. Reading how Yurial had always considered him like a big brother and a true friend, ripped Lith's soul to shreds. It made him understand how precious was their bond.

He had moved to the Ernas household only because he knew that to overcome the grief before the academy started again, he needed all the help his family could give him. A noble household was the safest and most comfortable place for his purpose.

Also, Phloria needed him. Lith would never leave her alone while she was facing something even worse than Carl's death. At least Carl had died by the hand of a stranger, when Lith was already a grown, bitter, cold hearted man.

Phloria was ridden by the guilt of having indirectly caused Yurial's death, of having killed mind controlled students to defend her family. Friya was in an almost identical situation. The blood on Phloria's hands was the same that was on hers.

She had mindlessly obeyed to ease her own conscience. It was because of her incompetence that saving Jirni took so long, causing Yurial's demise as well as that of many others.

She had seen Lith healing much worse wounds in much less time. During Balkor's attack, he even treated Yurial and Phloria at the same time.

'How could I bear my second place so proudly? Yurial was right, we are a fraud. I don't deserve my ranking just like I don't deserve my friends. I'm an utter failure, I should have been the one dying.' Were the thoughts haunting her.

Actually, her second place was fully deserved. Friya's talent for healing magic was on par with Lith's. She just wasn't an Awakened.

Quylla's life was still hanging on a thread. She was unable to eat, puking almost as soon as she ingested any kind of food. Someone had always to be by her side, to make sure she didn't harm herself.

She would cry until exhaustion made her faint, unable to speak a word most of the time. Potions and the sharing of life force were the only things keeping her alive. At night, she would sleep with Orion and Jirni by her side.

It was the only moment she managed to truly rest, free from fits of hysteria.

At his arrival, Lith thought nothing of them. To him, they were just Phloria's accessories, something he would worry about in his spare time. Yurial's words changed his mind.

Maybe they were nothing to him, but the opposite wasn't necessarily true. Lith had already lost an opportunity because, after the second exam, he had simply promoted his companions from strangers to fish in a tank.

He never treated them as persons, only as something to feed and watch from time to time. A living screensaver, less than pets. As much as Lith found it unbelievable, there were actually people that really cared for him outside of his family.

Yet he would never be able to recognize them if he didn't give them at least a chance before discarding them like trash.

Yurial's death showed him that life was too short to worry about outliving those who would die of old age. They were the lucky ones.

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The White Griffon academy didn't stay close for long, just a couple of weeks.

During that time, Lith did all he could to help the three girls recover. Despite the traumatic events their daughters had gone through, the Ernas couple had a duty to uphold. They would be rarely at home, mostly for the meals and for the night.

Sometimes one or both of them were forced to stay away for a day or more. They were the only surviving witnesses to not have any relationship with the academy's politics and also those who had put an end to Nalear's threat.

They had to write multiple reports, confer with the Royals, the Council of the Headmasters, and all the upper echelons involved in the administration of the Country. The old and new noble families wanted someone to blame.

Heads were going to roll before the storm would pass. Jirni and Orion were the keystones in many ongoing high profile trials, not only as witnesses but also as a Royal Constable and a member of the Knight's Guard respectively.

While the Queen's corps dealt with all the threats related to magic, the Knight's Guard had a defensive role inside the Griffon Kingdom. They were tasked with protecting and assisting the Royal Constables during their investigations.

It was a corps comprised only by Forgemasters and Mage Knights. Only a few, like Orion, were both, making them the cream of the crop. It has to be said that an academy wasn't the only way to learn a specialization.

The army had the means and the knowledge to train its members. Unlike an academy, the process could take far more than two years, depending on the talent and the number of missions a Guard had to take.

Also, the candidate had to prove their worth beforehand the training began. Most of the members of the Knight's Guards would start with only one specialization and learn the other over the years.

During their absence, Lith took care of the three girls to the best of his abilities and with the help of his family. Alas, there wasn't much he could do. No words could ease their suffering, no simple gesture could make their trauma fade away.

He could only stick by their side, not letting them hole up in their rooms. Only time could help. Lith was an expert on grieving and facing pain, but his methods couldn't be shared.

Lith lacked the necessary empathy to connect with Phloria or Friya. Killing the mind controlled students didn't bother him in the least. He knew only one way to deal with his enemies and wasn't interested in the reason why they attacked him.

As for Yurial's death, Lith regretted having missed the opportunity to know him better, to finally have a friend. He missed Yurial, but that was it.

