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2566 Poisoned Chalices (Part 4)

"The Hydra, even assuming that she really works with the Council and not just for herself, will keep those of us with a Harmonizer here on Garlen, instead. It's a perfect setup to either enslave us just like Glemos did. To use us as hostages to force our brethren to take part in the war and us to undergo their experiments.

"You are asking us to take a massive leap of faith based on your delusion about Glemos' grandeur and your clear infatuation with his offspring."

"Everything you've said is true, my Queen." Ryla's voice held no spite or taunt. "What I'm proposing is indeed a great gamble that might doom us all."

The court was as flabbergasted as Syrah, having a hard time believing their own ears while listening to a meek Warlord caving across the board.

"But what's the alternative? Either we stay here and wait for our death, or we follow the undead and put ourselves in equally unreliable hands. To make matters worse, doing that would require us to kill all of our elders and force our children to become adults before moving out of Zelex."

Any monster past their prime was considered dead weight while younglings would require constant attention. Both were a liability that the monsters couldn't afford while moving to a hostile environment.

Yet while the children could be turned into adults, elders would only get older and weaker. The monsters couldn't afford to waste food on unproductive members of their society nor waste what little time they had taken care of them.

The elders knew it as well and that was the reason they had volunteered for the raids as soon as food had become scarce. Those who had survived the mission had already volunteered to be the first to be culled.

"There's no safe choice." Ryla continued after her words sunk in. "Only bets that will make us shed blood in different ways. Yet if I have to choose between being afraid of the undead, constantly looking over our shoulder, and the hope for a definitive peace, I choose hope.

At a snap of her fingers, the doors of the chamber opened, letting in the children of the members of the court that the Warlord had recalled from the Gardens of Time. Only a few hours had passed after the rites of passage so they hadn't aged much.

"Mom!" The younglings screamed as they ran to their respective mothers.

The members of the court embraced them without a care of the Warlord's blatant breach of the law. That day had yet to end but lots of blood had already been spilled twice and more would soon be shed based on the court's soon-to-be taken decision.

Both parents and children burst into tears, knowing that the joy of the reunion would be fleeting. Lyra stared at them in envy, wishing that Garrik was there with her, but his safety took priority over her feelings.

"Remember that if we accept Morok's offer, our kids won't be forced to sacrifice their youth. Unlike the undead, the Council can use dimensional magic and bring us to our destination without the need to travel on foot to another mana geyser.

"Also, I'm hopeful, not dumb. There's one last card that we can play with the Council that has no weight for the undead. Let me explain and then make up your mind."

City of Lutia, Lith's house, at the same time.

Morok had left the book about the Harmonizers with Ajatar to decipher it. The Drake had asked the Hydra for help and she had reluctantly accepted. Her plan was to borrow the book and then move to the tower.

There, by combining the effects of the Armory to share the effects of the Yggdrasill wood of the Sage Staff, the Eyes of Menadion, and her seven heads, she was certain that cracking the code would take days instead of weeks, if not months.

Alas, Lith begged to differ.

The moment I proposed to him to do that, he gave me such a glare that I thought he was about to bite my head off. Faluel inwardly sighed. I've forgotten that with Elysia on her way, keeping Lith away from his family is not an option.'

Protector had run home as well, eager to check on Selia's condition and if the sharing of his newfound bloodline ability had any kind of side effect on her or the children.

Morok felt like shit and despite the success of the plan, he couldn't even bear to look at Lith.

The slaughter he had perpetrated and the complete lack of guilt he showed were nothing new, but this time Lith had done it for Morok and this weighed heavily on the Tyrant's conscience.

He had gone home with Quylla, the only silver lining was the idea that by coming clean with the children of Glemos and succeeding in giving them a better life, maybe he would be capable of looking at himself in the mirror again.

Maybe

"We're home!" Lith opened the door of his house, receiving a warm welcome from all the members of his family despite the late hour. "We bring big news. And when I say big, I mean both in a literal and figurative sense."

He pointed with his thumb at Tista who slapped him on the shoulder with such strength that it made him stumble. Raaz and Elina noticed it, but they thought it was just Lith keeping his act as usual and pretending to weigh like a regular human instead of like a Divine Beast.

"That's not funny!" Tista flushed in embarrassment. "Those are not comments that a sister wants to hear from her own brother about her body."

"I was talking about your weight." Lith pointed at the deep footprints she had left outside and at the creaking of the wooden floor due to her poor control over gravity fusion. "Why are you so flustered?"

"I thought you were talking about my b-"The memory of the incident with the scales showing him and Ajatar way more than Tista was comfortable with made her blush harder.

Then, she realized that her family had no need to know about her blunder and quickly changed the topic.

"I mean, that's still not funny! You shouldn't make fun of a lady's weight."

"What about your weight?" Raaz scratched his head in confusion. "You look the same as when you left this morning, maybe even thinner.

