CHAPTER 84: A RISKY PLAN

The next day Calen finished his job way ahead of schedule - he was getting really good at precisely controlling the flame, and his purification has become so efficient that he could now do it three or four times without taking a break.

Sylara told him that he could go back to the fortress but he stayed, both to observe Elira’s training and to ask her about the potential sabotage.

Speaking of Elira, her task for today was to do the same thing she did with memories, but in real time on a plant she wasn’t physically in contact with - an ability that would make her a perfect scout.

Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t going very well, controlling a plant she wasn’t touching was possible indirectly through the nature domain, bu she had no idea how to connect to a distant plant directly.

The only guidance she received from Sylara was to ’forget about physical form and use the divine power directly’.

Calen was a bit curious whether his power could be used in a similar manner - could he cause that a tree standing hundred meters from him would spontaneously combust?

He would have to test it somewhere safe - while setting his enemies on fire was out of question considering both his power and the fact that sentient beings could resist his influence, it had other possible uses - remotely setting off explosives, trapping people with walls of fire, or even just creating light in large dark spaces.

"You wanted to talk to me about something?" Sylara’s words ended his deliberations.

"Yeah, but don’t you have an apprentice to teach?"

His eyes fell on the alchemist who was currently sitting in a meditative position with closed eyes and furrowed brows.

"She’ll be like that for a while, it’s better if she does it with as little help as possible." Sylara smiled. "So? What did you want to ask me about?"

"I’m surprised that you don’t already know, I thought you could see and hear everything in the city, and I discussed this with my friends."

"Believe it or not, I don’t spy on people while they’re in private, I only use my observation for things happening in the open, or as official city business." She chuckled. "So I truly have no idea what you have in mind - although I can try guessing if you want."

"That won’t be necessary." He assured her, and quickly explained yesterday’s conversation and his idea.

"Hmmmm..." Sylara hummed. "If you were to succeed it would guarantee that we could transport the city before they find us..."

"But?"

"But I think you’re underestimating the Blightborn - they’re cruel and violent, yes, but they’re also intelligent and cunning, they won’t fall for half-baked tricks."

"Do you have an alternative idea?"

"I do actually - I think we should kidnap one of them."

Calen stared at her as if she started speaking in a different language.

"Did... did I hear that right? You want to abduct a Blightborn - which you can’t even trust us to trick? Are you feeling well?"

Sylara just laughed.

"Oh, I’m okay don’t worry. It might sound like an insane plan, but I have been thinking about doing something like this for quite a while, and have some things already set up."

"...may I ask why would you want to do that?"

"Capturing a living Blightborn is quite difficult on account of how they tend to kill themselves whenever they’re catched - but I, or should I say Martha and Joel, very recently found a way to prevent them from doing so."

"Really?"

"Yes, they got the idea while working with the domain fragment from the dagger - I can’t say I understand the specifics of how it works, but the gist of it is that the device uses Blight against itself, to stop the Serakhiin from internally destroying themselves."

"Okay, but even assuming that thing will work, do you even have a way to keep them inside the city? I’m pretty sure the barrier will kill them anyway if you try bringing them in."

"They also prepared a special cell for that purpose - look, I have it covered, do you want my help or not?"

Calen was surprised this was the first time Sylara was somewhat annoyed at someone who wasn’t her direct subordinate - she probably wasn’t accustomed to people questioning her this much.

"Alright, what’s your plan?"

"Locating the Blightborn scouts shouldn’t be an issue, it should take me only a few moments of I focus. Once we know where their outpost is you’ll need to approach it without them noticing."

"That shouldn’t be too difficult, they can’t sense illusions and their pets that can are busy searching the place, so as long as we’re quiet we can just stroll up to their base."

"They might leave one at the outpost just in case." Sylara pointed out. "If that happens you should try you should try destroying its eye - that will pacify it completely."

"How do you know that?"

"Corrupted or not, they’re still living creatures - anyone with connection to nature and experienced at using it could tell their weak points."

"Sure - what next?"

"Next I’ll create a distraction for their pets - one of them will rush out of the base, and your task will be to knock him out, and drag him to the city. I’ll take care of the rest."

Calen thought about the plan, it seemed doable, especially since they will outnumber their target four to one, but one important question still remained.

"You never answered what you actually want to do with the Serakhiin one you have them."

"Isn’t it obvious?" Sylara chuckled. "Now that we are able to completely purify creatures, I want to see what they really are once you take away the corruption."

"Is it even possible to purify a fully corrupted creature? The ones we worked with had barely any Blight in them."

"It will be much more difficult, yes, but it should be possible - an if it’s not then oh well, I’m not feel bad for a being that invaded and desecrated my home..."

Surprisingly, the last part lacked much conviction - almost as if she was convincing herself it was true.

Calen heard this sentiment from others before and never really questioned it, because why would he? It makes perfect sense to offer no sympathy to someone who took part in the destruction of your world.

But now things were slightly different, if the Blightborn were truly also corrupted, it meant that they were victims as well - unwilling accomplices forced to do the bidding of malevolent force.

If there was a way to purify them, he should strive to do this, even if some may die in those attempts.

"We will execute the plan tomorrow after you’re done with purification." Sylara stated. "The experiment with the Blightborn will have to wait until after the festival though."

Calen frowned.

"Huh? Why?"

"Because you’re too weak to attempt to purify a sapient fully corrupted creature - I’m fact you could get hurt while trying to do so, which means we’ll wait until after the ritual."

"I thought the ritual won’t directly increase my power though?"

"It won’t." She nodded. "But it will dramatically improve your control and efficiency of using the flame - currently your working with at most 10% of what the flame of this size could potentially achieve, so the jump in your actual power will be quite significant."

"You mean I will be ten times as stronger as before?!" Calen’s eyes almost jumped out of their sockets.

"Eventually yes, but not right away - after the ritual your output will jump to 40, maybe 50%, and then gradually increase until its maxed out."

"That’s still an insane increase in power, are the next rituals as good?"

"They’re better, and you don’t even know half of what the first ritual does - don’t ask me to explain though, I’ll go over everything before we start the ritual."

"It sounds almost to good to be true."

"You’re on a road to divinity Calen." Sylara sighed. "Your path will be fraught with both power and danger, and both of them will increase exponentially with every step you take."

"...what about my companions then? They are not guaranteed to grow in power as I do, will the danger be too much for them at some point?"

His gaze fell on Elira, who was still frozen in the same position, but with a noticeably calmer expression.

"There are many ways to gain power, and believe it or not, being a Flamebearer is not the only option for getting closer to divinity."

"I know there used to be champions of different domains, but they were appointed by gods, and the gods have been missing for quite a long time." Calen said. "Unless you know where they’re hiding I don’t think it’s an option."

Sylara observed him for a bit before answering:

"Gods are not the only ones who can be in charge of a domain."

"What?"

She chuckled.

"You’ll understand soon enough."