2055 Checkmate (Part 1)

'By my Mom, there are more injuries in Lith's body than items on a grocery list.' Solus thought while Sky Blessing gave her a detailed report of Lith's pitiful condition. 'I need to stop the bleeding and fix his bones, or he will die.'

Her breathing technique could heal most of his wounds in a few seconds and restore his stamina, but without nutrients, his body would still lack the strength to keep fighting.

Solus regenerated Lith's throat first so that he could gulp down the tonics and then she stabilized all the life-threatening injuries. The Tiamat drank huge amounts of potions that he kept stored in his pocket dimension, allowing Solus to repair his organs.

With each eye that she restored, his aura burst out with renewed strength, something that Iata didn't miss even in her dazzled state.

'How can Verhen be still alive? Not even a Divine Beast can survive without breathing!' The Sekhmet roared, creating a shockwave that interrupted her flight while a hard-light construct blocked the incoming darkness bullet.

She bolted toward Lith while avoiding the volley of Spirt Magic-infused darkness to kill him before he could fully recover.

Alas, Crank had yet to be paid for his services and begged to differ.

He stepped back, putting himself between the Sekhmet and her prey. To make matters worse he suddenly released a violent black aura that eclipsed Lith's energy signature, blinding Iata's Life Vision.

'What an annoying prick!' She thought while unleashing a barrage of scorching pillars of light that cut the ground asunder and vaporized Crank's earth constructs. 'Now either he dodges, leaving Verhen wide open, or dies.

'Whatever he does it's my win!'

Yet the Hyperion didn't move. He took the blasts head-on, but aside from a bit of smoke coming from his fur, there was no visible damage.

'Dammit, I had forgotten about his Mana Body bloodline ability.

'He's immune to direct damage from magic, but it comes at the price of his own spellcasting and offers no protection from indirect damage.' Iata conjured several hard-light constructs shaped like hands, each one big enough to squeeze a Divine Beast.

Crank snarled as the white streak on his back shifted into the six colors of the elements. It absorbed the components of the world energy one at a time and used them to empower the spells he had left at the ready.

The Elemental Overload bloodline ability turned the tier three spells into tier four while the only tier five he had managed to weave rose to the power of a Spirit Spell. Iata's constructs shattered one after the other until only one was left.

It trapped the Hyperion in a wall of light that surrounded him and imploded on itself, without giving him the time to Blink.

'Oh, fuck! It was a calculated risk, but man if I'm bad at math.' Crank had underestimated the burden that boosting so many spells at the same time would put on his mana core.

Elemental Overload allowed young Hyperions to make up for their lack of body casting and veterans to need but a split second to turn a cantrip into a devastating spell, yet it came at a price.

The white streak on their back absorbed the elements required to boost their spells but the remaining world energy had to be neutralized by their body to fix the imbalance that Elemental Overload created.

On top of that, the extra energy had to be channeled through the mana core, putting it under the same strain of casting multiple spells instead of just one.

Unlike physical organs, the only way a core could recover was with rest, not even breathing techniques could hasten the process.

Iata dived into the black aura and finally noticed the small golden figure on the Tiamat's chest. Between the gentle light enveloping her and the wings-shaped hair, the Sekhmet mistook Solus for a fairy.

The blackness of Lith's colossal body was in stark contrast with her golden and white pillar, making her look like a spirit of light who had descended to either aid or vanquish the demon.

'How can there possibly be two Verhens?' Iata thought the moment Life Vision once again confirmed to her that they had the same energy signature and confused her even further.

Solus turned around, waving her hands in quick succession.

The first Switched Iata and Crank, blinding the former with her own spell and saving the latter a lot of damage.

'Big deal, my own mana can't harm me and both the Divine Beasts are still exhausted. I can-' Solus' second hand had thrown Menadion's Fury and activated its Furies' Flight ability.

The hammer split into nine, each enveloped in an elemental aura, that struck at the Sekhmet in quick succession, shattering both the Spirit Barrier of her armor and the constructs she had enveloped herself with.

The Furies were small compared to a Divine Beast but their Davross heads coupled with the gravity magic the artifacts were imbued with gave them the same kinetic energy of a meteor.

'Crank, time to finish this. Buy me a couple of seconds.' Solus said via a mind link.

'On it, whoever you are!' The Hyperion bashed at the Sekhmet while the Fury was returning to Solus' hand and pinned Iata to the ground.

She twisted her lower back, sending her scorpion tail toward his unprotected eye with surgical precision.

"Seriously? Do you think that my tail is just for decoration? Didn't you wonder why I didn't use it during our first squabble?" Crank knew his abilities and their weak points the best.

Mana Body protected him from spells just like Cleansing Mist from dangerous physical substances like acid, but it only worked on his thick, sturdy fur that gave Cleansing Mist the time it needed to work.

Any attack aimed at soft areas like his mouth, ears, or eyes would meet no resistance. It was the reason the Hyperion had kept his long, armored tail lifted and ready to strike. It faced the stinger head-on, using Cleansing Mist to make the acid harmless and its massive weight to squash the Sekhmet's tail.

Darkness fusion protected Iata from the agony of losing a limb, but she lost her coordination nonetheless as her body struggled to find its balance after being maimed.

Crank exploited the advantage to pummel the confused enemy with his Adamant-coated paws. The enchanted metal shapeshifted, turning his extremities into war maces.

Iata felt her bones shattering, but she ignored the pain and unleashed her most powerful Spirit Spell, Devouring Light. It was a variant of Tyrannical Roar that she had derived from her memories with Thrud's help.

Yet the moment the golden light emerged from her body and started to eat at the Hyperion, it was eclipsed by the dim brilliance of what seemed an emerald dawn.

After giving up on using Yurial's Hexagram again, Solus had replaced it with Silverwing's Bastion, but she had lacked both the means and the opportunity to use it. Then, after Lith had used Ruin, she had stored the Annihilation in the Mouth of Menadion as well.

Lith could use a Blade Tier spell only twice before exhausting his strength. Invigoration could give him back his energy, but it couldn't make up for the still missing War.