A Balor’s body was unable to channel mana. It was one of the reasons why millennia ago such a powerful race had attempted to force their evolution and ended up joining the ranks of the Fallen races.
Unlike all other creatures, they could conjure spells only through their eyes, making it vital for them to always face their opponents. Their other biggest limitation was their inability to cast spells above tier three.
The highest tiers of magic required to fuse and manipulate multiple elements at will, while each one of the Balors’ eyes could only handle one specific element. Activating more than one eye at a time was possible, but they were unable to cooperate.
The only exception was the creation of hard constructs, like weapons or armors made from ice. They could be infused with multiple elements, but always one at the time.
Balors couldn’t use gravity magic, dimensional magic, nor complex arrays. They were unstoppable soldiers on the battlefield, yet as a race, they had been dependant on others for the creation of even the simplest enchanted item.
Yozmogh activated his red eye, turning all the agonizing monsters lying on the floor into cinders. Their corpses turned into spheres of smoke that orbited around the amplifier. The device started to reconstruct their bodies at a speed visible at the naked eye.
Then, the Balor activated his yellow wing, obtaining the same effects of air fusion. The sudden boost in speed allowed him to escape from Lith and put some distance between them.
Lith cursed when he noticed that Yozmogh was capable of using his white eye to slowly regenerate the white wing, yet his mood improved when he noticed that the mana it stored wasn’t being replenished.
‘It seems that wings and eyes are connected.’ Lith thought.
‘Indeed. Unlike Trouble, Yozmogh’s eyes cannot accumulate world energy on their own. A wounded wing means he cannot recharge the corresponding element, we can’t allow him to buy even one second.’ Solus pointed out.
Lith darted forward, using a flight spell to match the opponent’s speed. The Balor was forced to interrupt his healing spell to activate his yellow wing. It allowed him to negate Lith’s air magic and unleash the lightning bolts he had previously stored.
Or so he believed.
After fighting Thrud, Lith had spent hours learning how to infuse his will even inside low tiered spells, so Yozmogh attempt to slow him down failed. The focus needed to succeed prevented Lith from retaliating to the incoming lightning pillar, but he didn’t need to.
Solus opened a small Warp Steps in front of them, which redirected the massive spell against the amplifier. The adamant it was made of and the enchantments protecting it resisted the assault, but the monsters surrounding it weren’t so lucky.
They had yet to regain half of their bodies that they were once again reduced to smoke and ashes.
“Nice artifact, human. I have some too!” Yozmogh said. A small silver sphere in his right hand shone with the intensity of a small sun as he launched himself against the enemy.
Lith was aware of the enormous gap in physical strength between them, but time wasn’t on his side. Stalling meant giving the Balor the opportunity to recover his light wing and his minions.
‘To add insult to injury, I don’t know if Zolgrish will prevail. I might be able to deal with one of those reverted monsters at a time, but if they team up, I’ll be forced to leave. I’m greedy, not idiotic.’ He thought.
Lith had noticed several completed artifacts still lying on the Forges. If the lich failed his mission, Lith was willing to collect everything he could on his way out as compensation.
Lith dodged to the side, avoiding a head on clash with the Balor and cast another tier five spell, Stormnado. It was a mix of air and darkness, that conjured a thunderstorm of poisonous gas.
The destructive mass of energy and the lab defenses clashed as Lith made sure the amplifier was caught in the area of effect of his spell, delaying the reverted monsters’ resurrection even longer.
Yozmogh appreciated Stormnado’s prowess, considering the pain it inflicted him like a foretaste of the power he would wield once he completely assimilated the lich’s essence.
His plan was now actually twofold. If before his aim was to undo his own fallen state and overcome his ancient limitations, capturing Lith would open endless possibilities to him.
‘If I can steal the secret of Awakening, Dann’Kah will be no match for me. Both my body and magic are superior to his. If not for him being an Awakened, I would have long had him under my heel!’ He thought.
Yozmogh activated his yellow and black wing, but this time he didn’t try to absorb Lith’s spells. He instead reverted the flow, sending mana from his eyes to his wings and making the corresponding elements in the world energy unstable.
No matter how much Lith focused nor the amount of mana he pumped into Stormnado, the spell waned as the two elements composing it became unable to coexist.
‘What’s happening?’ Lith took the Gatekeeper out of his pocket dimension. His flight spell failed him too and he couldn’t afford to waste more mana.
‘It must be what Zolgrish talked us about. A reverted Balor can not only drain the world energy through their wings, but they can also use their stored mana to upset the balance and disrupt our magic.
‘To cast an air or darkness spell, you have to counterbalance the distortion Yozmogh caused.’ Solus said.
‘Easier said than done. Damn lich, stirring the world energy my pale ass, this is jamming.’ Lith didn’t like his odds. The Balor’s spells seemed to be unaffected by the mana distortion, making him apparently even more dangerous than the orc shaman and his crystal.
Lith infused himself with all the elements and prepared for the worse. Yozmogh’s eyes lit up one after the other, emitting highly compressed elemental beams. Lith dodged with a roll, but the beams kept following him wherever he moved.
They were so powerful that even the blue translucent barrier protecting the library couldn’t keep up. Only the presence of a second barrier below the first one prevented the precious tomes from being destroyed.
“Stop running! I need you alive, not healthy.” Yozmogh said as his eyes darted along the room to follow Lith’s irregular footwork. Despite his words, every one of his attacks had been aimed to Lith’s vitals.
‘Any brilliant ideas?’ Lith was almost out of breath. Escaping on foot from a flying enemy while dodging the elemental beams was a mammoth task.
‘Yes. Don’t get caught. I don’t like how he keeps that shining sphere at hand.’ Solus replied.
‘The good news is that between his jamming and his unrelenting attack, Yozmogh is almost out of darkness and air magic.’
Lith didn’t find any solace in her words. Three or five rays made no difference to him, the Balor only needed one to kill him. Lith took cover behind the amplifier, hoping that the enemy wouldn’t take the risk of damaging it.
He was right. His move caught Yozmogh by surprise, forcing him to spin like a top to look away from the priceless device.
Lith managed to get a single breath worth of energy from Invigoration before the Balor resumed the chase, but it was enough.
