"So much for no Awakened in Kolga. I guess that Fenagar's beating is well deserved." Solus's reply made no sense to Ykrah, just like she hoped.
His confusion bought her the time she needed to fix her body with healing magic and unleash the tier Five War Mage spell, Burial Ground, that she had stored inside her magic holding ring.
Burial Ground was a versatile spell that conjured several stone pillars from the ground that could be used for both offense and defense. Earth magic was used as a conduit for the dark energies so that even standing close to them was enough to sap the life force of an enemy.
Each one of them kept growing in height, while countless stone spikes emerged from the pillars and extended in every direction. Some attempted to stab Ykrah, while others connected with other spikes, forming new pillars that generated even more spikes.
Solus hoped that the darkness magic imbued within the rock would mess up with the delicate balance that kept the Kolgan's condition as an unliving stable and cripple his strength.
Ykrah scoffed at the unknown spell, infusing himself with all elements to break out of the stone cage with nothing but raw strength. Yet when the spikes pierced his skin and the bleeding didn't stop, he put his pride aside and expended another fraction of the power stored inside the Hands to escape from the trap before it was too late.
Much to his surprise, instead of keeping her distance and conjuring one spell after the other, the woman was charging at him with her hands filled to the brim with light magic.
"Was one beating not enough for you, Usurper? I shall teach you-" Ykrah chocked on his words as Solus unleashed a flurry of fists.
Thanks to the gap in mass and the energy field surrounding him, Solus received more damage than she dealt. Yet Ykrah could see that with each hit, she robbed the Hands of a fraction of their control over the mana geyser.
To make matters worse, Solus's fists injected him with huge amounts of light element that the Forbidden Sun failed to compensate fast enough. If Burial Ground's darkness had temporarily reverted him into a living being, the excess light aggravated Ykrah's unliving condition.
He could feel his consciousness slipping and his core degenerating into that of the troll's race.
"Stay away from me!" Ykrah converted the energy field into a burst of energy, sending Solus flying to save his life. "People of Kolga, protect me!"
'Oh, shit!' Solus thought as the entire city answered the call and swarmed her from every side.
The power she had absorbed from the Hands was enough to ward off the waves of enemies with just her physical might, but in that situation, she couldn't cast new spells.
She saw Ykrah's body returning to normal, wasting the opening that she had worked so hard to create. On top of that, even though the Kolgans weren't Awakened, they still managed to corner her with sheer numbers.
Solus was faster, stronger, and the Scalewalker armor's Full Guard gave her perfect awareness of her surroundings, but the enemies had no care for their lives or that of others.
The Kolgans exploited their regenerative abilities to "safely" perform suicidal attacks that weakened Solus, using their own bodies to slow her down while others unleashed upon her tier five and four spells.
Most of the Kolgans survived thanks to the Forbidden Sun and for each one of them that fell to Solus's fists bashing their skulls or to friendly fire, the others would grow stronger.
The fewer people the Forbidden Sun had to take care of, the more energy it could deploy per individual. Ykrah didn't hesitate to join the attack as well and soon Solus was brought to her knees.
Her barrier ring was now exhausted and her Scalewalker armor full of cracks.
"You shouldn't have come here." Ykrah said in-between tier five spells. "My foremother, Kolga, knew that there was no such a thing as a monster capable of defeating Master Menadion inside her own tower.
"It was you killing your own mother to get your hands on her legacy, just like it was because of you that Kolga refused to Awaken her descendants. She was afraid to end up like Menadion, betrayed by her own blood."
What he couldn't say in presence of so many witnesses, was that all of Kolga's paranoia didn't help her much. It only managed to delay the inevitable. She didn't leave Garlen because of Menadion's death, only to pursue her research away from prying eyes.
Since not even with the Hands could she forge her own tower, Kolga had decided to exploit the isolation that the depth of the sea would provide her to craft a living legacy.
She believed that with the power of Forbidden Magic she would manage to overcome the skill gap between her and Menadion. The problem with her plan was that a cursed tower would also make her an enemy of the Council hence her research needed secrecy.
Kolga's descendants had been glad to help her collect materials and find specimens. At least until they understood that Kolga would never Awaken them nor would they ever receive her legacy simply because she would outlive them all.
At that point, they changed the rules of the game, researching for a way to twist Kolga's ritual so that even if they couldn't Awaken, they would obtain the next best thing.
That was how the Forbidden Sun had been born and Kolga had died the same day. It had poisoned her magical and physical prowess, making all of her artifacts useless against nigh-immortal enemies.
The ambush had kept Kolga from casting spells and being so close to the Forbidden Sun, she had died before even realizing what had happened. After her demise, by pooling their intellects and using the Hands to learn how to perceive the world energy, her descendants had discovered the secret of Awakening.
Unfortunately for them, their perfect plan revealed to have an unexpected flaw. The same cracks in their mana cores that allowed the Forbidden Magic to empower them also made the world energy leak.
Their broken state caused not only the body and core refining process to be flawed, but also negated the life-prolonging effect of Awakening. It was the reason why even Fenagar had never noticed that Kolga's descendants were more than just fake mages.
"How dare you mention my mother's name?" Solus said in outrage. "You twisted her legacy and abused the Hands to create this monstrosity. The moment I get rid of your pawns, I'll make sure that Kolga's bloodline ends with you!"
Ykrah didn't even bother to reply to such an idiotic claim. With her outburst, Solus had confirmed the Kolgans' worst fears, pushing them to double their efforts to protect their beloved ones.
"Then you'd better get a move on." A pillar of black flames accompanied those words. It engulfed Solus and her captors, releasing such an intense heat that the gravel boiled.
Ykrah looked at the Wyrmling, pondering if the creature was a friend or foe. His doubts cleared along with the flames, when Elphyn Menadion came out of them unscathed.
