"You sure are, kid." Faluel nodded while using her own Domination to help him and preparing a new batch of metal.
"So I was right. Spirit Domination, just like Spirit Magic, contains the runes of all elements." Lith said.
"No. It's just that Dominating Origin Flames is much harder than the elements because they last for a very short time. Now shut up and focus. If you ruin this batch of Orichalcum, you're going to compensate me for it."
Very few things could make Lith go over the top like a threat to his wallet, so both he and Faluel greatly benefitted from the time spent together.
As for training his Tiamat form, having now a bigger body with several extra prehensile limbs, Lith had to learn how to move and fight like an Emperor Beast.
Faluel was usually his sparring partner, either using her Hydra form or that as a seven-headed Dragon to make him practice footwork.
When she was too busy or tired, Faluel would call Feela or one of her friends from the Council so that Lith could practice fighting against both two and four-legged opponents.
"Fuck me sideways!" Lith said after Feela had headbutted him into a wall. "Why do you seem to have eyes even on your tail whereas I always trip on mine?"
Behemoths were as physically strong as a Griffon and had a tail as long as a Dragon's. With her rich battle experience, Feela forced the Tiamat to not rely solely on raw strength since she was much stronger than him while also showing Lith how to use his horns and extra limbs.
"Because back when your ancestors had yet to settle down in Lutia, I was already a skilled fighter." She replied with a huge grin on her feline snout. "You must learn how to think less and to rely on your instinct more.
"Horns are great to turn a block into an attack and your tail is akin to a third hand, if you know how to use it."
"What about my wings?" He asked.
"Keep them folded in your back unless strictly necessary. If there's something that your fight with Qisal should have taught you is that they are too thin and exposed. They are a great asset when you have the space to fly around, but in an enclosed space like this cave, they are just a liability." Feela replied.
Unfortunately for Lith, there was no Emperor Beast with prehensile wings so no one could teach him how to use them to fight. The only thing Faluel could do was to provide him with training equipment of his own size.
Along with a gigantic body, Lith had also gained the need to acquire enormous amounts of magical materials to craft equipment that he could employ in both forms. Sure, Solus could merge with War and the armor to make up for that, but only in the presence of a mana geyser.
Without the ability to manifest the tower, she lacked the necessary mass and power to support them. Unfortunately, mana geysers were rare and Lith couldn't just rely on dumb luck for all of his fights to happen near a source of world energy.
On top of that, he also had to get used to wielding them according to the environment around him. Feela had no issues standing on her hind legs and wielding weapons, which together with her incredible strength made her the perfect sparring partner.
The Behemoth had lived long enough to be skilled with all kinds of weapons, providing Lith with plenty of battle experience and ass-whooping.
"Damn, I can't believe that something like too much bounty really exists." He said while they took a break so that Lith could heal from the bruises and catch his breath without wasting one use of Invigoration.
"I worried so much to achieve the violet core and now I wish I didn't get it. I have to train my body to get used to the extra mass from scratch, to train my wings and tail, to develop a new breathing technique, and find new equipment.
"That in addition to what I was already doing, living my life, and so much more!" Lith couldn't tell his mentors that he was also studying the orc crystal thanks to Vastor's explanation nor about Solus training her Eyes form.
Even by working the whole night whenever he could afford not to reset Invigoration, Lith kept falling behind in his schedule simply because there were only 24 hours in a day and only one of him.
"Gods, usually I'd joke that being single at least gives me a lot of free time, but I miss Kamila more than ever. Whenever I'm really tired or after an utter failure, I always expect her to call me and force me out of my lab." He sighed.
The two Emperor Beasts knew that there wasn't anything they could do to make him feel better so they quickly changed the topic.
"By the way, Faluel, between your invention and Haug's legacy gone public, the Council is undergoing some big changes. I'm proud to say that I'm pushing for a more active policy that should prevent Xedros's horrors from happening again." Feela said, pretending to not have heard Lith.
"What do you mean?" The Hydra asked.
"Thanks to your wand, we can teach Spirit Magic to our assistants without Awakening them. It gives us the possibility to reject an apprentice candidate without having to kill them in the case they don't meet our expectations.
"Now that their lives are not on the line anymore, the youths have no need for bullcrap like the Fool's Gold or to resort to conspiracies to keep their seat.
"As for those who get Awakened, the knowledge contained in Haug's legacy gives them so many things to learn that it will take them decades to master everything. This way, the future heirs aren't in a rush to inherit from their masters while those who are not chosen don't go back home empty ended." Feela said.
"Wait, so you made his legacy semi-public or what?" Faluel asked.
"Or what. The Council deemed that even a "shallow" legacy like Haug's was too dangerous to spread it freely. Yet it's available to anyone who gets themselves a master or simply gains the Council's recognition.
"Even rogue Awakened, like Lith was, can have it as long as they abide by the Council rules and accept to be subjected to regular inspections. It sounds bad, I know, but using Haug's legacy for Forbidden Magic to make up for their lack of a master would be much worse." Feela replied
"Glad to be of help." Lith said with a sneer. "I'm sure that all those guys who died in Xedros's cave would be ecstatic to know that their sacrifice led the Council to move its ass."
"I'll let it slide because you're too tired to think clearly, kid." Feela offered him a special tonic of her making that made him instantly stop panting.
"Change is a good thing only if it happens in a slow, controlled, but constant way. Too much and too fast leads only to anarchy. Even what might look like a completely harmless tool is just waiting for a jackass creative enough to find a way to turn it into a weapon."
