“If you’re thinking of harming my cousin, think again. By now Dyta should be safe in Valeron. The Royal mages couldn’t wait to have a blood core to study.
“Thanks to the first willing Thrall ever, they’ll find a diagnostic spell that can identify your servants even without the help of the Awakened Council. As I said, every single one of your brilliant moves was just a small part of my plan.” Jirni said.
Seeing his months of careful plotting and efforts unraveled in a few sentences, made Orpal’s guts turn into a knot. Maybe it was the shock from Jirni’s words or maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him.
Whatever the answer was, Orpal found himself on a huge chessboard as a pawn, while the small woman in front of him had grown to gigantic proportions and was the only player in that game.
She moved both his pieces and her own, slowly setting up for a checkmate.
“This is impossible! You are nothing but a weak human woman!” The Dead King infused himself with all the elements, combining their power with the prowess of his enhanced body to turn into a blur.
Yet Jirni easily sidestepped the thrust of his spear, grabbing his face in mid-air like a fly and slamming it against the magical resistant gold-veined marble until it shattered.
“You are right. I’m weak. I’m just a human. I’m not even a mage, let alone an Awakened.” She said, pummelling him after kicking the spear away.
“But you know what? The weak can always ask the strong for help.”
Her uniform shapeshifted again, revealing its true form.
The clothes turned into a full suit of armor, with bright violet mana crystals as big as an apple grafted on its hands and thighs. Three more white mana crystals were respectively embedded on each one of its shoulders and the middle of its chest.
The armor appeared to be made of golden feathers that shone like a sun, repelling Night’s darkness away.
The helmet was shaped like an eagle’s head, its gloves ended with claws, and a couple of wings made of energy erupted from Jirni’s shoulders. The Royal Fortress armor made her look like a humanoid Griffon covered in metal.
“Did you never wonder how could I be so strong? How someone as short as me could break a grown man’s bones so easily?” Jirni’s voice was reduced to a cold whisper that passed through the pin-sized breathing holes in the Davross of her helm.
“I wore one of these the first time we met and I wore it every time I created an opening for you to exploit. Let’s see which one of us has the better equipment.”
“That’s impossible!” Orpal said as the spiked helm of the Black Rose armor wrapped around his face. “I know the powers of the Royal Fortress armor and I had them counted.
“Eight are deployed to protect the Kingdom’s major assets and the other four stand guard around the throne!”
“Exactly.” Jirni’s voice was so smug that her helm seemed to grin as well. “Too bad that this isn’t one of them. I borrowed the armor of my ancestor, Oghrom Myrok, and it’s a bit special.
“Or did you think that the title of founding pillar of the Kingdom was just for show?” Oghrom’s armor had such fine cloaking spells that even to Life Vision it looked just like a lump of ordinary metal.
There were no traces of its enchantments nor of the massive flow of world energy that the Davross created. Purified in Leegaain’s flames, crafted by Tyris herself, and upgraded with each magical breakthrough of the Kingdom, it was made of several tons of metal compressed by magic. Panda Novel
“Get her!” Orpal summoned his soldiers to buy himself enough time to get Thorn back and put an end to that madness with his Blade Tier Spell, Shattered Moon.
“Thanks.” Jirni replied as the wave of undead approached her.
The Full Domain arrays kept her from calling for reinforcements, but the armor had plenty of pockets where she had stored everything she needed for the fight in advance.
She took what looked like a thin card made of white crystal out of one of the feathers of her armor. The gemstone shone with pristine light, except at its center, where a small cube had been embedded.
It spread a black light of corruption that seemed to constantly fight with the white radiance of the crystal. Until Jirni let it out.
The Chaos emerged from the small cube, taking the form of a hologram of Vastor. He held his Yggdrasill staff with both hands, staring at Orpal in hatred.
“This is for you, Manohar.” The tier five Chaos spell, Howling Hunger, erupted from the hologram, devouring everything on its path.
The flesh, life force, and even the mana of the undead’s blood cores were drained by the power of the Chaos and injected into its caster’s body. Yet Jirni had no black core whose hunger could never be sated, no bottomless pit for a life force.
Her bones popped and her muscles bulged as the energy flooded throughout her being. Used by a regular human, the spell bestowed upon Jirni the combined effects of Rejuvenation and Invigoration.
Her fatigue disappeared, her mind cleared as if she had just woken up from a full day’s sleep, and her mana core burst with power.
“Now I can get serious.” The fatigue wasn’t part of Jirni’s façade, but it was still part of her plan.
She had tired herself on purpose, reaching a state where her mental abilities had slowed down and her movements become clumsy. Everything in order to lure Orpal out of his hiding place.
Just like Lith had been called the Soldier Magus since his days as a Ranger, Jirni had earned an unofficial nickname as well. Those who were part of the Crown’s inner circle whispered her name, calling her the god of deception.
Alas, she wasn’t a mage, and even though the Royals appreciated her services, she couldn’t achieve such a title nor reach a rank in the army above that of major.
Jirni didn’t care about trifling matters like titles, but she secretly enjoyed having gained the same moniker of the founding father of House Myrok. Oghrom Gernoff had been crowned god only after Valeron had Awakened him, but the title had belonged to him for years already.
Like her illustrious ancestor, Jirni liked to be prepared.
She knew that she couldn’t win against Orpal in a weakened state and had each of her allies prepare something that would cover for her weak points. Unlike the Spell Hoarding Cube, the proto cubes could only hold one spell each.
Jirni had only four of them and had to make them count.
Several small sticks came flying out of the arm and leg guards of the armor, combining in mid-air into a glaive that reached Jirni’s hand.
“By the way, my husband sends you his regards. Say hello to Skywarp, his latest creation.”
Orpal ignored her and mounted Moonlight while calling for more reinforcements.
‘What does that weapon do?’ He asked via the mind link.
‘I have no clue! Everything that woman uses is cloaked. It looks like a regular glaive but from its color, I bet it’s made of Davross.’ The Horseman replied.
