"Fighting someone who holds the full power of a mana geyser is a tremendous task, but it would have been feasible if Kolga's isolation didn't delay the discovery of its horrors long enough for Myrano to complete his ritual." Xoth replied.

"You see, that thing that floats about the city it's both the source of Kolga's inhabitants' powers and an effective means of defense. Somehow, Myrano's ritual completely splits the light from the darkness element and acc.u.mulates the light in the form of a sun.

"The ritual also cracked both the mana cores and the life forces of all the people inside Kolga, making them both Myrano's prisoners and slaves. As long as they remain close to the Forbidden Sun, the cracks allow them to absorb its energy.

"Those people can live for two hundred years, keeping a youthful appearance until the moment of their death. They don't get ill and any wound is almost instantly healed.

"On top of that, the crack in their cores allows the ritual to boost their magical abilities beyond their limits, giving everyone at least a green core. On the other hand, not only does such monstrosity require constant sacrifices, but it also makes it impossible for the people of Kolga to escape.

"Outside the area of effect of the sun, they die in a matter of minutes. That's why people don't rebel. Stopping the ritual is the same as committing suicide. As for the Council, we did intervene.

"The problem is that just like the sun feeds Kolga's inhabitants, it poisons everyone else. It induces mana poisoning and accelerated aging to those who have regular bodies.

"Every time we attack the city, we have to fight against the power of the mana geyser that Myrano's descendants still control and against time. The longer we expose ourselves to the sun, the weaker we become.

"To make matters worse, all inhabitants of Kolga protect the city with their lives. Fighting an army of mages, a mana geyser, and endure the effects of the Forbidden Sun at the same time always caused our failure." Xoth said.

"We sent many scouts to gather the intelligence needed to assassinate the ruler of the city, but because of the sun, they don't have enough time to do their job before being forced to escape. To make matters worse, Kolga's language has been lost to time.

"We can shapeshift ourselves to pass as natives, but the language barrier makes it impossible for us to learn something relevant.

"We need you because thanks to your cracked life force and your Awakened core, you might be able to absorb the light element without taking damage while using Invigoration to slow down the mana poisoning.

"Moreover, thanks to your pin, you've proven to be able to talk even the language of Puppeteer Abominations. Kolga's language shouldn't be an issue. As I said in the beginning, this mission is tailor-made for you." Xoth took a pause, waiting for Lith's reply.

"What do you want me to do exactly?" He asked.

"We don't need a fighter, we need a spy. There are a few questions that need an answer before we can devise a way to get rid of Kolga once and for all. First, we never understood how the ruler of the city has such fine control over the mana geyser.

"It makes it impossible for us to use the world energy to build our arrays. The golden dome you see is fueled by mana crystals and every time it fails, the city gets bigger. We know that it's not a Forbidden Spell nor an array thanks to our surveillance.

"Second, we need to learn the details of the ritual. We just need to disrupt it once to make the Forbidden Sun crumble. Without it, the ruler of the city will die along with all of their subjects.

"Third, there is the matter of all the darkness energy generated by the ritual that is not used to keep the unliving stable. We have no idea if it's used to generate artifacts or stored to be used as a last-ditch means of offense.

"Such an energy mass couldn't disappear into thin air and if it gets released all in one go, it might have terrible consequences." Xoth said.

"I understand." Lith nodded. "Do you want me to take my companions along or do you want me to go alone?"

"I'll be honest. I'd like for you to go together. They are all Awakened, they all have pins, and by moving in a group you'll cover much more ground at the same time. Kolga is so big that a single person would take weeks to gather even scraps of information.

"If the pins of your companions can be passed onto others, however, I'd rather send more powerful Awakened. The stronger their core, the more time a person can resist the effects of the Forbidden Sun before being forced to leave Kolga or suffering permanent damage."

Lith gave his pin to the Nue, but when either of them talked, they could only hear gibberish.

"Just as I feared. They are imprinted." Xoth said after returning the pin.

"It's up to you to decide whether to accept or refuse my offer. Before answering, consider this. Kolga's Forbidden Sun might repair the cracks in your life force or at least give you back a part of the life span you lost.

"After all, your cracks are not caused by the ritual so the healing effects of the Forbidden Magic might affect you in a different way from the inhabitants of Kolga. What I'm offering to you is not only the Adamant, but also the opportunity to experience a treatment based on Forbidden Magic sanctioned by the Council."

"What if the sun makes my cracks bigger or if the pin doesn't work?" Lith asked.

"Then you are free to abandon the mission the moment you feel that something is wrong and you'd still keep your advance payment." Xogh replied while splitting the Adamant ingots into groups of two.

"Two up front and two more for each mystery your group manages to solve."

"I'll think about it." Lith left the mayor's office with his mind in such a turmoil that he almost forgot about the Adamant ingots he had come to collect.

Almost.

After putting them inside his pocket dimension, he Warped back home, making Solus assume her tower form and laying an extra set of arrays just to be safe.

"Tailor-made my pale ass! This is the real reason why Faluel sent me here." Lith said after sharing with the girls all the details of the mission. "Now I understand why she wanted to know so many things about me and my tribulations before deciding the nature of my test of wisdom."

"Yeah, it all makes sense." Phloria nodded. "She knows about the cracks in your life force and in Solus's mana core. Together you are no different from Kolga's inhabitants. You might be even able to live there if you wanted."

"I bet my ingot on Leegaain knowing about the real purpose of this visit all along. Otherwise he wouldn't have prepared a pin for Solus nor would he make them this powerful." Tista said.

"This is no different from one of the missions the Kingdom gave me. I can't back out without failing my test and getting kicked out by Faluel. Did she really think that I wouldn't see through such a simple set-up?" Lith snarled.