2098 Twin Flames (Part 2)

'Respectively I don't know and probably mage towers since the date of the first announcement dates back to Meln's capture.' Tista inwardly shrugged.

'If you are that curious ask Lith to read the news from one of the amulets. By the way, I had no idea that you guys had learned how to activate magical items imprinted by others.' 

'Because we never did. That was just a hologram. The Demon witnessed the successful scans and just had to mimic one.

'Lith can't active an amulet without killing its owner, but since you were right about every member of the staff having one, that's out of the question.' Solus grumbled, hoping that the female guard would read the news but instead she went checking her messages.

Tista kept walking until the guards turned around the corner and then returned to the node before shapeshifting into her Red Demon form.

'Weave your spells.' She said to Solus. 'It shouldn't be necessary, but better safe than sorry. Use water and lightning only since if a Forgotten dies, their body will move back to the Golden Griffon and Thrud will know exactly where we are.'

Tista took a deep breath, guiding half of the world energy towards her lungs and the other half to her heart. Her blue and red eyes lit up together as she breathed a focused stream of True Flames the size of a blow torch.

The Cursed Flames ate at the bundle of runes and dispelled the power they held. The array's node fell apart, weakening the whole structure without compromising its integral stability.

At the same time, the red scales covering Tista's body and the feathers on her wings became of a bright blue and were quickly covered in ice as the Zero produced along with the Cinder coursed through them.

Much to Solus' surprise, the Cursed element was stored in the Red Demon's body in a stable form that inflicted upon Tista no harm. Quite the contrary, her aura had grown in power and her physique in size, giving her the appearance of a majestic ice elemental.

Thrud's Forgotten received a notification of the sudden imbalance in the main array and sent a two-man unit to check the situation. Mobilizing more Awakened would have left the city hall unprotected while sending just one might force them to walk into a trap.

The now Blue Demon saw the two Warp Steps opening at the same time and apart enough to ensure that at least one of them would have had the time to sound the alarm in case something was wrong.

Tista unleashed one blast of Frozen Flames from her mouth and another from her wings, hitting both the Forgotten who turned into blocks of ice the moment they stepped through their respective dimensional door.

Tista had used just enough Zero to bring them to a status of suspended animation without killing them. The protective barriers of their armor had blocked the physical damage but not the cold that had seeped inside their bodies.

'Oh, shit!' She said as half of her body burst into flames while the other half turned into a mass of ice spikes.

Tista brought her hands together, reuniting the twin elements that had been split apart and reverting them back to their natural state. Regular magic couldn't hurt its caster so she needed but a thought to dispel them.

'What was that?' Solus asked.

'The fruits of my labor.' Tista replied while pushing the Forgotten into an empty room nearby and hoping that their comrades would wait for at least a couple of minutes before looking for them.

'I've been working hard on my flaming form with the help of the members of the Nest, but I still can't control that bloodline ability without external help. If someone doesn't stop me, I keep burning until I pass out from exhaustion.

'On the plus side, all that training helped me find a way to control the Cursed Flames and keep them from hurting me.

'Once I conjure them in pairs, I can now safely store Cursed Flames inside my body by using their conflicting nature to my advantage. Whenever Cinder is about to go wild, I give it a bit of Zero to neutralize the surge and vice versa.'

'Interesting.' Solus said. 'It sounds like an application of Void Magic.'

'Because it is.' Tista inwardly nodded. 'I can't turn a Cursed element into its opposite but I can still use Domination to keep them under control and their symbiotic relationship to keep them stable.

'The process isn't perfect, though. I can use this method only for the elements I have the corresponding eyes and I can never use more than two kinds of Flames at a time. As long as I'm focused on containing the Cursed Flames I can't breathe more or even use Origin Flames.

'On top of that, the slightest imbalance compromises this technique. The reason my scales froze over after disabling the node is that I consumed a part of the Cinder, tipping the scales enough for the Zero to start taking over.

'Once I neutralized the two Forgotten, instead, I consumed so much Frozen Flames to neutralize the Forgotten and their equipment that the balance was lost.'

'I see.' Solus pondered Tista's new power to incorporate it into her strategies. 'Basically, now you can store your flames and release them in controlled amounts. Yet unless you consume them at the same rate, at some point they go awry and go to waste.'

'Not really. I could have released what remained of the True and Frozen Flames into energy blasts, but this is a cover mission.' Tista took her communication amulet and called her allies for help.

"Lith, Phloria, the first node is gone, I got rid of two of Thrud's Awakened, and my cover is still intact. I can sabotage the second and maybe even the third node if I don't meet too many patrols on the way, but as the arrays become weaker someone is bound to notice that something is wrong.

"I need a diversion."

"Copy that." Both replied.

"I'll start charging Reaver right away. Even though the elemental sealing arrays of the city block most of my spells, I can still use them to conjure my Blade Tier spell." Phloria said while giving her troops the signal to prepare for battle.

At the same time, she activated the Mouth of Menadion, using it to cast spells at double the regular speed like only a violet-cored Awakened could.

"Commence the attack as soon as you can, but call the army before you do." Tista said. "We can fight Thrud's troops off on our own but we can't take control of the city with such a few people.

"Lith, you remain on standby. I want the Forgotten to focus on Phloria and stay out of my way as long as possible. Have your Demons step in only once my position is compromised so that while the enemy is busy dealing with your armies, I can continue my mission with minimal resistance."

"I can do that." Lith took deep breaths, conjuring huge amounts of darkness and Spirit magic that would allow his Demons of the Darkness to turn into Demons of the Fallen at a moment's notice.