Chapter 4116: Something Missing (Part 1) ’I know that something as big as a mage tower is hard to miss, but isn’t facing it like this too dangerous?’ Crank conjured his Mana Body bloodline ability and the Mage Knight spell, Full Guard, to have at least awareness of his surroundings. ’I can hit this thing all day, but if it attacks me back, I won’t notice until it’s too late!’ Call of the Void blinded everybody but Lith, Solus, and the Demons. The Hyperion felt the blackness brush across his thick fur like a living thing and did his best to ignore the pressure that the unnatural darkness exerted on his sensory organs. Crank joined his fists, slamming them against the side of the Black Throne along with the tier five Spirit Spell, Phoenix smash, releasing a blast of emerald flames that burned at both the cursed tower and his arrays. ’Same here.’ Phillard hacked and slashed at the white marble with his axes in what he considered his version of Blade Magic. Each blow was accompanied by a spell released by the enchantments of his weapons, combining his physical and magical might into something greater than the sum of the single parts. ’I feel as helpless as a fish in a barrel, and I don’t trust our bodyguards much.’ The members of the team were accompanied by a one-eyed Demon of the Darkness who stood right beside them or, in Crank’s, Tista’s, and Protector’s case, on them. ’They are not our bodyguards.’ Friya put down Thundercrash as she shapeshifted into her hybrid Hydra form. ’They are your eyes.’ The Demon next to her connected Friya to the Demons that surrounded the Black Throne and allowed her to see through their eyes. In turn, Friya used the mind link connecting her friends with the nearby Demons to give them the next best thing to sight. The angle was a bit off, and the field of view didn’t change when the members of the group turned their heads around, but it was better than nothing. ’I have yet to master a single extra head, and now I need five of them.’ Friya inwardly cursed. ’Lith gave me the time to sync each head to a different Demon, but it’s still so damn hard! It requires my full focus and to keep all my eyes closed. ’To let the others see, I’m going to be as helpless as our enemies until Lith dispels the Call of the Void.’ ’Don’t worry about that.’ Friya had kept those thoughts to herself, but Lith just needed to look at her expression via her guardian Demon to know how she felt. ’The Demon I assigned to you has six eyes and plenty of Vital Storm. ’You’ll be fine. Besides, I’m going to send a thank you committee to the mage tower to return its warm welcome.’ Lith conjured a few one-eyed Demons around himself and swapped places with them multiple times to hide his real position. Just like Solus, they shared his same energy signature. Under a Life Sensing array, there was no way to distinguish Lith from his Demons. At the same time, Lith used his breathing technique, Abyssal Grasp, to heal from his wounds and replenish his mana. New Demons came to life all over the Black Throne’s floors, hungry for vengeance. Jorl and the Upyrs carried a few angry souls with them, but the cursed tower was much older and crueler than his newfound allies. The Black Throne had killed so many people and subjected so many victims to his experiments over the millennia that a small army of vengeful souls always followed the cursed tower. A few of them came to life that day, and were given the opportunity to settle their scores. Lith gave the Demons just enough mana to form, raising only one soul per floor. The idea was to use the Demons to scout the unknown tower and study it from the inside while also forcing the enemy to split its focus on multiple fronts. ’If that thing has even one-hundredth of Solus’ power, giving the Demons half an eye or six eyes makes no difference.’ Lith thought. ’Their ability to feed upon the enemy’s strength makes them nigh-indestructible anyway. ’My scouts stand above a weird mana geyser and inside a mage tower. They have everything they need to reach six eyes on their own.’ The vengeful Demons trashed the furniture and clawed at the walls, feeding off the Black Throne’s mana and life force via their Abomination Touch and making them their own. "This doesn’t make sense. I detect multiple people with Verhen’s energy signature across my floors, but there was no breach. All my arrays and walls are intact." The cursed tower pondered. "What are these things and how did they get in?" He needed a mere thought to squash the vengeful Demons, but the shadows rose again after a fraction of a second. "I don’t know who this Verhen is, but he seems a much greater threat to our plans than Narchat himself." The Black Throne tried to spot the real Lith, but there were too many Demons, and the Tiamat’s cloaking ring hid his strength. Meanwhile, on the outside, Protector could finally go all-out like it hadn’t happened for ages. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢 ’Don’t worry about me, Friya. I can manage on my own. Just be ready to assist me in case something goes wrong.’ For once, the Skoll wasn’t in his humanoid form, but in his true Emperor Beast body. Protector closed his eyes and enjoyed the wind under his wings, the countless smells of spells and allies. Then, he dived into the Call of the Abyss, relying on his instincts to guide him in battle. The Skoll had already been fast as a blue core, but after reaching the violet, his speed had soared to new heights. Protector reached the Black Throne in an instant, releasing all the spells he had prepared from his huge paws as he bounced on the stone wall. A single flap of his feathered wings carried him away and unleashed his tier five Battle Mage spell, Shadow Cutter. It released darkness-infused air blades that bombarded the Black Throne and acted as decoys for his escape. The cursed tower fired elemental blasts from the windows, but they seemed to phase through the Skoll without encountering any resistance. "The bastard moves so fast that my sensory arrays can’t keep up with him." The Black Throne sounded more amused than worried. "I’m aiming where I think he will be, but my spells arrive too late anyway." "Time to blow shit up!" Tista overcharged herself and her battle claws, Firefang, with Vital Storm before activating Ethereal Aegis. The bloodline ability turned her into a living mass of Origin Flames as she dived through the Black Throne and released the Cursed Flames stored in her weapons left and right. The cursed tower shuddered upon the impact, more alarms blared, and more lights flashed. Alas, no one could see them. ’Not to jinx this, but is a mage tower supposed to be this lame?’ Morok intercepted the windows’ elemental blasts with his eyes, cleansing them of the enemy’s willpower and weaving them into his own spells with no cost for his mana core.