1968 Last Stand (Part 2)

Dolgus was now free from Senara's trap and spun his polearm to keep the Awakened at bay. The weapon was perfectly balanced and thanks to its enchantments, the motion was slowly conjuring a tornado that made it hard to approach him without becoming easy prey.

Yet now that the cover of the Void was gone, the Council representative could pinpoint the dimensional coordinates to send the reinforcements on the hill without them being blinded by the blackness.

The other three Council representatives arrived along with their personal disciples and closest allies, people who would fight without asking questions. The death of so many Awakened was a tragedy, sure, but it was also the perfect cover to issue a kill order.

The official version was that the parlay had been broken by the Abominations in the attempt to feed on Senara, with no mentioning of the Mouth or Elphyn.

"Each squad focus on one of them and take them down." Ozak said. "The hybrids are strong, but they can't use breathing techniques or they would have done it under the cover of the blackness.

"We just need to kill one of them and their formation will crumble."

Theseus inwardly cursed at those words, knowing they were true.

Bytra had recovered thanks to Solus, but he and Zoreth were on their last leg. Using their bloodline abilities and casting so many spells had taken a huge toll on them. On top of that, even with Mana Body, Silverwing's Annihilation still drained a huge chunk of his energy.

Only Lith, Dolgus, and Solus had regained their strength, but they were still outnumbered seven to one and counting.

Now the gap in numbers had gone back to the beginning of the fight, but this time there was no trick to blind the newcomers and have Solus strike at them while they were defenseless.

To make matters worse, all the Council representatives had arrived and their prowess had no equal among their peers.

Ozak and his apprentices conjured the tier five Spirit Spell, Griffon Fetters, conjuring a hexa-elemental bundle of emerald chains that wrapped themselves around Zoreth. As its name implied, it had been devised to restrain Griffons, the strongest creatures.

The Darkness Dragon fell to her knees as the chains became tighter the more she struggled. Her joints were locked and her limbs kept close to her body, making it impossible for her to fight or flight.

Theseus was attacked by Xergov the Dullahan who brought with him a squad of Blood Witches. Undead couldn't stand the light of day so he attacked from the safety of his house through a dimensional opening.

The Dullahan shapeshifted into his real form, that of a Nidhogg, a lesser Leviathan, and hurled a river of corrosive acid on the feet of the Bastet. The liquid ate at Theseus' feet and soaked the land, cutting him off from the world energy.

Any attempt to absorb the energy and nutrients from the ground would also carry with them the Nidhogg's acidic breath, spreading poison throughout Theseus' body. The undead representative had been listening to Senara the whole time and had prepared accordingly.

From the safety of his home, Xergov had servants move his head, following the Bastet's every move while his body focused solely on weaving two spells at the same time.

Then, the Blood Witches drowned Theseus in Blood Flames while the elder conjured the Spirit Spell Phoenix Smash. Both the red and emerald blasts of flames eroded matter and energy at the same time, bringing the Abomination hybrid onto his knees.

Normally touching the ground with his whole body would have hastened his regeneration process, but Xergov kept spitting acid and Theseus was sinking in a corrosive swamp.

Senara's assistants hit Dolgus with a Silverwing's Annihilation that ripped off the Griffon's wings and cracked his armor. He had run out of Life Maelstrom after sharing it with Theseus and Solus and he had also run out of Mana Flow.

The Firbolg used her personal tier five Spirit Spell, Doom Vines, to conjure hexa-elemental infused living plants that crawled on the Griffon, searching for cracks and opening into his armor before plunging into his flesh.

Rokuno the Jotunn, the beast representative, was one of the biggest and the strongest of his race. He conjured the last bit of Corrupted Lightning he had left against Lith, negating his physical abilities before striking at him with Annihilation.

The Tiamat reacted by using the Demons of the Flames as a shield, having them detonate upon impact so that the Origin Flames would lessen the destructive power of the anti-Guardian spell.

He even tried to Blink, but Rokuno saw the exit point with Life Vision and when Lith reappeared, the Annihilation was already there waiting for him. The silver lining was that he had moved to an area with more Demons who sacrificed themselves for him and saved his life.

Only Bytra and Solus who never stopped running throughout the battlefield at the speed of sound were still safe, but it was only a matter of time before they fell as well.

'I told you that we should have left this damn continent!' Theseus said via the mind link.

'And I told you that this is the perfect opportunity to gauge our powers.' Zoreth replied. 'Look at the damage that four of us have caused. The upper echelons of the Council of an entire continent are here yet we are still standing.'

'That sounds like something great to write on a gravestone.' He replied dryly.

'Why so pessimistic? We haven't started yet.' Zoreth took a deep breath and a black pillar erupted from her body. 'Don't fight it. Let it flow through you.'

Bytra lit up immediately after, becoming a beacon that made it easier to follow her movements and anticipate them. Yet while Solus questioned the sanity of the Abomination hybrids, the Raiju smiled in expectation.

Theseus felt the resonance become even stronger after the appearance of the second pillar and all he needed to do to conjure his own was to join his sisters in their inhuman melody.

Lith felt the resonance as well and followed Bytra's advice. He let that mysterious energy course through his body, filling it with new strength and an euphoria that he knew didn't belong to him.

It was a joy born from the awareness of not being alone and having become part of something bigger. The collective mind of the Abomination hybrids peered on the fringes of his consciousness but it couldn't enter due to Lith's nature of a Tiamat.

Yet it was enough to trigger a similar resonance between him and his Demons. A silvery black pillar erupted from Lith's body and each one of his Demons conjured a smaller one, even those whose physical form had been destroyed.

The Tiamat could feel their broken bodies mending while those pulverized tried to reform even without receiving any energy from their master. His mind was filled with countless spells and martial arts he had never known before as the size of the chains that linked him to his Demons grew in size. 

'Fuck me sideways! If I had positioned my Demons strategically, I could have used them as focus points for an array. Our bond is so much more than just a channel for my mana. We can share knowledge, strategies, and even magical runes.' Lith thought.