1940 The Abomination Way (Part 4)

The pillars had disappeared and between the bright sun, the black armor, and the violet aura, tracking the knight's movements was supposed to be easy. Yet he was as quick as lightning and each of his strides brought the noise of thunder.

Where he stepped, a crater would open, scattering dust and pebbles around. The former clouded his position while the latter had the kinetic energy of a bullet, dealing damage even to those who wore enchanted armor.

The black knight appeared in front of the soldiers before they could come to a halt and close their ranks. He swung his blood-red blade in a wide horizontal movement, giving the soldiers the time to raise their shields. 

War cut through the metal as if it was paper and the strength behind the slash was so strong that it generated a wind blade. Those who took the hit directly died on the spot, cut asunder at the waist.

Those behind them lived a few seconds longer, noticing how Mogar had started to spin and the air had become filled with a red rain. Then, they landed on the ground, understanding that Mogar stood apparently still while their heads had flown off.

The shield bearers who only took the wind blade had their arms shattered, but they survived thanks to the impact sending them away. The others weren't so lucky and died on the spot.

A single slash of the angry blade had killed dozens.

"Don't stand like that! Regroup!" The general said while Lith took another step forward, piercing through the ranks like a human cannonball and turning the soldiers on his path into living projectiles that crashed against their comrades in the backlines.

The deeper Lith went the more the formation crumbled. The soldiers used their wands and unleashed a barrage of tier three spells, but they aimed to where he had been instead of where he was, his movements too quick to follow.

Once he reached the heart of the central wing of the army, Lith had already finished body casting the tier Four War Mage Spell, Plague Tempest. Countless bullets of darkness erupted from his body, each one of them twice as strong as a Plague Arrow.

They were still comprised solely of darkness so they were slow. Yet from point-blank range and with serrated ranks there was no way to avoid them. To make matters worse, Lith had replaced the unused second element with willpower.

War Mages learned the trick from Tier Four, allowing their spells to home onto their targets. Plague Tempest came out of his feet, emerging from the ground, and also from his shoulders and head, darting upwards for a few meters before coming down.

The darkness bullets struck their mark ignoring their enchanted protections and moved on to the next even if they barely had a shred of energy left.

The well-oiled machine that the army was supposed to be stuttered in front of overwhelming power and Lith exploited the brief pause to cast with his mouth, hands, and mind as well.

He had prepared no spells to create the worst-case situation possible for himself and now he was casting three spells at the same time.

"Don't let him finish! Deploy the elemental sealing arrays!" The mage commander yelled from the sky.

Based on the reports, they were expecting to deal with a creature of darkness so they had prepared accordingly. The area around Lith became filled with elemental sealing arrays to which he replied with the spell he had cast with fake magic.

The tier Four Warden Spell, Disarray, was something that he had learned from Red back at the White Griffon academy. It was a simple and quick incantation that made a magical formation collapse by reversing its energy flow.

Arrays, however, were powerful spells, and messing with them from the inside was considered a suicidal tactic. Once they became unstable, the magical formations were likely to blow up with the same power of a War Mage spell of the same tier.

Yet Lith didn't care and his Disarray spell slithered like a snake from one sealing array to another before they could affect his Plague Tempest. The resulting explosion turned the soldiers around Lith for dozens of meters into meat paste, allowing the Plague Arrows to lock onto a new target.

Mages, soldiers, and mercenaries had to dodge a hail of bullets that were slow but relentless in their pursuit. To make matters worse, until the dust cloud from the explosion settled, they couldn't pinpoint the black knight's position.

"He's still alive or his spell would have faded already." The mage commander said. "Yet he must be heavily wounded. Clear the area before he has the time to heal."

At his order, a mage chased by a Plague Arrow flew toward the dust cloud and conjured a powerful wind that blew it away. Not only was the black knight unscathed, but he was also triple casting again.

The violet crystals on his armor shone like stars as they produced enough energy to conjure a Spirit Barrier. Lith had given up on his barrier ring because its reduced size made it easy to overload and overheat.

On top of that, a single mana gemstone couldn't hold against one or more powerful spells. The Voidwalker armor, instead, had several crystals and each one of them was the size of an apple.

That along with the Dragon's skin that he had used as an ingredient, reinforced the barrier and lessened its mana cost. As for the violet aura that the army of Wudao had mistaken for killing intent, it was actually the tier four Blade Knight spell, Full Guard.

The moment the mage came into its range, the spell gave Lith her exact position despite the hail of spells blinding Life Vision and the dust blocking his sight. He focused the Plague Tempest on her, killing the mage on the spot.

'She was a good soldier. Her sacrifice has given us the opening we needed.' The mage commander thought while issuing the command to unleash the spells they had at the ready against the enemy.

As a volley of all six elements rained on Lith from every side, including from below, he activated the upgraded version of Final Sunset that he had developed before Kamila's arrival, Final Eclipse.

A thick sphere of black fire surrounded him, forming a powerful defensive wall. Final Eclipse sucked the fire and darkness element from the incoming spells, adding their power to its own.

At the same time, it vaporized the ice, melted the stones, and deflected the air blades aimed at its caster. The spell couldn't stop bolts of lightning but Lith could move Final Eclipse at will.

He kept himself on the fringe of the barrier while his enemies aimed their spells at the center of the dome of black fire, assuming he would hide where the defensive power of Final Eclipse was at its strongest.

Even the spells lucky or powerful enough to pierce through the black flames hit only air.

At the same time, Lith used War's Devour ability. Any stray spell that came close to him after being weakened by the barrier was quickly swallowed by the angry blade. It allowed War to both protect his master and replenish its strength.