Meanwhile, Rygar and Verdia were late. But there was a good reason for it.
While everyone was gathering in their home, the two were floating tens of meters above the ground, enveloped in a storm of lightning that tore the sky with thunder and light.
The wind whistled around, and the magical energy in the air made the hairs on their bodies stand on end.
Lightning danced around them like luminous serpents, but neither Rygar nor Verdia showed fear. They were completely focused.
Rygar had changed a lot over the past year. He was even taller, finally showing signs that his growth was coming to an end.
His body was defined and lean, but it emanated an almost infinite power. His face retained attractive features, but his severe expression made him look like a relentless warrior.
Anyone who saw him would mistake him for an intimidating general, or perhaps a Yakuza boss.
His silver hair was long and tied in a simple ponytail, while the traditional mantle of the Sword Sanctuary billowed under the storm.
Verdia, on the other hand, had not changed much in appearance. The only noticeable difference was in her hair.
Verdia's hair was still stunning, but now it looked merely lustrous — like golden silk gleaming under the flashes of the storm.
But before, her golden strands emitted a slight and mystical golden light, as if they shone with magic of their own. Now, that glow had vanished.
The glow that Rygar discovered to be the source of the curse that afflicted all who knew of Verdia's powers.
Rygar had dedicated a lot of time over the past year trying to understand the workings and rules behind Verdia's power.
He developed many theories over the months; however, none of the hypotheses led to a definitive answer.
The only conclusion Rygar reached was that he did not need to understand the source to deal with the problem.
He just needed to find a way to cope with the mysterious light.
And that's exactly what he did.
Using the knowledge of divine magics and magical barriers of the continent of Milis, Rygar embarked on a project with Verdia.
Both tested various possibilities and created more than fifty different magic circles — all flawed. None of them managed to interfere with the light.
It passed through everything, as if it did not belong to that world. It was like trying to catch a reflection with your hands.
It was only two months ago that they found the right path in one of the ancient magics of the Kingdom of Milis.
Based on it, Rygar and Verdia developed an Emperor-Level Barrier. And he modified it to block only the light, and nothing else.
When everything was ready, Verdia passed through the barrier. At that very instant, the light separated from her, as if being pulled out.
It flickered and writhed, trying to remain attached to its bearer. But it failed. It was as if the barrier had identified the light as an independent entity.
The light was imprisoned.
Rygar then wasted no time.
Using the same technique with which he had severed the "karma" that tried to infect him a year ago, he destroyed it completely, disintegrating it definitively.
It may sound simple when put into words. But in practice, each step of that process was a climb between logic and the impossible.
But they succeeded.
After that, they conducted meticulous tests for weeks. Verdia used all kinds of magic, and tested her abilities.
The golden light did not return.
She was still in doubt whether her Future Visions remained, since she had not had any since then.
Despite that, she was now more powerful than ever. And at that moment, Rygar was controlling the flow of mana within her body.
Before the war, Rygar and Verdia had agreed to use the alternative method to teach Verdia enchantment-free magic.
The experiment had failed with Ghislaine.
Although she had managed to control the Magic Power Demon Eye, she lacked the theoretical knowledge and experience with high-level magics to master spells without chants.
Verdia, however, was different. Using this method, she managed to cast a Elementary-level Wind magic without chant in three weeks of training.
The process was both simple and incredibly complicated: Rygar guided Verdia's mana through the paths that the magic had to follow, without her reciting the chant.
All she needed to do was memorize the exact sensation.
The beginning was frustrating. The results seemed unremarkable, but they persisted. And when Verdia managed to perform the first chantless magic, everything flowed better.
Rygar used his Demon Eyes to observe and identify exactly where she was erring, correcting each detail with surgical precision.
Still, progress was slow and steady. Verdia had spent five hundred years using magic the traditional way.
Getting rid of such ancient habits was almost like trying to unlearn breathing.
Rygar was convinced that success was only possible because Verdia was already extremely talented with magic, and because he himself had become an absolute master of mana control.
Verdia had greater affinity with Wind and Water Magic, with Earth slightly behind.
Her affinity with Fire magic was visibly lower, so she focused her efforts on the first three. After several months, she was already able to cast them without needing guidance.
With that, Verdia reached a new level.
Before that, she was already a formidable foe. Her experience, precision, timing, magic items, and speed made her extremely dangerous.
She was a natural strategist, and her prediction in combat had already been the end of many enemies. Her magic cloak made her invulnerable to certain attacks, and her sword could blind opponents.
Her magic circles with complex barriers added even more layers of protection.
But now, with chantless magic, she was a different person.
And more: she had returned to training in swordsmanship. The style was the Elven swordsmanship inherited from her father. Rygar estimated that she was between the Advanced and Saint levels.
Over time, she would firmly reach the Saint level.
All of this earned her a place among the Gaia's Twelve Kings.
Even a superior swordsman would hesitate to face her.
Her magical arrows were now propelled by multiple types of magic, and her style was adaptable to any situation.
If you took a wrong step, she would crush you with unpredictable tactics.
And on that day, they were attempting something even more complex.
After hours, Verdia finally opened her blue eyes. She took a deep breath, extended her hand toward the loaded sky, and declared:
"Lightning!"
