’Solus, do you have any idea about what are those black orbs?’ Lith thought. ’Incoming at 12 o’clock!’ She shouted when Treius opened his mouth once again. ’Leave the idiot to me. I need an edge to win this fight and you are my only hope.’ A snap of Lith’s fingers made another of the six points of Yurial’s Hexagram light up with a red light as the yellow one faded away. The tier five Raging Sun that Treius was about to unleash died out like a lighter out of gas. Even with the Black Star’s support, only a few sparks came out. The array was a variation of Silverwing’s Hexagram that Yurial had theorized after gaining a deeper understanding of the impossible array. His take on the spell was weaker, yet in exchange it caused much less strain on the caster. It had taken Lith years to turn his old friend’s theories into reality. Just looking at Treius shocked expression repaid him of all his hard work. ’First, he took away my flight spell and now this? What’s happening?’ The moment the ant started retaliating to brute force with technique, the dragon lost his spunk. ’You are still under the array, you idiot.’ The Black Star’s thoughts were filled with contempt. ’I have no idea what it does, but I’m pretty sure that if you get out of its area of effect it will stop working.’ Lith saw Treius muscles contract and with a thought released Yurial’s Hexagram’s full force. The array didn’t simply negate one element at the time, it absorbed the mana composing the nullified spells and stored it for later use. All the six points of the star lit up. The magical formation was now employing the stolen energy and the array’s to generate a powerful gravity field that made Treius collapse under his own weight. The Shadows exploited the situation to attack their enemy with all their might. ’It will not hold for long. The array drained only two spells, one of which was a cantrip.’ Lith thought. ’Okay, okay.’ Solus replied with a frustrated tone while scanning the floating orbs with all of her senses and making her brain spin at top gear to get at least a hypothesis about their nature. ’Done. We know that when a Shadow touches its victim, it saps their life force and mana. Also, after killing the Shadow, you recover your life force, right? Each of these spheres has its own energy signature, like a proper living being. ’I think that by attacking the Black Star, the Shadows are retrieving their own life force that the cursed item stole in the first place. They are still here after the Shadows’ defeat because they have nowhere to go until the Black Star absorbs them again.’ Lith nodded in understatement. Even in death, the Kadurians were fighting against their oppressor. They were clinging on the retrieved life force with all their might. ’Then maybe...’ Lith grabbed the nearest sphere. ’If I can absorb them, then I might be able to get as big as he is and regain the upper hand.’ Yet nothing happened. Lith could feel the residual mental energy recognizing him a friend, but nothing more. Like a mother that had just found her lost child, it refused to let the energy go. ’So much for all that "share your power with me" bullshit.’ Lith inwardly cursed. ’Useless humans. We are fighting the same battle yet they can only think about themselves. Every man for himself then.’ Lith cast the tier five healing spells Scanner and Scalpel. ’Haven’t those poor souls suffered enough?’ Solus said. ’Is this really necessary?’ ’Heck, yes.’ Lith replied butchering the spheres near to him at once. ’Life is for the living, not for the dead. Their lives ended the day the Black Star was born. If we lose this fight and that bastard walks out of the barrier, all cities will become like Kaduria.’ Solus had seen their memories, she knew their suffering. Yet she was glad to have raised her objection. She couldn’t have lived with herself if she just stood there doing nothing. Also, it allowed her to take a peek at a hidden side of Lith’s mind. Breaking the oath he had taken the day he had become a professional Healer meant nothing to him. Pretty words couldn’t save lives nor stop monsters. He didn’t base his actions on concepts like innocence or guilt, Lith only thought in terms of survival. Yet he considered the Kadurians like brothers in arms. They knew pain even better than he did. Lith could not only relate to them, but they also had his respect. It was the reason why he could butcher their life force without a second thought. He knew that in their place he would do anything to get free from his oppressor. Pain would be momentary, freedom would be everlasting. Lith darted across the battlefield, maiming all the spheres outside the array that was quickly running out of juice. That day his Scalpels turned into Cleavers. One strike was all it took to inflict a damage that would take him hours to heal. Yurial’s Hexagram disappeared and Treius stood up in outrage. He stomped the Shadows swarming him and unleashed an endless barrage of spells against Lith. He managed to dodge most of them, block some, and was forced to tank the rest. There were countless spheres at Treius’s feet, some almost the size of a person. An ice spike ripped one of Lith’s wings off. Inside it there were pain receptors he didn’t even knew he possessed, so they were still active. The agony of the mutilation almost made him stumble. Almost. He never stopped moving and neither did his Cleavers. A burst of flames from a dodged fireball ripped off the scales from his left arm, leaving the bloody flesh underneath exposed. Lith kept waving his hands like an orchestra director in the exploding inferno around him. Solus used her own mana to generate more Cleavers to help him finish the job. Just a few seconds had passed since Treius was back on his feet, yet all the Shadows were already gone. He was free to focus on the last pest. Treius infused himself with all the air, fire, and earth fusion prowess the Black Star could bestow upon him. He became a god of speed, a god of destruction. A single stomp of his made the earth tremble as it was afraid of the titan ravaging its surface. The impact generated a subsonic shockwave that sent debris flying for kilometers until they struck the barrier surrounding Kaduria. Lith flew backward and conjured a series of massive earth walls to protect himself. They took the brunt of the impact, buying him precious fractions of second that let him escape from the epicenter of the strike. The walls crumbled one after the other. The shockwave was still strong enough to make Lith tumble and fall on the ground. He got back on his feet with a kip-up, never letting his eyes wander off his opponent. "I told you, no matter what trick you employ, you can’t beat overwhelming power." Treius guffawed at his opponent’s still defiant eyes despite his battered body. He bolted forward for the finishing blow as he spoke.