2717 The Fires Within (Part 1)
"Nothing I say can make this better. In your shoes, I would be livid and I'd probably storm out of here in search of books about how to become a Dragon Slayer." Lith's words made a thin smile appear on Kamila's face while his warmth helped to dispel the self-doubt that plagued her mind.
"Don't worry about me. It's fine." She lied through her teeth..
"No, it's not." Lith shook his head. "Please, don't lie to me."
She tried to speak but only hiccups came out as being caught red-handed added humiliation to her wounds.
"What do you say if to make this up to you, we make sure that Elysia's first word in human language is 'mom'? I know it's not much, but at least this way we'll be even. Dragontongue for the Dad and human language for the Mom."
"I would love that." Only after every man in the family, young or not, exited the room did Kamila unbutton her shirt and breastfeed Elysia.
The baby was very hungry, to the point of taking her fangs out and giving small bites in the hope of getting more milk.
"Damn!" Kamila and Lith said, but for entirely different reasons.
He was staring at her exposed chest with the deep-thought expression of a philosopher pondering the mystery of life or a scientist trying to crack a very hard mathematical problem.
Something that both Kamila and Solus recognized as his perverted face, making Kamila chuckle and Solus blush in second-hand embarrassment.
"Is everything alright, dear?" Elina asked after a while. "Why are you staring at Kamila like that? You are making me worry."
Lith opened his mouth to say something that would have flattered his wife and made her giggle if they were alone. Yet in the presence of his mother and sisters, it would have put both of them in great embarrassment.
"Everything is fine, Mom. I was just amazed by how beautiful Kami is even after everything she's just gone through."
The female side of the family awwwed whereas Solus had to turn around and cover her mouth to not laugh in their faces.
"By the way, Lith, have you checked on your life force yet? How much has it changed?" Solus asked to draw his attention.
She knew that he could look at the "scenery" for days without blinking and that not even Elina's blind love for him was blind enough to keep the wool on her eyes about his thoughts for that long.
"What changes? I mean, no." Lith needed sheer willpower to avert his gaze. "Let's take a look together."
He offered Solus his hands as he started to use his breathing technique, Abyssal Gaze, to study the changes in his life force after reaching the bright violet.
What they saw filled them with shock and awe.
Lith's life force looked like a galaxy composed of stars that were linked between them by a red thread. The blackness of the Void filled the space between them and also encapsulated the entire structure, protecting it from external forces.
Apparently, not much had changed since Lith had reached the violet but after a more careful observation, Lith and Solus discovered that things couldn't have been more different.
The Void now also passively absorbed the world energy and foreign mana in the surroundings, giving them Lith's energy signature and then feeding them to the stars it protected.
The Abomination side no longer just took, it also gave back and nurtured the other aspects of Lith's life force.
The blue stars had all turned either deep violet or violet, increasing the output of mana and raw power that Lith's body could produce. The Dragon's life force rhythmically flooded the auxiliary stars with elemental power, changing their color.
After that, the temporary elemental stars would flare up into their corresponding Cursed Element before going back to the violet. The elemental and Cursed Stars only manifested in neighboring pairs so that the final result was always perfectly balanced.
The black stars scattered among the colored stars and connected to the rest of the structure by the red threads now alternated between emitting pulses of death energy and absorbing the power from the colored stars.
Yet it wasn't a parasitic relationship so much as symbiotic. The black stars fueled the life force with their own power while also siphoning the excess energy produced under stress in order to keep the whole galaxy stable.
Also, the collected energy wasn't stolen, just stored and ready to be released whenever it was needed. At the center of the galaxy, burned a giant bright violet star around which everything else orbited.
The surface of the giant violet was covered in black currents that flared up from time to time, turning the surface of the star silvery and sometimes even burning with blue flames.
The energies of life and death that comprised Lith's life force had attained a better balance, just like the two pillars that had ushered Lith's breakthroughs. Now both the Voidfeather Dragon and the Void had stopped clashing against Lith and each other, bringing harmony where there had been conflict.
"F...arm me sideways!" Lith said in the nick of time. "We'd better check Elysia too."
Solus neared to the baby, her arms extended, when Elysia threw her what Solus could have sworn was a furious glare.
"Maybe we can wait until she's done." Solus awkwardly said.
"Did she just..." Lith pointed at Elysia.
"Yes." The choir of women replied.
With a full belly and the reassuring warmth and smell of her mother's skin, Elysia fell asleep instantly. Kamila's heartbeat was the best lullaby on Mogar for her, making her feel safe like when she was in the womb.
When Lith checked the baby's life force, he discovered that it was almost identical to his own. The main difference was that her black stars were comprised of a small amount of stable Chaos and the Cursed Stars of stable Cursed Elements.
"Damn!" Lith wanted to say much worse, but he held it in.
"Is everything alright?" Kamila noticed his distress and covered herself up to help him clear his mind.
Lith shared everything with her via a mind link and then did the same for the rest of the family.
"Damn!" Both Guardians and Eldritches said in unison.
"The good news is that your daughter won't be harmed by the Chaos energy in her body. The bad news is that you guys might. You need to be extra careful." Tyris said.
"Careful how?" The idea of not being able to take care of her granddaughter terrified Elina.
"Don't worry, babies with magical powers usually don't use them unless under great stress." Salaark replied. "Even when they do, they can distinguish friend from foe."
"Usually?" Kamila echoed. "So not always?"
"Accidents can happen." Tyris had to admit.
"Don't worry about it now. Just focus on resting and recovering your strength."
Kamila nodded, falling asleep a few seconds later while still holding Elysia. Lith took the baby from her and put Elysia in a crib right next to Kamila's bed. Close enough to reach it with one step and far away enough that the mother couldn't hit it in her sleep.
"Grandma, let's get out. We should let them rest."