"Why didn't you come with us, Grandpa?"
"Because there's no one I can trust to manage the shop in my absence. It's a family business so it needs someone of the family to take care of it." Zekell threw a final reproachful look at Senton before turning to Lith.
"It's nice to have you back, even if just for a little while." The two men shook hands.
The difference in treatment made the poor Senton wonder if he had been adopted.
"Do you have new work for me? Because I have some for you. The stocks of chessboards are running low and once we sell the last pieces, we'll leave the market open to counterfeits." Zekell handed Lith a report of the sales and an inventory of what was left.
"Not now, sorry." Lith examined the numbers and was quite pleased of them. "As for the chessboards, I'll send you a new batch as soon as possible. I can work on them even in the Desert so it shouldn't take long."
Everything was mass-produced in the Alchemical lab and enchanted in the Forge, requiring so little focus that usually Solus did it in her spare time.
"Excellent." Zekell nodded. "You know, it's too bad that you're the only one who can use that Gate. If I had one of those keys, I could triple our profits simply by cutting on the transportation fees."
"Yeah, but you would need to personally make every single trip through the Gate and you'd have a nice target on your back. If something happened to you, one of my enemies could imprint the key and use it." Lith replied.
"Never mind, then." Zekell hated traveling and hated risking his life even more.
'There's no point in making money that I can't live to spend.' He thought.
Zekell invited them for lunch and they accepted. They had just dined, but after not seeing each other for over a month they missed the old blacksmith, even Senton.
The family spent the time before closing to visit the new shops and establishments that had opened during their absence.
Lith noticed that while the citizens of Lutia always gave him a warm smile and invited him to stay over, those who had recently moved there treated him coldly at best, whispering behind his back the moment he turned around.
'Who the heck are those guys? I don't recognize half of them. I wish Solus was here. She would know whether I just forgot about them or if we actually never met.' Lith thought.
He noticed that the same people that treated him coldly would also look with fear at the magical beasts, forbidding them entrance.
Rena noticed that the quality of the clothes had improved, but it was still a long shot from those that Lith bought them from the big cities. The quality of the toys disappointed the kids, but that was hardly a novelty.
They were so used to enchanted items that no matter the craftsmanship, they would always find them lacking.
Lith went to pick up Raaz, but just like Rena, he refused to use a Warp Steps to reach their destination.
"There's still some time before noon and I'd rather have Zekell wait a few minutes than have this conversation in front of the kids." He said with a sigh while taking the old road to Lutia.
"What's wrong, Dad?" Lith asked.
"I couldn't stop thinking about what Bromann said so after I finished negotiating the new contracts with the farmhands and instructing them about the sowing, I called Count Jadon Lark." Raaz felt the need to call the new ruler of the Lustria County by name since the death of the old Count still pained his heart.
"It seems that our honeymoon with Lutia's citizens ended a while ago without us even noticing."
"What do you mean?"
"Son, this is a small village. Gossip about who is cheating with who or about a merchant overpricing his goods are nothing to worry about while rumors about the seizing of fields are not." Raaz clenched his teeth so hard that he snarled rather than speak.
"The famine is no different from the plague in Kandria. Farmers are always informed about the value of their crops and aim to make it big when such occasions arise. Jadon confirmed to me that my suspicions were correct.
"The new citizens of Lutia blame you for the attack and resent you for keeping the Warp Gate for yourself so much that they exploited our absence to petition Jadon to take away my lands.
"They claimed that we had abandoned the Kingdom in its darkest hour and that with the current shortage of food there was no time to waste for my return."
"They did what?" Lith seethed with anger, making the sky quake until Raaz patted his shoulder to calm him down.
"Their argument was groundless but it made sense. Weren't Jadon a friend, things might have gone differently. Once he said no, they petitioned Brinja, and when even that failed, the Royals."
"Seriously?" Lith was flabbergasted.
"Yes." Raaz nodded. "Not to brag, but your old man is the biggest landowner of the County. Nobles excluded, obviously. You have seen how desperate my farmhands are. Right now, crops are just crops, but if the famine endures, they will be worth more than gold.
"Sure, the Royals would enforce fixed prices, but slipping a few sacks of food on the black market can make a farmer earn with a single harvest more than they would in years. According to Brinja, who defended my interests in front of the Court, it was the work of a small noble, Baronet Hogum."
"I remember him." Lith was surprised by how rage could jog even his Lich-like memory. They had met briefly during the gala when Lark had introduced Lith to Mirim for the first time.
The two youths had faced each other with magic and the final result had been an utter humiliation for the Baronet.
"The good news is that the Royals had him waiting in the bad antechamber for hours before dismissing him without even listening to Brinja's counterarguments. The bad news is that they wouldn't have even granted him audience if it wasn't because the people of Lutia backed him." Raaz said.
"Interesting." Lith sounded aloof, but his father could hear the cogs in his brain ticking like war drums.
"Calm down, son." Raaz walked in front of Lith, to look him in the eyes while holding his shoulders.
"You have every right to be angry and so do I, yet these are difficult times. At any other moment, I would have asked Zekell's help and together we would have made those people have a hard time doing business.
"Heck, I would have probably even exploited your and Jadon's influence to screw them up good. Right now, however, messing with them means messing with the livelihood of countless people."
"Give me one good reason why I should care." Lith said with a voice as cold as a death and eyes brimming with violet mana.
"I'll give you two. Because I care and because I raised you to be better than this." Raaz replied.
Lith didn't reply and soon they started walking again, this time in silence.
"What if they make another attempt?" He asked after a while.
On top of that, thanks to the Sage Staff's power core taking care of the fine control of the effects of gravity magic, all the caster had to do was to point and shoot.
