"Don't tell me that you liked her in secret all this time!" Lith joked about it, hoping to avoid getting schooled about relationships by a single-minded hormonal teenager.
"Gods protect me, no." He laughed.
"She is too tall and definitely too strong-willed for me. I prefer petite, well endowed girls that don't threaten to turn me inside out like a sock. It's just that since I never saw you with a girl, I wanted to give you an unsolicited piece of advice."
Lith inwardly cringed, while keeping his poker face and nodding.
"If I were you, I'd return the Ballot to Linjos and let her have it."
Lith was left in a daze. This wasn't what he had expected from Yurial.
"After the second exam, Phloria is second guessing her life a lot. I know it because I lived under her roof until the academy started again. I don't know if Rudd will manage to get Lukart expelled, his father is a powerful and well connected man.
Even if he does, it's only a matter of time before people start talking about you two, and that would put a second target on her back. Everyone knows you have a Ballot, so you can always bluff your way out of trouble. Not to mention that you are incredibly strong." Yurial winked, referring to Lith's shared secret.
"She is strong too, but right now Phloria is in a rough patch. She doesn't need more traumas. If you really care about her, you should put her safety first. A year is a long time, many things can happen."
"Who are you and what did you do to Yurial?" Lith replied raising his eyebrow in disbelief, making his friend laugh.
"It's just that her future is not set in stone. She can change her path anytime and I believe Phloria needs peace and quiet to not rush her decision. I really envy her for that."
Yurial sighed. Since he seemed to need to take something off his chest, Lith didn't interrupt him.
"You know, the reason why I may appear so shallow at times it's because I'm just like Phloria, trying to enjoy the little time I have left to its fullest. Don't get me wrong, unlike her I will not put my life on the line every day, yet I will be chained.
By my responsibilities towards my father, my subjects, my wife and children."
"Your what?" Lith was flabbergasted.
"Man, even before I started the academy, I was already betrothed. I know who and when I'll marry since I was ten years old."
"Do I know her?"
"No, she's not a mage. It's a political marriage to join my magically talented household to an ancient noble family. Everybody wins. After we graduate, I'll become my father's second in command for a couple of years.
Then marriage and I'm expected to have at least a couple of heirs by the age of twenty. As I said, Phloria's future is not set in stone, but mine is. I understand better than anyone else how it feels being trapped."
"You and me both." Lith inwardly sighed. ¨C
"Maybe it will not work between you two, but you can still learn something from each other. Promise me you will think about it."
"I will."
***
In a remote corner of the Blood Desert, the three Guardians had met in person for the first time in hundreds of years. Even though they had turned into their human forms and were suppressing their auras as much as they could, it wasn't enough.
The earth below trembled slightly while the skies thundered. The world seemed to be scared by their assembly and was trying to break them apart once again.
"I hate to admit it, but you were right." Salaark said.
She had taken the appearance of a young-looking woman, with silky black long hair, emerald eyes and a bronze tinge of skin so clear it seemed to shine under the morning sun.
She wore the same white clothes her tribal leaders, the Feathers, did but with no turban, allowing her hair to graze the ground.
"Some b*stard has invaded my turf and is spreading Abominations like they are presents. I underestimated our opponent, leaving everything in the hands of my Awakened ones. The result is that five of my Feathers died in less than a month.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click for visiting.
They were all good men and women. Someone has to pay for their deaths."
Her eyes ignited with a purple flame while the sand below her feet turned into glass because of the heat she emitted. The trembling and thundering intensified, but none of those present cared.
"It's not all. The sudden death of so many Awakened crippled my military force, my borders are under attack from all directions!"
"I'm not responsible, the truce with the Griffon Kingdom still holds." Tyris said.
"Me neither. I control nothing in the Empire, but my apprentice would have told me before making such a move. She knows how much is at stake." Leegaain shrugged in annoyance.
"I'm not blaming you idiots, but myself!" Salaark roared.
"Clearly the culprit has made sure that all my enemies knew about my weakness, otherwise the neighbouring countries could never set up a coordinated attack like this. They are ruining years of hard work!"
Her delicate feet stomped multiple times, shattering the glass, the land, and causing a minor tremor, around 3.0 on the Richter scale.
"Then why did you summon us if you knew we are innocent?" Tyris already had a headache from having to stand Salaark's temper without the possibility of bashing her head.
"Because I know who did it and where they are right now. If this was just about killing, I would have done it myself, but I want to take them alive and make them talk. I need you to prevent them from escaping."
"I'm fine with it. I had nothing to do this evening anyway." Leegaain yawned, giving her a thumbs up.
With a snap of her fingers, Salaark Warped them hundreds of kilometres away, in the proximity of a small mountain range. Like most of her kingdom, the landscape was barren. Too barren even for a desert.
"The b*stard must have taken its sweet time here. Even the mountains are crumbling due to the void of world energy." Salaark snorted.
"Seal the space around here, I'm going in."
