‘No, he can’t, you idiot! Blink!’ The Yggdrasill barked as the droplets of both colors stopped in mid-air as if time was frozen.
The Tree could see through their Chronicler’s mystical senses that the armor and its master were actually unscathed. The Davross-Adamant alloy could take much more than a single tier five spell and the Chronicler was right about Derek’s mass.
The palm strike hadn’t shattered Derek’s body, he had scattered himself to avoid the brunt of the spell while also feeding on its mana.
Abominations weren’t Dragons. Cold did nothing to them and all elements but darkness were a meal to them.
The Elf understood what the Yggdrasill meant when he saw the droplets brimming with energy and charging at him.
‘Oh, shit!’ Luckily for him, centuries of experience and the Tree’s timely warning allowed the elf to Blink away in time.
Unluckily for him, it was completely useless. If not for his Darwen armor, the elf would have noticed that the palm of his right gauntlet was completely blackened by a chunk of the Abomination’s body that Derek had stuck to the elf.
“Hello, dinner!” The black goo took the form of the Void’s face and seeped through the joints of the armor for a feast.
At the same time, the droplets followed the main conscience and rained upon the Chroniclers like bullets of Chaos and enchanted metal. They formed a layer surrounding the elf’s whole body and exploited every centimeter of his exposed skin to drain his vitality faster.
While Derek feasted upon the elf, Ragnarök bolted on its own against the assembled Chroniclers, disrupting their formation.
‘Imr’za, stop that blade!’ Q’porr, the leader of the hunting mission, said while she rushed to complete her share of the Annihilation.
Imr’za shapeshifted her Yggdrasil staff into a tower shield and readied the tier four Clean Slate she had prepared to jam Lith’s equipment in case he came too close to complete his Blade Spell for comfort.
‘On it!’ Imr’za planted her feet on the ground, imbued Clean Slate in her equipment, and braced for impact. All while conjuring her side of the Annihilation with body casting.
Yggdrasill wood wasn’t as durable and powerful as Davross, but while the elf supported the shield with her body, Ragnarök was alone. Without Lith’s mass behind the blow, the Yggdrasill shield would just be chipped before Clean Slate stunned the semi-living weapon.
The damage wouldn’t hinder the shield’s enchantments and the spark of the World Tree inhabiting the wood would instantly repair it. Imr’za calculations were confirmed by the Tree and on point.
Except she had failed to take into account the raw mass of Chaos plaguing the blade or the fact that just like its master, Ragnarök was rarely alone. Double Edge coated the angry blade, giving it the mass of a small building.
The Cursed Element pierced through the Yggdrasill wood like paper, spreading its corruption, while Ragnarök’s sheer weight blasted the shield asunder and impaled Imr’za in the chest.
“Solus. Where?” The angry blade quivered in respite as it could pass the blight of Chaos on to the dying elf and use her blood to recover part of its strength.
In the blink of an eye, two Chroniclers were dead, dropping their numbers from eight to six. In the blink of an eye, two Yggdrasill branches were tainted by Chaos that fed upon the Tree’s spark and twisted their life force.
Back in the Fringe, the colossal body of the Yggdrasill quivered. Their life essence imbued inside the two Chroniclers was gone but that wasn’t the worst. Derek had grabbed one of the Yggdrasil weapons and was enjoying its effects.
The mystical wood heightened his focus, gave him superior mental clarity, and bolstered his control over the spark of Chaos inside his body.
‘I knew it!’ Solus enjoyed the Tree’s screams and quakes in the ground like they were music. ‘Lith is alive and kicking ass.’
‘Interesting.’ New ideas and realizations popped up in Derek’s mind as the wood inspired him to find a way to adapt what he knew about darkness magic to Chaos. ‘This thing is both a snack and a circuit breaker.’
The Void fed off the World Tree to stave his hunger and used the Tree’s life force to shield his own from the consequences of his amateurish grasp on Chaos Magic.
“Die!” Derek followed Ragnarök’s example and cast the tier four Chaos spell, Howling Void, from the tip of the wooden weapon.
He failed to control the spell, causing both the staff and the life spark of the World Tree to crumble from the backlash. Yet he didn’t care. There were seven more pieces of wood like that and the Howling Void was onto its prey.
‘Leave it to me!’ Qral, the strongest of the group, left the formation and his weapon behind.
There was no time for anything but to bet on the Yggdrasill’s skills as a Forgemaster and the properties of the Darwen. The elf took the Chaos spell square on his chest and was sent tumbling to the ground.
The anti-magic properties of the Darwen scattered the blast with little consequences for Qral. His armor was cracked and his ribs broken, but he could still fight. Light fusion was already mending his wounds and the armor would fix itself with time.
Darwen was a brittle material, weak to physical attacks, and Chaos Magic packed quite a punch in the form of kinetic energy.
Derek clicked his tongue in annoyance and splayed his fingers, releasing the twenty tier five spells he kept stored in his rings. Final Eclipses, Stormnados, Raging Suns, Mjollnirs, and Burial Grounds erupted in pairs all around the elven formation.
‘Don’t let Verhen escape!’ Q’porr and the rest of her team were blinded by the wall of mana but otherwise unscathed.
The Darwen of their armor had repelled the elemental barrage with ease, suffering solely minor damage from shockwaves and shrapnel.
‘According to our data, Verhen’s most likely move is to retreat and prepare his Blade Spell. He knows we can’t cast Silverwing’s Annihilation at full force anymore. We need to press on!’
Derek knew no Blade Spell and recalled Ragnarök to his hand while trying to understand the situation. The explosions blinded him as well and he would never turn his back to an enemy before making sure they were really dead.
‘Fuck me sideways, I’ve killed them all without leaving one to interrogate. Even worse, my rings don’t seem to recharge on their own. Let’s hope one of the knife ears survived. I need to understand why they are after m-‘
Qral split the wall of flames with a wind blade and the other five elves escaped from Derek’s spells in a circular formation with no blind spots. They had expected a trap in the trap yet nothing happened.
No Blink above their heads, no army of Demons, no Flames. Nothing.
‘Me and my big mouth!’ The Void could now perceive the elves thanks to the cracks in their armor but he had no clue how to fight one against six.
The Chroniclers scattered to not offer him an easy target and attack him from every side.
‘If Verehn really is struck in his Abomination form, then use darkness magic and ignore the other elements!’ Q’porr ordered and the others obeyed.
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