Supreme Magus novel Chapter 509

"Bravo. You killed the monsters. Monsters that treated us better than this fucking city ever did. When my daughter fell ill, there was no Healer, because my fellow citizens drove him away." Each of the farmer’s words was coated with venom and spite.

"My wife fell ill while taking care of the baby, yet no one did anything. I was forced to leave Maekosh on my cart, hoping to find a Healer before death claimed them. I found the wargs instead.

"Can you believe it? Monsters took pity on me when even my own kin betrayed me." Lith could see the man’s life fading away with every breath he took, yet his hatred was stronger than death.

"They cured them. Cured me of my humanity, making us all stronger. Now they are dead and so are we. I regret killing those farmers, they had done nothing wrong. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"When our alpha died, Etta and I lost our minds. The bond between wargs is something that a murderer like you could never understand." His breath became ragged, his voice barely a whisper.

"The wargs just wanted food and shelter. Is that so wrong? To try to escape from cold and starvation? Did my family deserve to die just so that fucking Baroness could pin a medal to your chest?"

Lith didn’t reply. He had walked more than one mile in the dying farmer’s shoes and knew that nothing he could say would matter to the man. Nothing would give the man his family back.

***

Free country of Lamarth. Beyond the eastern borders of the Gorgon Empire.

’Thank the gods I Warped both Xenagroshs outside my lab. According to an old saying, when two Guardians fight, maps get redrawn. Yet I believe the same can be said for Eldritchs!’

The real Xenagrosh had the advantage of being able to shapeshift her body at will, the wisdom of centuries, and most of her magical artifacts. Unfortunately, the troll Xenagrosh still seemed to be able to hold her ground.

Trolls were naturally attuned with the light element and it was their inability to process the darkness element in the surrounding world energy that had led their race to their fallen status.

Abominations, however, had a black core that was naturally rich with darkness and incapable of assimilating the light element if it wasn’t leeched from other life forms. The Master’s experiment had created a being with both the troll’s and the Abomination’s mana core, thriving together in a symbiotic relationship.

Their complementary nature had made the troll Xenagrosh into an almost perfect being. To make matters worse, by devouring her whole tribe, she had regained most of her original self’s memories.

Also, before making her appearance she had taken the precaution of "liberating" from Xenagrosh’s pocket dimension all of the artifacts she could get her hands on. She had got the first choice of which ones to use for this battle, but unlike the real Xenagrosh, she didn’t know the strengths and weaknesses of each enchanted item.

The Master needed all of their energy and arrays just to prevent their battle from being detected from afar, since the destruction they caused had turned hills into plains and grasslands into barren lands.

The Master knew that unless one of them made a blatant mistake, their clash was likely to raze the entire country of Lamarth to the ground.

"Don’t worry, old friend." The Master yelled at Xenagrosh. "As soon as I finish setting up this array, we will take down that knock off copy, together!"