“Change of plans. I want you in the field, but your priority is finding and capturing Phloria Ernas. Whoever succeeds and brings her to me will become my heir. Hand her to Verhen yourself and I’ll have your head. Lotho out.”
The plant representative couldn’t miss the opportunity to be the first among his peers to learn Blade Magic. It would strengthen his faction and give him the edge that plant folk needed to come out of the beasts’ shadow.
***
Golden Griffon, at the same time.
Thrud was studying the map around Phogia, trying to predict Lith’s strategy and foil his plan.
The city hadn’t been built over a nearby geyser because the closest one was located on the cliff of a deep canyon and too distant from solid ground to be accessible from the trading routes.
“You are the one who knows Verhen the best. What do you think he will do?” Thrud asked.
“He only possesses a basic understanding of military tactics. Between the two of them, Solus is the smart one but she never cared to study strategy. She’s a magic enthusiast who knows very little about anything outside of her Forge.” Phloria pondered.
“Taking that into account along with Lith’s paranoia and the fact he knows I’m your prisoner, he’s just going to repeat the previous strategy. The geyser will fuel the tower which in turn will fuel his Blade Spell.
“This way, he gets to keep playing the rest of his cards close to the vest and to test how you react to his display of force. He knows that you know so he can play around that.”
“It’s damn convoluted but makes sense.” Thrud scratched her chin.
“That’s Lith in a nutshell.” Phloria replied with a smile. “My advice is to have your Generals ambush him near the geyser. Blade Tier spells are slow and if you mess with that, there’s not much that Lith can do from such a distance.”
“My thoughts exactly.” The Mad Queen nodded, appreciating Phloria’s input and the Unwavering Loyalty array’s prowess.
Phloria’s face twitched and her eyes cried, yet she kept helping Thrud to the best of her abilities.
***
Outskirts of the city of Phogia, a few minutes later.
Just like Phloria had predicted, Lith landed right on top of the mana geyser.
He had planned his attack path so to exploit the natural sources of world energy. They allowed him to recover his strength quickly and use strategies that only someone who possessed a tower could employ.
‘What a damn freak of nature.’ He inwardly cursed as the ground slipped under the back of his feet.
Half of the mana geyser was almost one hundred meters (328′) below, in the middle of the gorge while the other half flowed through the ridge right under Lith.
It was the reason even Wardens had given up on building Phogia there. They would have needed to move thousands of tons of rocks to fill the canyon and then perform a miracle of magic to keep everything stable.
‘Yeah, but look at the bright side. If this wasn’t so bad, we wouldn’t have the geyser all for ourselves.’ Solus replied.
‘Look at the dark side. We can’t materialize the tower here nor use it for a Tower Warp.’ Lith replied. ‘As it is, we can still gain full control over the flow of world energy thanks to your tower half, but the moment we take a step away, we lose the geyser.’
‘True.’ Solus sighed. ‘We need to make it do. No, we must make it do. Phloria is the first true friend we made at the academy and we are not going to give up on her. Even if we have to go knocking on the gates of the Golden Griffon to get her back.’
‘Knock? You mean blast away.’ Lith said.
It was one of those rare times when they agreed down to a t. Solus was too angry to care about collateral damage otherwise she wouldn’t have agreed to such plans.
The Hands of Menadion fused with the gloves of Lith’s armor, absorbing matter for the ground to grow up and fit the full size of the Tiamat form. In his right hand, Lith held Double Edge which had turned into a perfect replica of War after merging with the angry blade.
In his left, he held the Sage Staff, combining its power with the Hands to draw in and manipulate even the world energy that exceeded the tower’s capacity.
Xoola the Fenrir and Ufyl the Seven Headed Dragon were staring at him from a distance. They were both in their human form and equipped with several cloaking devices in order to escape physical and mystical detection.
The Fenrir had the role to use Doom Tide to mess up with Lith’s control over the world energy at the critical moment. Ufyl, instead, had been tasked to use his seven pairs of Dragon Eyes to study the Tiamat’s technique and equipment.
Thrud had ordered them to wait until he was focused on casting the Blade Tier spell before attacking him. This way, she would have the opportunity to better understand Solus’ role and maybe even learn from Lith the secret of Blade Magic.
That or at least how to craft suitable teaching props for it. The news of Lith’s promise had spread throughout the Council and beyond, reaching even the Mad Queen’s ears.
“So far so good.” Thrud used a mind link to spectate at the events via the eyes of her Generals. “Verhen has reached the geyser and is wielding his blade as you predicted. The question is: where is Solus and why has he yet to start casting?”
“I don’t know.” Phloria shrugged.
? This time there was no trace of the golden knight on his head and Lith had remained still since his arrival. To make matters even more baffling, the invading army seemed to have no intention of following the previous plan.
The allied forces of the Kingdom and the Council were keeping their distance from Phogia, standing right outside the range of tier five spells.
“The first phase of the plan requires a full-scale attack. Why are they standing there and doing nothing?” Thrud looked at Phloria who shrugged again.
“This isn’t part of any military strategy I’m aware of- Wait, what is that? My Queen, look!” She was pointing at several layers of arrays that enveloped the allied forces.
They were comprised of energy barriers and all six elemental sealing arrays.
‘Phase one is complete.’ Solus said after receiving the message from the army. ‘Phase two is a go.’
Lith spread his four wings wide as if he was about to take flight and took a deep breath. Then, another, and then one more as the sunlight became dimmer. Blackness spread from both sets of wings, forming what looked like the wall of a dome.
“Call of the Void?” Thrud asked.
“No, it wouldn’t make sense.” Phloria shook her head. “He’s too far from Phogia for that to work and your Generals wouldn’t be able to see if that was the case. Call of the Void has Lith as its center and expands outward.”
The blackness kept growing until it filled the space behind Lith for hundreds of meters yet it never advanced.
