Supreme Magus

Chapter 4233: Seed of Chaos (Part 2)

"I hope not. He’s a baby too!" Raaz swallowed hard. "Can you please check Surin’s life force for anomalies or Awakening?"

"Sure." Gentor examined the baby girl thoroughly, finding a dormant red mana core and no signs of alterations in her life force. "By all accounts, your daughter is just a healthy baby."

"Except that babies don’t talk like this, can’t count, and for sure don’t answer questions. Can this be an effect of the Demon Dirge? After all, Surin experienced both of them."

"Good thinking! Let’s share the good news with the rest of the family." Before Raaz and Elina could recover from the shock, Gentor was already bringing in more Dragons.

They all took care to take on a cute or shiny appearance to appease the baby girl. The Phoenixes, instead, looked so goofy and fluffy that one would have easily mistaken them for giant stuffed toys.

Only a few among the human guests had the presence of spirit to notice the extra space left by the absence of the Divine Beasts, but the alcohol level in their blood prevented them from wondering where they had gone.

Surin had no Dragon Scales to understand why so many strange people came to visit her, but with her parents present and the Divine Beasts’ silly appearance, she remained calm, thinking it was some sort of game.

Unfortunately for Lith, most of his human guests lacked the joyful calm of the Dragons.

Fear and worry battled for dominance when any powerful noble met Raldarak, afraid of what would happen to their household if one of their rivals got their hands on the Tiamat bloodline before them.

Cold sweat often covered the nobles when Lith shapeshifted through his four forms with the babies, and when it was the nobles’ turn to hold the baby, they handled him as if he were a live wire.

Some humans even had intrusive thoughts of getting rid of the threat here and there, making it pass for an accident. No one was stupid enough to attempt anything, and the thoughts remained just that, but the babies sensed the tensing of muscles and smelled the fear.

When that happened, Raldarak cried, and Elysia growled. She was old enough to understand what those signals meant and how to respond to them with extreme prejudice.

At first, Lith only needed to calm the children with the Dragon Scales to reassure them. After a few terrified guests, however, the accumulated stress led Elysia to escalate her aggressive behavior.

She was tired of strangers invading her room and spreading those dangerous smells all over her little brother. Tired of being separated from her friends and suffering what she perceived as a dignified form of harassment.

Tired of being woken up every five minutes, even when she was so tired that she only wanted to sleep. To make matters worse, every time Raldarak cried, she felt as if she had failed to protect him.

No matter how many times Lith explained in simple terms what a Royal Gala was to her, it didn’t change the fact that the night was a constant headache for her and that her guests were mean.

"Ba!" Elysia snarled as Raldarak cried one time too many. "Ba da ba!

She shapeshifted into her Tiamat form and escaped Kamila’s arms, hurling a jet stream of bright orange Origin Flames against an already terrified Baron.

"Calm down, Ely!" Kamila used tendrils of Spirit Magic to catch the baby, while Lith shielded the Baron with an air spell.

"Ba! Je-ah! E-au!" Elysia replied, tracing a circle with her small hand and then crossing it vertically with her index and middle fingers.

A blast of Zero Magic shattered the emerald tendrils, and a projectile of Chaos Magic went straight for the Baroness. Only the Mansion’s defensive systems saved her life, yet it was still far from over.

"Protect the son!" Ragnarök plunged into the ground between the guests and the crib. "Protect the daughter!"

Latches and seals snapped open one after another as the angry blade surrounded the baby boy with several barriers and prepared to fight to the death.

"Enough." Lith’s voice was level, barely a whisper.

Yet both Ragnarök and Elysia froze, ceasing their attack before it even started.

"Baron and Baroness Tika, Duke and Duchess Folren, I’m sorry for cutting your time short, but my children need a break." He said, rocking Raldarak into his arms until the baby boy stopped crying.

"This is my fault. I didn’t consider the stress the Royal Gala would put Elysia and Raldarak through. Kamila, please, inform our guests that from now on, we’ll give the babies a few minutes between visits to decompress.

"Come back as soon as you are done and bring Protector with you. In the meantime, I’ll clean this mess."

Melting ice soaked the floor, and burn marks stained the walls, all things that Lith fixed with a thought and a couple of chore magic spells.

"Take five, please." Lith said to the honor guards. "I know you are doing your best, but I think the kids need some peace and solitude. The fewer people are around, the easier it should be for them to calm down."

"You didn’t need to worry, Ely." An Ice Dragon said and offered the baby girl his crystal-like finger to prove his sincerity via Dragon Scales. "If any of those brutes so much as touched you or your brother the wrong way, we would have ended them."

"Ba!" Elysia snorted, not feeling much reassured. "Ba ma! Ba wama!"

"I agree, those were bad men and women, but they did nothing wrong." The Ice Dragon replied. "Nice spells, by the way. I’ve never seen anything like that before."

"And with a bit of luck, you’ll never see it again." Lith chimed in, unwilling to reveal the existence of the stable Cursed Elements. "That said, what kind of honor guards ignore people in danger? If not for me, those nobles would have died."

"We are guarding the babies." The six Divine Beasts replied as one. "We don’t care about humans and have no duty towards them. They can all die for what we care about, especially those with sick thoughts about our Hatchlings."

"I noticed that too, but what am I supposed to do?" Lith’s keen instinct had sensed the nobles’ wild emotions, but since his guests didn’t act on such impulses, he had pretended not to notice. "This is a political event, and crapping your pants is not a crime."

On that, even Elysia had to agree. She still wore diapers, after all.

"I don’t envy your position, Little Brother." A Molten Phoenix said on her way out. "In your shoes, I would have already killed a few of those humans who visited your children."

Once alone, Lith used a pulse of darkness magic to erase all the foreign smells from the room and gave a milk bottle to the babies. They had recently eaten, but eating helped them to relax, and stress made them hungry.

Also, Lith opened a small Warp Steps, allowing Shargein and Valeron in for a visit.

"Are you okay, Ral?" Valeron the Second asked.

"Wah!" Raldarak was so happy to see his friends that he dropped the bottle and extended his little arms.