His aim wasn’t to rule, only to help mankind to reach the next evolutionary step by granting upon a selected elite the gift of immortality and matchless power.
Fixing a centuries old system, however, was much harder than just overthrowing a ruler. The Master needed not only the resources necessary to turn regular humans into Eldritchs, but he also needed to find a way to make the transformation safe and permanent.
So far, all he had achieved were hybrids and no matter how powerful they were, until their condition stabilized, they would be a treat for themselves and for others. Vastor himself needed the Yggdrasill staff to contain his Abomination half.
He couldn’t move his operations to the next step until he was sure that the gift he wanted to share with humanity wasn’t actually a curse that would doom them as it had already happened to the fallen races.
“Slow but steady.” Slathan replied. “It seems that the rumors are correct. Dawn and Dusk are nowhere to be found. Everything is now in Night’s hands.”
“What about the Undead Courts?” Xenagrosh said.
“We are taking them down one at a time.” The Fenrir replied with a huge grin. “Thanks to our bloodline ability, Doom Tide, we can single-handedly take down one branch each.
“The few undead that survive the blast are powerless without world energy. Only Awakened could pose a threat to us, but so far we found none.”
“What about you, Kigan?” Xenagrosh asked.
“The Desert is really big so I managed to find several unattended mines of both metals and crystals.” The Eldritch Phoenix also known as the Blood Wind felt like a traitor for exploiting his knowledge against the interests of the nest.
“My spells have found no trace of surveillance devices, but with Mom’s senses, it doesn’t mean much. One breath is all that it takes her to find us the moment we use too much power.
“Either we take our time and set several arrays that would give out our presence as soon as one of the members of the nest finds the mines as well or we need to be really quick. We need Tezka.”
“You heard the man. Can you leave a couple of your tails in Lutia and get to the Desert?” Xenagrosh asked the Fylgja.
“No way.” He shook his head. “You know all too well that I’m doing more than playing baby sitter here. I’m protecting our future. If something happens to Zin and the kids, the Master will lose it and we with him.”
The bond between the Abominations that Vastor’s experiments had created was a double-edged sword. It allowed them to make their life forces resonate, boosting their bloodline abilities, and even to combine them.
At the same time, however, it also forced the Eldritchs to share their most intense feelings so that the outburst of a single one of them would quickly spread to the others.
“Besides, I’ve got some interesting news that keeps me from leaving. I-”
Suddenly, the signal was cut off and Tezka’s communication rune became unavailable. To make matters worse, due to the nature of the Fylgja’s dimensional space and the distance between them, their bond was useless unless he called upon her.
“What the heck is happening?” Xenagrosh blurted out. “I’m too far to be of any help. What about you guys?”
“We can’t drop our mission without compromising the Organization.” Slathan and Oskhat said.
“If I move too fast, the nest will spot me and you can kiss me goodbye.” Kigan replied.
“Dammit! The others and I at the base will never get there in time unless someone summons us! If something happens to Lith’s village, both he and the Master will be devastated!” The Shadow Dragon almost burned the whole room in outrage before her own words made her snap out of it.
She grabbed her communication amulet and called for help.
***
Ever since Lith had left for the Blood Desert and Tezka had stopped making the invaders disappear, life for the members of the Queen’s Corps protecting Lutia had become more hectic.
Thanks to their teamwork, to the many arrays that the Kingdom had laid to protect the Verhen household, and to the help of the magical beasts that lived in the Trawn Woods, the attackers had been neutralized before any of the villagers could notice the danger.
Yet Captain Locrias could feel that something was wrong. His instincts honed by years of battle and by all the crazy stuff that seemed to happen in Lutia on a regular basis kept him on edge.
“I’m telling you that the situation is weird.” He said to his handler, Holmen, a middle-aged man with thick black hair and beard. “With Archmage Verhen gone, there should be no attack at all.
“The worst anyone can do now is to damage his property, but that’s hardly worth spending the money to hire professionals capable of doing the job. Also, no self-respecting mercenary I know would risk their life for mere vandalism.
“Yet we’ve had two attacks during the last week. Both times the attackers were well-equipped and coordinated. Judging from the poison that coated the weapons they carried, they were after someone.
“Are you sure that none of those who received a Balkor card is here? An Ernas, maybe?” Locrias asked.
“Negative. They must be targeting Aran and Leria Verhen.” The handler replied after checking the position of the contact amulets of all the people linked to the Balkor copycat.
“I don’t think so. They attacked both times after the kids had returned to the Desert and I got the feeling that they were just testing our reaction time.” The Captain said.
“If you want me to request for backup, you better say so. The army and the Mage Association have had their hands full lately. Winter in the north lasted way longer than usual and those damn nobles hoarded the food for themselves, causing a famine.
“Grain is now more heavily guarded than gold and we need our full forces to stop the constant rioting. Hungry people don’t give a damn about due process, they only want food and revenge.
“I can send someone to help you, but it might take some time so the sooner you tell me the better.” Holmen said.
“It might be just a gut feeling, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Ask for reinforcements to be on stand-by. If I’m wrong, I’ll take full responsibility.” Locrias hung up the call and focused his full attention on the door of the barn from which the Verhen kids would come out at any moment.
‘Dammit, they are as regular as clockwork which makes them easy to predict. If my gut feeling and Holmen are right, then the children might be the marks of the assassins.’ Locrias thought while watching them come out of the Warp Gate on top of their magical beasts.
Filia and Frey ran towards them until the kids met halfway between the Verhen and the Yehval household. Men and magical beasts remained on edge for a while, but nothing happened for several minutes so they started to relax.
‘Wait a second!’ Locrias jumped up from his hiding spot to make sure that the sudden paranoid thought burning through his mind was just a side effect of living next to Lith for too long.
