1834 Changing Fate (Part 2)

"I'll do it." The Mother said, leaving Keila flabbergasted. "No offense, but I don't think that a double-headed ax is fit for such a tiny girl."

As she spoke, Creation Magic dismantled Firebrand, turning it into two short swords that fit into Keila's hands like an extension of her arms. At the same time, the Davross armor reshaped itself around her body and its enchantments changed to suit Kelia's talents and affinities.

The blood-red Scorpion armor absorbed the Red Dragon leather clothes she wore and shapeshifted itself into an exact replica down to the smallest detail.

"I advise you to change into something less conspicuous before going to the academy, but we can discuss it over lunch." Baba Yaga clapped her hands, setting the table and making an invisible bell ring.

Dozens of undead hybrid children swarmed the room and the table grew in size until it could accommodate them all. Kelia didn't care about their unusual and sometimes monstrous appearance, nor about the fact that food and furniture popped out of nowhere.

What really shocked her to her core was how they were all well-fed, dressed, and most of all, happy. She could tell from their clear eyes and from their laughter that they had still had their innocence.

Kelia envied them from the bottom of her heart and suddenly she found herself wishing for more than just power. She wanted to be able to laugh and smile again.

"Allow me to introduce you to the rest of my children." The Mother said. "I didn't give birth to them, but I consider all of them as my own. Welcome to the family, Kelia."

***

Distar region, Faluel's lair, at the same time.

Lith's group had yet to recover from Quylla declaring her plans to self-Awaken when their respective contact amulets projected the image of King Meron reading the Royal Decree that absolved Lith's family from Orpal's crimes and him from those of his alleged associate, Tiamat.

'Well, at least this is one less thing to worry about.' Lith thought. 'Between the Decree and Peonia, the life of my family in Lutia should quickly go back to how it was.'

'I hope so.' Solus replied. 'I don't like Dad moving his business away from Lutia to avoid conflicts. He has been using the DoLorean a lot lately to travel to the nearby villages and cities where to sell his products.'

'Yeah. The Queen's Corps can follow him easily thanks to the tracking device I installed, but it still takes them some time to catch up with him. On top of that, the more people follow him the fewer are left to check on the rest of my family.' Lith said.

"Are you gone insane?" Friya had no worries aside from her little sister. "You are a damn violet core and I bet that you'll reach the bright before you turn twenty. Not even Faluel can Awaken you safely!"

"I know that, I'm not stupid." While Friya and Phloria freaked out, Quylla remained calm. "Why do you think I waited for so long before making this decision?"

"Because you knew it's a death sentence!" Phloria said.

"No, because I was finishing the final details of my plan." Quylla shook her head. "Look, we can argue all we want, but the truth is that there is an abyssal gap between an Awakened violet core and a fake mage.

"Even Manohar realized his limits after fighting with Thrud, Night, and Dawn, otherwise he would have never resorted to Awakening."

"She's right." Lith nodded. "First Manohar tried to find a different way to silent cast, then when Balkor explained to him that Awakened could also body cast, he gave up on the idea of relying solely on fake magic."

"That's my point." Quylla nodded. "Let's be real, Manohar has always been an unbridled genius. He always made what he wanted with the full support of the Kingdom. His growth never stopped because he didn't let anything, not even common sense, stand in his way.

"I, instead, after what Nalear- no, after I was forced to kill Yurial, I've stopped practicing magic, and even when I returned to the academy, I never dared to practice offensive magic out of guilt.

"I let my skill and will rot until Kulah, but now I can't afford to be a coward anymore. Thrud wants to conquer the Kingdom and Meln already tried to kill me. If not for Mom's crazy plans, I would be dead already."

She took a brief pause, letting everyone remember the insane ruse that Jirni had pulled and the pain that came from it.

"He isn't going to stop. Meln is going to try and kill all of our family." Quylla conjured a hologram of the Orpal card. "If I don't Awaken, I'll die. It's only a matter of when, not if and you can be certain that it won't be peacefully in my bed.

"I'm not deluding myself. I know that I'm inferior to Manohar and that I won't ever be able to catch up for the lost time. Yet if I Awaken, I still have a chance. If I don't, I'll always be the weak link of the group, the one you need to leave behind.

"Just like it happened a few hours ago. You can choose to help me or not, but that's not going to change my decision."

"Let's say that I agree-" Friya and Phloria freaked out, forcing Lith to raise his hands and wait until they quieted down. "The tower barely allowed Phloria to survive, and she was just a bright cyan core.

"You've already reached the violet which makes things much harder. What's your plan? Because I'd rather knock you out and keep you in stasis again than help you commit a dignified form of suicide."

"Glad that you asked." Quylla took several pages out of her dimensional amulet and passed them to him.

Lith put them inside Soluspedia, double and triple-checking everything with Solus. His eyes turned golden and hers black as they exchanged in a few seconds what would have otherwise been a long, heated debate.

It creeped everyone out, no matter how many times they saw it happen.

"The good news is that it might work. We just need to run a few tests and make a few preparations to maximize the odds of success. The bad news is that no one has ever attempted anything like this so if your starting hypothesis is wrong, you are dead.

"Only one way to find out. Just stay still until I say so." Lith took several steps away, staring at the group with Death Vision.

Faluel was the first one to start to die, every time a violent and gruesome death. Then Friya and Quylla suffered the same fate as well whereas Phloria and Solus were okay. Yet while Friya died mostly of Origin Flames, claws, or blades, Quylla also died of poison and exploded like a bloody firework.

'I'm going to help Quylla Awaken.' He thought, believing his own words.

The death by poison disappeared, but she still kept exploding. On top of that, the number of violent deaths that he witnessed now far exceeded those due to old age.

'Scratch that. I'm not going to help her.' Quylla's deaths returned back to how they had been until a second ago, with poison and failed Awakening being the most predominant cause.

Yet now, sometimes, he could see a black shadow wailing in hunger where her body had been just a second ago.