"Thanks, I guess." Quylla said to Nyka.
"Don't thank her. My daughter is in that phase of a vampire's life when they can't decide if to eat you, mate with you, or do both." Kalla said and this time Scarlett didn't stop her.
"Mom!" Nyka said while everyone suddenly took a step back from her.
"Why do I always get all the nutjobs?" Quylla w.h.i.n.ed.
"It must be part of your charms." Friya chuckled, but she never took her eyes off Nyka.
"Today we have a special lecturer." Faluel pointed at Kalla, while everyone took their seats.
"From the day of Night's attack on Lutia, the Council is at war with the Undead Courts. Hence since aside from Necromancers people only know the basics about undead, people like Kalla have been tasked with teaching others about our common enemy to improve our odds of victory."
After assuming her stone doll form and welcoming her friend, Solus didn't miss how everyone stared at Nyka as if she was a monster. It was the kind of gaze that people who didn't know Lith well would throw at him just because he was an Abomination.
Solus had the vampire sit between her and Lith to show the others that there was nothing to be afraid of.
"My core may not be as powerful as Quylla's yet, but I'm getting closer every day." He handed Nyka a glass jar filled with a crimson liquid whose delicious smell made her pupils go wide in excitement.
"Are you really giving her your blood? She's a vampire, just like those you slain by the hundreds in Feymar." Friya said.
"Emphasis on 'my blood' so I can do whatever I want with it. Besides, I've slain even more humans that day, yet I don't see you guys as a threat either. Nyka is a friend who happens to be a Vampire just like I happen to be an Abomination.
"As simple as that." Lith's analogy shook the certainty of their prejudice.
After all, the only difference between them was that Lith was a natural undead while Nyka was artificial. They both were lost souls inhabiting someone else's body.
"Thank you so much for the beautiful gift, but are you sure that I can take it?" Nyka looked at Solus as if he was cheating on her.
"It's just blood." Solus shrugged, glad that her stone form couldn't blush.
"First of all, let me tell you that the only reason I'm here is that Scarlett banned me from the Necromancy lab." Kalla received two more slaps on her head, one from Scarlett and one from Nok.
"I mean, I'm here to teach you a valuable lesson and to let my youngest child socialize. My wish is for you all to become good friends and to thank both Lith and Solus for all they did for my daughter.
"That or at least to put Nyka under enough stress to send her in a feeding frenzy that will make her maim you, putting an end to this nonsense and letting me get back to my work."
"One more word and I'll burn your notes!" Scarlett roared as more slaps ensued until Kalla's party hat fell off her head.
The poor Nyka covered her face with her hands in embarrassment, drawing everyone's compassion. On top of that, listening to Kalla's words made them wonder if Manohar and the Wight were actually relatives.
"The first thing you need to know is that Lith is right when he said that he and Nyka are alike." The thought of losing months of hard work made Kalla instantly change her attitude toward the lesson.
She not only had no sense of time, but no memory either. It was the reason why she wrote down everything she discovered so as to not stuff her brain with notions that were useless for her current project. Without those notes, she would have to start again from scratch.
"After studying the undead for personal reasons and the Abominations because of Balkor, I can tell you that there's a paper-thin difference between them. It's a common belief in the Necromancer community that the foremother of our discipline, Baba Yaga, based her work on Abominations."
"Both undead and Abominations are born with a black core. The fact that undead always retain at least part of their physical body and are infused with a powerful life force allows them to stabilize quickly, whereas Abominations are solely made of Chaos energy that has no counterpart.
"It's the reason why their hunger far surpasses that of the undead, keeping Abominations from having even a semblance of life, and why they are unable to keep their bodies. Yet it also allows them to use Chaos magic freely.
"To let you understand the greatness of Baba Yaga's work, I would like to point out that while all Abominations were at some point Awakened and hence their cores retain the ability to use true magic, undead are quasi-Awakened even if in life they were just regular people.
"All those who get turned into undead become so attuned with some elements that they can use them as true magic, while their talent for the mystical arts grows with age even though they had none before being sired.
"By feeding, Abominations simply recover the strength they have lost along with their body and use the light element they rob from others to master Chaos magic. Undead, instead, feed on life force, using it to enhance their cores akin to how Awakened do with world energy.
"Both Abominations and undead can't feel the world energy easily due to their faulty cores. That's why Baba Yaga made up for that by allowing her children to feed upon more than just the light element.
"They absorb the life and even the essence of their prey, adding it to their own. As you should already know, the only difference between mana and world energy is the presence of the seventh element, Spirit Magic.
"The Spirit Magic gets absorbed so that an undead can prolong their existence while the other elements after being reduced to world energy can be assimilated by the blood core." Kalla said.
"Wait a second. As far as I know, Abominations can't feel the world energy at all." Lith said.
"That's one of the main differences between Abominations and Eldritchs. Only the latter are completely cut off by Mogar.
"A newborn Abomination can find a mana geyser to stabilize themselves, just like the Puppeteer you faced in Jiera could use his Orc body to feel and manipulate world energy through the crystals." Kalla shook her head.
"Which means that, in theory, an Abomination can Awaken just like an undead. Their faulty cores make it difficult and even in the case of success, the progression of their cores is greatly slower than normal.
"Most Awakened who decide to be turned into undead, first wait until they have reached the bright violet core or at least the bright blue. That way, once the transformation is over, they can easily bring their blood core back to their previous level by just feeding instead of wasting time with Acc.u.mulation." Kalla said.
"Does the same stand for fake mages as well?" Quylla asked. "Since I have a deep violet core, would I keep it after being turned? Also, what happens if I die first and then a Necromancer makes an undead out of my body?"
