Lith, Solus, and Balkor always practiced Creation Magic in the safety of their labs. Only the Red Mother and the Overlord had no qualms about using it in front of witnesses because their mastery over magic had reached the point where they could cloak their spells even from Dragon Eyes or Soul Vision.
The Yggdrasill knew most of the branches of magic yet Creation Magic had always eluded the past and present World Trees. To add insult to injury, even now that it was taking place right under their foliage, the Yggdrasill couldn’t figure out the first thing about it.
‘That’s a variant of Menadion’s Fury!’ Ma’shol recognized the runic pattern of the weapon from the previous Tree’s library. ‘Since when-‘
The Demon bolted forward without saying a word, the hammer tracing a silvery arch with a motion perfected through hundreds of thousands of repetitions. The elf raised her hands and activated the protective spells in her armor.
Once again, the enchantments failed her.
Without the Spirit Barrier and the gravity sheath emanating from the Davross, the armor was nothing but a thick layer of very hard metal. The Fury smashed the Chronicler’s exposed head open and crushed her spine like a breadstick.
The wooden vines were still inside Ma’shol’s body and the Yggdrasill saved her life once more, just like the Demon wanted. The petite woman grabbed the elf’s head and smashed it over the stone ring, sending it deep inside her skull.
The Bleed welcomed the meal and drained both master and servant of their vitality until the World Tree was forced to cut off the vines. Ma’shol’s armor floated off her corpse, splitting itself into its basic components.
A second spell Forgemastered the raw materials into a form-fitting armor of known design.
‘The Anvil of Menadion?’ For the first time in the Yggdrasill bloodline, one of the World Trees couldn’t make heads or tails of the events they witnessed. ‘Creation Magic? Elphyn never used it during her previous escape attempts.
‘Everything she had came from the tower. How can she have transcended in death the skills she had in life?’
Three more Chroniclers and a Librarian entered the cell, respectively to destroy the Demon and imprint the stone ring. If there was a silver lining in Solus’ demise, it was that now the tower was back to being an inanimated artifact that would follow the orders of its master.
The Demon screeched in fury as five more eyes opened on her face and large membranous wings unfurled from her back, scratching either side of the room.
‘She’s already gotten seven eyes? How?’ The Yggdrasill’s question found no answer as the Demon danced between the elves as if they were still, countering their attacks with the violence of a storm.
In life, the petite woman had been a couch potato. She had spent most of her life mastering the magical arts and despite all her training, she hadn’t practiced enough for her body to follow the brilliance of her mind.
Now, however, she was made of energy. Her shadow form followed her every thought, moving exactly as she imagined. On top of that, the black chain gave her access to the battle experience of the other Demons, Lith, and those connected to him via the When All Are One Array.
The moment she identified a familiar pattern in the elves’ strategy, the petite woman also learned how to counter it. Knowing and doing were two different things, but she had no vitals and a monstrous vitality.
The Demon countered every hit with no regard for her safety. If the elves’ weapons cut, her hammer crushed. A glancing blow of hers shattered bones and collapsed organs whereas any damage she suffered was instantly healed by stealing the life force coursing through the prison’s walls.
She moved in a blur, slamming one elf after the other into the ring to feed them to the Bleed.
‘What is that? Who is that?’ Solus stared in amazement at the figure that looked like her twin sister. ‘Am I dead? Did that Chronicler hurt me so bad that my soul split in half? Is that the part of me not even the tower could save after exhausting the life force stored in the Bleed?’
The World Tree was just as confused as they looked at the two women with Soul Vision. They looked almost identical but with a few striking differences.
They were both covered in chains and wore ancient togas dating to the founding of the Kingdom. The two women also wielded identical hammers that they swung at the chains non-stop, but there the similarities ended.
The presence in the ring hammered at her chains to break them and only had a few left.
The presence in the Demon, instead, used it to forge new ones. Her hair was ablaze and whipped through the air like she was amid a storm. Her eyes wept bloody tears and her mouth was opened in an endless silent scream.
A constant stream of raging crimson flames erupted from her throat, tempering the new chain she forged and inflicting deep burns upon her hands. The screaming figure held the chain tight so that each hammer strike made her palm bleed until the heat cauterized the wound.
All the chains that covered the second woman were red from rust and blood yet the dirt couldn’t hide the mastery of her craftmanship.
The World Tree tried to make sense of those images but to no avail.
‘Maybe this is my fault. I’ve split Elphyn Menadion’s soul in two. One carries her negative emotions and the other the positive.’ The Yggdrasill reached Solus’ same conclusion.
The figure in the ring kept smiling even during her imprisonment, her air moved by a soft breeze while she worked on the chains that restricted her. She was as placid as the other one was furious.
The World Tree pondered how to restrict them both but their options were limited. Any spell strong enough to destroy the Demon would affect the ring and from that distance, it wouldn’t survive.
Even worse, destroying the physical form of a Demon of Darkness was pointless. As long as Lith injected more mana into her or she found nourishment, the Demon would rise again.
‘The bastard is inside my Fringe and body! It’s like having a parasite that can feast on my blood and lay eggs at her leisure.’ The Yggdrasill cursed the pain and hunger that plagued their mind, keeping them from focusing.
Under normal circumstances, one Spirit Barrier around the ring and a powerful spell on the Demon would resolve the situation but right now the Tree couldn’t trust themselves.
The Yggdrasill needed most of their willpower to limit the effects of Ra’ntar’s torture on the rest of the Chronicles and what focus the World Tree had left was barely enough to control the complex array system and suppress the world energy in the Fringe.
‘If another pang comes and I fail to control my spells at the wrong time, everything I’ve done would be for naught. The tower would be destroyed and Verhen would retreat safely. I’ve burned too many bridges to turn back now.’
The World Tree’s worst fears came true a second later when more Chroniclers died at the hand of the white cores and the backlash made the Yggdrasill lose their focus again.
