Outside of the Fringe, there was no Soul Projection taking off the blunt of the effects of the forced merging of Lith’s Abomination and Dragon life forces. The raw power they generated now flooded his body without any filter.
Leegaain had only brought Lith to the alley, leaving Solus in the tower and Lith’s rage to run unchecked.
His black skin cracked into countless small scales from which blue flames burst out. The flames spread to his body and set it ablaze along with his violet aura.
“I hate you.” This time his voice was low, sounding like a growling abyss.
Ragnarök appeared in his hand in a blue blaze while the flames reached Lith’s head and formed a burning crown.
‘His breathing is split like his life forces. This wasn’t noticeable in Salaark’s records.’ Leegaain studied everything through his Eyes and arrays, recording every detail of the transformation.
Even the Overlord’s breathing technique couldn’t see Soul Projections from a distance but this time there was no need to. Leegaain could experience everything first-hand from a front seat.
‘Yet what really worries me are those blue flames.’ He thought while watching them spread along the black blade that wailed in fury. ‘They are burning at my sensing arrays, requiring me to constantly fix the magical formations.
‘The blue flames are also affecting the ground and without me, they would have already set ablaze the whole neighborhood.’
Black horns sprouted from Lith’s forehead and behind his neck. Five white pools formed on his face, slowly turning into as many eyes, each with a vertical pupil of the corresponding elemental color.
All the while Leegaain took page after page of notes.
‘I’m the inheritor of the ancient flames from which Mogar was born so even though I can’t produce them, I have understood the nature of Lith’s Cursed Flames and even of his Dread Flames.
‘They are no different from my Origin Flames. They are simply sparked out of an unbalance in the world energy that can affect a single element for simple Cursed Flames or all of them for the Dread Flames.
‘The blue flames, however, are different. They aren’t the effect of an unbalance. They are a whole new balance and a wrong one at that. A dangerous new balance that might not be allowed to exist.’
Winion and Narant too felt the threat of the blue flames, finding themselves covered in a cold sweat. The Tiamat Fear was weaker than Leegaain’s but they could feel it messing it up with the spells they kept at the ready.
To make matters even worse, Lith’s aura had just jumped from a violet core to a bright violet and the screaming blade in his hand was clearly a masterpiece.
The Davross turned into a black slate and the elemental crystals on the fuller activated all at once as Ragnarök prepared its own spells and channeled the blue flames into its own abilities.
‘Since when does Verhen have Davross and how can he become a bright violet without any of the side effects of a breakthrough?’ Winion asked via the mind link in amazement.
‘Less talk, more fight. Look at the Guardian!’ The woman nodded at the albino man who was trying for a while to get their attention.
“Off you go.” A snap of his fingers released the assassins’ bodies from the paralysis and they immediately tried to retreat.
Alas, Leegaain’s experiment was a controlled one so they slammed their backs against an invisible and unbreakable barrier with such speed that it broke their breathing rhythm.
‘Fuck! We can’t escape but maybe if we defeat Verhen, the Guardian will let us go.’ Winion said.
‘And what if he kills us anyway?’ Narant replied.
‘I’d rather die fighting than begging for my life!’ The male assassin bolted forward, unleashing a Raging Sun right under Lith’s feet.
The tier five War Mage spell was strong enough to wound even a Divine Beast and under the cover of the fire and magma, Winion was certain to be able to Blink behind Verhen and finish him quickly.
Lith extended his free hand, lighting his red and orange eyes. Domination kept Raging Sun from detonating and redirected it at Narant who was forced to conjure a Spirit Barrier to survive the conflagration.
Winion cursed at the Father of All Dragons and his offspring and Blinked anyway.
‘Whatever that bloodline ability is, it must take a considerable focus and I need but one second to kill my target.’ He thought, reassured by the absence of an aura typical of spells like Full Guard.
What he didn’t know, was that the Voidwalker armor had Full Guard among its enchantments. The reason the assassins couldn’t see it was the same for which Lith’s bright violet aura was missing.
The blue flames were currently burning at his body, his blood, his mana, and even his aura. Spells were no different. They were still there, they were just burning.
So, when Winion appeared, he found out that Lith had already turned around. The flaming blade moved like a snake, intercepting the first kris with so much strength that the assassin was forced to back it up with the second to not be cut asunder.
The blue flames spread to the enchanted Adamant, setting mana and metal ablaze.
Lith’s other hand struck Winion’s chest with an open palm and sent him crashing against the barrier.
If not for the armor’s Spirit Protection and the assassin jumping back at the last second to lessen the blow, Winion would have died on the spot.
‘Fuck! Even with full fusion magic and even gravity fusion, the hit hurt like a bitch!’ Winion looked down, noticing the flaming imprint of the palm on his chest.
He conjured water magic to smother the flames but it burned. He conjured light magic to heal himself from the injuries, but it burned as well. Everything burned.
‘What’s happening?’ Despite decades of training and discipline, he was seconds away from falling into panic.
The flames on his chest were spreading and so were those on his weapons, forcing him to drop the kris blades before the fire reached his hands.
‘Interesting.’ Leegaain kept scribbling in his notebook. ‘Water gets split into oxygen and hydrogen, making it flammable. The flesh on the assassin’s body is being split into carbon and hydrogen.
‘Pressure and heat turn the carbon into coal and the hydrogen, well, it naturally burns. Everything burns.’ Leegaain had no idea if the process was due to Lith’s mastery over magic, Void Magic, or just a property of the blue flames.
What he was certain of was that the flames could split organic and inorganic matter into its original components to fuel themselves.
“I hate you!” Lith lunged Ragnarök and the assassin tried to Blink but the space burned as well, collapsing the dimensional door.
The angry blade screamed in ecstasy as it fed on Winion’s blood and life, unleashing the flames that covered it on his internal organs.
Lith left Ragnarök lodged in the man’s chest, turning around toward the woman.
“I hate you.” He said like it explained everything.
‘Ignoring a still-alive Awakened is idiotic at best.’ Narant thought, a smirk appearing on her mouth. ‘Winion needs just one breath to recover his strength and without his weapon, Verhen is a fish in the barrel!’
