War drew the stray spells to itself and fed upon them, absorbing their elemental energies to refill its pseudo core.
The blade had no idea Phloria was alive and the feelings Orion had imbued in the weapon were driving it crazy with grief. War would have done anything to avenge its little Flower.
"Stop wasting your spells and engage him in close quarters!" Captain Lotta said. "The fool has forgotten that arrays work both ways. He can't use magic as well!"
Lith charged at the tidal wave of bodies to not offer an easy target to spells belonging to the still available elements while he focused on the only spell he had at the ready. A split second before being swallowed by the living tide, he dispelled the arrays and unleashed Nova Sunset.
It was the tower version of Final Sunset that like the original used fire and air, but it was much stronger due to the power amplifying effect of the Master Mirror and added the air element to the mix.
A tornado comprised of black flames appeared around Lith, engulfing anyone who tried to get close to him. Even though the blazing pillar didn't reach the sky, with its over 30 meters (100 feet) of height it was a majestic sight to behold.
Some Blinked past the spinning fire walls, only to meet their end due to another kind of fire. Lith had assumed his Wyrmling form and filled the space inside the tornado with Origin Flames that were now under War's control.
Origin Flames didn't discriminate, burning humans and undead alike despite their natural resistance to the elements.
"A three-elemental tier five spell of that magnitude?" Quylla was flabbergasted. "If they existed, I would think that's a tier six spell."
"Still it's not enough, so if you can shut up and let me focus, I would greatly appreciate it!" Solus's snarl resembled Lith so closely that Quylla shuddered.
The way Solus talked, the way she moved her body to channel the mana and even the way she chanted her spells non-stop made the Ernas sisters wonder what kind of relationship existed between her and Lith.
Solus was now holding an energy replica of War, moving in synch with Lith to help him control the massive amount of world energy that flooded into him. Yet all that the others could see was a puppeteer moving the strings of the man on the other side of the mirror.
"If you don't come at me, then I'll come at you!" Lith said as he raised War in the air, using Domination over his own spell. The combined willpower of Lith, Solus, and War reshaped the blazing tornado into a giant replica of the angry blade.
Lith performed a horizontal slash that cut deep through the enemy lines, mowing down dozens of people with a single swing of War. Lith had halved Nova Sunset's range by compressing its energies to the point that even barrier amulets were shattered and their wielders killed on impact.
Every single one of his attacks left only ashes on its wake, turning the enemy's superior numbers into a disadvantage. Traitors and undead tried to put some distance between them and Lith, to once again drown him in spells now that the arrays were gone.
"You will not escape!" Lith unleashed Checkmate Nova, conjuring in mid-air so many black pillars of ice that they blotted the night sky.
The evolved version of Checkmate Spears used the ice, darkness, and air elements to bring a calamity from the skies. The black spears swarmed the field, striking where the enemies tried to regroup.
Their size didn't make them more deadly. Quite the contrary, dodging such a huge projectile was easy for any undead. Unfortunately for them, the moment a black spear struck something, the air element made them detonate into countless smaller spears that relentlessly chased their target.
With the combined effect of the black giant sword and the piercing hail, the battlefield quickly turned into a graveyard and only the strongest among the enemies remained.
Lith dispelled Nova Sunset and held War vertically, with his right hand on the grip that pointed at the sky now covered by roaring clouds and his left placed on the blade that pointed at the ground that shook with growing intensity.
'Time to finish this.' He thought.
'Just like light and darkness, air and earth are two sides of the same coin. Only those who realize this are their rulers. Nova Mjolnir!' Solus mirrored Lith's movements as he moved both hands to the grip.
The thundercloud above generated a bolt of lightning that struck War a split second before Lith plunged it into the ground. Nova Mjolnir created magnetite paths that preserved the electricity, allowing it to strike at its marks with its full force.
Rock spikes impaled the survivors and acted like lightning rods, drawing the storm upon them so that not a single thunderbolt missed its target. The magnetite circuit allowed each natural lightning to strike at all the victims of Nova Mjolnir at the same time, dealing so much damage that not even immortal bodies could survive.
When the corpse of the last enemy faded, so did the thunderstorm.
Under the moonlight, Lith used both his mystical senses and the Sentries to make sure that no witnesses remained. Only once Solus confirmed to him that he was the only living being for hundreds of meters did Lith put War at his hip.
The blood scabbard had never been so thick, yet it could barely contain the fury of the grieving blade.
Lith couldn't put it away because inside the pocket dimension time was still. The blade wouldn't be able to recharge its mana crystals nor to heal the stress that both its pseudo cores and the Adamant had sustained by wielding tremendous amounts of mana the fight had required.
"Status report." Lith said after Warping to the Mirror Hall.
"It's a long story…" Friya attempted to say, but Lith gestured her to stop.
His dark eyes turned golden while Solus's golden eyes turned dark as they shared through their mind link their most recent memories.
"I'm sorry, Friya, but there's not a moment to waste so we'll make this quick. Guys, this is Solus. She's my bright side as much as I'm her dark side. She already knows all of you so introductions are pointless." Lith said.
"Nice to meet you! I've been waiting years for this moment." Solus said with a smile so radiant that definitely didn't belong to Lith. To the Ernas, her enthusiasm made even less sense than his words
"Friya, Nalrond saved eight members of the Crystal Shield, Wyra and Rotha included. How many active members of the guild did you bring with you?" Lith waved his hand and on the mirror appeared the image of a humanoid scaled armadillo surrounded by dozens of people.
"All fifteen of them." Friya's eyes became watery at the sight of how few people had survived.
"I'm really sorry for your loss." Solus wanted to hug Friya, but being their first real meeting, it would have been inappropriate. "I've prioritized…"
"Sorry, Solus. No time for condolences either." Lith cut her short. "Phloria do you know what's happening to you?"
At her sight, War squealed with joy and went silent.
"Dad?" Phloria blurted out, recognizing Orion's typical reaction whenever they met after a long time. "I mean, yes, Lith. I know everything about Awakened like us."
