2502 Ruthless Strategy (Part 2)



"Give your men the order to retreat, Captain." Lith said as black chains burst from his chest and the Demons'.

They scoured Ne'sra, looking for volunteers among the past and recently deceased willing to join the fray.

"Is the situation so desperate that we need to evacuate the city?" Neforce asked.

"No. They would just be a hindrance."

The strength of a Demon grew exponentially with the number of their eyes and every one of those that Lith had brought along had the power of a violet core. The black chains shared the Spirit Magic and darkness magic with the new troops, the sacrifice of the sixth eye giving substance to dozens of wandering souls.

The streets were littered with corpses ready for the taking, no matter if by their original owner or not.

Throughout Ne'sra the dead rose to defend the living and meet a familiar face.

"Daddy!" A young boy yelled amid tears at the body of a dead orc.

Imbued with the essence of the Demon, the green flesh had been transfigured in a black and white copy of the tailor.

"Get out of my house!" The Demon yelled in fury, pulling a blade out of his chest. "I was just a man when I faced Thrud's thralls and my defiance cost me my life. I'm not a man anymore. When I die, this time I'll bring you all with me!"

The tailor bolted forward, cutting left and right with techniques he had never practiced before. The blade in his hand felt as familiar as his steel needle, but it was much deadlier.

Even with only one eye, the Demon disarmed the reverted orcs and sucked them dry of their life essence to fuel his own.

Meanwhile, Solus had walked out of the building, raining spells and hammers on anyone who dared come close. War had come free from its bloody scabbard and flew around Lith on its own.

Both protected him, drawing the enemies' attention while he focused on his breathing technique.

'I wish I could use the full effect of Call of the Void, but then the soldiers would be blinded as well and kill each other in panic.' With each breath he took, the number of Demons rose. With each breath Lith took, they grew stronger.

The monsters strong enough to slay a newborn Demon found themselves stabbed in the back when the flow of energy coming from the Tiamat restored the scattered shadows.

"Round two, pal." The Demon chuckled, twisting his hand inside the troll's gut and sucking avidly the abundant light energy it contained.

The darkness element was supposed to empower the troll, but the Abomination Touch drained him faster than the Decay of his core could rejuvenate him. The troll died, his only achievement having given the Demon two more eyes.

"I can move now." Lith took his golems out of the pocket dimension. "Thank you for your assistance, Solus."

"You are welcome." Solus jumped on Raptor's back and charged amid the enemy lines, mowing multiple monsters down with a single swing of her hammer.

The Adamant golem soared through the sky with the grace of a hawk despite its weight thanks to its own flight spell. Solus donned her golden Voidwalker armor to make herself recognizable from the troops and then left it to Valia.

The Demon bore her same energy signature so the armor answered her command and altered its size to accommodate its new host. Armed with a copy of the Fury, Valia continued the assault that Solus had started, rescuing the soldiers in need.

Hammers weren't her weapon of choice nor was her physical strength comparable to Solus, yet thanks to her six eyes and the many enchantments of the Fury, the partially reverted monsters were no match for Valia.

A sweep of the Adamant head of the hammer shattered weapons and bones alike, turning anyone on the Demon's path into a bloody pulp.

'No one here really knows me so a feminine figure and voice are all the people of Ne'sra needs to think that I'm the one inside the armor of the Golden Knight. This way, no one will notice my absence and I'll keep racking merits.' Solus thought.

'I don't plan on working for the Kingdom, but if there's something that I learned from Lith is that it's better to have something and not need it than need it and not have it.'

Their Void Magic lessons and the trips to the different great academies had inspired Solus. The experience had given her the opportunity to do what she loved the most and shared it with others.

'Sure, teaching has always been Lith's project first, but I would do it for myself, not to just stay with him. Sure, working in the same academy would mean that I could become a Professor even before my core fully heals.

'We'd spend a lot of time together preparing the lessons and grading papers. I would even have my own apartments-'

'What apartments?' The moment Solus had Warped near enough to get back inside the stone ring unnoticed, Lith had become part of her stream of consciousness.

'Nothing!' She replied too quickly even for her own liking, inwardly blushing a little. 'There's no time to chat, we need to focus. I'll take care of the spells while you deal with the physical aspect of the fight.'

Lith nodded, saving his questions for later.

He slowly walked out of the army headquarters from the door, as if he was out for a stroll. The area around the army headquarters was riddled with the corpses of fallen monsters.

After their death, the children of Glemos would revert to their original appearance.

Even the Eyes of Menadion couldn't ascertain from the bodies if they had made any progression in restoring their cores or what powers they might have gained. What he could notice, though, was the presence of several pools of blood that didn't belong to the monsters and the absence of human corpses.

'It seems the raid really is for food. These creatures are above cannibalism but humans are available on the menu.' Lith walked forward, taking in the position of the building and the sacks where the fights were taking place.

He raised his right hand with his palm out and his fingers bent as if he was holding something. Countless invisible tendrils of Spirit Magic spread from his body to every enemy within 50 meters (164') of him.

The monsters battling with the city guards felt their throats being constricted by an invisible hand that lifted them off the ground. Before they could understand what was happening, Lith clenched his hand.

Their necks snapped with a crunch, the grip so strong that it severed the heads from the necks. The human soldiers stared at the figure clad in black, his wings furled on his shoulders like a mantle, as he kept walking forward.

A red blade spun around him in an irregular path, deflecting spells and cutting down anyone who managed to come close to the Magus while he focused on his next batch of victims.

A second group of monsters started to float in the air like balloons and a few of them managed to activate fusion magic before it was too late. Their relief lasted only until Lith added a sliver of darkness magic.