'Please, we have bonded for barely a year and you never practiced magic or spearsmanship before that moment. Vastor would defeat you in the blink of an eye. Instead of whining, take the opportunity to gain invaluable battle experience.

'We are now one in the mind and the body, which means that you can access to my techniques, my spells, and even to my muscle memory. Remember how I shift my weight, how I move, and how I alternate feints and attacks.

'Otherwise, when you fight Lith without my help, this fight would look like a crushing victory in comparison.' Night replied.

The fight went on for half a minute before Vastor grew tired of it. With no more undead to fight, his spells turned around and struck at the Horseman's back. The first Chasing Death made her just flinch, yet it was an opening big enough for the Master to take her left leg.

Then, he took her right leg, the left arm, and the right arm, leaving her head and chest for last.

"I know I can't kill you, but this doesn't mean that I can't make you suffer." Vastor performed the final lunge with his staff, shattering Night's crystal body into countless pieces.

Her power core escaped via a Spirit Magic Gate that Warped her to a safe place, where she could lick her wounded body and pride.

***

City of Prode, at the same time as Vastor's arrival.

The situation grew more desperate by the second, forcing Mirim Distar, Lord Commander of the Queen's Corpse to join the battle.

The secret corps consisted of seven fake Awakened incapable of using breathing techniques but, aside from that, they were no different from a regular Awakened. They were capable of using true magic, Spirit spells, and each one of them had been trained by Tyris herself.

With Mirim's arrival, there were now five members of the Corpse in Prode. Farg was in Vesta to support Vastor and Qwor was in Belius for Manohar. All the others had come to stop the Red Sun from taking Prode and trigger a winter famine that would kill millions.

"First of all, fuck Tyris." Mirim said.

"Fuck Tyris!" The others echoed in unison.

It was the custom greeting among the members of the Corpse when in a pinch. Over the generations, the Corpse had grown angry with the Guardian for limiting their longevity, their powers, and for making just seven of them instead of hundreds.

They actually understood Tyris's reasons and wholly agreed with her choice. They had plenty of traitors and of people who had become drunk with power among their ranks in the past.

If any of them knew the secret of the breathing technique, they would have raised an entire army of Awakened. They would have been nigh-unstoppable and have destroyed everything that the members of the Corpse sacrificed their lives for ever since the foundation of the Griffon Kingdom.

Yet all the empathy and logic on Mogar didn't help when the members of the Corpse had to face someone like Dusk. They would have given an arm and a leg to have one more trick in their arsenal or one more member in their group.

Also, most of them didn't use those words as a curse, but as a way to state the reward that the fake Awakened hoped to receive in the case that they survived the mission.

Saying "Fuck Tyris" wasn't an act of defiance so much as an order to go all-out right off the bat and fight until their last breath. The Guardian knew about it and didn't like the motto much, but she allowed it.

It gave them strength, unity, and to the lust-driven members of the Corpse even a purpose.

'According to the data the First Queen sent us, Dusk is specialized in techniques that mix world energy and life force so expect shit like Origin Flames or Life Maelstrom. Also, his host is a Lich.

'This is good news because if he doesn't have his phylactery, we can halve his strength with just a single spell. If he does have it, then we can kill the motherfucker for good.' Mirim said via a mind link, to share the information at the speed of thought.

'He usually wears an armor made of Davross, so cantrips won't work on him. Only use tier four and five Spirit Spells, everything else is a waste of mana. Remember to use Prode as your shield.

'Don't get reckless and stick to its walls. The arrays will protect us and leave us free to focus on attacking. Is everything clear?' She asked.

'Does anyone of us have a Royal Fortress armor?' Lepto asked. He was a blonde man in his thirties, with a face full of freckles.

'You wish! Royal Guards needs them more than we do. Anyone can wear them and gain the power necessary to protect strategic assets, whereas we're powerful even without them.'

Mirim handed each one of them a Featherwalker armor, Orion's latest breakthrough and improvement of Lith's Orichalcum Skinwalker armor. It was made of purified Adamant, had a power core capable of coordinating and mixing several enchantments at the same time, and the wings on their back actually allowed the user to fly.

It was the result of the collective work of hundreds of Royal Forgemasters, but Orion had led the most successful research team, earning him the title of god of forge and bringing Jirni's god count up to four.

The members of the Corpse imprinted their respective armor before wearing it, putting the rest of their clothes inside the Featherwalker armor's dimensional space.

Once they were done, they hid their face under the helmets and walked to the city's commanding officer.

"What's our status?" Mirim asked.

"We're losing badly." A weathered Major of the army said. He was barely fifty, yet his hair was dirty white and his face was full of deep wrinkles. "The undead attacked an hour before sunrise and so far, they are unstoppable.

"Some are using an odd fire than no water can douse to eat at the arrays and jam their functions while the foot soldiers are fucking monsters. Even our allied Emperor Beasts are being tossed around as if they are ragdolls."

Just like it happened for his sisters, the steed allowed the Red Sun to share his gifts with all of Baba Yaga's children in his vicinity, even though they wore no prism and weren't his Chosen.

In Dusk's case, he could grant each one of them one life force-related power at a time and change it according to the circumstances. He possessed all the powers belonging to the Guardians' bloodlines and he was a master at using them.

"We'll take care of Dusk. You just make sure that none of his undead gets past the walls or interferes with our fight. One small ripple can turn victory into defeat and vice versa." Lord Commander Distar said.

The moment the one-time code arrived, the members of the Corpse activated the Highmaster ability of their armor, becoming immune to the city arrays and boosting all of their physical attributes.

Then, they drank the Mother Earth potion that Tyris had given them for the emergencies and went to face their enemy.

The potion had the same name as Tyris's breathing technique because it also had the same properties.