Supreme Magus

Vladion looked at the Butcher and at the Council's lapdog with mixed feelings for a while until Haug tipped the scale for good.

"I vouch for them both on my life. They are Nyka's family and the best manhunters of the Kingdom. Scarlett even tracked Balkor down to the middle of the Blood Desert with no clues but one of his thralls.

"They are our best shot to get to the bottom of this. If not for us, do it for the children."

"Fine, but I doubt that they will succeed where everyone else failed and you two will be held responsible for their actions." Vladion said to Kalla and Haug.

"Succeed where everyone else failed is my legal middle name, pal." Scarlett said with a snort.

Vladion raised his arms and a sphere of earth enveloped them as they started to move through the ground like a bathysphere plunging underwater.

"Don't waste your time trying to track our movements. It's impossible." He said while compensating the increasing pressure on their eardrums with air magic.

"Fascinating." Scarlett said as both the Eyes of Menadion and Solus's mana sense proved to be incapable of seeing through the conjured sphere. It was comprised of so much mana that it blinded the mystical sense of both artifacts.

Lith took his communication amulets out of his pocket dimension along with everything he thought that he might need during their stay among the undead.

'If Kalla is right and they block all kinds of dimensional magic, I'd better not give out the existence of my omni pocket.' He thought.

"Welcome to Lightkeep." Vladion said, making Lith's mouth fall to the ground. They had left the forest less than one minute ago yet they had already reached their destination.

A bright light stronger than the winter sun blinded them the moment the sphere opened. Lightkeep was built underground, but it looked nothing like a cave.

Lith had been expecting something like an old castle filled with dust and cobwebs, something straight out of Earth's horror movies, not a metropolis that rivaled in beauty with the forbidden city of Kolga.

The cold, dark, and damp cave from his imagination crumbled in front of a city as bright as day that smelled like flowers. The ceiling was several hundreds of meters high, allowing the inhabitants of Lightkeep to decide whether to build their homes on the ground or on the ceiling.

All the undead were capable of flight and of walking on walls like a spider, making it possible for them to expand the city from both above and below. Unlike Kolga, Lightkeep looked less like a modern city and more like an open-air museum.

Every building had its own garden with perennial plants pruned with such mastery that the topiary creatures looked more like statues than plants.

Every building had its windowless sides painted so that by looking at them from afar, one would see a landscape rather than the dull grey typical of stone cities. The buildings on the ceiling, instead, were painted to resemble a blue sky with a few fluffy clouds.

"Isn't it cruel towards undead to constantly remind them of what they have lost forever?" Scarlett asked.

The Scorpicore was amazed by the beauty of the undead city, mostly because the Eyes of Menadion revealed to her that the living far surpassed the undead, yet none of them looked afraid.

She could see humans, beasts, and even plants walking freely along the streets on their own with no supervision. Scarlett had a hard time believing how pacific Lightkeep was.

"You misunderstand our city, Scorpicore." Vladion said while shaking his head. "The frescos don't remind them of what's lost so much as of what all of them have to strive for. The final prize for achieving the full red blood core.

"Nothing is really lost to us, but to get it back again we need patience, effort, and sacrifice. The sight of the sky and the light allow the younger of us to not lose hope."

"About that, how come you have so much green and works of art?" Lith pointed at the numerous fountains and statues that decorated the city blocks.

They were so life-like that Lith needed to use Life Vision to make sure they were chiseled pieces of rock instead of petrified living beings.

"The green thrives thanks to one of my greatest achievements, the Sunstones." Vladion took a small mana crystal out of his pocket dimension, making it appear in a blaze of emerald flames.

It shone of yellow light that also spread warmth in its surroundings.

"It gives us light and heat, allowing plants to thrive as if under the regular sun but without harming us undead. We need both green and art to retain our humanity and not forget about our past life."

"Baba Yaga made her children similar to plants not only in longevity, but also in mentality. We are predators that get easily detached from our feelings and care for no one but ourselves.

"Keeping the city beautiful makes it easier for our herds living here happily and for us to not turn into mindless bloodthirsty monsters." Vladion said while they walked toward Lightkeep.

"This is the second time you guys use the term, herd. What does it mean?" Lith said.

"Killing for feeding is considered a barbaric act, something that only beasts and dumb children do. No offense." Vladion replied.

"None taken." Scarlett snarled.

"Killing not only makes our presence known in your cities, it also hinders the use of magic. Whenever one of us casts a powerful light magic spell, an array, or crafts a powerful artifact, we need to replenish our strength.

"To do that, we have a herd. A group of individuals from our race of origin that we take care of, that we feed, protect, and even teach magic to. In exchange they willingly provide us with their life essence, relieving us from the need of hunting." Vladion said.

"Basically a harem." Lith's words made the Firstborn laugh.

"Gods, no. My herd is so big that if I had to sleep with all of them, I wouldn't have the time to eat. Sometimes I sleep with them, but I'm not romantically bound to them nor they to me.

"They can sleep with whoever they want as long as they preserve their life force and blood solely for me. Besides, harems never work. Someone is always your favorite, the others get jealous, and before you know it, they start seeing you just like a wallet.

"They stay with you for your power and resources, but they have no qualms cheating on you since you basically always cheated on them. I speak from experience."

After that, they walked in silence until they reached Vladion's home. It was a magnificent three-story manor built with a style that resembled a European abbey from the 1600s.

The place was spotless with no bats hanging from the ceilings nor cobwebs as big as bedsheets laying around. The more Lith looked around Lightkeep, the sillier the horror movies from Earth looked to him.

Vladion's home was richly decorated with frescoes, paintings, and its furniture would look good even in the Ernas household.

People of different ages coming from all countries walked through the hallways or practiced magic in lounges where layers of arrays both protected and guided them.

A hologram would stand near the trainee, showing them the correct hand signs and speaking the magic words with the right accentuation.