"The other team, instead, will act as a diversion. It's the reason I asked Ajatar to come with us. Aalejah will act as an ambassador of the Awakened Council and offer the elven leaders an olive branch." Faluel said.
"That along with the presence of two Lesser Dragons and one full Dragon as her bodyguards should keep their attention focused on us. Best case scenario, we can start the negotiations. Worst case scenario, some literal cover fire and a Spirit Steps will bring us to safety.
"Elves can't Awaken so they are unlikely to have developed countermeasures against Spirit Magic."
"I thought you wanted me to talk to Mogar first." Lith said while pondering the plan.
"Yeah, that was the idea before I decided to follow the advice of Jiera's Guardians." The Hydra replied. "But consider this. As our opening hand, you have a much greater value as a deterrent.
"Elves only respect Divine Beasts because they live as long as elves do and, thanks to their Guardian ancestor, Divine Beasts are gifted with an affinity toward the world energy on par with the elves."
"I can vouch for that." Aalejah nodded. "The mana core of a Divine Beast develops with age like our own, but they can naturally reach past the bright blue, and their physical prowess is unmatched.
"Elves have a very big ego and consider themselves superior to every other race but Divine Beasts. They could never dismiss one or underestimate the consequences of angering a whole bloodline."
"I know." Lith sighed, remembering how Surtr and Sinmara had refused to help rescue Phloria exactly because their involvement would have caused a full-scale war involving their respective lineages.
"Hence I need Lith to pose as an Elder Dragon. With his mass and violet core, few people will think that he's a runt and those who do will assume he has powerful backers who have shared their bloodline legacy with him." Faluel continued.
"While we test the waters, you guys go to the caves and perform the ritual with Solus. Morok and Nalrond are still the same as the last time so there's no reason to believe that a second ritual will go any different.
"If things go well for us, Lith will take his turn while we continue the negotiations without him. If things go south, everyone but Lith, Nalrond, Ajatar, and I will leave the Fringe so that the moment we are done we can get out quickly."
"I get that Nalrond is the only one who can bring you out while you are bigger and stronger than us, but are you sure you don't need help to hold the fort in case your position is discovered before the ritual is over?" Solus asked.
She hated to leave Lith's side, but doing otherwise would mean being forced to explain Ajatar and Morok her secret.
"Don't worry, Solus. I came here looking for peace but prepared for war." Faluel's clothes shapeshifted into the Royal Fortress armor exclusive to the Nyxdra Household.
"As I said, the older someone is, the more dangerous getting inside a Fringe. My mother couldn't come with us so she entrusted me with the next best thing." Silver bolts of lightning coursed through the armor and the glaive that appeared in her hand, Strife.
"It will prove my allegiance to Tyris and my alleged mastery over one of the major bloodline abilities like Life Maelstrom. Even my contingency plans have contingency plans, kids. The only thing I overlooked is my own stupidity." Faluel groaned as pangs spread from her abdomen through her whole body.
"How long do you think it will take you for a full recovery?" Friya asked, her voice full of worry.
"I don't know, but it will be much quicker if you bring me outside. That's for sure."
Ajatar helped the Hydra to slowly get up and made sure that her Gravity Fusion was stable despite the still-jumbled auxiliary cores before leaving her in Nalrond's care. Otherwise despite her apparent lithe frame, she would have crushed him at the first misstep.
"I'm going out as well, babe." Morok said. "They can use an Awakened bodyguard and there's something I want to try."
Before Quylla could ask him for clarifications, the Tyrant stepped out of the Fringe with an ease that irked everyone, even Nalrond, to no end.
"I needed years of training to do that. Even now, it takes me a delicate focus to withstand the backlash from Mogar's consciousness whereas it's just a joke to him." The Rezar snarled.
"Can I come with you?" Quylla and Friya asked at the same time, the former worried about her husband, and the latter about both her mentor and boyfriend.
"I'm sorry, I can carry only one person at a time and if I have to make multiple trips in and out, then we'd lose even more time to let me recover. We cannot risk being discovered while we are sitting ducks." Nalrond replied as he opened the doorway to the outside world.
He and Faluel gritted their teeth, the journey was more arduous than before due to their debilitated state. Yet at least the Hydra found instant relief upon their arrival. Even the space right outside the veil was a different world compared with the Fringe.
The world energy was nigh-inanimate with just a shred of Mogar's consciousness. Without the external pressure, Faluel's core could purge the residual traces of the mana poisoning her core with ease.
Nalrond sat close to her while they both looked at the Tyrant who seemed to be performing stretching exercises. After that, he weaved a few spells, conjuring an air shield to protect himself from the sand and another of darkness to block the Desert's sunlight.
The last thing they saw before Morok was swallowed by the blackness of the barrier was him sitting down cross-legged in a meditative stance.
"Do you think he is…" Nalrond refused to finish the sentence.
"We'll know soon enough." Faluel closed her eyes, using her breathing technique to visualize the damage to her mana flow and fix it.
First, she purged every trace of foreign mana from her system and then she guided the mana flow so as to reopen the channels that her failed attempt at stealing Mogar's knowledge had damaged.
She condensed the chaotic vortexes into spheres and then Awakened them one at a time until the mana flow was restored enough to keep repairing itself without her assistance.
'I could have fixed everything in one go, but I'd rather not pose such a burden on my mana core so soon. It would have drained my mana and kept me from using any breathing technique until I had fully recovered.
'This way, instead, my auxiliary cores and mana capacity recover together as the mana flow of my core puts them in shape.' She thought.
A few minutes later, Nalrond became bored from staring at the darkness dome and looked around. After half an hour, the spells faded, revealing the figure of the Tyrant napping.
"Damn these spells and their short duration." He said with a yawn, shielding his eyes from sunlight. "I knew that I should have learned an array or two, but who has the time?"
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