It wasn't true, but he had learned

from experience that a compliment would ease whatever was troubling his daughter.

"Thanks, Dad." She chuckled. "But it's quite the opposite. I finally solved my problems with my life forces."

"Do you mean that you guys succeeded in putting your hands on a Harmonizer?" Elina looked at Tista's neck, inwardly sighing in relief when she noticed there was nothing.

'My children are already been unfairly treated due to their beast nature. Getting a metal collar like a dog is the last thing my daughter needs. She actually thought.

"No. I let my three sides fuse into one and now I am a... What am I, exactly?" She turned toward Lith, at a loss for words.

2567 Blood Bonds (Part 1)

"A Bigger Redder Demon!" He raised his arms, conjuring the hologram of a shower of confetti and a huge blinking insignia which said the atrocious name.

"Anything but that!" Tista turned pale, noticing the hilarity in the room one second too late.

Everyone was laughing, showing no sign of concern for her new condition or surprise about her choice.

"Wait, you knew?" She looked at her parents, her siblings, and the children who all rushed to congratulate her. "How? I mean, I didn't know it myself."

"It wasn't so hard, dear." Raaz patted her head. "We assumed that you would have either followed in your brother's footsteps as usual or chosen to retain your human side. If you had turned into a Dragon or a Phoenix, that would have been surprising."

"Yeah." Salaark sighed, slightly annoyed at her bloodline being mistreated like that. "Especially considering that if you choose to merge your life forces, you should be able to turn into multiple forms like Lith does."

"Can you turn into a Phoenix?" Aran's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Dragons are cool but we already have big brother for that. Phoenixes are cool as well and they also sing with a celestial voice."

"Well said, young man." Salaark puffed her chest out with pride. "Also, what do you call yourself? Because if that thing about the Bigger Redder Demon is true, you and I need to have a talk about creativity."

"I have no idea." Tista shrugged. "I was too worried to be bothered with naming something that I might have not even gotten before actually seeing it. Heck, I've no idea how many forms I got either."

"Only one way to find out." Leria tried to push Tista out of the door, her small shoes squeaking on the floor from the futile effort that was soon joined by Aran.

"What's the rush, kids?" Tista ruffled their hair. "This can wait until tomorrow."

"No, it can't." Leria shook her head with determination. "Everyone already knows what Elysia will look like because she will take after Uncle Lith. Aran and I don't know what we will look like because we take from Grandma and Grandpa, like you."

"Mom and Dad!" Aran corrected her, hating those terms because they made his parents sound old.

"Why are you angry?" Leria couldn't

understand his reaction. "Salaark is our Grandma as well, she's way older than your parents, and yet she looks amazing!"

"What do you mean, yet?" Salaark furrowed her brows amid the general hilarity.

"No offense, Grandma, but everyone past sixteen is old." Aran bowed apologetically to her. "You can't have kids of your own and still call yourself a kid. All parents are grown up, hence old people"

"Are you telling me that you consider your big brother an old coot as well?" The Guardian couldn't refute the childish logic so she attempted a deflection.

"Well, yeah: Aran shrugged. "But he's giving me a niece so it's worth it."

"Hey!" Lith didn't like that argument one bit. The idea of soon becoming a parent already weighed heavily on his mind and the fact that his little ones considered him an old man made it even worse.

"If I'm old, then what about..." He was about to point at Kamila, but he instantly realized that she would have either burst into tears or killed him. Maybe both.

Throwing his parents under the bus was out of the question.

Their ever-dwindling life force despite all of his efforts was one of the things that kept him awake at night. They were in perfect health, but without Awakening, even an untreated cold might kill them.

I would like to point out that Tista is older than me even though she has no kids, but the last thing she needs while she has yet to come to terms with her new condition is being called a spinster or an old bat. I'll take the safe route" He thought.

"Grampa Leegaain?" Lith conjured the 9hologram of the Father of all Dragons. "I've yet to have my first daughter whereas he has countless children.

"What? Speak louder, I can't hear you." Leegaain appeared out of thin air, looking like a decrepit old man.

He was sitting on a rocking chair, his legs covered by a heavy blanket. A hand was on his ear, pretending to be hard of hearing, while the other held a handkerchief into which he coughed a few times.

"Grampa Leegaain!" While everyone laughed at the performance, the kids ran to him and started to bawl their eyes out. "What happened to you? Don't die, please."

"I'm not dying!" He immediately reverted to his usual appearance, that of an albino man in his early thirties. "It was a joke. A Guardian can look however he wants."

Despite his youthful form, soothing tone, and plenty of reassurances, it took him a while to calm them down. By the time he succeeded, the mood was ruined and Salaark stared at him with such a fiery gaze that he wouldn't have been surprised if his clothes suddenly caught fire.

"Nice move, jackass.' She told him via a mind link. "Now play along or as soon as we are alone, I'm going to kick your ass."

