Supreme Magus

Too much darkness energy and the deformed metal would turn into a puddle, deforming the coin beyond Lith's and Solus' current ability to fix it and earning them a fresh start.

It took two days for Lith and Solus to complete the lessons and when they did Menadion introduced them to an even greater challenge.

"Congratulations! We are almost done with crystals." She handed them Adamant coins with blue crystals and once those were successfully Dismantled, she replaced the Adamant with Davross and the blue crystals with violet ones.

"No!" Lith cursed in all the languages he knew. "Fuck, no! There is almost no healthy metal left. Due to the Davross' high mana conductivity, the violet crystal has formed a small but complex mana circulatory system by itself!"

"It sure did." Menadion said with a smug grin on her face. "Don't get too excited. Wait to see what a white crystal does. That will truly put your sanity to the test."

"Mom!" Solus clenched her own head in frustration. "This is cruel. Can't we take a break?"

"Sure." Menadion nodded. "I'm certain Meln won't mind waiting while you two take a nap."

Lith and Solus cursed like sailors and went back to work.

Yet the creativity and rich vocabulary they demonstrated paled in comparison with the mastery over Dragontongue, Tyris' universal language, and English swear words they demonstrated the following day when Menadion handed them a Davross coin bonded to a white crystal.

"There is no fucking healthy metal left! Nothing!" Lith blurted out in horror.

"Don't be dramatic. I'm certain there's- Fuck, there's not!" Solus refused to believe her own Invigoration technique but when the Eyes of Menadion confirmed her readings, she had to accept the truth.

"I'm taking a break." Lith stood up. "I'm too frustrated and have no idea how to move forward. I need time to think and unwind."

"Excellent idea. All things must be done in moderation. Never neglect your family over work. I'll come with you." Menadion gave him a congratulatory pat on the shoulder.

"Why when I say that I'm a slacker but when he says it, he's a wise man?" Solus snarled at the apparent favoritism.

"Because you were giving up without even trying whereas Lith has recognized he has reached his limits. There's a big difference." Menadion replied. "Past that point, it's not research but torture and it would yield sub-par results at best."

"Whatever." Solus grunted. "As long as I get some rest."

The moment she left the tower, Lith shoved the last three Awakened in the Bleed before going home.

'She's full of energy from studying in the tower and with me close, Solus won't consume much stamina to keep her human form until tomorrow morning.' He thought.

Lith spent the rest of the day with Kamila, the kids, and his mother. Elina's mood was improving by the day. The peace and safety of her house did wonders for her nerves.

On the following day, Lith and Solus returned to the tower early in the morning to tackle the final challenge. Removing the white crystal took time and effort, but after working their way up from the red to the violet, it was just a matter of fine-tuning their technique.

The real problem was restoring the Davross. There was no healthy metal left to use as a base and with the enchanted metal's hardness and self-regenerative properties, there were countless possible configurations the Davross could assume.

Lith and Solus had learned from experience that using random proportions of light and darkness elements always resulted in a mess so they spent the first two hours just studying their coins.

'Wait a second!' Solus' eyes widened as a crazy thought ran through her head. 'What if the final test is understanding that the only way to restore the Davross is to destroy it completely? After all, Creation Magic is like having a portable Forge, and Davross self-repairs.

'If I'm right, all I need is light magic to create a coin-shaped mold and darkness magic to break all bonds.' Solus coated her coin in a paper-thin construct that preserved the shape of the coin and then infused it with darkness magic.

She poured more and more until the Davross turned into a fine silvery powder. Then, she slowly retrieved the darkness element, recreating the conditions of a molten metal cooling down.

The final result was an uneven, grainy, and overall ugly-looking coin.

'Fuck!' Before starting over, she checked the coin with Invigoration again to search for clues. 'Gods, yes! It's not all wrong. The Davross that condensed at the start of the process is perfect. I have my answer.'

Solus repeated the process but this time she retrieved a bit of darkness magic and waited a bit before retrieving more. This way she didn't miss the turning point when the Davross' self-repairing properties managed to overcome the darkness element by forming the strongest metal bonds possible.

She kept the flow of darkness element stable and, in the span of a few seconds, she was holding a shiny, mint-fresh-looking coin.

"Great job, sweetie! The fat bird knows where the juiciest worms are." Menadion peppered Solus' head with kisses.

"Thank you, Mom." Solus embraced her. "Was the fat bird part really necessary, though?"

Menadion squeezed Solus' chubby sides before answering: "Yes."

Lith chuckled at the joke and pondered what he had just seen.

'I was too focused on my coin to use Life Vision on Solus' work. On top of that, it would have been cheating. I want to do this on my own, like she did.' He thought.

After some deep thinking and a few minutes, he was holding a shiny Davross coin as well.

"This was hard. Damn hard." Lith panted.

"Say that only once you can do that ten times out of ten." Menadion gave him another coin. "Again."

A few more minutes later, Solus and Lith were done.

"Excellent work." Menadion studied the two piles of ten coins. "It's amazing how quickly you are able to perform high-quality Creation Magic once you understand the right technique. Your foundations were weak but your diligent practice still paid off."

"Why?" Solus panted. "How long did it take you to do the same?"

"Me?" Menadion put her hand on her heart. "I'm a genius, dear. I failed to understand Creation Magic for a hundred-odd years but once I did, I could perform perfect Creation Magic from the moment I became a Demon."

"Fine." Solus sighed in envy. "What's next?"

"Rest, sweetie." Menadion shook her head. "Tomorrow, we move on to runes, a similar yet different subject. I want you well-rested and to have assimilated everything we've done so far by then."

Lith raised no objection, only wishing to take a long, hot bath with Kamila and spend the rest of the day in bed with her. She happily granted his request but made Lith spend time with the babies and Elina during and after every meal.

"I know you are tired, but your mother needs you and you don't want to be an absent father, do you?" She asked.

"No." Lith replied. "I only wish there were 48 hours in a day."

"We all do." She chuckled.

When he returned to the tower Lith was still a bit tired but in high spirits. Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire