Supreme Magus

Chapter 3907: Human Disguise (Part 2)

Each star burned with the power of a different element, either natural or Cursed, and had smaller stars revolving around it.

The Cursed Stars were paired with their respective counterparts, forming stable twin suns surrounded by star systems double the size of those belonging to the natural elements.

The red threads of the human side and the void of the Abomination were used both as a framework, allowing the various star systems that comprised the Dragon constellation to move without drifting apart from each other.

The stars beat in unison with Lith’s heart, releasing a sudden burst of flames. Most of the times, the stars flared with emerald fire that nurtured the threads and lit the Void with life.

Rarely, a burst of silvery fire erupted instead, draining the excess energy from the threads and stabilizing the Cursed Stars that had neared the overload point after being nurtured by the emerald flames one time too many.

Seldom, blue flames would engulf the Dragon constellation. When that happened, everything burned. The blue flames consumed all forms of energy in their path until the Void smothered them or the silvery fire purged them.

Yet no matter how many times they appeared, the blue flames never became part of the whole. They were a dangerous, foreign element that only aimed to break free of its host and spread outward.

Lith could feel the blue flame’s hunger, their desire to consume everything. It was similar to the hunger of the Void, yet different. The Void’s hunger expressed a need that only asked to be fulfilled.

It was no more evil than the feeling of drowsiness after a long day at work.

The blue flames’ hunger for destruction, instead, was a compulsion. Like a virus born to infect, the blue flames needed a host to ravage. They didn’t care if their host died and they with him.

The blue flames didn’t care what would happen once they engulfed the whole Mogar. A single, relentless thought drove their existence. They wanted to spread and multiply, consequences be damned.

Every burst of blue flames weakened the Voidfeather Dragon’s life force, requiring several emerald flares or a single silvery eruption to recover. Lith gained no resistance to the blue flames, and they foiled any attempt of the other flames, natural or Cursed, to bring the blue flames into their fold.

”Great Mother almighty.” Many people said, and Baba Yaga would have gladly joined them if her role didn’t demand otherwise.

”Yes, yes. It’s all very interesting. Maybe too interesting, but that’s not the reason we are here.” She said. ”Now turn into a Tiamat, Lith.”

He stared at the burning constellation for a few seconds longer before shapeshifting again.

The constellation spread open, freeing the Void and the threads and allowing the stars to multiply.

Lith’s life force turned into 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.

The protective shell of the Void passively absorbed the world energy and foreign mana in its surroundings, giving them Lith’s energy signature and then feeding them to the stars it protected.

The Abomination side didn’t just take, it also gave back and nurtured the other aspects of Lith’s life force. The Dragon’s life force, instead, 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 were scattered among the colored stars and connected to the rest of the structure by the red threads, alternating between emitting pulses of death energy and absorbing the power from the colored stars.

Yet it wasn’t a parasitic relationship so much as a symbiotic one. 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. The black stars stored and released it whenever it was needed. In the same way, the red threads that connected the stars allowed them to exchange elemental power, life force, and mana.

The color of the threads changed in the process, matching that of the element they carried. Stars and threads beat in a colorful symphony that ensured the balance and kept the death force of the Void in check.

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 forming a corona of blue flames.

Baba Yaga changed the angle to look for the elemental spheres and the vortices the Tiamat was supposed to have as an evolved human, but this time she zoomed out instead of in.

”Fuck me sideways.” Lith said the moment he could see them.

The seven elemental spheres were not gathered in one place, but scattered across his life force. Each elemental sphere enveloped a cluster of elemental stars until their motion carried them into another sphere.

The Spirit Sphere, instead, overlapped with the giant violet, the only celestial body fixed in space. This way, the energy of the giant violet and the emerald of the Spirit Sphere spread evenly throughout the life force at all times.

They flooded every star, thread, and corner of the Void, filling them with the power of life and neutralizing the occasional wild surges from an elemental sphere they couldn’t withstand on their own.

The whirlpools, instead, were located at the fringes of the Void. The darkness insulated and filtered the world energy captured by the vortices, delivering it in a form that could never harm the galaxy the Void protected.

”Is this your Tiamat life force?” Baba Yaga asked.

”Yes.” Lith gave the obvious question its obvious answer.

”Shapeshift into a human.” She said, and he complied.

The black scales disappeared under the pink skin, his extra eyes closed and faded, and his body reabsorbed the extra limbs.

Lith looked perfectly human, but the Infirmary begged to differ.

His life force was unchanged, still a swirling galaxy surrounded by an endless Void. The galaxy had simply reshaped itself to look like a colossus, but it was made of stars, threads, and Void.

It looked human, but it was not. It was a disguise no different from that an Emperor Beast or Fae would wear.

”So what?” Morok shrugged. ”We all knew this already.”

”Wait, what?” Quylla was flabbergasted. ”You knew about this?”

”You didn’t?” Morok was even more flabbergasted. ”Wasn’t it obvious from the moment we learned Lith is a rank 3 human? I mean, what part of him looks like an evolved human to you?”

The Tyrant pointed at the Tiamat.

”No one.” Quylla had to admit.

”Exactly. Just like my human appearance.” Morok shrugged. ”I didn’t say anything because I know how protective of his secrets Lith is. I simply assumed he wasn’t ready to share, and I respected his desire for privacy.”