"This will make a wonderful greeting gift. Remember that the quickest way for the heart of an Emperor Beast's heart is through their stomach.
"They need to eat like anyone else, but due to the massive amount of food necessary for every meal, home-cooked delicacies are the stuff of the legends for them." Xenagrosh said.
"What do you mean?" Lith asked.
"Making stoves and pots big enough for our size is a hassle. The same stands for preparing the food and procure enough seasoning. Most of us just gobble whole cows and trees to get over with it quickly." The Shadow Dragon replied.
"How does V- I mean, the Master provide you with so much food without it being noticed?"
"We Abominations hybrids are different and so should you be.." She said. "We eat much less than our beast counterparts because we not only assimilate everything we eat aside from their impurities, but we also feed on world energy.
"Thanks to that, our need for food is greatly reduced and we can eat almost anything since the light element is everywhere around us. In a way, we are similar to plants since we feed upon sunlight as well."
'Fuck me sideways, that's why even after turning into a Tiamat I never felt the need to eat as much as Faluel does. My scales feed on both light and heat to sustain my body. That's why water weakened me back in Kolga.' Lith thought.
"This feast must have cost you a pretty coin and a lot of pain." Xenagrosh interrupted his musings with a chuckle. "I know how stingy you are."
"I'm not… Actually, I am." Lith was too tired to argue so he just put the food back in the pocket dimension. "Where does Sinmara live?"
"Where you would expect a single Phoenix to. Inside a volcano." She opened a Warp Steps followed by a few others until they reached one of the Blood Desert's Mountain ranges.
"Let me guess. There she is." Lith pointed at a mountain that looked stumpy compared to its neighbors and that had a column of black smoke coming out of it.
"Correct." Xenagrosh nodded. "Don't worry, the volcano has been inactive for centuries now. What you see is the smoke of her Forgemastering lab."
"What the heck does she craft that can require that much lava and make so much smoke?" Lith asked in surprise.
"Items the size of a Phoenix, little brother."
"Is there anything I should know before we go in?"
"No. Sinmara has no oversized ego nor absurd rules. Not anymore at least. Be polite and everything will go well." Xenagrosh said.
Not being able to use Life Vision, the Shadow Dragon needed to cast an array detecting spell to reveal the formation in front of them and push the magical equivalent of a door phone.
The arrays scanned the visitors and their surroundings for a few seconds before letting them in. The moment Lith stepped through the magic that sealed the entrance, the Contact Lenses of Menadion picked so many powerful energy signatures that Lith was forced to have Solus go back into her ring form to not fry both their brains.
'By my Mom. This place radiates so much power that even mana sense is completely blinded.' She thought, regretting her inability to examine the many magical marvels decorating Sinmara's home with anything but her regular eyesight.
Just like Faluel's lair, everything was the size of its master. The corridors, the ceiling, and the rooms could all easily accommodate a creature 40 meters (132 feet) tall. Unlike the Hydra, however, the Phoenix had decorated her place like a home.
Every room had a soft carpet giving warmth to the place and muffling their footsteps. Otherwise, each step of a creature as big as Lith would have produced a thunder that the echo of the halls would have made deafening.
The walls, ceiling, and the ground had been polished to the point that the red light that came from the heart of the volcano was reflected to perfection. It illuminated each room with a soft white light thanks to the lack of doors and to the walls changing its color.
Yet the air was clean and the temperature no higher than that of the outside Desert. The Phoenix had no trouble with heat, but the same couldn't be said for her furniture. Enchanting the home arrays to keep the temperature stable was much easier than crafting everything to be heat-resistant.
Paintings were hung to the walls, depicting not only the most important moments in Sinmara's life, but also those of the people of the Desert and of Salaark's nest. Lith noticed a recurring theme in the pieces.
Many Phoenixes of various colors were portrayed but there was only one so black that it resembled an Abomination hybrid. On top of that, a Dragon shining with a silvery-white radiance always appeared next to her.
"Who are those guys? Is the black Phoenix one of yours?" Lith pointed at the odd couple.
"I wish." Xenagrosh chuckled. "That's Sinmara, our host and the Phoenix of Darkness. The other one is her twin brother, Surtr, the Dragon of Light."
"A twin?" Lith asked in amazement.
"Yes. They picked different life forces, but they always stuck together. Their bond is so deep that they worked their way up to the white without anyone's help but each other's. They didn't rely on Leegaain's help nor Salaark's."
"Are they both white cores?"
"Yes. Now enough with the questions." Xenagrosh led him to the lowest level of Sinmara's home, near the center of the volcano.
There stood a 40 meters (132 feet) tall creature that resembled a hybrid between a human and a pitch-black feathered Phoenix. It was Sinmara's work form, to be capable of using her tools without magic while also retaining all of her bloodline abilities.
The creature wore a white overall, heavy working gloves, and a thick work apron all made of pure-white scales. In her right hand, she held the hiltless blade of a spear of Davross while with the left she wielded a Forgemastering hammer that rhythmically struck at the metal.
With each hit, the spearhead's shape became more elaborate and more runes covered its surface while different layers of magic formed a power core.
The lower part of the blade was kept heated by the molten lava while the upper part was showered with bright white Origin Flames that erupted from the giant wings on the creature's back.
Sinmara slowly turned the spearhead, alternating which side would withstand the Flames and which one would be tempered by the lava.
'That's how Origin Flames come out from both Tista's wings and those of my Voidfeather Dragon form. I wonder if I can use them like that even as a Tiamat.' He thought.
While waiting for her to finish, Lith did all he could to remove the excess energy signatures and study her Forgemastering technique with the Eyes of Menadion. Yet all he got for his efforts was a crippling headache for both him and Solus.
'Do your Dragon Eyes help in situations like this one?' He asked Xenagrosh via a mind link to not disturb Sinmara.
'I wish.' She replied with a sigh. 'I learned Forgemastery from Bytra, but her technique is so different from Sinmara's that I'm probably understanding less than you do.'
