"Thank the gods you're still alive." Yondra said between gasps and stuttering. The wound being cauterized had prevented her from bleeding out, but she still experienced all the pain such a wound implied.
Yet it wasn't the tennis ball sized hole in her chest that struck Lith like a fist in the stomach, but her collapsing mana core. He refused to surrender, using Invigoration to replenish both her stamina and mana, but to no avail.
Her blue mana core kept leaking everything he gave her and was already turning cyan.
"I'm sorry. We should've run away like you wanted." Tears of pain and regret streamed down her cheeks while all he could do was ease the pain of her last moments.
"No, there were Flesh Golems waiting for us. The moment we Blinked they would have trapped us with their arrays. We could only fight." Lith replied.
Yondra raised her hand in an attempt to reach his cheek. Lith bent down to make things easier for her while supporting her hand with his.
"Please, tell my children that I didn't abandon them and that my last thoughts, even this last caress was for them. Tell them that I'm sorry I could never be the mother they deserved. I wasted my life, always giving priority to the wrong things.
"In the end, I let everyone down. My family, Rainer, even you. If only I could have one more…"
Year? Chance? Breath? Lith would never know what Yondra Mefaal was about to say, nor did he care. All he cared about was that she had died in his arms, crying, after everything she had precious had been taken from her.
Not even death could make despair disappear from her eyes or face. Lith stored her corpse inside his pocket dimension before going to Morok's side.
"Are you done playing possum?" Lith asked.
He knew that such an amount of blood was not enough to kill an Emperor Beast and when he had looked at both his fallen comrades with Life Vision, the Tyrant's vigor wasn't what Lith would expect from a dying man.
"Yes, and thank you for nothing, jackass. While you were playing the hero, I was working my ass to bleed enough to fool that moron without dying. I guess he mustn't know that Tyrants have two hearts. Losing one is painful, but not lethal.
"By the way, I need food or I'll die for real. To heal these wounds, I need energy and that fucker has stolen everything I had but my weapons." He showed Lith the two holes in the metal blades. Jiira had left them thinking that they had been damaged beyond repair.
Yet Morok only had to sheath and unsheathe them again to return them to mint condition.
'Normally, I would point out to Lith that the trick behind Morok's apparently indestructible blades lies in their scabbards. As he told us back in the camp, they are part of his enchanted weapons, so both the mana crystals and its pseudo core are actually there.
'The blades are just an extension that can be regenerated as long as the sheaths remain intact. Yet I don't think that Lith cares about that right now. Yondra's death shook him quite badly.' Solus thought.
Lith gave the Tyrant lots of foods while his mind couldn't stop replaying Carl's death, Nana's death, and his own. The look in Yondra's eyes was the same Lith had when he had looked at Carl's corpse through the obituary glass for its identification.
The memory of his own reflection still haunted him to this day.
"Our deal his off." Were the first words Lith said once he snapped out of his own memories. "Without the wand, there's no way out unless we rescue Phloria. She won't leave without Quylla and neither would I.
"You have two choices: you can stay here alone and either die of starvation or by the Odi's hand or you can help me."
"That's not much of a choice." Morok said while finishing his meal. "I'll help you, but since we don't have much time, you should fill me up with energy. All this fighting has left me drained."
Lith Invigorated both Morok and himself, wondering how many uses of his breathing technique he had left.
"What's the plan?" The Tyrant asked.
"First, we go check the prison ward. If my friends are still there, we rescue them and Warp ourselves here. If not, we have to find and destroy the Mana Reactor. Without it, the Odi don't stand a chance against true mages that can use spells above tier three."
Morok nodded and used a bit of his new mana to repair his armor. Before leaving, they searched Professor Ellkas's body, discovering that Jiira had already taken away everything but his clothes.
They followed the trail of broken cameras to the prison, but Lith didn't need to enter to know that they were too late. There was no energy signature inside, not even the jailer Golem that Rainer had told them about.
"It seems that shit has hit the fan. They have everything they want. I'm really sorry about your friends." Morok said. His voice was honest and his pain sincere. Without a Royal Forgemaster they were as screwed as the Assistants.
"It's not over yet." Lith replied. "I know the way to the lower floor and we both can see the Mana Reactor. Follow me."
They ran along the corridors, following Ellkas' instructions that Lith had copied inside Soluspedia.
"My plan is as follows: If on our way we don't find the place where the spare bodies are held, we destroy the Mana Reactor, slaughter all the Odi, and then wait until the noxious gas fades.
"If we find the lab and my friends are still alive, we will be forced to split. You take care of the Reactor and I'll save them. They think that you are dead and if we keep things that way, they will not realize our plan until it's too late."
"Is that the reason why you're not destroying the surveillance devices anymore?" Morok asked.
"Yes. They will be too busy bickering and preparing the body-swapping procedure to look at the surveillance mirror. If I were to destroy more devices, I could trigger some alarm and alert them. This way we'll know that our cover has been blown the moment a Golem Warps in front of us."
"Wouldn't it be bad?"
"Quite the contrary. I could Blink through its Gate and reach my destination. With all eyes on me, you'd be free to continue with our plan."
"Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to open doors and stuff by myself? I'm no Forgemaster, so it would be better to switch our roles. I'll go help your friends and you take down the reactor." Morok said.
"Yeah, right. How long do you think you can last against someone with infinite mana?" Lith replied. "By the way, what are your specializations?"
"Battle Mage and War Mage. I was forced to attend the freaking Fire Griffon to learn the upper tiers of spells because my father couldn't be bothered with me."
"Gods, you're really useless. Focus more on creation and less on destruction, if you want someone to Awaken you. Right now, you're just a rude, walking disaster." Lith knew only a few spells of Morok's specializations, but all of them could be easily turned against their own caster by the green array.
'If push comes to shove, we could split.' Solus proposed. 'I could go with Morok and help him open the doors and shut down the arrays.'
