The Tiamat snarled and headbutted the Jotun, happy to have horns that gave him the reach advantage.
Rkar’r reeled back in pain as his skull cracked and the curved horns ripped away big chunks of his flesh, flooding his mouth with blood and blinding his eyes. Lith exploited that moment to light his emerald eye and take control of the Cursed Lightning still stored inside the Jotun’s body.
Now that he was the only one with fusion magic, the smaller and weaker creature lacked the strength to keep him pinned to the ground. Lith threw Rkar’r against the other members of the Council and had him forcefully release the Cursed Lightning he had left.
Those hit by the bloodline ability found themselves without fusion magic, with the spells they had kept at the ready or that they had been weaving gone. The Tiamat exploited the chaos that ensued to conjure the Call of the Void again.
The blackness formed a dome where only he and Solus could see and dozens of Demons of the Darkness answered his call.
Lith’s allies knew the effects of the Call of the Void and used the temporary respite to escape from their respective encirclement. They could all use a short break to heal and drink tonics.
‘I’m so sorry, Bytra.’ Solus cried over the mangled body of the Raiju that refused to die even though half of it was reduced to a bloody pulp.
‘Don’t be.’ Bytra replied. ‘I’ve taken your life away and now I’m giving you mine. It’s a fair exchange.’
‘No, it’s not!’ Solus cried harder. ‘You are not that Bytra. If you had another face, I wouldn’t hate you one bit. You have been reduced like this only because I’m too weak.
‘Too weak in the body to fight by the side of our allies and too weak in the mind to accept a helping hand when you offered it to me.’
Her stomach churned and she puked in her mouth a little, but Solus withstood it and sent the bile back down her throat. She placed her hands on the Raiju’s body, ignoring her whole being screaming in revulsion.
Then, Solus activated her breathing technique, Sky Blessing, while she poured with water magic dozens of tonics inside Bytra’s mouth. The sudden flow of world energy revitalized the Abomination side of the Raiju that used it along with the nutrients to repair the damage at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The flesh and blood that had been scattered by the explosions came to life and reattached themselves into the right position until Bytra was whole again. She couldn’t see anything, just like her enemies, but she wasn’t scared anymore.
Both the hunger and the pain were gone.
Then, sight suddenly returned.
Solus had leaned her head against the Raiju’s using a deeper mind link to share her vision with her.
‘I’m not powerful enough to win this fight, but together we can make it. Please, lend me your strength.’ Solus asked.
‘I’ll do more than that.’ Bytra knelt down, letting Solus mount on her back.
Once she managed to hold with just her legs, keeping her hands free to cast spells, Solus discovered to be holding both the Fury and the Absolution.
‘It works just like your mother’s hammer. Anyone of my choosing can use the Absolution. As I said earlier, it belongs to you so feel free to use it to your heart’s content.’ The Raiju said.
Solus could see how similar the two hammers were and feel their power resonate like two siblings separated at birth that had found each other by chance.
‘Run like the wind and never stop cast lightning spells, please.’ Solus thought as the elemental crystals on the Fury turned orange and yellow while the white crystals on the Absolution conjured the same elements out of the world energy.
The orange and yellow streaks in Solus’ hair lit up as well while Bytra run across the battlefield, conjuring a hail of white bolts of lightning. The Raiju could feel the ground becoming soft when she stepped on it and didn’t fail to notice how her spells seemed to have gained a life of her own.
What were supposed to be one-time lightning bolts kept coming down one after another.
“Mjolnir!” Solus roared as the enchantments of the hammers mixed with her mana to conjure the mother of all thunderstorms.
The ground was suddenly electrified, sending the Awakened soldiers with their feet on the ground into a seizure. A constant stream of lightning marked Solus’s position, emitting a flash of light so blinding that it partly dispelled the Void.
Yet those close enough to witness the phenomenon died without having the time to alert their comrades. Solus’s strength was on par with a Divine Beast’s and so was Bytra’s speed.
Once combined with the power of Mjolnir and the hardness of the Davross’ hammers, one hit was all that it took to turn a powerful violet-cored elder into meat paste.
At the same time, Lith rushed inside the enemy formation while the Void still held and unleashed his tier four War Mage spell, Plague Storm. The bolts of darkness magic were slow, but speed was irrelevant if the enemy couldn’t see them coming.
The Awakened first had lost their innate magic and now their physical strength faltered as well. On top of that, now that the battlefield was littered with bodies, the Demons of the Darkness could collect them and evolve into Demons of the Fallen, increasing their strength.
Theseus had no idea what was happening, but he remembered the position of his allies well enough to hurl a river of Origin Flames around him without the risk of hurting them.
His lion skull mask lit with bright violet flames and its green mane turned into an emerald fire as he drowned his blinded enemies in a searing firestorm.
***
Griffon Kingdom, City of Valeron, Throne room, at the same time.
When Tyris had woken the Royals in the middle of the night, they had been too honored and curious by her presence to ask the Guardian for what reason whatever she had to tell them couldn’t wait until sunrise.
Then, Tyris had simply opened her palms in front of her, conjuring the hologram of the events of the Oenaka hill battle from the moment it had started.
Meron and Sylpha swallowed a lump of saliva every time they witnessed the Verendi Council cast with ease a spell that only the Kingdom’s Corpse unit could. The same happened when one of the Divine Beasts used their bloodline abilities and spell.
Most of all, however, it was Lith’s prowess that scared them.
The other players were ancient monsters with centuries if not millennia of experience whereas he was just a youth of 19 years. A youth that was holding his ground and fighting on par with waves of those ancient monsters.
“When you travel to the Desert to negotiate the conditions for Verhen’s full pardon, keep these images in mind.” The First Queen said. “Never forget that no matter how small or young the appearance he takes is, this is what he is capable of.
“This is what his allies are capable of. People who don’t give a damn about something as trifling as a King but who are willing to fight along those who they call their brethren.”
