Chapter 1253 - Demons of the Flames (Part 1)
The Kolgans' reckless fighting style originated from the near immortality that the Forbidden Sun bestowed upon them, yet now they discovered to be mortals again.
Blood, flesh, and organs splattered everywhere without putting themselves together like usual. The Kolgans had long forgotten what the fear of death was yet they promptly remembered it when their fallen comrades failed to arise again.
War cries turned into screams of terror as those closer to the scaled titan attempted to escape from his deadly touch. The silver pillar grew in size with Lith and reached the size of a small tower.
'Dammit, I'm not used to such a big body nor to have so many cores. I can barely tap into a fraction of this form's real power because of the partial destructive interference between the different energy signatures.
'I must keep my enemies scared since I can't ask them for a break to give me the time to master my new powers.' Lith thought as he drew in a deep breath.
The air enriched in world energy mixed with his 18 life forces and came out of his mouth as a jet stream of blue, violet, and white Origin Flames.
Each one of the Demons of Darkness that comprised his body contributed to the flames, but just like their mana, their life forces lacked harmony. That was the reason why despite the increased size only a part of the scorching wave was stronger than usual.
Wherever the different life forces clashed the fire would be bright blue, while the parts where they partially overlapped would turn violet. Only the small fraction that Lith had already managed to fully control came out of brilliant white.
War was now barely the size of a carving knife in Lith's huge hand, too small to affect the battlefield anymore. Yet the blade didn't remain idle and kept studying its master's new skill through their blood bond.
War could see the tendrils of Lith's Abomination side generating the Demons of the Darkness while the Spirit Magic gave them substance and used them as a buffer to keep the extra energy from being swallowed by the Abomination's bottomless pit.
Despite the appearances, Lith's body was actually comprised of several different beings that acted as his own flesh and blood thanks to the tendrils of Spirit Magic that connected them to Lith.
War observed the phenomenon like only an emotionless machine could until the blade managed to understand it. At Lith's following strike, War took for itself the energy the dead Kolgans released and combined the powers from its pseudo cores to imitate what Lith was doing.
Devour allowed War to convert foreign energy into its own, World Mirror to take control of the Demons of the Darkness, and Counterflow to alter their wavelength. Lith had no idea what the angry blade was doing, but he trusted its loyalty.
Their bond was nothing like that with Solus. War wasn't sentient and the only feeling it had inherited from Orion was an unquenchable thirst for destruction. Also, Lith knew that due to its unique imprint, War would die along with him.
It had been meant for one master and one purpose, not to be passed down. Their rage was their bond and it made War an extension of Lith's being the moment he unsheathed the blade from its bloody scabbard.
The Demons of Darkness wrapped themselves around War, making it grow in size until it matched the hand wielding it.
'What was that?' Lith asked as one swing of his blade now cut through dozens of enemies at the same time.
'Soul Weaver.' Two words were all War could reply.
Lith noticed that the blade had several mana cores supporting its pseudo cores, yet unlike him, War was capable of using them to perfection. World Mirror now not only took over the incoming enemy spells, but thanks to Counterflow it also made them capable of harming their own caster.
War even covered its surface with the eyes from the Demons, to not rely solely on Lith's perceptions that had declined since they had lost the Full Guard from the Skinwalker armor.
Lith could see from the eyes on the hilt, pommel, and fuller of the blade like they were his own, achieving a 360° vision just slightly inferior to Full Guard.
Just like Faluel had predicted months before, the blade learned from its master and the master from his blade. Lith observed how War used his own Spirit Magic not only to control the Demons, but also like an artificial nervous system.
The magical neural network worked like a huge mind link that didn't just relay orders from War to the Demons, it also allowed the parts away from each other to communicate between them and move as one.
It took Lith but a thought to achieve the same and one breath to hurl a powerful blast of bright white Origin Flames. The Kolgans hit by the cleansing fire burned and regenerated non-stop as their immortality kept them from dying but not from suffering.
After engulfing their victims, the white flames found the tendril connecting them to the Forbidden Sun and burned their way to it. The two fires started to battle with each other, one born from world energy while the other from its perversion.
Like matter and anti-matter, they couldn't coexist and the simple contact produced huge blasts of energy that made the barrier around Kolga tremble.
"No, no, no!" Ykrah, the King of Kolga and bearer of the Hands, knew that he couldn't afford one moment of distraction against an opponent as dangerous as Elphyn Menadion, but he had no other choice.
Every time the Wyrmling fed on the Kolgans, the Forbidden Sun became weaker. He couldn't afford the Origin Flames to bring it past the point of no return. The lives of all Kolgans depended on it, his own included.
Ykrah focused his will on the burning tendrils, cutting them off and freeing the sun from the white fire. Yet he also created an opening that Solus didn't miss. She closed the distance between them in an instant and struck him with a series of surgical attacks.
There was no time to wave spells, but her body was back to being a terrifying weapon. Her mass surpassed that of an Emperor Beast and her fusion magic fueled by the portion of the mana geyser she now controlled gave her power beyond what even a violet cored Awakened could conjure.
On top of that, she had already gotten her violet core back. Without Lith taking the life force for himself and her being so close to the Forbidden Sun had allowed Solus to regain most of her lost might.
One punch shattered Ykrah's ribs, filling his lungs with blood and sealing his breathing. A second hit right on the nose broke it, filling his eyes with tears that clouded his sight.
A twin open palm strike on his ears took away his balance, leaving him helpless.
Solus knew that nothing would work. Just like Silverwing, Ykrah didn't even need to use Invigoration to heal. All she could do was stall for time, yet it was also all she needed.
Her Diamond Cutter spell had never stopped ramming against the tower, opening cracks that spread deeper and farther by the second.