Chapter 4012: Corrupted Life Force (Part 1) Hoarfrost covered the walls of the tower and seeped deep inside Solus’ fingers, freezing them to the bone. She had to hide her hands behind her back before Jirni noticed the frostbite and asked questions Solus couldn’t answer. ’Fuck me sideways! We are surrounded.’ Lith said, dispelling the enchantments he had tried to conjure. What still worked of the Watchtower marked two waves of Frost Soul coming from the center of the merfolk village, another from the ocean, and a searing tidal wave of Fire Soul ready to fall from the sky. If unleashed, it would have engulfed the entire oasis with the sole exception of Lith’s "home". Orpal couldn’t risk involving Elysia or Kamila in the attack, and his Upyrs gave the Verhen residence a wide berth. The effect of Frost Soul on the tower was something neither Lith nor Orpal had predicted. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮 The bloodline ability released by the Upyrs had simply infected the world energy that the tower fed upon. The taint of the corrupted Vurdalak’s life force spread like a disease through the surrounding water element, and the tower had no means to protect itself from the contagion. Solus used the Hands of Menadion to call upon the pure world energy flowing from the mana geyser, but part of it suffered the effects of Frost Soul the moment it reached the surface. Using the pure world energy to repel the corruption didn’t work either. It only accelerated the spreading of the Upyr’s bloodline ability. ’Mom, is there a way to filter a specific type of water element?’ Solus asked. ’No, because there was only one kind of water element back when I was alive.’ Menadion replied. ’I didn’t even know Zero was a thing until I saw that white-cored Lich fight the Plaguespreader.’ ’Use nothing but Spirit Magic! There’s something wrong with the world energy!’ Lith warned his family and friends in time with a mind link, but it was too late for the merfolk. They weaved their best spells to defend themselves from the two monsters that were slaughtering their neighbors when they turned into frozen statues that soon collapsed under their own weight. ’How many enemies?’ Orion unsheathed Grimlock. ’At least four.’ Lith replied. ’Two obvious, two hidden.’ ’Let’s make it two, then.’ Tista Spirit Warped with Lith in front of the two frenzied Upyr thralls. ’We can’t join the fight without a plan, but we can still help the people out there.’ Friya pointed at the field hospital and the merfolk dying in the village’s streets. ’Dad, Morok, Nalrond, with me. Mom, you stick to Kamila, and nothing can hurt you.’ ’What about me?’ Quylla asked. ’Same as Mom.’ Friya replied. ’You are too pregnant to move around.’ ’You’re pregnant too!’ ’Master of Space, remember?’ Emerald sparkles formed around Friya, marking the activation of her Dimensional Ruler spell. ’We open the Steps, you pull people inside. Deal?’ ’Deal.’ Quylla grumbled, but Friya had left before her sister could answer. There was nothing to do for the merfolk struck by the Upyrs. A mere graze from the Divine Beasts had turned them into meat paste. Those frozen by their own spells, however, still showed a faint energy signature under Life Vision. Quylla handled them delicately, being careful not to shatter them until her Spirit Spells thawed the ice. Meanwhile, Tista sundered one of the thralls with her battle claw, Firefang, while Lith plunged Ragnarök in the head of the other, killing him on the spot. The two young merchants were no warriors and had no training as Divine Beasts. Without any equipment to protect their exposed vitals, it took but a single swing of the enchanted blades to stop their rampage. ’That’s it?’ Tista asked in confusion. ’In what world is this an attack?’ ’This world!’ Lith pointed at the flaming sky falling on them and two tier five Spirit Spells coming from opposite directions. One of them came from above, beyond the fire wave, the other came from the ocean, and they were respectively aimed at the field hospital and the village plaza. ’We are not the target, our friends are!’ Tista Spirit Blinked in front of the incoming Blazing Storm. The small-sized tornado of emerald fire that erupted from the sea turned the sand into glass as it advanced, uprooting trees and animals that instantly turned to ashes due to the superheated air compressed in the cyclone’s eye. Tista had no spell at the ready and no time to weave one. She tapped into the Origin Flames she had stored inside Firefang and unleashed them against Blazing Storm. At the same time, Lith moved to intercept World Crusher. The six elements that comprised the emerald sphere produced a gravity one hundred times stronger than normal that distorted the air and crushed everything in World Crusher’s path. To make matters worse, the light and earth elements made World Crusher’s shell as hard as a diamond and darkness coated it with deadly energy. Lith conjured his golems, Trouble and Raptor, out of his pocket dimension and joined the Spirit Barrier of his Voidwalker armor with those generated by the golems’ emerald crystals. ’Without absorbing the world energy, the barriers will last but a few seconds, but that’s all I need!’ The Tiamat activated his Spirit Eye to dominate World Crusher and shot it back towards the sky. ’Shit, the Dead King is right. Verhen can really use Domination.’ Nuron, the Firbolg-Upyr, thought. ’I consumed the mana equivalent of my full violet core for nothing.’ He focused the Fire Soul on World Crusher, burning it enough to survive the ensuing conflagration. ’Stop projecting your gods-damned Frost Soul, Filos, or my Fire Soul will just be for show!’ Nuron said via a mind link. ’You know that Meln’s powers are just like him. They only care about themselves!’ ’Yeah, right.’ Filos, the Jormungandr-Upyr replied while dodging the onslaught of Tista’s battle claws. ’And who’s going to save me from this crazy bitch if I do? The moment her equipment works again, she’s going to gut me like a fish.’ Jormungandrs were sea serpents and were supposed to have the upper hand in the ocean. Alas, Filos couldn’t go deep or away without releasing the merfolk village from the effects of Frost Soul, which was exactly what Tista wanted. She wanted Lith to conjure the powers of the tower as much as the Upyrs wanted to stop him from activating his alleged super armor, Omega Prime. If that happened, the fight would end, and the Upyrs would lose their lives. ’This is weird.’ Lith noticed that the Upyr in the sky kept himself in the cover of the Fire Soul without moving forward or unleashing his bloodline ability. ’The surprise effect is already gone. ’With every second that passes, we can weave more spells and rescue the merfolk. Soon, the Upyrs will have no more hostages and no way to escape from us. What do they hope to achieve by-’ Lith’s eyes widened in realization when he found the only possible answer to his question. He gritted his teeth and flapped his wings in fury, throwing himself into the Fire Soul to kill the Upyr before it was too late. *** Carried by the Warp Steps opened by Moonlight, and empowered by Life Maelstrom, Orpal and his army of Upyrs covered thousands of miles with every dimensional opening they crossed.