"It's past midnight and it's my turn with Kami today. What are you doing here?" Salaark actually said while bringing Shargein into the fold to distract the children.

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andasnovel.com The infant wyrmling was already as big as Aran and had his big eyes sleepy since he had been awoken from his nap. His cute cooing and the puffs of smoke he produced while yawning made Aran and Leria forget about the earlier scare.

"The same thing you are doing" He promptly replied. "Our descendant has embraced her heritage and has become the first of a new species of Demons. It's only natural for me to bear witness to the life force born from the fusion of our bloodlines."

"Don't you mean a new race?" Tista countered soberly. "Whatever I am, I'm not a Tiamat, that's for sure."

"I know, but that's not the point." Leegaain shook his head. "It's safe to assume that a Demon is born from the fusion of the human, Phoenix, and Dragon bloodlines while a Tiamat also needs the Abomination side due to Lith's unique condition.

"Also, Mogar called him the Father of All Demons, not the Father of all Tiamats, which means that not all of his descendants will inherit his Abomination powers. For all we know, Elysia is the exception, not the rule. We need more babies, I mean data."

"Fine." Tista was slightly annoyed at the idea of being once again under Lith's shadow, but all that talking about the possibility of her having four forms as well made her curious. "Let's move outside. I need space."

'If I have a separate Phoenix and Dragon form, maybe I can get the bloodline abilities of both species as my mana core progress. Even with just Dragon Eyes and Call of the Blood, I would be as powerful Lith even without Solus and his Demons! She inwardly crossed her fingers.

Salaark snapped her fingers, bringing everyone to the Blood Desert.

"Why here, Grandma?" Tista asked.

2568 Blood Bonds Part 2.

"First, the sun is already high in my country so everyone will be able to take a good look at you without the need for spells. Also, you need privacy." The Guardian pointed at the bright sky and then at the vast empty space around them.

"Everyone knows you live in Lutia and there are bound to be scouts and spies everywhere around your house. There's no point in revealing your new forms and powers to the rest of Mogar unless it's absolutely necessary.

"If people keep thinking of you as Tista Verhen, so will your enemies. The moment they make a move, they'll discover that they are facing the Bigger Redder Demon and be unprepared to face your wrath."

"I agree with your logic and appreciate your concern, but I swear to the gods that if that name catches on, I'll disown all those who said it." Tista shuddered, cringing at the idea of her species being branded with such an obnoxious title.

andasnovel.com First, she focused on her life force as a whole, growing into a 20 meters (66") tall scaled humanoid creature covered in thick red scales and with two sets of wings. The first was covered in silver-veined red feathers while the second set bore snow-white feathers.

"Cool!" The kids said in unison, running over Tista's foot to get a feel of her talons and knock on her scales.

"Are you naked?" Raaz felt awkward looking from below to the lumps on his own daughter's chest. "Do you want me to turn around?"

Tista lowered her gaze in panic, afraid of having flexed the retractable scales again. Both her sets of wings went ablaze in embarrassment.

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"Dad! You gave me a heart attack" She sighed in relief and her feathers returned to normal. "I'm just like Lith. This is how I normally look now. My scales cover me at all times."

"Almost at all times." Lith said amid a fit of pretend cough so that only Kamila and the Guardians could hear him.

"You didn't tell your parents?" She whispered in his ear.

"Would you discuss your anatomic details with yours?" Lith whispered back, obtaining a firm no in reply.

"Remarkable." Leegaain was already an expert in such matters and could easily distinguish the fixed scales from the rest. Yet such silly details were of no interest to him. "You both have inherited my scales and Salaark's feathers plus one set of wings from each one of us.

"I'm a bit disappointed that your beautiful Dragon wings are covered with pillow stuffing, though."

"And I'm a bit disappointed she hasn't a beak nor enough feathers, instead." Salaark said with a snort. "With those horns and tails, she's more Dragon than Phoenix."

*Do you really need to ruin this for me with your measuring contest?" Tista snarled. "I could use a little more appreciation and a little less disappointment."

"Sorry." The Guardians said in unison while elbowing and shifting the blame on each other.

"I'm in no mood for training and there has been no change in my human form so I'll move straight to answer the question in everyone's mind." Tista closed her eyes, using her breathing technique, Abyssal Gaze, to listen to the melody of her life forces.

She focused on the deep violet of the Divine Beast, going deeper and deeper in search of any indication that it was comprised of two different tunes. She listened for a while, studying her beast side in search of the familiar traits of her Dragon and Phoenix half.

"Damn, it seems I have only three sides." Tista said. "My Divine Beast life forces merged into one and I'm afraid that any attempt of splitting them would undo whatever I've become."

As she focused on her beast side, her whole body burst into silver flames while shapeshifting into a new form.

The creature in front of the Verhens stood on all fours like a Dragon, but it had bird claws and feet. Its body was covered in silver scales and had two sets of blazing-red feathered wings coming out respectively of its shoulder blades and hips.

