"You monsters! How could you do this? We haven't harmed anyone and we were minding our own business. Why did you kill my tribe?" Her red and blue eyes wept tears of their respective color while two blades formed in her hands.
One was made of pure violet fire while the other one was comprised of ice and both of them brimmed with so much mana that they looked like small suns to Life Vision.
Rhona infused herself with all elements, putting her life on the line to get rid of the intruders. Goblins were easily replaceable since they bred like rabbits whereas Balors were rare and their reproductive cycle was barely faster than the humans'.
On top of that, without a full set of elemental eyes, growing crystals was impossible and without them, the experiment would stop.
The thought of being forced to leave the geyser and return to be an ugly monster forever drove Rhona insane.
Her wings burst with elemental power, activating an extreme version of fusion magic that no Balor had ever achieved before. Ancient Balors had wings, eyes, but no mana cores.
Instead of being focused and amplified in a single place, the mana they produced would be spread throughout their bodies. It was the reason why their magic had always been stuck to tier three and why they had altered their life force, turning into monsters.
Now, however, not only had Rhona reverted to her unfallen state, but by compressing and focusing her mana flow, the collar also gave her a core. It both made her akin to a true mage and brought her to the form that her ancestors had failed to achieve.
As long as they had the eye of the corresponding element, Balors could naturally use fusion magic, but now that she also had a mana core, the interaction with the wings generated something greater.
Fire fusion generated violet flames that erupted from Rhona's body, burning everything that she touched, while the water fusion stirred the world energy around the Balor into a chaotic flow, making any spell that came near her become unstable.
'By the Great Mother!' Quylla thought as the reverted Balor slashed at Protector with her flaming blade and lunged at Nalrond with the ice saber. 'That's exactly what happened to Tista after she first transformed into the Red Demon.
'What if bloodline abilities are just enhanced versions of fusion magic that can be projected outside and used on others by replacing mana with world energy? If I'm right, Origin Flames comes from fire fusion, Life Maelstrom from air fusion, and Doom Tide from water fusion.'
Even though Quylla had witnessed only Origin Flames, she had watched Lith's holograms depicting his fights against those capable of using the Guardian's skills to help him devise ways to defend against them.
'Which means that darkness, light, and earth fusion can generate bloodline abilities that-' Her train of thought derailed as the flaming sword cut through Protector's mace as if it wasn't there, burning his right arm and damaging his lung.
Morok managed to block the ice saber and save Nalrond's life, yet the freezing cold it emitted spread to his weapons, numbing his arms.
'Fuck! Damn you, brain. I can't stand still like a moron while the others risk their lives. Act first, theorize later!' Quylla had the same problem as most geniuses like Manohar or Solus.
Whenever they made a breakthrough in the magical field, their minds would focus more on the discovery than on the threat at hand, making them sitting ducks. Only after several beatings as a student at the White Griffon academy had the god of healing learned that no opponent would give him a time out on request.
While Quylla tried to focus on the threat at hand, the combined effect of Rhona's core and her elemental wings triggered a new effect. Heat Wave now spun behind her back in a circle, forming something that resembled more of an array with each passing second.
Protector unleashed his tier four spell, Flaming Tornado, only for the fire element to be sucked in by the red wing and giving Rhona even more power.
"Fire and water are sealed, use the other elements!" Morok said while unleashing a stream of bolts of lightning.
He smiled seeing the reverted Balor trying to block them with her Heat Wave, yet he stopped his attack when the electricity disappeared without causing her any harm.
The Tyrant had no idea that, after repeated cycles of boiling and condensing the water of her spell, Rhona had turned it into distilled water. The Balor kicked him square on the chest, sending him flying while lunging at Protector's heart.
Nalrond stepped in, praying that heat and darkness worked the same way. He had no weapon, but he knew how to infuse the claws of his Rezar form with both light and fire, turning them into energy blades.
The different energy signatures in the fire spells clashed against each other, bringing the Balor's ethereal sword to a halt.
The sudden turn of events shocked Rhona and created an opening that Quylla exploited to grab her with Bloodbind.
"An ugly dwarf like you dares to touch me?" The Balor snarled as the fire and ice coming from her body inflicted the chains a thermal shock so great that she managed to break the Adamant simply by flexing her muscles.
Yet Quylla's aim had never been to restrain Rhona, only to throw her away while flooding Bloodbind with her tier four spell, Cruel Healer. It was a mix of light and darkness magic that damaged the enemy while healing their wounds at the same time.
The two elements complemented each other, draining huge amounts of vitality over time.
'I bet you don't find her so hot anymore.' Protector said via the mind link.
'She's smoking.' Nalrond and Morok replied in unison.
With her long hair floating in mid-air, her savage expression, and the twin blades in her hands, Rhona looked like a goddess descended among mortals.
Nalrond regretted those words the moment they left his brain, especially because Morok telepathically gave him thumbs up.
'Any idea how to get rid of her?' Quylla's thoughts sounded ice-cold, reminding the Tyrant that making such compliments to another woman in front of her wasn't such a good idea.
'Yes, but I can't do it on my own. Quylla, I need you to cast the spell that you used a second ago again. Nalrond, do you have enough juice for an earth and air spell?' Morok asked.
'No.' The Rezar replied as Rhona charged forward again.
The pseudo-array behind her back boosted her wings even further, drawing power from them before returning it amplified in a cycle that would soon make her unstoppable.
Nalrond blocked the fire blade with his fire-infused claws again, but the Balor had become so strong that the impact shattered his arm. The ice blade cut him diagonally, opening a deep wound from his left shoulder to his right hip.
The cold spread throughout his flesh and froze the blood solid before it could gush out. It stopped the bleeding but it also generated ice spikes that widened the wound and punctured his organs.
'I'll do it!' Protector cast a couple of tier two spells, hoping they would be enough.
