There was only so much Alchemical tools could do.
Any Awakened would counter white phosphorus with darkness and light fusion, using the former to destroy the foreign substance while not experiencing pain and the latter to recover from its damage.
As for fake mages, any of them capable of posing a threat to Lith was bound to have enough protections to be immune to his grenades. Just like the mines, Lith had employed them only to stall for time and save as much mana as he could.
The barrier ring and the mana boosted Scalewalker armor blocked the first volleys of spells, but there was just no end to them. As the alarm resounded throughout Kolga, more and more people rushed to the King's tower and to the Light Torch academy.
Kolgans had no care for their allies and cast their deadliest spells at the Wyrmling knowing that he would be the only one suffering from permanent harm. The Forbidden Magic coursing through their veins would restore a punctured heart or a mushy brain in a matter of seconds.
On top of that, the Forbidden Sun empowered their cores to the point that the weakest of them had a bright green mana core, making their spells as powerful as those of the graduates from one of the six great academies.
Lith unleashed all the tier five spells that he had at the ready, but none of them could turn the tide of the battle. Raging Sun gave him the time for one breath worth of Invigoration, but it killed only the Kolgans so close to the point of the explosion that their shreds were scattered too far from each other to regenerate.
Mjolnir stun those around him long enough to allow his deadly touch to destroy over twenty Kolgans and sever their link with the Forbidden Sun, but hundreds of enemies remained and even more arrived with each passing second.
Lith cast a Burial Grounds, using its ever-growing pillars to protect himself while he used Invigoration and checked on Solus's fight.
'I could use our mind link to tell her to get a move on, but I can't afford to rush nor distract her. With her cracked core and life force, Solus is the only one who has a real shot at getting the Hands-' His train of thought crumbled along with his protection.
The new arrivals were late for a good reason. While their comrades weakened the enemy, they had prepared enough tier five War Mage spells to level a mountain.
Lith's mana core hurt from the effort of using so much mana while countering the poisoning, yet he had to Blink to escape from the jaws of death. On top of that, due to Ykrah's and Solus's battle for the control of the mana geyser, Invigoration was far less effective than usual.
The world energy inside Kolga was already thin compared to the outside world to start with, but with the Tower and the Hands so close to Lith, there was just enough to fuel the spells.
A couple of soldiers unleashed upon Lith the tier five War Mage spell Firefly, conjuring several wisps of light that were actually highly compressed flames. The moment the air magic keeping them sealed vanished, a backdraft effect amplified the explosion and engulfed the area of 100 meters (330 feet) around him in flames.
To make matters worse, the air component of Firefly not only did provide the mystical flames with a constant flow of oxygen, but it also sealed the flames so as to boost their temperature and keep the heat from dispersing.
Lith used his barrier ring to resist the shockwaves that threatened to tear him apart while the air quickly became so hot that breathing became both difficult and painful. Unlike charged rings, Lith could keep the barrier active as long as he poured mana into it, but that didn't make him invincible.
The ring's pseudo core started to overload and his vision became blurry from the lack of oxygen. Firefly brought air to itself, not its victim. Lith couldn't Blink due to the spell's vast area of effect, but the ring still managed to buy him the time that he needed for a Warp Steps.
Fresh air filled his lungs, making him feel alive. Yet as his vision cleared, he realized how fast the situation had snowballed during his brief captivity. The field around the tower was filled with so many people that he couldn't see Solus anymore.
On top of that, fake mages couldn't see the exit point of a Blink but a Steps was much slower. Even though Lith had moved to an area he remembered as devoid of enemies, they had rushed there the second the dimensional door opened.
Only thanks to the Scalewalker armor's Full Guard did Lith perceive and react to a lunge to his heart. He grabbed the sword with his right hand and the female soldier wielding it with the left, using Demons of the Darkness to give to the soul that haunted her the power to reclaim its long-lost life.
The female soldier died, but that didn't stop her comrades from unleashing more Fireflies while the citizens of Kolga released volleys of tier four spells against the Wyrmling. To survive the onslaught, Lith needed to use the barrier ring again while Blinking non-stop to escape Firefly's area of effect.
The barrier shattered under the combined shockwaves of the various spells and so did its ring after Lith put Huryole's relic under a prolonged strain too big for its inefficient design.
Lith managed to kill a few Kolgans with each Blink, yet he received many hits.
The energy that his Abomination half received from the Forbidden Sun allowed him to heal quickly, but his mana core had already turned to a deep shade of blue. Soon it would become cyan and after that, his combat prowess would plummet.
'Dammit, this wasn't the plan at all. We've let the assault at the Light Torch happen at the same time as that at the tower so that the main forces of Kolga would be too busy to mess with us until it was too late.
'I came here just to make sure that Solus had someone who covered her back, not to fight half the f.u.c.k.i.n.g population of this city. How could things go this wrong?' Lith was unaware that Ykrah had recognized Solus from his family painting.
Knowing who she was and what she was allegedly able to do, he had never underestimated her. They had planned their whole strategy on a quick assault based on misdirection, but Ykrah had been careful to equally split his resources among the two threats at hand.
Several spells flew at Lith and the pain from his core wasn't something that darkness fusion could block. The effort of keeping the armor's Full Guard active barely required a strand of mana, yet it was enough to almost made him faint.
The spells hit their target, throwing Lith off balance and making him easy prey for the blades of the soldiers. The cuts piled up too fast for the Scalewalker to repair its cracks or the Abomination side to heal the wounds and soon Lith's body bled as much as his core.
Solus felt his pain through their mind link and only then did she realize the price that her other half was paying to let her fight with Ykrah go undisturbed.
