Chapter 1225 - Soul Vision (Part 1) (1/2)

The lost city of Kogaluga was plagued by a dimensional rift from which darkness magic seeped endlessly for no apparent reason. Any living being who died within the city would immediately turn into an undead.

Those reanimated by the rift would all start as lesser undead, like skeletons and ghouls, but they would get stronger over time. The sons of Kogaluga would evolve into greater undead if not destroyed, yet even that would only force them to restart from scratch.

Suddenly, the images from the propaganda video that Phloria and Tista had seen at the theatre made sense. Kolga was Kogaluga's twin city and provided it with the power needed to build a stronghold on Garlen where the merfolk hybrids would live once they conquered the sea.

While Solus put together the final pieces of the puzzle, the two healers finished their job. They deactivated the arrays, bringing the healthy child to its mother, who wept with joy, and their condolences to the other woman, who wept with anguish.

Images from what Solus had just spectated made her feel sick to the core. Her stone body burned with rage, grief, and shame. Shame that came at the idea of using Forbidden Magic to treat Lith's condition.

Solus had studied both the Odi and Arthan's workings enough to know that no matter the method they would choose, their victims wouldn't die a painless death. She had just witnessed the consequences of her projects, of her theories put into practice.

Her stone body twisted in self-loathing and disgust as the pain for her condition got worse by the second.

'Is this how people from Project Manhattan felt after witnessing Hiroshima?' Solus thought. 'Or is this just the effect of the sun's life force flowing into me without Lith's protection? I need him. I don't want to stay alone a second longer.'

Yet tears blurred her eyes and her knees were so weak that she didn't manage to stand up even by leaning against the wall.

'What the f.u.c.k?' She thought, sniffling as slimy snot dripped on her arm.

”What the f.u.c.k?” A male mage said after stumbling into Solus.

On the floor in front of him, there was a petite, pretty woman in her early twenties, about 1.54 meters (5'1”) tall. She wore nothing but a stone pin in her long hair that was streaked silver, orange, black, red, blue, and yellow all over.

Under the colored streaks lay a brow so light that her hair shone like gold under the magical lights of the hospital.

The member of any other race in any other city would have been enthralled by the vision, but the merfolk hybrid had no time to spare appreciating her beauty. The only thing he could think about was how the heck had a female human infiltrated Kolga.

***

Blood Desert Fringe.

Kimo, the elder of the Dewan tribe had hoped until the last second that Nalrond would see the light and become a full member of the tribe. Nalrond would gain a new home, a wife, and in time he would be the forefather of the new Rezar tribe.

In exchange, the Dewans would learn all the secrets of Light Mastery, becoming the new Lightkeepers. It would grant them the power they needed to leave the Fringe and build a country of their own.

Kimo and his people had long given up on merging their life forces but after almost being kicked out of the Fringe, they had realized the limits of their haven. The peace that a Fringe offered was a sweet poison, but a poison nonetheless.

With no enemies nor predators, the population grew endlessly while the space inside a Fringe was finite. Its abundant world energy was useless without the enchanted metals and mana crystals necessary to exploit its full potential.