A long silver tail extended from the small of its back with golden train feathers on its end identical to those of a Phoenix. On its snout, there were seven eyes alight with the power of the elements and a blood-red jagged beak.

"Not what I was expecting." Tista tried to stand up on her hind legs but failed to balance herself with the tail, crashing on the ground with a boom of thunder. "Mostly because I've never seen anything like this. What am I?"

"I have no clue." A wave of Leegaain's hand scattered the sandstorm that the impact had caused and helped Tista to get up without triggering another with the flaps of her wings. "I've never seen a four-legged Phoenix either."

"I'm so proud of you, darling!" Salaark joined the kids in hugging Tista's foot.

The Overlord also activated her Blood Imprint bloodline ability, turning the silver scales into feathers and covering the entire Verhen family but Elina and Senton in feathers as well.

"Now you are perfect." Salaark said with a sniffle while Elina stared at Leegaain who in turn looked at Senton.

"Don't worry about me." The blacksmith shrugged and hugged Rena. "I made my peace with this. I prefer spending my life with a gorgeous Phoenix than wasting my time wishing I had wings."

Rena returned the embrace and tried to kiss him, but her feathers tickled him so much that Senton burst into laughter which spoiled the romantic mood.

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"Thanks." Leegaain took Elina's hand, covering one-third of her skin with a mix of red and yellow-veined orange scales to not make her feel left out like after the Dragon Dance.

"Wait, why does Kamila get feathers while I don't?" Elina pointed at her daughter-in-law and then at herself. "How can my baby not have a drop of Phoenix blood?"

Raaz and Elina had never witnessed the effect of Blood Imprint on Kamila so they had always assumed that it didn't work on unborn babies. Now that they knew the truth, however, they were afraid of the answer to that question.

Elina knew to have never cheated on Raaz so it could only mean that something was wrong with the baby while her husband was worried by both hypotheses.

"She has Phoenix blood alright." Salaark rolled up Elina's sleeves, revealing a few tiny little golden feathers that could be easily mistaken for body hair unless one looked very up close. "The problem, so to say, it's you, dear."

"What do you mean?" Raaz asked, more scared than ever at the idea that his wife suffered from an illness that not even Salaark could heal. "Is it the Strangler? Can't you fix her?"

"Please!" Salaark poked at his chest in outrage. "Do you really think so poorly of me that you believe that I've kept you under my roof and lived under yours for so long without taking care of *my* blood?"

"I'm sorry, Mom." Raaz raised his hands in apology. "I was just scared."

"You better be. Sorry, I mean. There's no reason to be scared." Salaark softened up immediately, reminding herself that he was a young, ignorant baby. "When I said there's a problem with Elina, I wasn't referring to her health but her blood."

2569 Blood Bonds (Part 3)

"What's wrong with my blood and how is it affecting my baby girl?" Elina stared at the tiny feathers on her arms and then lifted her skirt a bit to check her legs, feeling like her own body had betrayed her.

"Again, if there was anything dangerous for you or the baby, I would have healed it right after conception, back when you moved to my palace to escape from the Kingdom." Salaark rolled her eyes at their hard-headedness.

"You guys are just forgetting that the bond between mother and child during pregnancy works both ways. The baby girl is a part of you and the Dragon blood in your veins also courses through her body. It amplifies Leegaain's influence and smothers the effects of the Blood Imprint.

"Kamila, instead, carries no bloodline so Elysia reacts to my ability without suffering from any interference while Rena possesses both the Dragon and the Phoenix bloodline by herself.

"Were she pregnant, she would amplify them both and turn temporarily into a hybrid. Do you really think that those scales on your body belong to your baby or those feathers on Kamila's to Elysia?" Salaark pointed at the women's skin.

"A newborn Dragon's scales are as small as a fish's while a Phoenix chick is featherless. What you are experiencing now is the manifestation of the babies' bloodlines after being enhanced by the bond with their respective mothers."

Raaz and Elina sighed in relief, knowing that everything was fine with the baby girl and Elina's body.

"I think we should start thinking about a name for our unborn daughter as well." Raaz inwardly cursed himself for doubting Elina's faithfulness again.

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He couldn't help but wonder if it was due to the trauma Orpal had inflicted on him or if Lith had inherited his paranoia from the father's side of the family.

"I'm tired of referring to her like a stranger we don't even know."

"I agree." Elina nodded. "Grandma, would you mind if we named her after you? No strings attached. We won't ask you to be her godmother or any special treatment for the baby. It's just our way to thank you for all the help you've given us."

Knowing that the Strangler didn't plague her body anymore and that all of her descendants would be born free from the deadly disease lifted a huge burden off her chest.

After Rena had almost lost Falco to the Strangler and learned that it was inherited from the mother's side, Elina had been scared to death that the same thing might happen to her unborn daughter as well.

