Solus focused on regenerating the Skinwalker armor, turning the vaporized metal back into its liquid state.
The Orichalcum droplets rained on Lith's body from every side, piercing through everything that stood on their path until the armor was whole again.
The silvery storm of small blades further distracted Dawn and allowed Lith to unleash upon her three tier five spells at the same time. Tidal Bolt was a mix of water and air magic that bypassed Dawn's constructs and drowned her in a highly conductive tsunami.
The saltwater seeped through every crack of the crystal armor and into every orifice of Acala's body, allowing the lightning bolts that circled around the wave like a school of sharks to always hit their target.
Tidal Bolt not only damaged Acala inside and outside, but also induced powerful spasms that prevented the enemy from casting spells. At the same time, Lith conjured Setting Sun from his right hand and Dark Ages from the left.
A black sphere made of fire and darkness formed in his hand and split into two beams that struck Acala's head and heart at the same time, burning them to cinders. Dark Ages, instead, synergized with Tidal Bolt and added darkness magic to the mix.
The final result was an electrified spear of black water the size of a truck that struck at Dawn's crystal the moment Acala's body had gone limp, without giving her the time to conjure any kind of defense.
Lith had learned from the Black Star that a cursed object was more vulnerable as long as they were connected to their host. Just like it happened to Solus and him, any wound the host received would badly affect the relic's mental state and drain its energy.
'Once she detaches from Acala's body, Dawn will become nigh indestructible. This time I have no access to her blueprints so I have no idea how to permanently destroy her. I can only contain Dawn until the army gets here. After that, it's their problem.' He thought.
Solus didn't share his optimism and kept an eye on the situation as a whole.
'I'm almost done repairing the artifact originated from my fusion with the Skinwalker armor and Lith is still in great condition. The world energy from the geyser made him capable of conjuring many powerful spells at the same time and of withstanding their burden.
'Yet I'm afraid that he is in a no different condition from his equipment. Lith's body is not meant to harness that kind of power. The pseudo tower I've enveloped him with can relieve him only from a part of the stress… Dodge!'
A telepathic yell was nothing like a real one. It didn't hurt Lith's ears or mind, nor was a generic warning. Solus's yell was akin to a game's quick-time event that projected in front of Lith's eyes the direction he was prompted to move to and the source of the danger.
Lith dashed downward, using gravity magic to further boost his speed and managing to dodge the hail of light spears that had materialized behind his back.
'What the fuck?' Solus and Lith thought in unison.
'Treius died once I decapitated him. Heck, even most undead can't survive without their head and heart. Acala was a human, there's no way he's still alive.' Lith thought while staring at the corpse that was getting back on its feet.
'This doesn't make sense. I'm sure to not have missed any movement in both Acala's and Dawn's mana flow.' Solus couldn't find an explanation for the light constructs that had formed out of thin air and were currently giving them chase.
'By my maker! Even during our three-pronged attack, Dawn kept enough focus to control the lingering energy from her previous spell. These constructs are simple that very same light element rearranged into a different form.'
Lith had a hard time accepting that such a thing was possible, but the spears were as real as they were deadly, so he focused on destroying them with quick pulses of darkness magic rather than arguing with her logic.
To make matters worse, crystal shards were growing from Acala's wounds, replacing his head, heart, and right hand with inorganic counterparts.
"Thanks, I appreciated the help." Dawn's voice had become clearer than before.
The constant use of powerful spells had weakened her mana flow whereas injuries, no matter how severe, didn't seem to bother her.
"You've inflicted that dimwit so much pain that it will take Acala a week to come out of the coma. If I bother giving him his brain back, of course. Sharing is such a hassle."
The familiar light from the Body Sculpting spell enveloped Acala, shapeshifting him into a feminine form of alien beauty. The Bright Day appeared now as a woman of untold age, about 1.78 meters (5'10") tall with golden eyes without pupils.
Her skin was whiter than an albino's while her waist-long hair was pitch-black. Dawn's body was covered by the full suit of crystal armor she had conjured. Its countless facets absorbed instead of reflecting the light from her surroundings, restoring Dawn's powers and shrouding her in darkness.
Yet the armor was bright, acting as a conduit for the radiance that came from Dawn's real body, the gemstone resting between her bosom. Just like her Daybreak spell, the contrast between light and darkness, between black and white made her look as if a real dawn was taking place in the underground cave.
Lith and Solus were shocked, but their brains never stopped trying to find an explanation for the apparent immortality of their enemy.
'I think I have the answer.' Solus thought. 'Dawn and Acala are just like us, but reversed.'
'Meaning?' Lith was too focused on weaving a new set of spells to bother solving her riddle. 'Dumb it down for me. Hard.'
'Remember what Mogar told me? That as long as my body is intact, that as long as my life force is bounded to yours it's very hard to kill me? It's the same for Acala, but in their case, Dawn is the dominant personability.
'It means that Acala is part of her instead of being Dawn a part of him.' She said.
'Fuck me sideways. Unless I pulverize the entirety of his body, she can bring him back to life.' Lith had no idea how to achieve such a feat. Three combined tier five spells had barely been enough to pierce Acala's heart.
'More or less. You skipped the part where he suffers the pain of every wound and the regeneration is probably an agony as well, but I guess that sums up our situation.' Solus replied.
"Why the silent treatment, sister?" Despite being a couple of heads shorter than Lith's hybrid form, Dawn managed to look down upon them by floating in mid-air like a goddess descending among mortals.
"You were so chatty before. Why don't you at least introduce yourself?" The Bright Day opened her right hand, releasing a scorching pillar of light from each one of her fingers.
'Yeah, right. With our luck, she'll recognize me and maybe even know how to destroy me. I need an alias.' Solus thought while Lith combined footwork, flight spells, and flaps of his wings to avoid Dawn's constant onslaught.
Not only was each pillar as strong as those that Nalrond produced by expending half of his mana, but the Bright Day was also capable of keeping all five of them active at the same time and of adjusting their trajectory according to Lith's movements.
