Supreme Magus

The Fenrir was dragged in the sky for several kilometers until Omnislash was too distant from its caster to keep its cohesion and exploded.

The light generated by the dying Blade Spell blinded everyone who was looking directly at the blast while the shockwave it produced made whole city blocks quake despite the distance and the arrays muffling its power.

Xoola survived only thanks to fusion magic boosting her colossal body, her Adamant armor, and her bloodline ability, Mana Body, that had made her fur nigh-impenetrable.

'Shit, if that thing hit me directly instead of bursting through the enchanted doors first, I would be already dead. No one told me that the Council had someone besides Verhen who can use Blade Tier spells.

'I can't give them the time to prepare another or I'm dead.' The Fenrir dispelled Mana Body to weave her spells and used Invigoration to heal while flying toward Phloria as fast as she could.

"Inbound Divine Beast, I need backup." Unfortunately for Xoola, the Commander of the Awakened corps was well aware of her own limits. "My Emperor Beasts are already busy dealing with Thrud's heavyweights and I have no one who can handle someone of that size."

"Copy that." Feela the Behemoth replied from hundreds of kilometers away. "We don't have a seven-man unit of violet cores available to Annihilate it. How long does it take you to fire another shot of Omnislash?"

"Too long." Phloria had already recovered her mana with Invigoration and was double casting thanks to the Mouth of Menadion, but Reaver needed two minutes to fully charge whereas she had seconds at most.

"Lith?" The Beast representative asked.

"On my way." From the broom closet, Lith took one final breath of Invigoration before releasing Raptor and Trouble from his pocket dimension.

Zehnma's dimensional sealing arrays were still in place, but his omni pocket only required him to expend a spark of life force to release what it stored in a burst of emerald flames.

There was no need for words or explanations. The Spirit Crystals in their chests were in synch with their master's thoughts and learned everything that had happened during their absence as Lith's mana brought them to full charge.

The two Golems reduced their size to that of a human and rushed toward the office of the city lord to intercept the Forgotten before they could leave the building.

At the same time, two floors below, Tista was fighting for her life.

Linnea had blocked the air blades with the same barrier she had used to repel the first wave of Demons of the Fallen and then she had broken it into countless razor-sharp fragments.

Part of the emerald blades spun around her at high speed in a whirlwind, using their edge to tear apart whoever came in too close and their flat side to intercept spells and projectiles alike.

The Headmistress' mastery over body casting was still amateurish due to having learned Thrud's method instead of creating her own. The Mad Queen was more skilled and powerful than Linnea had ever been so what was easy for Thrud to grasp was a conundrum for her less talented apprentices.

The best Linnea could do was to use the cover from the conjured protection to weave spells with her mind and fake magic, relying on body casting solely to weave a few easy runes here and there.

Tista, however, fared much worse. The physical and magical gap between a bright blue and a deep violet core more than compensated for Linnea's lack of experience as an Awakened.

The Red Demon had managed to hold her ground only thanks to Solus reading Linnea's spell with the Eyes while they were cast, predicting their trajectory, and the Demons of the Fallen piling up on the Headmistress.

'I would still have a chance if I could use my bloodline abilities, but if I do that, capturing Zehnma will be an empty victory. Without the arrays, the city will be changing hands more often than a copper coin!' Tista thought.

Solus racked her brain for a way to beat the Headmistress, but the Hands of Menadion were useless against someone who used Spirit Magic, and the Mouth stored spells useful for a covert mission, not an uphill fight.

'Oh, shit!' Almost as if she had read Tista's mind, Linnea had cast a tier five Spirit Spell, Meltdown, that was about to generate and hexaelemental wave of energy that would have killed everyone in the corridor without affecting the node.

With no way to dodge, Tista dropped the gauntlets to the floor. Just like her hands, the middle fingers were the only ones still up, flipping Linnea off fourfold.

"Dying with bravado. You are more stupid than you look!"

"Behind me, Demons!" Tista ignored Linnea and took the deepest breath she could.

The Fallen had no idea what was happening, but Lith's final order had been to assist his sister so they obeyed her command.

As the emerald avalanche approached, Tista activated Sunder's size-regulating spell so that the gloves turned into Adamant walls that blocked the corridor, protecting both her and the Demons.

The still raised middle fingers pierced through the stone ceiling and anchored the gigantic gloves to their position.

"Son of a…" Linnea had already conjured Meltdown so dispelling it would have wasted the massive amount of mana she had poured into it.

She finally recognized Tista from Lith's file and the idea of having been outsmarted by someone so young only fueled her scorching rage further.

"Since your brother is not here, I'll have to settle your life!" The Headmistress of the Golden Griffon roared before taking a deep breath of Invigoration to make Meltdown even stronger.

The entire city hall trembled from the sheer pressure of the spell while the floor and the ceiling respectively below and above Sunder cracked.

"Push!" Tista ordered as the base of the gloves started to tilt up.

As Linnea continued to use Invigoration, she had also focused Meltdown into an energy mass dense and powerful enough to lift the non-anchored side of Sunder. If even the equivalent of a breeze were to pass through, only wandering souls would remain.

The Demons helped Tista to keep the gloves in place, but soon the metal became so hot that the silvery of the Adamant turned red.

'How much mana has she left?' Tista thought in horror. 'With this spell flooding the corridors, there's no place where I can Blink. If I can't find a solution I'll fail the mission, lose Sunder, and my own life!'

She took a deep breath, activating both her red and her blue eyes. The Frozen Flames coursed through her body, giving her touch the ability to give Sunder a cold aura that absorbed the incoming heat wave and allowed the artifact to slowly cool down.

"Don't stand there like idiots. Help me!" Tista gritted her teeth, feeling her body burn.

The more Frozen Flames she consumed, the more the True Flames she had conjured ravaged her flesh. With no way to release them, she focused the True Flames into her feathers that ignited in a white blaze.

The Demons who until that moment had conjured Lith's best water magic spell suddenly stopped and abandoned their position.

"Are you insane? What do you think you are-" Tista's words died in her mouth when she realized that they weren't running away but charging straight at her.