Supreme Magus

Chapter 3945: The Next Level (Part 2)

The Garuda had struck Nelia in the middle of the breakthrough, causing her mana core to explode. Tyris had demanded justice, and Zagran had swiftly delivered it, but that meant nothing to Nelia.

She had come so close to greatness just to lose everything to a dumb mistake. Nelia had refused to accept such an unfair fate and had returned from death. As an Abomination, she stalked Lesser Garudas and killed them at the first opening.

As an Eldritch, she focused on the real deal. Zagran and her children had done their best to identify and eliminate their mysterious nemesis, but death had taken nothing of Nelia’s skills and cunning.

Or rather, almost nothing. Abominations and Eldritches couldn’t use light magic, and the loss of Light Mastery was a constant reminder of the Garudas’ stupidity. It stoked the fires of Nelia’s wrath, and it brought her to refuse Vastor’s offer when she met Eycos.

Yet she had later changed her mind for that same reason. The Master was the only one who could give Nelia a body and return Light Mastery to her. She had spent untold millennia craving it and unable to practice it.

Vastor’s promise was a siren she couldn’t resist. In time, she had learned Eycos’ story, and her fury toward him had abated. They fought side by side so often that she’d been forced to accept him as her partner, like Kigan was to Zoreth.

Now that the Frost Griffon had finally regained Light Mastery, she devoted every fight to relearn all the things she had forgotten and recreate the spells she still remembered.

"I learned a lot too." Zoreth gave Nelia a bow. "Do you mind?"

"Please, be my guest."

The Shadow Dragon’s silver eye flared, and two dense heat rays formed amid her palms. Their shape changed into swords, and then the raw energy solidified into a construct. It lasted only for a few seconds before shattering, but it was more than anyone else in the Organization could do.

"You improve by leaps and bounds." Nelia nodded. "You’re almost as good as a Griffon."

"Thanks, but it has little to do with my talent." Xenagrosh kept attempting to form a stable hard-light construct. "You already explained the basics of Light Mastery to me, so my Dragon Eyes work. Also, my troll side has an uncanny affinity to light magic.

"I can feel on my skin how you manipulate the light magic just as well as I can see how you conjure your spells with my eyes."

"One step at a time, sister. One step at a time." Nelia said. "I must say, your little brother did a great job with you. In the past, I accepted Verhen as the Master’s heir only because we had no alternative.

"Verhen is the only perfect Eldritch on Mogar, and he didn’t betray the Master’s secret, but that’s no qualification to become our next leader. Now, however, I can see why the Master chose him."

"You’d have to be blind not to." Orulm scoffed. "The result of Verhen’s work just rearranged your face. He succeeded in days where the Master failed for years, and without Forbidden Magic at that!"

"And he’s just a twenty-something-year-old, not an old monster like us." Tezka nodded. "I’ve met him many times, and I can tell you this. He’s skilled, smart, and resourceful, but he’s no genius."

"Weird. That’s the exact thing everyone says about me." Vastor cleared his throat, drawing all eyes on him. "I want you to understand something, you numbskulls. I chose Lith as my heir because he’s not just like me. He’s like us."

The Master waved to encompass all those present.

"He might not be another Manohar, but Lith matches my talent and is capable of taking any branch of magic he studies to the next level. He’s also an Abomination, which allows him to empathize with your condition.

"While the rest of Mogar looks at you and sees monsters, Lith sees people. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have helped Theseus and healed Zoreth. That’s why he’s my first and only heir candidate. Because he can replace me and because he cares about those like him."

Vastor took a pause to let the hybris mull his words before adding:

"Speaking of caring, you’re late, Zor." He said while checking his pocket watch.

"Late for what?" She reverted to her human form and wiped her sweat with water magic.

Her new and improved metabolism caused a lot of perspiration, but while her Dragon form released it as steam, her human form would get drenched.

"Your evolved human class. Don’t you have a lesson scheduled with Lith and Ryla?"

"Oh, crap!" Zoreth’s stomach grumbled. All that fighting had worked her up quite an appetite. "Why didn’t you warn me, Byt?"

"I got lost in your beautiful eyes." The other hybrids could tell from her dreamy expression that the Fourth Ruler of the Flames was serious.

The Shadow Dragon had failed to discover how to shapeshift in her humanoid form at will, but ever since they had returned from the Blood Desert, Bytra looked at Zoreth as though she were a work of art, no matter her appearance.

Every blow the Shadow Dragon delivered and every spell she cast proved how healthy she was, and that made Bytra’s heart flutter.

The other hybrids, however, retched.

"Do you want to come along, Byt?" Zoreth glared at her companions, putting an end to their mockery.

"No, thanks." Bytra sighed. "You know Solus doesn’t like me, and the less I know about your human form, the better. I don’t want to be your weak point more than I already am."

"That’s unfair!" Nandi snarled. "How can Solus Menadion resent you for something that your original did to her ancestor centuries ago? Neither of you was even born back then."

"It’s not that easy." Theseus, the Bastet-Meneos, and the only other to know about Solus’ true origin, said. "Just like we clones suffer from blood madness due to the actions of our originals, their victims have a hard time forgiving us.

"After all, we have the same face and powers as those who wronged them, and we benefit from our originals’ crimes. Can you really blame Solus?"

"No." Nandi sat down, his hot blood gone cold.

"Okay, then. I’m sorry, I got to r- There’s still ten minutes left! I’m not late!" Zoreth said.

"If you are five minutes early, you are ten minutes late." Vastor replied, quoting the military motto.

Zoreth would have loved to give him a piece of her mind, but her stomach roared and the clock ticked. She shapeshifted back into a Dragon to swallow a cow herd, and then she bolted away at Dragonspeed.

***

She arrived at the Mansion right on time, but Lith begged to differ.

"You are late, Big Sis." He clicked his tongue.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." The Shadow Dragon snorted in annoyance. "If you are five minutes early, you’re a piece of shot and all that military c-"

"Sot!" Elysia said, extending her short arms to be picked up.

"Oh, gods! I’m so sorry, baby girl!" Color drained from Zoreth’s face. "Please, tell me that ’Sot’ is your attempt to say ’Zoreth’ and not the bad word!"

Zoreth took Elysia in her arms, and the Dragon Scales and Elysia’s pensive expression confirmed Zoreth’s worst fears.