Orion himself had no idea how War would react if the wrong person picked it up, but as its maker, he could feel how dangerous the enchantment was. What really troubled Lord Ernas, however, was the fact that he had never planned for such safeguard.
There was no trace of it in either his notes or blueprints, yet when he checked the final result of his labors with his Royal Forgemaster wand the extra pseudo core was there nonetheless.
Right after receiving War, Lith needed a guinea pig to understand what kind of threat the blade represented for his family and if it could be used as a means of interrogation.
One day, Lith took all the insignia of his status off, wore civilian clothes, and took a stroll in the slums of Zantia with the priceless blade hung to his hip. It took him less than one hundred steps to be surrounded by armed bandits.
"Give us the blade, empty your pockets, and no one gets hurt." A rough man in his mid-thirties said.
He had blonde hair and a stubble, both as dirty as his clothes. His mouth missed a few teeth, giving the man more a desperate look than a threatening one, yet he handled his knife like a professional.
"Catch." Lith turned his pockets inside-out to show that they were empty and threw the blade in a slow lob.
The thug took the blade from the hilt while it was still in mid-air and War didn't take the change of ownership well.
The hoodlum suffered the same fate that now was befalling the giant lion. Just like when Lith had first imprinted it, spikes erupted from the hilt and dug through the flesh before turning into hooks, making it impossible to remove them without amputating the limb.
Then, War unleashed all of his enchantments right inside the usurper's body, bypassing all kinds of protections they could wear. Through something that Lith could only describe as a reversed imprint, the angry blade flooded the enemy with his energy signature, causing mana poisoning.
The hindleg of the Meneos swelled like a balloon while its flesh burned, froze, and rot at the same time, making the earlier pain from the brain damage feel like a pinprick.
But while the hapless criminal had exploded in a burst of rotten meat that made his associates either faint or puke, the creature was much bigger and wiser.
In the time that it had taken War to kill a man, the blade could only corrupt the enormous limb it was stuck unto, giving the Meneos the time to realize the danger it was in and bite off the foreleg before it was too late.
"By the Great Mother, did you really gift such a masterpiece to someone that has yet to recognize you as his master?" Raagu used all the means at her disposal to study War from a distance, but Orion's workings were well cloaked.
"Only the best for my beloved apprentices." Faluel lied through her teeth as the giant limb exploded and War returned to Lith's hand on its own.
'If fake mages can craft pieces that powerful with their limited magic, then we Awakened Forgemasters need a damn Ruler of the Flames even more desperately than I thought.
'Whoever made War might be already on par with us.' The Hydra was firmly against letting the Abominations take part in the Council, but now even her wished that Bytra would soon join their ranks.
Meanwhile, Lith didn't move from his spot and kept studying his opponent.
'Not even amputating the whole hindleg weakened either its life force or mana flow. If I get close without a plan, I will not last more than a few seconds. How the heck did I…' Lith couldn't believe his own senses as he saw the limb regenerate almost as fast as it had been corrupted.
Despite being temporarily crippled, the creature had no openings Lith could exploit. On top of that, even regenerating so much flesh and bones didn't weaken the creature.
'That's it!' Lith and Solus thought in unison. The wound's healing process had allowed them to understand the nature of their task.
They had failed to notice it before because the other wounds were too small and they were too far away to take a good look at them. When the Meneos came charging again, Lith was ready for him.
He used earth magic to open a crater below the creature and gravity magic to send them both against the golden energy dome that covered the arena. When Lith released the second Final Sunset stored inside his tier five magic holding ring, the black flames this time engulfed the giant lion, making it scream in agony.
Meneos were nothing like trolls, golems, or ghouls like Lith and Solus had wrongly assumed. The giant lion was a plant-animal hybrid that had lost the ability to Awaken due to its fallen state but was still able to draw upon world energy as long as it touched the ground.
Meneos didn't need breathing techniques to constantly regenerate their strength and they could recover from any wound simply by extracting the nutrients from the soil. They were unstoppable predators, but once their weakness was exposed, they became sitting ducks.
'That's why the dome is so low and why the only time the monster's life force dwindled was during the throw. Not because this creature is incapable of flight, but because away from the ground it's nothing but an overgrown kitten.' Lith thought.
"Well, done. You passed the test." Leegaain dispelled the dome and rescued the Meneos. "Any objection?"
The members of the Council shook their heads in reply.
"Then Awakened Verhen is hereby a member of the beast faction and Faluel the Hydra will be held responsible for his actions until he learns to behave like a member of our society." Leegaain then turned to the monster.
"Thanks for your cooperation, Antor. I'll return you to your family as soon as your wounds heal."
"No need to thank me, my Lord." The monster bowed to the Guardian. "If not for you, I'd be long since dead or still be a slave to my base instincts."
"You can talk?" Lith asked in surprise.
"I'm no Balor, but not all monsters are mindless brutes." Antor replied. "If I used magic, our fight might have ended differently, but since you couldn't take flight, I guess I needed a handicap as well."
"Meneos are the only creatures that can use Invigoration without limits. Their bodies are so attuned with Mogar that they just need to make contact with the ground to replenish their strength to its fullest." Leegaain explained.
"They have several limitations to their magical abilities, but I hope that, by studying their condition, I can lift their Fallen state and develop a better technique that Awakened can use to draw world energy…"
"Yes, it's all so very noble of you." Inxialot cut him short. "Where did you find an energy field ring, child? I thought their design was lost to time."
"It doesn't generate an energy field, just a gravity field." Lith rushed to reply in the hope to quell the greed with which the Lich was staring at his finger.
"Oh!" Inxialot's disappointed look made Lith sigh in relief for one full second.
