The Vampire blood couldn’t keep up with Lith’s perfect body refinement and the gap in their respective mastery of fusion magic only made things worse. War’s pain let the blade channel the energy coming from the tower to its utmost limit so that with each slash another piece of the spear fell off.
By the time Kallion moved of a single step almost a third of Stormbreaker was gone and with it his range advantage over the sword.
Kallion looked at Lith’s weapon in envy and desperation. Every time that War moved, it emitted a desperate howl that made the Great Mage’s skin crawl.
In a last-ditch effort, Kallion unleashed all the spells he had at the ready only to see War devour them and then throw them back at him. Lith lunged so fast that he beat the spells to the punch, plunging the blade into Kallion’s heart.
Lith twisted War while pulling it out, leaving behind a hole the size of a basketball. As the spells reached their target, he decapitated Kallion, just to be safe. The dome of black flames disappeared as the constant onslaught from outside had exhausted the mana empowering the Final Sunsets.
Wyra and Rotha wielded their wands against the swarm of opponents that surrounded them while Lith just snapped his fingers, making a dome of light surround and protect them from all attacks.
“Demon Manohar!” A thrall said.
“The child of light is here!” A Vampire said.
“The Never Magus has come to our rescue!” All the survivors bust into cheers, believing the battle to be already won.
“Sorry to disappoint those poor fellas. You called?” Nalrond landed right beside Lith, carrying with him all the people he had managed to save while searching for the Ernas girls.
The Rezar had a Sentry following him as well, to both help to scout the battlefield and keep the communication with the rest of the group through Solus.
“Yes. My friends are in the caves. Protector is following their scent as we speak. Find and rescue all the people dressed like that.” Lith pointed at Wyra and Rotha. “The guild is Friya’s life work, losing them would destroy her.”
“I can do that, but without dimensional magic, it’s a fool errand. I can’t protect that many.” Nalrond waved his left hand and released a volley of small beams of light against the crowd of enemies hammering at the dome.
The humans died on the spot, the thrall became temporarily crippled, but for the undead, such wounds were but a minor annoyance.
“The arrays aren’t going to be a problem much longer, but I need you to take them away fast. Once I go all-out, everyone will die.” Lith said while a focused beam of light coming out of Nalrond’s right hand mowed down the still standing undead.
The volley had removed the small fries allowing him to focus solely on the real threats. Even with their uncanny regenerative abilities, having their bodies cut in half with most of their flesh vaporized killed most of the undead.
“Are you saying that wasn’t your best?” Rotha turned pale as a ghost.
“Believe me, you don’t want to see my best.”
‘Otherwise, I’d have to kill you.’ Lith thought.
Meanwhile, the red blur that Protector left on the battlefield while tearing apart the traitors and saving the soldiers, entered the caves as soon as the Sentry with him reported Wyra’s words.
To fit inside the confined space, Protector had to shapeshift into his hybrid form, becoming visible for a split second.
“Where the heck did those guys come from?” The more Nandi watched at the events shown on the surveillance mirror, the less the situation made sense.
“How did that Verhen arrive here so quickly and how can he be that strong? Even if he started from the nearest Gate and Warped his way here with Invigoration, he should be exhausted.”
The answer to the first question was that after taking root in the new mana geyser, Solus had gone back to Lutia for backup, bringing back with her all those ready at a second’s notice.
“It’s okay, Phloria. Lith has come for and that wolf thing is Protector, he is not our enemy.” Friya reassured her sisters who had been surprised by the beastly figure wearing human clothes.
“How do you know?” Quylla asked.
“He helped Lith and me back in Zantia. He’s no hybrid, just a shapeshifting Emperor Beast.” The cat was already out of the bag, making it pointless for Friya to keep the secret.
‘They would have recognized his voice the moment they heard it.’ She thought.
“That’s a relief.” Phloria said. “You two go with Protector. I’m sorry, but I can’t follow you. Baba Yaga was telling the truth earlier. The moment I step out of the mines I’ll probably die.”
Even with the thick world energy from the surrounding crystal veins and the help from Baba Yaga’s tower, Phloria needed sheer willpower to keep her Awakening from triggering.
“You made a wise choice, child. Don’t worry about the pain, as soon as you accept my offer, I’ll stabilize your condition.” The Crone extended her hand to Phloria to seal their deal.
Seeing that the young woman refused to take it, Baba Yaga added:
“You’d better make your mind quickly because once the process starts, even I will be powerless to stop it and I have no use for a regular Awakened.”
Between his sense of smell and the Sentry’s mystical senses, following the traces of the Ernas sisters was a child’s play for Protector. He could almost move to his top speed, slowing down only at crossroads.
“How are you holding up?” Solus’s condition worried Protector.
“I hate using air magic to speak and the situation above requires my full focus. Does this answer your question?” Her voice oozed irritation.
Solus was on the first floor of the mage tower, in the middle of the Mirror Hall. Even though she wasn’t directly taking part in the battle, she was the busiest member of the team.
The Sentries kept sending data that Solus had to sort, relaying only the important bits of information while also providing real-time status updates to the members of the team.
At the same time, she was using her mind to weave true magic spells while her hands and mouth cast other spells non-stop. It was something that only someone skilled in both fake and true magic could do, allowing her to cast twice the spells and then pass them to Lith after amplifying their effects via the Master Mirror.
This way, everyone could safely perform their respective task and Lith could focus solely on the physical aspect of the fight while Solus provided him with all the magic he needed.
Thanks to Life Vision, Lith could see the very heart of the multiple magical formations that surrounded the camp. It was located under the command tent, where the soldier had pointed him at.
Kallion’s death didn’t deactivate them and Lith had no time to search for the person holding the arrays’ keystone. He bolted outside Nalrond’s dome, dragging with Spirit Magic all the enemies he met on the way to his destination.
The barrier ring’s pseudo core was almost overloaded from the earlier strain so Lith could use some meat shields to intercept incoming spells aimed at him.
The moment he reached the center of the arrays, Lith unleashed his tier tower spell, Raging Nova.
