Quylla was aware that the name of their host was nothing but an alias, yet she didn't pry about her identity because she was afraid of the consequences that rudeness might have.
"Yes, dear Quylla?" Nana smiled, creeping Quylla as she wondered how could their host know her name.
"How can an undead have children?"
"Aside from a few exceptions, the greater undead are still made of flesh and blood. Even though most of their organs aren't vital anymore, their bodies work just fine. Sure, their fertility is low, but it's nothing that luck and effort can't fix. Let me explain…" Nana took an illustrated book called "Flowers and bees".
"I know how it works." Quylla blushed at the misunderstanding. "I was just asking how a skeleton could have a son."
"Not a skeleton. A Lich." At that word, the book disappeared and with it all the warmth in the room. "Those creatures are the true abominations, dear Nandi, not your kin. They get bored, get laid, and then forget about the consequences.
"They have no care for their offspring because they only care about themselves. They are a perversion of undeath that only births madness and pain. Together with the need to feed, Liches lose their humanity. The lack of weakness makes them conceited just as the prolonged isolation drives them mad."
Nana spat on the fireplace, causing it to burst into an eruption of flames and brimstone. Yet not a puff of smoke escaped the chimney nor made the room stink.
"The poor Radi was almost killed the very day he was born. His mother had no idea about the father's real identity, so she attempted to murder the baby, mistaking it for a monster."
"Are all those children orphans?" Quylla asked.
"Yes. They were either abandoned or their parents died trying to protect them. All because they are different." Nana said.
"It's very noble of you, helping the less fortunate." Friya felt sick at the idea of how much suffering each one of Nana's foster children had endured.
'I wonder if the same happened to Lith. Maybe that's the reason his brothers treated him so badly. It would explain why he kept so many secrets for so long.'
"There's nothing noble in my actions. I've seen countless hybrids be born and die, yet I've never moved a finger. As you have probably guessed at this point, I'm a mage. The children are part of my most recent project, just like Nandi here." Nana said with a cold smile on her face.
"What do you mean?" Phloria clung to the armrests of her chair in frustration.
At first, she had been glad to be rescued by the Abomination, to be relieved of her pain. Yet now that it was gone, after Nandi had uncaringly revealed Lith's secret, after hearing all that talking about hybrids, Phloria suspected to have fallen into a trap.
A comfortable, cozy trap but a trap from which she had no hope to escape nonetheless.
"Mogar is changing, dear Phloria. What was once just a temporary anomaly like my adopted children or the fruit of forbidden magic like the werepeople, is now becoming a new race. A power of its own." Nana said.
"I've seen your friend, Lith Verhen, vanquish my daughter who among my creations is supposed to be one of the closest to perfection. I've witnessed an insignificant mortal, the Master, turn the only species that Mogar has truly abandoned into something new and powerful." She pointed at Nandi.
"It got me thinking. What if hybrids aren't just an accident but a new path life is taking? What if I've been wrong all along and the solution to all my children's problems was right in front of me from the beginning? Only time and research will tell."
"What does this have to do with us? Why did you bring us here?" Phloria asked.
"To understand the ending, you must first listen to the beginning. Nandi, tell them your story." Nana ordered.
"Have you ever wondered why all living creatures can use first magic the same way, yet every race suffers from different limitations? Most humans can't use magic and even those who can need magical words and hand signs.
"Animals are the same, and even when they evolve into magical beasts, they can only use a couple of elements. Plants can't use magic at all. When they acquire consciousness, they solely gain abilities linked to their affinity with earth and life.
"Undead share all the strengths and weaknesses of the other races because they are artificial. A failed experiment in the attempt to overcome how frail life is." Nandi looked straight at Nana, who curled her upper lip when he called her children "failures".
"Only Awakened are capable of using magic to its full potential and of unlocking the seventh element. The element of life, mana." Nandi explained to them what Awakening was, along with all the gifts and risks it implied.
"Abominations are just failed Awakened, creatures made of power and stubbornness who refuse to fade away as the natural order requires. I still don't remember how I lost my life the first time.
"All I know is that I was born during what you call a 'monster outbreak'. The Master had implanted bits of the original me inside a tribe of ogres, to turn them into food that would enhance his strength.
"Yet Abominations cling to life as no other race can. Somehow those bits grew into what you see now, a hybrid between ogres and the original Abomination. Ogres worship mana crystals, so they took a mine as their home.
"It allowed me to increase my strength and stabilize my condition without having to hurt anyone. Then, when the real Nandi, or Kimbug as he called himself, came to collect his prize, I was ready.
"Between our shared memories and the abilities I gained from my ogre half, beating him was easy." Nandi waved his hand at a crystal that was right outside one of the open windows.
A stream of energy came to him, taking the forms of all elements as the gemstone started to lose its luster and its light became duller. He pointed a finger at Quylla, sending a sliver of that energy against her Skinwalker armor that lost its magical properties and shapeshifted into its original state.
"What the heck?" She blurted out.
"Kimbug had no idea of the power mana crystals really hold. You and I produce mana of our own, but what about our spells or our equipment? They can't produce mana and depend on the world energy to work.
"Mana crystals are akin to crystalized will of Mogar and by controlling it, one can dominate the world energy itself. After I assimilated Kimbug, I stopped feeling hungry all the time but my strength turned out to be my weakness as well.
"As soon as I get further away from the crystal veins, my Abomination nature starts to corrode my body. An ogre can't withstand alone the Chaos energy that my life essence is comprised of.
"To make matters worse, whenever I get a glimpse of my old life, I fall into a destructive madness that makes me impossible to live a normal life. I'm imprisoned down here just as you are. All my power is for nothing!"
Nandi wanted to scream, but in presence of Baba Yaga, all he could do was to clench the indestructible armrests of his chair.
