Supreme Magus

Chapter 4340: No Nickname (Part 2)

The Ring of Space cursed her long-dead maker and had the Soldier Golems resume their onslaught while the Array Golems surrounded the Suneater and prepared a darkness-sealing array.

Unfortunately for her, their attacks were back to being ineffective.

”The reason I don’t usually use my equipment is that I don’t need it, kid.” Tezka said as what looked like black ink crawled across his body and took the form of his Suneater armor. ”Yet I’m no arrogant idiot.

”I knew that relying solely on my Suneater spell would have gotten me killed since the day I turned into an Eldritch. I didn’t reach my age because I was lucky enough never to meet someone who knew about my weaknesses, but because I was wise enough to prepare for the moment it inevitably happened.

”Others before you sealed my Suneater spell, yet it wasn’t enough. I have many more arrows in my quiver that earned me no nickname because no one who witnessed them lived to tell the tale.”

A horizontal slash of his Endless Night blade cut through the Golems’ attacks, the Golems, and then the ground below them, opening a fissure so deep that only a Demon’s keen eyes could see its bottom.

”Throw as many toys as you want at me. The ending will always be the same.” Tezka splayed the fingers of his left hand and conjured the tier four Chaos Spell, Mourning Rain.

Countless Chaos rays bolted in every direction, taking down constructs, demolishing the Armory’s buildings, and severely injuring Upyrs. Only Lith and his friends were spared from the onslaught.

The Chaos projectile fell so quickly and in such numbers that they enveloped the Fylgja’s stupefied allies like a black curtain. They blocked vision and incoming attacks alike, but they never came close to hurting those that Mourning Rain was meant to protect.

Amid the mayhem, Tezka exerted surgical control of his spells as he tried to identify and destroy the source of his sudden weakness. Fixer, Soldier, Scout, and Maintenance Golems crumbled, never to rise again.

The Invincible King’s fortress that had endured the passing of millennia collapsed and fell in a handful of seconds under the fury of a single spell. The arrays surrounding the Armory gave their all to stop the Suneater, but to no avail.

Tezka stood at the center of the hole in the defensive formations that Lith had created. No array could reach him while he struck directly at the open wound in their fabric and flooded it with Chaos, making it fester.

The Upyrs survived Mourning Rain simply because they were not its targets.

Their equipment, what they had left of Jorl’s Life Maelstrom, and Salanoth’s dimensional arrays saved their lives. The Ring of Space couldn’t match either the savagery or the destructive power of the Cursed Element of darkness, but she could displace it to a safe distance.

Her dimensional formation, Null Fortress, was a cylindrical barrier that opened small Gates whenever something or someone came in contact with it, moving them to the opposite side of its boundaries.

Usually, Salanoth’s mastery over space allowed her to redirect the incoming attacks in whatever direction she wanted, but Mourning Rain was too much for her. One mistake and Null Fortress might have missed more bolts of Chaos than it already did.

Salanoth had invented that spell to deflect single powerful attacks like Silverwing’s Annihilation or many average spells at the same time. Not a volley of spells, each one of which carried enough destructive power to level a noble household.

A few Chaos projectiles managed to get in, but Uragar intercepted most of them with his barriers, and the Upyrs endured those he missed thanks to their Divine Beast’s constitution.

’How in the world can you call him weak, Salanoth?’ Jorl said via a mind link as he assessed his odds of survival and found them inexistent. ’The Suneater is indeed weaker than before, but he’s far from weak!’

Even without his Suneater spell, Tezka had his Endless Night blade in his hand and his Blade Tier Spell, Unbreakable Bond. It allowed him to absorb the energy of the power cores of his equipment and turn it into mana and physical strength.

As long as Unbreakable Bond was active, Tezka was akin to a living Blade Spell that could unleash its strength one bit at a time instead of all at once. In theory, using enough power to take down an enchanted fortress was supposed to drain Tezka’s equipment.

Even the best power cores could only hold so much mana, and after depleting them, Tezka would have nothing but his own mana and a fancy pile of Davross. It was the reason Tezka had researched and applied a unique set of runes whose only purpose was to absorb world energy at high speed to Endless Night.

Back when the Suneater was an Eldritch, it was the only way he could wield the blade without the Chaos of his touch devouring Endless Night like it did everything else.

Now that Tezka had a physical form again, all the world energy absorbed by the blade through the set of runes became nourishment for his body and fuel for his spells.

’Jorl is right.’ Uragar nodded. ’We’ve already acquired a lot of Adamant in our previous expeditions. There is no point in risking our lives for a bit more. Tezka got rid of the Armory’s space-compressing arrays for us. Nothing stops us from leaving.’

’Speak for yourself.’ Salanoth cursed. ’I won’t leave until he’s dead or I am.’

’Don’t be foolish, Salanoth.’ Jorl said. ’What would fighting someone as powerful as the Suneater achieve? Even if we somehow defeat him, then what? How is that supposed to help us?’

’You don’t understand.’ She shook her head. ’It’s not that I don’t agree with you. I just can’t run away. I was created for the purpose of killing that gods-damned Fylgja. Now that he’s in front of me, I can’t resist the kill order my maker forced onto me. I have to fight him.’

’Tough luck, sister.’ Uragar Warped everyone away as soon as the hail of Chaos rays stopped, but Jorl grabbed the cursed book’s host by the arm before he could cross the dimensional passage himself.

’Not so fast.’ The Storm Griffon said. ’Salanoth is one of our strongest members. Without her, our chances of defeating Orpal will plummet. We can’t abandon her without even trying.’

’And what do you suggest we do? We charge forward and hope for the best?’ Uragar sneered. ’That’s Tezka the Suneater. He kills those like us for breakfast and fights Guardians during his lunch break.

’Everyone on Mogar knows and respects his name. Can you say the same about yourself?’

’No, but Salanoth was created for this fight.’ Jorl replied. ’Forbidden Magic is used to achieve tasks that are considered impossible for regular magic. Tasks like killing the Suneater. Salanoth’s maker must have put at least one ace in her sleeve.’

’I have many aces, and they are tailored to counter Tezka’s abilities.’ The Ring of Space hated revealing her secrets, but that didn’t go against her programming and increased her chances of success. ’According to my maker’s most conservative estimates, they should be enough to accomplish my mission.’