"You’ve grown stupid with age." The creatures said with a stern tone while charging at the Source Wall. "Your barrier just traps my prey preventing them from both escaping and retaliating. On top of that, only Abominations need to feed on life force. For the undead, light magic it’s nothing but a full course meal!" Scarlett could see the creature’s blood cores going into overdrive, lured by the spell’s energy mass. "If you say so." Scarlett snapped her fingers, turning the Source Wall into Night Wall. The creatures slammed into the mass of darkness energy which destroyed their blood cores and made their bodies crumble. Without the blood core’s energy keeping the other two apart, the black core was free to feast on the mana core first and on the mud puppet holding it in later. ’What a moron. Darkness and light are two faces of the same coin. Converting one in the other is a child’s play if you know what you’re doing. I can rule out my most brilliant acquaintances from my suspect list.’ She thought. "Okay, it’s time you get out of here." Scarlett opened a Warp Steps leading a dozen of kilometers away. "Those things were all linked to the forest, so the further you go, the weaker they’ll become. Keep walking straight past the Steps and you should reach a village by nightfall." The magical beasts took the others on their backs and ran through the dimensional door while giving the Scorpicore a nod of their heads as a thank you. They were grateful to Scarlett, but also aware that they were nothing but a liability to her Ants caught in the middle of a fight between titans who could stomp them without even noticing. Now that Scarlett had the enemy’s energy signature stored by the Eyes of Menadion, she had no more need to guess the identity of her opponent, she just needed to reach them. Her pince-nez had allowed her to track Balkor despite he was hiding in the Blood Desert and she was in the Griffon Kingdom, whereas the new hybrid behind the mud puppets was just a few kilometers away. Their life force shone like a sun to her eyes, allowing her to fly in a straight line at subsonic speed until she reached her destination. It was a cave, located at the base of a hill. Once it had been covered in grass and flowers, but now the whole area was a wasteland full of dead trees. Her pince-nez could only pick up three different energy signatures and they were all hybrids. "This smell... Xacha, is it really you?" Now that most of the smells were gone and with the hybrid so close, Scarlett’s nose could easily perceive the familiar scent which in turn jogged her memory. Xacha was an Emperor Beast even older than Scarlett was. In a sense, Scarlett considered her almost as a relative. Xacha was the mother of all Nues, a feline species of Emperor beasts. She had the head of a monkey, the body of a tiger, the wings of an eagle, and the front half of a snake for a tail. Both the Nue and the Scorpicore were chimeras, sharing light magic as one of two innate elements. The other one was fire for the Scorpicore and air for the Nue. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞 "How could you do something so cruel to your own home? To yourself? Have you gone insane?" Scarlett asked. She remembered the Nue being a gentle and kind soul. To the point that she had refused to take the mantle of Lord of the Forest because of her hate for violence. "I have no idea how you could find me so quickly, but it doesn’t matter." Xacha’s voice wasn’t feminine anymore. It was the flat and cold tone of an undead who didn’t care for their past anymore. "As for your question, what kind of mother would let her children starve?" The creature that came out of the cave barely resembled the Emperor Beast that Scarlett remembered. Xacha had now a horned skull for a head, her body had turned white snow, and she was capable of standing on her hind legs 3 meters (9’10") tall, having become more humanoid than before. Xacha’s empty eye sockets were lighted by red undead energy. "I don’t know what you are talking about, but nothing justifies such a blatant abuse of Forbidden magic." Scarlett’s eyes became stone cold as she guessed what kind of changes had Xacha put herself through. "It’s not Forbidden magic if it’s done for the greater good. All kinds of creatures will be able to benefit from my discovery! Normally, a mana and a black core cannot coexist, but what happens if you add blood core? "Being made of darkness magic, a blood core can withstand the Chaos of the black core, while its red part made of pure life force can nurture a weakened mana core, prolonging its existence. "What I’ve found it’s the cure for all illnesses. Something so great that it can defeat death itself. This is my legacy for all of our children, who will be able to thrive as perfect life forms." "The only problem is that both the black and blood core need a lot of energy, but I’m certain that with enough time I will be able to solve this issue as well." Xacha said. "Are you out of your mind? Your current form is far from perfect. To survive just for a few months, you have killed thousands and completely destroyed the balance of the forest! Mogar will not allow this." "Foolish cat. Mogar doesn’t care about any of it. Otherwise how could it let so many bad things happen? Why Abominations and undead are the only ones allowed to live forever while all the other creatures live a life of pain before dying?" Xacha asked. "I could tell you that pain is a constant of life and that the immortality you envy so much has a heavy price, but I’m tired of listening to your nonsense. Have at you!" Scarlett had hoped to appeal to whatever good there might be left in the Nue, but after seeing the monstrosities Xacha had turned herself into, she had given up. She used that time to cast her Light Sovereign array. It projected a white six pointed star inscribed in a white circle that filled its area of effect with the light element so that using Chaos magic was impossible. On top of that, it created a natural source of light energy that allowed Scarlett to skip conjuring energy and go straight to manipulate it, making her casting speed much faster. Unfortunately, the Nue was on her same page and had used that time to cast more than just an array. To turn herself into a hybrid, Xacha had used forbidden magic and sacrificed countless lives. It had allowed her to merge her body with part of an Abomination and a Grave Lord she had raised with Necromancy. She now had three different minds capable of parallel thought, resulting in triple casting. The Nue unleashed the Life Suppression array while her Abomination side cast the tier three Chaos magic Void Rain. Void Rain produced a volley of Chaos arrows as fast as bullets, but because of Light Sovereign’s effect, they immediately turned back into slow darkness projectiles. Only thanks to her array did Scarlett have the time to block them by conjuring stone shields with a wave of her hand.