And it would all have been my fault: Elina thought. I've almost killed both Tista and Falco. I couldn't forgive myself if it were to happen again.'

"Of course you can. It would be an honor for me, dear." Salaark slightly flushed with joy. "But if have to be honest, after Kamila decided to name her daughter after me as well, I think you are giving me too much credit."

"Wait, what?" Kamila blurted out in surprise.

"I'm still here and waiting for-"Tista was royally pissed off for everyone stealing her thunder and ignoring her after the months of anguish and doubt she had gone through before reaching her new form.

"Yeah, yeah. You are big, strong, and a mystery wrapped in an enigma. We got that." Needless to say, it got even worse when Kamila cut Tista off and shushed her with a gesture. "Back to my baby, please. What were you saying, Grandma?

Sure, don't mind me. I can wait! Tista's thoughts oozed sarcasm. T'm only a unique living being, the first of my species, and the second Demon alive on Mogar. How can any of it be comparable with the etymology of a name? Silly me for complaining.

It's not like when Lith became a Tiamat everyone made a big deal of it. He sure wasn't the only thing our family talked and worried about for days. It went exactly like for me. Not!

"I was planning to tell you on another occasion, like on Elysia's birth or her first birthday, but there's no point in delaying." The Overlord replied. "You see, I didn't start as a ruler with an iron first.

"Right after becoming a Guardian, I decided to do like Tyris and help my turf to develop by nurturing its talented people with a loving hand. Of course I knew that I was no Tyris and that my first try was likely to fail.

"So I changed my appearance to something more Tyris-like, called myself Elysia, and pretended to be the goddess of the sun while I looked for my Valeron. I traveled the Blood Desert for centuries, teaching people about magic and how to always find the nearest oasis before giving up.

"Why did you give up?" Lith asked in confusion. "You are a wonderful teacher and the best Forgemaster on Mogar. I bet that the tribes of your disciples thrived like never before."

"They thrived indeed!" Salaark slammed her delicate foot on the ground with anger, causing the nearby dunes to slide and turning the sand into glass for dozens of meters around her.

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"They weaponized every spell I taught them and used the knowledge I imparted them to gain a monopoly of the oases, forcing the other tribes to either submit or die. Every one of my disciples turned out to be greedier and more ambitious than the other.

"Whenever they toppled a tyrant, they would either take their place and become an even worse ruler or walk away to follow their own agenda and leave a power vacuum.

"The ensuing chaos and bloodshed made the despots they killed look cute in comparison."

"I'm so sorry, Grandma." Kamila patted her back. "Now I understand why the legends say that Elysia drowned in a pool of her own tears after her light had been eclipsed by the ingratitude of her follower"

"Im sorry, but that part is entirely made up." Salaark shook her head. "I didn't cry. I stormed off after killing everyone and giving birth to the legend of Krahan, the god of darkness. My rampage went on until I calmed down and realized that fear alone wasn't enough to rule a country as well.

"But that's a story for another day and definitely not suitable for future mothers. Whatever you do, please don't look for Krahan's name in history books." The Overlord blushed in embarrassment in a way that would have been cute if not for the creepy subject at hand.

Lith and Solus looked at each other, remembering bits of information about the gods of darkness from their studies. They had researched the lore about ancient monsters in the hope to learn something about Vastor's Eldritches and be ready in case their relationship with the Master went sour.

Krahan of the Starless Night was allegedly a god whose description matched an Eldritch and whose bloody feats in the Desert rivaled with Teaka's. They had dismissed him as a myth after the Professor had told them that Krahan wasn't part of the Organization and none of his associates had ever met the guy.

"Can we talk about me now?" Tista drummed the talons of her foreleg on the sand with ill-concealed annoyance.

2570 Blood Bonds (Part 4)

"I don't see why not, dear." Salaark turned around, more than happy of changing to a less awkward topic. "I name this form of yours Bloodwind Phoenix. I can't wait to show you off to the rest of your relatives."

"Bloodwind Phoenix, I like it." Tista nodded enthusiastically while looking at her blood-red wings and beak. "What about this?"

She turned into her Demon form, obtaining a shrug in reply.

"Not a Phoenix so not really my field of expertise. Blood Demon, maybe? You know, to stay in theme?"

"Heck, no!" Tista roared. "I don't want to pass for one of Lith's underlings ever again. I want to be my own person. I deserve it."

"You sure do." Leegaain nodded, inwardly throwing the Stormfire Demon name in the gutter. "The problem with new things is that you have nothing with which to associate them. We need to make up a word."

"And one that sounds cool!" "Tista said

"We need to make up a word that sounds cool." The Father of All Dragons sighed. "Rempa?"

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"It has no kick." Tista shook her head. "Next"

"Grima?" Salaark proposed.

"Sounds like a disease. Next."

"Hekate?" Lith said, drawing all eyes on him.

"Tista the Hekate." She rolled the name on her tongue a few times before nodding in approval. "I like it. Where does it come from and why didn't you propose it sooner?"

