Chapter 3761: Two Kings (Part 2) "They won’t. I can assure you of that." Leegaain nodded. "Especially if they get early access to the Spyglasses." "Excellent suggestion, Aunt Loka." Solus nodded. "Anything else?" Everyone either shrugged or shook their head. "Then let’s get this started." Lith said. *** Jiera continent, ruined city of Hervor, at the same time. As soon as Keila’s breakthrough ended and she lost consciousness, Dusk’s crystal stopped its attempt to break free from Night’s control. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚 Night and Orpal combined their efforts and Jorl’s Life Maelstrom to mend the fissures in her true body as quickly as they could. When all pieces matched again and fused with each other, the wounds the Storm Griffon had inflicted upon the Vurdalak healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. "What was that?" Jorl asked. "Nothing much. Night made a silly mistake while controlling Dusk’s powers." Orpal couldn’t afford to reveal his newfound weakness, especially to someone as resourceful as Jorl. "The important thing is that it’s over and it won’t happen again." "Do you want to continue our spar?" Seeing that Orpal had no intention of continuing that conversation, Jorl set his questions aside. Yet not before putting a pin on them for the future. "No, thanks." The Dead King replied. "I need to stabilize my condition first. I can’t risk another fit ruining months of preparations." It was a lie. With Dusk’s core dormant again, the self-repair spells of the crystals had already mended the damage and brought Orpal back to his full strength. He didn’t need time to heal, but to plan for the future. ’For now it’s over, but that will happen again.’ Night said the moment Orpal sat cross-legged on the floor and pretended to be meditating. ’The issue is the surge of world energy that courses through the girl, Kelia, when she has a breakthrough. ’I felt it through Dusk’s crystal. And the worst part is that she has just reached the cyan core.’ ’Cyan?’ Orpal was flabbergasted. ’Not the blue core.’ ’No. Apparently Dusk ran circles around me even at that.’ The bitterness in her thoughts was palpable. ’I knew he was a master at manipulating life forces, but I would have never thought he was that good.’ ’If only we had his final shard, that knowledge would be ours.’ Orpal didn’t point his finger, knowing all too well how it felt being outshone by a sibling. ’Indeed. It would also solve our current predicament.’ Night appreciated his rare moment of kindness. ’Too bad the little bitch spends all her time either at the academy or with my mother.’ ’There is no way we can get to her and survive the encounter, let alone kill Kelia.’ Orpal nodded. ’How long until her next breakthrough?’ ’Hard to tell. Six months, minimum. Why? Do you want to kill your brother before that?’ Night asked. ’I will if I can, but I won’t rush my plan just for that.’ He telepathically shook his head. ’Not when I can just enter "secluded training" until the storm is over. If nobody knows we have a recurring weakness, we have no weakness.’ ’That’s smart.’ She nodded. ’What about Jorl? He saw the cracks and is smart enough to connect the dots.’ ’He’s also smart enough to watch our back until he won’t need us anymore.’ Orpal replied. ’He’ll keep our secret and probably even look out for us. Yet that only until keeping us safe keeps him safe.’ ’Agreed.’ Night said. ’When we cross the bittersweet bridge of parting ways, we must burn it down and blast it to smithereens while Jorl is still on it.’ *** Jorl’s quarters, at the same time. ’Whatever that was, it’s a weakness I might have to cover for when our enemies attack him or exploit if our relationship sours.’ The Storm Griffon thought. ’Even if we succeed in killing his brother and establishing our territory, I doubt Orpal is going to let me walk away. ’I’m becoming more powerful by the day by understanding his bloodline abilities and using them better than he does. Every time we spar, I learn Orpal’s tells, weaknesses, and best tactics. ’It’s one of the reasons he has yet to beat me once. I’m a living repository of what makes him tick. In his shoes, after settling the score with Verhen, I would get rid of someone like me next. ’I’m too dangerous, not only as a rival, but also as a weapon that his enemies would gladly turn against him.’ Jorl sighed, his annoyed expression quickly turning upside-down into a smile. ’It doesn’t matter. I bet my tail’s feathers that Orpal plans to spread the Upyr race throughout Mogar and lord over them. Unluckily for him, that’s also my plan, and there can’t be two kings.’ *** Verhen Mansion, a few days later. "These Life Visors are amazing!" Tista said while battling Dawn’s colossal construct. "The huge downside of Life Vision’s short range is that it feels even shorter to a Divine Beast. "With my size, an enemy within 20 meters (66’) from me is an enemy I can stomp upon. People tend to stay much farther away from me." "Hence, it’s fair since they share your same problem, girl." Dawn replied by altering the construct’s density so that Tista’s tails and right arm would easily pierce through it, just to be trapped once it solidified again. "Also, less talk, more fight." The very hard-light fist of the humanoid-shaped construct shut the Hekate up, her mouth snapping close like a bear trap. "You are not good enough to allow yourself the luxury of getting distracted." A tier three Light Mastery heat ray sent Tista crashing against the ground, quickly followed by the construct landing on her ribs before she could recover from the impact. Dawn used Gravity Magic to accelerate the colossus’ descent and increase its weight so much that it would have squashed the Hekate like a bug if the Horseman hadn’t altered its density again right after the impact. "You’re dead. Again." Dawn said, her voice reverberating just above Acala’s. "I know." Tista panted. "I’ve fought a lot of Phoenixes, but none of them was as vicious or ruthless as you." "Because they wanted to teach you and were afraid of hurting you." Dawn replied. "I don’t have the latter issue." The Horseman trained Tista in both her human and Divine Beast forms. The first kind of training allowed the Hekate to hone her skills in preparation for battles that would take place in confined spaces, where her tails and wings would only get in the way. The second kind of training, instead, could play into two different ways according to Tista’s wishes. Dawn would either fight the full-sized Hekate in person to give her insight into how to fight powerful but smaller Awakened, or via a construct as big as Tista. The current training belonged to the latter. The Hekate had just fought and lost for the umpteenth time against a hard-light Divine Beast. A Garuda, to be precise. Dawn had clashed against all species of Guardians’ offspring and could replicate their battle techniques since her constructs moved according to her thoughts. To conjure something that big and with great mass, Dawn needed her steed and Baba Yaga was happy to lend it to her daughter. The Red Mother hoped that some of the past grudges could be cleared by the training, if not even lead to some degree of camaraderie.