’I thought Yaga stayed here to enjoy my company and get my help adapting the Harmonizer to her undead.’ Menadion thought.
"Help me, Grandma." Kelia said as a pillar of golden light erupted from her body. "This is nothing like the breakthroughs I experienced in the past."
"I know." Baba Yaga placed her right hand on Kelia’s chest and her left over the abdomen while activating her breathing technique, Sun and Moon. "That’s because Dusk is no longer with you to follow the development of his plan."
"What do you mean?" Kelia asked, feeling the pain subside as the Mother guided the world energy from Kelia’s mana core to Dusk’s fragment, and from there throughout her life force.
"He was working on awakening and merging your dormant Phoenix and Griffon bloodlines, remember?" Salaark answered the question to leave Baba Yaga free of focusing on Kelia’s rampaging mana core. "At each breakthrough, Dusk nudged the development of your life force to achieve his goal.
"Now, however, your core is taking the leap from the bright green to the deep cyan. A single fragment of Dusk’s crystal isn’t strong enough for the task at hand. The shard still retains Dusk’s will and is trying to steer your life force in the right direction, but your body is rejecting the changes.
"As I explained to Lith a long time ago, the awakening of a dormant bloodline is a rare phenomenon. You are mostly human with only a faint trace of Divine Beast blood. Your body needs to undergo massive changes to host the power of a single Divine Beast, let alone two.
"On top of that, Dusk didn’t want you to become a Phoenix or a Griffon, but a perfect hybrid between the two. Like Lith and Valeron the Second."
"I remember. He called me his perfect sword." Kelia grunted in pain as impurities trickled out of all her orifices and pores. "Let me guess, that makes the process even harder."
"Much harder." Salaark nodded, feeling a tingle all over her skin as she started to perceive Kelia’s presence through her Blood Imprint bloodline ability. "That’s why your body is offering so much resistance."
Truth be told, Kelia’s bones were supposed to shatter and reform, her organs to be squeezed, her skin to break, and her hair to fall. Yet Baba Yaga and the Guardians would never allow the children to be scared.
The Mother had taken control of the breakthrough, turning the wild surges of world energy into a stable flow and forcing the impurities to leave Kelia’s body without destroying it in the process.
"Did I smell so bad when I Awakened?" The stench of the black tar-like substance reached Leria’s nose, making her retch.
"Worse." Aran said.
"Well, you didn’t smell like flowers either!" Leria blushed in embarrassment.
"Be quiet, kids." Lith said. "Watch and learn."
Aran and Leria felt humiliated for being reproached by their brother/uncle.
Yet they both forgot about it when they noticed a second golden pillar emerging from Kelia’s body and a third one descending from the ceiling to meet the other two.
Suddenly, the pool of impurities surged from the ground and enveloped Kelia from head to toe.
"Whgs hpng?" She tried to ask what was happening, but another surge of impurities drowned her words.
"You’re luckier than I hoped." The Mother replied. "It seems that this falls under the umbrella of the babies’ protection."
Aran and Leria looked around the table, discovering that Salaark’s and Tyris’ eyes glowed with mana. Before they could ask a single question, the three golden pillars fused into one, and the breakthrough reached its zenith.
’Congratulations, kid. You did it.’ She heard his voice in her head just for a moment.
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