Supreme Magus

Chapter 4331: Greatest Gift (Part 1)

’What was Teneb hiding here and who was he hiding from?’ Lith had no idea that the Invincible King’s nemesis was the same man who had given him the means to build his empire.

The Armory was one of the fortresses from which Teneb had planned to either stage the reconquest of his empire in case he was ever forced into exile or turn into the graveyard of his despised mentor, the Black Throne, whatever came first.

***

In front of the vault, at the same time.

Jorl had already healed from his wounds, yet not even Invigoration could alleviate the stabbing pain in his chest.

’The moment the oxygen in the room runs out, all the magic in the world won’t save us. We need to get out of here!’ The Storm Griffon switched from Frost to Thunder Soul and charged forward like the cornered beast he was.

He took a deep breath to take in as much air as he could, using darkness fusion to resist the burning pain in his lungs. He dodged half of the second salvo of elemental blasts coming from the Firewall Formation, a few shots of the third, and took the fourth in full.

By the time he reached the Golems’ blockade, his Starpath armor was broken in multiple points, and what still covered him was as hot as molten metal. Jorl roared in anger as he struck with all of his strength, knowing that the stink of charred meat and burnt feathers he smelled was his own.

He released a second bolt of Life Maelstrom and activated his bloodline ability, Focus Point. The Storm Griffon put the entire weight of his body, the silver lightning, and the Thunder Soul on the tip of his maces, Dusk Wraith.

The Firewall Formation crumbled like a sandcastle at high tide, the shockwave of the impact so powerful that the backline of Soldier and Maintenance Golems was sent crashing against the walls, ceiling, and each other like pinballs.

A cold breeze hit Jorl’s face like a spring rain after a draught, and he gasped avidly, feeling strength return to his limbs.

"Grab those cursed buffoons and follow me! We are not going to die. Not today, and most certainly not here!"

The Upyrs nodded and followed their leader. Akhton stopped using Mana Body to prepare a new set of spells and activate his breathing technique to heal his wounds as they ran.

"You saved my life, Akhton. I won’t forget that." Jorl said.

"And you mine. We’re even, brother." The Bastet had covered the Storm Griffon with Mana Aura and breathed controlled bursts of Origin Flames to weaken the Golems’ volleys in Jorl’s path. "Yet I have to ask. Are you sure this isn’t a death trap?

"That the Black Throne isn’t trying to kill you with a borrowed knife?"

"To what end?" Jorl took point and charged through the Golems’ files like a mad bull. "There’s nothing but Adamant here, and he cares nothing about it. If the Black Throne wanted to kill me for his sick pleasure, he’d do it in a place where he could enjoy the show from a front row seat.

"We are just paying the price for his and our arrogance. The Throne underestimated the Invincible King’s wile, and we didn’t bother putting ourselves in his shoes before breaking into his house.

"Otherwise, we would have realized that no Adamant deposit requires this much security and so many golems. This is Teneb’s plan to kill the Black Throne." He pointed at the fallen Cursed Objects.

"Screw the Adamant. If we learn the method the Invincible King devised to inflict mana poisoning on a living legacy, all the magic metal we already collected is nothing. The Black Throne has given us the greatest gift we could wish for.

"A weapon that can weaken and maybe even kill him. Even better, we could flip the table and make him our servant. Why get rid of a mage tower when we can safely use it to build and protect our kingdoms, brother?"

Akthon’s eyes went wide in understanding, and his feline snout curled up in a cruel smile at the idea of turning their self-proclaimed master into their slave.

’I knew that following Jorl was the right move. Even amid all this chaos, even as he fights with his life on the line, he never stops thinking. While I’m focusing on this battle, he’s planning all our future battles.

’This is a man worthy of being my leader. The kind of man I must become if I want to save Verendi from itself.’

***

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

’This is not good! Regular magic is useless!’ Protector had tried conjuring multiple elemental spells, but the Array Golems switched from one sealing array to another the moment the Scouts marked a member of the group as the current greatest threat.

Lith’s Final Sunsets, Nalrond’s blast rays, Tista’s arrays, Solus’ combinations of spells, they all got neutralized as soon as any of them tilted the scales of the battle.

’Should we use Spirit Magic?’ Solus asked, shattering multiple Soldier Golems with a single Furies’ Flight before the Shield Golems intercepted the flying hammers and sent them crashing harmlessly into the floor.

’Save your mana for when you need it. There’s something I want to try.’ Lith bolted forward, launching himself in the midst of the enemy lines to protect his friends from his next spell.

"Bazek Leta!" The tier one Choke Spell, Numbing Spark, bounced off the solid stone of the Golems.

The Cursed Lightning scratched their surface and disrupted the magnetic field that kept their bodies and spells together. The stricken Golems stumbled, their limbs moving faster or slower than their neighbors with no predictable pattern.

Numbing Sparks disrupted the Golems’ teamwork, making it impossible for them to combine their elemental blasts and maintain a close formation.

The second line of Golems had to stop their advance whenever they bumped into a slowed construct, while the first line of attackers now had several holes in its ranks due to Golems moving faster than their programming ordered.

Protector moved with uncanny speed to exploit the constructs’ inability to deviate from the strategies recorded into their pseudo cores, striking with Boros at their magic cannons a split second before they fired.

The broken barrel caused the elemental blasts to detonate within the Soldier Golems, and by the time the explosion reached outside, the Skoll was already gone. Protector had taken Dawn’s words and lessons to heart, and now he delayed his attacks a bit to study his opponents before he struck.

Thanks to Wild Hunt, he was now not only able to predict where his enemies would move and read the trajectories of their spells. He also understood the enemy tactics and anticipated how they would react to his attacks.

Protector moved two steps ahead of a thinking enemy and read the limited combat protocols of the Golems like an open book.

The colossal Soldier Golem facing Tista also suffered from the same limitations. No matter how many smaller constructs merged together, the attack pattern of the colossus remained the same.

"Fighting me head-on was a bad move, pal." Golden jolts of Vital Storm arched across her body. "Away from your friends, you’re nothing but a big target!"