I would usually spout some bullshit about having learned it during my travels as a Ranger, but with two of the most ancient beings on Mogar present, my lie would be immediately exposed: Lith thought.

I can't tell her that this name belongs to the ancient Greek goddess of magic nor that it came to my mind now only because just like Tista, Hekate was depicted with three bodies.

"Even if I could say that, Tista would probably reject it, saying that reminds her too much of Baba Yaga.'

"It comes from here." Lith tapped at his forehead, making his answer technically true. "And I didn't think of it earlier simply because you were just a generic hybrid. I mean, I didn't throw a fuss when everyone called me a 'Wyrmling' for over two years."

"That's true. I guess that's fair." Tista scratched her chin.

"Big sis, can you still breathe fire?" Aran asked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You don't have a mouth anymore." Leria pointed out. "Do you spew fire from both sets of wings now? Also, how do you eat in your Hekate form?"

"I still have a mouth, silly." Tista chuckled, but due to her size, it sounded like a rockfall. "It's just covered by my scales like for Lith's Tiamat form. Let me show-"

Tista felt all the scales on her body tensing. ready to slide off the parts they were supposed to protect.

"I mean, I'd better shrink first so you can take a good look" After returning to human size, she covered herself with her Voidwalker armor to avoid further embarrassment. "See?"

A simple flex of her facial muscles revealed her mouth among other things, making her thank the gods for her foresight.

"Cool!" The kids said in unison.

"No offense, Grandma. Beaks are great but fangs look way better." Aran said.

None taken, dear." Salaark would have liked to tell him that with such a short neck, fangs or beaks were equally irrelevant in a fight.

Tista's arms and horns had a much greater reach and if an enemy came close enough to bite/peck them, she would be as good as dead. Yet such disturbing thoughts would only scare him so she just nodded and ruffled Aran's hair.

Once they got back in Lutia, Tista called the Ernas sisters and Nyka to inform them about her new forms and their respective names. Most of her enthusiasm faded when her friends pointed out to her the amount of training she had to add to her schedule.

"Gods, why? Now I have to get used to controlling my strength while in human form, adapt my fighting style to my full size, practice using my tails and my new set of wings, and learn from scratch how to even walk as a Bloodwind Phoenix!" Tista whined.

"That and you must discover and master your new bloodline abilities. Also, you have yet to learn body casting up to tier five and you have to start using Accumulation again." Quylla said with a pedantic tone that made her words even more aggravating.

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"If you don't condense new vortexes and Awaken them into auxiliary cores, your magical want to pick us up and celebrate?" Nyka asked after Tista had zoned out for a while.

"I can definitely use some company, but no more talks about training or study. She replied while staring at Quylla.

"Sorry, but I have to take a rain check." Quylla said. "Morok is really upset. He feels guilty for the bloodbath Lith caused and the discovery of having a little brother made a mess of his mind.

"Don't worry." Tista felt guilty as well for her part in the massacre and how she had lost herself in the euphoria of acquiring her Hekate form, unleashing her new powers with no care for the consequences. "Tell him that I'm sorry and that if he needs help, he just needs to ask."

Thanks for the offer. Bye." Quylla left the conversation and soon after it ended altogether.

Tista and Solus used the tower Warp to go to their friends, giving Lith a bit of privacy.

Meanwhile, now that he was alone in his room with Kamila, Lith could finally drop the mask. He had taken no pleasure from killing and deceiving the monsters, but he felt no remorse either.

He had done what was necessary in order to maintain the peace in the Kingdom and that was enough for him.

He sat down on the bed, noticing a yarn of white wool woven into what looked like a cylinder and a pair of crochet hooks. The wool was incredibly soft and smooth so he assumed it had to be something for Elysia.

2571 Changed Man (Part 1)

Yet the shape of whatever Kamila was knitting was a bit weird and what Lith assumed was the neck of the baby carrier was way too big.

"Are you learning how to knit?" He asked, aiming for a soft topic before unloading his burden.

"Yes." Kamila nodded. "It's a great way to spend some time with your mother and keep my mind busy while I wait for your return. Time drags when I stare at the communication amulet for updates and I'm constantly terrified of seeing your rune disappear."

"I'm sorry for making you worry like this, but I did it for you and Elysia. If the monster hordes go unchecked, we'll end up like Jiera and the famine will be the least of our worries." Lith wrapped her in his arms, losing himself in her scent.

"There's nothing I would like more than spend the next five months taking care of you two, but to give you and our daughter a better world I need to fight."

"You don't have to apologize." She was actually annoyed at the idea of being smothered in affection by her overprotective husband for so long, but he was clearly upset so she just smiled. "I've seen the images of the aftermath. The people of the Kingdom are lucky to have you."

"It's not about that." Lith shook his head. "I've seen countless casualties in my life. Humans or monsters make no difference to me. They are both sentient beings I don't know nor do I care about."

