“Call me only if there’s something you guys can’t figure out on your own. I’m very busy and I was supposed to be dealing with my Country instead of teaching you guys.” Salaark Warped away while waving them goodbye.
“You heard the boss. Let’s get to work.” Lith gave his Monocle to Friya, keeping the branch for himself.
He and Solus naturally had a perfect mind link so she could constantly relay to him any progress the others would make. On top of that, she had her own body, allowing her to practice as well.
“I thought this was supposed to be a vacation.” Friya whined as the white crystal in her hands remained white, no matter how much mana she poured into it.
“Welcome into my world.” Tista grumbled.
***
Jiera continent, Zagran’s turf.
“I thought this was supposed to be a vacation.” Scarlett the Sekhmet whined while lying sprawled on the ground.
After turning into a Guardian, even though her body was still that of a feline whose height at the wither reached over 30 meters (100 feet), her prized red fur had turned into scales as thick as a shield.
The Sekhmet had two sets of wings, one membranous and the other feathered that she didn’t have back when she had been a Scorpicore.
Her muzzle was a fiery slate that hid her mouth and left only her two sets of eyes visible. The once soft mane had turned into a ring of white flames, scorching the ground below her whenever Scarlett lost control of her emotions.
The only part of her body that hadn’t undergone changes was the scorpion tail that came out of her back. If one ignored the fact that now it was the size of a train, of course.
“According to my standards, this is a vacation.” The Garuda said while lifting her fellow Guardian by the scruff with just one hand despite the fact that they were about the same size.
Zagran’s real body was that of a gigantic female humanoid about 50 meters (164 feet) tall with three sets of wings on its back, and talons instead of hands and feet. Her blue feathered limbs acted as support wings, allowing her to feel and adjust the slight air current.
Aside from the plumes that came out of her scalp instead of hair, forming seven colored tresses, and from two small wings that came out from the back of her head, the Garuda’s face was no different from that of a woman.
A woman with cold blue eyes that shone with a savage light.
“You have spent too long inside Leegaain’s lair. You need to learn how to cut off Mogar’s voice from your head, how to ignore the calls of those who require your attention, and most importantly, you need to learn how a Guardian fights.
“Otherwise an ancient Eldritch if not even a couple of white cored Awakened could kill you. No matter how powerful you are, if you don’t know how to use your new body, you are barely better than a violet core.”
After humankind had spread a plague that had annihilated the non-Awakened human race on Jiera, its population had struck an all-time low. It was the perfect place for the newborn Guardian to master her abilities without going insane.
“I know that you are right, but why do I have to do all those things at the same time? Baby steps for a baby Guardian?” Scarlett deeply regretted having left Leegaain’s lair.
Sure, the Lord of Wisdom would share with her boring anecdotes until her ears bled, he would drag her in his lab, forcing the Sekhmet to work as his assistant with the excuse of teaching her Guardian tier magic, but at least she could always slam the door in Leegaain’s face whenever she was sick of him.
Leegaain was an annoying chatterbox, but at least he respected Scarlett’s privacy.
Zagran, instead, would barge into her room at any time and deck her whenever they had an argument. The Lord of Might had Scarlett fight for everything, from the right to eat to have the privilege to sleep five more minutes.
“Where’s the fun in that?” The Garuda replied with a smile.
“Remind me why I couldn’t learn all of this stuff from Salaark.” Scarlett remained still. After one beating too many, she had learned that Zagran wouldn’t hit a fallen opponent.
“Because Salaark is the Lord of War. She doesn’t fight, she conquers. Her specialty is killing while mine is battling.” The Garuda said with pride as the silver bolts of lightning from Life Maelstrom painted her blue feathers white.
“She is the to-go person when you need to learn strategy and resources management whereas I’m teaching you self-control and discipline. Without them, controlling the side effects of Guardianhood is a dramatic process.”
“Meaning?” Scarlett asked.
“It involves being driven insane by the voices, then becoming a living natural disaster as you do what you think will make them stop, and lastly getting your shit together before returning sane again.” Zagran said.
“Is that what happened to you?”
“To me and to most of the Guardians. Why do you think we have now this little support system in place now?” The Garuda shrugged.
Scarlett had spent the last few months inside Leegaain’s lair, where the Lord of Wisdom had explained to her everything about her condition and taught her how to control her powers.
At least in theory.
The biome she had lived in had only as much world energy as Leegaain allowed to and was completely cut off from Mogar, reducing the voices in her head to utter silence.
The moment the Sekhmet stepped out of it, however, both the power and the noise overwhelmed her. It was the reason why she had been sent to Jiera. Zagran had even moved to an unpopulated area to make things easier for Scarlett.
“I’d say that we are done for today. Let’s have some dinner.” The Garuda took flight, preferring to exercise rather than Warping.
“I still don’t get this.” The Sekhmet flapped her wings and the simple gesture conjured twin hurricanes that ravaged the area they had just left for a few seconds before dissipating. “Why are both you and Leegaain so stubborn about making me sleep and drink?
“I don’t need to do either of those things anymore.”
“Your control still sucks.” Zagran pointed at the devastation that Scarlett had caused on the wasteland.
“Do that in a populated area and hundreds will die. As for your question, keeping the same routine of when you were an Emperor Beast will help you to keep your sanity until you find your own way to cope with your condition as a Guardian.”
“Meaning?”
“Kid, Guardians are the closest thing to immortals. We don’t age, don’t get ill, and it takes so much to kill us that aside from another Guardian, none can match our power alone.” The Garuda said.
“Yet immortality doesn’t mean to never die. It means to see everyone else die. You are still young, but soon you’ll realize that your children, lovers, and friends are nothing but specks of dust.
“That people’s lives last barely the space it takes you to blink. At that point, most of us detach themselves from the rest of Mogar, considering anyone but Guardians and white cored like passing shadows.
“Yet even though those people might seem irrelevant to you, they are not.”
