2663 Born in Flames (Part 1)
Lith’s chest heaved from the wounds while hunger drained the strength from his limbs and clouded his brain so much that he had trouble focusing. Weaving spells felt like trudging through tar, but his body was too weak to react so his mind was all he had left.
He tried to store War inside the dimensional amulet but the weapon used what was left of its enchantments to resist the pull and tugged at Lith’s consciousness.
‘No.’War said.
‘Don’t be an idiot. “The tug of war made Lith’s casting time become even longer. ‘You aren’t like Double Edge. That’s just a piece of bone and metal that I can reforge as many times as I want. You are a sentient being and no one, not even Orion can put you back together if your spells fade.’
I’m not sentient. I know I’m no person. I’m just a thing. War replied.
“You are a person to me!” Lith felt his heart tighten. ‘I can’t lose you and Solus in a single day!
‘Agreed. You can’t.’ War’s voice worked through the pain to sound aloof and mechanical as usual. So let me help you rescue her. Let me protect you one last time, master.
Fine. Lith gritted his teeth while swallowing blood and saliva. ‘Let’s fight together then, old friend.’
While the conversation happened via the blood link, the nearest ten-man unit of elves nocked and released two volleys of thirty arrows each.
The moment Lith stopped trying to store War away and clenched its hilt, the only unbroken part of the blade, the metal fragments scattered on the ground came to life. They surrounded Lith, spinning around him and cutting down the sixty incoming arrows.
The enchanted Adamant cut through the Adamant of the tips and the wood of the shafts, jamming the spells imbued inside of the arrows with War’s Counter Flow ability and leeching whatever they could with the Devour ability.
No explosion followed nor a single spark of energy was released. Only sawdust and metal filled the air.
The elves were appalled but it took more than a setback to make them forget the discipline that decades of rigorous training had instilled in them.
They nocked three more arrows each and War’s metal fragments turned toward them. The elves drew the strings back and War’s pieces bolted forward. Before the fingers could release the next volley, the angry swarm struck them with so much violence that it pinned the elves to the ground.
The metal shards worked their way from the inside, activating the Reverse-Imprint ability that usually befell solely upon those who tried to wield War. The bodies of the elves bloated like overinflated balloons, their blood and mana flowing in reverse.
The ten-man unit blew up with an agonizing choir of screams, blood, and entrails flying everywhere. Yet while the organs landed with a wet thud, the blood stayed in the air.
The Adamant fragments collected it until the last drop, coating themselves with the blood before going back to Lith. The coagulated mass that was supposed to become War’s sealing scabbard was instead used to connect the broken pieces together.
The life force carried by the blood served as a scaffold to channel the mana of the angry blade’s pseudo cores and keep it from fading away. In a split second, the elven unit was dead and a red and black blade had taken form in Lith’s hand.
Every piece was back in its place, using the blood as both glue and conductor for the mystical energies.
Stand up, friend. War used all the stolen life force it couldn’t store to flood Lith’s body, healing his wounds and consuming the excess blood to provide him with the nutrients he lacked.
The blood!” Lith and Solus thought in unison despite their bond being still broken. ‘I had forgotten about it. War was just a regular bastard sword before taking my/his blood. We are connected. I/Lith can help War as much as War can help me/Lith.
Lith clenched the blade harder ordering it to release the metal spikes of their first encounter.
They prickled his skin, making droplets of blood drip on the hilt that were transmitted to the blade, revitalizing it further,
Regular blood was a decent replacement whereas Lith’s blood was a part of War as much as the metal and mana that comprised its body. Even those few drops were enough to restore the blade to its original prowess and slow down the pseudo cores’ degeneration process.
“If it works for the pocket dimension, then it must work for the current War as well.’Lith kept the spikes out, dripping blood on the hilt and releasing a spark of his life force.
The shattered blade burst with emerald flames that filled the gaps and turned every iota of lost energy into destructive power. War was still dying, but now its essence would empower it instead of just fading into nothingness.
“Finally!” M’Rael had escaped Solus’ assault by releasing his own Soul Projection.
He had no idea how to move it, let alone make it fight, but neither did Solus.
Now that the M’Rael’s Soul Projection was out, hers was just attacking his physical body to no avail.
The elf’s psychic image looked just like himself, but dressed in luxurious clothes worthy of a king and sitting on a wooden throne carved in the heart of the World Tree.
A holographic map in front of him detailed his territories which amounted to one-fourth of Garlen and the position of his troops. The Soul Projection wore an expression of pure joy,feeling at the peak of its existence.
“Not him, stupid Projection!’Solus cursed. ‘Attack the guy on the throne.’
Yet the golden-scaled creature kept hammering at the real M’Rael since her hatred was addressed toward him.
“Immortal Flames?” He furrowed his eyebrow in disbelief. “You are more stupid than I thought. Those things are powerful, but you lack the strength to pay the price they demand.”
“I wish you were right.” Lith snarled, knowing that it was War’s essence fueling the flames, not him.
The seven violet mana crystals were aligned again along the fuller of the blade, yet the one further from the hilt started to blink until its light went off. The tip of the blade was still alight with power but with one less crystal, the burden of the enchantments was now fuelled by the remaining six.
Lith saw the sixth gemstone crackle, its light getting duller as the clock ticked.
He kept his human form despite it being weaker than the Dragon and the Abomination because it had no weakness that the enemy could exploit. Lith’s Soul Projection was back to being the Voidfeather Dragon, but the creature had a troubled expression.
He wept for War as well and knew that his spells could at best hurt Solus. There was little the Voidfeather could do to tip the scales of the battle but it was better than nothing.
Lith and M’Rael clashed again, but even with the power of the Immortal Flames boosting Lith’s strikes, the result was the same as before. The elf had the mass of the tower, the knowledge of the Eyes, and centuries of martial prowess.