Tyris and Leegaain operated their magic their own way. A Guardian was attuned to the planet, to the point that even their simplest act was magic. Tyris started to walk, countless runes of power spread in the air and the ground with each step she took.
Leegaain was feeling nostalgic, seeing both his friends moved his old heart. The dragon started to sing with a tenor voice. Wherever the song reached, the matter would be bound to the dragon's will.
"Show off." Tyris smiled, singing along in a counter melody. Their voices filled the air with mana, making flowers bloom from long dried up seeds and water gush out of the ground. The Guardians were only sealing up the space, life was just a by-product of their joy from being together.
"Well, at least there will be a lot of rain this year." Salaark grumbled while entering the underground maze.
Chapter 195 Trapped
Salaark moved like the wind, following the stench of chaos plaguing the air. Several Abominations, both Empowered and Puppeteers tried to stop her, but as soon as Salaark noticed that they were mindless drones, she would incinerate them with a purple blast of fire.
She soon reached the center of the maze, an artificial cave filled with state-of-the-art equipment. It was the most incredible magical lab Salaark had ever seen.
"I thought only Leegaain could do something like this. I can't even fathom what purpose most of this stuff has." She thought out loud.
Transparent water tanks filled with a glowing yellow liquid were lined up against the walls.
Each contained an unconscious magical beast or a human, but all of them were slowly being turned into Abominations. Salaark was close enough to see the process in the making. Somehow, the tanks were forcefully refining their cores, while at the same time the yellow liquid kept the bodies stable.
"Interesting. Their bodies are filled with cracks, but shouldn't collapse until they reach at least the cyan level, if not even the blue. Note to self, have Leegaain study the p
rocedure and dumb it down for me.
This way I will be able to replace my Feathers with ease. I'll take it as partial compensation." A wave of her hand sealed the tanks' space, making it incredibly hard to damage them.. Salaark had no rush, escape was impossible.
She walked around the room, finding more and more marvels as well as horrors.
Countless dried up corpses were piled up into small hills, making her wonder if they were failed experiments or simply the staple food to fully develop so many Abominations.
"You are too late." An amused voice bellowed.
"The Master escaped hours ago." A sinister figure stepped forward. Its body was covered in bright red scales, a black liquid oozed in between. It had long curved horns where the eyes were supposed to be, big upside-down membranous wings on its back.
"Since when do Eldritchs have a master?" Salaark sneered.
"Your power made you conceited, Guardian. Your pride blinds you." It pointed at her with a talon ending finger.
"We have learned from you how to increase our numbers. We are no longer scattered. We fight as one¡"
"I'm not interested in your rants." Salaark cut him short.
"Tell me who is your master and where to find it. Be a good boy and I'll not make you suffer. Much." Her wolfish smile only caused the Eldritch to burst into laughter.
"Pride goes before a fall." A snap of its scaly fingers and the whole cave became covered by symbols of power. Every inch of space was covered by countless runes and arrays, each one imbued with a magical power that didn't belong to any of the six elements.
Salaark felt her strength being sapped, but still showed no sign of worry.
"Interesting. After you dried up all the world energy of this place, you have also used forbidden magic to cut off my natural connection with mana. How many Abominations did you sacrifice to achieve such a result?"
"Not enough since you still have the strength to brag!" The Eldritch roared extending its arms forward. Each of its fingers stretched out and multiplied, filling the air with razor sharp whip like tendrils that struck all around Salaark.
The Eldritch was outraged, even without using her magic, The Guardian had managed to dodge every strike with movements so small to be almost unnoticeable.
Almost.
"I would say you have picked the wrong Guardian, but there isn't a right one. Tyris would simply ignore this sh*t and try to reason with you before killing you. Leegaain would probably destroy your formations with a sneeze. As for me? I'm a fighter!"
Salaark dashed forward, punching the air in front of her. The Eldritch felt all its senses being distorted by the strength behind the simple attack. It easily dodged the strike, but it still hit the walls behind the Eldritch, creating a cave several meters deep and disrupting many arrays.
"I hate you Guardians!" The Eldritch couldn't hold its fury any longer.
"Why are you so strong? Why do you keep looking down on us? I'm Pazuel, and I'll show you the results of our efforts!" Pazuel met Salaark head on, its claws easily cut through her flesh and bones, forcing her to retreat for the first time in many centuries.
"Seems I have underestimated the b*astard a little too much. No Eldritch has ever managed to even scratch this form. To make things worse, I can't revert to my real body."¨C
The arrays surrounding them were powered with a perverted and twisted kind of magic that only Abominations possessed. It derived from darkness magic, but had its natural connection with light magic forcefully severed.
It powered their unique individual skills and had been named chaos magic. Over a hundred Abominations had been sacrificed to empower the arrays, making any kind of magic besides chaos magic impossible.
The black liquid oozing from Pazuel was an embodiment of such energies, poisoning Salaark's body and preventing her from regenerating her wounds.
Despite all that, she managed to fight the Eldritch on equal footing, her millennia of experience made every one of its attacks seem telegraphed and predictable. Blinded by rage, Pazuel let her come too close.
