Raagu had already faced a similar strategy and she knew how to adjust her spells under any circumstance. She just needed time to correct the runes’ sequence according to the new balance.
Time that she didn’t have.
The Warp Gate opened despite their valiant attempts to disrupt it and Thaymos the Eternal Fortress crossed it with a single step. The lost city stood over 100 meters (330 feet) tall, its body comprised of lustrous white stones.
For one moment, the image of the White Griffon in its White Knight form overlapped with Thaymos, but the two couldn’t be more different. The Eternal Fortress had no wings and unlike the academy, each piece of his body showed clear signs of what building every piece belonged.
The head was a main keep with a metal drawbridge for a jaw and a portcullis shaped to resemble teeth. Two of the many round windows lit with orange light were supposed to be the eyes, or at least that was the impression they gave.
Tall towers stood on the shoulder pads that extended into two stocky arms formed by what looked like the west and east wings of the castle. The fingers on each hand were formed by smaller buildings like stables and servants’ quarters held together by the magic animating the living legacy.
The main bulk of the castle formed the chest, with the external walls wrapped around it as a rickety armor. The legs, so to speak, were two conical, featureless stumps formed by the underground floors of the fortress after being piled up on each other.
The “feet” had no toes or heels. They were just two cylinders wider than those above to give the legs stability.
Where the White Knight looked exactly like a giant man wearing a Royal Fortress armor, Thaymos the Eternal Fortress looked like a castle that had taken on humanoid features solely for the sake of convenience.
There was nothing human in it nor was it pretending to be one.
[“What’s going on?”] Thaymos asked, his voice formed by the sounds of slamming doors and thudding gates. [“This is not where the Steps was supposed to appear. Where’s this so-called Tea-Rain?”]
There was no word for train in the old version of Tyris’ language that Thaymos spoke. Orpal hadn’t bothered finding one and the Eternal Fortress had no desire to update his vocabulary so they had settled for the closest-sounding thing.
“What is it saying?” Raagu’s magically amplified voice resounded above the clangor of battle even at great distance, reaching Inxialot who was her target but also those still high in the sky.
“I’m not my mother, I’m not decrepit enough to have ever learned that language.” He replied. “I should have a dictionary back at home, though.”
“It’s saying that it was expecting to have reached the Wayfinder.” Lith replied in annoyance before realizing that Tista and Friya were looking at him in surprise. “What’s the matter? The accent is funny but that thing speaks clearly.”
“For you.” Tista said. “It’s gibberish to m- Great Mother almighty!”
Instead of dissipating like it usually happened, the life force and mana that comprised the Warp Steps flowed into the gate-mouth of the living legacy and into the windows, doors, and every opening visible on his limbs.
[“These idiots must have killed each other quicker than I expected.”] Thaymos failed to notice the humans on the ground because their size made them irrelevant to him and the Divine Beasts in the sky because he didn’t bother looking up.
[“It doesn’t matter. I should be close enough anyway.”] The living legacy spoke to himself out of habit.
During the millennia of imprisonment, his own voice was the only sound he could hear. The barrier sealed off Thaymos from the rest of Mogar to keep him from luring with promises of power someone stupid enough to free him.
Also, his captors had hoped that the years of complete isolation would have driven the Eternal Fortress insane and made it easier to restrain him in case of escape. Unfortunately, it hadn’t worked.
The only silver lining was that Thaymos was ignorant of the outside world and too arrogant to care about it.
The living legacy stomped his feet, causing a grade four quake on the Richter scale and using the vibrations to scout his surroundings with Earth Vision. He noticed Raagu, Inxialot, Solus, and Bodya and compared the collected data with the description that Orpal had given him.
Since none of them matched the Destroyer and there was no trace of the Train, Thaymos activated his long-range detecting arrays to acquire the dimensional coordinates of his correct destination.
It was the secret behind the quick progression of the Black Tide. The monsters advanced, feeding on their own kin, until they either found a mana geyser or enough of them died to conjure a Gate.
At that point, Thaymos reached them and opened a new Warp Steps leading as far as his mystical senses could perceive. The dimensional tunnel would be over 100 meters (330′) wide instead of high, allowing the Black Tide to cover hundreds of kilometers in one go.
Whether there was a mana geyser or not, the Eternal Fortress would gather his strength while waiting for his thralls to call upon him once again.
Thaymos spread his arms and drained the world energy while chanting the dimensional runes of his spell. Some of them had been changed to make the modern Warp Steps more efficient, but enough of them had stayed the same for everyone to recognize the spell.
Magical runes were the words that mages used to communicate with Mogar and magic was the one true universal language used by all people, no matter their continent of origin.
A spinning vortex appeared between his hands, its contours the only clear shape while the inside was hazy. The old version of Warp steps required to input the dimensional coordinates last and no one used it anymore.
Millennia ago, a cunning mage had devised Collapsed Space, turning the escape route into a deadly trap. To counter that, Blink had been created and later Warp Steps had been modified so that it would appear without giving the enemy the time to weave Collapsed Space.
“We need to stop it!” Raagu yelled but she didn’t conjure her dimensional sealing arrays again, afraid to draw on herself the attention of the living legacy.
“How, exactly?” Friya yelled back. “Unless you have gotten some serious ace in the hole after fighting against the Golden Griffon, I have nothing that can take down a thing that big. Even a Divine Beast looks cute in comparison.”
She pointed at Lith who even in his Tiamat form didn’t reach the waist of the Eternal Fortress.
“I hate to admit it, but Friya is right.” Lith had recalled Solus by his side and together they were using the Eyes of Menadion to gauge their opponent.
Thaymos’ spells were as old as his enchantments yet for some reason the living legacy was even stronger than the Golden Griffon at the time of its destruction.
 Which made little sense since the Lost Academy had been updated by Thrud and its power core boosted by the mana cores of her students and Divine Beasts.
