She also triggered several safety measures that exploded in her face and a very loud alarm, but no one cared about it. Undead could take a lot of punishment before being hurt and the invasion force had never planned to be stealthy.
“We do this the old fashioned way.” The Treant said with a nod. “We reach the lowest level and then we wipe out the entire structure by shooting up our best spells. Don’t shapeshift into your true form unless it’s strictly necessary.
“Destroying the upper levels is pointless and it might trigger too many traps at the same time, endangering the mission. Open only one passage per group.” At his signal, the ground became swiss cheese.
‘What do we do?’ Tista asked via the mind link.
‘We follow the plan and stay here to make sure that they don’t forget about Lith.’ Phloria replied before jumping down one of the craters.
***
Ykrah’s tower, the same time.
The King of Kolga hated receiving visits, especially while he was busy hoarding the power that he needed to further expand the city borders. He didn’t even notice Solus attacking the guards thanks to the soundproof spell surrounding his lab, yet he could feel that something was wrong.
The energy from the geyser that usually obeyed his every command as a well-trained dog had suddenly become unstable. At first, Ykrah thought it was due to the accumulated world energy nearing the critical mass, but according to his instruments, it was way too soon.
Then, the Light Torch’s alarm resounded, making him lose his focus. Ykrah activated the city’s surveillance devices to solve the conundrum at hand.
‘How is it possible that the alarm started at the Light Torch instead of the outer rings? There’s no way an outsider can reach the labs without being noticed.’ Yet except for the magical academy, the rest of Kolga was at peace.
Ykrah opened the channels with the Headmaster of the Light Torch and with the Director of the Defence Force to have a status report, but only the latter responded.
“Don’t worry, my Liege. The madwoman attacking your tower is already being dealt with.” Said a middle-aged merfolk hybrid with thin crimson hair and a belly that made Vastor look like a fitness enthusiast in comparison.
“What madwoman? I want to know what the heck is happening at the light department, I-” Ykrah choked on his words when he felt the tower tremble and the power that he had painstakingly amassed slipping out of his control.
“It’s nothing. One of those demented specimens must have activated one of the wards by mistake. I’m more worried about the human woman. Our efforts to keep her away from the Eye of Kolga have barely slowed her down.” The Director mistook the pause for his cue to continue.
“A human?” Ykrah’s eyes went wide in surprise as he lost control over another sliver of the geyser’s power and another alarm triggered right above his head.
“I’ll deal with the human, you send your forces to the Light Torch. If it was just a runaway specimen, the Headmaster wouldn’t have been involved.” The King hung up, feeling a cold shiver run down his spine.
A female human reaching Kolga could only mean that the greatest fear of his foremother had finally come true. The Usurper had come to reclaim the Hands of Menadion.
Ykrah would have liked to have some time to weave a few spells, but the alarm grew in intensity and so did the disturbance in the mana geyser.
After getting rid of the Guards, Solus had realized that taking over the geyser would have taken her too long.
‘There’s another way to win this battle without fighting. If I take away the white crystal that focuses the energy of the mana geyser and keeps the Forbidden Sun stable, the inhabitants of Kolga will die, including their King.’ She thought.
After flying on top of the tower, she had tried and failed to store the crystal in her pocket dimension. The combined effect of the constant flow of world energy and of the complex spell from the Sun generated a rudimentary but effective force field that blocked dimensional magic.
Solus swung her Forgemastery hammer at the gem, but the barrier made it bounce without a scratch.
‘Plan B it is.’ She sighed and kept hammering at the tower in the spots where mana sense showed her the energy flow was at its weakest. Even though her hammer wasn’t intended as a weapon, it was still made of pure Orichalcum and capable of channeling her Forgemastering spells like an extension of her body.
To keep the water dome and the Forbidden Sun stable while fueling the hundreds of arrays that made everyday life in Kolga possible, the white crystal needed to be perfectly aligned with the flow of world energy coming from the geyser.
Even a slight tilt would make the Chaos energy released by the ritual damage Kolga instead of being sent to Garlen, causing a domino effect that would bring the city down.
Normally, getting near the Eye of Kolga was impossible. The closer one got to the Forbidden Sun, the greater its effects. From so up close even a violet cored Awakened would have died of mana poisoning in a matter of minutes without being able to exert even one-hundredth of their real power.
On top of that, even if a Kolgan went mad and tried to attack the crystal, the amount of energy incoming from the Sun was supposed to make them burst akin to a failed Awakening.
Unfortunately for Ykrah, the cracks in Solus’s life force and mana core allowed her to feed upon the Sun’s energy. Also, thanks to her damaged tower half, what was lethal for a living being was just a diet snack to her.
Ykrah came out of a Warp Steps with his eyes ablaze with mana and one tier four spell in each of his hands, yet Solus barely threw a glance at him without stopping.
‘I wish I had Friya’s Dimensional Ruler.’ She sighed. ‘It’s the only spell that would make a difference here. Between the Sun and the amount of energy he has stored in the Hands, even a tier five War Mage spell would barely tickle.’
Menadion’s artifact looked like a pair of thick silver working gloves with one mana crystal of a different color on each fingertip and a sixth in the middle of their backhand. The crystals went from red on the little finger to blue on the thumb.
The green was replaced by a bright silver while the gemstone on the backhand was black.
“Elphyn Althena Menadion!” Ykrah said, recognizing her from the painting that his family handed down from generations. “I knew that the voices about your death were just a lie! No one but you could have killed master Menadion!
“I won’t allow you to destroy the legacy of Kolga. We’ve spent centuries preparing for the moment when you came to take the Hands and- Good gods, will you stop hammering?”
“No need. I’m great at multi-tasking.” Solus’s arm had never stopped moving, chipping away the tower’s protective layers. “Feel free to continue with your speech.”
Ykrah roared in outrage and unleashed the two spells that he kept at the ready.
