Aylen had crafted her spear so that it would convert the life force it was imbued with into extra mass in the same way her body did. Yet under the effects of Crushing Pillar, even the most durable metal on Mogar could barely stand its own weight.
To make matters even worse, when the dimensional spell, Full Circle, Warped the tip of the spear right at Aylen's back and made it clash against her Davross armor, the result was their mutual destruction.
At the same time, the Spirit Magic spell, Starpath, conjured an emerald stream comprised of countless particles above the Lich. Starpath used the Crushing Pillar's gravitational pull to increase its momentum while Full Circle warped every particle that had missed its target back on top of Aylen.
"I see that I'm not the only one who likes to play their cards close to the vest." The Lich snapped her fingers, releasing a burst of cursed magic that disrupted Sinmara's spells long enough to escape the onslaught.
"I hope you realize that with each passing second, my kittens are getting what I need while you are achieving nothing. Beat me as much as you want, unless you manage to destroy my phylactery it's just a waste of time."
"Are you sure about that?" A few moments had passed since the Phoenix of Darkness had collapsed to the ground, yet she had already recovered without the aid of her breathing technique.
"What do you-" Only then did Aylen notice that the Echo of Darkness had been just a cover for the Phoenix's bloodline skill, Call of the Blood.
While Sinmara kept the Lich's focus on her, she had conjured other members of the nest that were capturing Aylen's Emperor Beasts the moment they came out of the ground to deliver the goods or opened a Warp Steps to collect them.
Contrary to Sinmara's expectation, instead of falling into despair, the Maker of all Liches burst out in a maniacal laughter.
"You should have done more than watch my fight with Vareen. You should have also listened to my words. As I said to him, it's by fighting against you that I draw my strength and inspiration."
One more snap of her fingers opened several Warp Steps at the same time.
'If Aylen is conjuring more sacrificial victims to get another power boost by feeding, I'm screwed.' Sinmara thought. 'Our magical power is nearly identical and between the strength and the bloodline abilities that she obtained from the first meal, she has already gotten the physical advantage.
'I can't allow her to do that again, otherwise, only Mom can be her opponent.'
The Phoenix of Darkness flapped her wings, generating waves of fire with the same intensity of a tier three spell that flooded Aylen's Warp Steps. Her goal was to kill the incoming meal and empty the Lich's pantry in one fell swoop.
Yet the flames disappeared without ever reaching past the dimensional corridors. Aylen had not conjured more food, but more helpers. What stepped through the Steps was a small army of what looked like skeleton soldiers.
The Phoenixes that were still fighting against the feline Emperor Beasts sneered at the appearance of lesser undead while Sinmara knew that there was something off in that move.
'There's no point in bringing such weaklings to the battlefield.' She thought. 'They can't even buy her one second, let alone fight against Phoenixes. Yet it's not like Aylen to waste precious mana for a spell that's merely a distraction.'
Lith was the only one that understood what was happening, but only because he was also working on a similar project.
Each one of the undead wore a full suit of Adamant armor and wielded powerful enchanted weapons that alone would turn even a farmer into a powerful warrior. Truth to be told, they were just Aylen failed creations and prototypes.
Just like Lith, she hated to throw away stuff, but unlike him, she couldn't ask Salaark to recycle the materials for her nor afford to buy enough Origin Flames to cleanse all of her past failures from their magical imprint.
A single swing of the undead's weapons dispelled the fire weaves, protecting their master's home from harm. Then, they raised their hands, unleashing a barrage of tier five spells that took the Phoenixes by surprise and wounded them deeply.
The feline Emperor Beast didn't miss the opening. Half of them went to rescue their captured friends while the other half pressed their advantage and went for the finishing blow.
The Phoenixes had been caught with their guard down and the skeletons had each demonstrated a magical power that belonged to someone with a bright violet core. In an instant, the enemy army had doubled its numbers and turned the tide of the battle.
'This doesn't make sense.' The Phoenixes thought in unison while fighting for their lives. 'How can a mere skeleton be that powerful?'
'Those things are not skeletons at all!' Lith thought, forcing Solus to study the new enemies with the Eyes of Menadion. 'Those things are the watered down version of what I want to do with the corpses of Trouble and of the Vagrash.
'They are magic crystal-controlled golems!' He pointed at their eye sockets, where two gemstones of different colors had been etched.
'By my Mom, you are right!' Solus ignored Xenagrosh and focused her full attention on the new task at hand.
She noticed that no skeleton had emerald green eyes. The gemstones had been imbued with the power of one of the six elements, allowing each golem to control two elements at the same time.
The gemstones had been programmed to be capable of working either independently to cast two tier three spells at the same time or in synch with the other crystal to cast any high tiered spells that employed the elements stored in their eyes.
'They are weaker than what our creations are supposed to be, but they are a huge step in the right direction.' Solus said after observing that not only were the skeletons physically weaker than an Emperor Beast, but also that their energy reserves were dropping quickly.
Only their magical prowess was similar to that Lith wanted to bestow upon his creations. Even then, the limit of two elements made Aylen's golems one trick ponies that relied on their equipment and on the element of surprise to be effective.
'I think it depends on the fact that while we aim to make golems that can serve as our generals and lead my Demons into battle, Aylen needed mere foot soldiers. Her generals are the Emperor Beast while the golems are just expendable pawns.' Lith pondered.
'Well, it makes sense.' Solus pondered. 'Those creatures are all highly intelligent Awakened that she has trained and each one of them is already as powerful as one of our golems is supposed to be.
'The only difference is that they have free will and can't share Aylen's bloodline abilities. My guess is that the golems are a low effort product of Aylen's research. Prototypes that she realized as the first step toward something bigger.'
'Prototypes or not, they are exactly what we were looking for. Lesser undead that thanks to the power of the crystals have been granted a fine degree of intelligence, powers on par with greater undead, but no free will..' Lith replied.
