For a fake mage, the trick to perform a Blade Tier spell was to perceive the tiny specks of mana that left their body to feed their equipment and follow them to locate the power core.
Blade Tier spells followed the same principles as tier five spells and once conjured, one could pour as much mana as they wanted. In Orion’s case, he had to draw the energy from the power cores and add it to Elemental Sonata while keeping the spell matrix intact.
It was both slower and more difficult than what an Awakened would do since they would add the power from their equipment while weaving the spell instead of splitting the process into multiple steps.
On top of that, due to the lack of Spirit Magic Orion’s Elemental Sonata used only six of the seven elements. The silver lightning became one with the Blade Spell and the multi-colored light of his blade turned white.
Orion put every iota of mana and Life Maelstrom in Elemental Sonata. The tip of the blade traced gentle curves in the air that encompassed Thaymos’ figure from head to toe.
‘Based on what Solus told us, targeting the Black Tide is pointless and we don’t know where that thing’s pseudo core is hidden.’ Orion thought. ‘Instead of a focused blow that’s likely to be of no consequence, I’m going to spread my energy.
‘It won’t do much damage but with a bit of luck, it is going to give us a clue about how to defeat it.’ The white beam of Elemental Sonata burst from the tip of Grimlock, cutting through the barriers and rock in the same pattern as Orion’s flowing movements.
[“What?”] Thaymos yelled in surprise as the Blade Spell carved him like a scalpel, the cuts clinical and precise but also shallow.
The surprise was much worse than the damage. That whole night had been one shock after the other, making him realize how outdated his magic was.
Lith and Tista had just reached their respective positions when Elemental Sonata lit the sky. While they were still busy dodging the spell, Kelia contacted them on their amulets and informed them of Orion’s intentions.
They used the Monocles of Menadion to study the reaction of the lost city, hoping to see him defend a particular area or his regeneration being slower in a specific point.
Alas, the only relevant wound on the Eternal Fortress was the one to his pride.
‘Void and Blight?’ Lith asked, cursing their bad luck.
‘Void and Blight.’ Tista nodded and drew a deep breath.
Then, the Tiamat and the Hekate unleashed a twin burst of Void and Blight Flames, aimed respectively in the back and in the front of the lost city. This way, even if Lith and Tista were to fail to control the elemental giants, Thaymos would be right in the middle of their conflict.
Just like a few minutes ago, the Cursed Flames seemed to cancel each other, forming a small sphere each. They fed upon the monsters, draining from them the element they both lacked to form bodies 23 meters (76′) tall.
[“Seriously, I’m still on Mogar or what?”] Thaymos’ patience was quickly reaching its limits. [“How many things did that bastard gloss over? Either everyone here is bonded to a living legacy or I’ve been set up!”]
He attacked the black and white giants with his massive fists, smashing them from head to waist in a single blow. Yet there were still plenty of monsters in the Black Tide and instead of disappearing, the Cursed Flames clung to the stony limbs.
The Void giant sucked the light element dry while the Blight giant absorbed the darkness element that Thaymos was conjuring to destroy them. The damage they dealt to him was minimal and their small size posed no threat to him but the Eternal Fortress was distraught.
No matter how many times he destroyed the elemental giants, they kept reforming. The scores of monsters of the Black Tide were an endless source of energy for all three of them, leading to a standstill.
To make matters more annoying, the fleet of DoLoreans harried him like a swarm of angry wasps. The weapons mounted on the vehicles were alchemical tools and could conjure spells only up to tier three but each flying car cast hundreds of them per second.
Also, the passenger seats were taken by mages who dropped tier five spells instead of bombs at each passage. The DoLoreans were so small and fast that the Eternal Fortress perceived them only through his detection arrays.
The hail of spells was mostly neutralized by his automatic defenses but the explosions they produced overloaded his senses and made it hard for him to focus.
[“Enough!”] Thaymos grabbed the giants by the head and slammed them against each other with so much violence that the clap of his hands generated a shockwave that swept the DoLoreans away.
The Cursed Elements clashed without the time to restore their balance and triggered a blast that lit the night as bright as day and destroyed the lost city’s arms up to the elbows.
[“I’ve held back because I wanted to study the might of modern magic but I’m done playing. I’ve witnessed enough. You’ll make a fool of me no more!”] He raised his quickly regenerating limbs while conjuring an emerald sphere between them.
In their short life the giants had killed hundreds of monsters and their death had killed more but it had also provided Thaymos with massive streams of life force and mana to fuel his best spells.
Lith and Tista breathed in unison, their Origin Flames turning into Primordial Flames that ate at the energy sphere and crashed against the Eternal Fortress’ chest. Yet the hole they opened healed just as fast as the arms and the lost city just poured more mana into the spell to make up for what the flames had consumed.
‘What now?’ Tista asked in a panic as the Tower Spirit spell neared completion.
‘Now this!’ The elemental and the DoLoreans had bought Lith enough time to conjure his Tower Blade spell, Nova Ruin.
Fake and true magic, body casting, and the Mouth of Menadion made it quick while the energy coming from the tower and the air aspect of Ragnarök’s Davross amplified the spell along with the Life Maelstrom past any Nova spell he had ever cast.
There was only so much silver lightning Lith could pour inside his mystical flames without them overpowering Tista’s instead of fusing with them. Nova Ruin, however, had no such problem.
‘I’m back!’ Solus Warped on his head, tracing the spell as well with the Fury after coating it with a hard-light construct shaped like the angry blade.
Her mana fused with Lith’s and so did the Life Maelstrom she possessed.
Nova Ruin flowed from one of them to the other, its energy amplified with each cycle. Only when their equipment couldn’t bear any more energy did they unleash it in a scarlet-black pillar.
Thaymos unleashed what was ready of his Tower Tier spell, surpassing Nova Ruin in size and brilliance. Great was his surprise when the smaller spell crushed Cruel Star into emerald shards and then hit him like a truck.
The Tower Spirit Spell crumbled in front of the Tower Blade Spell and the Eternal Fortress’ head was burst open.
