Chapter 3243 Exposed Secrets (Part 1)


    Random travelers gained access to the Fringe while things that had been sealed by the Yggdrasill bloodline for millennia escaped.


    ***


    "There!" Lith pinned Ra''ntar to the ground like an insect after impaling him on Ragnaro?k, sealing his movements. "I can finally see Solus. Assemble everyone while I oversee the final details."


    Tezka Warped out of the room with the Yggdrasill staff in hand to mobilize the troops and have them ready for departure.


    "Jirni, I''ll leave Ragnaro?k here until I reach the Fringe. You have until then to study his life force and find a way to keep inflicting pain without killing him. After that, I''ll recall Ragnaro?k and you''ll be on your own."


    "Don''t worry. It will be more than enough. Skywarp." The stiffeners of her dress came out of their sockets and shapeshifted into metal needles that assembled into a glaive.


    "Protect." Skywarp hummed with power, orbiting around Jirni while displacing itself through space to make its trajectory unpredictable.


    "Help me figure out what your brother is doing. I need you to do the same." Jirni touched the elf and flooded his body with her breathing technique.


    She focused on what parts transmitted more pain and how the presence of the Ygdrasill wood inside the Chronicler''s body affected his physiology.


    Skywarp split itself back into needles and pierced the elf''s skin. It studied both the flow of Ragnaro?k''s mana and the disposition of the pain receptors, rearranging the needles so as to imitate the former and overwhelm the latter.


    The glaive had no Counterflow ability, but Jirni''s needles were born as a tool of coercion. With enough time and the right placement, they could turn a body inside out. And that back when they were just pieces of metal in Jirni''s hands.


    Now the needles had a quasi-sentience willing to assist its master in fine-tuning the multiple enchantments that Orion had imbued into the weapon.


    "And she''s not on her own." Friya activated her Dimensional Ruler spell, filling the cell with golden sparkles of light that bent space to her whims.


    Her multi-colored hair whipped through the air as she flooded them with mana, ready to Dominate any spell the moment the elf weaved them.


    "The pin will act as a beacon. Even if somehow the World Tree drags you inside the Fringe and seals the opening before our arrival, I''d be capable of locating you even if the Tree relocates on the moon."


    "Thanks, Yaga." Lith appointed it on the lapel of his Magus Robe and hid the four pieces of the Menadion Set under his Voidwalker armor. "What about Aylen and our skeletal friends."


    "Locked and loaded." Baba Yaga grunted. "And I mean literally. There''s no way in Mogar I let them roam my tower."


    "Phase one is a go." Lith yelled, his voice roaring through the place. "Sharing our respective strategies will have to wait until we reach our destination. There''s not a moment to waste. Follow me."


    Each group had prepared their best battle strategies and underhanded tricks, but they had refused to disclose them. After all, the whole mission was a huge maybe, based on the assumption that Lith located an access point to the World Tree''s Fringe.


    No one wanted to expose their secrets to potential future rivals unless it was absolutely necessary.


    Lith understood and empathized with his allies so much that despite his predicament he couldn''t get angry at them.


    ''I''m already asking them to fight and risk their lives for me. Anything more would be madness.'' He thought while walking through the dimensional tunnel.


    He moved to the four corners of the Blood Desert, stopping each time for a few seconds to adjust his readings.


    "You there, bring me to the farthest coordinates in that direction." Lith ordered the desk clerk while pointing north-northeast.


    "The farthest in the Empire or the Kingdom?" The middle-aged man asked after checking his runescreen. "Because they are both in that direction."


    "Kingdom first, Empire second. Lock on the second set of coordinates already." Lith replied.


    ''In the Tree''s shoes, I''d set my domain as far as possible from the Guardians'' turfs to avoid notice. Like in one of the many free countries at the borders of the three great countries.''


    The clerk of the Mage Association had a heart attack when Lith walked unannounced through the Warp Gate. According to the news, he had recovered from his madness but the woman was aware that when politics were involved, news and truth seldom overlapped.


    "Still too far. Next." Lith walked back and the passage closed while the alarm still blared and a second clerk administered first aid to the woman.