Yet now that Tista was at the final crossroad, she refused to take the final step forward because, unlike Valia, she had forgotten the path in life that had led her to that moment. Unlike Valia, Tista was still alive and she rejected her gifts.
‘Gods, how could I have been so stupid until now?’ She thought while body casting a tier five spell. ‘Lith has shown me that no matter what form he takes, he’s still my brother. Our parents still love him, Kamila loves him, and our little ones consider him their hero.
‘Grandma, Bodya, and the rest of my family will love me as well, no matter what I choose. I am Tista Verhen and that won’t change no matter what form I take!’
Her three life forces spun around each other faster and faster. The barrier between them that had formed during the past few months shattered, offering them no resistance.
A silver pillar descended from the skies while a smaller one erupted from Tista’s body and moved up to reach the other. A sixth orange eye opened on her cheekbone while the Phoenix, Dragon, and human sides merged into a single one.
The world energy descended upon the Red Demon like the finger of a god, splitting into its six components and generating as many pillars of elemental energy that seeped into her eyes.
It moved from the black eye on her forehead to her silver eye and then to the yellow eye before flowing into the right side of her face. The newly opened orange eye channeled the elemental flow to the red eye which in turn passed it to the blue eye.
Before the elemental energy could go full circle, a spark of Tista’s life force burst from the middle of her forehead, combining itself with the six elements that flooded her body to form the emerald seventh eye of Spirit Magic.
Tista roared as new power flooded every fiber of her being and the silver pillar grew in size along with her body. Her flaming red scales became bigger and thicker while a second set of wings emerged from her hips.
They were membranous like those of a Dragon, with one bone spike protruding from the upper joint near her body.
As the world energy turned into flesh and bones to give her the mass necessary to survive the transformation, emerald bursts of flames erupted from the newly formed membranous wings.
The emerald flames condensed into white feathers that, by the time the transformation was over, covered the entire surface of the new wings, leaving only the bone spike exposed.
The original set of curved horns on Tista’s head had grown thicker and longer, now protecting both the sides and the crown of her head.
A second set of smaller curved horns came out of the back of her skull and protected both sides of her throat. The tail coming out of the small of her back grew longer, and then split into two.
Each extremity was covered in thick red scales and had bone spikes protruding from their spines. Both ended with a jagged bone spearhead and were capable of independent movement.
Small bumps appeared under the scales on her chest, proving to whoever cared about it that whatever the Red Demon had just become, it was still a mammal.
Tista now reached 20 meters (66′) of height and Valia lacked the mass to cover and control her body any longer. Now that Sunder didn’t need gravity magic anymore to suit its wielder, the artifact fit like a glove and could use all of its power for the offense.
In theory, the appearance of the Red Demon that the monsters had seen from the files about Lith that the emissary of the Undead had provided them might have screwed up the plan.
Yet the transformation had been as quick as sudden and the silver pillar had hidden Tista’s original appearance until the transformation was over.
“Block this, fucker!” Sunder’s extended claw hit the Hati captain like a speeding train, piercing through him no matter how many warg he sacrificed.
The captain knew that it was over and let go of the link with his pack right after taking all the damage upon himself. The colossal Adamant blade kept moving forward, reaching the orc shaman and nailing her to the ground like a bug.
At the same time, the other four claws dug deep trenches in the ground and cut through the monsters’ ranks like they were paper figurines.
Yet being so big also meant offering an easier target.
Now the entire army of monsters could shoot at her without the risk of hurting their teammates and that’s what they did with extreme prejudice. Each spell per se dealt negligible damage, but there were hundreds of them raining upon Tista from every side.
The Balor, the only survivor among the leaders of the left wing of Zelex’s army, used the black energy wing to conjure a circular quasi-array on his back before bolting toward the colossal demon.
He didn’t attack her directly, preferring to keep the line of fire clear.
Also, simply by darting around Tista from a safe distance, the mass of darkness magic he carried turned the air into a noxious gas that blinded her senses and sapped her strength.
Darkness magic was slow so the Balor exploited the cover fire provided by his troops to weave a thick curtain of shadows that the enemy couldn’t avoid. The demon could protect herself from the spells with Domination or use it to disrupt the quasi-array, but she couldn’t do both.
She had already used the elemental sealing arrays stored in the Mouth and conjuring more would have taken more time than she had. Tista drew a deep breath to conjure a twin burst of Cursed Flames but Valia stopped her.
‘Only two creatures on Mogar possess such a bloodline ability and the monsters know it. If you do that, everything we’ve done so far will be for naught.’
Tista snarled, moving the flow of world energy and life force toward the new set of wings instead of her heart like usual. She had no idea what she was doing, but it felt as natural to her as spewing Origin Flames.
As she flapped her wings to shield herself from the volley of spells, some of the white feathers turned black, red, or blue. Then, they detached themselves from the membrane, leaving it exposed as the gust of winds caused by the flaps carried the feathers among the enemy lines.
Tista’s first reaction was of panic and shock, the memory of her mutilated and naked wings still etched in her mind. Soon, however, she realized that this time the feathers hadn’t fallen due to the attacks but because of something she had done.
There was no pain accompanying their loss, only the certainty that they would grow back.
‘What is that?’ Valia asked after wrapping her shadow form around Tista’s neck to keep the mind link between them invisible.
‘I don’t know. I was weaving a few spells with my body when-‘ The moment she thought of the spells she needed and where she meant to strike, a big rune appeared on each feather.
