"While you lovebirds were singing about peace and love, I risked my feathers. This b*stard…" She took out Pazul's head, handing it to Leegaain before it could disappear.
"…was very well prepared for our arrival. If it wasn't for the fact that I never underestimate any opponent and brought you along as a contingency plan, the Garlen continent would now have only two Guardians."
"If this is a joke, it's not funny Salaark. We have killed Eldritchs for millennia and each of them had less power than a single one of your feathers." Tyris scoffed at the idea of a Guardian dying at the hands of an overgrown tick.
"A single Eldritch is indeed irrelevant," Leegaain said after having stabilized Pazul's remains and studied them for a bit.
"...but this thing is so much more. The other artificial Abominations we encountered earlier were harmless despite their humongous power because they were utterly insane. So many minds could not coexist, so the whole was less than the sum of its parts.
"This time they used an Eldritch as a base, fusing it with countless artificial Abominations. An Eldritch has enough power and experience to beat the other minds into submission.
That's why it was able to retain its personality and harness all their powers at once."
"How bad is it?" Salaark had just finished cleaning herself.
"Quite bad, if you ask me. It's still a rough product. It had to spend most of its energies just to keep all the other minds in check, but it's a huge step forward. They have already solved the madness issue.
"Even as it is, if they put up a squad of these things, even a Guardian may not be enough. What did it say to you before dying?"
"Not much." Salaark shrugged.
"I had no idea his mind was so fragile. I was quite pissed off, so things turned ugly fast. Torturing its soul made his mind collapse and melt in the psychic maelstrom. There is a full lab down there, and it's still in almost mint condition though."
"Make way, please." Leegaain asked with a stern expression, making Tyris grow even more worried.
In all the time they had spent together, she had never seen the dragon completing so many sentences without cracking even one joke.
***
It took Leegaain a few hours to check and catalog everything. When he finished, the dragon was pleased with his results.
"Excellent work in preserving the lab Salaark. Now we know everything but the identity of our enemies."
"We do?" Tyris and Salaark asked in unison. Since they couldn't make heads or tails of the equipment, they had spent their time playing Lith's game. Chess had become renowned as the "Queen of the games" and "the game of the Queens".
"Yes. Do you want the good news or the bad news?"
"Whatever. I'm sure that no matter what I pick, you'll tell us both anyway." Salaark snorted in exasperation.
"You are right my fair lady, but this time I will do it because it's vital for you to understand how serious our crisis is, rather than for the simple pleasure of annoying you." His mocking tone told a different story, though.
"The first thing I ascertained by examining the lab, is that whoever is behind this, they are not Awakened ones. Their method to mass produce Abominations is brilliant but too crude.
An Awakened one wouldn't need all this equipment nor to sacrifice so many lives for so little result." Leegaain pointed at the mountains of corpses.
"They would just use Invigoration to call upon the world energy and forcefully feed it to their test subjects. Our culprit is sapping the life force of countless living beings to produce a single Abomination, instead.
Clearly they have no idea of what a mana core is or how to sense the world energy."
"How can you be so sure?" Tyris asked. "Most Abominations were once Awakened ones, can't they have taught to others the secret behind the awakening?"
Leegaain sneered in response.
"Even if they wanted to, they can't. Abominations lose all their connections with the world energy after the transformation. Would you be able to Awaken someone by using mere words? The answer is no." He didn't give them the time to reply.
"Sure, Abominations can explain what a mana core is or how the world energy affects magic, but knowing and doing are two different things. Also, I'm certain of my assumptions because I'm very familiar with the blueprints of those tanks…"
"Since you made them yourself?" Salaark interrupted him, shocked by her intuition.
"Why would I do that? Just like you, I can create artificial Awakened as well as true ones. I'm the father of all dragons, if I wanted to take over the world, I would just need to call all of my offspring and take down a Guardian at a time.
No, I know them because they belong to the Griffon Kingdom. They are the upgraded version of Arthan Griffon's immortality project."
Tyris had done her best to forget that name. King Arthan Griffon, the Kinslayer. The Soul Eater. The biggest mistake she had ever made.
Unlike natural Awakened ones, those Salaark and Tyris made were incapable of using techniques like Invigoration and Accumulation, their sensitivity toward the world energy was purposely sealed during the process.
Having a stronger mana core than the one they were born with, made them age more slowly, but they aged nonetheless. Arthan had been a genius mage, that during his final years had focused on studying the limitations of the gift he had received and how to overcome them.
His experiments had sacrificed countless lives and almost led to the Griffon Kingdom's destruction.