Garrik’s Tyrant and Fomor life forces had merged further since the last time Lith had examined them but whether it was due to natural development or practice, it was impossible to tell. "Can you show me how you’ve been training?" "Right now?" Garrik was exhausted, his whole body aching from mana and elemental abuse. "You just need to do it for a few seconds." Lith replied. "Before starting, explain to me in detail what you are going to do." "It’s nothing much." The young hybrid shrugged. "I followed your advice and improved upon the technique we have developed together. I don’t try to open a seventh eye like Da-, I mean, Glemos wanted. "I focus on balancing the six elemental flows from my eyes and amplifying them with my body. Unlike my big brother, however, not a single speck of my skin has turned emerald. Not even for a second." "We’ll worry about that later, Garrik." Lith patted his shoulder to reassure him. "First, let me take a look at your technique." Lith shared the Eyes of Menadion with Solus, filtering everything and everyone else out to focus the artifact solely on Garrik. As the Tyrant-Fomor hybrid drew in the elemental energies, nothing seemed to happen. Lith and Solus could clearly distinguish the three different life forces departing from the boy’s mana core. The Tyrant side looked like a flaming green eye surrounded by six rings, each of a different elemental color. The Fomor side, instead, looked like a colossus made from lego bricks and an erector set of six different colors. The Harmonizer made the elements coursing through the Fomor side spread evenly, even giving them thin emerald streaks here and there. Yet thanks to the Eyes, Lith could see that each flow was actually jagged and irregular, one element shifting into another with no harmony. It was as if whoever had painted the colossus couldn’t make up his mind and had painted it over multiple times in multiple spots. ’And that’s with the Harmonizer forcing the Fomor life force in a stable form ever since Garrik was conceived.’ Solus pointed out. ’I’m more curious about how Tyrants managed to alter their life force to resemble the Emperor Beasts’. ’ Lith replied. ’It’s no wonder they managed to hide their human origin until Glemos exposed it.’ The flaming eye and the colossus emitted sparks every time they collided, the strength of the impact pushing them away in opposite directions. Yet they could only get so far due to the third life force binding them together. The lower end of the eye and the left feet of the colossus overlapped perfectly with no rejection, forming an emerald stretch of energy. Lith and Solus recognized six small rings moving back and forth along it without ever touching the other two life forces. The stretch was akin to a spring that resisted the drifting of the two sides until the accumulated tension became enough to pull them back together. The Fomor and Tyrant life forces then rejected each other again and the cycle started anew. The moment Garrik conjured the six elemental streams inside his body, they encapsulated the two sides. The rejection was still present but the energy cocoon forced the life forces together the same way the Harmonizer forced the Fomor side to keep the "right" form. ’We failed.’ Lith sighed. ’Garrik is right. He has made no progress compared to Morok. We need to review the data and start fresh to-’ It took the Fomor-Tyrant hybrid a few seconds to balance the different elemental energies. As they went from simply coexisting to balancing each other, the repulsive force between the two life forces disappeared. Keeping the six elements in synch was hard and making them add up to match Garrik’s life force was even harder. The young man was already tired and had no idea what he was doing so the balance between the elements he conjured inside his body shifted constantly. During those brief moments when the life forces and elemental flows evened out, however, the elemental rings of the hybrid life force fused with the Tyrant’s and together encompassed the energy cocoon. After each cycle, the Eyes registered a minuscule but constant increase in the size of the third life force. While Lith double-checked the phenomenon, the cocoon suddenly disappeared and the two conflicting life forces snapped away. "Sorry, Uncle Lith." Garrik panted. "This is my limit." "Don’t worry. You did great." Before saying anything, Lith filtered out the Tyrant and the Fomor life forces as well, focusing solely on the hybrid one. ’The rings of the hybrid side are stable and their color is uniform.’ Solus pointed out. ’There is no sign of corrections from the Harmonizers like for the Fomor side.’ ’On top of that, even though the elemental rings never touch the hybrid life force, they constantly exchange energy with it.’ Lith said. ’The inside nurtures and strengthens the outside and vice versa. ’In the Tyrant side the life force also constantly conjures the elemental energies but there is no interaction between them. The rings are just a byproduct of the Tyrant’s life force.’ Once they were certain of their findings and after storing them in the Library to get rid of the headache, Lith and Solus shared the good news with the others. "You are on the right path, Garrik. The technique we developed together is crude and needs to be fine-tuned but it works." "That’s wonderful news!" Everyone cheered. "But how could I miss it, Lith?" Quylla asked. "I can see it now that I know what to look for but without your instructions, I’d never noticed it." "Tiamat eyes are not as good as Dragon Eyes but they still do the job." Lith used the convened lie to cover up for the Menadion Set. "You’re a damn cheat." She grumbled. "I know." He shrugged. Enjoy new adventures at freewebnovel "So it’s not a matter of just drawing in the world energy from our eyes and circulating it through our bodies but also of matching it with our life force?" Morok pondered. "Can you check on my life force next?" Lith obliged the request and the Eyes registered a similar phenomenon in the Tyrant’s life force but at a much slower rate. The progress was so small that without the Eyes’ hard numbers, Lith would have never noticed it. "Now check me too, please." Ryla’s cheeks flushed in excitement as she dared to hope for the best. The Eyes revealed nothing. Even when the six conjured elemental streams perfectly matched her life force, no change occurred. "I’m sorry." Lith said. "Morok and Garrik are the result of Glemos’ experiments so it makes sense that their bodies evolve according to the same principles. In your case, though, the Harmonizer-like properties of your body prevent any change." "Let me get this straight." Ryla sighed. "I need to stand over a geyser to get six eyes and conjure the elemental energies I need to undo my Fallen state. Yet if I stay on a geyser, my life force becomes fixed and rejects the alterations that would undo my Fallen state." "Correct." Solus nodded. "Don’t despair. This is a blessing in disguise." "How so?" Ryla tried and failed to keep the bitterness out of her voice.