Lith charged at the Storm Griffon in reply, his bastard sword raised in a neutral stance.
'Trust the Golems. They are honest in their desire to kill us and will attack everyone indiscriminately.' He said via the mind link. 'Don't let an Upyr co close to you unless you are certain you can kill them in a single blow.'
'And don't let the Upyrs inside the safe zone!' Solus recognized Uragar's and Salanoth's energy signatures and the poisoned world energy that burned through their mana circulatory systems. 'Whatever happened to earlier, it also affected their cursed objects.'
'Oh, shit!' Quylla put the pieces of the puzzle together. 'Are you telling that the Invincible King built a fortress inside an array designed to incapacitate both cursed objects and a tower?
'Doesn't that an that he was one of the previous hosts of the Black Throne? It's the only possible explanation for Teneb's teoric rise to power despite his humble origins and why Solus' Divine Beast form triggered the fortress's defenses.
'The mana crystals and tal veins on her body are manifestations of her tower side and allowed the Golem Scouts to detect her artifact half!'
'I'm afraid you are right.' nadion replied. 'During his apprenticeship under the Black Throne, the Invincible must have also learned about how to protect himself against other mage tower users.
'If I'm right, whatever structural weak point the Black Throne identified is still present in modern towers. It would explain everything except why the tainted world energy has no effect on regular artifacts.'
'I think you are wrong, Mom.' Solus inwardly shook her head. 'I find it hard to believe that the Black Throne taught anything about tower crafting to Teneb, and the Invincible King didn't live long enough to learn it on his own.
'The most likely explanation is that the array he devised targets only artifacts that have a life force. It's the only thing I have in common with cursed objects.'
'Good gods!' Quylla gasped in amazent, almost missing the Upyr who tried to split her head from her neck.
'Less thinking, more fighting!' Lith yelled as he deflected one of Jorl's maces with Ragnarök's guard, intercepted the other with his tail, and kicked the Storm Griffon in the gut.
Tista, Protector, Morok, and Nalrond were already giving their all, but aside from the Hekate, everyone else was on their back foot. The mass gap gave the Upyrs a significant advantage that the Life Maelstrom made almost impossible to overco.
The area cleared by Lith's Zero Spell wasn't large enough for so many Divine Beasts, and the ground and sky outside were crowded with an army of Golems waiting to identify a target to unleash their fury.
Tista imdiately infused everyone with Vital Storm, but that only made the situation less desperate.
'I have no spell at the ready or stored inside the Mouth that can help against Upyrs. We weren't supposed to fight these guys!' She thought while releasing the rest of the Origin Flas stored inside one of her battle claws.
The Upyr was suddenly burning and blinded, and raised his arms to protect his vitals from the attack he knew was about to co. Except it didn't.
While the Upyr released a spell from his skin to douse the Origin Flas, Tista took several steps back and one deep breath. The jet stream of Void Flas she hurled struck the Upyr like a cannonball, but quickly faded away.
The Life Maelstrom and the Void Flas cancelled each other before the Upyr could suffer any damage, leaving him exposed to the river of Blight Flas that Tista released from her wings.
The Upyr opened his mouth to scream for help, but the Cursed Fire's roar covered his voice. Now that she was thrice as fast and strong as her enemy, the Hecate returned to close-quarter combat.
Her right battle claw pierced the Upyr's heart, while her left claw his head. She twisted and pulled Firefang out, leaving behind two gaping holes that she filled with her Dark Ages spell.
Ice blackened by the darkness elent it was imbued with covered the Upyr's body from head to toe. Tista was certain to have killed her enemy, but she smashed the ice statue into pieces with a whip of her tails as she turned to face her next opponent, just to be safe.
Nalrond noticed the Titania-Upyr and charged forward, eager to put his skills and new weapon to the test. A long sword made of pure white crystal with only the hilt and guard made of Adamant appeared in his hand, releasing a pulse of stroboscopic light.
***
Orion had crafted Shadowbane for the Agni, to thank him for everything Nalrond had done for Friya and the Ernas family. The fact that the Agni was also the father of Orion's unborn grandchildren was the final push that Orion needed to employ every bit of his considerable Forgemastery skill.
After learning the basics of Light Mastery himself, Orion needed but a glance at the way Aran and Leria used ice crystals as diums for their spells to understand the potential of a blade made of a properly cut mana crystal.
Dawn had agreed to Lith trying to learn such a technique, and the offer extended to Nalrond as well. The Agni had taken her up on her word, and worked together with Orion to make sothing that could replicate the uncanny prowess that the Horseman had displayed during her spar with Protector.
The two had started their research from Nalrond's mories of the fight, studying Dawn's spells one by one. There was nothing in the Ernas legacy about Light Mastery, and Orion had no plausible justification to access the Royal Forgemaster database.
He had to work with cheap yellow crystals to research a Crystalsmithing technique suitable for producing weapons rather than energy sources.
He consud even more yellow crystals in his efforts to craft sothing that mimicked the effects of Dawn's crystal shield and the optimal shape and proportions for a crystal weapon's facets.
"We are lucky that the basic principles of refracting and focusing light are well known, or we'd need years of experints before getting anything done." Orion used his own Light Mastery on each prototype to get a feel of his progress, or lack thereof.
"I know I'm already asking you a lot, but I have one more request." Nalrond had stared at the many Adamant tools and countless crystals he would have never been able to afford on his own.
He had felt deeply ashad of being once again forced to rely on soone else to protect those he loved. Ever since he had left his Fringe, the Agni had realized how lacking he was in too many aspects, but no matter how hard he worked to overco his limits, it was never enough.
"What do you need?" Orion had asked while testing the improvent in the conjuring speed and durability of his hard-light constructs after channeling his spells through his latest prototype.
"Please, whatever we learn about crystal weapons, don't add it to the Ernas legacy." Nalrond's request made Orion put down the weapon to look his son-in-law in the eyes.
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