"I’m out too." The Sleipnir shook his head. "We’ve both seen Tyris beating Ileza to a pulp and I was there when she banished Roghar from Garlen. Back then I was under her tutelage, learning how to handle my Guardian powers when it happened." "And?" Ashfor asked with curiosity. "And it wasn’t a fight. It was a massacre." Iorka shuddered at the memory. "If not for the Fringe enveloping them, each of Tyris’ fists would have shattered mountains and leveled cities. If Ileza is right, the next time I see those fists they will be aimed at us so no thanks." *** Blood Desert, at the same time. While Lith and the others collected the Yggdrasill’s fragments in Verendi without encountering any resistance, Scarlett the Sekhmet performed the final test of her apprenticeship under Salaark. Or rather, under Blood Magus Ilyum Balkor. The Overlord had paid Scarlett little attention during her stay, coming to observe her progress from time to time and giving the occasional advice. Balkor had taught the young Guardian everything he had learned from Salaark and the Sekhmet built on it. "Show me what you can do, cat." The Overlord said. She had come to supervise the final test and observe the progress of her protégé. "With pleasure." Scarlett conjured a Forgemastering circle with a wave of her paw, filling it with world energy in an instant. The entire room crackled with power, the simple gesture released so much raw mana that the concentric set of arrays could barely contain it. A bolt of silver lightning empowered the magic circle, stabilizing it, while another increased the Sekhmet’s abilities tenfold. She had a Davross battle claw float in mid-air as she weaved together dozens of pseudo cores into a power core. Scarlett spoke words of power and the corresponding runes appeared on the claw one after the other until the silver of the metal was almost eclipsed by the blue light of the runes. The infusion process was flawless. The power core encountered no resistance and needed no fixing, maintaining a perfectly spherical form until its last bit disappeared inside the Davross. "Well, what do you think?" Scarlett wiped the sweat running down her forehead while trying the battle claw on her right paw. "It’s a masterpiece, even if I have to say it myself. It holds the full power I possess while using Life Maelstrom. "Even a Guardian should be wary of it." The mere swing of the Guardian weapon put the barrier enveloping Salaark’s palace under great strain. Your next read awaits at empire Scarlett wasn’t infusing it with mana nor activating its enchantments yet the arrays became visible to the naked eye and the wind pressure almost blew Balkor off his feet. "It’s indeed a masterpiece." Salaark nodded. "For an Awakened. For a Guardian, however, this is a piece of crap." The Overlord beckoned and the battle claw flew into her delicate hand. She clenched her fist and the Davross crumpled under the pressure like paper. Scarlett was shocked, outraged, and utterly humiliated. Shocked because Salaark had used no power, just her physical strength while in a non-combat form. Outraged because the Sekhmet had given her all for that piece and utterly humiliated because she couldn’t argue with the results. "What did I do wrong?" Scarlett lowered her head in shame. "I’ve followed all of Balkor’s lessons and mastered his techniques. That battle claw is the result of my studies under him. Why did I fail?" "Only a bad artisan blames her tools, or in your case, their products." Salaark released her grip and the Davross fixed itself. "If it is of any consolation, cat, you made only one mistake." "Only one?" The Sekhmet was flabbergasted. "Yes." Salaark nodded. "But one you carried over your entire apprenticeship, leading to this lackluster performance." "If you noticed it from the start, why didn’t you correct me?" Scarlett snarled. "How could I give you space for improvement if I pointed out mistakes you failed to notice? How could I put your talent and intuition to the test if I gave you the answers to questions you weren’t even asking yourself?" Salaark said, leaving Scarlett speechless. "You are a Guardian now, cat. Once you are out of here you, the slightest lapse of judgment will bear terrible consequences and you can’t expect me to come fix your messes for you. "I’ve let you repeat the same mistake over and over to see if you realized your shortcomings. To test your ability to reflect and learn on your own. A test that you’ve failed." "If I suck so much, why did you leave me in Balkor’s hands?" The Sekhmet sighed. "He’s a good teacher but he failed to nurture me properly and now I have to start my apprenticeship from scratch." "Balkor is one of the most talented individuals I’ve ever met, cat." Salaark replied. "Just by observing me a few times, he has learned more than most of my children have done in millennia. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂 "I’ve entrusted you to him because he is more talented than you were as a Scorpicore and possesses the spark of Guardian magic. A spark he can’t develop but that you were supposed to notice." Balkor and Scarlett stood with their mouths open, having no idea what the Overlord was talking about. "Also, don’t worry." Salaark said. "Your apprenticeship with me is over. I’ll give you one final lesson and then you can move on. Both of you, watch closely." A flick of her index finger dismantled the battle claw into Davross, elemental crystals, runes, and power core. The Overlord preserved the essence of the ingredients Scarlett had consumed and dispelled the rest. "Life Maelstrom, if you please." Salaark asked and the Sekhmet handed her mentor the same amount of silver lightning she had used to Forgemaster the battle claw. The Overlord absorbed it inside her body, making it crackle with thunder. "Here’s your mistake, Scarlett the Sekhmet. You are not aligned with nature anymore. You are a force of nature!" The world energy erupted from the geyser below the palace and flooded the battle claw without the need for any circle. Soon sparks appeared around the metal as it could barely contain the world energy. "You are not a mage anymore. You are magic!" A second pillar of energy, this time comprised of pure mana, burst out of Salaark’s body, matching the world energy. Her will shaped the mana into runes that coated the Davross with a thick writing and formed a vortex of pseudo cores that swallowed the essence of the ingredients. There were no steps or phases, everything happened at the same time. The elemental crystals bonded with the metal as the runes appeared on its surface, shaping the mana circulatory system of the battle claw without any distortion. Salaark brought the nascent power core in front of her and poured the Life Maelstrom into it. Yet instead of infusing the silver lightning into the runes she shaped it into new runes that became an integral part of the power core. The silvery runes latched on those on the surface of the battle claw, forming arches of electricity. The metal was drawn to the power core as if it was a powerful magnet.