“Disloyalty can be easily fixed, Your Majesty.” Hystar replied. “Incompetence, instead, takes time and effort to be rooted out.”
“How are things going out there?” She asked while conjuring the images from the external surveillance mirrors again.
“Not good. Can I go all out now?”
“I wanted to kill Phloria and secure Verhen’s corpse. Only after destroying the enemy morale and slaughtering the champions of the pretenders was I planning to turn their despair into terror.” Thrud said with a sigh.
“At this point, I’ll take what I can. Do it.”
Hystar bellowed in laughter as the power core of the lost academy went to full power. The world energy circulated through every one of its inhabitants, Thrud included. The blood of Arthan, Tyris, and Valeron was the best tonic the Golden Griffon could feed upon.
The wings on the back of the titan unfolded and closed again, reaching Hystar’s hands. Two handles formed at the same time when the massive wings detached themselves from the shoulder blades.
They quickly shapeshifted respectively into a shield and broad sword that Hystar wielded with one hand.
When Tessa’s group unleashed five copies of her Blade Tier spell, Root of Destruction, none of them reached their mark.
The massive shield was shrouded by an emerald coating comprised of dozens of Silverwing’s Bastions spread all over its surface. Hystar masterfully moved the shield around, blocking the strongest spells with ease while the sword lay waste to the battlefield.
It contained countless spells among which there were several Annihilations. He aimed his strikes at the positions where the battle was most fierce, slaughtering both enemies and allies.
The followers of the Royals would stay dead whereas Thrud’s loyalists started being reborn the moment after their death.
“Retreat!” Raagu ordered once she understood that there was nothing they could do anymore.
The Golden Griffon was simply too big and powerful. They were just a bunch of Awakened ants fighting against an Awakened man who also wore a full set of equipment.
Hystar’s Tower spells eclipsed their magic, his mass overshadowed even Divine Beasts, and every one of his strikes killed hundreds.
“I’m not retreating!” Tessa clenched her teeth in fury.
“Yes, we are!” Fyrwal slapped her to make the Titania snap out of it. “I’ve already failed Oghrom and Juria today by letting their descendant die. I’m not also going to cause Orion and Jirni more grief by getting two more of their children killed.”
“But…” Tessa wanted to counter, but she had no argument.
“It pisses me off as well, but there’s nothing we can do.” The Elder Hydra said. “We could have taken down the Golden Griffon, Thrud, or her army. All three of them at the same time is impossible. We simply don’t have the means.”
She waved at the allied forces still battling with Thrud’s, incapable of focusing on the lost academy. The Mad Queen’s Divine Beasts fought with no fear of death and the Golden Griffon empowered them all.
“What about Lith?” Quylla asked.
“There!” Friya pointed at a multi-colored meteor that was approaching the golden titan at breakneck speed.
The Voidfeather Dragon put everything he had into one final bust of Dread Flames. The Life Maelstrom and the Mana Aura that the Abomination had stolen would be lost in a few exchanges and then he would have to consume his own life force.
Lith roared as he opened his maw and unleashed a humongous burst of silvery flames. They covered the distance with the Golden Griffon in an instant, catching Hystar by surprise while he was blocking a volley of Annihilations.
The blast wasn’t strong enough to make him even budge, but the Dread Flames opened a large hole in his armor and dug deep. They ate at the enchanted stone and metal, slowing down only because consuming so much mass weakened them by the centimeter.
Hystar conjured a few Bastions and the silvery flames died out.
“Anything else, kid?” The Golden Griffon banged on his shield with the sword, taunting Lith to attack.
He didn’t have to ask twice.
The Voidfeather Dragon focused the Cursed Flames in his scales and boosted them again in a six-colored sphere around him. Yet instead of using them as a barrier to defend against Hystar’s attack, he dodged the sword and used the sphere as a ram.
Hystar moved quickly despite his size and managed to stop Lith and the hail of Spirit Spells accompanying him with the shield.
The impact produced a boom that echoed for kilometers and an explosion visible from all over the battlefield. Yet the shield was unscathed whereas the sorry figure of the Voidfeather Dragon was falling down in an arc emphasized by the trail of smoke following him.
The clouds dispersed and the ground stopped quaking as the potential tribulation faded along with Lith’s consciousness.
“Nice try, little fly. Maybe if you were bigger and stronger, I would have felt something more than a mosquito bite.” Hystar laughed as his blade moved in a descending arc to cut the Dragon asunder.
At the same time, his shield hand conjured several Tower tier spells, just to be safe.
A black figure crossed the sky in a blaze of white light, dodging the spells as if they moved in slow motion. Bytra reached Lith, conjuring both a Gravity spell and Corrupted Bastion.
The former made Lith light enough for her to carry while the latter slowed down the blade. She also used the push against her barrier to further hasten her movements. By the time the sword struck the ground, Bytra was long gone and Hystar had no idea what had just happened.
“Thank the gods you are here, Bytra.” Solus said once the Raiju dropped the Voidfeather Dragon and she could assess how dire his situation was.
“I’m not that good at breaking stuff, but there’s more than one way to use speed.” Bytra nodded. “Let’s get out of here.”
“First things first.” Quylla and Faluel used Injection on Lith while Solus used their bond to force him to shrink to human size.
The Golden Griffon was moving toward them but the retreating army of the Kingdom would still buy them time.
Once they patched up the Voidfeather Dragon to the best of their abilities, they opened a Warp Steps and escaped.
“I’m sorry.” It was the first thing that Lith said the moment he mustered the strength to speak. “I tried to save Phloria. I swear. I really tried, but-”
“Save it for later. We don’t need to lose another friend today.” Friya said amid tears.
The healers of the group were doing their best to keep his life span from shortening. The Dread Flames, the fight, and Lith’s injuries had put him in critical condition. If not properly treated, his life force would soon bleed out.
Tessa and Fyrwal were working as hard as they could.
“We need a geyser.” Solus said.
“What for?” Crank asked while eating.
“I’m sorry. I almost forgot.” A wave of Friya’s hand Warped the Hyperion far away, leaving only those who knew about Solus’ secret there.
“Let me check.” Fyrwal had a map of the Kingdom where she had marked all the mana geysers she had met during her travels.
