"People like Gadorf or Erlik would have done anything to get their hands on the legacy that they considered rightfully theirs. Members of the lesser species are even worse.
"They worship their Guardian ancestor like a god and have an inferiority complex toward the so-called pure blood. On top of that, most Emperor Beasts who deemed their children unworthy of Awakening tossed them away like trash." Lith said.
"What are you trying to say?" Vladion asked.
"That I bet they are all involved of their own will, chasing after the dream of getting rid of the 'lesser' title." Lith replied. "Otherwise the Council would know by now. It's impossible that not even one of such powerful creatures managed to send a distress signal.
"The only way that the disappearance of so many Emperor Beasts could go unnoticed is that they didn't disappear in the first place. After all, even if their actions are exposed, they can use the war against the undead as the perfect cover story."
Lith's paranoid brain shared via a mind link the scenario as he envisioned it. He pictured how the non-Awakened Emperor Beast would claim to have wiped out the new recruits of the undead army, gaining merits with the Council and their own parents.
It would give them the opportunity to become Awakened. After that, thanks to their newfound powers, nothing could have stopped them from overthrowing their now weaker elders and take their place in the Council.
So many birds with one little undead stone the origin of which no one would ever question.
The night was almost over and together with sunrise, countless notifications appeared on Baba Yaga's amulet along with desperate telepathic calls for help from her Firstborns.
"The news of the reinforced defenses must have spread! All the cities of the Eclipsed lands are being raided now that the rising sun weakens my children by the second." Baba Yaga wept uncontrollably.
No matter how powerful she was, not even a white cored Awakened could be in several places at the same time.
"Can't you do the Nyka array thingy here?" Kalla asked Scarlett. "That way Baba Yaga can leave Lightkeep while we hold the fort."
"Are you insane?" Scarlett was flabbergasted. "I can't possibly cover a whole city with it in such a short time and even if I could, it would mean to share my secrets!"
"This is not the time to worry about proprietary magic. We must put aside our differences if we want to survive!" Vladion and Ilthin said in unison.
"It's easy to say when I'm the one who's giving up on priceless knowledge." The Scorpicore said. "Why should I help those who tried to kill me countless times in the past?"
The quarrel only grew worse as Baba Yaga cried, yet Lith washed his hands of it. He had been hired to do one job and he had performed it at the best of his abilities. He didn't feel responsible if others were so dumb as to not have a proper contingency plan.
"Enough!" Nandi's roar silenced the room. "Our Mother is crying so stop acting like morons and offer the damn Scorpicore something equally valuable! On top of that, I know someone who might help us, but before making him come here I need your permission, Mother."
"Dimensional Magic is sealed within the city." Vladion said. "I'm not going to lower the arrays and expose my city to an invasion for an Abomination."
Nandi ignored him, having eyes only for Baba Yaga who he picked up from the floor and made her sit on an armchair.
"Do it." She said.
Nandi knelt down, joining his hands as if he was praying while a pitch-black aura exuded from his body.
"By the power of the blood ties that bind us, in the name of the oath of loyalty I pledged to you I call you here, Master." With each word the Minotaur spoke, a melody filled the air, its volume increasing.
It was something loud, filled with rage and aggression that reminded Lith of some kind of heavy metal.
The space in the room blackened and deformed as if it was being punctured rather than bent, opening a dimensional door leading further away than it would have been possible with regular spells.
"This is impossible!" Vladion said. "The entire city is surrounded by dimensional sealing arrays and my house is surrounded by several more. Reaching this depth with Spirit Magic is impossible even for a Dragon."
"It's not impossible, it's just you being ignorant about Chaos. You have no idea what dimensional magic can do once you replace darkness with Chaos, do you?" Nandi said.
It took the portal a few seconds to fully form and let the small figure of Zogar Vastor step through it. He was a short man in his mid-sixties barely over 1.55 meters (5'1") tall.
Black hair has started to grow again on the top of his bald head while the snow-white hair he had left on the sides had started to regain color and so did his waxed handlebar mustaches.
After becoming interim Headmaster, he had slimmed down enough to not look like an egg anymore. He didn't wear his usual white robe, but a heavy black armor that Lith had never seen before.
The Yggdrasill staff rested in Vastor's left hand and an Adamant short sword covered in mana crystals hung on his hip, ready to be drawn at any time.
"Father!" Nandi welcomed him with a bow.
"Nandi. Baba Yaga." He gave a polite nod to them.
"Master." Baba Yaga looked back in her prime, no trace of her previous tears remained on her face.
"Professor?" Lith said in astonishment.
This time Vastor didn't bother wearing a cloaking device. Solus's mana sense could finally see the twin cores in his body. One was pitch-black while the other was deep violet and Awakened.
'By my Mom! The human core works as the counterpart to the black one, keeping it under control and allowing the Professor to safely use the Chaos energy. To do that, Vastor cannot use more mana from the black core than what he uses from the violet.'
'Otherwise his body would collapse. Even with this cap to his strength, he has more than double the power of a deep violet-cored individual. On top of that, if he finds a way to make them harmonize instead of clashing, the power output will be much bigger than the sum of its parts.' Solus said.
She had just described to Lith the secret of the power of the Abomination-monster hybrids. As Mogar first and Kalla later had explained to Lith, the problem with Chaos was that it had no counterpart hence balance was impossible.
Or so everyone, even Mogar, had thought until Vastor had found a way to couple the faulty black core with another core, equally faulty but capable of working as its counterpart and of keeping it in check.
While Mogar had given Lith an Emperor Beast life force to keep his mana core from corrupting, Vastor had given the Abomination-monster hybrids who didn't have a body a second core, achieving the impossible.
The Eldritchs now had gotten their bodies back and were no longer completely cut off from Mogar.
