In the years since his release, Thaymos had fed upon countless monsters whose cores now belonged to him.
‘He’s different from the Golden Griffon.’ Leegaain said. ‘While Arthan’s academy preserved the mana cores of its students to make them into the Mad King’s immortal army, this thing takes them for himself in the attempt to force his way to Guardianhood.’
‘Can he do it?’ Tyris clenched her beak in disgust.
‘Of course not, but power is still power.’ Leegaain replied. ‘Beware, as long as the Black Tide lives, his force and mana are endless. Even if you slaughter every single monster, it’s not going to solve anything.
‘He’ll become stronger than ever and no seal can completely cut off the flow of world energy, only limit it. It’s only a matter of time before that lost city frees itself, finds another monster tide, and starts over.
‘Zagran did the right thing by just pushing him away and you should do the same.’
‘I see. Thank you, young lizard.’ Tyris sighed, shaking her head in sadness.
[“I admit to have underestimated you, Guardian.”] The Eternal Fortress crackled with new power as he grew a blade from his left forearm and a shield from the right. [“Zagran may be better than you, but you are still a worthy opponent.
[“Do you have the guts to fight me until the end or are you going to run away with my core like she would do?”]
[“I’m going to fight you until the end.”] Tyris released a second stream of Life Maelstrom on herself, charging her body and core with new power.
[“Excellent! Our battle will last for hours.”] Thaymos laughed in excitement.
[“No.”] Tyris replied. [“It won’t.”]
A flash of light erupted from her body, washing over the monster tide and turning millions and millions of living beings into ashes in the span of a second. The blackness of their bodies faded like night shadows in front of the sun, leaving no trace of their previous existence.
[“You are insane! Funny, but insane.”] The mana cores of the dead stacked on Thaymos’ core as they were assimilated along with the power they carried. [“Thanks to you I’ve reached new heights. I’m one step closer to my goal!”]
Tyris ignored the mockery that followed, the time for words was over.
She raised her right hand to the sky and opened her pocket dimension. Thaymos’ laugh died in his stony throat as winter turned into summer and night into day.
Even from Garlen, a shiver ran down Leegaain’s spine, and from the moon, Fenagar activated the defensive systems of his lair.
“What’s that? A morning star?” Zagran asked while pointing at the spiked mace in the Griffon’s hand.
“No.” Salaark replied. “That’s THE Morning Star.”
Every Guardian had crafted their personal equipment for the day when they would need to face their fellow Guardians in battle or any other enemy who had reached a similar level of power.
A Guardian’s weapon bore a name that was either related to its purpose or the conditions under which it had been Forgemastered. Salaark’s Tyrant Sun embodied her will to rule over the Blood Desert and make it prosper despite its harsh condition.
Leegaain’s Worldbreaker represented the Father of All Dragons’ potential to understand the nature of all things and use his knowledge to undo those who stood in his path.
In Tyris’ case, her weapon’s name stated what it was.
Pure Davross wouldn’t boil at any temperature unless heated with Origin Flames and the Great Mother had exploited such property in crafting Morning Star. Trapped inside its core, there was a spark of Mogar’s sun that she had captured after a violent solar flare.
It was a ball of swirling, hot plasma that was held together by a balance of forces between gravity magic and pressure exerted by the mystic metal. Morning Star’s surface was so hot that not even Tyris could wield it without a hard-light construct around its grip acting as insulant.
The moment the spiked mace came out of the pocket dimension, its light was visible from kilometers of distance, giving to those in sight to the phenomenon the impression that the sun had appeared on the horizon hours early.
To the expedition party, however, the raw heat and brilliance Morning Star produced made them shield their eyes and start sweating despite the protection of Light Raider.
Then, the Great Mother infused her weapon with a bolt of Life Maelstrom and the darkness returned. Morning Star’s power was now amplified tenfold and compressed to the extreme thanks to her bloodline ability, Focus Point.
A single swing of the mace shattered the shield at the end of Thaymos’ right arm, crushed the limb bearing it, and smashed his chest open. The surface of the weapon was dozens of thousands of degrees hot, making the grass catch fire from a distance and the white stones evaporate on contact.
The Eternal Fortress took a step back, employing but a fraction of the mana it had gained from the death of the Black Tide to condense the vapors back into stone and regenerate his arm.
He enveloped the reborn shield with a Spirit Barrier that would have stopped a tidal wave and his blade with a Tower Spirit spell that could flatten mountains. Both shattered into pieces when Morning Star came again in a backhand swing.
Wherever the mace hit, stone and metal would vaporize while everything nearby would either melt or burn. Thaymos healed at a speed visible to the Awakened eye but Tyris’ weapon was a shimmering blur.
The Eternal Fortress fell apart faster than he could regenerate himself, his defences falling apart no matter how much mana he poured into them.
[“What’s the matter, o proud living legacy?”] Tyris’ voice was cold with spite. [“Isn’t your power enough? Isn’t the death and misery that you wrought upon Jiera enough to satisfy your ambition?”]
Thaymos was too busy defending himself to answer her questions. He was aware that destroying his pseudo core would have caused destruction on an unprecedented scale, especially after absorbing so many mana cores at once.
Yet the Guardian didn’t seem to care much and the idea of bringing Jiera down with him was of no consolation to the Eternal Fortress. He wanted to become stronger, to conquer, and most of all, to live.
If he died here and there nothing else would matter. Thousands of years of imprisonment would have been for nothing. So Thaymos focused on protecting his pseudo core, no matter how much mana resisting Morning Star’s blow required.
[“No? Then let me help.”] Tyris released a third bolt of silver lightning that struck the lost city, sending its ancient pseudo core in overload.
It had yet to assimilate the energy brought by the sudden death of the Black Tide and the mana cores still bore their owners’ energy signatures and will. The Life Maelstrom turned the feast into a bite way bigger than Thaymos could chew.
The resulting mana flow was too much for the pseudo core to handle. It burned instead of reinforcing the ancient spells that animated the lost city. Upon receiving the silver lightning, the millions of different energy signatures carried by the mana flooded the pseudo core faster than it could purify them.
