Supreme Magus novel Chapter 4333

Chapter 4333: Priceless Lessons (Part 1)

Lith charged at the Storm Griffon in reply, his bastard sword raised in a neutral stance.

’Trust the Golems. They are honest in their desire to kill us and will attack everyone indiscriminately.’ He said via the mind link. ’Don’t let an Upyr come close to you unless you are certain you can kill them in a single blow.’

’And don’t let the Upyrs inside the safe zone!’ Solus recognized Uragar’s and Salanoth’s energy signatures and the poisoned world energy that burned through their mana circulatory systems. ’Whatever happened to me earlier, it also affected their cursed objects.’

’Oh, shit!’ Quylla put the pieces of the puzzle together. ’Are you telling me that the Invincible King built a fortress inside an array designed to incapacitate both cursed objects and a tower?

’Doesn’t that mean that he was one of the previous hosts of the Black Throne? It’s the only possible explanation for Teneb’s meteoric rise to power despite his humble origins and why Solus’ Divine Beast form triggered the fortress’s defenses.

’The mana crystals and metal veins on her body are manifestations of her tower side and allowed the Golem Scouts to detect her artifact half!’

’I’m afraid you are right.’ Menadion replied. ’During his apprenticeship under the Black Throne, the Invincible must have also learned about how to protect himself against other mage tower users.

’If I’m right, whatever structural weak point the Black Throne identified is still present in modern towers. It would explain everything except why the tainted world energy has no effect on regular artifacts.’

’I think you are wrong, Mom.’ Solus inwardly shook her head. ’I find it hard to believe that the Black Throne taught anything about tower crafting to Teneb, and the Invincible King didn’t live long enough to learn it on his own.

’The most likely explanation is that the array he devised targets only artifacts that have a life force. It’s the only thing I have in common with cursed objects.’

’Good gods!’ Quylla gasped in amazement, almost missing the Upyr who tried to split her head from her neck.

’Less thinking, more fighting!’ Lith yelled as he deflected one of Jorl’s maces with Ragnarök’s guard, intercepted the other with his tail, and kicked the Storm Griffon in the gut.

Tista, Protector, Morok, and Nalrond were already giving their all, but aside from the Hekate, everyone else was on their back foot. The mass gap gave the Upyrs a significant advantage that the Life Maelstrom made almost impossible to overcome.

The area cleared by Lith’s Zero Spell wasn’t large enough for so many Divine Beasts, and the ground and sky outside were crowded with an army of Golems waiting to identify a target to unleash their fury.

Tista immediately infused everyone with Vital Storm, but that only made the situation less desperate.

’I have no spell at the ready or stored inside the Mouth that can help me against Upyrs. We weren’t supposed to fight these guys!’ She thought while releasing the rest of the Origin Flames stored inside one of her battle claws.

The Upyr was suddenly burning and blinded, and raised his arms to protect his vitals from the attack he knew was about to come. Except it didn’t.

The two had started their research from Nalrond’s memories of the fight, studying Dawn’s spells one by one. There was nothing in the Ernas legacy about Light Mastery, and Orion had no plausible justification to access the Royal Forgemaster database.

He had to work with cheap yellow crystals to research a Crystalsmithing technique suitable for producing weapons rather than energy sources.

He consumed even more yellow crystals in his efforts to craft something that mimicked the effects of Dawn’s crystal shield and the optimal shape and proportions for a crystal weapon’s facets.

"We are lucky that the basic principles of refracting and focusing light are well known, or we’d need years of experiments before getting anything done." Orion used his own Light Mastery on each prototype to get a feel of his progress, or lack thereof.

"I know I’m already asking you a lot, but I have one more request." Nalrond had stared at the many Adamant tools and countless crystals he would have never been able to afford on his own.

He had felt deeply ashamed of being once again forced to rely on someone else to protect those he loved. Ever since he had left his Fringe, the Agni had realized how lacking he was in too many aspects, but no matter how hard he worked to overcome his limits, it was never enough.

"What do you need?" Orion had asked while testing the improvement in the conjuring speed and durability of his hard-light constructs after channeling his spells through his latest prototype.

"Please, whatever we learn about crystal weapons, don’t add it to the Ernas legacy." Nalrond’s request made Orion put down the weapon to look his son-in-law in the eyes.