“Just because it’s beyond me, it doesn’t mean it’s also beyond us.” Salaark patted their heads. “My Creation Magic still works and you guys can freely interact with War. Simple, isn’t it?”
“Do you mean we can do a three-way fusion?” Solus was flabbergasted.
“In your dreams.” The Overlord dismissed the idea with a scoff. “I meant that you two are going to use Creation Magic under my guidance. I’ve already allowed you to witness it enough times to learn the basics.
“It has always been my intention to show you the real deal one day, but I never thought it would happen so soon.” She moved behind them and put her hands on their backs, pushing them forward. “Walk in front of those Davross Forges.
“Solus, take out the Fury and give Lith a copy.”
They did as instructed but even after reaching their destination, Salaark kept the physical contact.
‘We’ll now switch to a mind link to save time. First, I know you’d love to use the Eyes to steal my secrets, but if you do, you’ll lack the mental focus to perform the task. Second, you guys suck.
‘At your level, there’s no way you can handle the energy necessary for this kind of Creation Magic so I’ll have to do it for you. I can move your bodies and manipulate your cores, but only if you let me.
‘Resist my influence, question my judgment, or hesitate for one second and everything will be for naught. Are we clear?’ She asked, receiving nods in reply.
‘Third, I love you guys but I’m no charity. This is your blade, Lith, so cough up every ingredient you are willing to consume and I mean the good stuff.’
For once in his life, Lith didn’t care about money and took the Davross, white crystals, and the rest of the Dryad’s reward out of the pocket dimension.
‘Thank my paranoia I’ve already purified everything just for a situation like this.’ He thought.
His heart bled at the idea that the crystal mines and the Crucible would lose efficiency due to the loss of the precious materials but he sucked it up.
‘Nice.’ Salaark patted his back. ‘It would be nicer if you weren’t already crying for the loss of the precious materials, though. By the way, it’s called “making an investment”.’
The Overlord furrowed her brows while Solus threw a sideway glare at Lith while conjuring her power.
‘Can I set the tower here, Grandma?’ She asked.
‘Of course. Feel free to do anything that you think will increase our odds of success.’ Salaark replied, noticing that Lith was looking at her in a funny way. ‘Aside from spilling my blood or trying to take from me something that you can use as an ingredient!’
Lith sighed in disappointment and turned forward.
‘What an opportunistic brat.’ The Overlord grunted before taking a deep breath to calm down. ‘This is one of my personal tier five Creation Magic spells. I call this Phoenix’s Forge.’
Salaark channeled her mana inside Lith and Solus, taking away her own energy signature so that it became their own. The bond with the tower also flooded them with world energy, allowing them to resist a power way beyond their capacity.
‘Do you think we can do like M’Rael and use the Master Mirror to kick things up another notch?’ Solus said.
‘Glad you asked.’ Salaark sent the mana from them to the tower where it was amplified before being returned.
‘The first step in a case like this, when I can’t undo the imprint is called Separation.’
Black mana filled with darkness magic moved from Salaark to Lith, then to the Master Mirror and back, and finally into the Davross Forge in front of him. At the same time, a white stream of mana filled with light magic followed the same path but through Solus.
War floated between the two Forges where it was exposed to the two conflicting energies at the same time and in equal measure.
The darkness attacked the flames, the metal, and even the mana pathways in the attempt to tear them apart while the light coated both matter and energy, protecting them from the black flood.
Lith found it a fool’s errand akin to weaving Penelope’s shroud. Whatever the darkness did, the light seemed to undo it in an endless loop. After a few seconds, the changes in War became visible to Life Vision.
The constant destruction and regeneration process was slowly splitting the metal of the blade from the mana of the enchantments. With each cycle, the hold that Adamant and crystals had on the pseudo cores, mana circulatory system, and mana pathways loosened.
The process became faster and faster until Lith and Solus could follow it with their naked eyes. The darkness split matter from energy while light seeped in the cracks between them.
The light element repaired metal, crystals, and spells while also coating them in an insulating layer that protected them from the following waves of darkness element that were free to focus solely on the still-exposed parts.
Before Lith could even understand what was happening, the Adamant of the shattered blade and the hilt lay lifeless on the floor whereas the whole spell matrix that comprised War’s essence was still floating between the two Davross Forges.
Lith could see War’s mana flow for the first time with Life Vision without the need for Invigoration. The pseudo cores were still intact and so were the mana pathways whereas several branches of the mana circulatory system were damaged or missing.
On top of that, there were huge holes in the rune patterns where the mana crystals were supposed to be. The energy mass was covered by a thick veil of mist that flowed back and forth, making it hard to discern the single runes.
‘Is it me or is War’s spell matrix blurred?’ Solus asked.
‘It is blurred.’ Salaark nodded. ‘I used Creation Magic to isolate the spells that comprise War’s “soul” including Orion’s cloaking enchantments since I couldn’t take one without the other.’
‘What are going to do now?’ Lith chimed in. ‘After using him for years, I know roughly how the mana flows to form War’s enchantments and abilities but it’s not enough. If we want to repair War, we need a clear vision of the entire structure.
‘We can’t rely on guesswork.’
‘I couldn’t agree more.’ Salaark slightly rotated her hands that were still placed against Lith’s and Solus’ backs.
The light flow isolated most of the spell matrix while the darkness attacked selectively a few runes, shattering them. In the blink of an eye, the cloaking runes were gone and with them the mist.
War’s secrets lay exposed in front of Lith and Solus, brilliant in their simplicity and so easy to replicate. Yet it wasn’t such a vision that shocked them to their core.
‘Wait, what?’ Lith turned from the energy mass to Salaark non-stop. ‘How did you know which were the cloaking runes and why are you using us to channel the elements?’
‘I didn’t know.’ Salaark replied. ‘I simply accessed your muscle memory to spot which runes were activated by your mana and those that instead never required direct fuelling.’
