By reversing the energy flow of the Forgemastering process, the Yggdrasill wood was both compromising the power core's integrity and wrestling its control out of Lith's hands.
It was only a matter of seconds before the energy mass exploded and turned the staff into wood flakes.
Luckily, Lith had followed Salaark's advice and purified the two Adamant blocks that the Royals had gifted to him and Tista during the last Gala. This way, Lith and Solus had one Forge each and could combine Menadion's prized technique with their own, Twin Forge.
The technique exploited their perfect mind link and the fact that they had the same energy signature, allowing them to switch their roles at will or to combine their strength when necessary.
After hitting the Forges with the hammers, their mana flowed inside the Adamant, where the magic metal stored and amplified it thanks to its own ability to draw in the world energy akin to a breathing technique, and converted it into their mana.
A second hit and the hammer retrieved the amplified mana. Lith and Solus only needed a speck of focus to restore their energy signature before striking at the Forge again.
With each cycle, the power that they had originally infused in their respective hammer grew at the expense of the mana geyser that endlessly fueled the tower without any further effort on their side.
They used the extra energy to compensate for the mana loss from both fixing the damages in the power core and countering the pull that the Yggdrasill branch exerted on it.
Were the power core to enter the mystical wood before the end of the amplification process, the energy from the crystals and the Evil Eyes would have blinded their mystical senses.
At that point, it would be impossible for them to repair the power core without using Invigoration. Yet the use of a breathing technique required physical contact and they couldn't step inside the Forgemastering circle without making it collapse.
The tug of war between the artifact and the Forgemasters went on for several excruciating minutes. The power core's deterioration rate was faster than the Adamant's ability to enhance their mana, keeping Lith and Solus from taking a break.
Only by combining their strength non-stop could they keep pulling at the power core while also fixing the damages that the eyes and the crystals inflicted upon it and not letting the world energy dissipate at the same time.
The fight was desperate yet they refused to yield.
Solus even cut off most of the power from the other floors of the tower in order to give Lith as much juice as she could, yet it wasn't enough. Without Abyssal Gaze their energies dwindled, consuming more mana than that the tower could passively restore.
Lith squeezed every drop of energy he had, focusing solely on the task at hand. His core grew weaker but his determination endured. When the power core reached 200% of the mana capacity that Lith had outside the tower, it was still a perfect sphere.
Half of it had already been pulled inside the staff but Solus played around it by making the power core spin and by treating the exposed half. They had to work even faster while keeping their accuracy, depleting their mana reserves even faster.
Solus cursed her long hair when exhaustion made them stop floating and fall on her face. It blocked her view for just a split second, but it was almost fatal nonetheless. She swept it away along with the sweat that covered her forehead, revealing her brown eyes.
Lith struck at the Adamant Forge more and more often to compensate for his lack of energy, until the hammer came back empty.
"Fuck me sideways." He said when his hand refused to lift again.
There was only so much that willpower could do without mana and his deep violet core was dry. Solus had given up on her energy body as soon as her Forge had become useless, hoping to gain one more second.
Yet the moment their teamwork crumbled so did the power core. It exploded in a burst of light that tore the staff asunder and filled the air with sawdust. If not for the tower's automated defenses, it would have also killed everyone in the room.
An energy bubble encapsulated the power core the moment it went haywire, limiting the damages to the part of the branch it was already fused with and saving everything else.
Without the mana circulatory system to support them, the altered crystals returned white while the Evil Eyes fell from the branch with the sound of a wet sponge.
"Close, but no cigar, my dear Featherling." Salaark gave them a heartfelt round of applause as she stepped out of a hidden dimensional space. "It was one of the most amazing failures I've ever seen."
"Grandma, how long have you been standing there?" Lith stuttered every word, panting them out rather than speaking.
"Long enough." She replied with a mischievous grin.
"Can you please tell me what I did wrong?" He asked while Solus gave up even on her wisp form, too tired even for that.
"Do you want the list in chronological or alphabetical order?" Salaark chuckled, making him groan in frustration.
"First, you used three crystals right off the bat, without even checking in advance how they interacted with the eyes. In your shoes, I would have started with just the black eye and the silver crystal."
"Second, ten pseudo cores are too much for a beginner. Do you realize that if each one of them reaches 200% of your power, then the power core requires over 2,000% of your energy just to be imbued in an artifact, let alone being repaired?"
"But I have Solus and the tower!" He tried to stand up, becoming so dizzy from mana abuse that he fell face-first on the floor.
"Third, Solus has not a violet core and she had no grasp over the world energy once the elemental flow from the staff started to interfere with the Forgemastering circle. If not for the Hands and for how stubborn you two are, you would have failed right off the bat.
"Handling altered crystals requires an additional layer of protection to neutralize their effects for the duration of crafting process."
Salaark shook her head while activating Creation Magic to repair the Yggdrasill branch and cleanse the ingredients from the traces of the failed core, making them usable again.
"I commend your effort and self-confidence, but instead of wasting your energy, it would have been better to stop the Forgemastering and study the unexpected phenomenons the moment they arose.
"Solus, with your weak core, you can't afford to solve a problem by force. While the tower is still so damaged, it takes one of you to fine-tune the world energy while the other one crafts.
"If Lith takes care of the world energy, however, you lack the strength necessary to lead the enchanting process.
"Lith, your greatest flaw as a Forgemaster is that you try to tackle too many problems at the same time. For someone as inexperienced as you, the slowest route is also the best for learning from your mistakes."
"Any more observations?" Lith asked.
