“You’ll pay for what you did to me, Inxialot.” An angry voice roared in the darkness.
“Baragan?” The Lich King ignored both the pain and his cracked skull, more amused than scared. “I remember shattering your phylactery. What are you doing here?”
The Lich-Demon replied with a snarl, charging at his nemesis with the might of a meteor. His steps on the floor allowed Earth Vision to finally perceive his presence and to the Council member to understand what was happening.
‘Be on your guard! Verhen is calling upon our enemies and having them appear in mid-air. They could be anywhere!’ Raagu said just before the tier five Spirit Spell, Blasting Furnace hit her at point-blank range.
It belonged to Meriam, the second-best disciple of her late master Tagath. Raagu had killed Meriam in a duel over 500 years ago to become the heir to Tagath’s magical legacy.
Dark Dimension weakened her enchanted protections and her enhanced body so much that Blasting Furnace overpowered Raagu. It sent her crashing against the gold-veined marble wall, her skin charred by the intense heat and her bones cracked by the kinetic energy that the spell released.
The surprise and pain broke her focus, dispelling the array that she had nearly completed and forcing the human representative to start from scratch. To make matters worse, every Demon wore a hard-light full suit of armor and wielded their weapon of choice.
By also sharing Lith’s Forgemastery skill, they used Spirit Magic to infuse their equipment with runes and give it the enchantments that suited them best.
On top of that, the Nemesis Demons exploited the darkness from Call of the Void and Lith’s Light Mastery to conjure invisible constructs that sealed the movements of their opponent before hammering at them with their best spells.
The hard-light both prevent them from dodging physical attacks like had happened to Inxialot and focused the destructive power of the spells without wasting one iota of mana like had happened to Raagu.
‘Less stating the obvious, more casting Full Guard!’ Feela had started weaving the Mage Knight spell the moment Inxialot had been sucker punched.
A violet aura spread from her body, filling the entire Throne room and allowing the Behemoth to dodge a knife hand aimed at her spine.
Meron tried to stand up and help his wife, but his body was still weakened by the Forbidden Magic and that simple effort was enough to make him faint. His last thought went to Sylpha, releasing the Saefel Armor from his body so that she could use it instead.
It saved her life since the Void exploited the Queen’s moment of confusion after becoming blind to kick at her chest with all of his strength. Thanks to her rich battle experience, Sylpha had kept the Sword of Saefel against War, so to predict the Abomination’s every move.
In theory, by controlling the angry blade Sylpha could also keep Lith at a distance and guess his position. In practice, the Void had left War in the hands of her just-summoned nemesis and had gone up close and personal.
He knew that his violet core wouldn’t last long against the Queen’s bright violet even if they were one on one, let alone one against many. Yet he also knew that despite her might and experience, the Queen was just human.
A Divine Beast weighing dozens of tons like him needed but one hit to snuff her life. The Armor of Saefel blocked the kick, adding its mass to Sylpha’s and turning a deadly hit into a very painful one.
The Void would have liked to press on and finish the Queen, but for some reason, the black chains had failed to hit the Hydra who had found him thanks to her own Full Guard. Faluel was upon him and without his equipment, the Void couldn’t allow her to land even one hit.
‘Why do you keep hindering me? I’m protecting you!’
‘Are you insane? You are destroying my life.’ Lith replied while messing with its abilities. ‘Faluel is a friend and you are out of control. She’s trying to help me, not you.’
The Abomination tried to turn his arm into a spear, but Lith kept it from hardening. The Void cursed as he made his limb open into countless tendrils of darkness that wrapped around the Hydra’s body before slamming her against the ground.
The wings on his back shapeshifted as well, turning into another set of arms that pummelled at Faluel to not give her the time to strike back.
‘By my Mom!’ Solus was flabbergasted. ‘The tendrils that came out of Lith’s shoulder back when he lost his arm at the academy, the extra limbs he conjured every time he cast Death Call, it was the Abomination all along.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Kamila was as scared by Lith’s madness as she was confused by Solus’ words.
For some reason, she could see through the Call of the Void just fine and so did Solus thanks to the mind link.
‘Aren’t Lith and the Abomination the same thing?’
‘Yes, but it’s complicated.’ Solus had no way to explain Kamila where Lith’s undead side came from without also revealing to her about his previous incarnations. ‘We must focus to find a way to stop him.
‘We aren’t affected by any of Lith’s and the Demon’s skills which means that he’s not going to hurt us. The problem is that if any of the Council representatives mistakes us for a Demon, we’re dead.’
Her words sent a cold shiver down Kamila’s spine who remained close to the unconscious King, waiting for an opportunity to appear.
Inxialot needed but a shrug to conjure enough darkness magic to counter Dark Dimension’s effect and a single swing of his staff to blast Baraghan into pieces. Despite all of their power, hard-light constructs were nothing compared with Davross artifacts fueled by elemental crystals.
“You’d be more of a challenge if Verhen was a bright violet cored Awakened and he poured all of his might into you, old friend. As you are, you are barely an annoyance.”
“Old friend?” The Lich-Demon said in outrage while reconstructing his body with sheer willpower, without letting a single shred of energy to be lost. “You killed me and stole my life’s work!”
“Don’t sweat on the small stuff.” Inxialot replied. “I have fond memories of our rivalry and of your magical legacy. That’s all that matters. On top of that, if I took the trouble of abandoning my own research long enough to kill you, I must have had excellent reasons.”
The Lich King’s conscience was like his memory, clear. He rarely used either of them and anything that wasn’t reported in his diaries was quickly forgotten.
Raagu conjured a Spirit Barrier around her body, focusing her mana to block Meriam’s onslaught long enough to finish casting her array. By using Spirit Magic to quickly conjure the runes along with body casting, true and fake magic, it took her but a few seconds to complete the magical formation.
The darkness sealing array dispelled the Call of the Void, allowing everyone to see again and coordinate their efforts. The Royal Guards were no Awakened and until that moment they had been sitting ducks against their invisible opponents.
