'They didn't seem so strong when we fought them.' Lith thought.
'Probably they were holding back, to lull you into a sense of false security and keep you from escaping. You instead went all-out and killed them all before they had a chance to retaliate.' Solus pointed out.
'As for the second wave we faced, we got the upper hand again, but only because they weren't aware of my existence. Their teamwork was seamless and their plan would have worked if you didn't have a third arm.'
"Wait a second." Lith said to both his allies. "How long has Dawn been fused with Acala?"
"Five months, 16 days, and six hours, more or less." Nalrond gritted his teeth as the memory of his village burning at noon, when Dawn's strength was at her peak, flashed in front of his eyes.
"And how long has she been sealed by your people?"
"A couple of centuries. Lady Sinmara, one of Overlord Salaark's daughters, brought the Bright Day to us after she failed to destroy it. Her mother…"
"I didn't ask you for a history lesson." Lith cut him short.
"We are on the clock so shut up and listen. I might have found Dawn's weak point. Her knowledge about modern magic is limited to what Acala knows, that's why she kidnapped those people.
"Caravans always bring bodyguards and the best bodyguards are always mages. You told me that she doesn't retain the knowledge of her victims after they die, so if we take out her spawns before she gets to us, she'll be much easier to handle."
Lith pondered if to take out the undead or the thralls first. The vampires were bound to have a lot more knowledge, but they were probably useless in terms of dimensional and Forgemastery magic.
The thralls, on the other hand, held the knowledge Dawn wanted for whatever she was planning. Also, Lith had already witnessed how losing the humans seemed to weaken her hold over the vampires.
"She has another weak point." Nalrond said, derailing Lith's thoughts. "She is in a weakened state during the night because the only sources of light element are the stars and the moon.
"Dawn always took undead as her host to compensate for it, but this time she has bonded with a human."
"You are not making any sense. You told me that she can be buried underground and still access to the light element, so what difference does the solar cycle make? On top of that, Mogar's world energy holds all the light element she might need." Lith replied.
"Elements have a physical manifestation. Just like it's easier to practice water magic near a river and you can't practice earth magic without actual earth, sunlight provides us with pure light and fire elements, whereas world energy belongs to Mogar.
"To access a single element, you need to use your mana as a focus to connect with the elemental energies surrounding you. If Dawn tried to absorb huge amounts of the light element from the world energy, the resulting imbalance would kill her."
Nalrond's words made Lith reflect further on the nature of his Accumulation technique.
'He has a point. As a tower, Solus absorbs all of Mogar's life-breath and so do I with my breathing techniques. Maybe, if I find a way to split the world energy into its single components before absorbing it, I could exploit the released energy to accelerate the growth process of my mana core or channel it into…' Lith thought before Solus snapped him out of it.
'There's no time for enlightenment, only for planning.'
"Are you suggesting we should strike now?" Lith asked.
"No. I'm just saying that if we are still here once the sun rises again, we have little chance of survival. We can talk while we move." Nalrond took point again. Their lunch break had lasted barely fifteen minutes, but with a full stomach and renewed hope, the hybrid felt much better.
Despite the barrier separating his life forces, Nalrond's Emperor Beast's half coupled with his meditation technique improved his recovery abilities beyond the human level.
"As I was saying, if we meet Dawn's spawns, kill the humans first." Lith explained his theory while Nalrond deactivated the arrays they met on their way.
After a while, a white light shone in front of the hybrids, making them freeze in place.
"How the heck did they got in front of us?" Lith whispered.
"We might as well have taken the scenic route for all I know. Maybe there was a shortcut we missed." Nalrond replied.
"I thought you knew the way!" Lith cursed himself for trusting his prisoner.
"I do, but without earth magic, I could only rely on my memory. This place is a damn maze so I had us take the simplest and only route I could remember that would bring us to our destination without getting lost."
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Tell you what? That I was gambling with each turn we took? I'm pretty sure that you would have killed me if you thought I was an unreliable guide. Now, instead, you need me more than ever." Nalrond said.
The Rezar's body was tense and ready for the fight, yet he couldn't stop smiling at the idea that he wouldn't die yet.
Lith switched from Fire Vision to Life Vision, recognizing Dawn's energy signature in the light coming from ahead. Whatever it was, it emitted vast amounts of mana that was so dense to blind Lith's mystical senses.
Lith took the lead, floating a few centimeters from the metal while hiding his smell with a darkness spell. Once he reached the source of light, he gasped in amazement.
What remained of the door frame was huge. Judging from the hinges, it had to have hosted a piece of metal of considerable size. The locks and arrays that protected what once was the vault's door were still in place despite the passing of time.
The scorch marks surrounding the metal frame and the molten scraps were a clear indicator that Dawn had brute-forced her way in by evaporating the door with her light magic. The spell had generated enough heat to deform the rest of the corridor.
Yet the real reason for Lith's awe was what lied beyond the gate.
It was a squared room with a side of at least 25 meters (82 feet). At its center, there was one of the most complex machines Lith had seen since he had been reborn on Mogar. The device was placed right above the energy stream of the mana geyser.
It was similar to the machine Acala had shown him on the upper levels, but more ancient in design. The entirety of the cave's walls was covered with hard-light constructs that replicated bookshelves and each shelf was full of perfectly preserved tomes written in the Odi language.
The rest of the room was filled with more constructs that had been shaped like lab desks and all the non-complex research tools modern Forgemasters used. Except for ingredients and alchemical analysis devices, everything was made of solid light.
"How the heck is this possible? To keep so many constructs active at all times, Dawn should be as weak as a kitten." Lith didn't let his curiosity get the best of him and used Invigoration on the floor to look for more traps.
Between the mana geyser, the Odi machine, and all that magic, his other mystical senses were blind.
