Supreme Magus

Chapter 3815: Something More (Part 2)

Dawn’s attacks caught the lost city by surprise, and he understood his mistake only when it was already too late. Ruugat stumbled forward, using his mass to press on the Prime Engine and force Lith to hold him up.

"This is for my people!" Syrah consumed every bit of Ruin’s power she still had in a cross-shaped slash that also carried the power of a hundred Hati.

It carved a deep furrow, but to the size of the lost city, it was but a scratch.

A scratch that marked the point where the nearby seven-man Awakened units could focus their Annihilations. The right knee bent against Ruugat’s will, and Lith managed to slip out of Ruugat’s hold.

’Ryla, Golden lightning!’ Lith said while activating his yellow and orange eyes for Void Magic.

’Garrik was right.’ The Fomor replied as her entire body sparked with electricity. ’We do need to find a name for this thing!’

The orange aura turned yellow and then condensed into lightning bolts that coiled around the Engine like angry snakes.

His destructive power enhanced again, Lith unleashed a flurry of fists at the kneeling opponent whose face was now within his arms’ reach. Lith thickened the layer of enchanted metal around his arms in an attempt to lessen the backlash.

The air element channeled by Ryla through the tower only improved his speed and destructive power. He was akin to a teenager punching a professional fighter several weight classes above, and each hit hurt him as well.

"What?" Ruugat and Solus said in unison, one with his voice and the other via the mind link.

Lith ignored them both, but the rest of the battlefield froze for a brief instant. Suddenly, the left membranous wing on the Tiamat’s back wasn’t just imbued with air element anymore. The wing was wrapped in air element.

What looked like a yellow burst of fire erupting from the armor shrouded the membranous wing in a thick layer of energy that resembled a bunch of feathers.

"Who are you?" Ruugat focused the Earthly Vault enchantment on his legs and shoulders, using his arms to launch a counterattack. "What are you?"

Lith switched the air with the earth element with Ryla’s help again and weathered the storm, his arms raised in an impenetrable wall. The orange aura surrounding the Tiamat’s right membranous wing burst into fire as well, yet the left wing remained ablaze with yellow energy.

’What’s our next move?’ Ryla felt weird, as if something was creeping under her skin to poke and prod at her. ’Shouldn’t we retrieve your blade?’

’That was the idea.’ Lith grunted in effort, feeling his bones crack. ’But I can’t just extend my hand and pull Ragnarök out. I need to keep my footing stable, or Ruugat will lift me like a rag doll and break-’

"Finally!" The lost city’s crazed laugh sent a shiver down everyone’s spine. "You are all in my grasp!"

The attack was a joint effort, and Lith’s role was to draw Ruugat’s attention at critical moments, not to fight him alone. When, despite the allied forces’ best efforts, the lost city had kept ignoring them, the troops had moved forward to unleash more spells more quickly.

In their rush, the allied forces hadn’t noticed that they had stepped inside Fountain of Death’s range.

’Shit!’ Dawn realized her mistake and attempted to Spirit Blink away, just to discover that Ruugat had always had a dimensional compression array in his arsenal; he just had no reason to activate it until that moment.

The onslaught on Lith stopped, but only because Ruugat had redirected most of his energy to the countless mana crystals spread throughout his colossal body. So much was the accumulated power that the white light of the crystals overshadowed the orange light of Earthly Vault.

’The readings are off the scale!’ Solus tried to divert the Eyes of Menadion on the lost city, but the tower ignored her orders. ’According to my mana sense and the Watchtower, this is nothing like the first Fountain of Death.

’The energy levels of Ruugat’s pseudo cores are plummeting. He is putting everything he has into this attack.’

’How many Bastions do we have left?’ Lith asked.

’One.’ Solus’ reply made his blood run cold. ’We consumed three already, then Ruin, and two of the three slots left are filled with Silverwing’s Annihilation. Before you ask, the answer is not. There is no time or way to convert them into Bastions.’

’It took us two Bastions to resist the first Fountain of Death, and back then we were at our peak strength.’ Lith cursed. ’Ryla, give me all you got. There is no point in saving our mana for the afterlife!’

’Agreed.’ She had no clue what Lith’s goal was, but she followed his orders nonetheless.

Her wings drew world energy faster than it was safe. Several of her feathers blackened and burned, sending jolts of agony right into her soul, but Ryla gritted her teeth and soldiered on.

At the same time, Lith set the air and earth elements aside and conjured the water element from the Elemental Storage.

’What is he doing? What is this feeling?’ A shiver passed through Solus’ energy body as she found herself trembling even though she wasn’t supposed to feel cold.

Lith spread the Davross-Adamant alloy and Ryla’s bloodline ability across the Engine evenly, hoping that it would be enough to follow in Sylpha’s footsteps.

’This is no different from how the Queen dealt with Meln’s Source Magic spell.’ He thought. ’Just like Meln, Ruugat has accumulated an enormous amount of world energy, and the water-based power of the Davross follows a similar principle to the Balors’.

’If I hit Ruugat before he unleashes his spell, and if I have enough water element, I can cripple Fountain of Death. Like Sylpha said, it’s not a matter of firepower. Only of how you use it.’

Lith shoulder-bashed the lost city, aiming at the point where Solus’ mana vision spotted the biggest build-up of world energy. The surface of the Engine turned blue right before the impact, while Ruugat’s white light dimmed immediately after.

"Well, played, pest. Too bad it’s not enough!" Unlike the Queen, Lith hadn’t smashed through his target.

The water-based power of the Davross didn’t spread past Ruugat’s massive chest, leaving the energy accumulated in his back and sides unaffected.

When the lost city unleashed Fountain of Death, Lith faced a blast much weaker than the rest of the allied forces, but a blast comprised of thousands of spells nonetheless.

Lith gritted his teeth and raised the Engine’s hands to protect Ryla when an ethereal blue wing condensed right below the yellow one. The feathered wings on Lith’s hips lit up, mixing the unknown runes that shone on their feathers with the water element to conjure a magic circle behind the Engine’s back.

The feeling that something was crawling under Ryla’s skin intensified, and her body tensed up like a bowstring. Her wings turned topaz-blue, adding a Fomor-sized mana circle in the middle on the one generated by Lith.

The two phenomena resonated with each other, releasing a gentle hum that the mana geyser carried throughout the battlefield faster than Fountain of Death advanced.

Every Fomor and Balor felt the water element flooding their wings, coursing through their bodies, and then erupting from their blue eyes after becoming something more.