"At the same time, the male hybrid fights for his future. It allows him to move forward and accept the change, rather than trying to foolishly bring back a forever lost past. It'll be interesting to see which side he'll choose, if he ever makes his mind." Mogar said.
"Are you saying that he might remain a hybrid?" Salaark asked. "I always thought that hybrid was just a temporary state of the spawn of powerful species before they reach maturity."
"And you were right." Mogar nodded. "But things are different now and so am I. A hybrid is now walking the path towards Guardianhood and even the Abominations I had forsaken as a lost cause have managed to evolve into something new.
"Things are changing pretty fast for my standards, and only time could tell if it's for the better or the worse."
***
Meanwhile, inside the Body-Swapping room, Lith was fighting to retain his consciousness. His cracked life force was on the verge of breaking, his stamina was depleted, and all the mana he had left wasn't enough to light a candle.
Lith had fought, ran, and cast spells non-stop for hours now, to the point that Invigoration would bring him back to less than 20% of his max strength. The fight with the Odi, with the necessity to constantly keep the Skinwalker armor in its boosted state, had drained his energies like never before.
"Are you alright, Lith?" Phloria asked while helping him to lie down on the floor.
'Are you alright, Solus?' Lith was still so scared from almost losing her that he constantly checked on her condition.
'I'm peachy, stop asking me that.' She giggled.
"I'm fine. I just need to sleep for a few hours. A week tops." He replied to Phloria.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Quylla was kneeling right next to him, checking his vitals. "This is really bad. He needs absolute rest. He's this close to further reducing his life span."
She then blew away the nearby pile of dust that once had been the lost Odi race and imprinted Ellkas' dimensional ring, taking back all of her stuff and Phloria's. Quylla had brought several potions with her, some of which were needed to stabilize the life force of a patient after a Body Sculpting procedure.
She forced Lith to drink a tonic, a stabilizer, and then she used tier four light magic to make sure that his body had the necessary energy to recover from its many wounds. All the damage his wings sustained had been carried to his human form as open cuts on Lith's back.
Lith protested for a second or two before the strain from the healing process and the stress from the fight made him fall asleep. Only once Quylla was certain that both Lith's body and his life force were out of danger did she allow herself to relax.
"We have a lot of catching up to do." She said while throwing a meaningful look at her sister. "You two have a lot of explaining to do, but right now I'm too tired and too happy to care about answers."
She hugged Phloria, enjoying her warmth. While she was working in the Mana Reactor's control room, Quylla had hated herself for abandoning Phloria in the hands of the Odi. She knew that Lith would have done anything to defend her, but to Quylla that wasn't an excuse.
She had no idea what Lith was, but, in her eyes, being a little inhuman was a small price to pay if it meant being powerful enough to protect those she loved. Then, she checked Lith's condition one last time before falling asleep as well.
Even if the red chains had healed the hole in her chest, her stamina was depleted by all the healing she had performed and the life force she had passed to Lith. Taking care of those two Golems had taken quite a toll on her mana as well.
Phloria's physical condition was pretty good thanks to Lith Invigorating her after killing Jiira. She armed herself to the teeth, standing guard in the case that more constructs, magical beasts, or whatever the Odi had left might pop its ugly head up and threaten their lives.
When the metal doors opened, her blade moved to fast that Morok's neck started to bleed even before he managed to notice the wound that the tip of her estoc had opened.
"First your sister kicks me in the nuts so hard that I don't know if I'm still able to have children and now you almost turn me into a kebab? What's wrong with you Ernas?" He asked while pushing the blade away with a finger.
"Have you ever heard of knocking? Not only it's a very polite thing to do, but also prevents others from thinking you're a fucking enemy trying to sneak inside and finish us off." She said.
"Point taken. Can we leave now? I'm sick of this place and I've no idea if there are more Golems left."
Phloria pondered about her options. Normally she would worry about rescuing her soldiers and the Apprentices, but the fact that they had left with no care for her well-being while even Morok had come to help, royally pissed her off.
"We have to wait until their condition stabilizes a bit. Then we get the heck the out of here." That was how long she was willing to wait for her comrades to return. They were all perfectly healthy whereas Lith needed medical attention.
"Do you want me to look around for our runaway friends while you guys rest?" Morok asked.
"No. I can't take on several magical beasts at once or a Flesh Golem and defend them at the same time. I need you here."
"Don't worry, I counted them. If those that attacked us back in the Living Quarters were all of them, there are only two left. If they are smart, they'll keep away from us."
"Quylla and I killed one on our own." Phloria said.
"Even better! Then there's only one left. The chances it attacks us are almost… Shit!" His optimism died as the metal door opened again, letting the last Golem in.
Solus was very tired but she was incapable of sleeping outside of her tower, so she was watching and hearing everything in the room.
'Maybe Lith is right. Maybe jinxing stuff really is possible.' She thought.
Yet the construct moved slowly, its arms raised in the air and its power core was exposed, protruding from its stone shell. Now that every single Odi was dead, the imprint on the slave runes carved into its life force had disappeared.
It was now free to do whatever it wanted as long as it didn't clash with its protocols, like self-harming. Seeing the pain and anguish in the eyes of the man grafted to the construct, Phloria's hand hesitated.
Killing out of mercy was different from doing it out of self-defense.
\u003c "Please, I n…\u003e" The creature attempted to say while using sheer willpower to hold back its screams of pain.
Morok had no such problems. He had seen enough Golems for a lifetime and couldn't wait to retire. His hammers smashed the power core, putting the creature out of its misery.
"He was trying to say something!" Phloria said.
"Then it should've talked faster. I'm not putting at risk the last Royal Forgemaster… I mean, my precious friends for a dead man walking." Morok hoped that Phloria wouldn't notice the greed with which he was staring at the silver wand in her pocket.
