The Emperor Beasts shot Alchemical bullets at the bottom of the stairwell and conjured a violent flame in front of the open door. The still-bouncing enchanted blades ripped the bullets open, releasing their content and spreading it through the air. At the same time, the hot air generated by the flames turned the stairwell into a chimney and carried the toxins. At that point, the three Emperor Beasts activated their potion tattoos. After countless experiments and tinkering, Kugoh had discovered that it was possible to amplify the effects of all kinds of fusion magic by adding a tiny amount of Hatorne’s toxins to body-enhancing potions. The toxins’ concentration had to be too low to make the elemental flow go haywire but high enough to stir a true mage’s untapped potential. Once the contaminated Alchemical potions interacted with fusion magic’s mana flow, the toxins acted like a catalyst, increasing the mana core’s output of two levels for true mages below the bright blue core and one for those at the bright blue. Jika’s and the other two Emperor Beasts’ fusion magic was now as strong as if they were deep violet-cored Awakeneds. The contaminated potions put a great strain on their bodies that would take days of rest to recover but first the Emperor Beast had to live long enough to worry about that. Lith never stopped or slowed down his descent, his cloaked aura seemingly unaffected. "Fuck!" As Lith walked through the door, Jika saw the thin layer of Origin Flames wrapped around Lith’s body. "The toxins didn’t work. Be car-" Lith flicked two fingers and the air between the Emperor Beasts blazed with emerald flames. Ragnarök bolted out of the pocket dimension from point-blank, hitting the serpentine Emperor Beasts and nailing her to the wall. As her two teammates instinctively turned their heads toward the source of the agonizing screams, Lith Spirit Blinked behind the canine Emperor Beast. One hand grabbed his neck while the other the small of his back, pulling them in opposite directions. By the time Jika saw Lith again, he was holding a severed head attached to part of a broken spine in his right hand and a leg in his left. The rest of the canine Emperor Beast lay on the floor in a puddle of his own blood. "Fuck!" The serpentine Emperor Beast was alive and screaming but Jika knew it was a trap. Somehow, the mana crystals on Ragnarök’s blade narrowed and its cross guard curled up in what was unmistakably a smile. The blade was taunting the Zouwu to take its hilt and pull Ragnarök out of his companion. The savage joy of that inhuman expression made Jika’s blood run cold. He activated his bloodline ability, Flash Steps, conjuring a lightning bolt from his tail. It produced a blinding flash of light and bestowed upon the Zouwu a speed that far exceeded even that of a bright violet core. Jika used the narrow corridor to his advantage, running along the walls and kicking the solid stone to jump around in an unpredictable pattern like a living bullet. "Slow." Lith’s voice sounded metallic as it came out of a weird helmet with mana crystals on its sides. He caught the Zouwu by the neck in mid-air like he was just a bouncing ball. Lith held Jika up in the air and slowly increased the pressure of his grip. He had no time to torture his enemy but there was still that trick he had learned as a kid. Stay connected through freewebnovel Darkness magic flooded Jika’s brain, distorting his perception of time and extending those agonizing seconds into hours. Lith wanted him to suffer as long as Chyrsha/Elina had. "Slow?" The Zouwu echoed in disbelief. "You are unlucky." Lith replied, crushing Jika’s neck protector and squeezing his windpipe. "I’ve already met one of your kind. He was much faster than you and I have learned a trick or two since then." He had focused the Ears of Menadion on the Zouwu, filtering the other energy signatures. Flash Step made Jika faster than Lith, but his hand had reached not for where the Zouwu’s neck was but where it would be. "You are a beast like us." Jika gasped. "Why are you doing this?" "Why, you ask?" Lith’s voice rose with a tinge of fury. "You shouldn’t have touched her. You shouldn’t have touched my mother." "What?" The Zouwu was so shocked that he almost didn’t notice when Lith’s hand finally clenched and severed Jika’s head from his body. ’It’s impossible.’ The Zouwu thought in his final moments. ’We only took nobodies. People with no friends or family. People no one would miss. How could we make such a mistake?’ Those questions found no answer before Jika’s consciousness faded. Ragnarök stopped toying with its prey and killed the serpentine Emperor Beast, returning to Lith’s side. "Made her scream." It said, looking for approval. "I heard. Good boy. Now stand back." Lith looked down the corridor and the Eyes of Menadion spotted the energy signatures of several Emperor Beasts laying in ambush on either side of a T-section despite the powerful cloaking items they wore. He took a deep breath and when he exhaled, tongues of fire sparked out of his skin. When he exhaled after the second breath, his feathered wings unfurled from his back and silvery flames wreathed his body. Upon the third breath, the Dread Flames flooded the corridor and burst forward like a raging river breaking through a dam. The silvery flames sealed every nook and cranny between the stones, destroying all the mechanical traps they found on their path. When the Dread Flames reached the T-section, they split into two streams, taking the Emperor Beasts waiting around the corners by surprise. The predators turned into prey and then into charred corpses as the Dread Flames raged forward until the last spark of their destructive power was consumed. "You can come now." Lith said and Locrias opened a Spirit Steps that led the small army of one-eyed Demons to its destination. "Split up again. Solus, with me. I don’t want to take any chances. "Everyone else, do as you please. As long as no one comes out of here alive it will be a job well done." The weak Demons swarmed past the T-section and slipped under every door they found, drawing a map of the place as they moved forward. All Emperor Beasts wore cloaking items, making it impossible to discern their strength, but the enchanted doors were clue enough. Even one-eyed Demons had Life Vision and could gauge the power and quality of each sealed door’s enchantments. Most of them had been mass-produced, bearing a standard reinforcement and an alarm spell. Only one door was custom-made. Lith and Solus moved toward the massive wooden door studded with Orichalcum, mana crystals, and enchanted with a self-repair spell. The door behind which Kugoh and Shasa were trying to dig their way to the sewers. *** "Jika is dead." Shasa said. "I can see that." Kugoh grunted, trying to remember everything Igrod had taught him about Earth Vision and recreate it. It was a long shot but it was worth a try. "What about the others?" "The rest of his squad is dead. Everyone else is saf-" More communication runes disappeared, cutting Shasa short.