"We hoped for your agreement, Magus Verhen, and the moment we learned about your return we put our collective armies on stand-by for this exact moment." The King took a deep breath, needing sheer willpower to not make his lips shake as he gave the order.

"To all Generals, Operation Freedom is a go. I repeat, Operation Freedom is a go." While he spoke to the allied forces, his voice was back to being strong and confident and his face was that of a charismatic leader whose eyes brimmed with determination.

The moment Meron cut the communication, he slouched on the throne, panting.

"What's Operation Freedom?" Lith asked.

"As I said-" The King tried to answer but the Queen gave him a tonic and her worried look made him focus on preserving what was left of his vigor.

"As my King said, he won't just send you to your death." Sylpha said. "To maximize your chances of success, the Kingdom and the Council will launch a ma.s.sive joint attack on Thrud's strategic a.s.sets.

"This way, she'll be forced to spread her resources thin and empty her garrisons. The moment the battle reaches the apex, the Golden Griffon will be left with a skeleton crew and you will encounter minimum resistance.

"Even if you get discovered, the Mad Queen will be forced to think twice before recalling her troops. On the one hand, she isn't aware of the Eyes so she won't understand the danger she's in until it's too late.

"On the other hand, however, she's smart enough to realize that the presence of intruders and the attack can't be a coincidence. Thrud knows that we wouldn't send troops behind the enemy lines without a good reason.

"With a bit of luck, indecisiveness will screw her up. You'll complete your mission safely and maybe the Kingdom will also regain some ground."

Lith reverted to his human form and searched for a place where to sit. The only thing left to do was wait and he wanted to preserve both his mental and physical strength.

The Royal Guards brought chairs for everyone and Lith used that time to introduce Vladion to Kamila and catch up with Kalla.

"I haven't seen you since your visit to the Desert. How are Nyka and Nok?"

"Both of them are royally p.i.s.sed off, thanks for asking." The Wight replied. "Nok is tired of training, Nyka is mad at me for leaving her behind again, and both of them are angry with me for becoming a semi-Lich."

"How did you manage to reach this point so fast?" Lith stared at the white crystal with Life Vision, noticing how Kalla's life force and its mana seeped into each other in an endless cycle.

"Thanks for the excellent question." Her eyes sparked with enthusiasm, completely missing his worry and reproach. "I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't have done it without Lightkeep's vast library and the Eyes of Menadion.

"The Eyes allowed me to record and access any page relevant to my research with a thought. Yet their most important feature is that they allowed me to study myself."

"I beg your pardon?" Kamila said in confusion.

"Instead of blindly altering my life force like the time that Scourge had to save my life, I had the Eyes scan my whole being. Only after thoroughly studying the flow of my own mana and life force did I start looking for a way to harmonize them with the crystal.

"Before doing that, I also studied the crystal with the Eyes, of course. By comparing and compiling their respective data I achieved what you see now today." Kalla pointed at the constant loop of energy.

"The crystal and I are still two separate ent.i.ties, but we can already communicate on many levels."

"That wasn't my question." Lith said with a snort. "I meant, why are you rus.h.i.+ng so much? You've already almost lost yourself in your studies and neglected your kids for years. Becoming a Lich will only make matters worse."

"There's too much death going around, Scourge, and if even someone as battle hardened as Scarlett failed to protect Sedra, I have no chance to guarantee Nok's safety once he leaves Lightkeep." She replied with a sigh.

"My goal is to acquire the longevity that helping Nyka to reach a full red blood core requires and the strength that protecting my son demands. Once I become a Lich, I don't plan on shutting myself inside my lab again.

"Quite the contrary, I'll rea.s.sure my daughter that she's not going to lose me anytime soon and I'll be able to sacrifice myself for Nok as many times as it takes since death won't stick. Yet none of it matters if we don't succeed in our mission, Scourge.

"As long as the Golden Griffon stands, the war will never end. We'd both be stranded on the battlefield for years as the life of those we love would slip through our fingers. By the way, congratulations to you two."

"Congratulations." Vladion echoed as he looked at Kamila with Life Vision.

Awakening during the attack of Jiera's Awakened had brought her core to orange and it was already on the verge of the bright orange. The pregnancy, however, gave her a vigorous mana flow that the Firstborn would've expected from a green-cored wakened.

'Dammit, I wonder how strong would Ilthin become if she were to bear a child from a powerful bloodline. Maybe she would become powerful enough to fix her core without giving up on the might we acc.u.mulated for millennia.' Vladion thought in envy, inwardly cursing at Mogar for its unfairness.

"Can I?" Both Awakened asked while nearing their hands to the womb.

"Sure." Kamila replied with a smile that didn't extend to her eyes.

? She not only now hated being touched, but due to her increasing mastery over her Awakened state, she could feel the foreign energy signatures coursing through her and they gave her the creeps.

"Magnificent!" Vladion's voice was filled with awe, emotion, and pure envy. "Your child is filled with the energy of death, yet instead of harming them-"

"Her." Kamila corrected him, making the Firstborn Vampire choke in even more envy along with the rest of the room.

The simple idea of a female version of Lith who would inherit his legacy and bloodline plus the ability to reach the best next thing to a white core during pregnancy was enough to make them puke blood.

Unlike the children of the Royals, Lith's daughter was already Awakened, making the core she was born with irrelevant. Only her innate talent for magic mattered. Unlike the members of the Council, she would be a Divine Beast with uncanny physical prowess and bloodline abilities.

The baby wasn't even born, yet everyone felt like they already had a fierce new compet.i.tor.

"Instead of harming her, the death energy is nurturing her life force. It's like a constant drip of poison in her mouth. The dose is never strong enough to cause damage but enough to temper the baby's const.i.tution against all forms of energy." Vladion said with an edge in his voice.

"If it's such good news, why the edge in your voice?" Lith asked.

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