Chapter 2904: Warp Home (part 2)

"I can't believe that not long ago I was considering doing stuff like this." He sighed in disgust after pointing various strings of runes at Kamila.

Forbidden magic wasn't much different from regular magic unless one knew where to look. Then, it turned out to be a deadly trap whose cost and consequences were unknown until the spell was cast.

What doomed most mages who dabbled in forbidden magic was the fact that the runes of such spells could produce any kind of effect as long as the sacrificed life force and mana were enough but no way to know how much "enough" actually was.

Regular magic succeeded or failed based on the amount of mana stored in the mage's core. No matter how quick and skillful at chanting a yellow-cored mage was, he could never cast a tier four spell.

Every attempt would leave him exhausted and inflict upon him the effects of mana abuse but that was it.

Forbidden magic, instead, was devised to take the energy required from any external source available. If the sacrifices' mana wasn't enough, the spell would take it from anyone in the vicinities. If the mana wasn't enough, life force would do.

If not even the life force sufficed and the mage had failed to take proper precautions, the spell would spread outside their lab and reap victims until it reached completion.

A mage attempting a spell out of his league ended up exhausted. A mage attempting a forbidden spell out of his league ended up destroying everything he was trying to protect.

Even worse, the mana and life force channeled inside the forbidden spell would become part of the enchantments it conjured, d.a.m.ning those who had been sacrificed to fuel its effects to an eternity of suffering.

Their essence would constantly be burned by the magic and then replaced by the world energy in a cycle that could be broken only with the destruction of the cursed object.

"I can't believe it either but I can't say I'm surprised." Kamila shuddered and then kissed him on the cheek. "You have come a long way from the man you were on Earth. I can see Derek McCoy doing something like that out of spite for his enemies.

"Lith Verhen, however, is better than that. I'm proud of you. Never forget that." She embraced him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Thanks." Lith wrapped his arms around her, returning the embrace.

Only the memory of the fight with the Eternal Fortress soured the moment for him.

Lith couldn't forget how easily the blue flames had answered his call. How when faced with a desperate situation, he hadn't hesitated to give up on himself to bring the Void Demon Dragon forward.

Lith couldn't help but wonder if Derek McCoy was truly gone or if he was just sitting away from the light, waiting for the darkness to fall again.

***

A week after the expedition's arrival on Jiera, the transcontinental Gate was ready.

Orion had yet to gain the trust of the elves of Medolin so he had to stay. Quylla couldn't leave her patients and Friya refused to leave Quylla's side.

Lith, Solus, Kamila, Tista, and Bodya bid their friends goodbye and returned to Garlen with a single step.

The room where the other Gate was positioned was a square room with a side of 10 meters (33') with no furniture. Even the control panel for the Gate was outside the room.

The purpose was to leave as much s.p.a.ce as possible for the items that had to be exchanged. Due to the distance and the prolonged isolation between Jiera and Garlen, everyone and everything needed to be quarantined until they were deemed harmless.

The moment the dimensional corridor closed behind them, the light in the room turned to a deep purple as brief pulses of darkness magic sterilized the air and every object in the room, including the clothes worn by Lith and the others.

"Please, use darkness fusion." The familiar voice of Duke Marth, the Headmaster of the White Griffon echoed from a holographic panel.

Lith nodded, shapes.h.i.+fting his hands and using the Dragon scales to explain the babies what they had to do and how to do it. Even a deep red-cored awakened could use fusion magic and both Elysia and Valeron the Second had reached the deep orange.

They experienced through Lith what how to trigger fusion magic and instinctively followed his lead. The darkness magic of their own mana core couldn't harm them and it just cleansed their system from any foreign organic life form, no matter how small.

"We're done here." Lith said and the door opened.

Marth walked through it while wearing a Life Ward plague mask, one of the few pieces of Manohar's legacy left to the public. It consisted of a single-use alchemical tool that coated its user and kept dangerous substances from reaching him.

The holes in the beak from which Marth breathed were pulsing with darkness magic that acted as a filter, killing microorganisms and breaking down complex and potentially complex gases into inert substances.

The Life Ward, instead, was comprised of a hard-light magic layer that covered him from head to toe. It worked as well as a hazmat suit but it was much more comfortable to wear.

"Stay still. This will just take a minute." Marth cast a diagnostic spell on each one of them to make sure they weren't suffering from an asymptomatic illness.

The light of the spell seeped inside their bodies and outlined their organs and blood vessels. In case of infection or disease, the affected area would have been greyed out but the five of them shone like lightbulbs.

"Is this normal?" Kamila asked, a bit worried from seeing her own insides like she had been turned into an anatomy model.

"Actually, no." Marth replied. "Normal people are supposed to s.h.i.+ne much less and have some grey spots even when healthy. Age and work are supposed to leave permanent damage over time which is not your case.

"I envy you Awakened so much." He took the plague mask off and welcomed them back home with a handshake. "Now follow me. Before going back home, the Royals would like to have a word with you, Lith."

"What's this about?" He asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Are you really asking me such a stupid question?" Marth was even more puzzled. "The Queen asked you to help the Kingdom with their diplomatic efforts in Jiera by talking down a lost city and you went out of your way, getting also rid of a monster tide.

"The Royals want to offer you their thanks for ensuring the safety of the expedition and hastening the colonization."

***

Griffon Kingdom, Tyris' lair, at the same time.

The moment Lith returned to Garlen, the Father of All Dragons was with them, just cloaked in order to be invisible. It was his turn to look after Elysia and since he was already inside the Royal Palace, he called a meeting with the other Guardians of Garlen. The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

Tyris was already there and Salaark was glad to welcome back her beloved Featherlings in person. She brought Shargein along, leaving him to play with the children while the grown-ups talked.