The mana crystal gave her an ability on par with Invigoration, but after using it so many times on so many people, it had lost most of its effectiveness.
On top of that, the orc shaman was running on fumes and her stamina had hit rock bottom. Light magic had healed her wounds but without food, her body couldn’t make up for the lost nutrients.
Ryla inwardly prayed to Glemos to forgive her for her transgression and then used her wings to draw in the bulk of the energy wave before it was too late. The combined efforts of the orc’s crystal and the Fomor’s wings overpowered the Hands, filling Ryla to the brim with elemental energy.
Her wings burned like multi-colored blazes while her eyes shone like suns as she focused and amplified the power of the elements with every bit of mana she had left.
Each eye emitted an elemental pillar the size of her body and Morok’s eyes moved to his back to intercept them. He combined the Tyrannical Eye bloodline ability with Domination to suck the pillars inside his body and further amplify them with his core.
Once he reached his limit, Morok moved the six eyes to his chest and combined them to obtain the Spirit Eye and cast the tier five Spirit, Spell Breakdown.
Air and earth would block the victim by inducing an electric seizure and by trapping their limbs in a prison of rock. Fire and water would alternate in pulses, causing a thermal shock that would sap their strength and make it impossible for them to breathe.
Darkness and light would constantly consume and heal those hit by the spell in a cycle that would consume their vitality until they would die of starvation.
Lith tried and failed to Dominate it, but from so up close and with many enemies to keep at bay he only managed to slow Breakdown for a second before being overrun by the emerald blast.
Or rather, that was how things were supposed to appear.
The Spirit Eye of the Tyrant and that of the Abomination fought a brief yet visible tug of war that drove the monsters to squeeze even the tiniest drop of energy left in their bodies, afraid that such power would be turned against them.
Which was a problem since Ryla kept firing her eyes even after Morok’s eyes were no more. Luckily for him, the multi-colored scales on his body managed to absorb the remaining elemental energy and protect him from most of the damage.
It further fueled his Spirit Spell, but the scales’ absorption rate wasn’t quick enough so they ended up overloading and shutting down.
Morok took care of making the pillar very big, so that when Lith was struck by its harmless core, the destructive power of the rest of Breakdown sold their act.
The Tyrant had aimed the spell so that it would move toward the south entrance of Zelex, pushing Lith near the escape route while also destroying everything in its path to blind the monsters’ physical and mystical senses.
The crowned demon screamed in alleged agony and fury while the spell overpowered him and its detonation turned him into shreds. The blinding light released by Breakdown lasted for one second, but it was enough to cover Protector’s and Tista’s escape.
The Demons of the Darkness shapeshifted and joined their bodies to take the form of the Awakened so that when the children of Glemos could see again, they witnessed the remnants of the colossal demon and the wolf demon shattering into bits.
“It’s over.” Ryla said amid pants, her six eyes shedding blood from the effort. “Just like the legends said, once the crowned demon is defeated, the others follow.”
“Do your legends say anything about not killing your allies?” Morok was bleeding from his Spirit Eye and from his scales as well.
They were now blackened by the elemental overload and had temporarily lost their abilities. The Tyrant now closely resembled a demon and it took Syrah quite some effort to convince her army that he wasn’t another enemy.
“By Glemos, I’m so sorry.” Even Ryla’s most delicate touch was painful, forcing Morok to shove her hand away.
When she tried to conjure the light element to cure him, the Warlord doubled over in pain while clutching at her silver eye.
“Don’t bother.” The Tyrant raised his hand to stop the Warsage who had come to his rescue as well. “If you heal me now, my body will go into shock. I need food and rest first. The mana abuse from that last spell almost killed me.”
Br’ey checked his body with Invigoration and discovered that the savior was right. Even though he had only taken part in the final stretch of the fight, he was faring as bad as them.
‘Good gods, I get that Lith had to sell out the act, but this is too much. He pushed me to my limits so hard that even breathing hurts.’ The Tyrant thought as he blacked out from the strain of the fight.
“Morok!” Faluel screamed while running to his side. “He needs a place to rest and plenty of food for when he wakes up.”
The Hydra used Quylla’s injection spell to flood his body with nutrients while drinking barrels of tonics herself. Life Vision showed Br’ey that the savior’s allies were in better condition than him, but they were in dire need of rest as well.
Tista would have never managed to hurt the much stronger Hydra so badly if not for Faluel taking the blows on purpose. As for Protector, he had given Friya a run for her money and would have beaten her if not for the script.
The dimensional compressing arrays sealed her best spells and with his newfound bloodline ability, the Skoll brought the gap in physical prowess beyond what pure skill could cover.
Protector had struck her very close to her vitals, avoiding them by a hair’s breadth and making her wounds look way more grievous than they actually were.
“We can feed the human and the T- I mean, Glemos’ son.” Syrah stopped herself halfway after noticing Ryla’s glare and the troops staring at the unconscious Tyrant with adoring eyes.
“You’ll have to take care of yourself, Hydra. I’m sorry, but we can’t waste the food to give you a proper meal.” The Hati Queen sighed, looking at the scores of dead along the battlefield.
Hundreds had died at the hands of the demons yet it wasn’t enough to ensure that the food reserves would last until the monsters were done building their new house. The cull was still inevitable.
Yet they were supposed to die anyway so Syrah’s heart was full of gratitude for their sacrifice and glad that their loved ones hadn’t been forced to bloody their hands with the rites of passage.
To make matters worse, not all of the fallen soldiers were the weakest among the monsters. A few of those who had died were great warriors who were supposed to live, making their sacrifice no less necessary but much more painful to the community.
“No problem.” Faluel panted, looking around at Zelex in awe. “I have a snack or two in my dimensional amulet.”