"Then what's the issue, babe?" Kamila pulled back just enough to look him in the eyes without breaking the embrace.

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"Do you have the stomach for a long and gruesome mind link?" He asked, receiving a nod in reply and then sharing with her everything that had happened after leaving Ne'sra.

Kamila was shocked to witness Lith's meeting with the Voidfeather and discover the next hurdle that her husband needed to overcome before he could achieve the bright violet core.

The Voidfeather wasn't violent like the Void, but it seemed to despise Lith no less than the Abomination side did at the moment of their first meeting.

Then, warm tears streaked her face as she witnessed what the children of Glemos had to endure in order to survive. The lies, the starvation, and the rites of passage.

Kamila couldn't hold her outrage at Lith's plan nor did she hide her reproach for the cruelty with which he had put it into action.

Lastly, he shared with her Morok's memories of his newfound little brother along with all the intense emotions that the encounter had triggered in both Lith and the Tyrant, each seeing themselves in the young Fomor.

It aroused her compassion for Lith but it also made his actions harder to accept. She stood up, cleaning everything up in order to suppress her emotions and avoid saying something that she would later regret.

Once her mind was clear and the bedroom tidy, she sat down next to Lith again.

"I'm really angry with you." Kamila's eyes were locked on him, burning with orange-yellow mana. "I'm not talking about the Voidfeather Dragon caring for Solus as much as for us. That will be a whole another conversation."

She touched her womb, trying to calm down the rage that she felt rising again.

"I'm angry because even after seeing how those poor creatures live, you didn't hesitate to turn them into numbers and statistics. People are more than a means to an end, Lith Tiamat Verhen, and I thought you better than this.

"After everything you went through, after everything we went through together, I had hoped that you had changed. I don't expect you to get rid of your hatred overnight, but you can't expect me to pat your back for this either.

"You can't control how you feel but you can control how you react to these feelings. Otherwise you'll either pass them unto Elysia or she will grow up to be ashamed of her father."

"I have changed." Lith shrugged.

"How, exactly?" She crossed her arms, furrowing her brows.

"The old me wouldn't have even suggested the plan. He would have just waited for the monsters to cull their numbers and strike when they were at their weakest." The honesty of Lith's reply shocked her to the bone.

"The mission was about Morok's legacy, I had little to gain from a huge hassle. The best course of action for me would have been to call in the Council and if Zelex didn't self-destruct, kidnap Ryla in the chaos of

"She was the high priestess and the only one who seemed to believe Glemos a god. She was bound to know the way to his lab. At that point, I would have extracted the information from her by any means necessary.

"After all, success or failure, it would have been just Morok's loss. I would have still gotten my reward from the Royals and the Council for locating the monsters' hideout and foiling the plot of the Undead Courts.

"I did what I did for you, Elysia, Solus, Quylla, and, believe it or not, I did it also for the children of Glemos."

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"What do you mean?" Kamila's tone and gaze softened, her arms moving to her sides.

"Think about it. This is just like the case with the warg in Maekosh two years ago. Yet this time instead of just going for the kill, I tried to understand them and I found the only possible way to save them." Lith replied while taking her hand.

"Do you remember what you told me back then, Kami? Because I do. You said that even if the warg could be reasoned with, there were not enough resources to feed both us and them. Now the issue is the famine instead of winter but the result is the same.

"I did it for you and Elysia because I don't want another war to take me away from you two. I knew that if I just let them perfect the Harmonizers, both the monsters and the undead would have become powerful enough to be a threat to the Kingdom.

"Between the famine and the scars left from the War of the Griffons, the forces of the army and the Association can barely keep the peace. I couldn't risk the Undead Courts becoming more powerful while we are at our weakest.

"I did it for Solus, because I didn't want her to be emotionally scarred like it happened with the warg.

"I did it for Quylla because I want her to be happy. To give her, Jirni, and Orion something to celebrate after what happened to Phloria. Last, but not least, I did it for the monsters because I knew what would have happened if I didn't.

"Everyone would have suffered like Xagra and be forced to kill the people they love with their own hands. Also, no matter if the children of Glemos sealed the pact with the Undead Courts or we called the Council, most of them would have died.

"Was my plan cruel? Yes. Heartless? Yes, but thanks to it thousands of monsters are still alive, Kami. Without my plan, we wouldn't have learned about Garrik because Ryla would have rather died than revealed his position.

2572 Changed Man (Part 2)

"Without my plan, the monsters would have attacked us on sight. They had no reason to trust a bunch of strangers and would have tried to kill us to keep Zelex's position hidden. There would have been no dialogue because they would have refused to listen.

"You may not like my methods, but you can't argue with my results."

Kamila opened her mouth to talk, but nothing came out.

She was aware of how many people the monsters had killed during the raids. That their corpses would be eaten like cattle that very night, without leaving anything behind for the families to bury and denying them closure.