When Quaron tried to get out of the area of effect of Distorted Field Solus altered the direction of gravity, making him fall toward her. He instinctively tried to take a deep breath and almost choked on his blood.
'What can those things do exactly?' Locrias asked while trying to sever Quaron's head from his neck with a horizontal slash with War.
'Can't you just read my mind?' Solus replied while using one of the spheres forming the Distorted Field to accelerate Locrias and another to make Quaron's feet heavier, messing with his tempo.
'No. I can speak with you like this only because I'm in your shadow. Your energy signature is attuned with me enough to control your body, but that's it. I feel like I should be able to do more yet I can't.' Locrias was amazed by the Ranger managing to block his attacks.
Yet he could feel from the impact that due to Solus's monstrous strength and to the spheres that somehow limited his movements, Quaron had failed to disperse the force of the hit, taking a lot of damage anyway.
'It must be because Lith and I share the same energy signature but not his bloodline abilities. It seems that he can Possess his Demons as he did in Urgamakka.' Solus was relieved by that answer.
She liked Locrias, but she didn't want to share with him the most private details of her life nor her thoughts.
Quaron felt the bones in his arm cracking but darkness fusion made the pain bearable. He focused healing magic on his nose, repairing it and hurling Origin Flames at Solus.
She only needed to activate the sphere closest to his face to create an updraft that altered the trajectory of the breath enough for Locrias to dodge it with minimal movement and aim for the neck.
Quaron Blinked away, only for Solus to Blink along and for Locrias to lunge from behind, piercing his throat.
'It's not enough. Cut his head off and pierce his heart. I have no mana left.' Solus said and Locrias complied.
Only when mana sense confirmed that Quaron was dead did Solus dispel Distorted Field, using the Sage Staff to fuel her core.
'What do we do now?' Locrias said, feeling that if he used even one bit more strength he would be back being a wandering soul.
'We wait.' Solus replied.
Suddenly, War escaped her grip and took the sky, flying towards the two still fighting titans.
'Can you see what's happening?' Solus asked Locrias, discovering that he was gone as well, leaving her alone.
***
The explosion of the Origin Flames had wounded Syrook, but it was far from lethal. Lith was still wounded from the fall and the kicking, making them even.
Yet the Black Dragon had still the advantage of a bigger body, a stronger core, and better equipment. Lith didn't waste time patting his own back and hurled a second stream of Void Flames to finish the job.
Both Dragons were amazed at how fast and destructive the black flames were.
While Origin Flames moved akin to an oversized flame thrower Void Flames moved akin to a laser, keeping their form compact and without decreasing their intensity over distance.
Syrook reacted promptly by flapping his wings and breathing Origin Flames. He couldn't get far in time but that small step back allowed him to ride the winds of the explosion and get away.
At the same time, he slashed non-stop with Sunder, generating a volley of wind blades that ravaged the land and attacked Lith from every side.
"Enough of this." The Voidfeather Dragon snarled as his yellow eye shone bright.
The spells passed through Lith like a spring breeze, incapable of hurting their new master. Then, they turned around and moved against Syrook.
The Black Dragon had no idea what Domination was but after Solus had reflected one of his spells, he had gotten the gist of it. He activated his Nether Gate bloodline ability again, releasing all of the undead he had created.
Their existence limited the amount of darkness element that Nether Gate could conjure and with his life on the line, Syrook couldn't hold back.
A sea of dark energy shrouded him, eating the wind blades inside out with each meter they advanced. The rain of spells managed to hit him anyway and opened several deep wounds, even tearing his wings in multiple spots, but it was still better than dying.
Lith could feel his throat hurting from the Void Flames and reverted into his Tiamat form.
'I can't risk Chaos or whatever it is damaging me during a fight. On top of that, I suck at fighting as a Dragon.' He thought while giving chase, hoping to catch up with Syrook before he could use Invigoration.
The Black Dragon's pride hurt from being forced to run away, yet he valued his life too much to keep fighting a losing battle.
'I just need a coupled of breaths for-' Quaron's death struck at him like a lightning and dealt almost as much damage.
Losing his Harbinger wounded a Divine Beast's very life force, causing a pain that couldn't be treated in any way. Lith saw Syrook freeze while Life Vision showed him that not only had the Black Dragon yet to heal, but his strength had also dramatically decreased.
'He has recalled his minions, it's time that I do the same!' Lith focused on his link with War and the angry blade answered the call.
It abandoned Solus, flying at sub-sonic speed over the battlefield, and used its Soul Weaver ability as it moved. War collected the Demons on its passage, adding their strength and mass to its own.
When it reached Lith, War fused itself with his conjured swords, using them as a scaffold for the Demons it carried. In a split second, the two blades became a replica of War made of earth, light, and shadows, big enough for the Tiamat to use.
Lith closed the distance that separated him from the Dragon and lunged at the heart.
Syrook blocked the attack with both hands, forming an X with Sunder in front of his chest to cut down the blade along with its wielder. Yet even though its body wasn't made of Adamant, War withstood the hit and overpowered his guard.
The angry blade pierced through the thick black scales that protected the Dragon's chest and unleashed all of its enchantments inside his body, killing him on the spot.
Lith usually would have destroyed the heart and crushed the head of a fallen enemy to confirm the kill, but his wallet was already bleeding over the loss of the Black Dragon's heart.
'I always heard that it's a top grade ingredient that contains a lot of magical power.' He thought with a deep sigh. 'I wish I could have just cut his neck. I didn't mind losing a few scales.
'Now there's one huge problem left.. I have no idea if my pocket dimension can fit something this big.'
