"The immortal army?"
Eldrian's lips, which had just been curled in a mocking sneer, suddenly froze at the weight of these two words. His ocean-blue eyes widened in shock, and the mask of indifference on his face shattered in seconds. Nothing had shaken him like this in centuries. Shaking his head, he took a clumsy step backward.
"That's ridiculous..." Eldrian whispered, his voice cutting through the heavy silence of the courtyard. Then, raising his voice, he frowned at Yuria. "I hope you're lying, Yuria! This is impossible. When Devranna died that day... when she breathed her last in that mud, shouldn't all her power have perished with her?"
Yuria, as always, responded to her old friend's shock and denial with icy composure. She held her head slightly high. "No," Yuria said, her voice firm and unshakable. "Our powers are not tied to our bodies of flesh and bone, but directly to our souls, Eldrian. Devranna's body may have been destroyed that day, but her soul did not die. As I told you, her soul had already been reborn into a new body long ago. It was only in such a deep sleep that it could not bear the weight of that power."
Yuria paused for a brief moment, remembering the ancient, overwhelming aura that surged from within Auren in that bloody, muddy forest on that night. "And a short time ago," Yuria continued, "that soul truly awakened".
When Eldrian heard these words, he ran his hands through his hair and wiped his face. He took a deep, troubled breath. As the shock wave within him gradually receded, it began to be replaced by the weariness and hopeless despair he had accumulated over centuries. He chuckled in an annoying, hysterical way.
"So what?" Eldrian said, spreading his arms and gesturing to the luxurious but pitch-black mansion around him. "Fine... Devranna has returned, an immortal army, this and that... What do you want me to do with this? What do you want from me, Yuria?"
Eldrian's steps quickened with anger, and he stood right in front of Yuria. The blue fire in his eyes flared up again, but this time, there was no desire to fight inside, only a desire to hide. "You're living your life just fine, go rot in that cave of yours, in that dark corner! Why do you come here and ruin my damn peace?" he shouted. His voice echoed in this isolated courtyard at the bottom of the ocean.
Then, he suddenly lowered his voice. As his anger gave way to pure, greedy despair, he pointed a finger at Yuria. "I already told you what I wanted," Eldrian hissed through his teeth. "If you expect something from me, give me an Anima weapon. It's the only thing that can bypass those damn runes and stand against the power in the hands of the heirs! Give me that weapon that can return at least a fraction of my old power... If you give it, then maybe I'll do whatever you say".
"An Anima weapon will not restore your old power, Eldrian," Yuria said, crushing his last remaining scraps of hope with the unshakable, brutal reality in her voice. "As long as the heirs do not die, you will never be able to use that ancient power. Furthermore, Anima weapons would instantly crush the soul of someone like you in your current weakened state. Those weapons are too dangerous to be controlled... And they will remain sealed and hidden until the end of the world".
The last fire in Eldrian's ocean-blue eyes died out completely with these words. His face contorted with anger, disappointment, and the despair brought on by centuries. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Shrugging his shoulders violently, he turned his back to Yuria.
"Fine... Then get the hell out of here now!" he roared. His voice was so loud that it echoed off the marble walls of the courtyard, and even the giant shadows swimming in the pitch-black waters outside the dome paused for a moment. He quickened his pace while pointing at the exit door with his hand. "Leave me alone in my own hell!"
"No," Yuria said. She didn't raise her voice at all, but the heavy, commanding tone she used was enough to nail Eldrian's feet to the marble floor. "You will find Devranna for me".
Eldrian stood frozen in place. Taking a deep breath and rubbing his throbbing forehead with two fingers, he slowly turned toward Yuria. He had a weary, exhausted, and pathetic smile on his face.
"What will you do, Yuria?" he asked with a mocking tone, shaking his head. "You'll find Devranna, go and take down a few of the Heirs, and then make her build that famous immortal army of hers? I really don't know what dream world you are living in, but I'm sure... you'll lose again. You'll fall again into the bottomless pit you keep dragging us into".
