Supreme Magus

"What do you mean? I know how it works. I store a spell and then I cast it." Tista replied.

"Yes, that's one of the powers of the Mouth but not the only one." Solus chuckled.

"Really?" Lith and Tista said in unison. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because until now I didn't know either." Solus shrugged. "While we waited for the Thievery to stabilize, I had the Eyes focus solely on Tista's Mouth. That's how I learned about another of its interesting functions."

The Apprentice's Eyes were devised to be incapable of analyzing any of Menadion's masterpieces. It was a safety measure to ensure that the disciple who owned the Eyes could not use them to reproduce the other pieces of the Set if not the tower itself.

"How could we miss it for so long and how could you study the Mouth so quickly?" Lith asked.

"It was actually an overlook on our part." Solus sighed. "We tried to study our Mouth with our Eyes but got nothing because it's still incomplete. Tista's, instead, has all of its functions but since Fyrwal explained to us how it works, we assumed there was nothing else to learn.

"I performed the scan on a whim, hoping that the collected information might speed up the recovery of the tower since the various floors are linked to our Set of Menadion. Of course, it didn't work.

"What happened, instead, is that by using the information already available about our Mouth as a base, the Thievery had to scan only for the missing part, which wasn't actually much.

"Like the blade in the Hands, the Mouth has a hidden function as well. I hypothesize that my mother taught about them solely to the disciple to whom she had gifted each piece and that these functions were lost to time because the various pieces were never passed down.

"They were stolen and I bet that no mage is willing to reveal such a secret to their murderer."

"What does the Mouth also do?" Tista asked.

"More importantly, can ours do it as well?" Lith added, drawing his sister's glare.

"Respectively, let me talk and partly." Solus tutted them both. "As I said, the pieces of our set will remain incomplete until all the relative floors are recovered."

Then, she turned to Tista.

"To answer your question properly, the Mouth can store not only spells but also enchantments."

"Isn't that almost the same thing?" Tista was puzzled.

"Not quite. The stored spells still need to be cast, albeit way faster than usual, and they tap into your mana. The temporary enchantments of the Mouth, instead, activate instantly and tap into the energy reserve of its power core." Solus explained.

"It means that you can imbue the Mouth with a Spirit Barrier if you want additional protection. A healing spell if you think you'll face a hard battle. If the first enchantment is akin to having an extra casting method, the second is like having multiple spell-holding rings of all tiers."

Tista's face lit up in a smile as she realized what it meant.

"Can I add enchantments of every type? Even Spirit Spells?" She asked, receiving a nod in reply. "How many enchantments can the Mouth store?"

"Yours, three. Ours, one." Solus replied.

"Why so few?" Tista said with a tinge of disappointment in her voice.

"Because they are enchantments, not spells." Solus said and once she noticed the confusion on her friend's face, she added: "You have to Forgemaster the enchantments every time you change the Mouth's properties and consume ingredients, if necessary.

"Also, too many extra enchantments would clash with the power core of the Mouth with disastrous consequences. Three is not a small number if you consider you can add all kinds of powerful spells and skip all the Forgemastering preparatory phases.

"Last, but not least, don't forget that the more powerful an enchantment is, the more energy it consumes. If you abuse them, the Mouth will run out of energy and you will lose all of its functions."

"I see." Lith examined the tower's Mouth, giving it a simple enchantment and then erasing it. "I think the Mouth is the fruit of Menadion's studies to achieve Creation Magic.

"It offers no resistance to our mana since it already bears our imprint and unless we use ingredients, it allows us to experiment with new ideas without wasting materials. For someone without access to a Creation Mage, the Mouth is something worth killing for."

Lith stared at Tista with a cold glare, his voice stern.

"I know." She sighed. "I won't flaunt it around and I'll leave no witnesses alive."

"Good girl." Lith ruffled her hair. "I don't mean to be harsh. It's just that this kind of power comes with a huge burden. Think about what happened to all those who possessed a single piece of Menadion's Set."

"Yeah, about that." Solus tugged at his arm. "Do you think that Vastor learned about the hidden function of the Mouth before returning it to us?"

"Honestly? I bet he does but I hope he doesn't."

***

In the end, they decided to wait for two days before attempting anything. One day to let Nalrond and the tower recover and another just to be safe.

"If you don't feel like watching while I hurt myself, you can leave the room, Friya." Nalrond sighed. "I asked for Quylla's help because I didn't want you to see me like that."

"I'm going to stay, thank you." She replied with conviction, yet her face paled a bit. "Couldn't you just pass your vitality instead of opening wounds? The effect should be the same with no blood or pain."

"I know, but I can't get out of my head that if it wasn't important, Mogar wouldn't have shown it to me both times I went to the Fringe. In the images, my life forces fought against each other, creating mirror wounds.

"It has to be a clue."

"Maybe." Quylla pondered before offering him a hand for a mind link. "Let me see the visions again."

Nalrond wasn't the only one who had entered the Mindspace so she asked Lith and even Morok to show her everything they remembered.

"Any idea?" Nalrond asked in hope.

"No, but sure it didn't hurt." Quylla blushed in embarrassment as soon as the words came out of her mouth. "No pun intended."

"None taken." Nalrond said with a thin smile. "Man, I wish the tower had a Hospital, a Resurrection Chamber, or something."

The procedure was going to take place in the Heart of the tower, where the mystical formations were stored and could be instantly activated by Lith and Solus. Since it was just a test run, there was no need for the Hands and the Mouths had been filled with life-saving spells in case Nalrond messed up.

Lith wore the Apprentice's Eyes while Faluel in her humanoid hybrid form wore the Master's. The synch between the relics would allow Lith to gain instant understanding via the mind link without suffering any burden on his focus.

Shouldering it rested on Faluel's seven heads.

The process was relatively simple. Nalrond would tire both his blue cores by using the strongest spells at his disposal until he was inches from suffering the effects of mana abuse.

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