The moment Lith took Solus's ring off, his life force and mana flow returned to normal.
"A dimensional device capable of cloaking? Remarkable." Jiza nodded while walking around Lith. Her gaze made him feel like a purebred dog being examined for a competition.
"Let me guess, your life force has been damaged in some crazy experiment, but that didn't hinder your body refinement. You must have self-Awakened for over ten years now minimum and you have a blue mana core, correct?" Jiza had yet to even come close, but her estimates were all on point.
"How did you know?" Lith almost expected her to discover his hybrid nature as well.
"Experience, child. I bet that right now you see me just as a big lump of energy." She replied as Lith entrusted his ring to Faluel.
"Now extend your hand and don't try anything funny. I like you already, but I will not hesitate to kill you if I need to." Jiza spoke with such a casual tone that it triggered Lith's survival instinct.
'Note to self, check if this woman is related to the Myrok household.' Lith thought.
"Had you given the ring to Athung in the hope of garnering the human Council's favors since you're already friends with the beasts, I would've been disappointed." Jiza explained as she used Invigoration to study every nook and cranny of Lith's body.
"Only suck-ups pretend to ignore that no relationship can be built without mutual trust. We don't know you and we have done nothing to deserve your loyalty. Your choice proves that you are grateful and respectful for the good received.
"That or you are a schemer son of a bitch." She took a long look at Lith, wondering which one of the options was more likely.
"You Awakened very young, trained very hard, yet you didn't make any rookie mistake and lived right under our nose for years. Which means that despite your young age you can't be underestimated. Put them on, please."
A pair of metal handcuff with a purple mana crystal the size of a nut on each bracelet appeared in her hands.
"Wait a minute, this is Odi magic!" Lith recognized the enchantment the moment he examined the artifact with Invigoration. Its design was modern, it used runes, and required much less magical power, but the pseudo core was roughly the same.
"Kid, the Council existed before the three Great Countries were founded and will exist even after the Guardians will get bored with them and let them rot. If you get excited by a pair of handcuffs, you'll die of a heart attack when we arrive at our destination."
Lith ignored her and looked straight at Faluel.
"Yes, it's really necessary." The Hydra said. "They will lock onto your life force's signature and prevent you from channeling any form of magic. Breathing techniques included. The Council upgraded them nicely."
Lith hesitated for a while, during which Jiza didn't so much as blink.
The moment Lith wore them, an ugly feeling spread from his wrists and coursed through his entire body. He felt as if a huge burden had been placed on his shoulders and he had to look at the world through tinted glasses.
Only then did Jiza blink again and opened a Warp Steps leading to the Council's headquarters. She pushed Lith, making him step through it first while she kept her hand on his back to control his every movement.
The four Awakened appeared in the middle of a courtroom with only a dock and a long rectangular table where five ancient beings that Lith assumed to be his judges sat.
There was no space for the jury, but plenty of stands for spectators. Lith instinctively tried to use Life Vision, but nothing happened.
'Well, the good news is that these things deactivated Death Vision as well. The bad news is that this doesn't bode well. At all.' He thought while recognizing some of those present.
"Off with the head!" A voice that Lith had hoped to never hear again said.
"Objection! This is not even a death penalty case." Faluel was flabbergasted by such outrageous demand and so was everyone but the judges.
"Objection sustained!" Raagu Drerian, the human representative of the Council was seconds away from destroying the physical form of Inxialot, the King of the Liches and representative of the undead. "Stop interfering with your antics, Inxialot.
"This is a matter that concerns the entire Council, not just two races."
She looked like a woman in her late fifties, but she had lived for over five centuries. Her long black hair had partially turned into a silvery-white color and was held up in a chignon.
She had delicate features, but neither her expression or her voice had any warmth. Her eyes were burning with mana, looking at Inxialot in a way that closely reminded Lith of Manohar and the Queen.
She was barely 1.6 meters (5'3") tall and had a frame thin enough that a casual onlooker would have been worried that a sudden gust of wind might blow her away. Yet from their previous encounter, Lith knew she had a vitality superior to that of Scarlett the Scorpicore and a bright violet mana core.
"If he dies the session ends, correct? Which means I can go back home." Inxialot's logic was as flawless as it was insane.
Inxialot Nagaar looked like a sloppily mummified corpse, with barely enough tissues and muscles left to express how annoyed he was. He wore a tattered red silk robe with gold embroideries whose holes were masterfully patched by thick cobwebs.
The spiders that were his tenants were pissed off from all that nonsense as well. Usually, a marble statue was a globetrotter compared to the Lich.
"No matter how much the undead press on the matter, Awakened Verhen is not going to die today!" Raagu roared and the rest of the Council nodded.
"The undead want him to die?" Inxialot was flabbergasted. "Bunch of hypocrites! If they wanted to save me this hassle, they could have picked someone else as their representative!"
Only then did Raagu understand, and with her the rest of the Council, that Inxialot had no idea nor care for what his faction wanted. He was there solely to represent himself.
Many facepalms ensued on both the judges' stand and among the spectators. Only Leegaain was laughing his ass off.
"And that's why so few among us Awakened decide to turn into undead." Faluel was in her human form and was as lovely as always. "With time and isolation, it's never a matter of if one becomes mad, only of when."
"Some people are born that way." Lith replied, finally understanding what was the weight that had burdened him ever since he wore the shackles.
Every single person in the room possessed such a powerful mana flow that, even though they weren't even trying to harm Lith, it threatened to crush him now that his own aura had been suppressed.
'Now I understand why untrained people tend to be scared shitless by mages. I would probably have the same effect on people if not for Solus's help restraining my mana flow. On top of that, if not for Faluel shielding me, I wouldn't even be able to stand.' Lith thought.
The Hydra had remained close to him the whole time, wrapping Lith with her aura to ease the pressure he had to endure.
