Supreme Magus novel Chapter 2262

"Change of plans. I want you in the field, but your priority is finding and capturing Phloria Ernas. Whoever succeeds and brings her to me will become my heir. Hand her to Verhen yourself and I'll have your head. Lotho out."

The plant representative couldn't miss the opportunity to be the first among his peers to learn Blade Magic. It would strengthen his faction and give him the edge that plant folk needed to come out of the beasts' shadow.

***

Golden Griffon, at the same time.

Thrud was studying the map around Phogia, trying to predict Lith's strategy and foil his plan.

The city hadn't been built over a nearby geyser because the closest one was located on the cliff of a deep canyon and too distant from solid ground to be accessible from the trading routes.

"You are the one who knows Verhen the best. What do you think he will do?" Thrud asked.

"He only possesses a basic understanding of military tactics. Between the two of them, Solus is the smart one but she never cared to study strategy. She's a magic enthusiast who knows very little about anything outside of her Forge." Phloria pondered.

"Taking that into account along with Lith's paranoia and the fact he knows I'm your prisoner, he's just going to repeat the previous strategy. The geyser will fuel the tower which in turn will fuel his Blade Spell.

"This way, he gets to keep playing the rest of his cards close to the vest and to test how you react to his display of force. He knows that you know so he can play around that."

"It's damn convoluted but makes sense." Thrud scratched her chin.

"That's Lith in a nutshell." Phloria replied with a smile. "My advice is to have your Generals ambush him near the geyser. Blade Tier spells are slow and if you mess with that, there's not much that Lith can do from such a distance."

"My thoughts exactly." The Mad Queen nodded, appreciating Phloria's input and the Unwavering Loyalty array's prowess.

Phloria's face twitched and her eyes cried, yet she kept helping Thrud to the best of her abilities.

***

Outskirts of the city of Phogia, a few minutes later.

Just like Phloria had predicted, Lith landed right on top of the mana geyser.

He had planned his attack path so to exploit the natural sources of world energy. They allowed him to recover his strength quickly and use strategies that only someone who possessed a tower could employ.

'What a damn freak of nature.' He inwardly cursed as the ground slipped under the back of his feet.

Half of the mana geyser was almost one hundred meters (328') below, in the middle of the gorge while the other half flowed through the ridge right under Lith.

It was the reason even Wardens had given up on building Phogia there. They would have needed to move thousands of tons of rocks to fill the canyon and then perform a miracle of magic to keep everything stable.

'Yeah, but look at the bright side. If this wasn't so bad, we wouldn't have the geyser all for ourselves.' Solus replied.