Supreme Magus novel Chapter 221

"Why did you ask for his help?" Lith yelled to Scarlett while his fury was peaking. "You knew he had never traveled outside the Trawn woods! This was too big for him, why didn’t you leave him alone?"

Scarlett’s guilt was already eating at her from the inside, she couldn’t reply to Lith because she was thinking the same things.

However, when she felt a slight tremor in the ground, she was forced to speak.

"You are right, it’s all my fault. Now please, try to calm down."

"Calm down?" Lith’s roar was accompanied by another tremor, this time strong enough for everyone to feel it.

All of his mana was seething with anger, darkness magic exuded from every inch of Lith’s body, spreading the killing intent of a mad beast desperate enough to throw away its life for a single chance to bite back its enemy.

All the Professors could feel it on their skin. The ones that were too injured from the recent fight to stand their ground, found themselves covered in cold sweat, retreating one step at the time.

Even Linjos’s body reacted instinctively, a spell ready at hand to counter the imminent death threat.

- "I read the reports speaking about his ferocity, but this is unheard of for someone so young. His mana exudes such a powerful pressure that a normal man would have already run away out of fear." -

With a wave of her paw, Scarlett Warped all the humans back to their apartments and sealed the space around the mining town to prevent the use of dimensional magic. Being the Lord of the forest was much more than a mere title.

Like an academy empowered its headmaster, a forest empowered its lord. It was similar to being a Guardian, but instead of being recognized by the planet’s will, the Lord had a very limited area of influence and much lesser powers.

Otherwise, Scarlett would have faced and destroyed Balkor’s army alone.

"You can ask me to calm down only after I have ripped off your tail and forced you to eat it!" A mass of clouds started gathering in the sky.

Scarlett knew a world tribulation was about to happen. That was the reason why she had sent all the humans away. While she had no idea what was causing the tribulation, the one responsible had to be protected.

Even if he was a young human Abomination hybrid on the verge of madness.

"Lith, please stop." Protector coughed. Hearing his voice turned Lith’s anger to pain. A pain he hadn’t experienced since Carl’s death.

"What do you think you are doing? I didn’t ask for you because I want you to turn into the new Balkor. Revenge solves nothing. Did you ever pay attention when I spoke to you?" Protector attempted to laugh, but it soon turned into a dry cough that made him spit black blood.

"I just wanted to say goodbye and ask you for a favor. Please, tell Selia that I’m sorry. Also, make up one of your ridiculous lies to explain to her how I died. Tell her that I would have never abandoned her like this." A few tears streamed from the Skoll’s eyes, before disappearing under his fur.

"Please, take care of our child. I never had one with a human, I don’t know if they end up resembling their mother or father more. Male or female, they’ll need your help."

"Why does everyone want me to take care of their offspring?" Lith’s scream caused several bolts of lightning to light the sky.

"I don’t want to! I hate children! Live and take care of them by yourself." Lith hugged Protector’s body, bawling his eyes out.

"You are the first friend I ever had. You may be a magical beast, but you have always been like a brother to me. You always treated me as an adult, annoying me with your words of wisdom and trying to make me into a better person.

Why are you leaving me? Why?"

"It’s not that I want to." Protector’s panting worsened, every breath was a struggle.

"It’s just that sometimes you can’t win. Death is a part of life."

"I’m sick and tired of life trying to snatch away what’s mine!" Lith ignored Protector, focusing only on Invigoration and the bleeding mana core.

"First, I wasn’t old enough to protect my brother. Then, I wasn’t rich and powerful enough to even give him the justice he deserved. After that, I was too weak to heal Tista, forcing me to watch her suffering for years!"

By remembering each of the people he loved, the hatred he felt towards everyone else increased without limit. His body started to reshape itself according to the burning wrath that was consuming him.

Black scales replaced Lith’s exposed skin up to his neck, leaving only his face uncovered. His fingers grew longer and were now ending in razor-sharp claws.

Lith’s eyes were now inhuman. They had no pupil, iris, or sclera, only a burning blue light remained.

"Now I’m strong enough!"

Lith used Invigoration to call upon the world energy, not using it to strengthen himself, but to surround Protector’s mana core and stop the leak. He had just realized that, unlike the kid’s core during the plague, Protector’s had yet to turn grey.

Its bright yellow color gave Lith hope and the strength to attempt a desperate gamble. After doing his best to prevent the damaged core from weakening any further, he started to shape an artificial core like Kalla had shown him a few hours before.

Instead of crafting it out of light and darkness, he used the surrounding world energy and of all of Protector’s mana that Lith was unable to contain. It was something incredibly difficult to achieve.

He couldn’t force the mana to do anything without running the risk of contaminating it with his own, making Protector’s core reject it. Lith could only slowly and gently guide it to its destination, making sure it didn’t fade away by protecting it from all external influences.

The world energy was naturally shapeless, like water, it assumed the signature of whoever managed to call forth its power. As more and more of Protector’s mana reached the fake core, it started to mutate until the two energy signatures perfectly matched.

Lith was experiencing an unbelievable amount of pain. Not only because his body was already battered and his mana core running on fumes, but also because he had to take all of the impurities the world energy contained into himself to shape the fake core, allowing only the purest and strongest mana to become part of his creation.

Lith accepted the pain with joy, it was still nothing compared to what the void had done to him in the years following his brother’s death.

The last step was the most dangerous one. Lith knew that light magic wasn’t enough to allow Protector’s core and the fake one to merge. Just like during Forgemastering, he needed something to connect the spell with the item.

Having nothing left, he used his own life force as a tool to achieve his goal. When Lith’s energy rekindled Protector’s soul spark, Lith was able to experience the Skoll’s life from the moment of his birth.

The joy of meeting his first mate and having pups together, followed by the pain of losing them to disease, hunger, or the hand of hunters. Lith could feel how happy Protector had been when he encountered Selia, how strong his desire for a new family was.