Chapter 4016: Cursed vs Corrupted (Part 1) "How nice of you to visit, Verhen." Nuron clapped his hands, and the roaring sea of fire converged upon the Indech from every side. "The Dead King will be delighted to learn about... whatever that new form of yours is." The Firbolg retreated at a safe distance to avoid getting caught in the firestorm and stay away from the unknown creature. Lith instinctively tried to counter the Fire Soul with a burst of Origin Flames. He took a deep breath, feeling the world energy enter from his nose, descend through his throat, and flood his lungs and heart. Yet when he exhaled, only a comically small puff of fire came out of his mouth. Fire Soul encountered no resistance as it crashed against the stupefied Indech like a raging tide, drowning him in a sea of flames. ’Fuck me sideways, my human side is so atrophied that it can’t use the abilities of my other aspects, just like I struggle to use my human abilities in my Tiamat form!’ Lith cursed his bad luck and activated the Spirit Barriers of the Voidwalker armor and the golems. The good news was that, thanks to Swirling Wind, all three of them had access to an abundant source of world energy, and their power cores depleted slowly. The bad news was that Nuron had been charging his attack for quite a long time before Orpal gave him the order to attack. Fire Soul consumed no mana, and between its sheer size and the side effect of Swirling Wind, the Vurdalak bloodline ability built up an astounding destructive power. Fire Soul ebbed and flowed, relentlessly striking at the Spirit Barriers while trapping Lith and his golems in its core. The bloodline ability had no blind spot or opening, blinding Lith’s magical and regular senses to the position of his enemy. ’Solus, can you see him?’ He asked via the long-distance mind link they shared thanks to the pieces of the Menadion Set. ’No, I’m sorry.’ She replied. ’The tower is still barely operational. Do you want me to cast an Annihilation or a Bastion?’ ’Yes, but only if this doesn’t work.’ He replied, and before she could ask for an explanation, Lith traced a few jagged lines in the air and yelled: "Jerak!" The blast of Zero element pierced through the sea of fire like paper, but missed his target by a wide margin. On top of that, a thick layer of ice now covered the golems and Lith’s right hand. ’I was right.’ Lith thought.’ The Cursed Elements can counter whatever power conjured this fire, and I retain my resistance to Mirror Magic while in my Indech form. I can use Jerak a few more-’ ’What was that?’ Nuron thought. ’I can feel the coldness of that thing from here. Thank the gods I kept moving around to not offer Verhen a fixed target in case he spotted me. If that spell hit me I-’ Fire Soul disappeared all around Lith for over ten meters, derailing the train of thought of both the Indech and the Firbolg. ’Now!/Oh, shit!’ They thought in unison, one trying to escape the encirclement of the sea of flames and the other trying to fill the gaps Zero had opened. Lith moved towards the side where the layers of Fire Soul were thinner, but Nuron sent a waterfall of mystical fire against the Indech to stop him. ’Again!’ Solus said. ’Cast Jerak again!’ "Jerak!" Lith had yet to try using Zero’s magic word with his mind and couldn’t risk doing it now, so he kept using fake magic. The Zero smothered the fire waterfall, but the reasoning behind Solus’ advice became clear only a second later. Another large amount of Fire Soul surrounding Lith disappeared into thin air, allowing him to break free from the deathtrap. ’It’s thanks to Zero, or rather, Cinder!’ She explained. ’Grandpa told us that Elysia’s Jerak also conjures Cinder, but spreads it in a vast area all around the caster. That’s why the Upyr’s Fire Soul disappears.’ ’Because they repel each other.’ Lith said in understanding. ’Whatever force drives Meln’s power, it’s incompatible with its corresponding Cursed Element.’ "Jerak! Jerak! Jerak!" Lith traced the Zero rune in the air several times as he bolted towards the Firbolg, but no elemental pillar emerged. Each one of the runes released a pulse of Cinder that consumed the Fire Soul that was chasing Lith long before it could get even close to the Indech. "I know I can’t beat you, Verhen." Nuron said. "I’m a nobody. Just one of the many followers of your brother. Which is all the more reason I should be the least of your worries." He conjured the tier five Spirit Spell, Breakdown, and hurled it down towards the Starry Lagoon village, where Lith’s friends were still busy rescuing the injured merfolk. Lith recognized the hexaelemental sphere and the destructive power it carried. Yet he didn’t stop his advance, knowing that the Upyr had probably more spells at the ready and would unleash them one after another to waste Lith’s time and mana. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖 ’Besides, I don’t need to.’ He thought as Trouble and Raptor stood in Breakdown’s path and conjured emerald bursts of Phoenix Smash. The energy blasts of the combined Spirit Spells shattered the emerald sphere, detonating it far away from its target. Lith rode the resulting shockwave to increase his speed and exploited the cover of the Phoenix Smash to hide his energy signature, catching Nuron unprepared. The Upyr-Firbolg was still using Orpal’s breathing technique, Dark Sovereign, to recover his strength when Lith suddenly emerged from the smoke and charged at him. Nuron flapped his wings to escape, but a set of emerald chains erupted from the Indech’s left hand and wrapped themselves around the Upyr’s right arm up to the shoulder. "Get over here!" The tier five Spirit Spell, Griffon Fetters, had been devised long ago by human Awakened to restrict the mightiest of the Divine Beasts, and an Upyr’s strength didn’t even come close. Nuron failed to break the Fetters that shortened with a clink, bringing Upyr and Indech face to face. "I have one word for you. Jerak!" Lith’s chained hand closed around the Firbolg’s fist as he conjured the power of the Zero element. Chore magic wasn’t enough to kill someone the size of a Divine Beast, but it carried enough power to freeze Nuron’s right arm to the bone. Zero didn’t affect Lith since the spell was perfect and comprised of his mana, but the Indech still suffered from the sudden drop in temperature. The emerald chains and the layer of ice connecting the two limbs locked the two Divine Beasts in an unbreakable embrace that Lith exploited to stab Nuron. Ragnarök’s Davross made short work of the still-depowered Adamant of the Firbolg’s armor, the entire length of the blade disappearing inside Nuron’s body with each lunge. The Firbolg and the Indech were about the same size, but their mass was another story. Lith was a bright violet Tiamat, while Nuron had just achieved the violet core. On top of that, the Firbolg’s Verdant Oak armor weighed just a few kilos. Young Divine Beasts struggled to gather the materials to craft equipment that fit their full size, and Nuron was no exception.