“l‘m just safekeeping your share and making it grow. lf your Red Demon form become as big as my Tiamat once you reach the violet,
you’ll need a lot of materials.
“lt takes a long time to grow them even in the tower so it’s better to start immediately.” Lith caressed her head gently. “Thanks to Grandma, I need enough to make myself a single set of weapons and armor.
“If I get better, I can just recycle them and forge something better.
Everything else is for you, Phloria, and for Solus.”
“Hey, why do you put me last? The tower is mine as well and I’m your partner!” She pouted, looking as adorable as an angry puppy.
“Because of this.” He pointed at the Fury, made in Davross, and at its omni-elemental crystals that Salaark herself had reforged.
“And this.” Next came the Sage Staff, with its Yggdrasill wood, evil eyes, and more elemental crystals.
“Aside from the armor, you have the best equipment among us.
Besides, it’s not like you need it that much. Thanks to your body mass, you are plenty durable yourself and you can only fight for a short while before being forced back into the ring.
“Right now, using Davross for you would be overkill. Even Adamant is too much for the use you’d make of it. It’s much better to keep everything in the mine and the Crucible until the next batch is ready.“
Solus had to admit that he was right and disappeared the moment the pin signaled the arrival of the reinforcements. They left the underground complex, learning about the massacre of Awakened elders that had taken place throughout the Griffon Kingdom after the start of their mission.
“Dammit!” Feela was seething with rage, hitting the walls whenever she walked within arm’s reach of them. “We’ve bided our time before attacking Thrud in order to catch her by surprise and we ended up dancing to her tune instead.
“Her surprise attack not only inflicted devastating damage on the Council, it also proves that she isn’t afraid of a direct confrontation.
She managed to kill our elders and recmit our youths, tipping the balance in her favor twice with a single move.”
“ls there anything we can do?” Lith asked with a worried expression,
but only because he was afraid that the Behemoth would answer yes.
Yet he had to ask in respect for his representative in the Council.
“No, but if that’s open war what Thrud wants, that’s what we’ll give her. You are dismissed until further notice. You two are still our trump card against the Undead King.” Feela replied, making him inwardly sigh in relief.
‘What about me?” Xenagrosh came out of the shadows slowly. “Are you still going to keep the Organization out of the Council for no valid reason?”
The representative of the five Awakened races started to whisper and argue between them. Even though a spell kept their words from being overheard, Lith could easily tell that Leegaain and Lotho were against it.
Inxialot had rolled a d20, and judging from the reactions of his peers,
he now sided with Raagu and Feela who were gloating.
“l’m sorry guys, you have to work on your fluency. l did the best that l could with the modifiers, but you still failed your persuasion roll.” He said leaving everyone confused and Lith shocked.
‘ls there someone else from Earth on Mogar who’s teaching him Dungeons and Looting?’
“By majority vote, the Organization and its Abomination—hybrids are now probatory members of the Council. Our invitation is extended solely to those who actually have a chance of becoming Awakened and it will be withdrawn at the first sign of foul play.” Raagu said,
extending her hand to the Shadow Dragon.
“You won’t be disappointed.” Xenagrosh shook it with a cniel smile on her face. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of people to kill and little time to do it.”
She used Chaos to replace the darkness element in her Warp Step,
piercing through the defensive arrays and leaving the room.
“Now the problem is killing Thrud without revealing the existence of Awakened.” Feela said.
‘We should…”
While the representative argued again, Faluel brought the group back to her lair where they found Quylla waiting for them. She was using fusion magic to circulate the six elements at the same time through her body, tempering it.
Her right hand produced a heat ray while her left blocked it with a hard light shield. She had the ray grow in power over time, from tier zero to almost four until her body couldn’t take it any longer.
The construct filled with cracks every time she failed to balance the two spells, forcing her to learn how to split her focus evenly. Her own mana couldn’t harm Quylla so the only thing hurt when the heat ray shattered the shield and pierced through her hand was her pride.
“Have you been practicing this whole time?” Phloria asked after seeing how drenched in sweat her clothes were.
The Featherwalker armor she wore was supposed to self-clean,
speaking volumes about the effort that the exercise required.
“What was I supposed to do? Praying? Pacing around?” Quylla said with a snarl before hugging her sister in a wet, smelly gesture of affection. “Thank the gods you are alright. You have no idea how scared 1 was.”
The moment she moved to Friya, Phloria cleansed herself with a pulse of darkness magic.
“There was no need to be afraid, little one. We are powerful and we had help.” Friya said.
“That’s the same thing that everyone thought before Manohar was killed.” Quylla replied. “If it was just Orpal and Night, I wouldn’t worry.
lt’s that damn tower that creeps me out. No offense, Solus.”
“None taken.” She replied.
“Any news from the war front while we were away?” Lith asked.
“Yes. Guess who has two thumbs up and is the new Royal Healer?”
“You?” Everyone said with enough surprise to sound offensive.
“Yeah, me. Thanks for your vote of confidence.” She pouted. “Scratch that, you are right. They picked me because Vastor is too valuable as a soldier to keep him locked in the Royal Court. Then, they discarded Lith for the same reason.
“They had considered Marth, but he refused to be often absent from the academy and his family. They came to me only because they had no other choice left and because of this.” She showed her proficiency with Light Mastery again.
“It seems that too many people saw me using it in Ruham. Now I’m the second-best diagnostician and a self-taught Light Master. The Royals hope to rope me back to their side and make me take Manohar’s place.”
“Who cares about what they want.” Friya dismissed the issue with a wave of her hand. “Why did you accept?”
“Because they are right and because I’m sick and tired of being left behind. Of being helpless whenever someone I love is in desperate need of help. Like it happened to Phloria after Kulah or to Lith after Orpal claimed to be a Verhen.
“It’s time that l get free from the shackles of guilt for killing Yurial and stop holding back. It’s time for me to Awaken.”
