Yondra used her tier four darkness magic spell, Black Heart. The glass was likely to be immune to lightning, whereas fire and ice would give those poor souls a slow, painful death. Plus, there was no earth to manipulate in the chamber.
Darkness was the most humane means to put them out of their misery.
When the energy mass struck the tank, instead of passing through the liquid and killing the orc like it was supposed to, it was completely absorbed by the tank and turned into nourishment.
The liquid surrounding the orc turned muddy and so did the other five tanks.
“I’m quite sure that’s not water.” Yondra said while trying to understand what was happening.
Thanks to the mana now coursing through the transparent liquid, Lith could see with Life Vision that the six tanks were actually one system and that one of the creatures belonging to an unknown race was absorbing the darkness energy.
It converted Yondra’s spell into pure mana and then shared it with its companions via the liquid flow, giving them new strength.
‘I’ve got bad news and I’ve worse news.’ Solus said.
‘Hit me.’ Lith replied.
‘The bad news is that I was right, they are indeed some kind of Balor replica. Now that they have enough juice, I can see that each one of them is infused with a single element.
‘The worse news is that a few moments ago, an alarm has been triggered. It has activated an array above our heads that I couldn’t notice in its dormant state. It’s very weak, but it might still be deadly.’
Unbeknownst to Solus, the golems in the Weapon Research department had just struck the metal floor with a lightning bolt, spreading a general alarm. The whole of Kulah was waking up from its centuries long slumber.
The array above their heads was a safety measure that simply closed a circuit to send world energy to the bio-weapon.
The tanks suddenly lit up, each one with a different color. They were respectively red, yellow, black, white, blue, and orange, reminding Lith of the story Yondra had told him about the six components of the world energy.
The previously withered limbs were regaining their ancient vigor as the screams of agony Lith heard grew louder.
“They’re getting stronger!” Lith shared with the rest of the group what he saw with Life Vision as he unleashed his tier four water magic spell, Ice Age, on the red colored tank.
He hoped to freeze them all to death or at least counter the fire energy instead of feeding more power to the Odi-made Balor. Yet his spell was absorbed and redirected by the blue colored tank, making him curse.
“Don’t waste your energy. It seems we are forced to wait for the tanks to open before being able to attack those creatures.” Phloria said.
“Don’t worry, Captain. I got this.” Yondra took what looked like a silver tuning fork from her dimensional item and after infusing it with a massive amount of her mana, she struck with it at the nearest tank.
The tuning fork sucked a small sample of the energy from the tank while emitting a high pitched sound. Lith could see Yondra’s pure mana resonating with the sample until it was 180° out of phase with it, turning the sample into nothingness.
The whole process had taken barely one breath time.
The tuning fork stopped its pitch and Yondra struck at the tank again. This time, instead of taking energy, the tuning fork released its own. The destructive interference shattered the tank on impact and quickly spread to the other five, shattering them as well.
‘Yes! No damn cutscene while the boss assumes his final f- …uck me and my big mind!’ Lith thought while the six maimed bodies started to wrap around each other, forming a much bigger creature.
“Attack!” Phloria said out of habit, even though everyone was already going all out. The creatures’ blood vessels moved like snakes, making the different parts from different creatures perfectly match with each other, like a jigsaw puzzle made of flesh.
Yondra had stopped the rejuvenating process before it was complete, so their attempts to combine were slower and clumsier than their creator had planned. To make matters worse, they were still coated by the colored liquid, making it obvious which part was immune to which element.
‘I never thought that one I would get to fight a Frankenstein’s monster version of the Force Rangers. Nevertheless, I’m not going to give them the time to morph.’ Lith thought.
“I’ll take Red!” Lith announced to prevent the others from messing with his spell.
“Yellow!” Yondra said.
“White” Phloria said.
“Blue!” Ellkas picked last, as Lith did his best to not chuckle at the irony of their situation.
‘You are indeed a Ranger and picked red. Does that make you the Red Ranger?’ Solus giggled while assuming her glove form.
‘Oh shut it, please. This is probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.’ Lith replied while he unleashed his tier four water magic spell, Ice Age. Tier five spells were too powerful for such a confined space and by mixing multiple elements, he was afraid it would have made it easier for the creatures to counter.
Lith had the cold energy wrap around his arm, focusing it in the form of an ice pick the size of an estoc. He struck at the exposed heart of the fire-infused being, hoping that since the blood system was the only part of the creatures’ bodies still intact, it was also their weak point.
Lith could see that the more pieces fused together, the stronger the aura of the combined monster became. The meat giant reacted to the threat like no living being could, literally pulling its flesh away to avoid Lith’s attack.
‘By my maker! Just like Morok’s temporary waypoint had its pseudo core split into parts, so was the mana core of these wretched beings! As their bodies merge so does their magical aura. I’m afraid that once the mana core is completely formed, they will be able to use the gods know what kind of powerful magic.’ Solus warned him.
“There is no time to lose! Keep it still!” Lith was apparently just stating the obvious, but the worry in his voice made everyone understand how dire the situation had to be. Ranger Verhen had never asked for back up before.
Phloria activated the spells Full Guard and Master Sword. Master Sword was a tier five Mage Knight spell that allowed her to channel her magic inside her estoc and unleash it at will upon contact.
Mage Knights had to often fight in close combat while defending their mark, so Phloria had devised Master Sword to be able to use all kinds of spells without having to worry for her allies.
All the darkness spells she had at the ready were now stacked inside her blade, focused on the tip of the estoc and guided by her will due to the nature of tier five spells that made them resemble true magic.
She lounged at the heart of the white creature, but it managed to dodge by elongating its blood vessels until its weak point was out of her reach. Much to its surprise, Phloria opened her hand and the estoc darted forward like a bullet, piercing its target with pinpoint accuracy.
The heart exploded in a burst of dark energy that the corresponding creature neutralized as fast as it could, while the other parts tried to connect their blood vessels to the pieces of their now fallen comrade to continue the merging process.
