Supreme Magus

Chapter 3950: Intertwining Lives (Part 1)

The babies clapped with joy while Garrik ran to embrace his mother.

All present and future parents stared at the Arke as though she were a traitor.

"That accounts for the light, darkness, water, and air bloodline abilities." Lith said. "What about earth and fire?"

"I call them Arcane Bulwark and Balefire." Ryla replied.

"Those are all amazing names, Mom! I can’t wait to learn all our bloodline abilities and show them to my friends." Garrik said. "Isn’t that right, Fluffy?"

"Absolutely." The young Byk’s eyes flared with greed at the idea of harnessing the power of Vital Storm and exacting his revenge against his archnemesis, Nok.

"Thank you, sweetie." Ryla held the boy in her arms and lifted him with ease. "And this is not all. A Fomor’s construct weapons are different from those a non-evolved human can conjure with the elements. Please, look."

She conjured a Balefire sword and then a Vital Storm whip, using them in turns to strike at two stone training dummies she had prepared in advance. Both weapons didn’t stop on impact, phasing through their respective targets and damaging them from the inside.

The chest of the dummy hit by the Balefire sword bubbled with heat and then collapsed on itself. In the span of a few seconds, most of the training dummy had turned into molten stone.

As for the Vital Storm whip, a single lash cracked the dummy’s core. The damage spread to the rest of the stone construct, forming a spiderweb of deep and big shallow fissures on its surface.

"Balefire burns mana and body, so a single strike of this kind of weapon inflicts more than a physical wound. It also depletes magical energies and disrupts the spell that the enemy might keep at the ready." Ryla said.

"What about Vital Storm?" Tista asked. "I thought it had no offensive value. Shouldn’t it empower the enemy?"

"You would be right, if I used it in its pure form." The Fomor nodded. "In this case, however, Vital Storm is not applied to the enemy, but to my own weapon. Vital Storm is also so focused that it amplifies the strength of the lightning whip and the shockwave it produces by more than threefold."

"What about Umbral Shift and Lightforged weapons? What do they do?" Morok asked.

"Good question. I wish I had an answer." Ryla shrugged. "I’m still working on those two bloodline abilities and mixing them with Swirling Wind requires a level of mastery I still lack."

"Don’t worry, Ryla. This is already plenty impressive." Zoreth said. "I hope my Arke form can conjure bloodline weapons like a Balor. It would be a valuable tool."

"I hope so too." The Fomor gave the Arke an apologetic bow. "Last, but not least, this is one of the most useful effects of Swirling Wind, but only Fomors can use it."

Ryla flapped her wings again, and huge amounts of world energy seeped inside her students and spectators both. The former felt the fatigue from the morning training disappear and returned to their peak condition, while the latter felt energized.

"This is almost a breathing technique." Solus said in amazement as she observed the world energy restore everyone’s stamina, mana, and heal the muscle damage Fluffy had incurred while training with Nok.

"Almost." Ryla nodded. "A Fomor can use Swirling Wind to restore themselves and others, but that’s it. You can’t use it to study anyone’s life force or scan an inanimate object.

"According to Glemos, it can’t be used to nurture mana cores or refine one’s body either."

"It’s still an invaluable tool on the battlefield." Zoreth had a hard time suppressing her Dragon Greed and envy. "Why can’t you do this, Urhen?"

"The wings of a Balor stir the single elements, whereas a Fomor’s wings can manipulate the world energy itself." Urhen sighed. "Even if I can control all six elements in the world energy, there’s always something missing.

"Without it, the healing effect of Swirling Wind is lost."

"That something is Mogar’s life force." Lith said, drawing all eyes to him. "The elements alone can’t restore mana or vitality. Even the light element can only heal wounds by stimulating the metabolism.

"It’s because an Awakened’s breathing technique absorbs Mogar’s life force that we can recover completely. Mana is nothing but the six elements plus life force, while stamina is generated by our bodies’.

"Awakened absorb Mogar’s life force and convert it into their own to replenish their strength, and I bet Ryla’s Swirling Wind does the same."

"It makes sense." Quylla pondered. "Converting too much foreign life force puts a strain on our bodies similar to mana poisoning and reduces Invigoration’s effectiveness the more it is used."

"And a good night’s sleep allows us to metabolize Mogar’s life force fully and resets Invigoration." Tista nodded.

"I didn’t understand one word you said." Urhen shrugged. "Yet I hope that when I Awaken, I will unlock Swirling Wind’s full potential."

’Even if Urhen is right, it changes nothing for me anyway.’ Zoreth thought. ’I can’t Awaken until my life forces and mana cores fully merge. At that point, I would still have only four eyes and no control over the air and earth elements.’

"Please, let’s not get ahead of ourselves." Quylla said, and for a moment the Shadow Dragon thought Quylla had read her thoughts. "My priority is undoing Ryla’s Fallen state so that I can learn how to do the same for you too, Urhen.

"Awakening might be impossible for you since you would still lack a mana core."

"I know." The Balor nodded. "And I don’t expect you to work on my evolution until you’ve helped the other races of Zelex. Still, dreaming is nice and costs nothing."

***

Zoreth stayed for lunch and left after playing a bit with the children. Aran, Leria, the triplets, and even the Fastarrow kids were deeply fascinated by the Indech and Arke forms.

"What kind of human are you, Mom?" Lilia asked.

"Angry." Selia replied, her voice brooking no more questions.

"You are so pretty, Auntie Zor!" Leran said.

"Pretty." Valeron the Second nodded.

"Pety!" Elysia said, and Solkar barked in agreement.

"Thanks, kids." Zoreth actually felt her Arke appearance alien, and those compliments hurt her ego rather than coddling it. "What about now?"

She reverted to her usual human appearance.

"Pretty." Valeron shrugged, failing to see any difference.

"Pety!" Elysia said without hesitation, while the sudden change shocked Solkar.

The baby boy sniffed at Zoreth for a while before agreeing with Elysia again.

"Thank you! You guys are the best." Zoreth hugged the toddlers, sniffling.

"Hurt?" Valeron asked.

"No, happy." Zoreth replied.

"I’m hurt, but no one gives a damn." Selia snorted, glaring at all the evolved humans sitting at the table.

"How did you get hurt?" Protector asked in confusion. "You did nothing but sit all day. Did something go wrong with your magical studies, dear?"

"I’m hurt in my pride, you oaf!" The huntress replied. "Every woman in Lutia has to get used to feeling ugly when compared to a Verhen, but this is too much. Why is everyone at this table so damn beautiful?"

She pointed at every woman in the room, skipping only Quylla and Kamila.

"Hey!" They both said in anger.