Chapter 1774 - Strange Partners (Part 2)

"This is great news." Feela said. "Tower or not, now we can destroy Night as soon as we face her in battle."

"Beware, though. Time is of the essence. I've reason to suspect that the longer we wait, the less these weak points will help us defeat her. It's the reason I need your help. If we don't act swiftly, by the time we find Night she might have removed them." Baba Yaga said.

"What do you mean removed?" Inxialot said, impressed by how much the Horseman's crystal resembled his own phylactery. "Artifacts don't change after being Forgemastered."

"That's what I thought as well, but that may not be the case anymore." The Red Mother replied, snapping her fingers.

Zepho Acala walked through the door as well, sitting beside Dawn and holding her hand. The ex-Ranger was a man in his mid-thirties, yet after Awakening, he looked ten years younger.

He was 1.78 meters (5'10") tall, with chestnut hair and a beard of a brown so light to look almost red. His bond with the Horseman had turned his grey hair into silver and the violet aura surrounding him proved his strength.

"What the heck?" All the Council members jumped from their chairs, Leegaain included. "This is impossible."

"Correction. This was supposed to be impossible." Baba Yaga sighed. "Allow me to introduce you to my daughter's host, husband, and the living proof of my worries."

"The what?" Inxialot was the most scared, fearing that his phylactery might walk out of its cave and ask Raagu out before he did

The Mother hated the idea of revealing even one shred of her secrets, but she had no choice.

"The method people use to turn themselves into Liches is a perversion of my Horseman technology." She said. "The mana core was never supposed to be split into two. On the contrary, it was supposed to become one with the power core of the artifact.

"I created my Horsemen so that by bonding with a host, they could have a full life and the ability to evolve like living beings without being limited by their nature of artifacts.

"I gave them the mission to overcome the limitations of the undead not by performing crazy experiments like they ended up doing'¦" Baba Yaga glared at Dawn and Dusk, who blushed in embarrassment.

"But by bonding with an undead, Awakening them and then growing through their bond. My idea was that it would have allowed my Horsemen to alter their host and fix the imperfections in their blood core.

"Yet I never imagined that they would bond with living beings. It had the unforeseen consequences that you see. Since there was nothing wrong to fix with Acala's core, it was Dawn's that started to change.

"I am happy for Dawn and Acala, but I'm terrified by what might happen if Orpal and Night manage to do the same. You have seen the fight, she doesn't just ride him like she did with her previous hosts, she rides along with him.

"Orpal had full control during the fight with Manohar, something that has never happened before. It makes her potential limitless."

While Baba Yaga's kitchen erupted in yells and battle plans, Dusk pondered what he had just learned. His red crystal lay atop one of the tallest buildings of the slums of the city of Gima.

After stripping him of his host and powers, Baba Yaga had dropped the Horseman in the Gorgon Empire where he still resided.

'My plan is even more perfect than I thought. I need to take a leaf from whatever has bonded with Verhen and bond with a young host who carries a dormant bloodline.' Dusk knew about Solus from his sister Dawn, but he had no idea she was the daughter of Menadion.

He looked below at the ruthless beating that was taking place in a dirty back alley. A kid dressed in rags was fighting to protect their most prized treasure. A loaf of fresh bread that they had managed to steal after two days of starvation.

"These are our streets, runt. You have to ask our permission and pay for protection before robbing anyone. That's the rule." The man was twice the size of the kid, yet he kicked the sorry figure on the ground as if it could retaliate at any time.

"If we let every beggar steal from our customers, they don't make business. And if they don't make business, they don't have the money to pay us. So either you compensate us for our losses or we'll break your hands!"

Now that the message was delivered, the guys blocking the alley's entrance to keep the kid from escaping joined the beating. The child cried from the pain, but mostly from the hunger and the idea that most of the bread was now covered in filth and inedible.

'That's' my cue.' Dusk said as the snapping sound of a broken bone and a yelp of pain echoed through the alley.

The thugs suddenly found themselves paralyzed, incapable of moving a muscle.

'Hello, there. Don't worry. I'm here to help you.' Dusk said to the kid via a mind link.

Kelia had no idea what was happening, she was just glad that the pain had stopped. Fear came only when she lowered her gaze, noticing that the loaf of bread was gone, replaced by a shiny red crystal.

"Where's my food?" She had a lisp due to many broken or completely missing teeth.

The moment Kelia tried to move, her broken arm sent a pang that froze her. The pain reminded her of the thugs that had cost her what little she had.

The young girl stared in hatred at their figures floating in mid-air and her broken lips painfully curved in a smile when she noticed that their faces were blue.

Her mysterious benefactor had hanged them with an invisible rope.

"Kill them! Kill those fuckers and that baker that sent them after me!"

'That's not going to happen, but I'm going to make sure that they'll think twice before bothering you again.' Dusk said, breaking their wrists and engulfing them in red flames.

The thugs screamed in fear and pain, rolling onto the ground to extinguish the fire before running away.

Dusk had let them live, but not out of pity. He didn't want to taint the memory of their first meeting with murder. Also, everyone in the Gorgon Empire knew about cursed objects, even kids.

He wanted the thugs to haunt Kelia's mind, to make her desperate and scared enough of their revenge to bond with him.

"Thanks. Where did you put my bread?" She slowly stood up, noticing that most of her pain was gone.

'Do you mean this crap?' Dusk took the piss-stained muddy bread out of his pocket dimension. 'Wouldn't you like this, instead?'

Kelia's desperation turned into amazement when a plate filled with a steaming stew appeared out of nowhere. She drank it in big gulps, uncaring for the burns that the hot broth caused her.

The only thing she could think of was to eat before someone took the food away from her, again.

'Slow down and use this. No one will bother you as long as I'm here.' Dusk offered her a spoon and refilled her plate, adding a fresh loaf of bread.

Kelia almost choked several times as she ate as quickly as she could.