Chapter 4165: Not Enough (Part 2)

’I can’t stay here for long. Lith needs me.’ Solus thought, forcing herself to regain control of her emotions.

She took a scan of the crowd and the murder scene with her amulet, requesting support from the local constables and the Knight Guard with maximum priority.

’If there’s any clue left, they’ll find it.’ She took off with an excuse and let go of her body, returning to the stone ring at Lith’s finger. ’I know that you are suffering. I know how bad this is for you.

"But Elfiam is not Carl, and you are not Derek McCoy anymore. I don’t care what you’ll do to the culprit, but please don’t let Elfiam’s death undo everything you’ve done to become a better person.’

’Elfiam may not be Carl, but he’s just like him.’ Lith replied with fury. ’And I am Derek McCoy and always will be!’

The trail ran far and away into the noble district of Amrok, stopping in front of a luxurious gate of enchanted metal surrounded by a powerful set of arrays worthy of a powerful household.

"I’m Supreme Magus Verhen, and I’m investigating a murder." Lith said to the flabbergasted private soldiers guarding the entrance. "Open this gate now."

"One moment, please." A middle-aged man with thick moustaches said, having no need to verify the identity of the guest. "I need to call the lord of the house to have permission to-"

"I don’t need anyone’s permission." Lith growled, cutting the man short. "I’m giving you an order. Open the gate, or you’d better step aside, because I’m not going to repeat myself a third time."

"I’m sorry." The man swallowed hard as the temperature of the neighbourhood rose so much that he started to sweat. "My lords are not responding. Maybe-"

Lith unfurled three different sets of wings, but they were all wreathed in silvery flames. He hurled a jet-stream of Dread Flames that struck the arrays with enough power to make them visible to the naked eye.

The silver fire didn’t disappear after crashing against the energy barriers, but it wrapped itself around the noble mansion like a noose. The ground quaked and the arrays flickered, but they withstood the onslaught.

"Magus Verhen, please! You can’t-" The soldiers took a step forward, unwittingly leaving the protective effects of the magical formations.

The hot air burned their lungs and eyes, making them collapse with their mouths open in a silent scream as they cried blood tears.

A flick of Lith’s wrist released Ragnarök from the pocket dimension and unleashed a second burst of Dread Flames. The angry blade screeched in anger, its grief mirroring that of its master.

Ragnarök broke free of its bloody scabbard and flew high in the sky. Then, it dived down, accelerating its fall with gravity magic and spinning on itself so fast that the friction with the air generated a thick layer of fire.

The angry blade struck the noble mansion from the top at the same time as the second blast of Dread Flames rammed into the gates. The pressure from the attacks forced the arrays to consume much more world energy than the mana crystals fueling them contained.

"What did you do this time, you fool?" Marquis Ingham Frorl asked his firstborn, Shet. "What did you do to bring the Supreme Magus to our door?"

The mansion shook again, and the magical formations flickered more and more often as the silvery fire shrouding Lith’s pristine energy wings faded.

"Nothing, Father. I swear!" The youth said, yet Marquis Frorl had heard those same words too many times to fall for them again.

"Answer your father!" The Marchioness slapped Shet so hard that he could almost smell Elfiam’s blood again, except this time it was just his own. "We need to know the truth. We can’t protect you if we don’t know what you’re charged with."

Meanwhile, outside the mansion, Lith panted hard. Using Dread Flames twice in such a short time frame took quite a toll on him.

’I can see why Balkor and Meln needed to study their victims’ arrays before breaking into their homes.’ He thought. ’The Master Wardens of the Kingdom sure know their craft. Today, however, it won’t be enough.’

Lith only had to turn around to look at Clila and find his unbridled rage mirrored in her eyes, stoking the fire of his hatred to new heights.

’This time, nothing will be enough to stop me.’ The fire roiling around the black feathered wings on his hips roared like a wounded beast before turning into the third and final blast of Dread Flames.

The silvery fire hit the multi-layered barrier with such raw strength that the mystical shields caved in, letting the Dread Flames vaporise the entrance gates but stopping them before they could reach the main building of the mansion.

As Lith kept hurling more of his inner fire and hate, the Dread Flames ate and clawed at the runes protecting the Frorl Household like a pack of mad beasts. The magical formations flickered faster and faster, their structural integrity on the brink of collapse.

Yet despite the foolishness of House Frorl’s current young master, the security protocols set up by its founding fathers and perfected by their descendants were still firmly in place.

The moment Lith had started his attack, skilled Wardens had rushed to the locations of the focal points of the arrays with fresh mana crystals.

It was supposed to be just a mere precaution. No one but the Royal Army had the strength to take down the barriers around House Frorl before its mages and soldiers neutralised the intruder.

Even if the guardians of House Frorl failed to kill the assassin, the arrays had to hold on only for a handful of minutes before the reinforcements sent by the Mage Association arrived. That was how things were supposed to be.

Yet reality begged to differ.

The mages of House Frorl rushed with all speed to their respective positions, yet when they arrived, the mana crystals fueling the protective arrays were almost depleted.

To make matters worse, only one exhausted crystal at a time could be replaced with a fresh one. If the crystals were removed all at once, the magical formations would collapse.

The moment one mage switched their assigned crystal, the barrier got even weaker for a split second. Then the burden of fueling the barriers fell to the new gemstone, since the others were running on fumes.

"What in the gods’ name is going on?" A mage yelled in his communicator, seeing the bright light of the crystal he had just replaced dim at a speed visible to the naked eye. "How can the mana stones lose power faster than we can swap them?"

The answer roared right outside the Frorl Household, punching at the barrier while the Dread Flames burned still. Each one of Lith’s blows carried the weight of a freight train and the violence of a collapsing mountain.

Moreover, Ragnarök never stopped drilling from above, unleashing all of its enchantments in a bombardment that forced the defensive arrays of the mansion to split their focus further.

Yet ancient households were built to last, and their magical formations were crafted to withstand Balkor’s army, were the god of death ever to return.

As the silvery fire started to die down, Lith could see with Life Vision that the scales of the battle wouldn’t be tipped in his favor much longer.

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