Chapter 3976: Jerak (Part 1) "I thought you despised me and my Court." The Banshee had never been so powerful, yet it only allowed her to gain a better grasp on the abyssal gap that separated her from the Red Mother. The two women were almost the same height, but Cyrra felt like she was staring at a tall mountain whose peak was hidden beyond the clouds. "I do despise you, child." Baba Yaga nodded. "That’s why I’m giving you the Harmonizers after Bhaz. Consider everything you’ve seen and heard here as the first and only lesson you’ll ever receive from me. "Whether you want to learn from it or ignore it to spare your frail ego from the truth is not my concern." "I appreciate the thought, but even with the Harmonizers, some of us are bound to die in the conflict with the Incontinent King." Bhaz said as the dangers of the artifact dawned on him. "What if the Upyrs take the Harmonizers from their defeated opponents and wear them? "They are also undead, and I’m terrified at the idea of what would happen if they get their hands on the Harmonizers." "That’s the idea, child." Baba Yaga’s smile didn’t extend to her eyes. "That’s the idea." *** Meanwhile, at the Starry Lagoon Village, the kids happily played in the shallow ocean waters while their parents could only stare from a distance. Raaz, Elina, and the others had learned how to swim during their stays in the Desert, but they didn’t feel comfortable showing their limited skills in front of natural-born swimmers like the merfolk. "Mom, Dad, you don’t need to wear a swimsuit to join us. Your Scalewalker armor may look bulky, but it won’t impede your movements." Lith said. "Also, you can use its floating enchantment to move at high speed whenever you want." "Thanks, son, but for now I’m content with watching." Raaz said, and he was being honest. Anything was better than looking at the weirdness of the merfolk village. The houses were unsettling, but their inhabitants were not much better. The merfolk’s bright colored hair and the gurgling sounds they often emitted while talking were a constant reminder of their true nature. Raaz and Elina didn’t know much about their hosts aside from what the legends said about the merfolk, and none of it was flattering. They expected to see one of the children disappear at any moment, dragged by the merfolk to the bottom of the sea to eat them. If not for Lith’s reassurances and Salaark’s hospitality, the Verhens would have never accepted the invitation. "Fine. Let’s kill two birds with one stone." Lith took out his Indech wings, having care of turning them black to make them indistinguishable from his phoenix wings. Then, he flooded them with the water element and activated the Swirling Wind bloodline ability. A few flaps of his wings stirred the waters around him in a whirlpool that quickly extended in a straight line, parting the ocean for dozens of meters. Merfolk and human merchants alike gaped in awe at the scene. Any mage worthy of his name could manipulate vast amounts of water, but only if it was stale. Even altering the course of a medium-sized river without digging proper banks was supposed to be impossible. A mage couldn’t handle tons of water and redirect their violent currents at the same time, yet that was exactly what Lith was doing on an even larger scale. "Mom, Dad, you can join me whenever you want." Lith said while controlling the world energy and focusing it around him. "Ryla, you too, please." ’The mana geyser below our feet is wide, but it shouldn’t extend that far.’ The Fomor looked around in uncertainty. ’If Lith is wrong and I revert to my Fallen form, I might scare the children. ’Even worse, I might upset our merfolk hosts and they might ask me and Garrik to leave.’ Her train of thought was derailed by Raaz and Elina walking amid the roiling waters without hesitation. "I always wanted to see the seabed, but I never found the courage to dive in deep waters too far from the shore." Raaz looked at the strange algae and rocks at his feet while Elina focused on the water walls on either side. They looked like colossal waves that had been frozen in time after reaching their apex. "Are you sure you can do this, sweetie?" Elina asked. Fish lacked the intelligence to understand what was happening and kept moving back and forth, trying to follow the underwater current to its alleged destination. The marine magical beasts, instead, stared at the humans with eyes full of fear. "Won’t this hurt those poor creatures?" She pointed at the magical beasts, who turned around and swam away. "I’m sure, Mom." Lith nodded. "It would be dangerous if I made this permanent or if I kept it up for days, but there’s no point in doing that. I just want to make you feel comfortable. All of you." Lith extended his hand toward Ryla, and she reluctantly moved toward him. ’He’s Salaark’s grandson and the hero of the merfolk.’ She inwardly sighed. ’Lith can probably convince them I’m not a threat. Let’s hope the children don’t get scared by my Fallen form. It would break my heart if- What?’ Ryla could feel the mana geyser below her feet growing weaker with every step she took, yet the concentration of world energy around her didn’t change. When she reached Elina, there was no world energy coming from the seabed, but the Harmonizer still worked. "How is this possible?" She asked, not daring to use any of her powers. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶 "I used Swirling Wind to create a corridor of world energy as I moved." Lith pointed at the extremities of the strip of dry land that cut the ocean asunder. "I admit that the starting idea was just to put the abilities of my wings to the test and practice a bit, yet once I succeeded, I realized this could help Garrik." The young Fomor cheered for his mother from the shore. "If you, Tista, my Demons, and I create a safe zone, he can play with the others. I don’t know how far he will be able to get, but it’s better than nothing." "And you called me here because you didn’t want to endanger the stability of Garrik’s life force." Ryla said with a wide smile. "Yeah, sorry about that." Lith cleared his throat. "I didn’t mean to use you as a test subject. It’s just that if I made a mistake with you, you just needed to take one step back to be okay. If I made a mistake with Garrik, he would have never been okay again." "Don’t apologize, please." She replied, brimming with joy. "It’s a wonderful, thoughtful idea. How can I help you?" "One second, please. I’d rather not repeat myself over and over." Lith called his Demons and Tista via the communication amulet. "I’m sorry, sweetie pies." Locrias nodded in apology to his wife and daughter. "I hate leaving you so suddenly, but this is an excellent opportunity to learn how to control my powers. One day, the results of this training might save many lives from Meln and his Upyrs."