After Captain Yerna's wake up call, Red was forced to bet everything on a desperate gamble. The members of the unit were dying like flies and despite his outstanding equipment, there was only so much White could do against a wyvern.
The Captain had asked him to do his thing, but there was actually a single option in his arsenal. Countering an unknown array was almost impossible, the only thing he could do was to identify its key points and use them to bring it down.
Destroying an array was always risky, even more if you were blocked inside it. It meant twisting the energies coursing through the formation into chaos, turning the mana flow against itself until its structure collapsed.
The stronger the array, the greater the risk for the consequences to be literally explosive. The only perk of the Disarray spell was to be relatively quick compared to most Warden incantations.
'If it works I may die, but if it doesn't I'll die for sure. Here goes everything!' Red thought.
The only silver lining was that, based on his previous analysis, the array seemed to be based on light magic, hence probably harmless.
Probably.
The word echoed in his mind while the Life Draining array shattered, freeing the prisoners from their cage. The life force released formed wisps of light, the intensity of which made it almost impossible to see.
The surviving member of the unit jumped off the nearest window without hesitation, quickly followed by Red. While their uniforms could easily protect them from the fall, the same could not be said against an angry wyvern.
Their escape almost had a tragic ending, since their colleagues surrounding the house had been spooked by the explosion of lights. Not receiving any response from the Captain for several minutes, they had requested for back up and were expecting the worse.
The sudden explosion made them trigger happy. A few of them shot at their falling comrades before seeing the black of their uniforms.
Meanwhile, Gadorf was panicking. The array had been dispelled before the link between the magic formation and his mana core could be severed. What was meant to be his instrument toward godhood was now a gaping hole in his cores.
He had the means and the knowledge to mend the damage, the Master had foreseen for such an eventuality to happen. The black core served both as a filter for the foreign energies and as a plug.
The problem was the contingency plan had been devised for the case something went wrong during the casting of the array or the assimilation process, not to be used in dire circumstances.
Gadorf was heavily injured, most of his mana spent. Not to mention he had no doubt that the monstrous kid wouldn't let him cast a new array and perform several healing spells while standing idle.
"Come on, White. Let's go!" Captain Yerna was still there. White was just an unknown temporary member of her unit, but she had seen too many good people die in a single day to leave someone, especially a kid, behind.
Lith's body was battered, covered with so many first degree burns his skin was nigh red rather than pink. Life fusion had partially healed the haemorrhage on his back, but it was still bleeding.
Now he could Blink again, the problem was he had enough strength just for one last trick and movement spells inflicted no damage.
'Leave no loose ends.' His mind kept looping. The wyvern knew.
The wyvern had to die.
Invigoration was off the table. The moment he focused on the breathing technique, Gadorf could still Blink. Even if Lith knew exactly where he would appear, the wyvern had proved to be too fast even for his enhanced reflexes.
That when his body had yet to become a bloody mess.
Hearing Yerna's voice triggered Gadorf. His blind eye was a constant reminder of what underestimating her could cause. Following his mana perception, the wyvern cast a stream of lightning with his left hand while charging up a breath to intercept Lith the moment he came to the rescue.
Seeing the air crackle, Yerna cursed at the monster before taking cover behind an altar, still refusing to leave. Even without the array, the marble was unaffected by the spell.
Contrary to the wyvern's expectations, Lith didn't move an inch. His eyes kept staring at his opponent while his hands weaved and amplified a spell he was too weak to cast with his mind alone.
"Damn you!" Gadorf cursed again. The woman clearly had no value as a hostage. The realization shattered his hopes to use her to stall for time and save his cores.
His time was running out, he could hear the escaped officer yelling about the need of sending reinforcements. Gadorf was left with one choice. The energy from the Life Draining array was still lingering in the room and there was still more than enough to overload his core.
Remembering the Master's words, rather than death Gadorf preferred to join the ranks of his Abominations. That was the black core's last trump card.
Just like Kalla's blood core made it easier for her turning into an undead, the artificial black core was supposed to greatly increase the wyvern's chances of successfully turning into an Abomination.
Gadorf used the last of his magical strength to collect all the energies and forcefully inject them into his body. Suddenly he was full of vigor, the missing tail and the pierced eye didn't bother him more than a scratch would.
His rage and pride were replaced by a quiet hunger while his physical body started to crack under the massive pressure coming from inside. For the first time in his life, Gadorf felt at peace with the world.
His path was now clear in front of him, neither Lith or his father meant anything. The only sour note was that until he learned how to control his new body, magic would be out of his reach.
"I'll need a lot of life force to complete the transformation. It's a good thing Xenatos is such a populous city." Gadorf's tone was relaxed, but he was actually focused. With his new senses, he could perceive that Lith's spell was a darkness one.
"Since the two of you pushed me this far, it's only fair for you to become the foundations of my new life." The wyvern smiled softly while his flesh crumbled.
Such a spell was useless against him now that he was back at his prime. Darkness magic was the bane of undead and Abominations alike, but even the most powerful sword was useless if it was unable to hit its target.
Gadorf bolted toward Lith, lured by the light of his cyan core like a thirsty man by a gushing fountain. He moved in a zig-zag pattern, making impossible to predict his trajectory.
The wyvern was so fast that he had barely the time to notice that the young mage was uncaring for the evasive maneuver. Lith just focused all of his strength on his right hand.
His right bare hand.
'Didn't he wear a magic gauntlet? Where has it…' Even if he had realized it earlier, it would have been useless. Back when he had ripped the Gatekeeper from Lith's hand, Solus had followed suit, suppressing her energies behind the sword's waiting for an opening.