Chapter 3808: Cover Fire (Part 1) Ryla took place on the Engine’s forehead, right below its stone surface. She unfurled her wings and limbs wide so that she was equidistant from Lith’s six eyes, and the tower connected to her own. ’Tiamat, on!’ Solus said as the Prime Engine shifted from grey to black and the power of the elements burst out of its seven eyes. ’Solus, this is a serious matter.’ Lith flipped in mid-air, switching to a feet-first fall as he started to spin on himself. ’I know, but I always wanted to say that, and who knows when I’ll have another opportunity like this.’ She replied. ’Guys, I don’t think it’s working.’ Ryla released her golden lightning, but there wasn’t enough to empower something as complex and big as the tower. ’Don’t worry, I just need to add the final touch.’ Lith replied. While training with Ryla to control and discover the power of his elemental eyes, Lith had learned how to amplify and prolong the effects of her abilities, but never to produce them on his own. Yet that was enough for his purposes, especially after he had confirmed a theory about the tower. The moment he consumed the air element stored in the Elemental Storage and infused it into the tower, the golden lightning produced by Ryla’s yellow eye was collected and focused into Lith’s and then enhanced by the Davross-Adamant alloy in the Crucible. Gilded streams of electricity arched across the Engine’s surface as if it were made of Davross instead of stone, increasing its prowess by threefold. ’This is amazing!’ Ryla said via the mind link. ’Our species are truly similar. Thank you for allowing me to fight by your side.’ ’No, thank you, Ryla.’ Solus replied, feeling guilty for the deception. The reasons for which Lith and Solus had brought the Fomor with them were loosely connected to their kindship. Ryla wanted to stand with the people of Zelex at all costs, and Garrik wanted her to be safe. Lith had promised the young Tyrant-Fomor hybrid that he would bring his mother home alive and wanted to keep his word. Inside the Engine, Ryla would be safe while having the satisfaction of taking part in the battle. Also, with the excuse of Lith’s unknown bloodline abilities synergizing with Ryla’s eyes, he would have a plausible excuse to bring out the potential of the Prime Engine without anyone suspecting anything. *** "What do you mean, you agree?" Ruugat growled. "How dare you mock me, Vampire?" The lost city swung his massive fists with incredible speed for something that size. Vladion dodged the blows, but the air pressure they generated was enough to push him back by dozens of meters. Dawn relentlessly charged with her jousting lances, ramming into Ruugat’s body whenever the allied forces managed to stop his movements. Gravity arrays weighed on his knees, earth arrays trapped his feet, and multi-elemental arrays formed a net around the remains of the Detemer fortress, increasing the pressure on Ruugat whenever he returned to the center of the mana geyser. "It’s not that hard. I just have to breathe out air and modulate it in my throat." The First Vampire replied. "You know what I love about you? You’ve made a mess of my home, but everything you’ve stolen is still here. "Once I crush you beneath my heel, I’ll take everything back and more. You collected and refined my treasures for me. It’s a gift that I’m glad to accept." "You have no way of doing that!" As the lost city glared at the First Vampire in fury, Lith shared his position and trajectory with the mages from Garlen. They conjured gravity arrays on the Engine’s path, forming a corridor that increased Lith’s speed and weight as he approached the enemy. The elves’ arrows and the soldiers’ wands were individually useless. Even the colossal hands of mud conjured by the merfolk by mixing the earth and water from Detemer’s underground river lasted less than a second before being squashed and their mana lost. Ruugat of the Earth was over 100 meters (330’) tall, and his body was comprised of materials among the sturdiest on Mogar. Yet thousands of those puny spells hitting at the same time drained Ruugat’s Earthly Vault enchantment. They sapped his strength without the lost city even noticing. Most importantly, the countless small blasts, detonations, and mud constructs overloaded Ruugat’s sensory arrays. That and his unbridled hate for Dawn and Vladion blinded him from the incoming threat. The Prime Engine was less than half the size of Ruugat, slightly over 40 meters (132’) tall, but it hit with the momentum of an asteroid entering the atmosphere. "Shields!" Vladion, Dawn, and the mages Warped away while everyone else conjured their enchanted protections and took cover behind walls of solid light. The undead put themselves in front, and the Fomors stood behind them, conjuring the power of the earth element through their orange eye. Once again, the Liches joined their spells to form an emerald wall, using their immortal bodies to take the brunt of the blast. The impact of the Engine with Ruugat produced a noise that would have been strong enough to kill the non-Awakened soldiers, if not for the Hush spells surrounding the allied force. The shockwave generated by the Engine drilling into the lost city raised a mushroom cloud of dust and uprooted the centuries-old trees around Detemer. The ground quaked and large fissures opened in the unprotected clearings. Rocks, debris, and everything lighter than a ton were blasted away as if swept by the hand of an angry giant. Ruugat of the Earth understood what had happened only when it was too late. When, for the first time in his long life, he found himself lying down with his face on the ground and something heavy on his back. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂 The lost city had met worthy opponents capable of defeating him many times, but he could count on the fingers of one hand the times he had stumbled. Stumbled, but never fell. He had never even so much as knelt in front of an enemy. Even when, millennia ago, he had been captured and sealed, he had ejected his power core from his body to keep standing even in defeat. Now he wasn’t standing. He wasn’t kneeling. He was downed like an animal skin turned into a carpet, and someone dared step on him. So great was the shock and humiliation that Ruugat didn’t even notice when Lith jumped off him. "Now!" Dawn yelled, and everyone unleashed their best spells at the fallen enemy. The two Lightpillar spells turned into high-speed drills that stung at Ruugat back while the Horseman unleashed her Tower Blade Spell, Rising Sun. The Awakened Councils dropped the Bastions and weaved Annihilations, pinning the lost city to the ground like an insect. Elves, humans, and undead used earth arrays to conjure heavy shackles to trap Ruugat and fire arrays to turn rocks into magma, burying the lost city under a searing inferno. Tista, Lith, and the hundreds of Demons of the Darkness he had conjured before the battle breathed a burst of Origin Flames together, merging them into Primordial Flames. The pillar of white fire produced by the Tiamat and the Hekate was much greater than the sum of its single parts, and it further grew in size and power with each stream of Origin Flames that joined it.