The forest surrounding the Lightning Griffon academy, the night before.

Since Linjos didn"t need its help for the second exam, Scarlett the Scorpicore, Lord of the forest surrounding the White Griffon academy, had spent the last months performing its annual round of the Distar Marquisate.

The Scorpicore would look for magical beasts old and wise enough to be potential candidates for becoming Awakened ones, hence turning them into Monsters. Scarlett had no obligation to do such thing, it simply felt it was the right thing to do to keep the balance.

Magical beasts had a mortality rate incomparable with humans. Dying of old age for them was more a myth than a possibility. Humans kept growing in numbers and power instead.

Without new Monsters to keep their greed and selfishness in check, there was no telling how bad things could become. Meeting Protector while performing a background check on the mysterious human-Abomination hybrid cub had been the icing on the cake.

Not only was Lith trustworthy according to the many magical beasts he had interacted with, but Scarlett had also managed to help Protector to evolve, securing the County of l.u.s.tria for at least a few centuries.

- "If only the rest of my traveling went that good." Scarlett inwardly sighed.

"This year has started badly and if it keeps going like this, my fur will turn grey from the constant worrying."–

During its round, it had met countless magical beasts and most of them were harbingers of bad news. Or better yet, the same piece of bad news repeated over and over. After consulting with Tarbas the Naga, Lord of the forest surrounding the Lightning Griffon academy, they had resolved to summon the Council.

The Lords took out a communication device from their respective dimensional amulets.

Unlike those Lith and the rest of mankind used in their daily activities, those communication amulets were made out of Davross (*) instead of silver, while the magical gemstone embedded on it shone of pure white light instead of the common blue.

"This is a waste of time." Tarbas said. The Naga was a monster with the lower part of her body resembling a huge snake"s tail, while the upper part could have been mistaken for a human woman if it wasn"t for her sky-blue skin and six arms instead of two.

She wore an enchanted breastplate covering her torso and six different enchanted weapons were ready at hand, two on its back, four where the hips were supposed to be.

"Those old farts will never listen to us." Tarbas shook her head in resignation, letting her long, silky black hair dance under the moonlight.

"If I wanted to hear your whining, I would have just called." Scarlett snorted.

"The only reason I"m here is that without two communicators it"s impossible to summon the Council. Now shut up and let me do the talking. If we have any chance of persuading those blockheads, we need to be calm and confident.

So keep your mood swings in check."

Tarbas clicked her tongue, but she couldn"t raise any objection. Being a cold-hot blooded hybrid, she was indeed moody.

There wasn"t any magic formula or circle involved, as soon as the two mystical amulets touched, five figures materialized mid air.

Each of them was the spokesperson of their own kind of Awakened ones. Humans, magical beasts, undead, plants, and Guardians. The a.s.sembly didn"t have an official name, each race would refer to it differently.

Humans called it "The Guiding Hand", the undead "The Darkwatch", the plants "The Root", the beasts "The Council" and the Guardians "Another d.a.m.n Ch.o.r.e."

None of the five seemed happy to be forced to answer the call, except for Leegaain.

"Looking good, Scar. You are that close to promoting your core to the violet level. Have you considered the idea of becoming a Guardian? Sure, you"d have to relinquish your turf forever, but the job comes with many perks."

Scarlett took a deep breath to calm its anger. It hated the nickname. Both its skin and fur were flawless. Also it hadn"t missed how the Guardian"s untimely remark had made the eyes of the other members of the Council burn with envy.

The other races couldn"t forgive magical beasts for being the only ones capable of becoming a Guardian.

- "Thanks for making my job harder, you scaly idiot!" It angrily thought.

"You"re welcome." Leegaain cheerfully replied, almost making the Scorpicore gasp in surprise.

"You are always such an optimist. It"s not like you have any chance to start with."–

Scarlett cut off the mind link before giving her speech.

"Fellow Awakened, I call upon you in this time of crisis to ask for your help. Someone is ravaging the lands, consuming huge amounts of world energy and kidnapping countless creatures on the verge of Awakening.

Humans, plants, beasts, undead. Whoever it is, they do not discriminate. We are all a target. We must find the root of the problem and weed it out."

"Why should we care?" Inxialot, the king of the liches, snorted through the exposed nasal septum of his skull. He wasn"t actually a king, it was a t.i.tle that had been imposed on him after getting the short end of the stick during the last raffle.

It would last for three centuries, forcing him to attend those boring meetings and neglect his precious research, while the others were free to mind their own business.

"We have meddled countless times in the past, nothing ever changes. Kill a tyrant, another takes their place. Give them food, they stop working. Force them to obey the law, they revolt calling you a tyrant.

"As long as living beings have dreams and ambitions, this world will suck. Yet it"s because of those things that the world thrives. Leegaain has already informed us of this Demon Lord, Abomination King, Master of Disaster or whatever childish t.i.tle they will self-appoint to themselves.

"Bottom line, we don"t care. Been there, done that. They will throw their tantrum, make an enemy of the world, and then they will fail. No one, no matter how powerful, not even us, can go against a whole world full of billions of individuals.

The moment they cause too much damage, all the races will join forces and wipe them away." All the members of the Council nodded at his words.

"I know that." Scarlett struggled to keep its cool in front of so much blind indifference.

"Countless lives will be lost before that happens though. Hundreds already have. Does none of you care for their descendants?"

"Humans only care about themselves. Protecting them is pointless. Many will die, but more will be born replacing them, maybe even learning from their ancestors" mistakes." Raagu, the human representative shook her head.

