As Lith used body and mind casting to weave his spells, he also took a deep breath. His black and silver eyes lit up, splitting the light from the darkness element in the world energy and sending them in different directions.
The black light moved from the Tiamat’s mouth down his throat and into his lungs, erupting from between the scales as it coursed through his body. The silver light, instead, moved to his heart and from there focused into the feathered wings on his hips.
When Lith opened his mouth, a burst of Void Flames came out of it while a silvery stream of Blight Flames erupted from his wings.
The Origin Flames infected respectively by Chaos and Decay moved as fast as a bullet, striking two different Awakened units whose members were fighting back-to-back against the army of shadows.
The Void Flames exploded on hit, generating a shockwave that sent the Awakened flying. The black fire burned at everything from the outside, eroding their flesh, auras, and equipment.
The Blight Flames, instead, pierced through the blackness of the Void, allowing its flabbergasted victims to see what was happening around them. They believed that one of their allies was helping them to quickly dispose of the Demons.
Or so they thought until they noticed that the blinding light was eating at them from the inside while strengthening the shadows by the second. Decay was but nourishment for the Demons and death to anything else.
The silvery fire burned and healed them at the same time, consuming the flesh, metal, and enchantments just to force them to recover a split second after. They dealt no damage, but they inflicted a huge burden not only on the life force of their victims but on their cores as well.
Healing and repairing drained the energy respectively of the mana and the power cores.
Lith had always been able to use the Void Flames so learning how to conjure the Blight had been second nature to him the moment he had gained his second feathered wing.
Using two Cursed Flames at the same time required the help of his eyes, but it also lessened the burden on his life force. He didn’t need to inject part of his Abomination side in the Origin Flames anymore because he had now a way to conjure the Chaos from the world energy and safely channel the Decay that the process created.
He took another deep breath, ready to unleash a second volley of twin Cursed flames when something hit him square in the chest. The impact was strong enough to lift the Tiamat off the ground and imbued with so much mana that it pierced through his chest despite the Voidwalker armor.
‘What the fuck?’ Lith thought as blood gurgled from his mouth and the Call of the Void faded.
Much to his surprise, both units he had attacked seemed tired but unscathed. It would take them just a few breaths of Invigoration to return to their peak condition.
‘It’s worse than I thought.’ Zoreth told him via the mind link they had established in advance. ‘There aren’t many of them, but they can all use both Silverwing Annihilation and Bastion! That’s why they formed seven-man units.’
Lith had no idea what she was talking about but thanks to the Monocle of Menadion that he shared with Solus, he could both replay the moment he had been taken down and analyze the unknown spells.
Annihilation and Bastion were part of the legacy that Lochra Silvering, the First Magus, had spread throughout Mogar. They required seven violet cored Awakened to be cast because each one of them would summon and fine-tune a different element.
They were known as anti-Guardian spells, intended to allow Awakened to fight a Guardian gone mad or at least survive the encounter. Their power matched that of Blade Tier spells but unlike them, they had no specific requirement.
Anyone skilled enough could use the Bastion and the Annihilation.
The Awakened groups had used the former to resist the Cursed Flames and the latter to bring down the Tiamat. Such formations were the standard procedure of the Council when dealing with Divine Beasts.
Sure, even Divine Beasts could use such spells but while the members of the Council lived as a community, the offspring of the Guardians lived on their own. It was rare finding two of them, let alone seven and willing to cooperate.
Both the Flames and the Void had failed to hurt the Awakened but the plan was still a success.
Senara noticed the disappearance of Solus and the others only once the shroud of the blackness had disappeared. During that time, they had finished preparing their spells and positioning themselves behind the enemy lines in order to strike them from the blind spot that the Call of the Void had created.
On top of that, the blackness that had robbed the Awakened of their senses had also been the only thing that had kept them safe from the Abominations. Now that Bytra and the others could see them again, the counterattack began.
Solus could see through the Void so she had already dealt her fist strike. She had activated one of the powers of her Fury, Burning Rain. After throwing the hammer, it had split into nine copies, each one’s mana crystals of a bright red.
The mystical gemstones sucked in the world energy, amplifying the fire element to the extreme until the Furies were engulfed in flames. The heat rose, turning the hammers from blood red to pristine white as they flew amid the enemies without touching them.
Then, once the Furies reached their true target, they exploded into countless flaming shards. Burning Rain turned the nine hammers into white-hot Davross shards that attacked the Awakened from every side.
The spell pierced through the protections and the flesh, making the blood of its victims boil. The Awakened soldiers had formed circles, leaning against each other to cover their backs but the Void blinded them and they couldn’t see the Furies flying in the middle of their formation.
The very technique that was supposed to allow them to defend themselves at a moment’s notice maximined Burning Rain’s effects, hitting nine seven-man units at the same time when they were still huddled up.
When the Call of the Void started to fade, Zoreth and Bytra darted amid the Awakened who were rolling on the ground. The elite soldiers were trying to smother the flames while also using their respective breathing techniques to heal before it was too late.
The glove on Zoreth’s hand extended its fingers into meters long claws that cut off five heads at a time with just a flick of her wrist. The new Sky Piercer was made of Adamant and so heavily enchanted that it had no problem cutting through the damaged enchanted armors.
Solus noticed how much it resembled the Hands of Menadion and wondered how much Bytra knew about her mother’s work. There were many things that the Raiju would teach her, if only Solus managed to bear her presence.
As Zoreth reaped Awakened lives like ripened wheat, Bytra threw the Absolution. The enchanted hammer split into eight exact copies that were engulfed into Chaos energy, unleashing Bytra’s version of the old Fury’s Hammerfall spell, Ruination.
