Supreme Magus

Chapter 3552: Just Pragmatic (Part 1)

Kugoh and Shasa needed to die by Lith’s hand or getting rid of the fury possessing him would take too long.

"Shasa!" Kugoh needed more Life Maelstrom and the Hippogriff was happy to oblige.

Solus didn’t even try to stop him when a large silvery bolt of lightning sparked out of Shasa’s palm and slithered past her wall of hard-light shields.

All bloodline abilities could be infused with willpower if one knew how to do it and Shasa had long mastered Life Maelstrom. Unfortunately for him, he had never met someone capable of using Domination.

Shasa infused inside the silver lightning bolt just enough willpower to control it from a distance and make it dodge the obstacles separating the two Emperor Beasts.

Lith’s emerald eye lit up, overpowering the Hippogriff’s will and replacing it with his own. The Life Maelstrom took a sharp turn and plunged into Lith’s body, forming electric arches from horns to tail.

"Oh, shit!" Kugoh’s heart skipped a few beats as he felt death encroaching.

An adult bright violet-cored Divine Beast was much stronger than an adult bright blue-cored Emperor Beast, and that without taking the sheer body mass into account. Thanks to the Hippogriff’s Life Maelstrom, Lith was ten times stronger than that.

"This is just the beginning." Lith sent a spark of electricity through his black eye and released it in the form of a stream of Black Lightning.

It was a bloodline ability only Jotunn were supposed to possess and it was a mage’s worst nightmare. Under the disruptive power of the Black Lightning, Kugoh’s fusion magic was gone, and all the spells he had prepared disappeared from his mind.

Only those with a violet core could cast spells during a fight. The Behemoth had solely his martial arts left whereas Lith still had his magic and the Mouth of Menadion.

On top of that, as soon as the Black Lightning struck, the aftereffects of the toxin-contaminated potions kicked in.

Kugoh had pushed himself way past his limits and Life Maelstrom had pushed him ten times further. His muscles were torn and his bones cracked by the abuse of a physical and magical strength his body was too weak to handle.

Without darkness fusion keeping the pain away and light fusion mending the self-inflicted damage, Kugoh fell onto his knees, bleeding from all his orifices. He tried to use Invigoration, but blood filled his lungs and sent him into a coughing fit that painted the ground red.

"Now we’re even." Lith’s step dug a meters-deep crater in the floor and covered the distance separating him from the Behemoth.

Frozen Flames shrouded Ragnarök as it severed Kugoh’s left arm at the shoulder and froze the limb, shattering it into countless bloody crystals. True Flames accompanied the amputation of the right arm, burning it to cinders and cauterizing the wound.

Nether Flames devoured the Behemoth’s right leg and dissolved it into a pool of flesh. Noxious Flames corroded the left leg like acid, spreading like poison through the blood vessels but stopping right before Kugoh’s groin.

"What you feel now is but a fraction of what you inflicted on those people." Lith hissed with fury. "On my mother!"

"I didn’t-" Ragnarök sundered what was left of the Behemoth’s body and Dread Flames consumed it into nothingness.

"As for you…" Lith moved toward the terrified Shasa as Solus and Menadion made way for him. "Let me guess. Kidnapping people wasn’t your idea. This was just business to you. You only did it for the money and power, am I right?"

"Yes." The Hippogriff sobbed. "I swear it to the gods."

The silvery flames, the murderous intent of the Tiamat, or the deranged metal laughter of the blade. Shasa couldn’t decide which one scared him the most so his body decided to soil itself to relieve some stress.

"If you wanted power, all you had to do was ask." Lith grabbed the Hippogriff by the neck. "Here’s all the power you can have and more!"

He returned the Life Maelstrom and used Domination to force the Hippogriff to use every spark of silver lightning he had left on himself. Lith’s powers further increased the amount of Life Maelstrom and amplified its effect beyond what Shasa believed possible.

Your journey continues on

"Wait! It’s too much! I can’t-" The Hippogriff failed to control the power of the Life Maelstrom and exploded into a puff of smoke and ashes.

"Are you alright?" Solus asked.

"Not really." Lith replied. "Chyrsha is still dead and Rolam is still an orphan. Let’s finish this damn job."

He sent one of the one-eyed Demons to relay that all the Emperor Beasts were dead and order to remove the space-sealing arrays. Lith had no time or desire to waste his time reading every piece of paper in the room.

He stored everything inside Soluspedia the moment he could and then examined the room with his breathing technique in search of secret compartments and safes. He found a secret drawer in the desk, Solus a hidden safe under the rug, and Menadion a space behind a stone block.

They contained respectively Kugoh’s ledger of the criminal association, the experimental notes about Awakening and the toxins, and a diary retelling the Behemoth’s life story.

"We’re lucky they didn’t make a book of it." Lith burned all the papers about how to use the anti-mana toxins to Awaken. "Otherwise the Royals would notice the missing pages and I would need to come up with a plausible explanation for it."

Meanwhile, the Mage Association’s members took plenty of pictures of the various alchemical devices in their assembled state before dismantling them. The Royals had ordered to take everything away and bring it to the White Griffon Academy.

They hoped that those machines could be used for more than to spread pain and misery so that something good could come out of Kophar’s tragedy. Hatorne had been a Magus-level genius and this was the first piece of her legacy the Royals had found.

There was no telling how much the Kingdom could learn from her work and the progress Alchemy could achieve.

"I’m done." Lith dropped the equipment of the Emperor Beasts he had killed with a clang. "Here’s the research papers."

He handed a thick folder to Zogar Vastor, the Head of the Light Magic Department of the White Griffon.

"Thanks." Vastor nodded. "I’ve already received the samples of toxins and parasites from the Knight Guard. I know how much blood has been spilled and how many deaths improving on Hatorne’s work must have cost.

"You have my word I’ll put this to good use. I’ll give meaning to the death of those poor people and if they have a family left, they’ll receive the same compensation as if they were the ones who had sold this technology to the Kingdom."

"That’s what I wanted to hear." Lith nodded. "I’m going to stay in Kophar one more day. I won’t leave until all the victims of the Emperor Beasts’ experiments have recovered and the hostages get back to their homes."

"Glad to hear it, my boy." Vastor nodded. "Duke… I mean, Headmaster Marth was appalled hearing that the plague of Kandria went this close to rear its ugly head again."