2796 A Trick of Two (Part 2)

The weak point that every living being had but they usually ignored because only an Awakened could find it.

"Just how?" The Dullahan's head turned into ashes with the question on his lips but the Void ignored it and turned around to help Solus.

'What the fuck?' The black chains had also struck her opponents but they seemed to be useless.

At least until she was forced to lower the Spirit Barrier and face the Banshee and the Mage Slayer in close-quarter combat again.

The Full Guard spell imbued in her armor gave Solus full spatial awareness, but there was no point knowing the movements of her enemies if her body couldn't follow them.

Now, however, she could see thanks to Full Guard where every part of the undead's body was and, in her mind, where they would be. Solus could see which movements were just feints and which were meant to strike.

She could even see how either undead would react in case their respective blows would connect or be blocked or dodged.

It was akin to seeing the future flash in front of her eyes.

The flow of information came from the mind link she shared with her steed and Solus chose to trust the Void. Her hammer moved to intercept the Mage Slayer's blade before it started to move as she cast a Hush Zone to neutralize the Shattered Soul that she knew was incoming.

Zamor was taken by surprise, the hit so heavy that if not for his experience, the Fury would have shattered his blade and with it his life. Jima the Banshee had charged in after unleashing her bloodline ability, certain that it would have created an opening.

Shattered Soul did create an opening, but for Solus. The Hush Zone cancelled the scream and the Banshee had her guard down whereas Solus held her hands up.

Jima was now defenseless against the Plague Arrows that Solus conjured via body casting. Darkness was slow, but the Golden Knight placed the spells along Jima's trajectory, making the Banshee run into them on her own.

Jima stumbled and fell, her strength abandoning her. Solus tried to finish her off but the Mage Slayer moved to protect his weakened comrade.

'How?' He wondered in confusion. 'How can an amateur suddenly be capable of predicting my most refined techniques?'

The answer to the Dullahan's' and the Mage Slayer's question was the same.

While in the golem's body, the Void lacked the connection with his souls and the mana organs necessary to conjure Demons. Yet the Spirit Crystal carried enough of Lith's pure mana and life force to conjure the black chains.

Undead were predators and the older they were, the more victims they had preyed upon. It also meant more souls following them. Souls who had haunted their murderers for years, if not centuries, and who were glad to share their knowledge with the Void.

A long life meant acquiring habits and patterns. Any veteran knew that a winning strategy had to be refined and perfected, never discarded. The souls had seen the undead training and fighting countless times, memorizing those patterns.

Now, they acted as telepathic coaches for the Void and Solus, telling them what to expect and from where.

Solus caught up with Zamor's rhythm, blocking his blade with her hammer. Then, she conjured a copy of the Fury in her free hand, and before the undead could react, she clapped with the two hammers.

Struck between the two Furies, the Adamant weapon shattered. A Mage Knight's body was comprised only of a heart and blade. The orange fog was just a defensive measure meant to neutralize magic and protect the heart.

The blade was the means through which the blood core exerted its power and they grew in strength together as the Mage Slayer fed upon their prey. If the weapon was damaged, the blood core would leak and consume the accumulated energy to repair it.

Zamor was old enough to be capable of fixing his blade but the sudden lack of energy made the fog surrounding his heart disappear. With the same movement that had shattered the blade, Solus conjured a blast of darkness magic that destroyed the floating heart and killed the undead.

'I'm not going to waste my undeath fighting two against one. Better to retreat to fight another day.' Jima the Banshee could hear Solus panting and the light in the Golem's eyes flickering, but the black chains were still there and she didn't trust her odds.

"Full Nelson!" The Void consumed the last remnants of Raptor's energy to move behind her in a blur locking her arms with his own her in a blur, locking her arms with his own.

The Banshee gritted her teeth to withstand the unknown spell conjured by the unknown words of power. Then, Solus' hammer hit Jima in a descending arc, crushing her head and then splitting her body asunder with the sheer might of the blow.

"Time out?" The Void asked, the runes on his metal body flickering in warning.

"Sort of." Solus was still panting when she conjured the recharging array for the Golem which shapeshifted back into an Emperor Beast. "We resume our advance the moment I'm done catching my breath."

Unlike Lith, she couldn't power Raptor up by consuming her mana, she could only do it through a magical formation. The Void stood still, drawing the world energy through the Golem's eyes to speed up the process.

It took Solus a few seconds to breathe regularly and a few more to use her breathing technique, Sky Blessing, to go back to the peak of her strength. It wasn't long enough for Raptor to do the same but they had no time to lose.

She sacrificed part of the energy stored inside the Hands, injecting it inside the construct after filtering it through the emerald gemstone. It would slow down the takeover of the mana geyser but she needed the Void's help to succeed.

"Nice trick, by the way." She said while riding the Vagrash and talking to not waste precious mana with mind links. "I thought you needed to fuse with a soul to access to their knowledge. How did you do it with just the chains?"

"We all learned a trick or two since we got back from the Fringe." The Void replied, wondering how the Voidfeather Dragon was doing.

***

The Voidfeather Dragon wasn't pleased with Trouble's body. The membranous wings felt wrong, the short humanoid neck limited his vision, and the lack of a tail made his balance precarious.

"This is unacceptable!" The Voidfeather snarled while the undead around him rained spells upon him. "No flames and no shadows. This construct is crap!"

Trouble's body had benefitted from its stay in the Spark. The Adamant coating it had come closer to Davross and the Balor's corpse had been refined as if Trouble was still alive and had somehow Awakened.

On top of that, the Spirit Crystal had been moved from the chest to the forehead, mimicking the pattern of a Tiamat. Alas, the Golem lacked all the mana organs that the Voidfeather Dragon needed to conjure most of his bloodline abilities, carrying only the Voidfeather's mind and a spark of Lith's life force.