Chapter 2040 Before the Storm (Part 2) The Thunderborne would have preferred to burn both golems and Demons with a breath of Origin Flames but with Solus up again, she couldn't risk to waste her strength. She conjured two tier five spells, Frozen Wind and Shattered Earth. The former took the form of several tornadoes filled with razor-sharp ice crystals while the latter caused the ground to erupt into pillars of lava, one for each enemy. 'Now!' Locrias said via the invisible mind link that they shared through the chains. Four of their remaining eyes lit up in unison as they activated Domination and combined their willpower to wrest control of her spells and turn them against Leari. Solus and Lith had to be careful when using Domination. It was a skill known to few bloodlines that were jealous of its secret and wouldn't hesitate to kill those who compromised it. On top of that, Thrud's generals couldn't be killed as long as the Golden Griffon existed. There was no way to shut their mouth and the risk that after experiencing its effects many times they might learn it. The Demons, however, had no such problem. Lith had spread the lie that it was a bloodline ability unique to the souls who answered his call and since he belonged to a newborn species, no one knew what the Demons could actually do. While the Thunderborne was forced to waste a Spirit Barrier to defend against her own magic, the ex-soldiers of the Kingdom had finished their chant. They had conjured the same tier four Light Mastery spell, Diamond Cutter. It generated a hard-light construct shaped like a drill that incorporated the hardest minerals in the ground to combine the speed of a light beam with the hardness of the earth element. The spells formed a triangular formation that attacked Leari from the front and the sides, leaving her no way out. The Divine Beast roared in annoyance as she was forced to keep her Spirit Barrier on and consume even more mana. 'That's why Light Mastery is so annoying.' She thought. 'Regular-sized spells and weapons are mosquito bites for those like me but the size of a hard-light construct can be adjusted at will.' At the same time, Solus kept her breathing technique active and focused on the light elemental gem of the Sage Staff to draw in the abundant light element of the morning sun. Once the energy reached a concentration that she could barely control, Solus converted it into her tier three Light Mastery spell, Sunburst. An incandescent pillar of light the size of a train struck the barrier in the same point of the first drill construct. 'What the?' Life Vision showed Leari that the two spells had the same energy signature so instead of clashing, they ignored each other. Her shock only grew when Sunburst started to spin faster and faster, doubling the pressure that the drill applied to the barrier. Then, the energy from Sunburst seeped inside Diamond Cutter until the two spells become one. The speed and hardness of the drill increased again, piercing through the barrier before the Thunderborne could recover from the surprise. The spell stabbed her massive chest while spinning at high speed, sending blood and feathers flying around. With the Spirit Barrier weakened, the other two Diamond Cutter crushed through it, stabbing the Thunderborne's wings and pinning her into place. Darkness fusion allowed her to feel no pain, but if the main drill hit her heart she would have died. 'Good plan, but not good enough!' Leari unleashed Stormlight inside her own body, using it to destroy the constructs without the risk of Solus absorbing it. The Diamond Cutters met the bloodline ability head-on and were crushed by it. The Thunderborne roared in triumph as she unleashed one of Thrud's tier five spells, Royal Blood, against Solus. It conjured a tidal wave of violet fire that spread in every direction, forming a sphere of flames that extended even below the ground, turning it into magma. Once the encirclement was complete, Royal Blood started to shrink. The walls of fire became thicker while the air element imbued in the spell created chains of lightning that would paralyze anyone who tried to force their way out of the trap. Tier five spells could use only two elements at the same time, but the Mad Queen had devised Royal Blood so that it could add a third one with little extra mana consumption if the circumstances were right. The fire element had seeped and mixed with the earth, making it easy for Leari to manipulate the lava by spreading the willpower imbued in the fire throughout the molten ground. The temperature rose so quickly that the soles of the Voidwalker armor turned from golden to red. Despite the heat resistance of the enchanted metal and her enhanced body, Solus could feel the flesh of her feet sizzle. She clenched her teeth but refused to activate darkness fusion. After being trapped inside her stone form for over a decade, incapable of feeling anything, Solus embraced pain because it made her feel alive. She screamed in agony, but her mind remained focused enough to activate her tier five Light Mastery spell, Bright Arsenal. A giant hammer-shaped construct appeared out of thin air above Leari's head while an anvil appeared below her feet, both created by combining the earth and light elements. The Divine Beast sidestepped, tripping on her own feet and taking the blow in full. Darkness fusion was a great tool in battle, but it was also a double-edged sword. Feeling no pain allowed Awakened to always fight at their best, but it also made it impossible for them to know when and where they were hurt. The hammer had been a distraction, drawing Leari's attention while hard-light chains had bound her legs. Sword constructs stabbed in the space between the armor plates, making her bleed, while maces struck at her joins, crippling her. The number and size of the conjured weapons would have been enough to arm a battalion of Emperor Beasts and they all moved in unison, complementing each other's attack. Solus had limited mana due to her blue core so her spells were capped by the amount of elemental energy that she could conjure. That was the reason she had asked the three Demons to do it for her. When the Diamond Cutters had been shattered into sparkles they had simply lost their physical form. Energy can't be created or destroyed, only transformed. Solus had collected the light element before it returned to the world energy and used it to cast Bright Arsenal. Leari's vision blurred from the blood loss, yet she could still see it. She could see a pillar of white and golden light coming down from the sky like the finger of an angry god and piercing through Royal Blood. She could see a figure about 1.8 (5'11) meters tall and covered in golden scales standing in the middle of it. Two sets of wings came out of Solus's back, one membranous and golden while the other seemed to be comprised of hair that had been knotted and twisted to resemble feathers of the seven colors of the elements. Her hands now ended with razor-sharp claws and long horns that resembled thick tree branches rested on the sides of her head.