Compared to the Golden Griffon, Thaymos was supposed to be an outdated piece of junk, yet the readings of the Eyes of Menadion begged to differ.
“We have killed hundreds of monsters yet we haven’t slowed down the Black Tide’s advance one bit. Now we have to also deal with a lost city and as far as I remember, no one has ever managed to destroy one even on Garlen.”
“No one but you.” Inxialot Blinked himself, Raagu, and his undead army near Lith.
He was tired of screaming and there was no point leaving the Dread Knights behind. If they had to die again, they would do it to serve their master, not to play with monsters.
“Those were special circumstances.” The Tiamat shook his head. “I think everyone remembers how things went when we faced the Golden Griffon without the blueprints. This is no different.”
He pointed at the dreadful yet majestic aura of the Eternal Fortress that despite the distance sent shivers down everyone’s spine. It was an enemy that the Jiera’s Council at its full force had failed to put down, even with Zagran’s help.
There wasn’t much that the eight of them could do, except for one thing.
“There is one small difference.” Raagu said. “The Golden Griffon moved on foot whereas this idiot opens Gates. Before we were taken by surprise and scattered, but if we join our forces, we can collapse the dimensional corridor.
“It’s not enough to kill a living legacy but it should send him away in search of the nearest mana geyser and buy us the time we need.”
Everyone nodded and looked at Friya, the only dimensional mage of the group, for advice.
“I already tried and failed on my own. The bastard alters the elemental balance in the world energy faster than I can follow him.” She replied.
“I can help you with that.” Raagu created a mind link with Friya. ‘Just follow my instructions. While the others keep the living legacy busy, I am going to create a flaw in his portal and you have to use it to bring everything down.’
“Okay, but we need to wait for the real deal.” Friya pointed at the still-small Steps encompassed by the Eternal Fortress’ hands. “A Steps that size is nowhere near powerful enough to damage a creature that big.”
[“You!”] Thaymos’ clattering voice as he looked up produced a gust of wind as strong as a storm. [“You match the description of the Bright Day. Are you the Destroyer?”]
“What is it saying?” Raagu asked and Lith translated for them again.
‘The Bright Day?’ Solus was flabbergasted. ‘She’s without a host and has no reason to be on Jiera. Why should she talk about you to a lost city?’
‘How should I know?’ Lith replied. ‘How does he know that some people call me the Destroyer?’
‘Not some people.’ Solus pointed out. ‘It’s a title that Malyshka gave you so whoever spoke to this guy must have some connection with her.’
[“You’d better answer me, kid, because I’m going to kill you anyway.”] Thaymos noticed the resemblance between the four-winged black creature and the Tiamat in Orpal’s holograms but there were many differences between them.
The size, the flaming crown, and all the things that had changed after Elysia’s birth and his life forces merged into a perfect one. Also, due to Lith’s cloaking devices, Thaymos couldn’t sense the bond with Solus.
Tyris’ ring made Solus’ energy signature different from Lith’s which further confused the Eternal Fortress. Yet their resemblance respectively with the Destroyer and the Golden Knight in the holograms was more than enough for him.
Thaymos had no qualms about killing Divine Beasts for sport.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” The members of the group understood that he wasn’t talking to them solely because he was looking straight at the Eternal Fortress.
[“It doesn’t matter.”] Thaymos said, conjuring another gust of wind and leaving Lith flabbergasted. [“If you are lying, you are going to do everything you can to stop me. If you are not, I can take my time with you.
[“Feel free to run away. Now that I know your energy signature, there’s no place on Mogar you can hide from me. I have all the time in the world and I love myself a good hunt.”]
The detecting arrays had finally located the position of the Wayfinder but the magical formations protecting the train made it impossible to pinpoint the dimensional coordinates in its vicinity.
The living legacy had been scouting for an area large enough to open the Warp Gate without interference. No matter how strong the Black Tide was, the dimensional corridor was a funnel that prevented the monsters from using their real strength: numbers.
If the humans managed to hold the Black Tide off, keeping the portal open for too long would have drained Thaymos’ power core until he could no longer sustain it. Countless of his thralls would die and he would be nowhere close to his goal.
The Eternal Fortress spread his hands, projecting the Warp Gate in front of his army. Instead of going himself, Thaymos was sending the Black Tide fist, forcing Friya’s hand.
‘We can’t let the monsters reach the Wayfinder!’ She said via the mind link.
The dimensional tunnel was quickly increasing its size as the fog within cleared, revealing someplace near enough to the expedition encampment to see it but too far away for any of its arrays to be of use.
Any resistance force would have no advantage.
The process, however, created ripples and dimensional distortions as the mana necessary to open a Gate that big kept flowing in. Friya locked on the distortions, injecting them with the golden sparks from her Dimensional Ruler spell to keep them unstable until the portal reached its full size.
Lith and Tista coordinated themselves telepathically and landed in front of the Gate, both of them taking deep regular breaths.
‘Now!’ Friya gave the signal the moment the dimensional tunnel ceased expanding and its energy started to stabilize.
Inxialot and Ilthin Blinked in unison, one in front of Thaymos’ face and the other in front of his chest.
The King of Liches pointed his staff and unleashed on the main keep a barrage of Spirit Spells powerful enough to level a mountain. At the same time, he spoke gibberish while keeping a smug expression on his face.
He had long since learned that the good thing about a language barrier was that whatever you said the opponent would take it for the worst insult in their life as long as your tone was right.
Ilthin shouted a Shuttered Soul at the top of her lungs, consuming another chunk of the Life Maelstrom Lith had entrusted her. The rest she used to empower her body along with the energy stored inside her blood core, reaching a power and mass superior to an Elder Divine Beast.
She channeled the fire element inside Orphan Maker, enveloping the mace with mystical flames that would seep inside any crack and burn at the magical runes enchanting the Eternal Fortress.
Inxialot’s spell generated a light that illuminated the plateau as if an emerald sun had risen and an explosion that clouded Thaymos’ face. Ilthin’s shriek shattered the windows of the wall-armor and its shockwave made it rumble.
