2673 Phoenix''s Forge (Part 1)


    Lith was now much stronger than the Phoenixes, but every member of the Nest had to achieve the bright violet core on their own and acquire at least one millennium of battle experience to earn a spot in the Overlord''s elite forces.


    Also, every piece of their equipment was crafted by Sark, boosting the guards'' physical and magical prowess by several folds.


    The effect of surprise from the hybrid''s mightsted only for a split second after which the Phoenixes used teamwork to make up for the gap in raw power.


    "Wee in peace!" The creature''s roar shook the pce''s tent, making their im sound insincere. "We are Lith/Solus!"


    The guards bolted forward with perfect coordination, forcing the intruder to decide what to block and what to endure, but no matter the choicethey made, they would take a lot of damage.


    The Hybrid roared again, using War to deflect a spear, three hands to block as many iing weapons, and their wings to swat the Phoenixesing from behind like flies.


    The Guards reacted by turning their bodies and weapons into living Origin mes to escape the enemy''s grasp and continue their onught.


    The Hybrid took a deep breath, charging his mouths and eight wings with different kinds of mes that they unleashed against the iing Phoenixes.


    "Enough!" A burst of white aura followed by the ckest darkness since the Void stopped all the mystical mes.


    For a moment, Lith and Solus thought that Dawn had somehow followed them with her steed, but their mystical senses corrected them.


    Sinmara, the white-cored Phoenix of Darkness and Sark''s right-hand man, had appeared in the middle of the conflict, putting an end to it.


    "Little brother? Is that really you?" It took her a while to decipher the energy signature resulting from the fusion.


    "Yes, dammit!" They had never been so happy to see her since the day Sinmara had refused to help them save Phloria. "Please, call Grandma. We need her help."


    They showed Sinmara War, taking care of not exposing her to either the deadly de or hilt.


    She looked at the shattered de and dozens of questions popped up in her mind but she voiced none.


    ''It can wait.'' She thought while alerting the Overlord of a code blood emergency.


    It was both the highest state of alert of the pce and something that only a member of the family in distress could trigger. It bypassed the Hushing and dimensional boundary arrays that the Overlord used for her most important business.


    Like those with which she was dealing right now.


    Jiera''s colonization was a big deal and so were the blueprints of the trains that she was plotting to seize. Sark was above stealing from one of her Featherlings but the Royals were another story.


    Economic espionage was part of the political game, something that the Empire and the Kingdom attempted on the Blood Desert every day so the Overlord had no qualms about returning the favor.


    ''If Lith is so na?ˉve that he entrusted those idiots with such a masterpiece he can''t me me for-''The code blood interrupted the meeting with her highmand and provided Sark with the dimensional coordinates of the emergency.


    She Warped away without a word, no exnation asked nor given.


    All those who took part in the ndestine summits located in one of Sark''s pockets of space were Phoenixes as well. They had been born, bred, and trained to the belief that the well-being of the Nest was above any amount of money and influence.


    "What in the Great Mother''s name is happening?" Sark would have feared that someone was attempting on Elisya''s life, if not for Leegaain giving her updates on the baby''s development every five minutes.


    "Oh my myself, what have you guys done?" She wasn''t talking just about War but also their pitiful mental state.


    "We-"


    "Too slow. No time." Sark put the index and middle fingers of both hands on the Hybrid''s forehead.


    She activated the Blood Imprint to learn everything that she had missed while in her istion and pulled her hands away, unraveling the fusion.


    Lith''s body appeared in front of her right hand and Solus in front of the left, both with their eyes wide in surprise.


    "I''m sorry, but I had to do it." Sark wiped two silent tears from her own cheeks. "I would have loved for the tower to heal both of your life forces a bit more, but if I allowed that, your minds would have been destroyed.


    "Solus, you are not the kind of person who hurts others in order to express your anger. You are not revenge-driven. That''s Lith''s thing." She cupped Solus'' face, kissing her forehead.


    "Lith, I understand your fury, but you should have done what Solus has always done for you and tempered her pain, not fuel it. Sure, violence would have given her relief for a while, but following your methods would have left even deeper scars as soon as she came to realize what she had done." Sark moved in front of Lith, repeating the gestures of affection.


    "I''m sorry, Grandma, we-" They said in unison but she shut them up by cing her hands on their mouths.


    "As I said, we don''t have time. Not if we want to save War." The Overlord pointed at the shattered de that was losing power by the second now that the fusion was undone, "Sinmara, make sure no one disturbs us."


    She said while turning to her second inmand.


    "Yes, my liege. Unless there''s another code blood, I''ll deal with the Blood Desert in your absence."


    I could say: "What are the odds?" But that would jinx this big time.'' Sark nodded and Warped the three of them in her Forgemasteringb.


    The ce wasn''t much different from the Forge in the tower, except it was much bigger, it had direct ess to a bubbling stream of magma that she used as a source of heating for the smelting process of metals, and every single tool in the room was made of Davross.


    Lith could have spent hours just tinkering with the various pieces of equipment he had never seen before but, as Sark had said, he had no time.


    "What do you mean, we?" He asked. "We came here because we''ve already tried and failed everything we could. Our only hope is your Creation Magic."


    "I''m sorry, but what am I supposed to do?" Sark replied. "I can''t touch either the de or the hilt and if I break your imprint right now, War will copse. The blood and the mana you have infused it with are the only things keeping the de together.


    "If I snuff out the mes, the pseudo cores will fade. If I remove the imprint, they''ll fade. If 1 apply any spell which bears a foreign energy signature, the de''s pseudo cores will consume the energy they have left to counter them..."


    "And War''s consciousness will fade." Solus nodded.


    She was still angry and hurt, but now that she had her body again, she managed to regain her cool for War''s sake.


    "If the situation is beyond even you, then what do you need us for?" Lith asked.