Chapter 2886 Old Magic (Part 4) 2886 Old Magic (Part 4) Her strike generated a deafening boom of thunder and created a one- meter-deep crater in the solid rock, opening a way in for the Davross' flames. Alas, the cracks started to close immediately, snuffing out the flames, and when the dust settled the main keep had taken little damage. The white stones were blackened from the heat but that was it. ["How dares a mere skeleton to disrespect me like this?"] That and the wound on Thaymos' ego. He had been sealed before Liches were a thing and his mind conjured every slur against living legacies he knew in the attempt to decipher Inxialot's words. He tried to squash the two insolent insects with his palms but they both Blinked away, leaving the Eternal Fortress shocked. He ended up slapping and damaging himself more than the two pests had. ["How? How can they open Warp Steps so quickly?"] He asked to no one in particular in amazement. ["Is everyone a genius these days or has magic changed this much while I was imprisoned?"] 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺 Thaymos had fought against the Guardians and assumed that their amazing spells were possible solely thanks to their matchless power. During the skirmishes against mages of the Council, he had believed that they had sent against him the best of the best and brushed off the issue again. After meeting the alleged Bright Day and this group of meddlers, however, Thaymos was starting to have doubts. The disturbance was enough to weaken his hold on the Gate so that Raagu's dimensional sealing arrays encountered limited resistance. She couldn't conjure enough of them to cover an area so wide but the distortions that her magical formations caused in the dimensional corridor ripped the front line of monsters that was walking through the Gate to shreds and destabilized the spell. Friya capitalized on that, activating the golden sparks of her Dimensional Ruler spell in the fracture points of the Steps and following Raagu instructions about how to adjust her spell to Thaymos' alterations to the elemental balance. The human representative let her arrays fade and conjured several Collapsed Space spells to help Friya. Dimensional openings required a perfect balance among their several components and were easy to destabilize. The Warp Steps that the Eternal Fortress used, however, was comprised not of just mana, but also of the life force of his thralls. It made the spell different from all those that the Awakened had faced in the past and hard to influence with just pure mana. It was the reason Inxialot and Ilthin kept stinging at the living legacy. Their purpose was to compromise his focus on the spell. Bodya dug deep into the ground, making it collapse under Thaymos' feet and the living legacy lose its balance. 'I wish I had still enough acid to make a decent trap but I consumed most of it against the Black Tide. I'd better save what I have left for something that can make a difference.' The Nidhogg thought. 'I can't believe it.' Friya inwardly grunted with effort, feeling the will of the Eternal Fortress resist her own and the corrupted life force of his forbidden magic stand like a wall against her Dimensional Ruler spell. 'All of this is not enough. 'Lith, Tista. Aim for the edges of the Steps.' The two Divine Beasts took another deep breath, the violet light born in their mouths moving down their throats, chests, and lungs where the world energy was ignited by a spark of their life forces and imbued with silver lightning. The two crackling jet streams of Origin Flames crossed each other in front of the Gate, their energy swelling for a moment like it was about to explode and then bursting forward with the white radiance of the Primordial Flames. The mystical fire brushed over the upper edge of the Steps to avoid crossing to the other side and potentially damaging their allies. Due to this, only a small portion of Primordial Flames affected the spell while the rest washed over the Black Tide, turning scores of monsters into ashes and carving a deep path amid their ranks. The corrupted mana and life force faltered and the spell matrix of the Steps fell apart. Thaymos sent waves of willpower and mana to stabilize it while Friya's Dimensional Ruler spell drove a wedge into the cracks that had appeared in the space. One tried to close them while the other tried to tear them open and despite the help Friya received from the others the battle was at a standstill. That until Solus came down Fury-first from the sky like a blazing meteor of Davross. Gravity magic increased her weight and the weapon's one hundredfold while the elemental crystals on the Fury were now one black, one orange, and the last one blue. The darkness element enhanced the destructive power, the earth element the hardness of the hammer, while the water element carried a frost wave that made the enchanted white stones of the Eternal Fortress brittle. Solus also channeled the water element inside the Davross, generating a blue aura around the Fury that split the world energy from the mana of anyone but her. When the automatic defensive systems came online, the hammer tore them apart like paper and struck the main keep/head without losing momentum. Thaymos had underestimated the petite woman with the weak aura, unaware that cloaking devices had been invented as well during his imprisonment. The blow was as strong as it was unexpected, making the Eternal Fortress lose his balance. ["What the?"] The Fury brought down the roof of the main keep and cracked its walls. Bodya released the acid he had left to cause a sudden cave-in while Inxialot and Ilthin pushed the lost city down with the sheer strength of their bodies and magic. Thaymos fell to the ground with the grace of a sack of bricks and lost sight of his spell. Friya exploited the opening to bring the Steps down with a thunderous explosion that blackened the ground for almost a kilometer. She felt the acrid taste of bile as the forbidden magic threatened to taint her core, her whole body shivering in revulsion. 'There's something wrong. The mana I'm Dominating is forcing itself into Dimensional Ruler and me. Even detached from the lost city, the energy still carries its original owner's energy signature and will. 'If I just let it go, the bastard will regain most of the mana and open another Gate. Even if we can't destroy it, we can still defeat it!' Friya pushed her deep violet core to its limits and channeled her strength into the Hands of Menadion. The masterpiece of the First Ruler of the Flames amplified her mana and absorbed the wild energy of the forbidden spell. The Hands kept the corrupted life force at bay by forming a cushion from the surrounding world energy that isolated Friya from the taint. Then, she took control of the remains of the dimensional spell, turning it into a Warp Steps that carried the Primordial Flames in front of Thaymos, hitting him from point-blank range. The array defensive system was fooled by the residual energy signature, mistaking Friya's spell for friendly and letting it past the layers of barriers and arrays.