"Death isn"t a bad thing. They will return to the Great Mother and feed the next generations." Lotho the Treant crossed his arms nodding to Raagu.

"I think…" Leegaain said.

"The session is over. The motion is unanimously approved." Feela, the beasts" representative, cut him short. With a clap of her hands, four out of five figures Warped Away.

"Told you so." Leegaain patted Scarlett"s head.

"If you need help, give me a call. I"ll send Tyris, since I can"t operate in the Griffon Kingdom. Ta-ta!" He said before disappearing.

Scarlett lowered its head, accepting the failure.

Tarbas placed one of her hands on the Scorpicore"s shoulder to console it.

"It"s not your fault. We all grow more detached and insensible over time. Non Awakened have such a short lifespan that getting attached to them only brings us pain. It"s no coincidence that all the races have the same saying: "the G.o.ds have abandoned us"."

Scarlett knew the truth behind those five words. Before the advent of fake magic, Awakened ones appeared like G.o.ds to their own kin. Over time they would either start to believe they were real G.o.ds and needed to be put down, or would experience so much pain, betrayal, and isolation to seclude themselves from the rest of the world.

"Who needs G.o.ds that sit on their hands doing nothing?" Scarlett roared, its eyes burning with fury.

"I don"t need a bunch of indifferent G.o.ds, I need allies. Luckily, I know where to look for them."

***

Later, during the Necromancy cla.s.s, Lith knew that something was wrong. Phloria had suddenly become incapable of looking him in the eyes without turning beet red, even choosing to sit as far away as possible from him.

- "I really hope that mom was joking when she talked about having dad preparing a betrothal gift for Lith. It would be the second most embarra.s.sing moment of my life. Today would still get the first place."– Phloria thought.

After Professor Zeneff entered the cla.s.sroom, she clapped her hand, Warping several rows of rat skeletons along the walls.

"As I told you last time, during our lessons I"ll teach you how to animate lesser undead. By definition, lesser undead are all those reanimated creatures that do not have a mind of their own.

"Creating greater undead is either a crime, since it involves sacrificing someone"s life, or ethically controversial. It"s the closest thing to slavery, because the undead will have feelings and thoughts of its own but will be completely at the necromancer"s mercy.

"That"s why advanced Necromancy is a well kept secret. In case some of you gets too curious, be aware that researching advanced Necromancy or creating what basically are sentient slaves without the Crown"s approval is a major crime.

"Now let"s get back to our lesson. Among the lesser undead there are skeletons, zombies, crypt crawlers, and many others. Skeletons are the weakest and easiest to reanimate, yet we will start with something small. Each of you has to pick at least one rat skeleton.

"You"ll soon discover that this exercise has two major hurdles. The first is to mark your creature before it becomes fully formed, otherwise it will eat your face. The second and most difficult one is controlling it with your will.

"Hopefully, by the end of the day ,you"ll be able to make them move in the direction of your choice."

Another clap of her hands and a hardcover book with only two pages materialized on the students" desks. One was the Reanimating Skeletons spell, while the other was the Life Mark spell.

"Unlike other courses, I can"t allow you to practice without supervision, it"s too risky. Luckily my subject is simple, so our lessons should be plenty enough. I"ll provide you new pages during the following lessons, they will self attach until the book will be complete.

Practice Life Mark first. Failing to animate the dead is not a big deal, giving undeath to a raving mad one is though."

While all his cla.s.s looked at the skeleton with disgust, Lith read the spells a few times until he was sure of having memorized them.

- "She is right, these spells really are simple compared to the others I studied so far. Probably because fake Necromancy is the closest thing I ever encountered to its true magic counterpart. It requires will and imagination."–

Lith reanimated the rat on the first attempt, the problem was that the creature just stared dumbly at him. Lith furrowed his brow, squinting his eyes while concentrating until they were almost closed, but nothing happened.

"Excellent job! Ten points for mister Lith." Zeneff said.

"You are doing it wrong though. You can"t control an undead with your mind, because it does not have one of its own. You must feel the mana residing in the carca.s.s and manipulate it."

Cursing at his own stupidity, Lith did as instructed. Thanks to months of healing and dimensional magic, his mana sensibility had improved by leaps and bounds, but he was still lagging behind the others.

They had needed a few attempts to succeed, but now their rats moved without limping or staggering, unlike his own.

- "I still suck at mana sensitivity, but my mana control is in a league of its own. Let me try a new trick."–

Lith emitted an almost invisible tendril of darkness, directly connecting him and the skeleton. He wasn"t using true magic. It could be barely cla.s.sified as a trick using first magic. The moment the trick and the spell interacted, something unexpected happened.

Lith was now able to control the undead at will. The connection allowed him to bypa.s.s the sensitivity issue, like plugging a controller in a console without needing the batteries anymore.

"Fetch!" Lith ordered the rat that brought back a second skeleton that was promptly reanimated. Zeneff was surprised by the speed of Lith"s progress. According to his file, his real talent lied in his open mind as a Healer and his rich battle experience.

None of them were supposed to help him in learning Necromancy. While most of the students were still trying to make their rat move, Lith was now controlling two undead at once, making them stand on their hind legs and performing the new world"s equivalent of the minuet.

- "There is no reason to hold back anymore." Lith thought. "Either because of Phloria"s mom"s report or because those three b*astards will spill the beans on me during their trial, I"m going to have more enemies than ever.

Also, this is but a simple trick, there is no risk in sharing it with the academy. I need dozens of thousands points to afford some decent equipment."–

Along with many envious gazes, Lith received a few admiring ones. Professor Zeneff"s was among those.