Supreme Magus

Chapter 4397: Sword, Shield, and Hand (Part 1)

Abthot’s Chaos Annihilation lacked Spirit Magic and replaced it with the cursed element, using it to make up for the exa-elemental spell’s lesser destructive power and bring it on par with the original.

Light Bastion reverted the Chaos into darkness upon contact, destroying the delicate balance that kept the Annihilations’ rune matrix together. Abthot’s spells imploded on themselves one after the other despite her best efforts to resist Bastion of Light’s effects.

The shockwaves produced by the clash of eight Anti-Guardian spells uprooted the nearby trees, dispersed the clouds above the fight, and shattered Dawn’s Bastion of Light like glass.

She channelled the water element inside the Firstlight armor, dispelling the remaining waves of Chaos carried by what was left of the Annihilations before they could reach her.

’Thank Mom, it worked.’ The Horseman inwardly sighed in relief, feeling less confident than she appeared. ’If not for my tower, armor, and Zepho’s almost full-red blood core, this would have ended differently.’

"My turn!" Dawn said with a savage smile as she coated her crystal sword with a hard-light construct shaped like the Twilight Blade, and the light refracted on the facets of her armor conjured countless more energy swords.

She charged at the seven Abthots in a fiery tide of blades, using Life Vision to spot the real Eldritch-hybrid amid the clones.

Much to the real Abthot’s surprise, Dawn charged at the hybrid with the second most powerful aura among those who had no equipment.

’In her shoes, I’d get rid of my artifacts to fool my enemy into wasting their strength.’ Dawn thought. ’Moreover, giving most of your energy away is an excellent trick not to draw attention.

’After all, the real Eldritch can recover her strength at any time as long as she absorbs the nutrients and world energy from the ground. I doubt her copies can do the same, but even if they can, without a geyser there wouldn’t be enough world energy for everyone.’

The Horseman was right about almost anything, including Abthot’s strategy to give her equipment to her clones. The only error in her assumptions was that the copies created by Death Mirage lacked the ability to restore their own strength.

Abthot’s ogre side allowed her to share her consciousness among multiple bodies, establishing a hive mind that allowed them to coordinate their actions and focus on protecting the real body since the others were just temporary vessels that couldn’t withstand the power of Chaos for long.

The copies of the Eldritch Blinked back, forming a defensive wall that took Dawn’s Light Mastery spell, Sword Rain, without flinching. They also returned the equipment to the main body now that its position had been exposed.

’The Bright Day can’t be so naive.’ Abthot thought. ’She knows Abominations feed on light as Vampires do with blood. I’m certain there must be a trick, and I’m going to find out what it is.’

The swords of light pierced through the tough hide of the copies, but didn’t reach deep. The Eldritch side devoured the light element faster than Dawn could repair her constructs.

Abthot felt the strength of her copies soar, but she didn’t reabsorb them, nor did she stop feeding off the ground as Dawn barged through the clones with sheer might.

The first sign of alarm was a pang in the copy that tried to tackle the Horseman down, quickly followed by an intense wave of agony that spread through the hive mind like wildfire.

All the copies experienced such intense agony that they couldn’t resist the Horseman’s charge, falling to the ground like pruned branches of a tree. The real Abthot shared the pain of her copies via the hive mind, and was forced to dispel Death Mirage.

She now had to face Dawn alone, but at least there was no agony blinding her vision.

The Eldritch-ogre hybrid was still dizzy, so she needed both arms to block the crystal sword by intercepting it with her crossed twin blades. Unlike Acala, Dawn’s Morning Star spell was still active, and she possessed the unnatural strength of an undead and the mass of a Divine Beast.

Abthot’s knees held only thanks to the support of her Wildflower armor, and her legs plunged deep into the solid ground, locking her into place. Sword Rain came next. The hard light constructs surrounded the hybrid, stinging her like a swarm of angry wasps.

The abundant light element they exuded stirred Abthot’s hunger, but she didn’t dare fall into temptation. Whatever had crippled her copies would do the same to her, and at that point, nothing would have stopped the Horseman from killing her.

The hard-light constructs crashed against the Davross armor like glass, revealing that they carried three times more darkness element within. The second half of Sword Rain shrouded Abthot, hindering her mystical senses and searching for a way past her defenses.

"Do you like it?" Dawn asked as she conjured more hard-light constructs and coated them with three times as much darkness element. "I got the idea from the Lost Magus, Zavra, and his pretentious Dark Mastery spell.

"This is the real Dark Mastery if you ask me. A poisoned candy that idiots like you swallow without a thought, carrying the darkness element straight to your cores."

"This is how you took Gukah and Karto down before we could even arrive." Abthot knew that she couldn’t beat the Horseman without proper footwork, so she turned her feet into roots and freed them from the ground.

"You’re smarter than you look." Dawn smiled. "Those two Empowered Abominations, instead, were dumb enough to believe in free meals. You should have seen the stupid look on their faces when they became too weak to withstand a single blow of mine!"

The Horseman conjured countless weapons of all kinds. Daggers, swords, axes, arrows, and spears, all coated in a thick layer of darkness energy for a second before it was absorbed inside the light element.

’One moment of distraction. It’s all it takes for me to end up like my copies.’ Abthot inwardly cursed Dawn for her trickery.

Hybrids didn’t suffer from perennial hunger like regular Eldritches, but the Chaos of their bodies craved to feed nonetheless.

The Dark Mastery spell surrounded the two women and bolted at them from every side. The conjured weapons were comprised of Dawn’s mana and harmlessly phased through her, but Abthot wasn’t so lucky.

A single construct was nothing to her, and a single tier three Chaos spell would destroy dozens of them. Yet there were hundreds of constructs circling around her like sharks, blinding her vision and sending the Skull of Bytra into sensory overload.

The Ogre-Eldritch hybrid was cornered, and she knew it.

’I poured most of my energy into Death Mirage and the Annihilations, and it was all for nothing.’ She thought as blood slowly dripped from her ears, eyes, and nose. ’There is no mana geyser here and nothing I can feed upon to restore my strength.

’If I try a big Chaos spell, Dawn’s light element will revert it into darkness. If I use weak spells, she’ll butcher me. I have no way out, and that even if she doesn’t recall that gods-damned tower of hers!’