Instead of charging forward like a wounded beast, Orion imbued the Royal Fortress armor’s spells that he couldn’t use because of the arrays into his sword, which in turn converted them into golden beams of light.
The weapon had been developed with the combined efforts of Royal Forgemasters, Alchemists, and even Manohar, allowing its user to convert any kind of spells into sunlight.
It was the Kingdom’s ultimate weapon for the war against the undead and even against Balkor, in the case that he ever made his return.
“Hide from this, vermin!” Orion yelled as a hail of golden rays pierced Zavra’s body, turning it into Swiss cheese. The beams punctured the undead’s heart, but due to its humongous size, the wounds were far from lethal.
“Prepare to die, you moron!” Zavra had no time to lose and activated the Blood Warlock’s version of the Leviathan’s bloodline power, Blood Tide.
Thanks to Night’s prism borrowing the powers of several undead and their respective elemental affinities, Zavra was capable of using all the elements in their true magic form akin to a true mage.
Due to him having been recently turned, the Lost Magus had no idea how to use true magic, but he still needed the full elemental affinity to unleash the true power of Guardians’ skills.
That way, Blood Tide stripped the area around him of the world energy down to the last bit, releasing it a split second later in the form of a hexa-elemental tidal wave instead of just the two elements that Blood Witches were attuned to.
Suddenly, Lith’s and Orion’s spells stopped working due to the lack of world energy. The Demons faded because there was no darkness to draw upon, the golden rays lacked the light element, and the resulting shockwave from Blood Tide damaged the roof.
If not for Lith’s ability to fly on his own, he would have been sent far away as it had just happened to Orion, and Zavra would have had an easy time running away.
‘Dammit, I really didn’t want to use Blood Tide.’ The Lost Magus though. ‘On the one hand, I’m finally healing and the arrays don’t bother me anymore. On the other hand, until the world energy returns, my equipment is akin to scrap metal.
‘I don’t have the time to cast a Blood Warp and Blood Blinks consume too much life force. Why did neither Deirus nor Orpal warn me about this monster?’ The repeated use of the bloodline abilities of the Guardians had taken a heavy toll on the Lost Magus who was now running on fumes.
Unfortunately for him, both Lith’s wings and Spirit Magic didn’t need Mogar’s help to work. Now that all forms of magic had been denied, the fight depended solely on the physical prowess of the contestants.
It was the reason why Fenagar didn’t use his Doom Tide against Tyris and why Dusk didn’t bestow the power of such ability upon his undead army. The Griffon’s physical prowess outmatched that of the Leviathan while the resulting shockwave, if not properly used, would have slaughtered the undead army.
Lith charged the tier four Spirit spell, Piercing Explosion, inside of his own body and dived inside the still open hole in Zavra’s chest before releasing it. Solus cast her own, doubling the damage and bringing the Lost Magus to his knees.
Without world energy to fuel it, the prism couldn’t defend him from the darkness generated by Lith’s and Solus’s mana cores.
‘How can he still move? Why does this wound hurt so much? I’m an undead! I’m not supposed to feel pain anymore. I’m a fucking Magus! The moment Blood Tide blasted him away, I was supposed to have my opening and run away!’ Zavra thought in outrage.
Alas, reality begged to differ.
The alarm had resounded the moment Zavra had killed Quylla, alerting the Royal Guards. On top of that, having a blue and a violet beacon in the sky made it hard to not spot his position and the sounds of the battle only shortened the Guards’ reaction time.
A shower of sunlight beams erupted from the weapons of the Royal Guards that had surrounded the area, cutting off every possible escape route. They had taken their time to aim and launch an attack that wouldn’t harm their allies.
His final thoughts weren’t of the nobles he hated or of those who had killed him. Zavra couldn’t stop thinking about Orpal’s crazy laughter after reading Deirus’s request. About how instead of turning it down, he had accepted, claiming that it would be his congratulations present for his little brother.
The Lost Magus disappeared in a burst of light as his undead body quickly turned into ashes. War had quelled its hunger in the flesh and blood of its enemy and Quylla was avenged.
Yet aside from the weapon, everyone considered such a victory as hollow as their hearts were. Jirni’s cries of grief as she bawled her eyes out was the only sound that broke the silence of that peaceful night.
***
It took Jirni but a few minutes to regain her cool and two days to arrange the funeral for her lost daughter. During that time, Faluel held no lesson and grieved in the loneliness of her lair, feeling as if she had failed Sedra first and now even her apprentice.
Lith barely spoke, eating solely when Elina forced him to. Solus suffered in silence, refusing to take a humanoid form, even that of a stone doll.
‘I wanted a family and to have friends for so long, yet everyone I care about dies. Am I cursed? Did my mother did something so horrible that every one of her works is tainted by misfortune?’ She thought over and over.
‘If only I practiced Spirit Magic more, I would have instinctively used Spirit Blink instead of Blink, bypassed the arrays, and saved Quylla!’ Lith ruminated his alleged mistakes, failing to consider the truth.
Faluel had failed as well, but even if either of them didn’t, the Council would have wanted their heads for showing Spirit Magic to humans. Even if the Council absolved them, they would have revealed to their enemies one of their best trump cards and Quylla might have died anyway due to her injuries.
Lith made Solus feel worse and vice versa, forcing them to stay away from each other as much as they could. Lith didn’t have an Abomination side anymore so there was no risk of Chaos ravaging his body, yet grief crippled his mind anyway.
Surrounded by people that suffered and grieved like him, he didn’t feel any better. He couldn’t speak or vent with anyone without aggravating their pain. Lith felt as if he was surrounded by wailing ghosts and he was one of them.
Quylla’s funeral was held in Valeron’s Royal Cemetery, in the presence of the Royals, the Distar couple, and of all Quylla’s friends. The blue sky was clear and small birds chirped, uncaring for the sad event taking place below them.
On Mogar, people didn’t wear black for funerals, they just had to avoid bright colors. They would wear their high uniform if they had one or their best clothes to give their loved ones the last farewell.
Lith was glad to see that Morok wasn’t there. He didn’t feel like putting up with any of the Tyrant’s usual tomfooleries. Also, he was even more glad to see that Kamila was there.
Despite the passing of time, Orion was still so broken that he burst into tears from time to time, needing Jirni’s help just to not fall onto his knees. Jirni’s face, instead, was back being a stone mask that betrayed no emotion.
