‘This time, instead, I’m here by my own will. I came back to the Kingdom because I want to make up for failing to defeat Thrud instead of whining and letting others fix my mistakes.
‘I had my sword and armor shapeshift into a generic form because I don’t want to be recognized. I ruined my entire life chasing after power and honors. It’s worth trying to fight just for myself for once.’ Acala thought.
“By the way, thank you, Whiny.” Tista said while they flew toward Lith.
“Don’t mention it.” Acala nodded in reply and then steered away before entering Life Vision’s area of effect.
‘Verhen is bound to recognize me and I don’t want that.’ He thought, staring at Dawn for an instant before going to help others in need. ‘I wonder if that’s her new host or just a flesh suit to help the Firstborns.
‘Whatever it is, I wish her the best. If we ever go back together, we must become like Verhen and his partner. Two different people who choose to walk side by side, not just because one is scared that the other might think less of them.’
“Are you alright, Tista?” Lith asked.
“For now.” She looked left and right, activating Full Guard to avoid getting caught by surprise again. “What can we do?”
“This is war, Tista. You can’t win it by yourself. You can only try and beat as many opponents as you can as fast as you can.” Lith took a deep breath, sending a wave of new energy that revitalized the wounded and destroyed Demons.
“You are not going anywhere, you murderer!” A creature as big as Lith said while charging at him with a speed boosted by both Fusion Magic and Life Maelstrom.
His body was a patchwork of several Divine Beasts. He had the body of a Griffon, the wings of a Phoenix, and the limbs of a Dragon.
“I’ll make you pay for killing my father!” Protheus had barely a green core, but between the mass he had stored, the boost from the Golden Griffon, and the bloodline abilities he had collected, he felt to have a chance at victory.
“Protheus!” Lith could see with Life Vision that despite his pitiful mana core, the Doppelganger had a vitality on par with his own.
‘Since body refining is out of the question, it means that his mass surpasses mine and that he is keeping a compact form in the hope to deceive me.’ He actually thought, dodging the attack instead of blocking as Protheus wanted.
“Come here and fight, you coward!” His right hand turned into a Nidhogg’s mouth and spat a river of acid while a deep breath conjured a blast of green Origin Flames.
Lith replied by hurling a blast of Void Flames that reached the Doppelganger’s flames almost right outside Protheus’ mouth, causing a concussive blast that clouded his vision and destroyed half of his head.
Alas, for a Doppelganger there was no such a thing as a wound. His mass was not damaged, simply misplaced. The shattered head quickly turned into a silvery jelly before returning to its original shape.
‘I can’t charge in recklessly. He can easily turn any of his limbs into a Scorpicore’s tail like his siblings did in Zeska against Orion. Even cutting off his head is pointless. I need to get creative.’ Lith thought while his brain spun at full gear.
The Tiamat kept mixing footwork with flight spells to always stay out of Protheus’ range while trying different tactics.
Even Spirit Spells dealt no damage. No matter how powerful they were, they would just split the Doppelganger into many pieces that would get back together a second later.
‘As dumb as it seems, Cursed Flames are the worst in this case. Their laser-like focus opens a small wound and allows Protheus to just cut off the burning parts to escape the aftereffects. Origin Flames will work better. That and this!’
Lith unleashed his tier four War Mage spell, Plague Storm, mixing it with Spirit Magic. The spell produced a hail of darkness bullets that thanks to Lith’s mana were also imbued with kinetic energy and chased their target.
Darkness spells usually were slow, but once turned into Spirit Spells, they lost their only weakness.
The Doppelganger cursed as the black swarm surrounded him from every side like a school of angry piranhas. Darkness magic was the bane of both living and unliving creatures because its entropic energy disrupted order on a molecular level.
No matter how small the pieces into which Protheus divided his body were, they would be corrupted until they turned into irredeemably rotten flesh. He tried to Blink away, but Lith saw his exit point and willed the Plague Storm to chase after him.
“You have so much whereas I have so little. Why do you stubbornly try to take the people I love away from me?” Protheus abandoned his Chimeric Form and shapeshifted into a Bahamut.
He took a deep breath and unleashed a sphere of Origin Flames from all over his body, dispelling Plague Storm and buying himself the time he needed to recover.
“*I* have taken people away from you?” Lith roared in outrage. “Your damn Queen invaded my country! She had Manohar killed! She had my father kidnapped and tortured. He’s alive by a miracle!
“She drove me away from my home! She targeted innocent children and my friend Phloria just to have them killed! You guys took everything away from me!”
“Liar!” Protheus Blinked several times in quick succession, opening multiple decoy exit points and charging at Lith from one of them at random. “Mother didn’t kill Phloria, you did.”
The Doppelganger-Bahamut tackled the Tiamat while taking a deep breath. The silver lightning from Life Maelstrom fused with the green Origin Flames from his lungs, forming the golden Life Flames.
“You are a monster who killed thousands of innocents just to follow the orders of the pretenders to the throne! You didn’t hesitate to kill women, the elderly, and children in your rampage. Do you really think I would believe a word you said?”
Not knowing what to do, Lith shapeshifted into his Voidfeather Dragon form. Its scales burned with the power of the Cursed Elements and his hope was that, under stress, he might manage to produce the silvery Dread Flames.
He took a deep breath as well, generating a jet stream of Void Flames from his mouth and of Blight Flames from his wings. The twin blasts fought and lost against the Life Flames, but the interaction generated a powerful explosion before the golden fire could reach Lith.
On top of that, even though his Cursed Flames had lost and the conflagration hit him the most along with the remaining Life Flames, Protheus was just a green-cored Awakened.
The golden fire burned at Lith’s life force, equipment, and mana, but the Cursed Flames from his scales quickly snuffed them out.
The Voidfeather Dragon roared as it bit deeply into the Bahamut’s flesh, piercing through the silver scales and tough bones.
‘What an idiot.’ Protheus thought. ‘My body looks solid, but I decide how dense it has to be. I’ll eat Verhen from inside out!’
