‘If something goes wrong, no one will recognize the Prime Engine from its description, but Surtr and the others are hard to miss. This must look like a squabble between cursed objects so that no one will suspect their involvement.’ Lith thought.
<"Then I'll tear you apart until your core is exposed and throw you to the gods-damned Council. I can't kill you but they can seal you for a very long time. Do yourself a favor and get lost."> The Elemental Lord said.
<"Make me."> Tendrils of gold-veined white stone erupted from the Engine’s right hand and took the form of a scaled-up version of the Fury.
A blade was pointless against an enemy with no vitals and whose body was made of solid stone. Lith and Solus knew that and had reshaped Double Edge to host the Fury instead of Ragnarök.
<"You are not worthy of my spells!"> Argantyr infused himself with all the elements, charging at the Engine like an angry bull.
The difference in size was enormous, the tower’s battle form barely reached the hips of the 100 meters (328′) tall lost city. Lith stood his ground, activating the Hands of Menadion, the Heart, and the Watchtower.
He conjured a gravity field with himself at its center and reversed the direction and acceleration of the gravitational pull. Everything now fell away from the Engine, Argantyr included.
The Elemental Lord felt like a tall wave had crashed against him and now he was walking against a violent current that became stronger as he got closer to the Engine. He used earth magic to lock his steps and not lose his footing but his charge slowed down in a jog.
When he reached the geyser, it took the Engine one hand to bring Argantyr’s fist to a halt. The other hand rotated the Fury so that when Lith swung the hammer at the lost city’s chest, it struck with the pick side.
The curved point of the Fury lodged itself inside the stone buildings, giving Lith the leverage he needed to lift Argantyr in an overhead throw with the help of the gravity field.
The Elemental Lord slammed against the ground with a boom of thunder, quickly followed by many others. Lith freed the Fury from the enemy’s body and rained blows from above after switching to a two-handed grip.
Argantyr raised his arms, trying to catch the hammer with his right hand and blocking it with his left arm when he failed. What looked like a crude exchange of blows was actually a clash of spells and enchantments.
The lost city conjured multiple layers of defensive barrier to keep the Fury away while Lith and Solus used the Firing Range to cast dozens of spells at a time and carve a path for the enchanted hammer.
Only a few blows reached the stone walls behind the barriers but they all left ruins in their wake.
The problem was that the defensive system of the Elemental Lord repaired the holes in the arrays the moment the Fury moved back and the damage healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
‘The geyser is under our full control but this Argantyr can access the energy that exceeds the capacity of the tower and the Hands.’ Solus took care of organizing the readings of the Eyes while Lith took care of the physical aspect of the combat.
‘We are hurting him, but nothing he can’t just shrug it off. Even from this distance, his Forbidden Array gives him enough power to make non-critical damage irrelevant. We are losing power, instead.’
Overcoming the sheer size with raw strength required to tap into the energy reserves of the tower. Even with the geyser fueling its floors, Lith and Solus couldn’t just fire and hope for the best.
‘Just like old times.’ Lith grinned as he took a step back to gain distance and world energy.
The tower and the lost city both assimilated world energy by the second, but since the mana geyser bore Lith’s energy signature, it was the tower that took the lion’s share, gaining an effect similar to a constant Invigoration with no side effects.
Argantyr exploited that moment and the size gap to kick the dwarf lost city away and get to his feet with a kip-up. The Factory and the Workshop worked together to generate an alloy shield that took the brunt of the impact.
Lith extended his hand, opening a Steps in front of him and the exit point right above Argantyr’s head. The result was the Engine grabbing the face of the lost city and slamming it against the ground as the Elemental Lord got up.
Argantyr Blinked right behind the Engine, just for the dimensional door to collapse at his back and propel him forward. Lith hit him with a double-handed hammer blow in the face and Blinked away.
The Elemental Lord had access to Life Vision so he could see the five exit points before the Engine emerged from any of them. The problem was that he had no idea where to turn.
There was a dimensional exit point in front of him, one behind, one on either side, and one above.
Argantyr punched through the dimensional door behind him and it closed shut, severing his arm at the elbow. At the same time, the other three exit points around him exploded and Lith emerged from the one above.
The lost city’s Life Vision was blinded so he failed to notice anything until the Fury burst his head open, releasing the Tower Tier Spell, Nova Eclipse, inside the stone buildings that comprised his humanoid form.
It was the tower version of Final Eclipse that like the original spell used fire and darkness, but it was much stronger due to the amplifying effect of the Master Mirror which also added the air element to the mix.
A tornado comprised of black flames filled the empty corridors inside the lost city, working its way toward the pseudo cores while eating at the protective enchantments.
The purpose of the spell was not to deal damage but to follow the energy flow inside Argantyr and locate the physical vessel of his pseudo cores.
‘He’s extinguishing our flames. No matter how much mana we pump, he has the advantage that his barriers weaken our connection with Nova Eclipse, but that is only if we play one card at a time.’ Solus took the wheel, Blinking the Engine at a safe distance before activating the Tower Tier Gravity spell, Wheel of Fate.
A black mist shrouded the Elemental Lord while a rotating gravity field swirled around the lost city, sealing his movement. Unless Argantyr stood in the high-density darkness core of the spell, Wheel of Fate altered the direction of the gravity, making its victim spin like he was trapped in a washing machine.
If he moved to the center of the spell, however, the black mist eroded stone and mana, forcing Argantyr to redirect his power to his external defensive arrays and not leave enough energy to stop the Nova Eclipse that ravaged him from the inside.
To make matters worse, each earlier blow of the Fury had left behind a small strike team of six-eyed Demons of the Darkness that now roamed inside the lost city. They used their Abomination Touch to drain his energy and converted it into spells.
