As I rushed toward the fire tower, I didn’t neglect creating a small mana subdimension for my three goddess, linking directly with the Primordial Aether to provide them with more mana than they could control.
It was needed, as once we dealt with the ambush, the undead responded with more force. I could count more than a hundred avatars surrounding them, and at least three gods that approached them.
And, that was their share. An even bigger force was moving toward the tower of fire, mixing with the other members of the Eternals. I was so lucky that the majority of the Eternals were actually escaping the battle, some feeling strong enough to be a serious threat.
With the System unreachable, their courage faltered significantly. I didn’t sympathize with them, as every single one of them had some kind of Divine Spark, and they could have easily fought against the tide. Instead, they relied on their disposable undead underlings while they chose to stay in their estates, which allowed the elementals to penetrate the city far more.
It was hard to pity them, when they let monsters kill people for hundreds of years just to speed up Divine Spark generation.
I slowed down to keep my approach concealed, as a considerable number of Eternal warriors and mages surrounded the place, ready to act. Luckily, behind me, the battlefield was getting more heated as the girls put their infinite mana to good use.
Mariel took the point, using her aggressive light attacks to vaporize the strong undead that could threaten them with precision, while Marianne’s unique spark was perfect for area effect, dealing with the weaker horde.
This left Seldanna free to grow a shocking number of treants that she sent forward wave after wave, countering the enemy’s number advantage while also entangling any Eternal that wanted to join the mess to support the undead.
Three of them made an excellent anti-undead army.
Sometimes, I loved my luck.
Unfortunately, even with my luck, pushing through the army that was trying to cut through the fire elementals that tried to defend the tower wasn’t easy. Though, as I moved forward, an Eternal flew back, bisected. I checked his trajectory, and at his start point, I found a familiar figure.
Aviada.
She changed during her long absence but also stayed the same. Her shiny black hair was longer and gathered to a braid, and she wore a full plate armor that was made the same style as Marianne’s, but otherwise, she was the same. At least, physically.
She still had her family sword, but it was glowing with some kind of mysterious inner fire, every swing enough to take down an Eternal.
We had clearly underestimated the potential of her sword. It had some kind of Divine Spark inherent to its metal. It was hard to define, but Sword Spark wasn’t a bad definition. Maybe Cutting Spark would be more accurate.
It didn’t just cut physical stuff. Every swing of her cut even magic, no matter how strong. Truly a fascinating weapon.
It even had its own domain. Fairly small, but robust enough to cut any other domain that was trying to push against hers.
To make her even more dangerous, she had her own spark empowering her. It was harder to detect, but it felt more like some kind of physical improvement, mostly Strength and Agility with a sprinkle of Speed, allowing her to move far faster even though she was merely a pseudo-goddess.
A devastating combination.
I wanted to talk with her, but unfortunately, that was not exactly possible. Instead, I moved slightly away from the battlefield, and summoned Oeyne’s avatar while communicating with her.
“It’s a mess in here,” Oeyne said the moment she appeared.
“I need you to support Aviada,” I asked. There was a reason I left Oeyne out of the anti-undead team, even though her abilities would mix excellently to empower the treants Seldanna was growing.
Aviada trusted Oeyne. After all, she was the one who introduced me to Oeyne in the first place.
“It looks like a mess,” Oeyne said, but she didn’t ask any more questions. She knew that it was a dangerous situation.
I needed to help her a bit more. I cast a spell to pull any metal that was currently discarded and ownerless to her, and at the same time, created a defensive position with her with its own forge. “Create confusion,” I asked her.
A goddess of the Forge was not exactly the ideal combatant, but with the defenses I created for her, and Aviada’s help to harry any dedicated attacker, she could provide some valuable distraction. And, even if she failed, she was only here as an avatar.
A defeat might be crippling to any other goddess, but as long as we were victorious, I could help her absorb more Spark.
I didn’t stay helping her communicate with Aviada. I didn’t trust Aviada … well, I trusted her to help me and not attack me. I just didn’t trust her to hide her reaction to my presence, or not to alert the whole enemy army to my presence due to sheer surprise.
She had always been excitable and aggressive, and expecting that to get somehow more manageable after the clear power-up she managed to gain… No, that would be stupid. Instead, I stayed at the corner, watching her battle against some of the other threats while Oeyne rapidly forged several golems, her divine domain making it far easier.
It wasn’t the most ideal way of using mana on the battlefield, but I couldn’t afford to summon Helga.
She still needed to discover the real core of the System, a task she was uniquely suited for.
Aviada confirmed the accuracy of my guess soon enough when the golems started marching. “Oeyne,” she declared happily the moment she noticed her presence, not noticing the potential additional risk she had exposed Oeyne.
I vaguely felt a sense of disapproval from her sword. It was subtle, but I didn’t think that it was just an illusion.
However, while the possibly-sentient nature of her sword was important, it wasn’t urgent. So, I ignored it as I carefully floated closer to the tower. Bypassing the Eternal army was easy, especially when they started to pay too much attention to Aviada and Oeyne.
The elementals were more of a challenge, but my extended experience with fire magics helped there. I pulled the flames around me, and with a layer of darkness magic underneath. Combined, I registered as an elemental to their mindless rage.
And, they lacked the intelligence to question why one of their members had been rushing to the opposite side of their mindless rush, toward the tower.
Of course, while it was a simple trick, it was certainly not easy. Elemental flame was a completely different challenge than ordinary fire magic, and without my ridiculous stats, I could never control them directly.
Using them to attack my enemies would have been easy … but controlling them tightly enough that they wouldn’t touch the darkness layer underneath while letting them burn outward freely was much more difficult.
Pure elements were strong enough to burn through magic if touched, so I couldn’t just ward it. Any ward that was strong enough to actually block the flames would alert both the elementals and the Eternals to my presence, ruining the whole point of stealth.
But, after my recent improvements, it worked perfectly. Combined with Aviada’s distraction, I arrived at the tower.
The tower itself was the most marvelous magic object I had ever seen. Too bad it was completely shattered as the elemental lord it was supposed to be containing raged. I climbed, only to see one of the most amazing, yet scariest sights I had ever seen.
Cornelia, naked as the day she was born, wrapped in flames. Her eyes were closed and she looked frozen, the flames actually invading her.
I prepared to interfere. Whatever that was going on, it was not good news.
{Strength: 190 Charisma: 190
Precision: 190 Perception: 204
Agility: 190 Manipulation: 201
Speed: 190 Intelligence: 254
Endurance: 268 Wisdom: 230}
{Purified Divine Spark: 913,221}
{Divine Air Spark: 32,193}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Twilight - Chosen 30
Nature - Chosen 10
Knowledge - Chosen 10}
{GODDESSES
Elven Goddess
Goddess of Knowledge
Twilight Archangel
Goddess of the Forge
Goddess of Healing}
