Chapter 3665: Twisted Reflection (Part 2)At a snap of her fingers, several skeletons emerged from the ground and gave chase to the terrified Fluffy. They wouldn't tire, relent, or stop before he was done with his twenty laps. "Garrik, why don't you help me?" It was barely the second lap, and the Byk was already panting. "I don't mind that we always get last place, Fluffy, but I'm worried about you. You do nothing but eat and sleep all day." After a life of imprisonment and loneliness, Garrik wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone put his best friend on a diet. Yet he had no problem letting someone else do his dirty job. "Thanks, Mister Nok." "Don't thank me and call me Nok, kid." The real Nok had taken Fluffy's place as Garrik's steed in the children's magical games. "Only if you call me Garrik. I'm not a kid!" The young Fomor-Tyrant hybrid grunted. "Sure thing, kid Garrik." Nok laughed while scoring with a powerful earth spell. "That's not funny! But since we are winning, I'll forgive you. Did you really trick your mom like that in the past?" "Many times." Nok replied. "Once I helped her look for me just to see how long it would take her to recognize me as I screamed my own name right by her side." "You're mean, Nok." Garrik said while laughing his head off. "How did it go?" "A meddlesome vampire pointed out to her that I was the only Byk in Lightkeep." Nok sighed. "Mom was so shocked by my prank and embarrassed at the idea she had failed to recognize me that she now thinks I'm the only Byk in this house, too." "But this is no Lightkeep." Garrik said. "Mom is a bit slow to adapt to changes." The Byk shrugged. Nok had stopped being a squishy furball soon after moving to Lightkeep. With no other Byks to mate with, no prey to chase, and surrounded by deadly predators, his appetite had waned. He had gone from the king of his small hill to a small fish surrounded by sharks. He had been kicked out of the food chain and relegated to the role of mascot. The Undead would pet and feed him like they would with a cute little dog, which destroyed Nok's pride. With so much free time and a burning desire to be respected, the young Byk had trained regularly without skipping a day. Nyka tutored him in magic whenever she had the time and defeated him in their spars as gently as she could. She had become stronger than Nok soon after her birth, but he was still her big brother. Nok loved her even more for her kindness and redoubled his efforts to offer his little sister a better challenge. The current Nok was a spare, muscular Byk with a bright cyan mana core who could match the strongest magical beasts of the Trawn Woods. He wouldn't reach the blue until he evolved into an Emperor Beast, but he had no clue how to Awaken. Slash and Crash had the same problem, so the three pooled their resources to search for a solution. Lith and Solus also adjusted their schedule to accommodate their new guests into their training routine. Kalla and Nyka followed them to the Garden of Mogar and helped them to master the Ears of Menadion under Ripha's supervision. "Since you'll get the Apprentice Ears in six months, you might as well learn the basics." Lith said. "Thank you, Scourge." The Wight nodded. "But why bring Nyka along?" "Because I'm his partner," Solus replied. "Nyka will work with you. She needs to learn how to take the Ears away from you once you master them." "Hey!" Kalla growled. "What, Mom?" Nyka growled back. "Do you really think you'll part from the Eyes and Ears when your six months end? Can you afford to anger an entire Dragon clan?" "You make excellent points, dear. I'll be in your care." "Also, you two can share your experience to learn faster and better." Menadion said. "The pair that at the end of the day teaches the least insights to the other does the dishes for the night." "Why is that?" Lith asked. "A little competition always spices things up." Ripha shrugged. Kalla and Nyka were beginners. They washed many plates before they returned the favor. The Wight's talent was the real deal, and Nyka's undead nature gave her a few unfair advantages. She didn't sweat, had no need to wash herself, and she could slurp her meal during practice to instantly regain her full focus. "Undead are such cheats." Solus panted after a grueling session of training that made her head throb with pain. "I've spent nearly two decades to reach the violet, and she got it in what? Seven years?" "You're telling me!" Lith put an ice pack on his head and offered Solus another. "I had to gain enlightenment for the deep violet and break through a bottleneck for each advancement. Nyka did none of that." "Undead have no bottlenecks." She smirked with pride. "The more we eat and the tastier our meal, the faster our strength grows. Our cores don't have all those silly colors. We just go from a red-black core to a full-red blood core." "And she suffers no headache because her brain is just for show." Kalla whined. "Her core and heart store everything she knows, and they both need a sip of blood to recover." "My blood, to be precise." Lith wheezed. "Well, duh!" Nyka shrugged. "You are a great mage, and the only reason I got this far so fast. No other vampire had a blue-cored Awakened feeding her from the start. The stronger you got, the stronger I got." The training with the Ears wasn't the only thing making progress. Lith's deal with Phillard bore many fruits. The Lindwurm brought Lith many Awakened, and not, who looked for someone willing to kidnap Elina on the black market. No matter what they admitted or who they pointed their fingers at, Lith always threw them in Salaark's Pits of Agony for a week. After rescuing them, he only accepted information in the form of a mind link. Making up a story with words was easy, but a mind link was much faster and gave the interrogated no time to think. On top of that, while remembering something took but a second, no one could forge words, features, clothes, and the place where the conversation had taken place in so little time. Those who Lith caught lying would spend another week in the Pits. One might think it gave those captured time to prepare their lies, but there was no time in the Pits of Agony, only pain. Pain filled every second of the day and replaced every thought, plan, and ambition. Pain was all the prisoners knew, save the breaks they needed to retain their sanity. In those moments of respite, they prayed for the torture not to resume, but no one listened. After the second week, only a few with indomitable will would try to trick Lith with false confessions. They were sent back into the Pits, and this time for more than a week. At that point, even wills of iron were beaten and bent. Lith loved interrogating his prisoners and loved even more killing them along with their associates. The only part he didn't like was paying the gardener.