Supreme Magus - Chapter 648

Chapter 648: 648
Lith's problem was that if you toss enough paper at once, it can end up smothering the flames .





'Fuck me sideways . I wish I had added the air element to the mix . A tornado of black flames would be much harder to overpower . ' Lith thought while looking at the incoming avalanche .

'Again, only hindsight is 100% correct . ' Solus replied . 'Plus, making two elements coexist is already hard . If there was a third one, you would be complaining about not having enough mana to maintain it active for long . '

As she had feared, the container was protected by several arrays . They were layered one upon the other, to force the enemy to waste their time deactivating them one by one .

It was a perfect plan since with the fungal creature on a rampage, Lith and Solus didn't have more than a few seconds at their disposal . Even an Invigorated Setting Sun could only hold for so long .

"I really hope you Odi are all dead, otherwise I'm going to kill you!" Lith said while making the black flames so tightly packed that they almost became solid . The first tidal wave of spore was turned into ash on impact, but the second one managed to penetrate the barrier, and the third went deeper .

Tons of spores were crashing on him non-stop from every direction, Lith was too focused on slowing their advance to keep his breathing rhythm . Invigoration had been sealed by the simple raw power of the creature's onslaught .

'Did they really devise this strategy to fight Awakened ones?' Lith thought while the enemy was seconds away from eating his face .

'Nah . You know the Odi . Too arrogant to admit that the devil is in the details . ' Solus said as the arrays collapsed in unison, allowing her to destroy the corrupted spores . The moment the creature was freed from the mind control spell, it stopped its attack .





After that, most of the cloud died, leaving only enough spores to form a humanoid figure that creepily resembled Lith down to the smallest details . He had no idea it was the creature's way to show respect toward a member of another race .

\u003c "Thanks, human . Even though we doubt that freeing us was your real purpose, we can't argue with results nor justify our attempts to end your life . "\u003e The creature said . Unfortunately, Lith couldn't understand the beasts' language, let alone mycetes' .

He used that moment of respite to rekindle Setting Sun back to its full power .

\u003c "You have no idea of the pain we endured . Centuries of slavery spent having our mind violated every day and forced to increase our numbers despite the pain having our consciousness split between such a big colony inflicted to us . We'll hinder you no more . May the Great Mother bless you . "\u003e

The Lith-looking creature beckoned with its hand and a small ring floated in the space between them .

\u003c "We don't know if it's powerful or not . Its magic comes from the accursed Odi and it's useless to us . We pray it will aid you in your journey . Please, forgive us . "\u003e The creature gave him a deep bow before bolting away .


Only when Solus and Life Vision confirmed Lith that there were no more spores did he lower his spell .





'Okay . First of all, how the heck did you crack so many arrays that fast?' He asked while using spirit magic to lift the ring before studying it with Life Vision . Lith had no idea what it was, but he could recognize blue glowing runes when he saw them .

'It was actually an incredibly menial task . What do so many powerful arrays need to work?' She asked while studying the ring with her mana sense . Its pseudo core wasn't very complex and the gem on top of it was just green .

It made both Lith and Solus very happy .

'A lot of mana . So?' Lith replied .

'Do you see mana crystals around here?'

'No . Wait, don't tell me that…' Lith couldn't believe that an entire race could be so shrewd and yet so idiotic .

'Bingo! I just cut the mana crystal cable that supplied the arrays with the world energy from the mana geyser and they dissipated . Easy as flipping a switch . ' Solus wrapped herself around Lith's arm before returning to her ring form .

'Morons . As for the gift the creature left us, it's must be a trinket someone lost and never bothered picking it up . Which is awesome . It might as well be our Rosetta Stone for studying runes . ' Lith thought, putting the ring inside his pocket dimension .





Lith had already returned to his peak condition thanks to Invigoration . He flew back to Kulah's gates, to check on Phloria and Quylla . Maybe on Yondra too . The rest of the expedition might as well die for what he cared .

"It's me . Let me out, the creature is gone and the area is safe . " Lith said once he reached the Death Bastion .

"What's my mother's name?" Phloria asked . She wasn't leaving their lives up to chance . For what she knew, someone or something might have been imitating Lith's voice .

"Jirni . Your father is Orion and your dog Lucky . In name and in fact . "

Phloria dispelled Death Bastion, giving Lith a solid punch in the stomach right before hugging him with enough strength to squeeze out the little air left in his lungs .  

"Thank the gods you are alright . You almost scared me to death . Again!" She quickly searched his body for injuries and when she found none she said:

"Please, help Quylla . She's not getting better . " Phloria had no idea how he could still be so energetic and couldn't care less . Calil was dead and many others were on the brink of death, Quylla included .

Yondra was deathly pale, her breathing was irregular and she had barely enough life force to remain conscious . Morok was black, blue, and pale as well . Once the creature had ceased its attack, Phloria had 'politely' demanded that he pulled his weight .

Lith first checked on Quylla . Her life force was so faint that it couldn't hold her mana core together . It was still intact, but her body was already past the point of recovery . Unless one could use Invigoration, of course .

Lith had her drink a tonic and gave enough life force to fill two bulls . Only then did her condition stabilise and her skin turn from pale to pink . Lith then gave a bit of life force to Yondra before moving onto the others .

Phloria's soldiers and the rest of the assistants were just unconscious . The proper treatments and Quylla's care had prevented them from dying on the spot but unlike them, the Professors weren't so young anymore .

"They all need life force and I've not enough for all of them . I can save one, maybe two, but the rest is up to their luck and constitution . " Saving them all would have meant revealing his secret . Lith wasn't willing to put at risk his entire life work for a bunch of self-entitled strangers .

"Use mine . " Phloria offered him her hand which he promptly examined .

"That makes two more tops . Which means that one or two of them have to die . Make your decision, Captain . " In that moment, he wasn't speaking as her friend but as her field Healer .

Phloria didn't think twice about her answer and she hated herself for it .

"Save those who are more likely to survive . It's pointless to waste life force on those who might die even after getting treated . "

On the battlefield, terrible words had been invented . "Resource management", "collateral damage", "rules of engagement", they were all fancy terms to describe the forms of murder that the human society considered acceptable .