Chapter 4523: Coveted Bloodline (Part 1)
Chapter 4523: Coveted Bloodline (Part 1)
"Lith’s treatment removed the Upyr side, but your body couldn’t evolve until it recovered from the scars left by the procedure. Once Val healed them, nature ran its course." Baba Yaga said.
"Thank the gods!" After ensuring that Erkin was fine, Althika sighed in relief. "I was afraid I would have remained stuck as a Dryad for the rest of my life as penance for my stupidity."
"Don’t thank us, child." Tyris said, making everyone flinch when they heard her voice and finally noticed she had joined them. "We did nothing. Your condition was beyond us. It’s Lith and my little Val you have to thank."
"Thank you, Lith." The Titania beamed with joy. "Thank you... Val?"
The baby boy was deep asleep, clinging to Lith with all his strength.
"I’ll thank him on your behalf when he wakes up." Lith was as surprised as anyone else, but he didn’t miss that there was something off with the Guardians.
’Tyris never arrives uninvited, especially on someone else’s turf.’ He thought. ’Moreover, speeding up Althika’s recovery can’t be the reason the three Guardians of Garlen are so shocked.’
Leegaain, Salaark, and Tyris didn’t bother hiding their feelings, and they looked more surprised at the Dryad’s sudden evolution than the Verhens even though they had lived countless millennia longer.
"I’d say this was enough excitement for today, Althika. You and Erkin need rest." Lith said.
"Indeed." The Titania yawned. "I feel even more tired than before. I’m sorry for sending you away so soon after barely exchanging a few words. I hope we’ll spend more time together tomorrow."
She drifted into a peaceful slumber the moment she closed her eyes.
A snap of Lith’s fingers Warped everyone out of the room and inside the tower.
"Okay, what was that?" He asked. "You know that Val inherited his father’s affinity for life forces and that his Life Flames can heal people. He already used them on Valtak, yet you didn’t seem to care much back then. What’s so different now?"
"You’re right, Featherling-"
"Not so fast, young sparrow!" Tyris snorted, her beautiful features twisted in annoyance. "Val is my grandchild, so I’ll do the honors."
"Fine." The Overlord crossed her arms and pouted.
"As Salaark was saying, Lith, you’re right." Tyris said, reverting to her usual, lovely countenance. "The healing part was no surprise for us. We knew he could do that, and we expected Val to do it.
"What took us off guard was what he burned." She conjured a hologram of Althika’s and Erkin’s wounded life forces. "Val’s Life Flames consumed the scar tissue and the lingering energy of your Dread Flames to feed and nurture mother and son back to health, including the dormant Divine Beasts’ aspects.
"Yet what truly shocked us was the Life Flames forming a temporary bridge between Erkin’s life forces to empower them and feeding his dormant Divine Beast aspects no less than the dominant sides."
"Wait, what?" Lith’s eyes narrowed.
"You heard her, Featherling." Salaark said. "Erkin’s Dragon and Phoenix bloodlines are now easier to awaken than they were before the treatment. In other words, once Val grows in strength and skill, he might become capable of helping any hybrid to harmonize their life forces."
"That’s amazing!" Solus said.
"That’s terrifying!" Lith snorted. "What Val did with the Camellia was already absurd. If what Grandma said is right, he will have to hide this ability for the rest of his life or become the target of every Awakened bloodline on Mogar!"
"What are you talking about? What does the fake magical flower have to do with any of this?" Baba Yaga asked in confusion. "Are you telling me this isn’t the first time the little imp did something this outrageous?"
"It’s easier if we show you." Solus Warped them to the Greenhouse, where Baba Yaga gasped at the sight of the living Camellia.
When she examined the flower, she stumbled a couple of steps back and fell to the ground.
"Why?" She asked, shapeshifting into her Mother form to tower over Solus and express the full extent of her outrage. "Why didn’t you tell me sooner?"
"It’s just a flower-"
"This is not just a flower!" Baba Yaga snarled. "This is the result of the manipulation of a life force to such a deep level that I have no words to describe it. Show me how it happened."
She extended her hand, and Solus shared her memories of the events at Mogar’s Garden via a mind link.
"This is preposterous!" The Mother said. "I would need months of research and experiments to achieve something like this, and you’re telling me a toddler did it on his first try?"
"Yes." Tyris said, brimming with pride.
"Order and Chaos!" Baba Yaga conjured a chair and plopped on it, muttering, "Order and Chaos."
An awkward silence fell over the room while the Guardians played it cool and the Verhens realized how shallow their understanding of Valeron’s feat was.
***
In the following days, Althika got acquainted with the members of the Verhen family, keeping Aran and Leria for last. Unlike the triplets and the babies, they were old enough to know Trion couldn’t possibly have an offspring.
They greeted and treated the Titania politely, but accepting Meln’s son as one of their own was as difficult as it was for their parents.
To make matters worse, Lith, Solus, and Baba Yaga had to make four more travels. Lotho had spared the Redleaf Household no humiliation after teaching them a hard lesson about actions and consequences.
He shared everything he had learned about the Vurdalak bloodline with the rest of the Council and the risk that carrying one of Orpal’s children entailed. Alas, it was already too late.
By the time Lith arrived, two Dryads had already completely turned into Vurdalaks and assimilated their own child. The only thing left to do was to put them down and make sure that no trace of Orpal’s accursed blood remained.
A Titania, instead, resisted the hunger but failed to suppress the Light Soul. She became a full-blooded Vurdalak and managed to hold onto her sanity by the skin of her teeth.
Lith and Baba Yaga pooled their resources and knowledge, but there was no solution. The Titania’s original life force was gone, devoured by the Vurdalak blood. There was nothing she could return to, and destroying her Vurdalak life force would also kill her.
To make matters worse, the baby in her womb couldn’t survive without the mother.
"Just end me!" She begged amid tears and roars as Orpal’s fragment demanded that she fight Lith to the death. "If you don’t, sooner or later I’ll hurt my child. Please, kill me while I’m still myself. Let me die like a Titania instead of a monster!"
With great pain and a heavy heart, Lith made sure they died without pain.
"This could have been avoided." Lith snarled, fighting the impulse to declare war on the Bloomriver clan. "If only you called me sooner, they would still have been alive."
Arghul the Redcap bowed his head but said nothing. The Bloomriver clan had refused to believe Lotho’s warnings, thinking it was a ruse of the Council to smoke out Orpal’s children and keep plant and human Awakened bloodlines from achieving the power of a Divine Beast.