'I'm sorry, but in my turf, I'm so strong that I don't need contact to exert my breathing technique. On top of that, when I'm close to someone of my blood, I don't even need Mother Sun to read their minds.' Salaark said.

'Can you please get out of our head?' Solus jumped off Lith in embarrassment, both physically and telepathically.

"Yes, of course." Due to the Blood Resonance and how close they were, the Guardian needed focus to put boundaries between her and her descendants. "Now show me what you got from Urgamakka, from your past missions and your creations."

Solus needed to enlarge the Forgemastering lab to allow Lith to drop everything that Salaark had required without drowning them.

"By the Great Mother, what a load of junk!" The Guardian flicked her fingers, separating all of Lith's loot based on the materials they were made of.

Orichalcum in a massive pile, Adamant in a big pile, and so little Davross that it could fit into a shoebox.

"Did you finish studying these artifacts already?" She asked while pointing at the old Odi relics.

"Yes, everything but Ruin." Lith held the prototype blade with nostalgia.

Even though he didn't use it for long, he had grown fond of the blade even after giving up on learning its secrets.

"Don't worry, compared to the one you have now, that weapon is crap." Salaark didn't wait for his reply and activated Creation Magic.

Everything that Lith possessed, be they crafted by him or others, suddenly lost all of their enchantments. Each artifact split into metal, crystals, and ingredients as if they had never been consumed.

"What the actual heck?" Lith stared at the now available pile of Adamant, at the mountain of Orichalcum, and at the many violet crystals that Solus immediately planted into the tower's mine.

"Creation Magic, my Featherling." Salaark cupped his face. "Turn that frown upside down for me. Even though I'm not going to teach you anything else, Grandma is willing to recycle your stuff so that you can practice as much as you want."

Lith gave her a huge draconic smile of greed that pissed the Guardian off big time.

"Are you telling me that as long as I stay in the Desert, you'll reset my creations for me?" He asked.

"Yes. You don't have much, but with Creation Magic, there's no limit to the number of experiments that you can perform on a single piece of Adamant." She said with a snort. "Beware that I asked you for a smile, not a smug grin so unless you-"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Lith jumped with joy while hugging her tight.

"You are welcome, dear." Salaark could finally feel the greed be replaced by honest gratitude. His non-cynical happiness became her own thanks to the blood bond that Phoenixes shared, warming her heart.

"Not to sound ungrateful-"

"Everything that comes before a but is bullshit. If you have something more to ask, just do it instead of beating around the bush." The Guardian pushed him away, annoyed by Lith's inability to ever be content.

"-but can you recycle my Scalewalker as well?" He said.

"Depends. Are you okay with moving around stark naked?"

"Good point." Lith wore the Skinwalker armor that he had bought from the White Griffon that being made of cloth wasn't worth recycling.

"One more thing and then I promise that I'm done."

"You better be because you are testing my patience." The Guardian replied in annoyance.

"Earlier you spoke about amplifiers. Do I have anything with me that can work as such?" Lith took the Dryad's bounty and every ingredient he possessed out of his pocket dimension.

"Yes and no." Salaark replied. "Amplifiers aren't something you find, but something you make." She showed him her hammer again.

"I used my own feathers here because the pieces from the other Guardians alone would have provided the wrong kind of energy otherwise. You can use your own blood, feathers, or scales to convert foreign energy signatures as well.

"However, always remember that the longer a piece of a body has been infused with mana, the more powerful it becomes. That means that since you became a Wyrmling just three years ago and a Tiamat three months ago, your body is a poor amplifier.

"Even your mentor's scales aren't much compared to those of creatures that lived millennia instead of just a few centuries."

"Thank you very much, Grandma." Lith gave her an honest bow of gratitude that lightened her mood.

"I won't ask you anything more for as long as I'm here, but I'd still like to hear your opinion about a few of my ongoing projects."

"New stuff or derivative stuff?" Salaark's curiosity was piqued.

"New, or at least that's what I hope. I made it myself based on my imagination and what I've learned in Urgamakka about my bloodline powers." He replied.

"Do I get to use your ideas as well if I like them?" The Guardian had already given enough gifts to someone who didn't belong to her nest, but trading knowledge was exactly what she had recommended Lith to do a few minutes back.

Salaark was many things but hypocritical and ungrateful weren't among them.

"Yes. It would be my honor."

"Then we have a deal." She said while splitting the Scalewalker back into its basic components, purified Adamant included. "Now let's get out of here. This is supposed to be a vacation, not a full-time job."

Lith looked at the pile of metal and thought about the fact that he had only until some shit happened and it forced him out of the Desert to exploit Salaark's Creation Magic.

He didn't feel like doing anything but holing himself up in the tower and working until Abyssal Gaze didn't work anymore.

"With pleasure." He said after setting his greed and pathological insecurity aside, determined to have the first real vacation ever since he had never had one even back on Earth.

***

Village of Lutia, at the same time.

While the Verhens visited the Heavenly Plume tribe and their city during the night, back in their homeland it was time for lunch.

Aside from Tezka, no one had noticed the disappearance of the Phoenixes, while the departure of Lith's family didn't bother in the least the farmhands tasked with taking care of the fields.

In theory, the absence of the Lords of those lands should have been a source of relief for both the members of the Queen's Corps and Lith's army of beasts. Now that they had no one to protect, they could just lay back and relax.

Very few people were stupid enough to mess with the citizens of Lutia and those who did usually lacked either the brains or the means to be a real threat. A simple spell was more than enough to get rid once and for all of any annoyance.

Even when some serious opponent appeared, they managed to take them out quickly and efficiently thanks to their teamwork.

Yet along with freedom also came disappointment.

"Gods, how much I miss Lady Verhen already." Captain Locrias said while looking at the takeaway food that had been delivered to his soldiers. 

"She always cooks for us as if we are members of her family, giving us plenty of cold beverages during summer and hot beverages during winter."

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