Her fist struck its left shoulder, the impact turned the left arm and part of the chest into dust, making the creature's body spin like a top, sending it crashing against a wall.
"Why? Why are you still this strong?" It cried.
"Because I have embraced everything you ever discarded." She panted.
"Because I'm still fighting an endless battle for my people and this planet, while you do nothing but eat, sh*t and whine."
Salaark had hoped to stall longer with her rant, but as soon as the arm was regrown, Pazuel charged at her again. Its body started to melt, expanding at the same time. It became a mass of claws, talons, and fangs with only a black core as their center.
"How dare you say I do nothing? We sacrificed so much to get this far, but now me and my brothers are one!" Each limb and snout shot a different spell, leaving Salaark nowhere to run.
She still managed to dodge most of the attacks, taking only those that wouldn't hit her vitals. When the barrage was over, only part of her torso and head remained, yet she was still alive.
"If that's the best you can do, now it's my turn." Her voice was calm, purple flames covered all the injured parts of her body, making her whole anew.
"What? How?" Pazuel was running on fumes and was forced to revert back to its original form.
"I accumulated thousands of years of experience while you were content with preying on the weak. Look at your precious array."
Only then Pazuel noticed how every one of her missed strikes had actually hit its intended target. The focus points of the array were all badly damaged, even the spot where she had sent the Eldritch to crash earlier was intentional.
"You did the rest of the job for me with your sloppy attacks." She explained while the purple flames turned white along with her whole body.
"You miscalculated. This place is no longer devoid of world energy. How long could it possibly last against two Guardians breathing new life all around us as we speak, while a third one breaks it from inside?"
"You think I'm afraid of death? I'm already part of something bigger. Glory to the dawn of a new world!"
Salaark could see the Eldritch overload its black core, triggering a powerful explosion strong enough to destroy the cave and deal a significant amount of damage to her.
Her answer was to bite her scarlet lips, spitting a drop of her blood on the exploding Eldritch. Time seemed to rewind, every single piece of flesh going back forming the body once again, sealing the explosion before the shock wave could displace even a single speck of dust.
The Eldritch found itself alive and well, its core intact. It started to sweat in fear, a long-forgotten feeling while the phoenix's hand turned into a claw, locking it in place. The Eldritch discovered that its muscles had become limp, its magic refused to obey.
"It seems there is a misunderstanding here." Salaark's form turned into a hybrid between human and phoenix.
"I'm not the keeper of anything, I'm nobody's muse. I'm the conqueror of life and death." Her free hand ignited with a white flame, scorching the creature's very soul.
"You are not going anywhere, so you better start talking."
***
Lith spent the rest of the day practicing dimensional magic and Accumulation while waiting for the school books to be delivered and working on the sealed boxes during the night.
The time spent with Solus in the tower practicing Forgemastering, together with Nalear's lesson about the importance of magic crystals gave him a new approach to the problem.
Lith had discovered that the reason for his previous failures was that by damaging the boxes' mana pathways, the energy contained in the pseudo core diminished, while the one contained in the mana crystal would not.
This upset the balance and caused the explosion. Previously he had tried to keep the crystal isolated, thinking it was some kind of detonator that somehow was triggered by his attempts to pick the lock.
What he had to do, inst
ead, was attacking them at the same time. Thanks to this discovery, Lith was now able to almost depower the lock.
Alas, almost wasn't enough. He was now able to open the boxes, but the resulting explosion still destroyed most of their content, not leaving enough for him to understand their purpose.
"It's still a huge success. I just need a few more lessons about how mana crystals and Forgemastering interact and I will be able to open them. I have only a few left, it's better to save them for later."
When the next day came, he was still pondering about Yurial's words, torn between egotism and his wish to change, to actually care about his so called friends instead of just pretending to.
His morning routine didn't change. Lith went to pick up Phloria early for their walk and then they went to meet with the others for breakfast.
"It really doesn't feel like a high-school sweetheart at all. She didn't invite me to her room, we didn't talk about anything in particular. Phloria seemed to be more cheerful than usual, though. She smiled often when talking with me and made sure to sit in front of me."Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click for visiting.
"It means that she enjoys your company and likes to watch you." Solus pointed out.
"Still feels more like bromance than romance." Lith shrugged.
"You watched too many teen dramas. Based on your past experiences, relationships take time and effort to develop. Do you remember why unlike your brother you never managed to fall in love?"
"According to my therapist, I was too self-centered. I would only care about myself and protecting my own feeling, so I never opened up to any of the women I dated."
"It's exactly what you are doing even now. You are only thinking about what you want, not what it's best for her. The Ballot is useless for you. The Queen is openly backing you up, the Professors hold you in high esteem.
Not to mention how strong and fast you are. It's not like when you arrived. Your family is safe, you can defend yourself with ease and your word is not that of a country boy anymore. If anything happens, the academy will watch your back."
Guilt and Punishmen Page 10