Veilthorn had five landmasses, and only four of them had anything close to a ‘name.’ The land any race or culture occupied was called many things across many ages, and the only official naming came from Petrah, based on an ancient myth about a constellation in the sky.

  Other than the nameless barren continent on the opposite hemisphere of the world, the four that Petrahns named were Arlan, Serila, Euren, and Rakkar. Arlan was the second largest, and Euren was the smallest. Balor had already dealt with Rakkar, and only Serila was left.

  The problem that he faced had to do with the terrain of the region and the evolutionary pressure it applied on the population there, because Serila was the land of winds and storms. It was the third-largest landmass, with the tallest mountains and vertical features that were never witnessed anywhere else.

  A specific population of hominids evolved with the ability to fly, called Wrenths by the Petrahn king Varsil. They were prosperous nobility in Petrah with their own force, overseeing everything that had to do with flight.

  Varsil had made it easier for them to integrate with Petrahn society, and Resil had maintained it just the same. Wrenths were lower in number, but were more entrenched and necessary than the Elves. This didn’t mean every Wrenth left their ancestral homeland to lavish in Petrahn luxuries.

  There were original sky tribes dwelling in sheer cliffs, towering monoliths poking above the clouds.

  And they were Balor’s greatest problem.

  Some Wrenths had been bloodstone corrupted, and their unique ability of flight gave them an advantage like no other. They were spreading like wildfire, raiding settlements a dozen at a time. One Wrenth could spread the corruption to a kingdom in an afternoon.

  Resil had also recognized the problem and had deployed a lot of Petrahn forces to counter it, while securing the uncorrupted Wrenths ruthlessly.

  So far, the corrupted Wrenths were winning the war. Nearly a quarter of Serila had been lost to corruption, and the number of partitions being put up was draining the Continental Sky Stone allocation. There were barriers upon barriers, but a Wrenth could be anywhere, and it kept happening again and again.

  As a last step, Resil had deployed Wrenth divisions of the elite guard to deal with corrupted Wrenths, but so far, that had only resulted in an elite Wrenth returning corrupted. The source wielders had lost their minds, ‘cleansing’ the poor winged man to ashes with repeated spells that cratered the grain fields of a peaceful settlement.

  Balor observed the conflict for a week, embedding a total of six unique identities across various facets of Serilian society. It was easier to hide ‘created people’ when populations were large.

  He learned of alarming recommendations of war masters who were running out of options. They were preparing a proposal to close Serila altogether, zoning out millions across all strata below it, leaving only the bit of land with the continental moon gate.

  Balor couldn’t allow such a waste of bloodlines. It was too significant chunk of Veilthorn’s future billions who were going to be culled off.

  Then came the time for the solution as things turned from bad to worse. The food supply was diminishing, and contact with the third stratum was nearly impossible. Incidentally, the only way to get there was through Werenth's messenger, which risked things even further.

  This entire race is in trouble at this point.

  As the first step, Balor used the spore chain incineration on hopelessly corrupted, partitioned areas. He had two nearly cataclysmic brushes with corrupted Wrenthians while he was releasing the spores.

  He didn’t want to poke his head anywhere under the stratum with corttuped winged men flying around like flies.

  He released spores on the partition with utmost prejudice, without stopping to check if there was collateral damage to anyone. The situation was beyond playing the savior. His spores erupted, rumbling the ground for weeks as they slowly cleansed the land of the corruption.

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  This still left an asymmetric war behind him where corrupted Wrenths were running circles around both continental and royal forces. He managed to personally intervene in two situations to prevent a city from being lost.

  The solution to this problem required him to be everywhere at once, and a Dragon’s methods to do such dispersal of soul matter would make him weaker.

  At the same time, he would be wasting the majority of soul matter to do nothing, because the troublesome Wrenths only occupied a negligible amount of space.

  Balor observed the elite Wrenths from Petrah for a couple of days. They were agile fliers, far more comfortable in the air than on land. They made a point of using magics that fit flight.

