White hot flames collided with a barrier of sunlight. Archon Madanri retaliated with a bolt of lightning, which was stopped by a Fire Wall from Nolnyth.

Fights between Sun Elf Archons tended to be long and frustrating affairs. The Sun Elves happened to have resistances to the same attributes they possessed innate aptitude for, and so when two masters went against one another their most powerful weapons tended to be ineffective. They were largely forced to rely on whatever secondary attributes they happened to train, or on physical combat. And secondary attributes tended to fail simply because the other Archon could defend using their primary attribute, so it became a situation where neither side could break the other’s defense. Thus why most Sun Elves pursued a spellblade style of combat, relying on enchanted weaponry to deal real damage to one another.

But an Archon could use mobility and defense spells to evade simple physical blows, if they decided not to attempt their own strikes. An Archon could, therefore, always force a fight with another Archon into a stalemate if they so desired. They could only make meaningful progress by accepting risk and engaging each other in close combat. It was for this reason that Archons tended to compete in politics and proxy-conflicts than in direct duels.

And yet, Nolnyth refused to close with her opponent. She refused to even use secondary attributes, relying solely on Fire. Madanri would admit that Nolnyth was one of the more talented in that particular attribute…but that talent would not be enough to overcome his Fire resistance. He frowned.

“What are you even doing, traitor? You know you can’t kill me with fire. Or has your brain rotted to such a degree that you forgot something so basic? Though, that seems likely, given you have decided to bet your life on humans.”

Nolnyth scoffed as she continued to cast her spells, the flames turning the sand below into glass as they bounced off Madanri’s barriers. Her flames then died down. Mandanri was about to counterattack once again when the ground began to glow. His eyes widened.

The glass was not random. Nolnyth had directed her flames to form a magic circle in the sand, with her flames spreading her mana across it. She activated the spell…

A huge firestorm of white flames swirled around Mandanri. At first he shook his head…until his skin started burning. He gasped and quickly tried to form a barrier.

“For years you hid, plotting upon your throne even as your land fell into ruin. For years, you hung upon the words of the High-Archon, even as he fell into madness. I did not. I spent those years in the field, crushing every threat to my domain with my own hands. I continued to grow, even as you languished.”

Mandanri formed a barrier of Sunlight, but Nolnyth’s flames spread above him. She formed a Sun barrier of her own…which absorbed the sun’s rays and denied them to Mandanri. Her flames broke through his barrier. He tried using his other attributes…but Nolynth always had a singular focus while Mandanri had tried to outmaneuver her with his greater versatility. It only worked because of his resistance to her flames.

Flames that now appeared to bypass that resistance…as golden and silver mana empowered them.

“I acquired more and more power, some even from the Aesdes themselves. You relied on a foolish plan that was not even your own, and did nothing to advance yourself in the meantime. The difference between us is clear.”

Mandanri screamed as he burst into flames…flames empowered by the Heroic Challenger skill that made them effective against any and all targets. Nolynth exhaled her breath as her long-time rival burnt to ash.

The Sun Elves had a…complicated relationship with the Aesdes and the Realms of Mana, more still for Nolnyth given her fealty to High-Archon Vommik. As such, Nolnyth had been hiding the rewards of her first corrupted dungeon assault, one that took place before she requested assistance from the Empire. Rewards that prevented her from following the High-Archon’s plans, even had she thought them anything but imbecilic.

After all…heroes and Realms of Mana generally don’t mix.

R continued to lay into his opponent’s barrier with his spear. The Archon replied back with spells of her own, but his suit’s spatial angling prevented damage to even the suit itself, much less the rat within. The Archon tried to escape with Dash spells, but 01R’s sensors could track her trajectory and his own speed, repulsors, and Dash skill managed to keep up. The Archon was forced into pure defense, holding a barrier and hoping 01R would run out of mana before she did.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

But 01R was wearing a suit powered by a dungeon core. And engaging a dungeon core in a war of attrition was a poor choice.

