Chapter 4330: Cursed Carrion (Part 2)

Jorl took the brunt of the damage, shielding the other Upyrs with the new equipment that the Black Throne had crafted for him after enhancing its power cores with a bolt of silver lightning.

The Storm Griffon had the mass and strength advantage, but each blast hit like a truck and was as hot as magma. When the constructs’ crystals ran out of world energy, Jorl had suffered major burns, and the air in the Vault was barely breathable.

"Charge! We need to break past the blockade before-" He coughed, yet that wasn’t the reason he stopped talking.

The Golems of the Firewall Formation had already received fresh crystals and finished charging up their mana cannons. Jorl was about to warn his companions when the Golems fired again.

***

At the keep’s entrance, at the same time.

"Something is wrong with my body." Solus felt as if acid flowed through her veins, making her nauseous and dizzy. "Whatever it is, it’s getting worse by the second. I’m getting worse."

"Ragnarök, are you okay?" Lith used his breathing technique on himself and the angry blade, but found nothing wrong.

"I’m fine." Ragnarök clicked its straps as if it were sniffing the air. "Staff?"

"Me fine!" It replied. "World energy weird, though. Tastes weird."

"Since when?" Lith asked.

"Since light turned red."

"The Fusion Reactor, Epphy." Menadion rushed to her daughter’s side. "Use the Fusion Reactor to supply your tower side and only that with untainted world energy."

Solus was in too much pain to listen to Menadion, her eyes rolling back and her mouth foaming. She was no cursed object, but her bond with a mage tower made her the closest thing to the Cursed Carrion array’s true target.

"Lith!"

"On it!" The Tiamat placed his hand over the crystal on Solus’ palm and ordered the tower to tap into the Reactor’s reserves.

Solus regained her senses with a deep gasp, coughing up the poisoned energy of the Cursed Carrion array that flowed in the living aspects of her life force.

"The Golems are coming. All of them!" Nalrond pointed at the battle formation of approaching Soldiers, Arrays, Maintenance, and Fixers.

"Dimensional magic is sealed!" Quylla tried and failed to open a Warp to Morok’s mural.

"The space is compressed tighter than Lith’s coin purse!" Morok tried and failed to open a Spirit Steps to the same destination. "Lith was right. Teneb’s enemy was a powerful Awakened, and the Invincible King sealed all the ways out!"

"The only silver lining is that our equipment is unaffected by whatever knocked Solus out cold." Tista said. "Yet that’s not going to help us much if we let the Golems surround us.

"You guys think of a way to get us out of here. I’m going to buy you some time." She rushed out of the door, growing to her full size.

The Hekate reached a height of 30 meters (100’) and swung her battle claws, Firefang. The air pressure generated by the mere motion stopped the advance of the Soldiers, sending the Fixer and Maintenance Golems tumbling across the Armory’s streets.

The flaming air blades that followed in the shockwave’s wake hit much harder.

They cut the Soldier Golems asunder and melted their stone bodies at the edges. The self-repair enchantments now had to restore the deformed stone to its previous shape before the Golems could be put together.

’All of this with a single swing of my arms and a fraction of the Origin Flames stored inside Firefang.’ Tista smirked in triumph.

Unfortunately for her, the flaming air blades stopped upon encountering the second line of Soldier Golems. They wielded large Adamant shields the size of a table instead of mana cannons, and generated a Spirit Barrier from their pseudo cores.

Before the air blades reached them, the Shield Golems locked shoulders together, linking their enchantments as well. The energy fields channeled by the Adamant shields overlapped to perfection, forming a dome-shaped Spirit Barrier large enough to protect the rest of the strike force.

Under the cover of the Shield Golems, the Fixers attached themselves to both ends of the fallen constructs, conjuring repair enchantments that restored the Soldier Golems as quickly as if a skilled Forgemaster were working on them.

At the same time, the Maintenance Golems plunged their crystal fingers into the Shield Golems to replenish the world energy they had just consumed.

’This is nothing like Kulah.’ Morok conjured a mind link not to waste time talking. ’While the Odi used their perverse human experiments to create jack of all trades Golems that could adapt to every situation, Teneb took the opposite route.

’His Golems are highly specialized and can perform a single task, but he created so many different kinds of constructs that their teamwork makes them as good as a real army.’

The Tyrant was still thinking when the Spirit Barrier came down.

The third line of Soldier Golems spread out, allowing the fourth line to step forward. They fired highly condensed blasts of water and air magic near the intruders instead of at them.

The Ice and the Wind Golems aimed at the same spot so that their spells exploded into a hailstorm upon impact. The temperature in the cave dropped several degrees with each shot, and the small-scale tornado grew more violent with each explosion.

’Fuck me sideways, Teneb deserved his title as the Invincible King.’ Lith inwardly cursed. ’The Scout Golems have already identified our weakness to cold typical of Dragons, and by not attacking any of us directly, they make our Spirit Barriers useless.’

’I noticed.’ Nalrond conjured a dome-shaped construct that cleared the air from the frozen mist and released heat weaves from his claws that dispelled the cold. ’Still, those Golems are outdated one trick ponies.

’If we disrupt their teamwork, they’ll be nothing more than annoying, giant toys!’ He released a heat ray the size of a pillar that he used to sweep across the open courtyard.

Conjuring hard-light constructs would have been a waste of mana since the Golems would have shot them down long before they could reach their target.

The heat ray, instead, moved fast and hit hard, forcing the Golems to either dodge and break ranks or to tank them and get pushed out of their clockwork formation by the violent stream of raw energy.

At the same time, the Hekate struck the Golems from above with Firefang, her wings, and tail. Each blow dealt little damage, but many units of Golems were sent flying.

After a few targeted strikes, the ordered battalion of constructs scrambled to assume a semblance of order.

’Excellent move, Sis.’ Lith said. ’Don’t waste your Origin Flames on them. They would just-’

The Array Golems completed their light-sealing array, and Nalrond’s spells disappeared into thin air. The air turned instantly cold again, sapping the Divine Beasts’ strength and disrupting Tista’s attack tempo.

The scattered Soldier Golems used the short respite to run into each other, the single units becoming the building blocks of something bigger. Something that could face even a cursed mage tower while looking it in the eyes.

’A light-sealing array and now even a combiner?’ Lith stared at the colossal golem in confusion. ’How much did Teneb spend to build this place, and why did he leave no record of his enemy’s identity?’

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