Supreme Magus

"It should take at least 24 hours before the friends and family of your aliases notice their disappearance. Use that time wisely." Thanks to the huddle, Rem could speak with everyone at the same time.

"Tista, Phloria, usually Awakened can last for about four hours before they are no longer able to hide the distress. Diseases do not exist in Kolga due to Forbidden Magic so a sneeze, cough, or even a small wince of pain will alert everyone around you.

"The moment you feel like you can't take it any longer, don't be a hero and get out. It takes about one hour to cleanse the body from intense levels of mana poisoning. Only then can you get inside again."

She told them the password of the array blocking the city and then the merfolk led Lith's group past the barrier one at the time.

The merfolk would pretend to replace an exhausted crystal, drawing the attention of the sentinels while their partner would find an isolated spot thanks to Life Vision and get inside the array without being seen.

Tista entered first, using an array detection spell to check for potential traps laid close to the barrier and a life detecting array to make sure that no one was rushing to her position.

The skyscr.a.p.er behind her provided the group with a perfect cover, but it also hampered Life Vision due to the intense flow of mana coursing through it. On top of that, the moment she stepped past the barrier, she discovered how poisonous of a flower Kolga was.

The relief from breathing air and seeing again didn't last long. The light of the Forbidden Sun prickled at her skin like hot needles that slowly pierced her flesh. She could see with Invigoration how the foreign life force seeped throughout her body, making even her hair ache.

It was still just an annoyance, but knowing that the pain would only get worse made her worry. On top of that, even casting two simple arrays had never been so hard. Just like it happened for her life force, foreign mana poisoned her more with each passing second.

Her Awakened core generated a mana flow that would slow down the process, but the poisoning would not only slowly weaken her core, it would also make it progressively harder for her to use magic.

Each time Tista cast a spell, she needed to spend enough mana to conjure the desired effects and to counter the external flow. If she remained inside Kolga for too long, the poisonous mana would acc.u.mulate inside her body to the point that even chore magic would be as mana expensive as a tier five spell.

As soon as Lith and Phloria joined her, Tista shared her discoveries with them.

"Four hours may be the limit for violet cored Awakened, but I don't think I can last that long." Tista said.

'That's not our only problem.' Phloria activated a mind link to connect the four of them while gesturing Tista to shut up.

'Even if the pins work, we need to be careful. As long as we speak among ourselves, we use Garlen's language. If the inhabitants of Kolga hear us speaking gibberish they might become wary of us.

'Only use mind links and pretend that we don't know each other. A group of people walking in silence would be suspicious as well.'

'But that way we will last even less!' Tista replied. 'We'll poison each other's core with every thought we share, adding oil to the fire.'

'Then it's better if we shut up.' Phloria said.

'Thanks for your concern. I'm moved.' Lith's reply reminded them of his condition.

'I'm so sorry, lil bro! how do you feel?' Tista had a hard time keeping herself from using the Scanner spell to check up on him, but casting a tier five spell in those conditions would cripple her strength.

'I feel great. Believe it or not, Death Vision is gone.' Lith could feel the foreign energy being absorbed by the cracks in his life force, nurturing it instead of poisoning it. 'On top of that, I'm not experiencing mana poisoning either.'

'That's because I'm taking care of it.' Solus said.

'It seems that the Forbidden Sun generates a strand for each energy signature it perceives. We possess the same energy signature so we can perfectly split the poisonous life force from the mana and neutralize their effects.'

'Good for you. At least the mission is starting on the right foot. Now we need to check if the pins work. Without them, we'd be only a liability for you.' Phloria looked into Lith's eyes, glad to see that the black veins of Death Vision had disappeared.

No matter what form he took or what he said, Phloria could always tell from his eyes how he felt.

'That's not necessarily true.' Lith grabbed Tista's and Phloria's hand. 'After all, both Solus and I are missing a lot of energy. Before moving forward, there's one thing I want to check.'

The blue skin covering her hand was thick and rough, but her palm turned out to be quite sensitive. The moment Lith touched Phloria, she felt blood rushing to her face while a pleasant sensation spread through her whole body.

'Lith, whatever you are doing, please stop. Think about what Kamila would think if-' The words died in her brain when she saw that Tista had a delighted expression as well. 'For the gods' sake, he's your brother!'

'I swear, it's not what you think!' Tista said, and it was true.

From his battle against the Puppeteer, Lith had learned how to use his Abomination side to drain energy on contact. He was now using that skill to rid both Tista and Phloria of Kolga's infection.

Lith had shapeshifted his human body to resemble a Kolgan so the cracks near the surface of his life force absorbed the energy before it could reach his underlying Abomination side, leaving Solus to feed off the mana plaguing the mana cores.

The pleasure both women were experiencing simply came from the sudden relief from pain as Solus healed their bodies of the little damage they had already sustained.

'My advice is to circulate both light and earth fusion to protect your life force from the Forbidden Sun, just like we did against Lith's Abomination side. It should also slow down the mana poisoning process.' Solus rushed to say after clearing the misunderstanding she had caused.

'Also, this kind of treatment doesn't seem to affect either of my life forces negatively.' Lith said. 'Whenever you feel like you have acc.u.mulated too much poisonous energy, we will cleanse it for you. This way you should be able to last as long as me.'

The three nodded and split a bit too fast for their own liking, still embarrassed for what had happened. They moved in different directions while being careful of not leaving the range of their respective mind link.

It took them but a quick stroll to one of the main roads to check how thorough Leegaain had been.

"I really don't understand why our merfolk cousins keep us trapped inside this stupid barrier." A female said. (AN: It's actually translated from Kolgan, courtesy of Leegaain.)