"You, instead, are completely alive and with a cracked life force at that. I’m not letting you take any risk." The Shadow Dragon embraced the smaller Tiamat, giving him an odd feeling.
Not only because with his barely 20 ters (66 feet) of height Lith felt like a child compared to Xenagrosh, but also because the contact between their scales allowed them to express their respective feelings in a way Lith had never experienced before.
While Phoenixes communicated mostly through their blood and by sharing their emotions on a telepathic level, Dragons were more physical.
The contact allowed them to feel each other’s burden, to realize how tired they were from working non-stop for months, and how worried they were for their respective families.
The hug lasted barely a few seconds, yet its effect was akin to a long and honest conversation.
"I’ll teach you the basics and then we’ll go et our sister, Sinmara. I don’t care how much you learn or you don’t, once I say stop, you stop. Okay?" Xenagrosh pushed Lith gently away to look him in the eyes and make sure that he understood how serious she was..
"Relax. I have practiced Origin Flas a lot on my own and I’m still here." Lith shrugged. "Also, did you say Sinmara? I thought she was a Phoenix. How can she be our sister?"
"No, you didn’t, smartass." Xenagrosh snorted a big puff of smoke from her nostrils. "You just breathed fire, that’s different. Every Wyvern, Dragon, and Phoenix can do that. As for your question, I admit that she’s just my half-sister.
"She and her twin were born from Dad and Salaark, like you. Yet neither of them managed to rge the two bloodlines. They ended up becoming respectively a Phoenix and a Dragon, but they are still full siblings to you."
"Why is it so important that I et her?"
"Sinmara is Salaark’s right-hand and one of the few Awakened who managed to reach the white core. If she likes you, she can not only help you with any issue that might arise with the Overlord, buts she might also impart you the secret of the white core." Xenagrosh said.
Lith whistled in surprise, considering himself lucky for once.
’So far, I’ve t three white cored Awakened and Baba Yaga being the sanest among them speaks volus about what eternal life does to people’s minds. Sinmara is a Phoenix and one of my siblings at that.
’I doubt she will give freebies on our first eting, but if I manage to establish a good relationship with her, I might finally get rid of my cracked life force and solve my reincarnation problem at the sa ti.’ He thought.
"Okay, I’ll try to behave, then. What’s the difference between the Origin Flas that I regularly use and those you spoke of earlier?" Lith asked.
"It’s easier to show than to tell." The Shadow Dragon replied. "It took and Kigan months of relentless training to reach our current understanding of the Origin Flas. If not for comparing our notes and our ability as Eldritchs to quickly recover from any wound, I would have needed years to learn how to purify tals."
"Who’s Kigan?" Lith asked.
"An Eldritch Phoenix. You saw him back when we beat Night’s ass into oblivion. He’s like a brother to and a half-brother to you. Don’t ntion him to Salaark unless you want to get in trouble."
Xenagrosh took a huge lump of tal out of her pocket dinsion and placed it between them.
"This is what you do when you breathe Origin Flas during a battle." She hurled a stream of fire that made the tal lt and then boil until nothing remained.
The Origin Flas didn’t discriminate, eating at everything they t and turning the sand into glass. The Flas even consud the world energy in their surroundings until they vanished.
"This is what you need to do to purify tals or to exploit them in battle in ways that your enemy can’t even imagine." Xenagrosh took a lump of Orichalcum out and breathed another stream of Flas.
Lith had Solus cover his pupils in what he considered the Contact Lenses of nadion form. The two of them had the sa energy signature and the Tiamat’s massive body made her almost invisible.
This ti, the Origin Flas struck at the tal, leaving its surface, the sand, and the surrounding world energy unscathed. Lith could see them moving in and out of the Orichalcum as if they were a living being.
The Flas destroyed all the impurities in the tal, reducing it to half of its original size before bursting out of it and disappearing.
Lith had already seen sothing similar back when he had fought Jakra the Erald Dragon in Lightkeep. This ti, however, the phenonon had happened slowly enough for he and Solus to study it carefully from different angles as it progressed.
’The good news is that Xenagrosh really is a master of Origin Flas. The flow of world energy is better than what we ever achieved with Orichalcum and she managed to not lose a single piece of Adamant in the process.
’After her treatnt, the Adamant has evenly spread throughout the silver, improving both the Orichalcum’s magical and physical properties.’ Solus said.
’What’s the bad news?’ Lith could feel her next words lingering in the air.
’That Xenagrosh is great compared to us but she sucks compared to Jakra.’ Solus said. ’Back when we fought him, the Erald Dragon used just enough energy to counter our spells and dismantle our arrays.
’Xenagrosh, instead, wasted a lot of energy to achieve the sa result.’
’Well, it’s not surprising considering that, according to the Kingdom’s records, Jakra has been trapped inside the Golden Griffon for centuries whereas Xenagrosh just told us that she has months of practice.’ Lith replied.
’On top of that, she had to be careful not to damage her life force whereas Jakra was immortal. He could afford to test the craziest experint and to push his body to its utmost limit since the lost academy would fix any damage.’
"What do you think of your big sister’s skill?" Xenagrosh’s voice was filled with pride.
She had recovered her Origin Flas for just a few years, yet she was already capable of purifying Orichalcum, the weakest and the trickiest among the enchanted tals.
"I think that you are great. I’ve been practicing for months and I’m nowhere near your level." Lith sighed in envy. "It pains to admit that I haven’t inherited the Dragon Eyes, so you have to explain to what you did unless you just wanted to show off."
"Don’t worry, little brother." The Shadow Dragon patted the Tiamat’s head. "Dragon Eyes aren’t omniscient. I have them and yet I struggled as much as you do."
"What? Why?"
"Dragon Eyes allow us to understand the nature of things, but solely of those we already understand the underlying principles. To give you an example, I can reproduce any of your gravity magic spells because I know gravity magic." Xenagrosh said.
’I wish I had a single damn gravity spell!’ Lith inwardly griped.
"Back when I started practicing Origin Flas, instead, Dragon Eyes were pointless because I had no idea what I was looking at. Zero tis any number is always zero."
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