Supreme Magus

The Abomination snarled as it unleashed the full power of its Touch, sucking the energy from Lith's surroundings and from Hystar every time he hit the darkness that comprised his body. Yet the difference in power and mass was too big.

Lith could only partly heal the damage before more kept piling up.

"Interesting. This is no shapeshifting, you are truly made of darkness. Now I know how to hurt you." The Headmaster conjured a powerful stream of darkness magic that flooded the stone trapping Lith.

It negated his Abomination Touch and eroded his very essence, causing him pain like never before. Darkness not only hurt his body beyond what fusion magic could stop, but it also triggered his hunger, making it consume him.

Lith roared in outrage as he felt his sanity slipping away. The hunger kept growing until it was the only feeling he had left.

"Where are my manners? Maybe if Verhen won't talk to save his hide, he will to save yours." Hystar waved his hand, sending two flows of darkness toward the rest of his prisoners.

Soon all three of them screamed in agony, singing a symphony that he had longed for ever since the True Queen had returned.

Alas, it lasted for barely a second.

A mean right hook wiped his smile off his face and sent most of it splattering on the floor in a bloody pulp of teeth and flesh.

"What the-" Hystar had barely the time to turn around when the Sage Staff lunged at his chest with the violence of a collapsing mountain.

The impact blew his ribs, burst his lungs, and squashed his heart. That was just a second before six elemental beams pierced through his body, each leaving behind a hole the size of an orange.

Solus didn't waste time talking and hit the Headmaster in the head with a downward swing of her Fury. The shockwave pulverized him and crushed the stone constructs, freeing her companions.

"Who the heck are you?" Hystar regenerated once again, striking at Solus with the strength of the power core and the mass of the academy.

Solus left the Sage Staff floating beside her, intercepting the fist with her opened palm. The Headmaster couldn't believe his eyes when the petite hand not only stopped the attack, but it also drained his energy.

'Good question. Who the heck is she?' Vladion asked while using his breathing technique to recover his mana.

The mysterious woman was short, barely 1.54 meters (5'1") tall. She wore an armor that was identical to Lith's except that for a few details. The gloves were made of stone instead of Adamant and had seven mana crystals each.

One per knuckle, one in the middle of the backhand, and the last one on the palm. Also, instead of the black slate of the Tiamat, her helm resembled some kind of stone mask with eight magical gemstones shaped and arranged in front of her mouth to resemble a maw.

'A friend.' Kalla replied while resuming the scan of the academy's power core.

Hystar's weakened state more than made up for the lost time and the best thing was that he was getting weaker by the second.

'Leave him to me. You just focus on the mission.' Solus said via the mind link, allowing Vladion to recognize the voice from earlier.

"What in Arthan's name are you?" Hystar had never experienced fear before but like every good scholar, he was a quick learner.

He kicked at Solus to get free from her grip, only for her to block his foot with her knee and then extend her leg in a powerful kick to his nuts. The Headmaster had still the body of a man and despite darkness fusion keeping him from feeling pain, he instinctively doubled over.

It offered his chin on a silver platter for the Fury to strike.

Solus held the hammer close to its head, making it easy to use in close quarter combat. Hystar's jaw shattered yet the woman refused to let him go so that the recoil from the blow drew him close again.

He then conjured another wave of golems to attack her from every side but her cruel hammer wiped them out in a single swing. The Sage Staff granted her clarity while the Eyes showed her the runes hidden under the stone surface, highlighting those critical for the constructs to work.

She used minimum strength and damaged only one rune per golem, yet it was enough to turn them back into a bunch of rocks.

Then, Hystar tried to activate the defensive arrays of the Golden Griffon but once again Solus used the runes engraved on the Sage Staff and the power of the Mouth of Menadion to either hijack or nullify them.

The scan of the power core had exceeded 90%, allowing her to know what arrays the Headmaster was going to use the moment mana started to flood them.

Incapable of escaping her grip, Hystar cut his own arm off out of desperation.

"I know what you are!" He said while conjuring ten tier five spells that faded under the effect of a full set of elemental sealing arrays. "You are a living legacy just like me. Why are you doing this? I-"

The words died on his lips as Hystar's brain managed to resist panic enough to notice with Life Vision that the woman had the same energy signature as Verhen.

"A Horseman?" He said after recognizing a pattern similar to Dawn's and Night's. "This makes no sense! You are no Dusk and there is no such a thing as a fourth Horseman!"

"Tell that to someone who cares!" Solus conjured the Tower Tier Spell, Nova Eclipse.

It unleashed upon the Headmaster a violent torrent of black flames filled with bolts of plasma. The spell employed the fire, darkness, light, and air element at the same time, forcing Hystar to drain the power from the rest of the academy to resist the onslaught.

Even before obtaining the Hands, Solus had discovered how the tower could take control of the world energy from a partly unused geyser. With the help of the Hands, however, she could now wrestle the world energy out of the control of most artifacts.

Doing it right from their arrival at the Golden Griffon would have created a power leakage that, once noticed and followed, would have led the Headmaster straight to the group.

The moment Hystar had found them, she had started to dominate the bits of energy that escaped the grasp of the academy to fuel her tower half. On top of that, she had discovered that the process became much faster every time the Headmaster hit Lith.

Physical contact allowed her to weaken the Golden Griffon while also empowering her tower half. It was how Solus had conjured enough mass to challenge Hystar physically and even to use the arrays stored in the Heart of the tower to neutralize the spells.

The problem was that her advantage would only last until the Headmaster underestimated her. He still held control over most of the energy from the geyser and until that moment, he had used only bits of strength to not compromise the activities of the academy.