“Now you are mine!” The cursed scimitar said while trapping Tista’s right arm inside his regenerating wound while aiming at her wings.
Tista screamed in fear, her trauma sending her into a panic that made her lose all the spells she kept at the ready as she saw the blade descend in an arc.
‘Snap out of it!’ Solus yelled as the Fury flew out of the stone ring and intercepted Windfell before it was too late.
Davross clashed against Davross in a rain of sparks, their enchantments raging at each other. The impact with the Fury caused Windfell pain, but it was nothing compared to the humiliation of seeing the modern runes etched on the Fury’s surface.
“I’m going to enjoy this way more than I’m supposed to, traitor.” The curved blade moved too fast for Tista to follow and it would have amputated both her wings if Solus hadn’t taken her physical form.
She pushed her friend and enemy in opposite directions, using air magic to form a cushion between her hand and Tista’s body and hitting Windfell as hard as she could.
He was expecting that as well yet none of the spells he had prepared was designed to stop someone with the strength of a Divine Beast. The palm strike sent him flying, but it was the Clean Slate infused in Solus’ hand that did most of the damage.
Under normal circumstances, the tier four Forgemastery spell would have short-circuited the power core of the artifact for a while. Yet Windfell was a sentient being and he used his own mana flow to counter the spell’s.
Clean Slate was still effective enough to disrupt the mana flow between cursed object and host, making Windfell lose the spells he had prepared for the fight and rush back in the man’s hand to re-establish the mind link.
The cursed scimitar’s host was brain dead, with no will of his own. Without the living legacy, his mutilated body would stop healing and if the mana core cracked due to the missing head and heart, Windfell would be forced to run away and search for a new host.
‘Don’t space out and remember. We are dealing with cursed objects. Their bodies are just puppets so focus on the weapons. No matter how much damage you deal to the host, if you don’t cut the strings, it will keep attacking.’
‘Thanks for the save, Solus.’ Tista replied. ‘I’ll follow your advice and watch out for the cursed objects but it’s not like I can ignore the host either. The guy is stronger, faster, and magically more powerful than me.
‘There’s no point avoiding the blade if the man wielding it can crush my throat with one hand.’
Solus nodded and kept flying as fast as she could toward the mana geyser, feeling the strength leaving her body as if she was using several spells at the same time. Without an energy source, even the Sage Staff could only do so much to mitigate the mana lost by her cracked core.
Tista used the Mouth of Menadion to conjure her best spells at record speed, throwing a volley of fire, lightning, and Spirit Magic at Windfell to keep him away.
The cursed scimitar exploited his superior speed to dodge the Spirit Spell and channeled the water element through his metal body, dispelling the other two spells by severing the connection between the mana and the elemental energy.
‘Shit! I had forgotten that purified Davross can do that. How do we beat that thing?’ She asked.
‘We don’t.’ Solus replied. ‘I don’t care for my secret as much as for my life. No matter if the dimensional mage is messing up with space, no array can affect the abilities of my tower.
‘The moment we reach the geyser, I’ll Tower Warp us away, no matter if Dawn comes to suspect someth-‘
Tista’s spells had just faded when a dimensional door appeared right in front of them, cutting off their retreat path.
‘They are taunting us to make us waste time. Don’t stop moving and attack the Steps from a safe distance.’ Solus conjured a tier four Spirit Magic spell with the help of the Sage Staff while Tista activated the Mouth to weave a tier five Spirit Spell.
‘Unlike Solus, my mana core is at its peak condition and I need to make up for my blunder.’ She thought.
Alas, the moment the emerald beams reached the Steps, they curved 45 degrees and were now aimed at their respective caster’s ally. The Red Demon had imbued her spell with willpower and promptly attempted to change its course but Solus’ Piercing Storm hit her first.
The penta-elemental spell focused on speed, using the air element to make the emerald darts move forward while also spinning on themselves like a drill. The light and earth elements made the tips as hard as diamonds while the fire element made them explode as soon as they stopped advancing.
Last, but not least, the darkness element was spread forward by the conflagration, engulfing the victim and eroding their defenses in the case they had intercepted Piercing Storm with a barrier.
Solus and Tista conjured the Spirit Barriers of their armor while Solus also attempted a last-ditch Domination to at least alter the trajectory of the incoming spell.
‘Fuck me sideways!’ She thought when she perceived that there wasn’t just Tista’s willpower to beat, but also another mind guiding the spell and shielding it from Solus’ influence.
The emerald beam hit her square in the chest, blasting through her barrier and covering her Voidwalker armor with cracks. If not for her body mass and the fact that Tista had opted for an area of effect spell instead of a focused one, she would have been ripped to shreds.
“Gods, you guys are so naïve.” A tenor voice roared with laughter. “We have come to punish a traitor capable of killing the Golden Griffon or at least destroy her host. Did you really think that we are a ragtag bunch?”
Coming out of the Warp Steps there was a giant of a man over two meters (7′) tall. His head was shaven, keeping only a single streak of long dark brown hair in the middle of his forehead that was arranged into a long tress.
His muscular upper body was naked, only a pair of metal bracers covered his wrists, leaving the bulging muscles of his chest and arms exposed. He wore a pair of brown leather pants and boots and wielded a giant jagged-edged battle axe with a single hand.
In the other, he held a masterfully crafted round shield covered in elemental crystals and whose surface alternated between absorbing and reflecting sunlight. Solus didn’t need to use Life Vision to know that despite the appearances the ax was the least of their worries.
‘That shield is made of Davross! It must be the cursed object.’ She warned her companions.
‘It is.’ Dawn telepathically nodded when her companion sent the image of her enemy through the mind link. ‘His name is Knightfall and the Forgemaster who crafted him was a dimensional mage.
‘Be careful, he’s the one controlling the array and he can turn it off and on at will.’
