The third caused the corrupted mana to surge upwards. The Black Star trembled while small cracks appeared on its surface. Only then Lith stopped chanting. The ink on the ground turned grey before fading away. Interrupting a spell was no different from a failed cast. The mana still inside the liquid had no direction anymore, it turned against its host burning it from the inside. Lith chanted Freeze again, renewing the seal and crushing the Black Star confidence at once. "You are not a Kadurian. If you die there’s no turning back. Tell me what I want to know or face oblivion." It took a while for Lith’s words to sink into the artifacts shocked mind. It had always been the apex predator. In the small cage it had lived in for the past centuries, the Black Star had been an unparalleled existence. Humans lived or died at its whims. It knew no fear. Nothing could hurt it, even the Rangers were just a small hindrance. They could delay its plans, but nothing more. The Black Star slowly realized the clerics’ treachery, which had turned its own body into an enemy. Lith spread the ink a second time, letting the fourth rune spread the cracks until they almost connected between themselves before stopping. Lith was disgusted at himself for what he was doing, but he felt he had no choice. All that talking before killing the monster in front of himself was against his code. Kill first, questions later. That was how he did business. Any other course of action implied too many dangers, especially against a being that could kill him with a stray thought. Yet he had never been so close to finding a solution to his problems. ’I want to be the only master of my destiny. Ever since my death on Earth, I’ve been a puppet into someone else’s hands. I’m tired of scheming, of lying to everyone I love, to survive through each day instead of living. I’m sick of fearing the moment when everything I worked so hard for will be ripped from my hands by a random event. No more Carls, no more Yurials. If I can finally protect what’s mine, then I’m willing to pay almost any price.’ Lith’s determination dwarfed his fear, putting even his paranoia on a very short leash. He waited until the cracks on the Dark Star started to mend before casting both the spells for a third time. The artifact awoke from his daze. Its hatred turned into fear and then into panic. "If you kill me, all the Kadurians will die with me." It said in a last, desperate gamble. "A whole civilization will disappear. Their blood will be on your hands!" The Black Star had heard the clerics repeat those words so many times. They were bound to be important to humans. Lith let the fifth and sixth rune turn the cracks into small fissures before stopping. A huge amount of mana gushed out from the wounds while the whole city quaked. One of the black puddles on the ground turned into a shooting star that darted upwards and through the ceiling. Lith could see from the window several lights rise to the sky. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚 "I don’t care about a dead civilization made of dead people. What you give them is not life, but a caricature of it. You took away their freedom, their hopes, and their future, leaving behind only fear and misery. "Do you have any idea what does it mean being in so much pain to wish for death and having even that denied? To be forced to live your worst nightmare over and over again?" Lith’s voice trembled with rage. Solus knew she wasn’t talking about the Kadurians anymore. "What about me?" The Dark Star replied when Lith started his chant again. "What about my pain, my future? What makes you different from me?" "Only one thing. I never kill my prey more than once." The runes seeped inside the artifact’s body, widening the fissures and causing another outburst of shooting stars. "Enough! I beg of you!" The Black Star could feel the damage getting closer to its mana core. To make things worse, it was losing control over an increasing number of Kadurians. The loss was still negligible, but it would slow down its plans nonetheless. "The secret lies in my crystalline body. It’s only thanks to it that I can do it." Those words were enough to stop Lith’s chanting at the third rune. "What do you mean? Explain yourself." "Instead of using the mana crystal to fuel my abilities, the humans used it to store my conscience and powers. That was their first mistake." The cursed object said while focusing on healing its wounds. "Their spell was meant to use me as an energy reserve for their purposes. They bound me to this city by using the mana geyser beneath it and the crystal network above the roofs as the only way I have to feed myself. "They thought I would have been their tool, dispensing the collected energies among their ranks. They had no idea this body possesses the ability to manipulate mana at will. "Linking me to their bodies, to their cores, to this city’s every brick was their second mistake. According to their plan, I could only give, but thanks to the crystal, I turned it into a two way path. Instead of being their nanny, I took everything they had. "I collected their life forces and their mana cores, using them just as they meant to use me. I consider it poetic justice." ’Just like an orc shaman is able to suck away the world energy.’ Lith thought. ’Probably the Black Star can’t do the same, otherwise it wouldn’t need to cycle between the light and the shadow phase.’ "With that much power, I traveled through the north, punishing our enemies. Once I killed the invaders, I purged our glorious country from the heretics and unbelievers. They fought me with all their might, even the so called grand cleric of the High Sun tried to stop me, saying it wasn’t up to me to dispense justice. "Yet I was stronger than all of them combined. Sadly, away from the mana geyser, my reserves started to dwindle. Under the constant pursuit of my enemies, I was forced to retreat here and to recreate the spires to feed me again. Before I could recover, they enveloped Kaduria with this barrier, cutting me off from the geyser. Until I discovered that by restoring the humans, I could force the world energy through the barrier and use it to regain my freedom." "What about the Shadows? What are they?" Lith asked. "I wasn’t linked to the humans’ minds, so I can’t assimilate them. I don’t know how they can survive without a body nor do I care. They do nothing but whine and despair. They’re useless to me." "Just like you are to me." Lith replied before chanting for the last time. ’Sadly, even if I could replicate the Black Star, it’s not something I can use. Linking my mind, body and mana core to a magic crystal is useless without it having a conscience willing to revive me.’ Lith thought. ’I can’t entrust my life to a cursed object. I would end up like the Kadurians, or worse.’ Lith had just finished casting Freeze, when Solus warned him. ’Watch out, someone is approaching the main temple.’ ’Soldiers carry only normal weapons, they can’t hurt me.’ Lith replied. ’Not a soldier. They’re about to fly through the window. To be able to use magic, they must be from the outside world.’