‘Damn my paranoia!’ Lith thought while Phloria exploited his distraction to unleash a flurry of lunges. ‘The Golden Griffon was just passing from here and Thrud had no idea I was going to ambush her.
‘It’s obvious that this is just a change of field, not a trap. There was no time to set it. Phloria must have brought me to the first place she spotted while looking at the area surrounding the lost academy.’
Phloria’s deep violet aura was filled with white streaks from Give and Take and silver bolts of lightning. She was smaller and much lighter than Lith but with her strength increased by several folds even her physical attacks hurt.
As for Reaver, it was still plenty deadly.
Phloria was a much better swordsman than him and Lith wanted her alive. Much to his surprise, she didn’t bother with defending herself, focusing solely on offense.
“I know what you are thinking and no, this isn’t a mistake on my part but yours.” She said with a savage grin.
Reaver cut and pierced through both the Voidwalker armor and his flesh whereas War was much less effective. It cut through her armor, but it phased through Phloria’s body like it was a hologram.
“Did you forget it? My father made War and all of his blades so that they can’t hurt an Ernas. They can hurt you, though.” She solely sidestepped or deflected his attacks in order to avoid being stabbed square in the chest.
As long as War only brushed her, Counter Flow couldn’t jam the effects of the Unwavering Loyalty array. On the other hand, her strikes dealt plenty of damage.
“I’m not an idiot.” Lith grunted, taking a parrying dagger out of his pocket dimension.
It had a long U-shaped guard meant to trap the enemy blade, rip it off their hands, or even break it if the opportunity arose.
“It’s you who has forgotten who I am!” A deep breath and a burst of black flames erupted from Lith’s body, eating at the Life Maelstrom that coursed through Phloria.
She took several steps back to escape and consumed more silver lightning to restore her boosted physique.
Lith didn’t follow her, moving to the next step of his plan.
“I know you are in there, Phloria.” The Voidwalker armor turned into liquid, letting the golden lily pendant Lith wore at his neck come out. “I’ve come to rescue you.”
“Shut up, shut up!” Sunlight reflected on the surface of the metal flower, reaching the innermost and darkest corners of her mind. “You have no right to be here. You abandoned me like trash!”
“I never did and the real Phloria knows it.” Lith stepped forward. “I still remember my promise. Just call my name and I’ll come to fight by your side.”
“I said shut up!” Phloria’s face twisted and twitched as her real self and her enslaved persona tore each other apart. “You threw me out of your life! You have no right to play hero with me!”
Her form was frenzied but also sloppier than before. Phloria was now showing all the tells that she had taught him back at the academy.
“Thank you, Phloria.” Lith ignored her words and paid attention solely to her actions. “Keep fighting. Together we can win!”
Dual wielding made up for Lith’s lacking skills. The dagger blocked half the attacks and when War parried, the quicker and shorter weapon allowed Lith to counter with all of his strength.
He had taken a page from the traitorous professor Nalear. The parrying dagger was imbued solely with defensive and healing spells. Its blade was too short to kill but wide enough to open large wounds that light magic closed as soon as the dagger struck.
It sapped Phloria’s vitality and nutrients, forcing her to use Invigoration to recover her stamina. Even that wouldn’t last for long. Without eating, her body would soon cannibalize itself to heal and no boost could make up for a weakened state.
They kept exchanging blows and spells with Lith taking more than he dealt. Yet he was stronger and his advantage kept increasing. Phloria’s eyes seemed to be incapable of leaving the golden pendant at his neck, shifting her focus.
The dagger hit more and more often, draining her vitality. Lith gave her no quarter nor opportunity to use Invigoration, making the gap between them grow larger.
‘Finally!’ Lith thought after noticing that her breath had become ragged and her knees unstable.
He blocked a lunge with the dagger, twisting it to trap Reaver and pulling the estoc away from her body.
Then, he performed a lunge of his own aimed at her chest with War. The blade couldn’t hurt her so Lith had to make sure to leave it in contact with Phloria long enough to disrupt the slave spell.
His blade encountered no resistance upon reaching her armor and neither did the hilt. Lith had no idea what had happened, the only thing he knew was the horrible reality in front of his eyes.
His whole arm had pierced through Phloria’s chest and was covered in her blood. A fountain of blood and pieces of her heart spurted from her back and mouth.
“No.” Lith froze in shock but War’s desperate cries snapped him out of it a fraction of a second later.
“This is wrong. I calculated everything.” Lith felt like he was going insane but he had no time to lose.
While keeping his arm inside of her as a plug, he used healing magic, Body Sculpting, and Invigoration to regenerate her heart and lungs as fast as he could.
Phloria’s eyes were now free from the influence of the Golden Griffon and looked at him with love. Her mouth twitched with pain, yet she managed to smile.
“This is not supposed to happen!” Lith double-checked every one of his actions from start to finish, finding no mistakes.
For all he knew, physics had stopped working on Mogar or maybe it was just a nightmare. Whatever the answer, Phloria was dying in front of him.
A final spasm caused her to gurgle blood from her mouth. Then, her eyes lost their light and Reaver disappeared in silvery dust.
“No!” It was a single word that roared for hundreds of meters around him.
It was a desperate cry that uprooted trees and tore the grass, yet Phloria’s corpse kept turning colder.
“No.” Tears started streaming from Solus’ eyes as she experienced Lith’s pain through their mind link. “This is wrong. This is not fair!”
The When All Are One array shared her feelings with the others, making the entire group collapse on the ground, unwilling to fight any longer.
“Phloria!” Friya started to sob uncontrollably, her spells fading like mist. “I’m so sorry. I failed you once again.”
? “What’s wrong?” Quylla knew it already, but she refused to believe that Phloria was dead.
Until someone said it out loud, there was still hope.
“Phloria is dead.” Tessa felt her strength abandoning her. “We have failed. I have failed. Oghrom, Juria, forgive me!”
The Titania and the Hydra experienced despair like never before. It was their first defeat since the War for the Kingdom and the first time they lost someone not because of their own choice.
