Pelion managed to block Lith's last lunge with the hook shaped hilt of his weapon, shattering the rapier with a quick flick of his wrist.

"I'd run if I were you.

" He said with a grin. The creature was now unarmed and Ailia was done with the explosion. Together, they were unbeatable.

"Because I've lost a toy?

" The demonic beast sneered. The rapier was just one of Lith's failed prototypes in the attempt of replicating the Gatekeeper's properties.

Having sparred a lot with Phloria and Friya in the past, it was one of the weapons Lith knew best. Also, due to its light weight, it required a minimum amount of ingredients.

He would have preferred to avoid using the Gatekeeper while he was in his hybrid form. It was Lith Verhen's signature weapon, but he couldn't afford to hold back now that they were three against one. Besides, he had come prepared.

"Come forth, my soul. Feel my wrath!

"

A set of giant membranous wings popped from his back as the space in front of his hand was torn apart by emerald flames. An eerie light painted the night green, sending shivers down the spine of both the men of the night watch and the Awakened ones.

A small sphere of stone emerged from the fissure and it grew into a huge black sword.

"I'm not going to fight a Wyrmling who possesses an omni pocket just to avenge an idiot like Kieran. I'm out of here.

" Ailia grabbed Pelion and Deraniel from the collar of their shirts and Warped away.

The several spells Lith had just conjured hit only air, so he dispelled them before the ruckus could draw too much attention. After checking with his mystical senses that he really was alone, he followed suit and opened a series of Warp Steps leading to random destinations before returning to his room in Krame's mansion.

Both Lith and Solus were racking their brains trying to decipher the Awakened woman's words.

'What's a Wyrmling? What's an omni pocket? And how did you do that thing with the emerald flames again?' Lith thought.

'Me? What about your wings? Since when can you do that?' Solus had no idea what he was talking about.

'I was just flexing my shoulders for the evil overlord pose while you coated the Gatekeeper to make it unrecognizable. Maybe my second life force is growing over time. Why every single time we go out for answers, we only get more questions?'

Lith had no way to know that the reason why Ailia had preferred retreating was their pocket dimension, which was referred to by other creatures as an omni pocket.

Unlike common dimensional items, once a mage had imprinted an omni pocket, they could access it without actually carrying it with them. It made them unpredictable and usually only ancient, powerful beings like Tezka had one.

Ailia had recognized it because, due to Orion's ring shielding Solus's existence, Lith was apparently carrying no magical items while in his hybrid form. She had no idea that Solus's long slumber had destroyed all the treasures it contained.

Ailia didn't felt like fighting an unknown enemy in possession of such a treasure while Deraniel was still shocked out of his mind.

Lith experimented a few times by taking several objects of different sizes out of his pocket dimension, yet nothing happened. Lith sighed as something pulled at his shoulder, almost making him stumble.

One of his wings had struck the wardrobe without him noticing. It took him several tries to fold them above his shoulders and even more to make them disappear inside his shoulder blades before going back to his human form.

'Damn. I'm sure I can take down a couple of Awakened of that level with Friya's help but three?' Lith set aside all the questions he had to ponder about his predicament.

'Three is another matter entirely. To make matters worse, there could be actually five of them.' Solus pointed out, making Lith groan.

'You're right. The **ing Church of the Six! Six entitled idiots playing god with humans.'

'More likely they are just helping behind the scene. Taking care of a religion requires time and effort, whereas Zantia's problems only started after the winter lockdown.'

'I think you may be right.' Lith thought.

'I still have no idea what their endgame is, but here is what I think it might be happening. For some reason, they have a beef with me. They know I'm a Ranger, so they use the church to call me here.

'Maybe the snowstorm is just a coincidence, or maybe they predicted its arrival before having me summoned here. With no Warp Gate, no one can help me. In theory, I'm on my own.

The silver lining is that if they took so many precautions, it means that they can't afford being detected. That's one toy I can mess with.'

Lith took his army amulet and called his handler, telling her all about the ambush and the two mysterious individuals who he reported as capable of using an odd kind of magic like Nalear the Kinslayer did.

When her army amulet had woken her up in the middle of the night, Kamila didn't care about how she was dressed. Lith's rune could only mean an emergency. She wrapped a bedsheet around her nightgown as fast as she could and answered the call.

"Gods! I've checked the weather mages forecast. The storm will last at least for a week. I'll make sure they send you a Spellbreaker as soon as possible. In the meantime-

" Kamila clenched her teeth.

For the first time since she had joined the army, she hated her job for what she was forced to say.

"Continue the mission. The High Command agrees with us. Your duty is to uncover if there is any correlation between the Church and this fake illness. You are hereby authorized to act as the ruler of Zantia until the crisis is resolved.

"As for those assassins, can you provide me a description?

"

"I can do much better.

" Lith had to repress both a sneer and a snort while he projected the holograms of the two Awakened.

The assassin was dead, but the man from the Blood Desert was about to enter a world of trouble. Hence the sneer.

The snort was due to his inability to show the holograms of the other two Awakened he had met earlier. They had faced a hybrid, not Ranger Verhen. By exposing them he would expose himself too.

This way, if the assassin had a vengeful master, they would have a hard time tracking the culprit.

"Excellent. I'm forwarding our conversation right now. Over and out.

"

She called him back on his civilian amulet, begging him to ignore the orders and stay safe. It took him a while to calm her down, yet after the call ended, Kamila didn't manage to fall asleep until dawn came.

***

In the following hours, Lith's report moved through the official and unofficial chain of command. There was more than one middle ranked official handsomely paid to report keywords like

"Nalear

" and

"incredible magic

".

Once put together, it took barely an hour to reach all the right and wrong ears. The Royals didn't like having Awakened messing with their territory, and neither did Tyris.

Deraniel was an outsider, so he didn't fall under the free will umbrella she granted to the citizens of the Griffon Kingdom.

"Are you insane?

" Deraniel's master, Tasaar Quinus, was mad with rage.