The Garuda had struck Nelia in the middle of the breakthrough, causing her mana core to explode. Tyris had demanded justice, and Zagran had swiftly delivered it, but that meant nothing to Nelia.

She had come so close to greatness just to lose everything to a dumb mistake. Nelia had refused to accept such an unfair fate and had returned from death. As an Abomination, she stalked Lesser Garudas and killed them at the first opening.

As an Eldritch, she focused on the real deal. Zagran and her children had done their best to identify and eliminate their mysterious nemesis, but death had taken nothing of Nelia’s skills and cunning.

Or rather, almost nothing. Abominations and Eldritches couldn’t use light magic, and the loss of Light Mastery was a constant reminder of the Garudas’ stupidity. It stoked the fires of Nelia’s wrath, and it brought her to refuse Vastor’s offer when she met Eycos.

Yet she had later changed her mind for that same reason. The Master was the only one who could give Nelia a body and return Light Mastery to her. She had spent untold millennia craving it and unable to practice it.

Vastor’s promise was a siren she couldn’t resist. In time, she had learned Eycos’ story, and her fury toward him had abated. They fought side by side so often that she’d been forced to accept him as her partner, like Kigan was to Zoreth.

Now that the Frost Griffon had finally regained Light Mastery, she devoted every fight to relearn all the things she had forgotten and recreate the spells she still remembered.