2257 Secrets (Part 1)

Phloria released a dozen of tier five Spirit Spells at the same time, keeping a Spirit Warp at the ready for the moment she grasped the dimensional coordinates of the farthest place she would see.

The Golden Griffon was sturdy but not enough to hold against a bright blue core pouring every bit of her mana against a small section of a single stone block. A small hole opened in the wall, big enough to see outside.

Big enough to see just another grey wall.

"Brilliant move, but predictable." Thrud clapped her hands again. "There's another room around this one. And then another. And one more after that."

Phloria's knees buckled in exhaustion and desperation, but it lasted only for one moment. With her next breath, she was already standing and her mana core recovering.

"My Queen." Hystar appeared right beside her, his mangled figure had yet to heal from the injuries left by his fight with Solus. "The time has come."

"Excellent. General Ernas!" Thrud said and Phloria found herself standing on attention.

"At your orders, my Queen." Her body moved against her will and gave Thrud the salute. Her mind registered her rebellious thoughts just to ignore them.

"You know what to do."

"Yes, my Liege." Phloria kneeled to the Mad Queen while putting into practice the technique for the violet core that she had been forced to learn during her captivity.

Her body was surrounded by deep violet light as instinct and willpower triggered her final act of free will.

Phloria's hand reached for her golden lily pendant in search of the solace of its familiar weight, yet it found nothing. It was only then that Phloria allowed herself to cry.

***

Griffon Kingdom, city of Valeron, Throne room, a few hours later.

"It's over." Orion fell to his knees as his determination turned into desperation. "My daughter has now become a slave to the Mad Queen."

The Davross of the Royal Fortress armor emitted a silvery sound as it clanged against the gold-veined white marble of the floor.

Jirni walked to his side and placed her hand on his shoulder. Her face was the usual calm expression, yet when she opened her mouth to say something to console her husband, nothing came out.

Every lie she could think of, every good word and plan she devised were crushed by the feeling of helplessness that was ravaging her mind and heart. Jirni knew that fear couldn't do her any good, but the idea of not seeing her daughter ever again filled her with dread anyway.

"Not yet." Lith's face was a stone mask of determination. "Even though Phloria has most certainly fallen prey to the Unwavering Loyalty array, there's still time."

"What do you mean?" King Meron asked, puzzled by those words.

Orion looked at Lith with a mix of hope and fear. Hope that Lith could really pull another of his miracles and fear that, whatever his plan was, it would be another failure.

"I spent these last few hours thinking what I'd do in Thrud shoes." Lith replied. "First, I'd force Phloria to gain the violet core. Then, I'd let her get accustomed to her new condition and teach her about my techniques.

"Yet only after learning from her everything she knows and testing how her Blade Spell works would I send her back to the battlefield. To be turned into the perfect weapon, Phloria needs to know everything about Thrud's army and Thrud needs to know everything about Phloria.

"Even with mind links, it will take days."

"It makes sense." Sylpha nodded. "Yet if we failed to find the Golden Griffon until now, what makes you think this will be any different, Magus Verhen?"

"It's different because Phloria knows my secrets and so now does Thrud." Lith replied. "Things that I planned to use for my own benefit and the Kingdom's, but without neither sharing nor revealing them.

"There's no point in hiding them anymore. I won't share them but I'm now free to unleash them all and lure Thrud out of hiding."

"Would this really be enough to save my daughter?" It took Jirni but a spark of light to see countless paths open in front of her eyes. Her mind was already spinning at top gear, devising plans and contingency plans for contingency plans.

"I don't know." Lith shrugged, unwilling to make promises he wasn't certain he could uphold. "What I know is that I'm going to hit Thrud so hard that she is going to take personal action and bring the Golden Griffon with her.

"Yet I can't do this alone."

"Name anything you need and I'll give it to you." Orion stood up, willing to bet everything he had on the only person who had never let his family down.

"Thanks for the offer, Orion, but I meant the Royals and the Awakened Council." Lith replied.

"What do you require from us?" Meron and Raagu asked.

"I need to have absolute control over the army." Lith said.

"You want to be the General of the Army and lead the troops?" They furrowed their brows, without even bothering to hide how stupid they considered the idea.

"No. I'm no leader and that's not going to change by miracle anytime soon." He shook his head. "What I meant is that since in order to protect my secrets I can't explain how my abilities work, I need people to do what I say the moment I say it, no questions asked.

"If I say run, they must run. If I say attack, they must attack. No matter how weird the order might sound."

"It can be done." Raagu nodded first and the Queen quickly followed suit.

They both had many questions about the new batch of Lith's secrets, but they were in no rush. If he was going to show them, they were likely to understand how they worked simply by observation.

Were that to fail, best case scenario they might always learn them from Thrud's generals after the Golden Griffon was destroyed and the Mad Queen killed. Worst case scenario, Thrud won and killed them all.

At that point, learning Lith's secrets would have been utterly pointless.

***

Hessar Region, Golden Griffon academy, at the same time.

After achieving the violet core, Phloria had fainted from exhaustion. Between the injuries she had sustained and the burden that a breakthrough inflicted upon an Awakened, she needed time to recover.

Thrud had brought her into the Headmaster's office so that the Unwavering Loyalty arrays worked at full capacity while the energy from the mana geyser focused on Phloria, speeding up her recovery.

On top of that, the Mad Queen wanted to interrogate Phloria alone with Hystar.

She trusted her Generals with her life, but she was afraid that were she to learn something about Lith that would make him easy to kill, the Divine Beasts would ignore her orders and try to avenge Jormun.

'No one wants Verhen dead more than I do, but not until the time is right.' Thrud thought. 'Whatever his secrets are, if they are spilled before the war ends, he will be in danger.

'If anything happens to Verhen and I lose the war, my baby will be alone in a world of people who hate him.'