Yuria never lowered her shields against Eldrian's accusatory and mocking words. On the contrary, she closed the last few steps between them and stood right in front of her old friend. The weight of her invisible, piercing gaze behind the black-green eye patch descended onto Eldrian's shoulders. "My goal is not to find Devranna and start a new war," Yuria said, her voice filled with a maturity brought by centuries and an icy acceptance. "Our era is over, Eldrian. I know this. My only goal is to find her before Valerith does".
As the weary expression on Eldrian's face vanished in seconds, Yuria delivered the final blow: "Because if that bitch Valerith finds her before us... then you can completely forget about this gilded rat hole you're hiding in, the cave I've taken refuge in, and the peace and comfort you've given up everything for".
Eldrian was not the least bit startled by Yuria's warning. On the contrary, the dark despair in his ocean-blue eyes gave way to a sick, reckless joy. He spread his arms and smiled mockingly, looking at the pitch-black darkness on the ceiling of the courtyard. "Let her find her," he said in a relaxed, even provocative tone. "She'll make Devranna her slave too. She'll lock her in her dungeons, have her breed like a dog with others, and transfer that immense power to her own loyal servants. Valerith is a goddess, after all; she can do anything. Moreover, our dear people will gladly support this..." Eldrian paused, curling his lip, and bowed his head mockingly. "Pardon, her own people will gladly support this filth to the very end".
Eldrian took slow steps to walk around Yuria. His gaze was condescending and filled with pain. "I don't know what Valerith would do to me if she found me..." he muttered. "But she wouldn't even deign to spit in my face after looking at my current pathetic, dog-like state, I'm sure. But you..." Eldrian stopped and grinned, looking directly at Yuria's black-green eye patch. "She'll make you a bitch, Yuria. She'll hang you in the city's largest square, and everyone passing by will spit on your face..." Before he could finish his words, he let out an annoying, dark laugh that slammed against the courtyard walls.
Before that laugh had even ended, the temperature of the courtyard suddenly dropped below zero. Lavinia's ocean-blue eyes shone with pure insanity, and the blue flames streaming from her fingertips had transformed into a giant death scythe in seconds. "My Lady!" roared Lavinia through her teeth. The mana in her body was so dense that the marble floor around her began to crack. "Allow me to cut off this disgusting man's head and throw it at your feet right now!"
Despite this storm swirling around her and the heavy insults directed at her, Yuria didn't even flinch. The unshakable expression on her face hadn't moved a millimeter. "No, Lavinia," Yuria said, her voice as flat and soulless as ever. "Calm down".
As Lavinia reluctantly withdrew her blue flames, Aelrindel's emerald eyes, which had been listening to the conversation silently until that moment, widened. The old elf's mind had become fixated on a horrific detail in the disgusting sentence Eldrian had just uttered. He stepped forward, striking his staff hard against the ground. "My Lady..." Aelrindel said, a dread he could not hide in his voice. "That man... he knows about the transfer of power from gene to gene".
Eldrian stopped his laughter at Aelrindel's realization and grinned mockingly. He snapped his fingers arrogantly. "Of course I would know, you old geezer! What did you take me for?" Eldrian boasted. There was no trace of his pathetic state left; his centuries-old arrogance had surfaced once again. "I am one of the first beings in the world to have special powers! No one knows better than I do how blood and power are passed down as a legacy".
Lavinia had extinguished her flames completely and turned to Aelrindel with a frown. "What is he talking about? What power transfer?" Aelrindel shook his head, his face heavy with the burden of an age-old secret. "This is not the time, Lavinia. This is a very long and dangerous matter... I will tell you when we return".
Just in that brief second when Eldrian, with his arms smugly crossed over his chest, opened his mouth to say something else, Yuria's voice literally froze all the air in the courtyard. There was no mana fluctuation, but her words were sharper than a sword and deeper than an abyss.
"Eldrian," Yuria said. She didn't take a step, she just turned her head slightly toward him. "I did not grant you a choice regarding what you want to do or what you will not do. You will find Devranna".
As the rogue smirk on Eldrian's face slowly faded, Yuria delivered the final blow: "If you don't find her... I will come by here again before Valerith does. Don't you worry about that at all".