The world energy flowed endlessly from the Fringe into the tower and then into him, boosting M’Rael far beyond the power of his violet core alone.
“This is over, Beasts.” He said. “Now that I hold the power of the tower of Menadion and the wisdom of the World Tree, there’s nothing you can do. Their combined might could take down an elder Divine Beast, let alone two Lesser and a runt.
“If you surrender, I promise that I’ll keep you alive until you are done teaching me and my people everything you know. Refuse and I’ll kill you. Verhen’s legacy will still do.”
M’Rael was accessing the tomes stored in Soluspedia, finding a real treasure of knowledge that he knew like the back of his hand even though he had never studied it before.
“I think you are very naïve.” Ajatar said. “Knowing and doing are worlds apart!”
He activated Spirit Fusion, turning his whole being into a mass of living emerald energy. The High Chancellor combined the Sage Staff and Crown’s effects, imbuing them with so much mana that light seeped out of the wood.
Then, he used the Eyes and Full Guard to follow the Drake’s movements and hit him on the head like a hammer on a nail. The emerald form collapsed to the ground, turning back into flesh and blood.
“Spirit Fusion is a nice trick, too bad that energy can hit energy. The weak point of your bloodline’s technique is that to keep your conscience, in that form you also keep the ability to feel pain.
“On top of that, once transformed, you can’t regain any of the lost mana until you undo Spirit Fusion. It means that a blow that packs enough punch can knock you out.”
The elf coated the Crown in mana, turning it into a giant blade ready to decapitate the fallen Drake.
‘This is impossible!’ Ajatar was hurt in both his body and pride. ‘That is something that only a chosen member of the Drake bloodline should know. Even if somehow the elf discovered it, where did a measly violet core get the strength to suppress my bright violet?’
Unfortunately for Ajatar and those who didn’t know about the tower, M’Rael was also wearing Solus’ cloaking ring, making his performance and words seem impossible.
“Oh, yeah?” Faluel attacked before the High Chancellor could strike. “Let’s see how you deal with this, then!”
She charged herself and her spells with Life Maelstrom, releasing a relentless stream of tier five Spirit Spells from six of her heads while the seventh used Invigoration to restore her mana.
“It’s actually quite easy.” M’Rael danced between the spells like they were just a light show, Blinking and dodging in the fleeting spaces between them until he stood in front of the Hydra.
“Invigoration is your limit. To keep your breathing technique active, your spells must follow its same rhythm. Once one knows your pattern and sequence of attacks, avoiding them takes little effort.”
The High Chancellor struck with the mass-enhanced Fury, sending Davross against Davross. The impact squeezed the air out of Faluel’s body and sent her tumbling to the ground.
Somehow, M’Rael had exploited an unforeseen weak spot in her footing and struck exactly where the leverage from the blow would cause the most damage.
‘Was he saying the truth about the wisdom of the World Tree? But why should such a powerful being submit to this idiot?’ Faluel couldn’t see the sentient fragment of the Yggdrasil due to the cloaking devices of the tower covering the elf.
Nor could she even imagine that by sharing the computational burden of the Eyes with the Tree, M’Rael had obtained something very close to Dragon Eyes. He could decipher every spell and attack on the flight with minimal burden on his mind since the Tree paid the price.
It provided the High Chancellor with instant knowledge and kept the Yggdrasill’s mind weakened so that they wouldn’t be able to resist his orders. Two birds with one stone.
To make matters worse, M’Rael could also access the knowledge that was already stored in the Eyes of Menadion. Everything that Lith and Solus had ever learned about their friends, enemies, themselves, and even about their own equipment was now at M’Rael’s fingertips.
It was only thanks to the stolen knowledge that he had managed to anticipate the Drake’s and the Hydra’s moves with such ease.
Lith shrunk back to his human size before resuming his attack. Being big only meant offering a bigger target to the elven archers who were still shooting. Also, M’Rael kept the tower mass compact around his body, making him hard to hit.
The elf had no experience in a huge form nor time to learn but he had lived as an elf for centuries. He had more skill fighting in that form than his opponents and the tower’s combat form worked the same way no matter the shape its user required.
‘Since when does the tower have a combat form?’ From her prison, Solus could see the Heart, the Library, the Mirror Hall, and the Watchtower combine their enchantments to form something that was bigger than the sum of the single parts.
‘You don’t know?’ The Tree was as flabbergasted as her. ‘How do you think your mother defeated Divine Beasts to collect her ingredients? How do you think your friend Malyshka fights Guardians? With flowers and curtsies?’
‘I have amnesia, jackass! What’s your excuse for selling yourself to this psycho?’ She replied with anger.
‘I didn’t sell myself!’ The Yggdrasill said in outrage. ‘He took me by surprise and enslaved me, just like it happened to you.’
‘It was nothing like what happened to me! You were blinded by your ego and fell for the oldest trick in the book whereas I was blindsided.’ She replied.
‘Really? Why didn’t the two of you conjure the tower like M’Rael is doing, then? Wasn’t it ego as well?’
‘No, you psycho. It was just a way to not reveal my secret and avoid killing all those elves even in case they surrendered.’ She replied. ‘How was I supposed to know that the all-knowing World Tree was M’Rael’s accomplice?
‘If not for you, this battle would be already won!’
The Tree hated to admit defeat so they just shut up.
Meanwhile, on the clearing, Lith and Ajatar stood up again and charged at M’Rael together.
“Three against one is a little unfair, especially with Life Maelstrom.” The elf said with a confident grin while Faluel used part of the energy of her armor to recover and sent a bolt of silver lightning to the Drake.
She sent more to the rest of the group, making sure that her disciples would be outnumbered but not outmatched.
Upon M’Rael’s telepathic command, more volleys of spell-imbued arrows blotted out the sky.
“Fuck!” Empowered by Life Maelstrom, Friya used the Bait and Switch spell from a great distance to exchange her and Nalrond’s position with one of the troops’ leaders.
They were both surrounded and about to be impaled by halberds imbued with tier five spells that instead struck a flabbergasted elf. It messed up with the chain of command long enough for the couple to Warp to Aalejah’s position.