The three Awakened even used array detecting spells to spot inactive magical formations that even mystical senses wouldn't pick up, but to no avail.
'What the f.u.c.k?' Lith voiced everyone's thoughts via the mind link. 'What point did it have sending those four guys against us just to leave us a clean path?'
'They did it to make us overthink!' Vladion was amazed by the brilliant ingenuity of their enemy. 'We saw guards so we expect guards. We know there is a geyser so we expect arrays. Our paranoia is our own enemy, making us waste precious time for nothing.'
'That or to make us think that the road is clean and lure us into a trap.' Lith replied.
'What trap? I can't smell anyone but us. What do your Eyes see?' Vladion said with a scoff.
'Several energy signatures, but none is moving and only three of them are powerful. The rest are either newborn undead or living beings close to death. Both of them haven't much time left.' Scarlett replied.
Vladion activated Life Vision and darted forward, ignoring his centuries of experiences screaming at him to be cautious.
'I've played this trick in the past too. The more cunning the opponent, the more they will plan and think ahead. No defense is the best defense since they will not stop looking around until they realize there's nothing!' He said while the others followed him from a safe distance.
Vladion was the strongest of the group and he could instantly heal without affecting his strength, whereas Lith and Scarlett couldn't afford to be injured before the fight even started.
Lith cursed at Vladion's stupidity for half a kilometer before realizing that the Firstborn was right. Life Vision, mana sense, array detecting spells, they kept coming negative and the group covered in seconds the space that his paranoia would have made him waste hours searching for traps.
'Maybe the traps are in the second half.' He thought, slowing down further to let Vladion take the full brunt of whatever lay ahead.
Yet nothing happened. The Firstborn arrived at their destination unscathed, yet the vision that appeared in front of his eyes surpassed most of the horrors he had seen during his long life.
A huge glass tank, over thirty meters (100 feet) high and 20 meters (66 feet) wide had been built right in the middle of the mana geyser. Around the tank, members of different species of lesser Dragons had been arranged into three concentric circles.
Countless tubes drained their blood, extracting and purifying Leegaain's residual essence before feeding it to the person whose gigantic body floated in the tank. Two smaller tanks, one at each side of the geyser, had been filled with newborn undead and their nourishment.
They were constantly fed yet their black cores couldn't stabilize into blood cores because the life force they assumed was instantly drained from them and fed to the main tank.
Just like Kalla had explained Lith during their lessons, newborn undead and Abominations were both born with a black core that allowed them to feed on anything, making them universal donors of life force.
The only difference between them was that Baba Yaga's children would stabilize and turn their black core into a blood one thanks to the absorbed life force becoming a counterpart to Chaos, whereas Abomination wouldn't.
"You came here faster than I expected." A silvery feminine voice said. "It's amazing how you managed to arrive early and yet it's already too late. My dear friend Xedros has already turned into a mighty Dragon, all that's left to do is stabilize his condition."
Thrud Griffon stood in front of them, wearing Arthan's armor and with the Sword of Arthan hung to her hip. The enchanted protection had changed its shape to easily accommodate and support her swollen belly from the mid-term pregnancy.
Jakra the Emerald Dragon stood by her side, wearing a full suit of Adamant armor, as the Mad Queen pointed at the giant tank behind her. The purple liquid that filled it was losing its color by the second, becoming as clear and transparent as water.
"The moment his body becomes accustomed to its new condition, Xedros'll come out and take care of you. Until then, I can't let you ruin my precious experiment." Thrud said.
"Sedra!" Scarlett lost her cool as soon as the Eyes of Menadion recognized the energy signature of her godson.
The four-headed Hydra was wired to the tank as well, in the innermost circle of lesser Dragons, and was barely alive, to the point that even calling it living was a stretch. Sedra's blood had been drained, leaving behind a mummified body.
His life force and mana flow were still there yet, giving the Scorpicore hope that he could still be saved.
Scarlett ignored Thrud's rants and charged forward with all the speed that her perfect body enhancement and her bright violet core allowed to her. Yet Thrud moved so fast that in comparison the Scorpicore looked frozen in time.
She gave the Emperor Beast a backhand slap that sent Scarlett crashing right between Lith and Vladion. The Scorpicore was literally back at square one and injured at that. Only then did she look at the Eyes' readings about the Mad Queen.
'F.u.c.k me sideways!' Lith, Scarlett, and Solus thought in unison.
Thrud's core was still rainbow-colored, but every single of the colored beams was brighter than ever. Her physical prowess now put even Vladion's to shame. According to both the Eyes and mana sense, only Baba Yaga was stronger than her.
Maybe.
'I feel like crap just saying it, but there's still hope if we aim our attacks to her belly. Even that crazy woman must have feelings for her child, making her pregnancy a weak point that we can exploit.' Lith said the others via the mind link.
He had never kept War out of its sheath for so long and controlling the fury of the angry blade became more difficult with each passing second.
'Are you insane?' The Scorpicore and the Firstborn replied in unison. 'Are you even from this planet? Don't you know what pregnancy does to a powerful mage?'
'No, I don't.' Lith felt awkward admitting it.
'It makes them more powerful, sometimes even doubling their abilities.' Scarlett said.
'What? How?' Lith remembered the words from Lochra Silverwing's book stating that women were naturally more powerful mages than men.
If the Scorpicore was telling the truth, then pregnancy had to be one of the reasons why the most powerful mages in Mogar's history were female, be they Awakened or not.
'Where do you think the theory behind cursed objects comes from?' Vladion said. 'Mother and child are one. Two mana cores and two life forces in one body. Even if a newborn is weak and their core red, it still amplifies the mother's abilities.
'Normally, a mana core can't exert its full force without injuring the body. It's the phenomenon we call "mana abuse". The child's core, however, drains the excess energy and uses it to nurture their body.
'At the same time, the child's life force is mixed with the mother's, making it grow much more powerful and violent to protect the new life inside of her. On top of that, if the baby belongs to a powerful bloodline, the effects are much greater.'
