Surprise turned into shock when a red wave erupted from the Blood Warlock's body, hitting the Abomination with a fully charged Blood Tide.
"I can see that now." Shelk said, passing part of the Blood Maelstrom to his ally. "Heal your wounds and join me as soon as you can. You are supposed to be the Abomination's counter!"
"On what grounds, pal?" The Void had slipped out of the Voidwalker armor, pressing his whole body against the red wave in order to suck as much of its power as he could with his Abomination Touch. "I seem to be *his* counter."
Ragnarök pressed with its black blood constructs against the energy dome as well, sharing the Abomination Touch of its master thanks to both the Spirit Crystal and Lith's blood that had been used as an amplifier during its reforging.
The black crystal made the process more efficient while the white crystal converted the energy stolen from the Blood Tide into a form that the emerald crystal metabolized, replenishing the power core of the blade.
When the flash from the Blood Tide disappeared, the Abomination had suffered little damage while Lith's equipment had taken none.
The Void wore the armor and wielded the black blade, using it to conjure one tier one Chaos Missile for each finger of his right hand. Shelk ignored the phenomenon, chanting as many spells as he could as fast as he could.
"I see." The Abomination depowered the spells and Ragnarök, turning its aura down. "Blood Flames to counter my Flames, Blood Maelstrom to screw with my equipment, and Blood Tide to neutralize my bloodline abilities. A smart plan."
"How do you know that?" Shelk's mind thought of the obvious answer first.
There was a traitor among their ranks. His plan was to have Lith go all-out, bringing his equipment to the limit so that a timely burst of Blood Maelstrom would destroy it.
If Lith went for some powerful spell or any bloodline ability-based strategy, instead, Blood Tide would throw the Tiamat's efforts down the gutter. Without world energy, only Spirit Magic would work.
The mana geyser below them was bound to quickly refill the area, but that wouldn't give Lith the mana/life energy spent back, just provide the Blood Warlock with more ammunition for another Blood Tide.
The Void refused to answer but then the Blood Warlock noticed the black chain coming out of his own chest. A little present left by the Abomination during their previous clash.
Shelk tried to pull at it, but the chain was ethereal and apparently immune to magic.
In a distant corridor, the Voidfeather felt a pull on his consciousness.
'What do you want, George?'
'Don't call me that! Also, how the fuck can you still be on the first floor?' The Void replied with a snarl.
'Perfection requires time.' The Voidfeather Dragon shared his vision, showing to his poorly esteemed colleague that the Demons at his command had still five eyes and some of them six.
'Whatever. Want to beat the ass of someone who uses an unknown branch of magic?'
Trouble went back to its artificial intelligence stored in the memory crystal as the Voidfeather Dragon left the wheel.
'Can I use the Eyes, please?' He asked Solus via their mind link.
'I need them to defuse the arrays without blowing up. Why?' She replied, prompting the Void to give her a quick recap. 'Why didn't you call me sooner?'
'Would you have given me the Eyes if I did?' He replied.
'No, but I would have taken the gloves off. Enough with the diversion. Send all the Demons to my position.'
The Demons of the Darkness who were still feeding on the energy barrier, the Demons of the Flames who had finished dispatching the Wendigos at the entrance of the fourth floor, and the Demons of the Fallen that the Voidfeather had just left answered her command.
They used the mind link as a beacon to Spirit Warp at Solus' coordinates.
'Make sure that no one disturbs my work.' She ordered and Locrias relayed her words. 'Keep the undead away and breathe Origin Flames often. The weaker the arrays get, the easier it will be to deactivate them.'
At the same time, the Void shapeshifted into the Voidfeather Dragon and the black chain connecting him to Shelk disappeared. The Abomination had already collected the important information and keeping the chain active while in another form was impossible anyway.
"Let's fight!" The Dragon unfurled his four wings, setting every feather ablaze with fires of the colors of the elements.
The black sphere opened up and the galaxy it contained rearranged itself into a single constellation that resembled a Dragon. Each star burned with the power of a different element, either natural or Cursed, and had smaller stars revolving around itself.
The Cursed Stars were paired with their respective counterparts, forming stable twin suns surrounded by star systems double the size of those belonging to the natural elements.
The red threads of the human side and the void of the Abomination were used both as a framework, allowing the various star systems that comprised the Dragon constellation to move without drifting apart from each other.
At the same time the Void disappeared, the blood constructs went from black to red and then wrapped themselves around Ragnarök. A spark of the Voidfeather's essence lit the blood and the life force it contained up with emerald flames.
"Immortal Flames?" Shelk cursed his bad luck, knowing that Blood Tide wouldn't affect them.
"For starters, yes." The Dragon remained still, the soft flapping of his wings was the only movement he made.
The Blood Warlock could instinctively feel that the quiet was only apparent. His powers were based on the control over both life force and world energy and the latter was getting out of his hands.
If he were to have Life Vision, he would have witnessed the flow of world energy coming from the mana geyser alter its course as the Voidfeather Dragon's wings absorbed it.
Yet without a mystical sense, the phenomenon became apparent only when the Cursed Flames that engulfed Lith's red-veined black feathers doubled their size.
"Where's the Wendigo who is supposed to be my nemesis?" The Voidfeather Dragon asked, using his long neck to look in every direction without the need to turn around. "There's no point in fighting you. You are not my opponent."
"We'll see about that!" Afraid that the Dragon would exploit the respite to use Invigoration and return to his peak condition, Shelk activated Blood Tide again.
'I have no idea what Verhen is planning, but I know how to stop it.' He looked sideways, where Ulma was feeding on the members of his herd to heal from his grievous wounds.
'My Blood Magic can do whatever Spirit Magic does and without world energy- What the fuck is that?!'
Not only could Shelk feel that the amount of world energy answering his command was half of what he had experienced earlier but the crown of fire on the Voidfeather Dragon's head had turned silvery, burning so high that it reached the ceiling.
With no time to lose, the Blood Warlock released the Blood Tide.
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