“I need you to make sure that nothing comes out of Zeska to disturb me.” Lith said.
“With all due respect, Supreme Magus Verhen, as you so kindly pointed out earlier, this is a siege. Why should the enemies come out of the protection of their enchanted walls and arrays?” Brigadier General Vorgh asked.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t owe you any explanation.” Lith shook his head, ignoring the Master Warden’s request. “I can’t risk an information leak ruining everything. You’ll have to trust me and follow your orders.”
“Fair enough. Please, continue.” Vorgh sighed, hoping that the worry for his ex and the underserved power hadn’t clouded Lith’s mind.
“At the end of the second phase, I’ll give you another signal. It will mark the beginning of the third and final step of my plan. Switch to the offensive again and take the city.” Lith said.
“That’s it?” Elder Sylvana of the Fae asked in disbelief.
“Yes, you know the drill. Aim for the Warp Gate, the arrays’ control center, whatever you think works best.” Lith nodded. “I plan on conquering at least two more cities before noon so let’s make this quick.”
Sylvana was about to scoff and question his sanity when a firm clenched her shoulder. Lotho the Treant was there as well and the plant representative was eager to see what kind of fire burned under all that smoke.
The troops followed their orders the moment they received them, surrounding Zeska and commencing the attack. Much to everyone’s surprise, Lith wasn’t playing his role as the Spear like usual.
He wasn’t even on the battlefield.
After turning into his Tiamat form, Lith had moved back several hundred meters from the city, atop a small hill.
The army officials issued complaints through the chain of command just to be reprimanded and admonished.
“If Verhen tells you to jump into a fire, you do it. No matter your rank, every one of you is a soldier. If you don’t like taking orders, you’ve picked the wrong job. Now go back to fight or I’ll come personally there to execute you for treason!” Orion yelled so much that he almost burst their eardrums.
If Lith acted like a crazy man, Orion sounded like a raving lunatic. Alas, one was the Supreme Magus and the other the General of the Army. Complaining about one of them was dangerous but complaining about both was suicidal.
The Generals swallowed their doubts and kept following their orders.
From the hill, Lith’s seven eyes studied the magical formations of Zeska thanks to the Eyes of Menadion. He took his time to find the focus points of the various arrays and where their runes overlapped, creating structural instabilities.
The all-out attack put great strain on the magical formations, highlighting to the Eyes where the energy from the underground mana geyser that fueled them got clogged under stress.
Once Lith was done with the Eyes, he put them away and conjured the Hands of Menadion. The silvery gloves fused with his Voidwalker armor as Double Edge reshaped itself, becoming a replica of the smaller War.
The angry blade weaved mystical runes through the air on its passage while the Hands drew in every free iota of world energy from the nearby geyser to fuel the Blade Spell.
It was hard to see from such a distance, but on top of the Tiamat’s head stood a petite golden-clad figure. Solus wielded her Fury, mimicking Lith’s every movement. She had a hard-light construct shaped like War encompassing her hammer so that she could wield it like a sword.
The Sage Staff rested on her back, enhancing their focus and drawing even more of the world energy thanks to the combination of elemental crystals and Evil Eyes.
A Blade Tier Spell allowed the mage to add the energy from the power cores of his equipment to that of his mana core, generating a destructive force far greater than the sum of the single parts.
Lith and Solus, however, were different.
They had the same energy signature and one mind focused on rescuing their friend.
Together, they had synchronized their respective armor, weapons, rings, and the tower core to generate a version of Ruin that made use of everything they both had. Despite the distance from the battlefield, the result was breathtaking.
Once Ruin reached half of its completion, a red and black light started to exude from the Tiamat’s body. By the time it was visible from Zeska, jolts of elemental energy and mana had enveloped both Lith and War.
Both sides of the battlefield stopped for a moment feeling the power of the Blade Spell crawling along their spines and making their body hair stand. Everyone knew Lith’s nickname as the Black Star of the Desert, but until that moment no one had understood the reason those who had witnessed Ruin called him like that.
“What the fuck are you waiting for?” Xondar the Garuda yelled as he used Life Maelstrom to empower himself, his equipment, and his personal troops. “Stop him at all costs!”
Yet it was too late.
“Now!” Lith yelled and the Kingdom armies retreated, switching to a defensive stance and getting out of the Blade Spell’s area of effect.
Lith swung his blade in a lunge, releasing a pillar of black and red mana bigger than himself. Ruin generated a focused blast of energy and countless smaller blades that crashed against Zeska’s defensive barriers at the same time.
The pillar put the barrier under great strain and caused the world energy to clog the focus points of the arrays. The energy blades struck at them non-stop, bringing the energy masses to their breaking point.
Cracks appeared all over the spherical barrier that protected the city, spreading faster and becoming wider by the second.
“Fuck!” Xondar yelled as the very same tactics that until a second back had kept the enemy out now kept him in. “Turn off the arrays! Any more and they will crumble. Luckily, the Blade Spell is aimed high. It will safely pass right over the-”
The Forgotten stationed in the City Hall had just executed his order when the Garuda realized that it was too convenient to be a coincidence.
“Phase three!” A wave of Lith’s hand had Trouble and Raptor Warp right in the middle of Zeska, where they started to summon an army of Demons of the Darkness behind the enemy lines.
While Solus focused the Hands and the Staff to recover their strength, Lith channeled his power into the Demons. Soon, the weakest of them had four eyes and counting.
Thrud’s forces stationed in Zeska found themselves the victim of a pincer attack and their formations started to crumble.
Between their elemental crystals and Adamant bodies, Lith’s golems had the prowess of a bright violet-cored Awakened Emperor Beast. The magical metal boosted both their weight and destructive power, but that wasn’t the worst part.
Like the Demons, they felt no pain and they wouldn’t grow tired. Unlike undead, sunlight didn’t bother them, it just made them stronger. As long as Lith kept fueling them, they wouldn’t stop laying waste on everything in their path.
‘I must stop Verhen before he casts a second Blade Spell.’ Xondar abandoned his position, knowing that any other move would have just delayed the inevitable.
