Supreme Magus - Chapter 3170: Puppet Master (part 2)

‘Because he is, you morons! Verhen’s Abomination side is a Puppeteer!’ The Yggdrasill warned them after noticing that the dead elf’s eyes burned respectively with red and black light.

Knowing he couldn’t survive the blast, Derek had sought refuge inside the body of the first elf he had slain. He had noticed that those weird, delicate armor were immune to magic so he hoped it would work the same for him.

Yet not even that would have been enough to survive the onslaught of so many spells if the power of Lith’s eyes hadn’t returned along with his battle memory. The Abomination Touch had broken the elves’ focus and without it, the willpower imbued in their spells was gone.

The magic they held was powerful but vulnerable to Domination. Darkness was the only thing that could seriously harm the Void while the blasts of fire were the biggest threat to the Darwen armor.

Lith only had two eyes in that form, but with the elements of destruction bridled to his will, the rest wasn’t a problem. The Darwen repelled the brunt of the spells while the Void fed upon their energy to recover from his wounds.

‘Wait, since when Verhen can use Domination?’ Tam’sfil asked.

‘Who cares? We have to kill him before he absorbs Has’sar’s mass and recovers!’ Q’porr moved forward but a strong hand stopped her.

‘How exactly? He wears our same armor now. Magic isn’t going to work against him and we have no chance in close- Blink!’

Derek raised Ragnarök, the spell conjured by the golden chains finally ready.

It was another tier four Howling Void, but this time it was perfect. The Chaos was focused and amplified on the black blade’s tip and the elf’s corpse Lith wore took the backlash from the spell.

A black spear the size of a small tree burst out of Ragnarök, moving faster than a bullet. The elves managed to Blink but Chaos was faster than any spell. It entered the dimensional door with Qral and came out of both the Blink and the elf.

His cracked armor caved in front of the violence of the black pillar and his lean body fared no better. The Howling Void left a hole in his chest the size of a bowling ball, his heart and lungs were gone.

It would have taken time and tier four magic to save him but the Chroniclers had neither.

Lith raised his closed fist, condensing the power of his black eye to the extreme, and then splayed his fingers. Domination infused what remained of the Howling Void with willpower and split the spell into small energy bullets.

Guided by Lith’s will, they turned around and chased after the elves. Each fragment of Chaos was too weak to pierce through Darwen by itself but with the cracks in their armor there was no need to.

The Chroniclers Blinked, but Life Vision revealed Lith where they would appear and the bullets resumed their chase. The Chroniclers had no time to conjure a barrier strong enough to stop the onslaught and their Darwen armor were crafted for cover ops, not for direct fight.

Whenever a Chaos shard hit the Darwen, it just caused a small bruise. When it found an opening, it left behind a gaping hole.

Derek stared in amazement as the elves fought for their lives like rats trapped in a maze. They could run, but they couldn’t hide and the scientist supervising the experiment always knew which direction the rats would take.

‘You can do that?’ The Void asked to the familiar presence inside himself. ‘Can I do that? Also, how can you perform Chaos control? I mean, I’m a shadow but I’m no hedgehog.’

‘No talking during a fight.’ The belief was so rooted in Lith’s mind that it silenced the Void. ‘Enemy. Solus.’

Those two words reminded Derek of the scene back when he had opened his eyes. The dying elf, the tiger man, and the feeling of emptiness that still ravaged his heart.

He left Lith full control over the body, trying to learn from him everything the Void could. How to block, perform defensive movements, and manipulate spells in ways Derek could only imagine.

‘This is weird.’ He thought. ‘How come I understand everything after watching it once? I’ve never been a genius. Also, why didn’t I feel any invasion when this guy took the wheel and why does he care about Solus?

‘It’s a part of my soul, not of his own.’ His attention was suddenly drawn to the battlefield.

The Chaos spell was extinguished and Ragnarök had run out of Cursed element. The Chroniclers were badly hurt but far from defeated. Their wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye and Derek saw via Life Vision their strength return.

‘Fuck!’ He bolted forward, feeling the mysterious presence in his mind becoming sluggish and lethargic as Lith’s mind went back to its slumber. ‘Stay with me jackass. I can’t beat them by myself. If not for me, do it for Solus.’

That last word stirred the smoldering embers of Lith’s rage, bringing him back to the surface.

The elves all Blinked in different directions and Derek Blinked along, picking one of them at random. He appeared behind a particularly cute female elf, severing her arms with a V-shaped slash.

Lith left behind enough darkness element to rot the extremities of the limbs so that reattaching them wouldn’t be easy.

‘I would love to kill them all, but I need someone alive to interrogate.’ Derek thought. ‘I need to know who they are, what they want from me, and if they know something about this Solus.’

He Blinked again, his knowledge of dimensional magic returning with every spell he cast. His next target was a bulky, for an elf, male who unleashed a barrage of ice bullets and lunged with his glaive.

The spell rolled off the Darwen like rain on a windshield but that was Tam’sfil’s plan. The hail of ice bolts was meant to blind the Abomination’s Life Vision and impair Full Guard.

It was one of the standard techniques the Tree imparted to their Chroniclers to defeat powerful opponents. The Yggdrasill had the knowledge and experience of countless millennia on their side and, even though by proxy, they had fought thousands of battles.

Hidden amid hundreds of bullets, the Davross blade reached its target unimpeded. The glaive pierced Derek’s side and released the spell with which Tam’sfil had imbued it.

The mass of darkness was guided by his willpower and too close for Lith to Dominate it.

Lith took a deep breath to conjure his Flames and burn the glaive while still stuck inside his body, but nothing happened. He tried to conjure his Demons but aside from his consciousness drifting away he achieved nothing.

The various parts of his life forces were split and compartmentalized, sealing both his memories and abilities.

Derek snarled, taking control back from Lith. He let go of his body, relinquishing his physical form and turning into a black and silvery stream that forced his way into the elf’s mouth, eating at him from the inside.

‘Tam’sfil!’ Q’porr could see her comrade’s life force still burning but she knew he was already dead and replaced by the Puppeteer.