2306 Out of Options (Part 2)

War and Reaver started to cry in pain, making their respective masters shiver. The twin blades didn't want to fight, but they had no choice.

"Time to go. There's nothing we can do now." Nandi opened a Chaos Steps leading as far away as possible and dragged everyone inside.

The combined strength of Lith and Solus could hold only for so long against a Tower Blade spell infused with Life Maelstrom. On top of that, Iata's squad was close to completing another Annihilation.

Lith twisted his Blade Spell so that the sudden explosion stopped Omnislash and clouded Life Vision long enough for them to escape.

Once on the other side of the Steps, they relaxed the space to make it impossible for Thrud to follow them.

"Now what?" Lith contacted the Royals, hoping that they had a plan.

"Now we wait." Sylpha replied. "With the academies gone the only thing standing in Thrud's way is the Royal artifacts. Yet she's not the type to go for a straightforward attack.

"Before committing our forces to any strategy, we must first understand her motive. So far, she has played us like a fiddle and has gained a significant advantage over us. Go home, Magus Verhen, and prepare for the fight of your life.

"Because it doesn't matter who screws up this time, our next mistake will also be our last."

***

Distar Region, Village of Lutia, Lith's home.

The Eldritches had already returned to their hideout to take care of Bytra so Lith and Solus were alone when they reached Lutia.

Thrud had showcased her victory, broadcasting videos of the fall of the academies in all the major cities of the Kingdom. Between the appearance of the colossal Golden Knight and the defeat of their Supreme Magus, the citizens were too terrified to even riot.

The atmosphere in Lith's house was no better.

His parents welcome him back and made sure that he was alright but after that, a scared silence befall the house. Even the kids didn't feel confident in their favorite uncle/brother anymore.

Yet none of them had it worse than Jirni and Orion.

Their daughter was now an infamous traitor who had joined the Mad Queen's armies, leading them to victory. She was the Dragon Knight who had fought and bested even the Supreme Magus.

"I'm so sorry, Lith." Orion said, clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles popped. "If it wasn't for that damn sword of mine, none of this would have happened. Without Reaver, Thrud would have left Phloria alone, or at least rescuing her would have been much easier."

"Stop blaming yourself, dear." Jirni said. "You made that sword to protect our Little Flower and make her the best at her job. You had no way to know that one day her job would make her turn against her family."

"Yet here we are." Orion sighed. "Be honest with me, Lith. What are the chances of rescuing Phloria. Give me the cold truth, please."

"It's going to be nigh impossible." Lith pursed his lips in frustration. "If Phloria keeps riding a Divine Beast who grants her Life Maelstrom, getting close without dying is already hard.

"Consider that even if somehow I overpower her while pulling my punches, Phloria's partner can always send her back to the Golden Griffon with one spell. On top of that, now I also have to deal with the power boost from the academy!"

"Does this mean that you are giving up on her?" Jirni asked.

"No way!" Lith swept the air with his hand.

"Then neither will we. If there is no way to rescue her, we just have to make one." Jirni said.

"How, exactly?" Lith furrowed his brows in confusion.

"For starters, you could use some powerful allies." Jirni replied.

"More powerful than the Eldritches? More powerful than me?" Lith said in disbelief. "If you have Tessa's and Fyrwal's contact rune, sure, but if they wanted my help, by now they would have visited me already."

"I was talking about Orion and I." She looked Lith straight in the eyes. "You have Awakened Friya, Quylla, and Phloria. If you Awaken us as well, we'd stand a chance against Thrud goons. We have our own Royal Fortress armor."

"But-"

"I know about the 100 years of servitude rule and I don't care about it." Orion cut Lith short. "Make me your apprentice, your dog, whatever. I can't stand sitting on the sidelines and praying anymore."

"That's not what I'm worried about!" Lith raised his hand to stop them. "Awakening isn't some problem-solving miracle. Also, I only helped Quylla and Phloria to Awaken. Faluel took care of Friya."

"What difference does it make?" Jirni asked.

"A lot! They were already powerful mages with a powerful core whereas you, Jirni, don't even qualify as a magica. I can Awaken you, sure, but it would take you years to reach the blue core and more to learn magic properly." Lith said.

"Until that moment, Awakening would make little to no difference."

"Point taken." Orion nodded, glad at the idea that his wife would be safe. "What about me? I'm a powerful mage and have a lot of experience in the field."

"Your problem is completely different, Dad." Quylla said. "You are too powerful to Awaken. If you do, you'll die."

"But, you were a dumb violet and survived!"

"Dull violet and yes, that was the key." Quylla sighed. "I had my core poisoned down to the cyan and then Lith helped me Awakening. In your case, the poisoning would be much worse. You are likely to die before the process even starts."

"It's a risk I'm willing to take." Orion's eyes showed no hesitation.

"But I'm not." Lith shook his head. "Because the odds of success aren't low, they are zero. Quylla trained her physique for years to withstand the mana flow and became the first human true mage in Mogar's history.

"If not for that, I wouldn't have helped her either. Orion, your body has zero tolerance for mana flow and the strongest natural core a person can achieve. One of these problems I could work around, but two are impossible to overcome."

"Is there really no solution?"

"You can train like Quylla did, but again, it would take months, maybe years. We have weeks at best before the war ends."  Lith replied.

"What about Balkor? He survived!" Orion refused to give up.

"Salaark helped him. If there's something impossible for a Guardian, I've yet to discover it."

"There is no hope then." Orion's voice cracked as he lowered his eyes.

"What if commit suicide?" Jirni said with a casual tone, making her family gasp in horror. "What if my soul sticks around and you turn me into one of your Demons?"

"Mom!" Quylla and Friya said in unison.

"Are you insane?" Orion turned pale as a ghost.

"In that case, your core and body would be irrelevant." Lith replied. "You would draw your strength and knowledge from me, achieving a power on par with the violet core in one breath of Invigoration."

"Sounds like a plan." Jirni narrowed her eyes, her face a stone mask.

"Mom, if you kill yourself to rescue Phloria, she would never forgive herself!" Friya said.