Tyris had a hard choice to make, yet the answer came unexpectedly easy.
“Thank you, Lith, but no.” She shook her head. “You’ve seen how much Juria suffered by being here. I’ve probably worried Valeron for centuries by never letting go of him.
“Forcing him to come back would be as cruel as dangerous.”
“What do you mean, dangerous?” Lith said.
“Valeron was a white core and becoming one of your Demons would give him a black core.” Tyris replied. “If he manages to fuse them, he might not need your assistance to stay here anymore.”
“Really?” Lith’s eyes went wide in disbelief.
“It’s a risk I’m not going to take.” Tyris nodded. “The pain from being back to life and his love for me might also drive him insane. Saefel’s Set or not, you don’t want to have Valeron as an enemy.
“The form he acquired after achieving the white core was truly powerful. Worthy of the King of mankind.”
“What are you talking about?” Lith projected an image of Valeron from the historical archives that looked no different from a normal man.
“Silly child.” The Great Mother giggled. “Thrud evolved into a Golden Griffon upon reaching the white. Baba Yaga evolved from an Odi into a Sun Weaver. Why does no one ever wonder what Valeron and Lochra have become?”
“What did Valeron become?” Lith echoed.
“A better man. That was his hope and how he called his form.” Tyris said with a sigh. “In a way, he looked like you, just not so gloomy.”
“Like this?” Lith waved at his Abomination form in amazement.
“Gods, sometimes I wish you really belonged to my bloodline instead of Salaark’s.”
“Because it would give you someone of Valeron’s blood who can understand you and be close to you? Lith asked.
“No, because it would make everyone crap their pants at the idea of you becoming King. It would be hilarious.” Tyris chuckled. “Valeron too would laugh his ass off if he were still alive.
“The rumors about the two of us sleeping together, however, would greatly anger him.”
“Well, I’m no King material, that’s for sure.” Lith shrugged.
“And neither was Valeron. He just pointed the way and hoped for the others to follow him.” She replied.
“Yeah, but at what price?” Lith shapeshifted into his human form, lowering his eyes to the golden lily pendant in his hand. “I’m sorry, but now I have to do this.”
Lith stepped through the door of the mausoleum, walking for the first and last time in front of Phloria’s tomb. There were candles lit for her and a small stone tray for offerings.
He left the pendant there, closing his eyes and remembering the day he had gifted it to Phloria and how happy it had made her. Even after the breakup, she had never taken the lily pendant off.
Until her final moment, Phloria had never stopped to believe in Lith and him in her.
“Goodbye, Phloria Ernas. Goodnight, my Little Flower.” Lith allowed a single tear to stream down his eyes, leaving it along with the pendant as his tribute to her memory.
***
Inside Leegaain’s biome, at the same time.
It hadn’t taken long for the Divine Beasts’ relief at being alive to turn into rage for the defeat of Thrud’s army and scorn for those who, like Ufyl, had surrendered. Or better, that was what Leari the Thunderborne felt and she expected her brethren to do the same.
Yet they just sat around lazily, their eyes devoid of any emotion.
“How can you be like that? Valeron the Second is still alive. We can still fight for the true heir to the throne and fulfill Thrud’s dream!” She said at Ophius the Quetzalcoatl who didn’t even bother to look her in the eyes until she forced him.
“What dream? It’s over, Leari. The sooner you accept it, the better. Keep up like this and you’ll be a prisoner here forever.” He sighed in despair while staring at something on the feathers of his wings that only he could see.
“What do you mean over? We are still alive and have our equipment. We can always-“
“What do you know of the battle?” His sudden fury took Leari by surprise, cutting her short. “You were comfortably sitting in the resurrection chamber when Leegaain rescued you. You weren’t there to see Mogar fall apart. Here, let me show you!”
Ophius’ left wing touched her right temple, establishing a mind link that brought the final moments of the Battle for the White Griffon to life.
In the images, Lith had just completed the destruction spell for the power core and the Golden Griffon had been blown to bits. The explosion had been controlled to not affect the allied forces of the Kingdom and the Council, but for Thrud’s troops, it had been the equivalent of a nuclear bomb.
The souls of the Forgotten were now free and their bodies dissolved at once into piles of ashes. A downpour of Adamant had rained upon Ophius as the Forgotten’s armor and weapons fell toward the ground.
Leari experienced his fear when he realized that without the students of the Golden Griffon, the Council forces outnumbered them ten to one. The fear turned into horror a second later when Ophius and everyone else thought Valeron the Second had died in the conflagration.
Then, the horror turned into a panic when the flow of world energy from the Golden Griffon disappeared. Thrud’s soldiers were already tired from the prolonged fight and suddenly their bodies felt heavy and their mana failed them.
To make matters worse, their opponents were now free to use their bloodline abilities again, and without the sealing arrays of the lost academy to hinder the fake mages, the army had joined the fray as well.
Ophius’ Bastion had shattered under the Council elders’ Annihilation that also blasted away half of Orsat the Griffon’s body. Yet this time she and her equipment hadn’t disappeared in a cascade of light.
Her eyes had gone dull, her body was in a freefall, and her blood and entrails sprayed over the surviving members of the seven-man unit. It was then that Ophius and the others had realized that their next death would stick.
Every one of Thrud’s followers had always fought fearlessly because the Unwavering Loyalty array made them immortal. Once they got out of the rebirth chamber, they joked and compared notes about their demises, considering it a joke.
Now, however, they had reached the punchline.
Thrud’s Awakened formations had fallen into disarray, everyone worried solely about survival and looked for a way out.
Even the most loyal among them knew that Thrud would never leave before making sure that Valeron was alright which also meant that they considered her dead even before Sylpha had vaporized her body.
Now that Marth’s opponent was down, the White Knight was free to focus on the surviving forces of the Mad Queen’s army, killing dozens of them with a single swing of his sword.
The Headmaster rained Tower Tier spells to cut their escape routes while the five monsters in the When All Are One array moved from one seven-man unit to another, mowing them down like ripe wheat.
