2789 Spare None (Part 1)
Soon Lith started to hear the clangor of a furious fight, indicating that he was getting close to the front lines of Demons. A few doors leading to the private quarters of the undead's upper echelons were still closed, their enchantments strong enough to keep the black tide at bay.
Yet.
The Demons had no time or wish for finesse so they just took deep breaths and hurled streams of Origin Flames in unison. The resulting Thousand Flames burned at the defensive arrays, forcing their runes to shine bright as they drained their energy source to resist the onslaught.
Alas, there was no mana geyser below the Derios branch so the only way to fuel permanent arrays was to use mana crystals. No one had the luxury of the time to replace the crystals once they ran out of world energy so there could be only two endings.
Either the Origin Flames destroyed the runes, deactivating the arrays while the crystals still had some juice, or the crystals dried up, leaving a room completely unprotected anyway.
The moment a door gave in, the Demons would flood the room with Plague Storm. They didn't check who or how many people were inside. Their mission was an extermination and they followed it through with savage joy.
Suddenly, a blackened figure charged out of a room and pushed the Demons aside before they could release their spells. A cunning Ghoul had followed the events on the surveillance system and found a path to survival.
Before the protective arrays of the room where he lived with his thralls failed, he had opened the door and went straight for Lith's neck. Between the still-active defensive barrier and the regenerative powers of his species, the Ghoul had survived the Thousand Flames.
'If Verhen dies, these monsters will fade away. Coming here was a mistake.'The Ghoul thought, lowering his center of gravity for what looked like a tackle. 'I have no way to pierce through his armor, but luckily, I also have no need for it.
'The idiot wears a cape around his neck. All I have to do is pull it down with all of my strength to force him to stretch his neck and reveal the gap between the gorget and the helm.
'At that point, there will be nothing stopping my blade from cutting off his head but flesh and bones.'
The Ghoul boosted his already powerful physique with earth fusion and by consuming most of the power stored in his blood core. There was no point in saving it for later since there would be no later unless Lith died.
He grabbed the edge of the cape while planting his feet firmly on the ground, pulling at it as if his undeath depended on it. Because it did. The Ghoul knew that Lith was a Divine Beast, but between the burst of strength and the leverage, his plan would work.
Much to his surprise, the black cape turned out to be as slippery as it was sharp, cutting deep into his hands as it escaped his grasp, no matter how hard the Ghoul tightened his grip.
'Who the fuck covers their mantle in metal and why is it this sharp? It's-'A wing.
Lith would never wear a cape. It served no purpose and would have offered his enemies something to grab during a fight. What the Ghoul had mistaken for a cape was Lith's wings resting over his shoulders.
They were also covered by the Voifwalker armor, giving them a silky appearance and the edge of an Adamant blade. The right wing unfurled, revealing its true nature to the flabbergasted undead.
Then, it wrapped itself around the Ghoul, using the four finger-like bones to grab him while the bone-spike that acted like a thumb pierced through his legs. Before the undead could try to get free, a massive flow of darkness element turned him into ashes.
With the door now open, the Demons didn't bother helping Lith and rushed to finish their job. Lith ignored the agonizing screams coming from behind him and kept walking, reaching the barricade that had temporarily stopped the advance of his army.
It was located on a T junction where several undead had joined their forces, forming a small sack of resistance. They had opened the doors of their respective rooms so that multiple defensive arrays now overlapped.
The Demons couldn't advance any further unless they took down the arrays and those who were defending them. The undead were playing it smart, shooting their spells from behind the cover of the magical formations.
The arrays protected the undead from the enemy spells while letting their own pass. The undead had also piled up the enchanted furniture of their rooms to form a makeshift fence.
The Demons had no place to take cover and kept charging forward. In their fury, the Demons refused to back down despite the constant onslaught slowly whittling down their numbers.n--...-)(.-./1(-n
"Behind me!" Lith ordered and the Demons obeyed.
The avalanche of darkness, fire, and lightning unleashed by the undead was now aimed at him. The willpower imbued in the spells was too great and their number too big to take control of them with Domination, but Lith had no need for it.
The blue crystal on Ragnark's scabbard lit up, channeling the water element in the Davross and fueling its abilities. A few sweeps of the blade severed the link between the mana and the elemental energy, sending the spells into oblivion.
Then, the red crystal lit up, engulfing Ragnark in flames that could burn mana as if it were wood. The angry blade tapped into the life force stored in its sheath and activated the Spirit Crystal as well.
The flames turned from red into emerald Immortal Flames, cutting through the arrays and the barricade with the same ease.
'What the fuck is that and how did Ragnark do it?' Lith had seen the Immortal Flames the first time when Jormun had conjured them against him and the last time when Salaark had challenged Tezka.
Yet he had no idea how they worked and had never managed to produce them himself. Back when the dying War had conjured them to fight against M'Rael, the blade had done it on its own.
"Oh, well. Answers can wait.' Lith inwardly shrugged.
"Stop!" An undead screamed and Lith ignored her.
Judging by the bristles covering her body and the bulging muscles ripping through her lovely day dress, she seemed to be a Korvak. Their species was capable of moving during the day at the expense of part of their magical prowess.
Their mind and physical abilities were unaffected by the abundant light element that had allowed them to resist until that moment.
"I know that you hate us, but this madness has to stop!" The Korvak woman screamed as Lith cut through the furniture and burned the defensive runes. "Even if you kill us all, nothing will change.
"Violence just begets more violence in a never-ending cycle. The only thing you can achieve by this senseless slaughter is to enrage the Undead Courts. They-"
"They what?" Lith cut her short, but never stopped swinging his blade. "Will they come for me at night?"