  His first thought was manufacturing thousands of Wrenths with synthesis and controlling his own fleet by dividing his attention across a thousand different perspectives while keeping the majority of his soul matter with him in case things turned ugly.

  This plan had holes.

  The synthesized beings that he controlled would maintain a deep Source connection back to him while he controlled them. Meaning, if they came into contact with bloodstone, he was as good as found by the Seedmaker. The only way to prevent it was to sever the connection shortly after manufacturing, and releasing them to do what they must, making them full individuals.

  Artificially inflating Wrenth numbers didn’t bode well for his wider goal of bloodline variety. He could ruin the winged race’s existence with genetic defects, and all these high risks were in exchange for the possibility of them maybe succeeding at countering the bloodstone corrupted Wrenths.

  Looking at the elite Wrenth divisions, their lack of numbers wasn’t even a problem. There were hundreds of them, and they were often more competent than any tribal one from Serila. Resil could always deploy more if needed.

  Balor came up with a radical new solution to solve all of these problems.

  If he couldn’t personally oversee every step of it, he was going to bestow these Wrenths with magics they could never use on their own. Serving as his agents, they could sweep Serila for all corruption.

  Balor used one of his created identities in Resil’s forces to gather all Werenths in one place for a war brief. He counted four hundred and twelve total, and he devised the mechanism of control in the moment.

  It was a direct benefit of his being a Dragon. He engulfed all of them in a temporary realm. Shrinking down to their size, he fashioned himself as a Wrernth’s idea of what God was supposed to look like.

  He descended upon the isolated Wrenths, glowing gold, silver, and emanating white light in their stunned faces. Most of them lost the feeling in their legs and collapsed. A couple of them, unfortunately, passed out, making them ineligible for the bestowing.

  His mere presence in his own temporary realm overwhelmed their brains and messed with their senses. They were nowhere near as resilient as the filtered bloodline of Petranova, and this demonstrated the clear difference between them and Resil, who could at least talk comfortably before him.

  He performed the ‘miracle’ that fit the ancestral myth of the Wrenthians of a winged God descending from the clouds to take them to heaven. He modified it to fit his current needs. Using the full extent of his Dragon prowess, Balor created a will-bending effect similar to what Petrah’s royal bloodlines had.

  He implored the Wrenthians with a sense of Holy war against the corruption, tying it directly with their drive to seek the clouded heaven. Each one received a thread of pure soul matter that made their eyes glow, and noses bleed. It transformed their bodies to their maximum potential, with longer feathers, stronger muscles, and taller statures.

  They became Wrenths among Wrenths, and he encoded within them the knowledge of his spore technique, which could be useful for vast areas. Four hundred and ten Wrenths were elevated beyond man for the duration of the soul matter thread that he assimilated into them.

  It could sustain them for a few years, long enough to purge the rest of Serila.

  He collapsed the realm and watched as the Wrenths scattered into the sky without a word to their commanders, or even each other. They were demi-gods and no longer knew the languages of mortals.

  The results were immediate and effective. The Wrenths swept across the current frontlines with winged fury, turning lands barren behind them at the slightest detection of bloodstone.

  Other forces rallied behind them, tactically securing and partitioning areas. This ‘miracle’ of the Wrenths was written into many literary works from the same week. One of Balor’s scholar identities in Serila bore witness to the first records of it.

  In time, he projected the affected Wrenths to rise above others, even without the soul matter thread. They would likely become the rulers of a Wrenth empire in Serila with their culture, myths, and religions bending around them.

  He watched as the first Wrenths dipped below the stratum holes to the lower strata. He heard the rolling thunder of their spore attacks, and he read the records of their miraculous feats.

  Once Serila's situation was under control, Balor headed towards the center of the four continents back to Petrah. He had learned something very important through bestowing and delegating his powers.

  It was highly efficient, and he wanted to talk more about it with Resil.

  With his subjects performing his tasks to his satisfaction, He was finally beginning feel like the God of Veilthorn he was supposed to be.