"Yet it was a small price to pay and avoid much worse damage in the future." Lith shrugged after Hushing himself and Vastor.

There was nothing he could say to his parents that would make them feel better. Quite the contrary, in their grief even the sweetest word from him would sound like a "Told you so".

"You're harsh, Lith." The Professor said.

"Life is harsh. I just make sure to keep it to a minimum but I'm no miracle worker. They should have kicked him out the moment Meln appeared on their doorstep." Lith replied.

"Being a parent it's the worst scale of grey you'll ever find." Vastor shook his head. "You always wonder how much of your children's mistakes is due to their stupidity and how much is just a ripple of your own faults."

"If you say so." Lith scoffed.

"Let's have this talk again once you get a little monster of your own. I bet you won't be so confident then." Vastor said.

"First my parents, then my friends, and now you too? Why is everyone so fixated on children?" Lith said with a sigh.

"Because these are turbulent times and you are a mage, Lith. Thrud, the undead, Deirus, whoever is sending those cards, you're going to be on the frontlines against all of them, and your life force is already crippled.

"Don't delude yourself into thinking of being immortal. Why do you think that Orion, Jirni, and even I married so soon? Because once you step on the battlefield, you don't know if you'll come back." Vastor said.

"You didn't marry early, Professor." Lith raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"It was early according to my plans. An academic like Marth can take his time but I…" Vastor couldn't tell Lith about his work as a Highmaster.

"Let's just say that I remained a bachelor for so long because those were peaceful times and that I married as soon as things changed. You're like those who lived under Balkor's shadow. There's no telling which year will be your last."

Aside from Lith and Tista, no one replied to Vastor's goodbye as he left the house, but he didn't care. The Yggdrasil staff kept him calm, but there was only so much rage it could repress.

"Can I kill them?" He asked Jirni while pointing at Zinya's parents.

"No. We need to squeeze everything we can out of them. Besides, if I let you, Zinya wouldn't be able to see past the blood on your hands." Jirni replied.

"I can live with that."

"Then you are a moron. Are these dirt piles worth your effort? Why stain your clothes with trash when the system will do it in your stead?" Jirni had the Retta sent away through the Gate in the barn.

"This one, however, you can play with." She kicked Orpal's b.u.t.t, sending him face-first in the dirt. "Don't kill him. Not now. It would make me look bad with my colleagues in the Empire and I would have to fill a lot of paperwork."

Hearing someone talking about him like an official stamp, something irrelevant but that it would be bothersome to replace, outraged Orpal.

"You have no idea who I am-" He said while throwing a punch, but Vastor intercepted his arm and twisted it at an unnatural angle.

"I don't care." Vastor shoved the staff down Orpal's throat the moment he opened his mouth, cutting Orpal short and keeping him from screaming.

Vastor healed the limb and broke it again. And again. And again, pushing the staff deeper down each time Orpal tried to escape the Professor's grip. The resistance that an Awakened body of that level offered to Vastor's Abomination strength was barely noticeable.

"I don't like you one bit." Vastor took the staff out abruptly, ripping off a chunk of meat from the throat. The injury filled Orpal's mouth with blood and muffled his screams into gurgling sounds.

"You hurt those people. My people." A swing of the staff broke both Night's hidden armor and Orpal's left kneecap, making him gurgle harder.

"The only reason I'm not going to kill you now is to not make Lady Verhen suffer more." Another swing shattered the remaining kneecap, making Orpal thank the gods for not giving him a third.

"One day, when Lith is home and has plausible deniability, I'll come for you in the Empire." A third swing broke his left arm along with the ribs, turning breathing into an agony.

Orpal activated fusion magic, ready to rip apart the two ants in front of him.

'Are you insane?' Night forcefully sealed his abilities. 'There are about a hundred magical beasts, six Royal Guards, three Phoenixes, two Emperor Beasts, and one Dragon Eye looking at us.

'And that's just those who don't bother hiding their presence. We came here alone and unprepared. I don't even know if we can take down the "old fart" let alone the others.'

"Kill… you." Orpal gurgled with a hatred that burned like a sun and left his torturers unfazed.

"Speak up, son. I can't hear you over the cliché d.i.c.k in your mouth." Vastor healed him so fast that Orpal almost fainted with exhaustion.

"You won't need to come for me. One day I'll come back and I'll kill you two first!" He said.

"Let me add "death threats to an Archon and to an Archmage" to the many charges already on your file." Jirni sounded annoyed from the workload he was giving to her, not scared.

"I'm Archon Jirni Ernas and this is my business card. Come visit anytime and you'll find me ready." She put the piece of paper in his mouth before shutting it close with a fist.

Orpal passed out cold while Night tried to understand how could a regular human punch an Awakened so hard and come out unscathed.

***

About a month later, the veil of grief had been lifted from Lutia and the Blackest Day had arrived. Lith was now able to react with Domination to all the elements of his five eyes, but only up to tier three spells.

Spirit Magic lessons, instead, had taken an interesting turn. After a slow start where he and Solus had been left to square one while the others learned to manifest two elements at once, they had managed to quickly catch up with the rest of the class.

'In the end, our artificial mana flow paid off.' Lith thought.

'It was a gamble worth trying.' Solus replied via their mind link as they practiced.

'After all, just like world energy is comprised of the six elemental energies plus the will of Mogar, the pure mana produced by our cores is comprised of the six elemental energies as well but with the addition of our life force.'

'It's the reason why Spirit Magic that uses pure mana for its spells is known as the seventh element of life.'

'Indeed.' Lith nodded. 'While normal spells require us to mix our mana with the world elemental energy to weave a spell, Spirit Magic spells only need mana, making them nigh-omnipotent but also incredibly energy expensive.

'Spirit Magic requires the mage to learn how to sense the six different elemental energies mana is comprised of, then how to isolate each one of them, and lastly how to amplify them one by one.

'Once we learn to do that, we'll be able to create spells that can use all elemental properties at once without them interfering with each other and that will be also much easier to control.'