Yet it took the Dragon a wave of his scaled hand to alter the coordinates of the magical formation and have it press on the undead instead, forcing them to fight against the ever-shifting gravitational pull just to keep their flesh together.
“If fear isn’t enough to make you talk, pain will do.” The Dragon opened his mouth, hurling a gentle stream of Origin Flames that engulfed Ruksha.
Much to everyone’s surprise, it didn’t affect the stone floor, the Moon Fall array, Ruksha’s armor, or even his clothes. The Ghoul was seemingly unscathed yet he screamed at the top of his lungs in agony like no undead had ever done before.
They were supposed to be immune to pain, their bodies just vessels for the necromantic energy that animated them. Very few things could hurt them and for those, darkness fusion was supposed to be plenty enough.
Yet Ruksha wailed and rolled on the floor, slapping all over his body as if he was trying to kill a swarm of insects or to smother an invisible flame.
The show lasted for barely a minute but it seemed hours to the undead. With each passing second, they could feel the Ghoul growing weaker, the life essence and the darkness that he had painstakingly accumulated over the centuries slowly burning away.
Even without Life Vision, they only needed a whiff of his smell to perceive that his almost full red blood core had gained several black streaks. He had become weaker, as if the past century had never happened.
Ruksha was crying like a baby, shedding blood tears from his eyes and hugging himself in a fetal position.
“Not ready to talk yet?”
“No, w-” A second burst of Origin Flames struck and this time the Ghoul’s strength plummeted.
The amount of fire was the same as before, there was just less energy to burn. Once the fire went out again, Ruksha was reduced to the blood core equivalent of green and his flesh steamed from the heat still burning within.
“Origin Flames can burn everything.” The Voidfeather Dragon explained while his mouth deformed into a cruel smile. “Even your so precious cores. It just takes a bit of skill and patience to learn how to do it.
“If you keep remaining silent, I’ll burn away everything you are. All the magic and strength you have accumulated in centuries of life will be gone. You’ll get out of here, alive but as weak as newborns.”
“Are you really going to spare our lives?” The Lamia asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
“Why shouldn’t I? I’m sure you have made plenty of enemies on your own. Why give you a merciful death when I can throw you out and let you spend what’s left of your undeath on the run?
“Fearing that every day might be the last because you won’t have the strength to defend yourselves even from the street thugs that will try to take away your equipment.
“Death is much easier than living as prey after having always been a predator.” Lith chuckled, letting their fear turn into terror and then into horror.
Little did they know that his skills were boosted by the tower that stood right behind him. That he still lacked the pinpoint precision to burn solely a core unless the target wasn’t courteous enough to stand perfectly still.
The undead of the assassin unit tried and failed every spell, bloodline ability, and piece of equipment they wore. Their spells hurt their own caster and left the Dragon unaffected, their bloodline abilities didn’t trigger, and their artifacts were reduced to nothing more than scrap metal.
The undead checked their imprint over and over, yet even though the weapons still carried their energy signature, the enchantments didn’t answer their owner’s will.
Every member of the assassin unit had all fought thousands of battles with their favorite equipment, upgrading it over time but always keeping their respective preferred sets of enchantments to execute the strategies that they had perfected over the centuries.
Never before had any of them been betrayed by their own flesh, blood, and metal.
A third breath of bright violet Origin Flames struck Ruksha, burning what was left of his blood core. The other undead could see him writhing on the floor, his aura dimming like a candle burning out.
After a few seconds that seemed to last forever, a skeletal husk was left in place of the once-powerful Ghoul. The wretched creature had now grey skin and limbs so thin that they couldn’t sustain his body anymore.
His mind was lost along with his power, crushed by the hunger as his almost full-black blood core demanded nourishment. Yet Ruksha’s husk was still paralyzed like everyone else and could only wail and trash in frenzied fury.
After a while, the balance between the darkness energy and the life force was broken, the latter fell prey to the hunger and the Ghoul’s essence cannibalized itself. His body became filled with black veins that spread throughout his body, and all the while Ruksha never stopped screaming.
His agonizing wail lasted for the whole process, its pitch raising as the black veins grew in size until they painted the Ghoul’s skin black. Only then did the screaming end and only because his tongue was the first thing to turn into ashes.
The rest of the assassins stared in horror as their companion died of starvation, one of the most horrible things that could happen to an undead. Something that was supposed to take weeks and yet it had happened in front of their eyes in the span of a few minutes.
“Okay, you are next.” The Dragon turned toward Upha the Vampire, his mouth already filled with roaring flames.
“Wait!” Upha tried one last time to go Chiropteran, mist, and even to just run away, but everything failed. “Just tell me what you want to know.”
***
After a thorough interrogation of the members of the assassin squad and learning everything they knew about the current state of the Undead Courts, Lith killed them all to leave no witnesses of his newfound abilities.
“I thought you said you’d set them free to send a message.” Tista came out of the shadows behind the Voidfeather Dragon while still in her Hekate form, her seven eyes all alight like those of her brother.
“I was lying.” Lith said with a scoff, incredulous that someone could still be so naïve after knowing him for so long. “They would have spread rumors about the tower behind me, of my ability to paralyze my opponents, and in the end, even figured out how I caught them by surprise.”
As Lith shrunk back to human size with Elysia still sleeping between his arms, the presence of Trion, Valia, Varegrave, and Locrias was also revealed.
“That was incredible, My Liege.” Locrias still couldn’t believe what they had just done. “Is this really the full extent of the Tiamat Fear?”
“Yes.” Lith nodded. “Those morons didn’t suspect that I created the inner garden on purpose, to leave the same opening they exploited while attacking Rena’s house. They failed to notice the thin construct I left over the soil and they broke it triggering my alarm.”