'If I had to choose between mom, one of my sisters, or even Phloria and him, I would have done the same thing. I'm not a hypocrite. I'm aware that I didn't know Yurial well enough to care about him and now I never will.' Lith thought.

Solus played a big part in his recovery, always reminding him of all the affection he had been showered with.

Lith left Elina and Rena to take care of Quylla. They were the best moms he knew. In his mind, if they weren't able to give her the solace and compassion she needed, then no one could.

Phloria and Friya were easier to deal with. He made them follow the routine his own counselor gave Lith after Carl's death. Waking them up at regular hours, forcing them to eat and spend time with those they loved.

Everything to show them that pain was just a part of life. That no matter how dark their lives felt, they weren't alone.

'This stuff never worked for me, but it's worth a shot.' He thought.

The worst part for all of them was the night. Being alone in the dark, the girls couldn't stop their minds from being assaulted by bad memories, regrets, and hindsight.

Lith was always by Phloria's side, making sure that whenever she would wake up abruptly because of the nightmares, she would always find him right next to her.

When the academy started again, Quylla wasn't in the condition to move. Like many other students, she received permission to stay home and recover. She would get back to the academy the following year or whenever she was ready.

Lith, Friya, and Phloria resumed their lives, drowning themselves into work to keep their anxiety at bay. Professors were now able to cross from one floor to another. There hadn't been enough time to find replacements for the fallen ones, so Ironhelm now taught Forgemastering to both the fourth and the fifth year.

With Linjos gone, after the last tragedy, Headmaster Marth decided to go back to written and spellcasting exams inside the academy, just like in the past. The students had got enough real life experience in the last two years.

Now they needed peace and quiet. The civil war was no longer an issue, the traitor was gone, and when the anniversary came, Balkor didn't send any note. No one could believe to such luck, so they all made their children go back home and went into hiding for the following three days.

Balkor didn't send a single undead, giving the Griffon Kingdom the first piece of good news after so much suffering. Lith, Friya, and Phloria were inseparable during their days at the academy.

The girls rarely left him alone, studying and eating together. Phloria didn't leave his side even at night. Even though everything was clean like nothing bad had ever happened, seeing those corridors and all the common spaces still pierced her heart.

It reminded her of Yurial, of all the blood spilled. Lith's warmth and affection were the only lines of defense she had against the despair that would grip her mind if left alone.

The fifth year went by quickly. Lith never got out the academy, except for visiting Quylla, his dates with Phloria, and going back to his family. First, he had to deliver his niece, Leria, and later his little brother, Aran.

The final exams were easy for Lith. Soluspedia made the written exams a walk in the park. Casting spells in a closed classroom in front of the Professors didn't cause him any stress compared to Linjos's teaching methods.

Before the results came out, Lith was once again summoned to the Headmaster's office. This time there was no one beside Marth waiting for him. He seemed dead tired, but being his first year as Headmaster, it was understandable.

The pressure he was being subjected was nothing compared to Linjos's. The ancient noble households were not as overbearing as in the past, Balkor was missing, and not a single accident had occurred.

Yet Headmaster Marth was still learning the ropes and until all investigations and trials were over, it was his duty alone to take care of the academy's power core.

Lith sat in front of him, expecting the usual batch of bad news. The only time he had entered into a Headmaster's office without someone getting royally pissed off, was when Marchioness Distar introduced him to Linjos.

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"I'm glad to see you have made a complete recovery. Your grades have not been affected in the least by what happened with Nalear. I wish I could say the same for the others." Marth sighed deeply.

The White Griffon now not only had fewer students than any other academy, but also the lowest average in terms of grades. Despite using the old exam system, many students had yet to recover.

The situation was so bad that the King had decreed the students of the White Griffon who failed their finals could attend the year a second time as a last chance. It was an unprecedented case in the academies' history, but so was Nalear's scheme.

"I've called you here to congratulate you on your achievements. You are ranked first overall and in the light department too." Marth handed him a piece of paper that listed the students in ascending order according to their points value.

Lith was ranked first with 14,456 (*) points, Friya second with 12,486, and Phloria third with 10,753. Lith was surprised seeing the gap between the top three scores, especially since Phloria with only one specialization had run circles around the fourth ranked with her 8,731 points.

"Okay, if this is the off the record score, what will be the official one?" Lith was angered at the thought the events of the fourth year were about to repeat themselves. Before giving Marth a piece of his mind, Lith wanted to understand his reasons and how he would be compensated.

"That's the official one. I didn't input it in the system yet because I just received it too. Sorry for the misunderstanding." Marth handed him a gold griffon shaped pin and a white moonstone griffon shaped pin. Both had a five engraved on them.

