"It's been hundreds of millennia since I used my breathing technique to study a life force and I haven't healed more than a scraped knee since I've gotten my monster core." Tezka said.

"Rethia, Surt. What about you?" Lith asked.

"I've focused on developing my mana core with Sinmara first and then on my research and family with my wife." The Dragon of Light sighed. "I've never met an elf or entered a Fringe my whole life."

"Torture isn't on my resume either." The Wind Griffon shrugged. "Yet I consider myself an expert on life forces and I'm willing to give it a try."

"That's nice of you, but trying isn't enough." Tezka grunted. "The moment we take my prisoner out of that bag, the World Tree will know what is happening. The more time we waste to extract the information we need, the longer the Yggdrasill will have to prepare a solid defense.

"Gods below, we don't even know if Lith is back to his full strength." The Suneater turned toward Lith. "If everything goes as planned, can you march into battle right now, little brother? Have you completed all the preparations for your departure?"

"Grandma?" Lith asked, prompting the Guardian to use her breathing technique, Mother Sun, to assess the condition of his life force.

"You can fight safely, but not at your full strength. Not because your life force is strained but because your body is still exhausted. You have taken yourself down and rebuilt your entire body from scratch just a few hours ago, Featherling."

Those words twisted Lith's stomach into a knot.

"Even with my and Yaga's best care, you need a full day to make a complete recovery."

"Well, that's good to hear." Lith said, feeling his stomach untangle. "We can't leave until I've gathered all the allies I can find so waiting a few more hours shouldn't be a problem."

"Emphasis on shouldn't." Silverwing grunted. "There's no telling what Elphyn is enduring while we are here chatting but there's still too few of us to launch an attack."

"You have no idea how right you are." Tezka said. "It's not just a matter of numbers, but also of tactical advantage. If you can gather a force matching the Yggdrasill's strength or even coming close to it, our chances of victory will increase dramatically, little brother."

"What do you mean?" Everyone looked at the Suneater in confusion. "The number of our forces is only meant to stall for time. We don't stand a chance against an opponent of the caliber of a Guardian on their own turf."

"You didn't tell him." Tezka stared at Salaark who shrugged in reply.

"I didn't want to give my Featherling false hope, old fox."

"What didn't Grandma tell me, Tezka?" Lith asked.

"Do you know the expression: when two Guardians battle, maps get rewritten?" The Suneater asked and Lith nodded for him to continue. "It's true. Or rather, it would be true, if there weren't safety measures in place.

"If you have ever looked at ancient maps, you should have noticed that Mogar's geography hasn't changed much, yet I can assure you that Guardians have fought multiple times throughout history.

"Sometimes for good reasons, most of the time for petty reasons, but I digress. The point is that the six great continents are safe because Guardians rarely use their true power. Even when they fight, they hold back and exert surgical precision on the area of effect of their spells.

"On top of that, Guardians usually agree to move the conflict to a place high in the sky or in the middle of the ocean, where there's not much to destroy. Yet even such precautions are useless when they go all out or use their equipment.

"If left unchecked, the mere shockwaves from their blows would cause tidal waves and the elements conjured by their spells would trigger all kinds of natural disasters. Just one of their fights, no matter where it takes place, would affect the entire planet.

"It's the reason when your daughter was attacked, Leegaain had to raise a containment field to protect the Kingdom. Yet that was possible because a single Guardian was attacking and the other was focusing on defence.

"There's nothing that can stop two Guardians fighting and a third Guardian meddling would only cause more destruction. Luckily for us, Mogar takes responsibility for her own creations.

"Whenever two conflicting forces threaten life on Mogar's surface, our planet creates a temporary Fringe to contain them. Everything that happens inside the displaced space has no effect on the outside world."

"A Fringe?" Baba Yaga echoed. "As in, a new one would encompass the World Tree's domain?"

"Exactly." Tezka nodded.

"It would be a game changer!" The Red Mother shapeshifted into her Maiden form in excitement.

After noticing the still-baffled expression on her allies' faces she rushed to explain:

"Don't you understand? The containment Fringe would encompass and overwrite the Yggdrasill's domain! The world energy would no longer be under the World Tree's control and with that, they would lose the home advantage.

"We would have a safe space to retreat and recover our strength outside the World Tree's arrays. A space where our towers and bloodline abilities work at their full potential without the possibility of enemy interference.

"If what Tezka is saying is right, we wouldn't fight on enemy territory anymore but on neutral ground."

"There's no if. I know I'm right because I've seen it first-hand. I've lived it. I caused it. Isn't that right, little sparrow?" Tezka's wolfish smile was addressed at Salaark and everyone stared at the Guardian.

"It's true." She nodded. "When we fought for the first time, the old fox's powers and equipment matched mine. I had to go all out and had no energy to spare to protect our surroundings. Mogar intervened and sealed us until the fight ended.

"The same thing happened when your grandfather Leegaain fought Roghar to protect Elysia right after she was conceived."

"He did what?" Lith burned with fury, but his questions had to wait.

"This is amazing news." He pondered. "It means we can predict the outcome of the battle before it even starts. If the Fringe forms, we have a concrete chance at victory. If it doesn't, the best we can do is buy time while a small strike team rescues Solus."

"Indeed, but the odds of you recruiting such force are slim to none." Salaark said. "That's why I never mentioned any of it. What you have here is barely enough for a quick raid and that's only if you retain the advantage of surprise.

"Without it, anything you do would be nothing more than an elaborate suicide attempt."

"And it's actually much harder than it sounds." Tezka added. "Have you wondered why white cores, Eldritches, or the Awakened Council have never used this strategy to take down a Guardian?

"That's because even if the power of the two factions is on the same level, one is possessed by a single individual while the other is spread among lots of people. Guardians die hard. Everyone else, not so much.

"With every Awakened that falls in battle, with every artifact that gets destroyed, the balance gets tipped in favor of the Guardian."