No matter how brilliant the mortal a living legacy bonded with was, they could only study a single subject at a time and their understanding was limited to their innate talent.
Auros, instead, could have as many hosts as he wanted. They could study multiple topics and each of their talents would become his own. By turning their mana cores into auxiliary units for the pseudo cores, the lost city could endlessly increase his might and the range of his ability to draw in world energy.
On top of that, once he assimilated his hosts into the energy form, he would inherit their mana organs along with their cores. The lost city had already gained Life Maelstrom from a Hippogriff and Origin Flames from a Wyvern, yet there was a catch.
Just like the mana cores, the mana organs would retain their size and power, no matter the form Auros took. The Life Maelstrom he had stored could empower a few spells, but if spread to his colossal body the effect would be negligible.
As for the Origin Flames, the volume he could emit matched the Wyvern. For a being over 100 meters (328′) tall like him, it was no bigger than a lighter and useless except in close quarters against a “small” enemy.
To the Lost City, however, it was just a minor setback.
The more powerful Auros got, the more the city grew in size, allowing for new inhabitants in an endless cycle. He only had to meet and subdue enough Divine Beasts to have access to her powers and then increase their numbers by making them breed.
The makers of the lost city had developed Auros the Bringer of Unity as the starting point of a utopian society where everyone would live in peace. The bond with the city created a permanent mind link that broke through the language barrier and facilitated the exchange of ideas.
The pseudo cores of the lost city were supposed to use the power they drew from the inhabitants to create new lodgings and to ensure their safety. By being connected to the city, everyone shared the same energy signature, meaning that no one could hurt another by magic.
Alas, as soon as the lost city had gained sentience, it discovered that physical violence was still an option and that there was no way to make people with different beliefs get along.
So, Auros had followed his programming and ensured peace by mind fusing all of his citizens. The ensuing telepathic maelstrom had destroyed their individuality, turning them into empty shells that obeyed Auros’ every order.
The lost city’s goal was to host all of Mogar’s peoples and cover its entire surface, becoming one with the planet like not even the Guardians could.
[“Relax, old friend. I’m just playing around.”] Orulm emerged from a meters-deep crater while his body was still rebuilding itself.
Rotten flesh became pink again while the shredded bones and muscles put themselves back together at a speed visible to the naked eye.
[“You are not the only one who’s become stronger and I need to test the limits of my new body.”]
“Language!” Abthot didn’t understand a word of what they said and she expressed her frustration for being cut off from the conversation with a Chaos Annihilation.
A six-pointed star resembling Silverwing’s Annihilation appeared in front of her, emitting a hexa-elemental blast where Chaos replaced darkness and made up for the lack of Spirit Magic with raw destructive power.
The golden giant raised his left hand, blocking the spell without conjuring a barrier to fully savor its strength and understand its workings. The anti-Guardian spell tore the hand apart, reaching halfway through the forearm before Abthot ran out of mana.
[“Impressive.”] Auros felt the sting of Chaos gnawing at the end of the stump but that was it.
It took him a single breath to regenerate the missing limb. More plants withered and the soil depleted further, but that was none of his concern. Time would heal all wounds and Auros had all the time on Mogar.
[“I have a few Awakened among my hosts, yet none of them is capable of using this weird variant of Silverwing’s Annihilation. Teach this new spell to me and I’ll consider letting you go.”]
[“Dream on.”] Orulm traced countless runes in the air with his fingers, conjuring several magical formations at the same time.
A gravity array brought to golden giant to his knees while a darkness array sapped his vitality and a dimensional array sealed Auros, cutting him off the world energy.
The cursed city scoffed, needing but a shrug to conjure the mana to counter each one of those effects. Yet Orulm hadn’t reached his age nor his position in the Organization by sheer luck.
The runes of the three arrays were already recombining themselves so that their enchantments fused and the power each one of them contained flowed freely into the others.
The result was darkness-infused gravity that by combining itself with the dimensional energy formed a semi-solid barrier that cut on the molecular level anything that tried to cross it.
Even Auros’ energy body wasn’t immune to that. He could feel the different pieces of his essence being broken down and separated from the city’s hive mind, eroding the very foundation of his power.
To make matters worse, the Eldritch kept weaving new arrays that were already merging with the others, forming a spell with the versatility and might of a power core tailor-suited to counter Auros.
[“How dare you!”] Tired of playing already, the lost city conjured a Spirit Barrier infused with Life Maelstrom to block the onslaught and darkness and dimensional sealing arrays to destroy Orulm’s magical formations. [“Do you really think that I’ll let you do whatever you want?”]
The Abomination-hybrid was strong, but Auros had the collective power of thousands of mana cores and all the world energy he had accumulated until that point. The dimensional barrier shattered as the lost city struck with a fist the size of a castle.
“Shit!” Orulm said when he tried and failed to Blink, taking the blow in full.
The impact created a dozen-meter-deep crater and caused shockwaves akin to a 7.6 quake on the Richter scale. When Auros raised his hand, it was now a silvery color and held the broken Eldritch in his fist.
A constant stream of Origin Flames generated by the Wyvern’s essence engulfed the Eldritch while also protecting the lost city from his deadly touch. Auros too suffered the effects of the mystical fire, but he was willing the pay the price.
Orulm screamed in agony, shapeshifting his body into tendrils, goo, and anything that came to his mind just for the energy limb to rearrange itself into a new prison capable of containing the Eldritch’s ever-changing form.
[“You are not the only one with new tricks, old flea.”] The lost city snarled, enjoying the agony of his prisoner. [“My power has grown to a point that not even my creators believed possible.”]
‘What the fuck?’ Abthot thought while bolting to the rescue. ‘The hand is filled to the brim with light energy, I can feel it from here. Even with the Origin Flames, it should be a delicious meal yet Orulm is getting weaker by the second.’
