Nalrond was speechless. Back in his village, he was considered one of the best Light Masters of his generation, yet even he had no idea how to answer Lith's question about Dawn's ability to keep so many hard-light constructs active at the same time.
"Be careful. There's so much magic in here that you could hide one hundred arrays and I wouldn't be able to sense them." The Rezar said, aware that a single mistake would spell death for both of them.
Nalrond cast an array revealing spell that projected into his mind so many magical formations that his knees buckled from dizziness.
'By my maker.' Solus thought while trying to identify the presence of traps. 'Dawn used light-based arrays to replicate a state-of-the-art magical lab down to the last detail.
'I wouldn't have ever thought it was possible to combine the Warden and Light Master specializations to such degree. If I ever become able to incorporate them into the tower's defense systems there's no limit to the applications…'
'No time for enlightenment, remember?' Lith cut her short. 'Just tell me if there are traps waiting to blow us up or not.'
After his experience at Laruel, he had learned how to apply Invigoration to a complex system, be it living or magical in nature, without puking his guts out, but to quickly process the information acquired he needed Solus's help.
'Right, sorry. We can enter the room, the lab is clear.' She replied.
'Are you serious?' Lith performed a second check, just to be sure.
'Yes.' Solus emitted a stressed sigh as she examined everything again to calm his paranoia. 'If there were any trap, the books and the machine would need to be protected by the effects of the traps.
'Also, to build her lab, Dawn needed a lot of arrays and there's only so much space in here. Runes cannot overlap and it took her quite the effort to arrange everything so that it didn't mess up with the array that connects the mana geyser to the machine.'
Lith stepped inside and as Solus had predicted, nothing happened. The stone floor and ceiling were the only things not covered in light. Several tunnels departed from the cave.
Some were made of metal and seemed to go upward while others looked of natural origin and went deeper underground.
Lith didn't know whether to focus on the Odi machine in the middle of the room or on the tomes that were still open on a nearby desk. Both piqued his interest and would be lost the moment the army responded to his distress call.
'I'm sorry, Lith.' Solus thought. 'There is enough energy coming from the mana geyser for me to assume my tower form, but not enough space. Even if I keep it as small as I can, I would still need to get rid of many constructs, and by doing that I'm sure that Dawn would notice our presence.'
Nalrond couldn't understand why Lith was staring at the lab instead of moving forward, nor did he like the place. Now that they stood on solid ground capable to withstand his weight, he shapeshifted into his animal form.
"I liked those clothes." Lith snarled.
"Me too. Sorry." Nalrond sniffed the tunnels for any sign of their pursuers.
"I've got good news. From the south tunnel comes a faint scent of grass, so the exit is that way. Also, I'm pretty sure that we have enough lead on Dawn that, by the time she gets here, we'll already be outside the blocking arrays' range."
"Excellent." Lith said while studying the titles of the books on the conjured scaffolds. He made sure to not touch the constructs to avoid triggering any kind of safety measure.
He believed Solus when she said that there were no offensive spells hidden between the runes' lines, but to embed a silent alarm into an array was a Warden's oldest trick. It required to add just a couple of runes and it would inform the caster every time something or someone interacted with their working.
'It seems that Dawn has collected all the tomes she has salvaged while exploring the Odi complex here. I don't know if she planned to keep them for herself or give them to the army to increase Acala's reward.
'Either way, it's all junk. Obsolete magical subjects and reports about the Odi experiment hold no value to me.' Lith thought.
'Not to rush you, Lith, but we are in a pinch.' Solus thought. 'On one hand, we can't dismiss a library after checking a few books. There's still plenty more on the upper levels and there's another library just as big behind your back.
'On the other hand, even if we split up, to examine everything and the machine it would take us the whole night while we have an hour at best before Dawn gets here. I need you to make up your mind, fast!'
'So much for not rushing me.' Lith sighed. 'Don't worry, I have a solution to all of our problems.'
'Gods, no!' Solus whimpered.
'Gods, yes!' Lith replied before turning to Nalrond.
"Listen to me, kid, and you listen to me good because I'm going to say this only once. First, when you fight against an opponent who has much stronger magic power and mastery over an element than you, never use spells without infusing them with your willpower.
"Otherwise no matter how strong your spell is, it will be deflected."
The memory of Dawn swatting away one of his strongest spells like a fly was still vivid in Nalrond's memory. Finally, the reason for his defeat was clear to him, yet the Rezar was baffled by Lith's sudden outburst of generosity.
Magical secrets were well kept, and sharing them meant a great deal even to the most insignificant mage.
"Second, when dealing with multiple enemies, hard-light constructs are much better than heat rays." Lith continued. "You can keep using them until their mana runs out plus you can adjust their output and shape based on the threat at hand.
"They are not fast, but in close quarters combat speed is irrelevant compared to the versatility of a tool that can be used for both attack and defense. Now start conjuring your spells, because the enemies will be here any minute now."
"No, they are not. I just told you…" Nalrond choked on his words when Solus jumped off Lith's arm and assumed her tower form by siphoning all the energy coming from the mana geyser that wasn't already employed to sustain the array field.
The ceiling was high enough to not be a problem, but while she grew in size, Solus smashed several lab tables, turning all the instruments that Dawn had spent days to shape based on her spawns' memories into light shards.
An inhuman scream of pure rage made the entirety of the Snake Tongue mountain range tremble while dust and debris fell from the ceiling on the hybrids' heads.
'Too bad there's a nasty dimensional magic sealing array preventing Dawn dearest from warping here, isn't it?' Lith though. Like a sorcerer's apprentice, at a wave of his hand, the room came to life.
Only instead of brooms and buckets, it was Sentries and books that flew through the air. Instead of scouting the area, the swarm of glass constructs from Solus's Mirror Hall scanned the Odi machine from every side and checked the bookshelves at the same time.
