'Shut up, you fucking moron! Without the Void's help to keep the gate closed, the Voidfeather Dragon was too busy keeping the souls and the blue flames at bay to do anything else. 'Fuck me sideways, my plan backfired completely. Pun not intended.

'By fusing with George I survived the fight against Meln but I've fucked up the rest. To give Ragnarök the instructions it needs to project the "system" I need to leave but if I do, I'm dead. If I don't, however, I have no way to help Kami deal with George.'

"Dya?" Elysia asked, shapeshifting from human to Voidfeather Dragon and then into Abomination.

With every change, Derek felt a tug at his consciousness. A familiar call that aroused countless thoughts and memories.

Alas, he ignored them all, focusing his mental defenses to resist what he believed to be a telepathic intrusion and using the parasitic souls to cloud his mind.

"Dya?" Elysia experienced the same tug, but unlike Derek, she didn't resist it.

The resonance between father and daughter was weak, but it was unmistakable and it was there. The baby girl clung to that feeling desperately and her body started to change.

She shapeshifted into a small Void Demon Dragon yet she still failed to recognize her father. Lith's mind was diminished to Derek and twisted by his constant agony. The wailing souls formed a spinning maelstrom around his life force, sealing the human side away.

"Dya?" She tried siphoning a bit of blue flames, making Kamila yelp in pain. "Mama!"

Elysia shut down the blue flames immediately and healed her burns. Luckily, the baby girl purified the blue flames as she drew them to herself so they couldn't spread their contagion.

"What was that?" For a split second, Derek had experienced relief.

It had been small and short-lived, but in his constant agony, it was impossible to miss.

"Do that again." He said but the baby ignored him.

The thing Elysia had touched through their bond wasn't her father.

"I said do that again, you little gremlin!" Derek pounded on the barrier, yelling.

Elysia burst out crying, certain that the Void Demon Dragon wasn't Lith. Her father would have never talked to her like that, with a voice full of anger and spite.

"I'm fine, baby girl." Kamila lulled Elysia to calm her down. "Do as Daddy says. He doesn't mean those things. He's just suffering and needs our help."

"Dya! Dya!" Yet Elysia just cried harder and called for her father.

"Listen to her or when I get out of this thing, I'll give you something to cry about!" Derek hurled a torrent of blue flames at the sphere, only making things

worse.

"She doesn't recognize Lith." Tista said after communicating with the baby with Dragon scales. "She's too scared of him to do anything. When I told her that he is her father, Elysia panicked. I don't think a second attempt would go better."

"There's no Lith here, batches." He roared, suffering the Gurdian's autocorrect. "Only Der-"

"Let's try this." Kamila Hushed the prison to silence Derek's screams and keep him from revealing Lith's greatest secret. "Is it better?"

Elysia couldn't hear him anymore but could still see him. She clung to Kamila and hid her face in her mother's chest.

"She's terrified." Kamila turned around so that Elysia couldn't look at the cage even if she tried. "What do we do now?"

"What do we do indeed." Baba Yaga nodded.

The members of Lith's family and his friends tried to talk to him alone and in small groups. They showed Derek his creations, the pictures from his Rememberers, and the movies from his projectors but to no avail.

He refused to listen to a word they said and even though with each visit he recalled a fragment of his past, Derek dismissed the recovered memories as another attempt to brainwash him.

Without the Voidfeather Dragon tapping into the human side, the images were devoid of emotions. It was akin to watching clips of an unknown movie without knowing how it started.

"Nothing works and at the rate Lith's mind is deteriorating, we have only a couple of days before there's nothing left to save." Baba Yaga was a white core, her body healed from the most grievous wounds instantly, yet she was deathly

pale.

Using her breathing technique, Sun and Moon, while resisting the onslaught of the blue flames burning at her spell and tower had strained her greatly.

"Do you have any suggestions, Valtak? You are the Father of Fire, after all." The moment her mana and will escaped the fiery clutches of Derek's cage, color returned to her face.

"None. The blue flames are unlike everything I know. The last time I managed to contain them because I was at the peak of what is left of my strength and had help. If not for Lith, Valeron, and Elysia, I would have died there.

"I'm back at my peak but I lack everything else."

"Lochra?" Baba Yaga asked.

"I can smother his flames for a while but that's it." Silverwing shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but Elphyn, I mean, Solus asked me to leave them alone and I did. I've kept myself out of their lives and don't know anything about Verhen's

abilities."

"I'm sorry, guys. You've done everything I asked you but nothing worked." Quylla lowered her head in shame. "I failed you. I failed Lith."

"No, you didn't." Kamila rocked the crib where Elysia slept, looking at her baby girl to find the strength she needed. "We didn't bring Lith back, but now we know for sure he's still in there.

"He's buried under tons of pain, souls, and paranoia but he's still there." "True." Friya nodded, caressing her sister's back. "But how does that help us?"

"By giving us concrete proof that we can succeed. Sure, we've made mistakes, but I know what we must do next. We give him what he wants." "Meaning?" Baba Yaga furrowed her brows, not liking where the conversation was headed.

"Think about it. As Valtak said, to bring Lith back we need his help but as his amnesiac self said, he has no reason to trust us while we keep him prisoner. I say we let him go and you let me talk with him alone."

The room went into an uproar, everyone standing up and yelling to speak on top of the others.

"One at a time, please." Kamila raised her hand, inviting them to silence.

"Do you realize that if Lith stops feeding off world energy he dies? If you are

left alone with him, he'll fall prey to the hunger and devour you." The Mother

said.

"That's why I want you to leave us on top of the mana geyser in the Trawn woods." Kamila replied. "The geyser will feed him and the familiar environment

should help Lith recover his memories."

"Why you alone?" Zoreth was next. "No offense, but you are as weak as Raaz and Elina. Lith can kill you with a sneeze. You need someone who can protect

you."

"Someone who can beat him into submission, you mean." Kamila sighed. "I appreciate your concern, but if we do that, he'll never trust me. If you or Malyshka accompany me, he'll think his freedom is just a ruse and go straight for the jugular."