Chapter 3423 Dangerous Times (Part 2) Even Tezka had a good laugh. "Humans." He chuckled. "Maybe they are not the strongest race, but for sure they are the most interesting. The food is delicious, Zin." The wolf-fox hybrid gnawed at his roasted Blinkers with fries, filling himself with all the nutrients he might soon need. After dinner, the family moved to the inner garden of the household for more stories and a bowl of ice cream while enjoying the fresh breeze of the night after a hot day. "Thanks for the food, Mom. Thanks for the stories, Dad. Thanks for everything, Uncle Tezka." The kids kissed their parents goodnight and went to bed. "They are so cute." The Suneater sighed while moving to Vastor's side. "Aren't you going with them?" Zinya asked in surprise. Tezka rarely left the children alone. There was always at least one tail keeping an eye on them but he still had all ten of them. "Not tonight." The Warg-Eldritch hybrid shook his head. "Zogar and I have something to do." *** Jiera continent, several hundred kilometers into the mainland, on the path of the lost. city called Auros the Bringer of Unity, at the same time. The sun was high on the other side of Mogar but the weather wasn't so hot. The worst of winter had already passed but even with the sun approaching noon the air was still quite chilly. "Thanks for accompanying me, Xenagrosh." Abthot the Ogre-Eldritch hybrid said. "The Master failed to find safe passage through the Transoceanic Gates this time and the haul is huge. "With your Dragonspeed and omni pocket, however, we should be done with it before the sun rises on Garlen." "Don't mention it." The Shadow Dragon crossed dozens of kilometers with a single flap of her majestic wings. "Father needs a constant flow of materials for his experiments. "Also, if we are lucky, we could find a lost city and have the opportunity to put to the test our new equipment." She flexed her fingers, still feeling weird. After training most of her life with metal equipment, wearing a Yggdrasill wood armor was uncomfortable. Not only because of its material but also because of how it affected her mental capacities and especially her Dragon Eyes. Xenagrosh experienced frequent headaches just by looking at her surroundings and took off the armor every time she could. "Talk for yourself." Abthot replied. "As a proud member of the shortie team, I prefer taking on someone my own size." Abthot was no bigger than a human, smaller than one of Xenagrosh's fingers. "Yeah, right." The Shadow Dragon scoffed. "More like you love easy fights. One Void Howling and anything human-sized dies." "Oh, bite me!" The Ogre-Eldricth scoffed back. "With pleasure." Xenagrosh turned her head and opened her gigantic maw. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞 "Very funny" Abthot shapeshifted her arms into tendrils and muzzled the Dragon. "Enough fooling around. There's our contact." Auros the Bringer of Unity had reached the mana geyser chosen as the meeting point early and checked the surroundings for spies or intruders. "Welcome to Jiera, miladies." The lost city waved his colossal hand as they approached. Auros was over 100 meters (330') tall, making him easy to spot even from a great distance. "Anything worth reporting?" Xenagrosh asked while returning the greeting with a nod. "The usual." He shrugged. "Winter stopped all activities but our own. No one dared mess with me or disturb our mines." Having a lost city patrolling the Master's territories was convenient for more than one reason. Auros acted as a distraction, a guard, and a storage facility. Mined materials couldn't be left lying around without the risk of someone picking up such an intense energy signature. The Bringer of Unity solved the problems by moving the goods inside his halls, cloaking them with his own aura. Lost cities were impossible to kill and until Auros kept himself predictable and didn't cause trouble, the people of Jiera returned him the favor. "Excellent." Abthot nodded as well while casting detection arrays just to be safe. "Any trace of Chroniclers from a new World Tree?" "None." The colossus shook his massive head. "They have disappeared. Who would have thought that even the Yggdrasill might die? These are dangerous times, milady. Immortality protects no one. "Lost cities, white cores, World Trees, everyone dies." "You'd better remember that." Xenagrosh said. "We might not be Guardians, but I have the guy who destroyed Argantyr and many other of your siblings on my speed dial. Are we clear?" "Crystal!" Auros would have swallowed hard, if he could. "No need for threats, milady. I would never betray the cause." He was being sincere. His indenture to the Master came with many perks. Auros was learning modern magic, receiving new hosts, and enjoying the protection of the Organization. Whenever someone came too close to capture and seal him, the hybrids would act from the shadows and provide him the boost he needed to defeat his enemies. "Until it suits you, you mean." Xenagrosh sneered. "Abthot?" "It's safe." She replied. "You can take out the goods, Auros." The lost city waved his massive hand and tons of magic crystals and metal appeared out. of thin air. A sudden explosion scattered the treasures, sent the Eldritches flying, and threw Auros off balance just as quickly. "I can't believe my luck. A powerful voice half barked and half laughed. "I can get free materials, two specimens, and get my revenge on the old lizard all at once! Capturing you and raising my status is just the icing on the cake, Auros. "Honestly, you are not worth my time but since you're already here there's no reason not to kill one more bird with the same stone." Roghar the Fenrir, the Guardian of Mana, stood 50 meters (166') at the withers as he played with the mountain of metal and crystals with his colossal paw. His wolf-like body was covered in pure silver fur that absorbed every speck of sunlight instead of reflecting it. It also absorbed the surrounding world energy, feeding it to the Guardian and strengthening his already matchless powers. Auros was the only one bigger than Roghar, twice as tall and many times heavier. The lost city roared, charging at the Guardian with a fist imbued with countless spells and Life Maelstrom. Roghar scoffed, needing only one paw to block the strike and unleashing six Cursed blasts that tore Auros to shreds from the waist up. It was his Guardian Tier Mirror Magic Spell, Elemental Curse. "It's only fitting to defeat you wretches with your own favorite trick." The Guardian said with a literal wolfish smile on his snout. "To think it took you millennia just to master Chaos and me a few years to master all Cursed Elements." "You mean like this?" Between her Dragon Eyes, her training with the other Eldritches, and the Yggdrasill Bookwyrm armor, Xenagrosh learned Elemental Curse after seeing it once. The Shadow Dragon emitted six pillars, each of a different Cursed Element, and shot them at the wolf Guardian. Roghar's lips curled up in a disgusted expression as he redirected his Elemental Curse to intercept Xenagrosh's. "I had almost forgotten about those obnoxious eyes of yours. Almost." Chaos clashed against Chaos, Decay against Decay, and so on. "Like father, like daughter. Isn't that right, Zor?"