In the hands of the Demons, mops became spears, chair legs turned into short swords, quills into knives, and all of them lunged at Linnea’s Spirit Steps before she could see them coming.
Her Adamant armor kept her from dying on the spot, repelling the physical component of the makeshift weapons, but the darkness they were imbued with pierced through metal and opened deep gashes in the flesh underneath.
Still hiding in the broom closet, Lith held the Sage Staff in his hands, using the black eye of the Balor to conjure the only tier five necromancy spell he had ever created, Demons of the Fallen, and his own black eye to amplify the effects of both.
He used the Balor’s eye as a focus to conjure an endless stream of darkness element while splitting the energy between all the corpses to keep them from turning into greater undead.
The two eyes also amplified the effect of the Necromantic spell, allowing the black mana not only to form blood cores that the Demons could feed upon, but also to flood the stolen bodies with darkness element and turn them into deadly weapons.
It was the first time in a long while that Lith didn’t fight on the frontlines so he could devote his full focus on amplifying the power of his Demons and coordinating their attacks thanks to the hive mind that his chains created.
Even the souls who had long since lost their sanity fought like cunning warriors under his supervision.
“What the fuck is she doing here?” Tista thought out loud, shocked by Linnea’s sudden arrival.
“Do I know you?” The Headmistress replied in confusion, having no idea who the Red Demon was.
‘I don’t know and I don’t care.’ Solus replied via the mind link. ‘Focus on the mission.’
Linnea conjured an emerald barrier that shoved the Demons away, giving her the time to mend her wounds with a spell from one of her rings and keeping the traitorous guards from inflicting her new wounds.
Tista had a hard time not hurling a twin blast of full powered Cursed Flames to get rid of the Headmistress and the node at the same time. The problem was that she had been sent to disable the array, not to destroy it.
The Red Demon started to hurl a small jet of True Flames at the runes when Linnea noticed what was happening.
“Oh no, you don’t!” A snap of her fingers released the tier five Spirit Spell, Phoenix Smash.
It generated countless streams of emerald flames capable of disrupting both matter and energy that sent the Demons flying through the corridors like paper amid a storm. The bolts of energy carefully avoided the arrays, leaving them unscathed.
‘This is bad.’ Solus said. ‘Linnea is a deep violet core Awakened while you have just a bright blue core. What’s the plan?’
‘Isn’t that your job?’ Tista asked in a panic.
‘No. I only give Lith information, finding ways to use it is up to him.’
‘Time to improvise, then!’ Clawed Adamant gloves appeared over the Red Demon’s hands, covering her forearms up to the elbow with spiked arm protectors as she slashed the air in front of her.
The enchanted weapon known as Sunder had once belonged to the Black Dragoon Syrook and despite its current appearance it could fit a Divine Beast.
Even though air magic was sealed inside of Zehnma, Sunder had so much mass and boosted Tista’s strength so much that the simple motion generated ten wind blades. The projectiles clashed against the protective spells of the walls, producing a cascade of sparks as they approached Linnea.
Meanwhile, at the city gates, the barrier of solid energy that protected Zehnma had just lost half of its prowess due to the collapse of the third node.
Between the constant onslaught of spells from the mages of the Kingdom and the Spirit Array of the Awakened corps enveloping the city, the surface of the barrier was now covered in a spiderweb of cracks that were growing in size by the second.
‘Just a bit more and the Royal army will be able to enter Zehnma. At that point, we only have to capture the Warp Gate to-‘ Phloria’s train of thought derailed when she saw a small meteor in the distance that was growing in size as it approached.
It had started as an anthropomorphic creature and now looked like a wolf so big that it covered her whole field of vision. Its grey fur was alternated with white mana crystals and its maw was large enough to swallow even the biggest Emperor Beast of her corps in one gulp.
‘A Fenrir! Change of plans, I can’t wait one second longer.’ Phloria channeled the energy that Reaver accumulated with each spell that it cast, adding that mana to her own in order to weave her Blade Tier Spell, Omnislash.
Conjuring such a complex spell would have usually taken a while, but she had stored it in the Mouth of Menadion and was now using the artifact along with fake and true magic to cast Omnislash at record time.
Reaver emitted a white light that wrapped around Phloria’s body, forming a luminous cocoon of power that boosted both her physical and magical prowess akin to a second mana core.
She charged at the solid steel double doors that sealed the entrance to the city while lunging with her estoc.
The thrust produced a white pillar of energy that crashed against the Orichalcum studded metal with such strength that the city walls trembled for meters and the noise from the impact burst the eardrums of the nearby guards.
An overhead diagonal slash cut deep into the metal, quickly followed by a backhand upward horizontal cut along the door’s outlines and by another overhead diagonal slash toward the other side.
Phloria stood on her feet, shifting her center of gravity to put her full weight behind each slash and moving only her arm and wrist to form a horizontal eight with her motion.
Omnislash made her so quick and exerted such a powerful pressure that it blew the hinges of the doors off while Xoola was still halfway through the city.
Phloria performed a final lunge, putting all the power she had left in one energy blast. The pillar of white light nailed the still flying metal doors and turned them into a high-speed projectile weighing several tons.
The Fenrir had yet to decide whether to prioritize the city entrance or the Warp Gate when a distant explosion made her turn her head.
Her eyes went wide in shock when she saw a gigantic piece of metal the size of her muzzle flying in the wind like a piece of paper. Then, Phloria’s Omnislash caught the still barred doors in mid-air, adjusting their course and accelerating their flight to the speed of sound.
Xoola started to weave Blink with her body, but even the movement spell was too slow. The door rammed at her hard enough to break her ribs despite the thick fur covering her body that naturally dispersed all kinds of impacts.
The energy pillar pushed her back toward the city hall while its pressure bent the metal into a rough spearhead that dug into Xoola’s armor and flesh.
