"I can protect your mana cores and regenerate your bodies for as long as I want. You will suffer but will not die. No matter how much you wish, beg, or prey for it."
"I'll talk!" Garvi cried amid tiers. "We-"
His voice died along with his body, just to be rejuvenated a split second later.
"Not so fast." Leegaain pressed his thumb on the Behemoth's lips to silence him. "Not so quick. You have touched my child. Before you are allowed to die, you must pay the price for your actions."
"You and everyone like you." Salaark enveloped Elina and Shargein in a barrier that protected them from her spreading flas. "Everyone who helped you, everyone you love, everyone who even heard about your plan is going to die with you."
"Salaark, Leegaain, stop!" Tyris could slow down the advance of the tidal wave of white fire but couldn't stop it. "You are going to destroy the Griffon Kingdom."
"Don't worry. We'll split our turfs equally with you to compensate you for the damage." Blinded by revenge, Leegaain cared for nothing else but ensuring his child was safe.
"That's not the problem. Think of-" Tyris looked in the eyes of her friends and saw no rcy to which she could appeal hence she had to arouse it. "Think of Shargein. Do you want to ruin his happy mories of this day by destroying the places he visited?"
The violence of the white flas abated as the fury of the other two Guardians hesitated after confirming that Shargein had enjoyed his travels with Elina.
"Think of Elina. The Griffon Kingdom is her birthplace and all her friends live here. Think of Lith. In your fury, you are going to raze to the ground everything he has built after years of hardships. Think of , dammit!
"I'm your friend and the Kingdom is all I have left of the only man I've ever loved!"
The pain in Tyris' voice resonated with that in Leegaain's and Salaark's hearts, bringing them to a halt.
"Order and chaos, what have we done?" The Father of All Dragons looked at the moonscape around him.
Only bare earth and rocks surrounded the crater where until a few seconds ago there had been a lush clearing.
"Mogar almighty, are you alright, Elina?" Salaark ran to the poor woman's side, cleaning the ss Elina had made of herself.
"I'm fine." Elina whimpered, hiding behind Shargein and recoiling from the Guardian's touch as if afraid Salaark would beat her.
Elina's face was drained of color, leaving her of a deathly pallor. Elina couldn't stop shaking, her knees so weak that she failed to stand up.
"No, you are not." Tyris approached Elina and wrapped her in a motherly embrace. "It's alright, dear. You are safe now. No one will hurt you."
Elina burst into tears as the Guardian kneeled to her side and comforted her with words and caressed her back. Elina clung to Tyris with all her strength while Shargein looked at his parents in confusion.
"We fine, Auntie. Shargein- I'm strong." The Wyrmling licked her, more shocked by Elina's tears than from the attempt on his life.
"Yes, Shargein. Thank you, Shargein." She sobbed, dragging him into the group hug.
'Shit, we went way overboard.' Leegaain said via the mind link.
'That's a nice euphemism.' Salaark sighed. 'Elina is used to see us as friends. She knows we are powerful but she never understood how much.'
'Until today.' Leegaain watched the scene, feeling guilty because it was his fault and because there was no way he could make things right. 'Even when Elina saw us in our real form, she always thought fondly of us, like huge cuddly pets.
'Now she sees us as monsters.'
'Can you bla her?' Tyris snorted. 'You have tortured people in front of her. You have turned a beautiful clearing into a barren wasteland. You have released enough power to drive a mortal insane.
'And Elina would have gone insane if not for my protection and that you shrouded Shargein with.'
'It's not that bad. We-' The thought died in Salaark's mind as Shargein started to cry with Elina. 'It's bad. It's very bad! What can we do?'
'You can only wait.' Tyris replied. 'The shock will soon knock her out. In the anti, you can fix your ss.'
Salaark and Leegaain exchanged a sad look that turned furious the mont they rembered about their still-frozen quarry.
'This is all your fault.' The Overlord snarled via a mind link with her the prisoners. 'You tried to hurt my child and now you've made him cry. If he ends up scared of , a thousand deaths are not going to be enough punishnt.'
'What she said.' Leegaain grunted. 'But first…'
Restoring the land and speeding up the growth of grass was a small feat for the power of a Guardian. Trees would still take years but with a little push, Leegaain could still turn seeds into saplings without depleting the soil.
Elina stopped crying to admire the miracle in front of her eyes. The crater was filled, the charred earth was soft again, and life had conquered death.
"It's beautiful." She said as wildflowers erged from the ground and blood around her.
She bent down to pick one up and fainted.
Exhaustion, fear, and trauma had drained her energy and after crying so much, her shaken nerves couldn't hold out any longer. Elina fell into a deep sleep that Tyris' embrace made peaceful and devoid of nightmares.
"Let's get back to the Desert." Salaark said as Shargein weaved wreaths of flowers for her, Tyris, and Elina, trying to make things better. "Be prepared for an earful, old lizard, because we deserve it."
***
"You did what?" Lith had lost his cool when he saw the Guardians appear while holding his unconscious mother.
Yet his worry had turned into a much worse outrage the mont he had learned what had happened to her.
"We screwed up big ti." Leegaain admitted. "Salaark and I combined our powers in a way that Tyris was unable to stop. We unleashed everything we had and your mother witnessed it all."
"Was it worse than what I've seen when I was attacked?" Kamila asked.
"Much worse." Salaark sighed. "Unlike you, Elina has never witnessed violence and, when we protected you, there was only one of us on the attack. The others ensured your physical and ntal protection.
"This ti, two of us attacked and the third could only limit the damage."
"Will she be alright?" Raaz held Elina's hand and she squeezed it even in her sleep. "I swear to the gods, if sothing happens to Elina, I'll follow her. I don't want to live without her."
"Dad!" Lith was horrified seeing how desperate and serious Raaz was.
"Don't worry, child." Leegaain too felt Raaz's sincerity and couldn't bear being responsible for so much suffering. "Elina is going to be fine. She'll recover from this and, with a bit of luck, she might even forgive us."
"I'm sorry, Hatchling. I really am." Salaark gave the Verhens a deep bow. "My son agreed to help you with the trap because he trusted . You trusted , and I let you down."
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