A small bolt tinkled in the air and shot out from her palm. It was weak and uncontrolled, but it was there. A smile lit up her face at that very moment.
"I did it!"
Rygar opened his eyes as well, watching her with a slight smile of pride.
"You did it…"
This was the first time Verdia had cast lightning without chant. It was a volatile energy magic, more difficult than all the previous ones.
But after months of dedication, she reached the first success.
If she could incorporate this into combat, her power would rise another tier. And then, few in the world could face her on equal terms.
Since she met Orsted and married Rygar, something had changed deeply within her.
The elf, who had always been confident and serene, began to place much more importance on her own individual strength than ever before.
Even during the war in Milis, she had never dedicated herself so much to improving her skills as in the past year.
Rygar deduced that Orsted had this effect on people.
Anyone who met him and survived the experience would either have their spirit completely crushed, or have their determination multiplied by a thousand.
Being before Orsted was like facing an insurmountable wall, an absolute and overwhelming force.
Verdia, however, was not the type to remain shaken and idle.
The last time she saw him, she had gone with the intention of facing him, but the instant she saw him, she understood she had no chance.
By some miracle that she herself still did not understand, she managed to convince him to retreat. But she never believed in her own luck.
On the contrary, for several weeks after the encounter, Verdia was paranoid.
She feared that the Dragon God would invade the Kingdom of Gaia at any moment, annihilating everyone. That fear drove her to train and improve daily, with increasing intensity.
At the same time, she began to assist Rygar in his magical research, especially those aimed at developing tools that would increase her power or that of her subordinates.
Still, under Rygar's gentle and firm influence, Verdia gradually managed to calm down.
She continued training hard, but was no longer consumed by constant paranoia. Something that helped a lot in this process was the fact that she was newly married.
Marriage to Rygar became, for her, one of the happiest experiences of her long life.
Verdia had always been different from other elves.
Most of her race preferred to live in silence, in isolated forests, with discreet habits and averse to change.
But Verdia was cheerful, vibrant, curious, and deeply adventurous.
This was also reflected in her sexual desires. It could be said, safely, that she was… quite active.
Rygar, for some reason, had imagined that as an elf, she would be more restrained in this aspect. He was completely wrong.
During the first two months of marriage, Verdia even approached him directly, asking if he did not find her as attractive as Eris or Ghislaine.
At the time, Rygar was shocked, but quickly clarified the situation.
The truth was that both were holding back, trying to respect each other's space and time. Verdia did not want to seem selfish or monopolize him.
And Rygar, for his part, was dealing with his own explosion of desire after reaching adulthood, the moment when his libido peaked and became almost impossible to control.
Knowing that Verdia also desired that was a relief to him.
Of course, Verdia's desires did not reach the same intensity as Ghislaine's or Eris's, but even so, compared to other elves and even most humans, Verdia was considered quite active.
Now that Ghislaine was pregnant, the presence of Verdia and Eris as companions made Rygar's nights much livelier.
The two were also eager to have children, which made the bond between them even stronger.
Still floating in the stormy skies of the Great Forest, after Verdia's success with chantless Lightning magic, she threw herself into Rygar's arms, smiling, and kissed him intensely.
Rygar returned the kiss gently, while beginning to dissipate the storm around them and levitating them slowly down to the ground.
Below, waiting patiently, were Linia and Pursena, sitting at a stone table created with magic.
When Rygar and Verdia finally touched the ground, Linia was the first to speak:
"Boss, we're late!"
Pursena nodded, pouty:
"Didn't you say you would come down after half an hour? It's been a whole hour!"
The two beast-princesses of the beast race were now in the middle of adolescence. They had grown and no longer appeared as children, but rather as young ladies.
However, their mischievous and impulsive attitudes had changed very little.
At one point, Rygar had considered that one of them could succeed Gustav on the throne of the Kingdom of Gaia, but, observing their actions over the past year, he was beginning to seriously doubt that.
In his view, neither of the two possessed, at that moment, the aptitude to rule such a vast and complex kingdom.
But he did not want to be too pessimistic. Gustav, his father-in-law, was about 160 years old and was still healthy. It was possible that he had another twenty or thirty years of active life ahead.
During this period, perhaps one of his children would be born with a natural talent for ruling. Linia and Pursena still could mature. Or another suitable candidate could emerge.
Verdia smiled lightly and took the blame for the delay:
"It was my fault. It happens that I finally managed to use chantless Lightning Magic!"
Pursena's eyes widened in shock:
"What?!"
Linia whistled in approval:
"Congratulations, Verdia! It seems like something exclusive to talented people! Some among us don't have that much capacit—"
Before she could finish, Pursena flew at her friend's neck, and the two began to fight on the ground as they always did.
It turns out that Linia's magical talent had always been more oriented toward offensive schools like Fire, Water, and Earth. For that reason, she already could use chantless Lightning Magic.
But Pursena specialized in support magics — Healing, Detoxification, Barrier — and had not yet managed to master the bolt.
Verdia just laughed at the situation, and Rygar, with a sigh, said:
"We're late. Stop fighting."
Immediately, Linia and Pursena got up, forgetting their grudges in that very moment. Rygar smiled and said:
"Let's go."
And then, the four began to head back home, walking under the last drops of the storm that was now dispersing in the distance.
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