Chapter 3813: Written in Blood (Part 2)

’I’m so sorry.’ Acala said while taking Dawn’s wounds on himself to allow her to keep fighting to the peak of her strength. ’If only I were a better host, we too would have achieved Fusion like Verhen.’

’How can you say that?’ She replied. ’Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I’m not as good a partner as Solus.’

’It’s possible, but unlikely.’ Acala telepathically shrugged. ’You are born for that. I’m the messed-up one.’

’Well, I disagree!’ She snarled, releasing enough power from her steed to dispel the abnormal gravity of Collapsed Sun. ’I don’t know what we are doing wrong, but there’s one thing I’m certain of.

’Your desire to protect me matches mine to protect you, and we’ll reach Fusion. Maybe not today, but someday we will!’

"Cursed be you, undead!" Ruugat conjured a second Cruel Star, and this time, there was nothing to stop the spell from reaching Dawn.

***

"I’ve seen enough!" Hundreds of kilometers away, from atop a mana geyser, Baba Yaga had spectated the fight since the beginning. "My baby girl needs me."

She tried to stand up from her seat, but a powerful hand kept her down.

"No, she doesn’t." Zagran the Garuda, the Guardian of Might, surrounded the hunting cabin that dissimulated Baba Yaga’s mage tower with a powerful seal. "If you want your children to grow, you must let them fight their battles."

"How dare you stop me?" The Red Mother snarled. "One of my Horsemen has finally put her life on the line to help the undead she is supposed to protect. She is working with one of my Firstborns, not for petty interests, but for the good of all the races.

"Dawnie has already done enough. Her actions have already achieved enough. Can’t you see how those people who hated each other until a few years ago are now fighting side by side?"

"That’s exactly the reason I’m stopping you, old friend." Zagran shook her head. "If you were to step in now, everything the allied forces of Jiera and Garlen have done so far would be for nothing. No matter if they defeat Ruugat or just survive.

"They’d consider the outcome of the battle a divine intervention, not the result of their hard work and sacrifices.

"The alliance between the continents would crumble, and so would the newborn respect that the members of the expedition have established by shedding their blood for their unlikely comrades.

"Those who have fallen during the battle wouldn’t be remembered as brave heroes, just as unlucky fellows who died before a higher power settled the score for everyone.

"They would be blamed for their inability to survive until your arrival by their comrades, while their races would hate you for being late.

"I’m the Guardian of Might, Yaga. I prioritize personal growth above everything else. Sometimes, we learn more from our defeats than from our victories. It pains me to say, but the lessons we remember best are the ones written in blood."

Baba Yaga struggled one last time, giving everything she had to escape.

’I can do it.’ She thought as the barrier trapping her hut cracked. ’I can break free from Zagran’s hold, but I’ll never make it in time to save Dawn!’

***

’I can’t remember the last time someone underestimated me enough to turn their back on me.’ Lith though. ’It’s like riding a bicycle. Fun and easy!’

Ruugat had assumed that after taking away the Engine’s blade and sealing it inside his chest, the puny lost city was no longer a threat. He was wrong.

Lith activated Ragnarök’s enchantment, Gleipnir, to conjure a mystical chain that restored his connection with Double Edge even from a distance. While the lost city hurled one spell after another at Dawn, Lith and Solus had finished weaving their Tower Blade Spell, Ruin.

The runes comprising the spell were stored in the Cannon Vault, but that amounted only to half the power of Ruin.

The other half had to be drawn from Lith’s and Solus’ equipment, combined with the half from the Cannon Vault, and merged into something that greatly exceeded the sum of the single parts.

Not only because that was the nature of a Blade Spell, but also because there were many, many parts.

Normally, a mage possessed only a few items with a power core. Their weapon, armor, and maybe a few powerful rings would fuse temporarily with their mana core to fuel a Blade Spell.

In Lith’s and Solus’ case, however, all the items stored inside the Armory, the Thievery, and the Spark had a power core and took part in fueling Ruin. Last, but not least, there was the tower core itself.

The golden chains of Gleipnir carried Ruin’s runes, the mana to give the Blade Spell shape, and the golden lightning bolts necessary to amplify the Tower Blade Spell threefold.

Ruugat had just aimed the second Cruel Star at the Horseman when his chest burned with a sensation unknown to a cursed object. He doubled over, clenching at his stone and metal armor to make it stop.

Despite the lack of organic components, despite the thick layer of Earthly Vault reducing attacks strong enough to level a magical castle to mere prickles, Ruugat of the Earth felt pain.

Double Edge released Ruin from within the lost city’s body, exploiting the enchanted metal veins connecting Ruugat’s pseudo cores with the mana crystals to spread the Tower Blade Spell like poison.

At the same time, Ragnarök’s World Mirror, Counter Flow, and Anti-Golem enchantments short-circuited the magic that gave Ruugat a semblance of life.

The combined effects of Ragnarök’s enchantments kept the internal defensive arrays from activating and stopped the flow of earth element necessary to maintain Earthly Vault active and Ruugat impervious to damage.

Stone and Adamant retained their original properties, but without the protection of the magical formations, the Tower Blade Spell made short work of them. Ruin melted the stone and shredded the Adamant, carving a large hole around Double Edge’s blade but without affecting the area surrounding its hilt.

"You cowardly bastard!" Ruugat snarled, pulling at Double Edge to take it out and triggering Ragnarök’s Reverse Imprint enchantment.

Metal spikes erupted from Double Edge’s grip and poured violent mana waves that spread through Ruugat’s hand like acid. The mana waves ravaged the lost city’s limb and aimed straight for his pseudo cores, burning everything they met in their path.

The agony was so intense that Ruugat lost control over Cruel Star, his willpower too focused on making sense of the situation to bother with the Horseman anymore.

’Perfect!’ Dawn finished dispelling the lingering effects of Ruugat’s previous two spells and activated her tier five Light Mastery spell, Morning Star.

A construct infused with enough mana to give the spell a mass on par with a Divine Beast surrounded her Twilight Blade, forming an exact, colossal replica of the sword.

The Horseman activated the air element of her Davross equipment to boost her weapon and the construct enveloping it. When Cruel Star entered Morning Star’s reach, Dawn lunged with the Twilight Blade while switching from the air to the earth element.

Her strike was so fast that for a split second the two elemental abilities of the Davross overlapped.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.