Lith slowly lowered Nova Ruin’s beam, carving Thaymos’ chest open as well and disintegrating everything it contained.
Bodya rose from the depth of Mogar, using a tier five earth spell to make the tunnels he had created collapse. While the Eternal Fortress struggled to keep his balance, the Nidhogg curled around the stone titan’s right knee and squeezed as hard as he could.
The already strained joint cracked and healed non-stop, incapable of bearing the increased weight and the pressure at the same time. Ilthin focused the Life Maelstrom she had left and struck the left knee with Orphan Maker.
Inxialot chose that moment to make his entrance, unleashing a barrage of Spirit Spells against the lower body of the lost city to not mess with the Nova Blade Spell. The Hekate wanted to join the onslaught but Lith stopped her.
‘Save your strength. We are going to need it.’ He said.
Nova Ruin faded shortly before cutting the hips asunder but it was enough to make Thaymos fall. His body hit the ground, causing a localized quake and squashing scores of monsters under his weight.
The white stone clashed against the edges of the dimensional corridor, releasing a cascade of sparks as it cut through horizontally and crossed the vertical wound left by Nova Ruin.
‘No.’ Lith thought as the Warp Gate never destabilized.
‘Please, no.’ An emerald spark was now visible in mid-air and it was quickly swelling to gigantic proportions.
Thaymos rose to his feet as if pulled up by invisible strings without the clumsy movements a man would need. His arms were whole again and the cross-shaped chasm was already closing.
‘No!’ Lith activated the Warp Mirror of the Mirror Hall, moving himself and Tista right in front of the enemy.
They hurled Primordial Flames at the Tower Spirit spell as it darted toward the Wayfinder. The white flames consumed and destabilized Cruel Star but as long as the Eternal Fortress lived, it wouldn’t matter.
‘No!’ Solus returned to the tower via the Warp Mirror, releasing all the Life Maelstrom she had left to strengthen the defensive arrays of the tower to protect the Wayfinder.
Tista followed the emerald meteor, alternating Blinks with bursts of Cursed Flames to weaken it.
“No!” Lith charged forward in rage and desperation, plunging Double Edge into the lost city until the hilt hit the stone armor.
His seven eyes turned blue and blue flames erupted from all over his body. They moved through the blade and drew Thaymos’ attention.
[“What is this feeling?”] He asked, having never experienced pain before.
The Counter Flow and World Mirror abilities of the angry blade were keeping his wounds from healing, which was a first, but the blue flames were worse. The Eternal Fortress sent waves of water magic to smother the fire, but they ended up fueling it.
He took the air away from his internal chambers but even in the vacuum the blue flames burned by breaking down the white stones that comprised his body. Everything burned.
Shock and confusion forced Thaymos to forget about Cruel Star and to focus his energy to stop the blue flames from spreading and the Tower Spirit spell faltered due to the sudden lack of mana.
Its external layer cracked as the Primordial and the Cursed Flames drained the spell and damaged its matrix. The inner volatile gravity spell lost cohesion, turning its destructive power against itself.
Solus, Raagu, and Tista, noticed the phenomenon and struck at Cruel Star with their best spells, making it detonate before it could reach the first line of barriers. Quylla conjured her tier five Light Mastery spell, Shellfire, that formed a spinning incandescent dome.
The heat generated strong updrafts that along with the airflow caused by the high-speed movement dispersed the shockwave while the hard-light construct took the brunt of the damage before shattering.
The rest was dispersed by the protective arrays of the Wayfinder coupled with those prepared by Aalejah. She had placed them at fixed intervals so that even if they collapsed, the force of the enemy spell was broken over and over, like a tide facing a breakwater until it was reduced to a strong wind.
Raagu then activated her tier five Warden spell, Stillbound. The array registered the chaotic gravitational waves conjured by Cursed Star and generated counterwaves of opposite directions.
Yet even a tier five spell couldn’t compare to a tier five Tower Spirit spell. It was the reason Raagu had prepared several Stillbound, placing them at different heights so that they would cover the same area without their runes overlapping.
Each one of them dampened Cursed Star a bit until its strength was more than halved. At that point, the Dimensional Compressing arrays generated by the Wayfinder and the tower kept the space stable and prevented dimensional fissures from opening.
Friya floated in the middle of the camp, drawing the remaining world energy to fuel her Dimensional Ruler spell and relax the space whenever the arrays couldn’t keep up.
When the dust settled, the outer ring of wagons had been toppled and everyone was exhausted but there had been no casualties.
Thaymos had no time to check the results of his spell and clapped his hands to squash Lith like a bug. The Spirit Barrier of his armor shattered like glass, forcing the Tiamat to let go of the blade and block.
Without him, the blue flames would go out. Without him, there was no telling what spell the Eternal Fortress would dish out.
His arms and wings pushed against the huge palms but the difference in mass and strength was too big. Lith felt his bones crack as the air was squeezed out of his lungs.
[“You are worthy of your name, Destroyer, but today you’ve found your better.”] Thaymos needed to consume lots of mana to suppress the blue flames but he could afford to, especially with the mana geyser in sight.
He kept pummelling at the Tiamat who in turn focused what Life Maelstrom he had left to spread the blue flames and keep himself alive. Yet when the silver lightning was finished, so was Lith.
[“Your flames are a mighty weapon like I’ve never seen. I can’t just smother them with mana like Origin Flames. I had to wrestle with them and overpower them with a greater strength like they were alive.
[“I can see how my siblings died at your hand. Only someone with infinite power like me could resist you.”] Lith coughed out a mouthful of blood while the Immortal Body array of the tower healed his wounds and the Eternal Fortress kept gloating.
The Tiamat could feel the Mirror Hall amplifying the power of his spells while the constant flow of world energy from the mana geyser filled him with new strength. Yet none of it was enough to formulate a path to victory.
Thaymos was bigger, stronger, and even though his power wasn’t infinite as he claimed, it was damn close. To make matters worse, using the full scope of the tower’s power just to run away posed a tremendous risk.
‘From this close, Raagu and Inxialot might perceive the energy of the tower or recognize that what I’m conjuring aren’t spells but enchantments.’ Lith thought.
