“He’s that good which is the reason you went to him first. I’m not like those no-lifers of Jiera either.
“I don’t have all the free time in the world nor do I need an assistant. I’m the Overlord of the Blood Desert, the Lord of War, a mother, and a grandmother. The moment you waste my precious time, I’ll drop you like a bad habit.
“This apprenticeship will be brief if you shut up and listen or it can be very long if the only way you have to learn is by observation. Your choice. I don’t care about your mission or about what happens on Jiera.
“Not until the Desert joins the colonization’s effort and Jiera becomes my business too.”
Scarlett emitted a low growl in annoyance but said nothing. She took a few deep breaths to calm down while pondering the Phoenix’s words. The Sekhmet could still feel the rage and frustration for giving up on her revenge burning inside of her.
She could feel a soft grudge toward Salaark as she stared at the Guardian.
“I understand, master.” Scarlett put her right hand above her heart and gave Salaark a deep bow in accordance with the Awakened tradition about establishing a master-disciple relationship. “What’s my first lesson?”
“Letting go of the past. Follow me.” The Mother of All Phoenixes put down the ink and papers, Warping them both to the Forgotten Plume tribe.
The dimensional door led them to the lab of Ilyum Balkor, the Blood Magus of the Desert, and one of Salaark’s Feathers. He was sitting cross-legged, letting the mystical elemental energies flow through him with such a vigor that he was levitating.
There was no floating spell active, it was just that his aura had become dense enough to press against the ground and lift him in the process. Balkor had six spheres, each of a different element, orbiting around him.
With each breath, he turned one element into its counterpart, switching light into darkness, air into earth, water into fire, and vice versa. Yet while the light and darkness elements flowed into each other flawlessly the others stumbled and failed often.
When the stumbling happened, most of the energy would be lost and only a portion of an element would be actually converted. When the process failed, instead, the entire sphere would implode and disappear.
“What the heck is this?” Scarlett said in amazement before noticing Salaark’s glare and adding: “Master.”
“Void Magic.” The Overlord explained. “The new branch of the mystical arts invented by the Supreme Magus of the Griffon Kingdom.”
“Who did what now? What’s a Supreme Magus?” The more she heard, the less Scarlett understood.
“Lith devised Void Magic.” Salaark smirked with pride. “The Kingdom made him the Void Magus for it and then since he also helped them against Thrud and developed stuff like the Trains and Tablets the Royals created the title of Supreme Magus for him.”
The Guardian conjured holograms of each of Lith’s inventions, making Scarlett’s jaw drop onto the floor and then start digging.
“Are you telling me that the anomaly created all this stuff, gave it to the Kingdom, and then they shared it with you?”
“I wish.” Salaark sighed. “Lith developed Void Magic while he was in the Desert so he gave me plenty of demonstrations. I learned simply by observing him and then showed those same things to Ilyum and he’s currently working on mastering it.”
“And he got this far without a word of explanation?” Scarlett had long since learned to reverse light and darkness but even after watching Balkor at work for a while, she failed to use Void Magic on the other elements.
“Yes.” Salaark nodded. “As for Trains and Tablets, he couldn’t share those either. Luckily, political espionage is a thing. Sooner or later, I’m going to make them mine. Ilyum!”
The loud voice snapped the Blood Magus out of his trance and only then did he notice the presence of intruders. His first instinct was to smite them with the arrays of his lab but the moment he recognized Salaark, his attitude went from furious to meek.
“Yes, master?” He gave Salaark a deep bow while also using Spirit Magic to fetch a towel and dab the sweat drenching him.
“This is Scarlett the Sekhmet, formerly known as Scarlett the Scorpicore.” Balkor nodded, giving no sign to recognize either Scarlett’s appearance or her name which angered her to no end.
‘I can’t believe that I spent years hating a guy who doesn’t even know who I am.’ She thought, feeling her old grudge resurfacing.
“She has recently become a Guardian and has come to me in search of guidance. Since she’s as green as grass and I’ve better things to do, you’ll take care of her in my stead.”
“What?” Balkor and Scarlett spoke in unison, yet their feelings were on the opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.
The Blood Magus felt honored but he was also humble enough to doubt that someone as young and relatively weak as him could teach anything to a mighty existence like a Guardian.
Scarlett, instead, felt insulted. Balkor was barely in his mid-forties, with a crippled life force, and he wouldn’t even be a fake Awakened if not for Salaark whereas the Sekhmet was a self-Awakened over 300 years old who had completed her path to Guardianhood.
‘It’s like asking a toddler to teach an academy professor.’ Scarlett thought, her eyes brimming with mana and outrage. ‘I would understand if Salaark delegated her duty to Silverwing or Baba Yaga.
‘They are older and wiser than me. There are countless things that I can learn from them, including the secret of the white core. What can a bloody murderer like Balkor possibly teach me?
‘Salaark demands respect, yet her first act as my mentor is humiliating me!’
“You heard me.” The Overlord nodded. “Teach her everything you know about Void Magic without hiding anything. Also, whenever you practice Creation Magic, I want you to allow her to spectate but you are not to say a single word.”
“Yes, master.” Balkor took a deep breath of Invigoration to recover his strength and then used a mix of water and darkness magic to cleanse himself.
“I thought he was one of your fake Awakened.” Scarlett was flabbergasted watching a Feather using a breathing technique. “Also, did you really teach him Creation Magic? There are only two people on Mogar capable of doing that.”
“Five.” Salaark corrected the Sekhmet. “Balkor, Lith, and Solus are far from mastering Creation Magic but they can still use it. I’m confident that, in time, they’ll make it their own.”
“How could you teach such a noble and rare art to mass murderers and yet not share it with your fellow Guardians?” Scarlett looked at the Overlord with eyes wide open, feeling like Mogar had turned upside down.
“I didn’t teach them. I showed them just like Balkor will do for you.” Salaark replied. “As for your question, I’m entrusting the first part of your education to Ilyum because you clearly don’t understand what being a Guardian means.
“We are supposed to be more than pompous gods that look at this world from above.”
