‘Also, I’m afraid Lith is also wrong about the rest. I don’t think we ever had the numbers for the first charge!’ Vastor said, expending most of his mana for the Bastion and enduring the onslaught only thanks to one auxiliary head using Invigoration.
With the pain from Ra’ntar gone, the World Tree had regained their focus and the Chroniclers their full battle prowess. To make matters worse, with the Yggdrasill fragment taking over the Chroniclers’ bodies, the elves had become more dangerous than perfect undead.
The Puppets felt no fear, no pain, and had no vitals or weak points. To make matters worse, since they all now shared the same energy signature, they had become immune to the World Tree’s spells and each other’s.
An eight-man unit of Wood Golem charged at Lith’s group while they were still weathering the magical onslaught. Each one of them had conjured a Decay Bastion and that saved their lives.
The Golems unleashed a Silverwing’s Annihilation that joined the Tree’s Tower Tier spells and shattered Honor Guard.
Lith grunted, hurling from two of his serpentine heads a twin blast of True and Frozen Flames. The Cursed fire knocked one of the Golems off his feet and set it ablaze but the construct was instantly replaced in the formation by the eight Golem.
The Cursed ice froze the ground, severing the connection between the Tree’s roots and the constructs. Without the endless supply of mana, the Golems’ power cores couldn’t hold such powerful spells for long.
Alas, the Wooden Puppets manipulating the Golems were part of the World Tree. They only had to sprout roots of their own to reach the nearest area unaffected by the Frozen Flames and restore the connection.
Two more of Lith’s serpentine heads cast a Chaos Annihilation and so did his allies. The five anti-Guardian spells pierced through the Yggdrasill offense, reaching the seven Golems in an instant and vaporizing everything above the knees.
Not even dozens of tons of masterfully enchanted Yggdrasill wood could withstand such firepower, but together with the Golems’ own Annihilation, the impact weakened the offensive of Lith’s group before it struck the World Tree.
The five anti-Guardians spells made the massive trunk tremble and opened a hole in the bark. With the Yggdrasill’s size and mass, however, the vibrations stopped after a few hundred meters and the wound looked smaller than the nest dug by some big bird.
The hole closed almost immediately and the Golems sprouted back from their feet, taking the necessary mass from the World Tree. The Yggdrasill shrunk to compensate for the lost mass but the change was so little that it wasn’t noticeable.
‘How the fuck is that possible?’ Tessa the Titania was flabbergasted. ‘There’s no way all seven elves had hidden in the Golems’ legs!’
She followed the roots rebuilding the Golems and found her answer. She was right, only two of the Puppets had survived on their own. One was in the left knee of his Golem and the other was in the right foot.
The other five were being regenerated by the eight Golem.
‘Son of a mold!’ Tessa cursed. ‘Don’t ask me how, but the Chroniclers have exchanged pieces of each other and can use them to resurrect their fallen allies.’
‘Impossible!’ Fyrwal replied. ‘There’s no such a thing as resurrection. Not even Fae or undead can be restored after being killed.’
She was right as well.
The Chroniclers would have died, but the Puppets now shared enough of the World Tree’s energy signature to be capable of mixing their tissues without dying. Each Puppet held just a splinter of their teammates, just enough to regenerate them from scratch.
‘Let’s kill them dead, then!’ Lith took point with Orion on his shoulder, ready to parry or inject the Tiamat with Life Maelstrom from the Royal Fortress armor if necessary.
Lith carved a path open with Ragnarök. Orion’s anti-construct spells had been upgraded by Salaark, allowing the angry blade to chop the Golems asunder like firewood.
The Puppets countered by growing a second set of arms and shapeshifting the four upper limbs into axes the moment Lith’s group was surrounded.
He snarled, chopping one ax off and burning another with Origin Flames. Orion took care of the other two with Honor Guard and Grimlock. The problem was that there were eight Golems and only five people under the effects of the When All Are One Array.
“Scram!” Tessa grew two extra arms as well, intercepting two axes and blocking the other two with her staff, Morning Dew.
Fyrwal’s seven massive heads locked in combat with as many wooden limbs, injecting acid from her fangs. At the same time, she knocked a third Golem back with her mace, Dreamweaver.
“Look out!” Vastor took care of the rest with a barrage of Howling Hunger.
The tier five Chaos Spells dug large holes into the remaining Golems, making them stagger, and replenished the Master’s stamina.
“Dam if I hate being so small!” His Dominator armor had just enough metal to cover Vastor’s tall alter ego. There wasn’t enough to reach the size of a magical beast, let alone that of a Divine Beast.
The Master couldn’t grow in size without losing the protection and anonymity that his Davross armor ensured him. No matter how strong he was, a human couldn’t handle one limb of a 40 meters (132′) tall Golem weighing dozens of tons.
Orion could have grown to the size of an Emperor Beast thanks to the Royal Fortress armor, but with no experience having a body that big the transformation would have made him weaker rather than stronger.
‘Don’t worry about that. Just him them as hard as you can. We are breaking through!’ Lith had taken a few blows like Tessa and Fyrwal, but he didn’t care.
The muscle density bestowed by the Titania limited the depth of the wounds and her regenerative abilities healed them faster than the Voidwalker armor repaired itself.
It wasn’t the first time Lith worked with Tessa and Fyrwal under the legendary array and he knew how much punishment his current body could endure. Mana wasn’t a problem either, one of his serpentine heads was always ready to use Invigoration.
‘Now!’ Upon his command, the group hurled a different kind of Flames from each of their seven heads against a different Golem.
The Puppets screamed in agony but refused to back down. Their bodies regenerated as fast as the mystical fires destroyed them and so did the Golems. They tackled Lith’s group, using their superior mass and numbers to stop the invaders in their tracks.
‘Raise your shields! All of them!’ Orion conjured the protection of Honor Guard around the group and the Spirit Barrier of his armor for himself in the nick of time.
The Golems unleashed all their enchantments at the same time, bringing Lith’s group to a halt and that was just a diversion.
The World Tree exploited the stop in the enemy advance to release another volley of tier five Tower Tier spells and aim it with pinpoint accuracy. With the Golems restricting Lith and the others with their vines, the tidal wave of magic was impossible to avoid.
Even Blink was useless, the area of effect of the dimensional spell covered by the onslaught.