Seeing the gold pin reminded him of Yurial, making Lith's heart ache for a second. He wore them nonetheless, placing the pins right above his heart.

"What does the asterisk near my score mean, then?" Lith asked.

"To avoid further embarrassment to the other students and academies, we have split your academic points from those you earned from sharing your spell. In light of its usefulness, the Council of the Headmasters has decided to value it 10,000 points."

Lith almost couldn't believe his own ears. It had taken a long time to assess Lith's Resonance spell's worth. Despite being a tier one spell, it had made it possible to reduce the time needed for recovering the full use of a regrown limb from years to months.

It was an invaluable tool, which allowed soldiers and mages alike to go from crippled to fit for duty faster than it had ever been thought possible.

"What do you mean with 'further embarrassment'?"

"Well, let's just say that our average sucks, but our third ranker has scored more points than the first rankers of the other academies." Marth replied with a smirk on his face.

"Now, I need to know if you are going to participate to the ceremonial graduation tourney."

"No, thank you." Only at the end of the fifth year, there would be a friendly competition among the students to demonstrate their battle prowess. Linjos's system made it obsolete, but it was still part of the academy customs.

Usually, the student ranked first would also be the winner of the tourney. For a lower ranked student to win the competition meant a huge boost in prestige for his family.

"Are you sure?" Marth asked. "It will not give you any points, but whatever you decide to do in the future, it could help you in your career."

"Absolutely." Lith nodded. "I have beaten all old noble households in the rankings. Winning the tourney would bring me only troubles. I think it's better to leave them a chance to prove themselves and restore their honor, rather than make more enemies.

"Besides, I survived a Valor, a wyvern, and even Nalear. I know I can beat any student of the White Griffon and that's enough for me. I don't have to prove myself anymore."

"That's great to hear!" The Headmaster could finally sigh in relief.

'Thank the gods Lith isn't another self-absorbed as*hole. It's the best political choice he could make. Giving face to the noble households will make things easier for the academy and the Royals both. They will be really pleased when I'll report them this conversation.' He thought.

"It also brings us to the next topic." Marth handed him another pin. This one was shaped like Silverwing's Hexagram, but the lines connecting the six dots were depicted as broken in multiple points.

"Professor Farg, Constable Ernas, and Guard Ernas all testified your valour as a fighter against Nalear. The Crown has decided to make you an honorary member of the Spellbreaker order as a reward."

Spellbreakers were mages tasked with disposing of criminal practitioners of the mystical arts. According to what Farg explained to him at the beginning of the fifth year, even becoming an honorary one was a big deal.

It meant not only social prestige but also represented how much the Crown trusted him.

"I also have a job proposal for you that should benefit both of us." Marth steepled his fingers. Everything he said up to that point was in preparation for this moment.

Lith wore the third pin too, nodding.

"As you know, the White Griffon is short staffed. We lost one-fourth of our instructors. Finding so many talented and trustworthy Professors in such little time is not easy.

"Since you are still two years away from becoming an adult, I thought you could be interested in a position as Assistant Professor. You are too young and lack the experience to be a Professor, but your foundations are solid.

"We could use someone like you to cover for the basic lessons. It would give you a place to stay, a good income, and merits. If you accept, the Mage Association will take you as a member without the usual procedure."

"What about my sister?" Lith had already mentioned to him Tista wanted to attend the White Griffon academy.

"She can take the test. You have my word our judgment will be fair, but nothing more. We care only for talent. Admitting Tista just to have her fail at the first trimester would be a waste of our and her time both." Marth replied.

Lith pondered for a second about the answer.

'With her bright green core Tista will be among the weakest students, but since she is only interested in the Healing specialization, she should be fine. Also, if she is really going to Awaken, this way I can keep an eye on her and make sure Tista doesn't get into trouble.' Lith thought.

'Working for the academy also means unlimited funds and materials for my research. Plus all the time I need to keep copying magic books. It's an offer I can't refuse.'

When Lith accepted, Marth felt a huge burden lifted from his shoulders. Having Lith was a huge morale boost for the White Griffon academy. Nalear had destroyed its reputation and now many families were considering to transfer their children to more safe institutions.

Having the youngest Spellbreaker of the Kingdom among their ranks, who also happened to be considered the next god of healing, was just what the White Griffon's public relations needed.

Lith left the Headmaster's office and went to give the good news to his companions and family. It seemed they would soon be invited to the Royal Palace for a gala.

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