'Ingenious.' Kalla said. 'Also, a lucky break for us. Yet if we keep still like morons, it will make no difference.'

She pointed them at the map, where a couple of luminous dots were moving in their direction. Lith and Vladion nodded, moving along the corridor the get out of the patrol's line of sight.

Their scientific curiosity made them glance both at the string of runes and inside the lab, but neither made sense to them. The apparatus the mages were working on had a regular brick and a same-shaped red mana crystal placed into adjacent slots.

'By the Red Mother!' Kalla froze in front of the mirror as the Eyes explained the nature of the experiment to her, forcing Vladion to lift the Wight on his shoulder and carry her away.

'Stop! You don't understand-'

'And I don't want to.' The Firstborn Vampire cut her short. 'If Lith can give up on killing that a.s.shole of Meln, nothing matters. Save the explanations for later and remain on the lookout.'

Kalla ceased her struggle, but she kept staring at the scene until the solid stone replaced the gla.s.s.

The following lab proved to be as shocking as it was big.

There was a stark naked man chained to the wall who looked awfully familiar. He had the silver eyes typical of Tyris' descendants and light green hair that reminded Lith of Jormun.

The room was thrice the size of the others, yet aside from the chained man and the mages keeping their backs against the opposing wall, it was empty. No machinery, mana crystals, or furniture.

The man's body started to writhe, turning into a small Phoenix, then into a Griffon, and then into a perfect hybrid of the two. His red feathered wings burned with Origin Flames while the silver lightning of Life Maelstrom coursed through the leonine body.

Yet when they met halfway, they clashed against each other. The hybrid's body bloated like an overinflated balloon as its life forces battled for dominance. Then, the man exploded in a silvery rain that splattered everywhere.

'I knew that Thrud was insane but that's even worse than I thought.' Vladion said. 'Mixing the bloodlines of Guardians is not that easy, otherwise Lith's existence wouldn't be such huge news. She-'

The Firstborn's jaw fell to the ground when the silvery liquid slithered off the gla.s.s and rea.s.sembled itself in the form of the green-haired man.

'f.u.c.k me sideways.' Lith and Solus thought in unison, not needing the Eyes of Menadion to know what was happening. 'Thrud must have used the ambrosia on that Doppelganger, Protheus.

'Now not only is he able to mimic the physical abilities of Divine Beasts, but even their powers!'

'Yes and no.' Kalla shook her head. 'His ability to mimic the mana organs is poor at best and they completely fall apart the moment he tries to mix different life forces.'

'Poor or not, I've fought against Thrud's generals.' Lith replied. 'If the experiment succeeds, she'll have at her beck and call a creature who can use the bloodline abilities of the six original Guardians. What color is his core?'

'Deep green, but I still think that Thrud getting mage towers would be much worse. She already has a white core and if she and her Generals get-'

'What the heck are you talking about?' Vladion could easily imagine the rest so he demanded an explanation about what he failed to understand.

'The first room. The one with the brick.' Kalla said while the others kept staring at her like she was mad. 'Those guys were working on making regular stones have a mana flow on par with red crystals.

'They are still a long shot from success but the initial results are promising. You see-'

'What do bricks have to do with mage towers?' Lith asked, p.i.s.sing Kallaher off big time.

The Wight hated to be constantly interrupted.

'According to the Eyes of Menadion, enhancing the mana conductivity of ordinary materials is the first step for tower crafting.'

'How do you know that? You've spent your life researching Lichhood, not Forgemastery.' Lith asked, yet Kalla knew the question came from Solus.

'Indeed, and I would've had no clue about it if not for the data being already stored in the Eyes. Their regular imprint must have preserved part if not all of Menadion's research. I wonder why Scarlett never mentioned it.'

Somewhere on the Jiera continent, in the depth of the oceans that hid Fenagar's secret lab, the Mother of all Sekhmets suddenly froze in place.

"What's wrong, cat? Bored already? You're not going to achieve anything if you are even fickler than me. Magical research needs patience and dedication." The Leviathan was her final mentor on Jiera before moving back to Garlen to continue her apprentices.h.i.+p under Salaark.

Fenagar had been teaching Scarlett how to put the bloodline abilities that she had discovered with Roghar's help into practice. She could now use Life Maelstrom to enhance all of her senses and combine it with her other abilities to extend her perception of Mogar.

She was learning how to pierce the veil of the world energy and tap into her full potential.

"No, this is the most amazing magical research I have ever conducted." She said as a grimace twisted her face, as if she was suddenly experiencing deep shame and regret for no plausible reason. "Yet I can't help but suddenly feel deep shame and regret for no plausible reason.

"I don't know why, but I feel like the dumbest creature alive."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Fenagar said in outrage. "You are one of the few creatures on Mogar who managed to become a Guardian.

"You've reached such an amazing achievement after living for barely more than 300 years whereas most of us had to wait until their second millennia. If you are stupid, then what about the rest of Mogar?

"It's not like you had the most amazing knowledge at your fingertips and ignored it the whole time just because you failed to read it." The scenario was so preposterous that the Leviathan started to laugh out loud.

"You are right." Scarlett laughed as well, but the tears streaming from her eyes were of sadness.

Meanwhile back in the Golden Griffon, Lith and Vladion were inwardly cursing themselves for having given away the Eyes instead of keeping them. Their inner grumbling was so loud that Kalla could almost hear their thoughts via the mind link.

That and the gritting of teeth and clenching hands were a big tell.

'Dammit, maybe if I kept the Eyes for myself, I would have already discovered the secret of tower crafting and this whole mission would be pointless. Once us Firstborn had our tower, not even Thrud could stand our power.' Vladion thought.

'Dammit, maybe if I kept the Eyes for myself, I might have learned a lot about the secrets of Solus' tower and its still missing floors! If the original Eyes also contains records of Menadion's Forgemastering techniques, I'm going to kick my own a.s.s.' Lith thought.

'Maybe I should have kept that last bit of information for myself.' Kalla pondered as the faces of her companions became more twisted than a pretzel.

?