“Are you sure?” Raagu asked.
“I picked him up to celebrate Valeron’s coronation. We lived together for just a few days, but I would have noticed if Nero talked.” Inxialot said.
Raagu would have liked to argue that no cat could live that long, but she had run out of patience and she just wanted that conversation to end.
“Don’t call me sweetheart and lower the Gargoyles’ output. As for you, Zolgrish, play another trick on that dumbass and you and I are going to have a problem. Raagu out.”
“I never play tricks on Ratpack! I treat him with the utmost respect. Tell her.” Zolgrish pointed at the screen that now showed the Awakened disciples fighting for their lives against the still overpowered Gargoyles.
The small undead ignored the pointless order and cranked the lever down before someone lost their life.
***
Aalejah’s group was faring well against the Gargoyles only thanks to the knowledge that she had acquired while serving the World Tree and to the rough Yggdrasill staff that helped the young elf to keep a calm mind.
“Use only spells based on darkness and water.” She said. “These things aren’t real golems, just lumps of enchanted stone. Unless you completely destroy the enchantment that animates them, you would be just wasting your mana.”
Elves had many bloodline abilities and Soul Vision was among them. It allowed Aalejah to see the true nature of both things and people. She had used it to choose as her companions only people who she could trust.
Now, instead, the elf was using Soul Vision to save as many lives as she could.
To her mystical senses, the Gargoyles appeared like puppets manipulated by long strings that extended further than she could see. Every time one of them was destroyed, the energy flowing through the strings would revitalize them.
“Luckily, we undead are all about darkness magic.” Trevar the Nightwalker said.
His bloodline had turned his skin of a black color and allowed him to manipulate shadows while also infusing them with the darkness elements. A simple wave of his hand had the Gargoyles bound by their own shadows, giving to the group the time they needed to destroy the constructs.
Aalejah sealed the windows and the cracks in the penthouse with earth magic to keep more Gargoyles from entering, but suddenly the creatures became so strong that they just burst through the walls.
Phloria and Lith fared no better. She was alone, relying on the ice to encase the enemies while her spell slowly killed them, but now the creatures were breaking free from their prison and slowly crawled toward her.
The power boost allowed the flying Gargoyles that were swarming her to not be affected by the storm that Frostmourne generated, forcing Phloria to use her sword to defend herself and almost breaking her focus.
“Oh, no you don’t!” She said while noticing that more and more constructs ignored her and tried to reach the hole that Lith had opened in the ground.
Phloria had positioned herself so that her spell would cover the access and Lith’s back at the same time, but now a single spell wasn’t enough.
She activated her tier five Mage Knight spell, Death Bastion, that conjured a stone wall infused with darkness magic that quickly replaced the missing ground and sealed the entrance to the underground tunnel.
Keeping two tier five spells active at the same time while also cutting down the Gargoyles that came too close for comfort pushed Phloria to her limits, making her eyes and ears bleed.
Yet she endured, opening small cracks in Death Bastion so that the constructs would mistake them for entry points just to be frozen by Frostmourne the moment they turned liquid and then be destroyed by the darkness magic flowing through both spells.
As for Lith, after Inxialot had followed Zolgrish’s advice, the constructs following him had merged into a black wave. Thanks to the sudden boost in power, the Gargoyles were now capable of filling the whole corridor, dodging all of his attacks, and of moving so fast that Lith had to use Spirit Blink from time to time just to not be swallowed by the tide.
‘Please, Solus, tell me that we are close.’ He turned around to breathe a jet-stream of deep violet Origin Flames, but the black mass was comprised by so many Gargoyles and infused with so much energy that it took it but a second to smother them.
‘We are very close. It’s just past the wall in front of us.’
‘Can I Blink inside?’ Lith turned around while flying, unleashing his tier Four Spirit Spell, Experimental Roar.
Scarlett’s Primordial Roar was still beyond his capabilities and with Solus focused on their target, it was the best that he could do alone.
Experimental Roar was a tetra elemental spell that used water magic to freeze the opponent, air to produce shockwaves, light to pierce the enemy, and darkness to eat at them from the inside.
The incoming black tide froze, forming a plug that stopped the liquid constructs behind them. The light element engulfed the liquid mass, keeping it from escaping while the shockwaves reverberated throughout them.
The combined effect of the three elements split the living wave into countless small frozen shards that the darkness element weakened even further.
‘No. I have no information about spatial coordinates and the only magical thing I can see inside is the energy core. We need to force our way through.’ She replied while studying their mark from a distance.
It would save them precious time so that as soon as they reached their destination, Solus would know exactly how to do to deactivate the energy core.
Then, before the constant flow of energy from the core could once again revitalize the Gargoyles, Lith reverted to his real form and size while hurling a full breath of Origin Flames.
The combined effect of his break-neck speed and the sudden expansion of his body allowed the Tiamat to destroy the thick wall that separated him from the Golems’ energy source as if it was made of paper.
On top of that, the jet-stream of Origin Flames that he released filled the entirety of the corridor and hit the fractured Gargoyles while they were at their weakest. Experimental Roar had already worn down the black shards, allowing the Origin Flames to finish the job, destroying the constructs for good.
The black tide evaporated as both the stone statues and the magic that animated them succumbed to Lith’s combined attacks.
‘Okay, watch my back. I need a bit of time.’ Solus held War in the hand of her stone doll form while she studied the energy core with their new breathing technique, Abyssal Gaze.
‘Be quick, there’s more incoming and I can’t take them on again for long while standing still.’ Lith said while cursing his bad luck.
Becoming bigger had made things better, but also worse. He had burst through the walls, but he had also destroyed the layers of rock that separated the tunnel from Urgamakka.
His Tiamat form had created in the street a hole so big that Phloria failed to seal it completely despite her best efforts. Hundreds of Gargoyles swarmed the two crevices, but thanks to her, only a few dozens managed to actually get inside.
Lith reverted into a human, to not offer a huge target and not lose the protection of the Scalewalker armor.