As a Constable, she knew that letting the monsters go out of pity would have been an act of treason that would cost even more lives in the future. That the Undead Courts couldn't be allowed to get their hands on the Harmonizers.

The most important cities of the Kingdom were built upon mana geysers, making them easy prey to the undead once the artifact made their blood cores perfect.

She knew all that yet her heart ached anyway for the hapless creatures that Lith had slaughtered in order to turn the survivors into pawns that would take their place on his board willingly.

Lith and Kamila remained silent for several minutes while she raked her brain for a different, humane way to start the negotiations with the monsters. Yet like the others before her, she found none.

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Every possible scenario she could think of ended up the same way: with the complete extermination of the children of Glemos.

The only differences between the various outcomes were the number of casualties among the human cities and whether or not once cornered the monsters decided to trigger Zelex's self-destruction arrays.

Without Lith's ruse to gain Syrah's trust, the Tyrant's bloodline legacy would have been lost forever and Garrik would have probably starved to death while waiting for his mother to return.

No one would have rescued him simply because no one would have known of his existence.

"You are right, this is exactly like the mission with the warg in Maekosh but this time, you found a solution." Kamila said after a while, her lips slowly curling up in a thin smile.

"You have indeed changed, and I'm proud to see how much. You've gone a long way from the broken man who landed on Mogar and wasn't capable of forgetting about his brother's death.

"I'm glad to see how you haven't let your new wounds fester, learning from them and finding a way to keep the warg massacre from happening again.

"The fact that you empathize so much with Morok's feelings for Garrik proves that you're not avenging Carl's death anymore. You are honoring his life. Yet..." She fell silent, afraid that speaking the next words would make them true.

"Yet what?" Lith asked.

"Yet you can't deny that after seeing the pain and misery of Zelex's people, you didn't feel compassion for them, you only saw a weakness to exploit. You fell into your old habits to find your answer and became that broken man again.

"Even now, your lack of remorse makes me worry that one day you'll plunge so deep into the abyss that even if you come back to me alive, the person I love will be dead anyway? She caressed his face, her eyes full of worry.

"Don't worry, I haven't fallen back." He grabbed her hand, holding it tenderly. "I feel the weight of the lives I've taken and I understand the consequences of my actions. That's why I'm telling you all these things.

"I need you to ground me and remind me that I don't fight because I hate those in front of me anymore. I fight because I love those who stand behind me and it's for them that I'm willing to take such a burden.

"To me, this is no different from back when I had to hurt civilians during the War of the Griffons in my failed attempt to save Phloria's life. It's not something that I regret, but I didn't take those lives lightly either."

Kamila nodded, remembering how the death of their friend had almost crushed Lith with grief and guilt. The pain from Phloria's loss and the realization of having killed hundreds, if not thousands, for nothing, were a burden that he was still carrying.

A burden that Kamila was doing everything she could to help him deal with. She knew that a war was a bloody business and that only a fool would think that what the chronicles depicted as heroic acts weren't actually bloody battles.

To her, those deaths were justified because the fallen were enemies and because Lith had fought to rescue a precious friend from the torture of Arthan's slave array. Killing the children of Glemos, instead, had felt plain cruel.

Sure, they had gone on a murder spree during the raids, but after listening to their story they looked like ignorant child soldiers who fought only because they didn't know what else to do to not starve.

"I believe you. Thank you for telling me the truth and for opening up to me. If there's anything I can do to help you, you just have to ask." Kamila kissed his hand.

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"There is one thing." Lith sighed, his gaze wandering around the room over the items they had already prepared for Elysia in order to find the strength he needed. "I don't know how things might get if the monsters have seen through our ruse.

"Even if they didn't, there's no guarantee that the negotiations won't break down and at that point, we'd be forced to slaughter everyone to keep the Undead Courts from getting their hands on the Harmonizers.

If it comes to that, Syrah might choose death and trigger the self-destruct mechanism in order to take down with her as many enemies as she can."

"So what do you want me to do?" Kamila asked. "To come with you guys to exploit the Guardians' protection? Or to speak to Syrah from one mother to another?"

"The Guardians won't let you come and even if they did, they would just protect you." Lith shook his head. "They made it clear multiple times that you are not a weapon. They won't let you put Elysia in danger on purpose to exploit their vow.

"Also, if a talk between mothers was enough, I think Faluel has a bit more experience than you." He chuckled. "I want to ask your permission to reveal to Morok about the tower's existence."

"Why would you do that right now and why do you need my permission?" Kamila tilted her head in confusion.

"Because this way he can signal Ryla to bring Garrik out and then I can Warp everyone to another geyser safely in case things go south." Lith replied. "The tower is the only hope Garrik has of achieving a perfect life force.

"If he steps away from a mana geyser even for one minute, everything Ryla has done so far, every one of her sacrifices will be for naught. The space compression array doesn't work on the tower because its Warp is akin to fusion magic."