2145 Power Struggle (Part 1)
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"Because now not only have your life forces fully merged, but you are also capable of switching between them at will." King Meron replied. "This gives us hope that in your Abomination form you can resist the slave array as well."
"Hope? As in, you are not sure?"
"That's another of the reasons we've summoned you here." The King said. "To put your Abomination side to the test. If our suspicions are confirmed, then we'll reveal to you the rest of our plan."
"Why me? The Council is full of powerful undead. Heck, now that the Abomination hybrids are probatory members, they are your best candidate. Strength, experience, unparalleled destructive power, they have it all." Lith said.
His words arose no enthusiasm, quite the contrary.
The members of both the Council and the Royal Court shifted on their feet in uneasiness. The latest success of the hybrids in single-handedly collecting priceless intelligence and invading Orpal's fortresses was a testament to their skills.
It greatly increased their value as allies but also posed the unsettling question of how to deal with them in case they turned hostile. Neither the Council nor the Royals had an answer to that question and it worried them greatly.
"Your reasoning is solid, but it has fatal flaws." Raagu said. "All undead can't move or have their strength greatly limited during the day. There's no telling how long the mission will last and the moment the sun rises, they'd become dead weight.
"Liches have no such problem but there's no telling when and where Thrud will relocate the lost academy. If that happens while the recon squad is inside, a Lich would lose most of their strength if not disintegrate on the spot.
"To prevent that, they should either bring their phylactery with them or at least entrust it to someone so that in case the Golden Griffon moves, the phylactery would follow. Useless to say, there's not a single Lich who hasn't flipped us off.
"As for the Eldritches-"
"We have already tested ourselves after recovering the Forbidden Spells and we've discovered that we are not immune." Xenagrosh cut Raagu short.
"Our main goal has always been to make our flesh resistant to the Chaos and our success turned against us.
"Our life forces are stable enough to be affected by the slave array so we can't go. On top of that, we can't use Spirit Magic so our usefulness would be limited in the exfiltration phase."
Lith's eyes met Xenagrosh, asking her several silent questions that she could almost hear. She just shook her head, gesturing they would speak later.
'I can't tell the Council that the reason we're susceptible to the Unwavering Loyalty array is that Dad's workings are based on Arthan's.' The Shadow Dragon gritted her teeth in annoyance.
'Back then, he noticed the flaw that using the Madness to create our monster half would create and exploited it to develop arrays that guarantee him a way to get rid of untrustworthy Eldritches.
'Without such flaw, any of us might have turned traitor the moment they got what they wanted and the Master would have been powerless to stop them. On the other hand, however, because of the flaw our life forces offer no resistance to the slave array. Yet.'
"If this matter is so secret that you can't disclose it even to the Kingdom's Supreme Magus then what's my wife doing here?" Lith asked.
"We haven't forgotten how aggressive your Abomination half was the last time we met it. We brought Constable Yehval here in hope that she can restrict you, sparing us from using force in case you go wild.
"Also, she deserves to know what you are risking your life for." Sylpha replied.
Meron performed a series of hand gestures that conjured a scaled-down version of the Golden Griffon's Unwavering Loyalty array. Solus recognized its runes with mana sense and remained baffled by the array's complexity.
'This is terrifying.' She said via the mind link. 'Somehow Arthan used his name as a rune. Even those who fall under the effects of this copy would be loyal to the descendants of the Mad King, not to Meron.'
'And that's not all.' Lith pondered. 'Judging by the King's disgusted expression and the fact that he's using fake magic, the Royals didn't bother converting it into a true spell.'
Meron's visage was indeed twisted into a grimace, but Lith failed to grasp the real reason for the King's behavior until several cows were brought into the Throne Room.
"Are you telling me that-"
"This is Forbidden Magic, Lith." Faluel said. "The array allows Arthan's descendants to control their minions no matter the distance and requires no enchanted item as a medium to keep them enslaved. Of course it has a heavy price.
"The cattle's life force will give us enough time to test the effects on the Unwavering Loyalty array on your Abomination side, but it won't be powerful enough to have long lasting effect on you or the King."
Meron took out a ceremonial dagger and used it to cut the jugular vein of the cows. The beasts struggled, but their strength was nothing compared to that of a violet cored Awakened.
The moment the wound was open, the golden light of the array plunged into the flesh of the cows, making them glow from the inside. The Forbidden Magic drained every drop of blood and every ounce of life.
In a few seconds, it turned the healthy animals weighing several hundred kilos into skeletal creatures comprised of dried up skin and brittle bones. The cows would have already collapsed under their own weight if not for the light that kept them standing and alive until it was done sucking them dry.
After he was done with the cows, Meron cut his own palm, adding his own blood to the circle. The golden light invaded him as well, but he managed to cut off the connection the moment he formulated the final runes of the spell.
'By my Mom, the life force of the King is diminished! I don't know if it's because he's not Arthan's descendant or due to the nature of the spell, but I can tell you that casting the Unwavering Loyalty arrays shaved off at least 10 years of his life.' Solus said.
Sylpha ran to Meron's side the moment he was done, helping him to stand up as she healed his wound. The King looked deadly tired, like he hadn't slept nor eaten in days. Some of his hair had turned white and some fell, his hairline receding.
"Why did you do that?" Sylpha asked. "We could have had a criminal cast the spell or any other mage of the Queen's Corps. You're the King, for Tyris' sake."
"It's because I'm the King that I did that." Meron replied amid pants. "How can I entrust the future of my Kingdom to a criminal? How can I ask one of my loyal servants to pay the price for my choices?
"How could I ask our Magus to gamble with his life while I remain in the safety of Valeron? I'm the King. I'd lay my life for my people. A few years are a small price to pay."