The barrier began to crack…

Snuan's airships kept the Archon pinned on the defense with a constant barrage of Prismatic Bombardment beams. The Archon was now focusing everything on holding his barriers up, and could no longer launch any counterattacks at all.

As such, Snuan had her ship cease its attack. She redirected the mana of the core to begin charging some powerful capacitors, gathering a greater store of mana. She then ordered that all power be directed towards the main gun.

The front armor of the dungeon airship opened up, revealing a spinal mounted railgun. A weapon that the dungeon airships carried but preferred not to use, as it required temporarily disabling the spatial angling that gave them their durability. But that wasn’t a problem against an opponent who couldn’t fire back.

The Archon noticed something occurring and attempted to flee. But the other airships’ barrages forced him to keep up his barriers, and so prevented him from using any mobility spells. It was, therefore, not particularly difficult for Snuan’s ship to keep a lock on him.

Snuan made a smirk as she spoke.

“Fire-Destroy, yes-yes!”

The airship executed the order…and the Archon. His barrier, weakened by the beams continuously assaulting it, could not resist a close-range, max-power railgun shot.

High-Archon Vommik grimaced as he caught a glance of the situation. Three of his Archons had fallen already. The other four were locked in stalemates against their opponents, and would follow soon now that the Queen of the Dobhar’s forces could double up on them. His personal guard was still grinding their way through the golem army and unable to intervene.

The Heralds of the New Dawn had attempted their plans…and clearly failed. The High-Archon caught a glimpse of an explosion amongst the ritual they had prepared. The Herald of Rain had vanished chasing after one of the Queen of the Dobhar’s companions…only for the powerful and clearly not human girl to chase after them. After what Vommik had seen that girl do…he was not at all optimistic about the Herald of Rain’s chances. She would either perish, or cowardly abandon the field…which were both the same as far as this battle was concerned.

Which meant it now fell upon the High-Archon to win this fight. Alone.

And he would have to do so now, before the Herald of Rain failed. For the briefest of moments, the terrifying girl was not supporting the Queen of the Dobhar. If he had any chance of defeating either, it was now, while they were separated.

So he tried one further trick. The Aesdes did not include many mind-afflicting spells in their boons, limiting such things to illusions and direct emotional manipulations. But the Sun Elves knew that magic was far older and deeper than the Aesdes would have them believe, predating the boons themselves, and their explorations into the mysteries of the arcane had never ceased. There were ways to access the mind, to influence it, or even to dominate it completely.

High-Archon Vommik began to cast an ancient spell not recorded in any School of Magic skill, passed down from his own ancestors long ago…

Seero logged the termination of the Herald of Rain, marking one of their main objectives for this battle complete. She had serious concerns that the Heralds of the New Dawn would either surprise them or manage to escape, and had devoted processing power and mana as a reserve to respond to those contingencies.

But now, the Herald of Rain had made her play, and Ateia and Taog had terminated her with the protocols they and Seero had brainstormed to prevent her escape. An additional Herald had perished when 00B-Beta had warded off a cyberattack, and the remaining Heralds appeared scattered and disorganized.

As such, Seero could now focus all of her attention and firepower on the foe ahead of her.

It was in that moment that High-Archon Vommik cast a new spell, one that did not resemble anything Seero had encountered in Aelea. It more closely resembled spells cast by a mage from Earth, one known as a legendary witch.

And then, suddenly, mana assaulted her mind.

“Intrusion detected within organic components. Engaging organic intrusion termination protocols.”

So Seero activated the emotional controls, then put her organic half on standby-sentry mode. She activated the Equalizer, disrupting the mana streaming towards her mind, and then reactivated her organic half. Her organic components indicated to leave the emotional controls enabled to mitigate any further intrusion attempts.

High-Archon Vommik pursed his lips as the Queen of the Dobhar broke his spell. From what he could tell, she had simply knocked herself unconscious while somehow still keeping all of her spells active. She had subsequently activated that special weapon the Herald of Rain had warned him about, destroying the mana powering his spell while still unconscious, and then immediately woke herself back up.

The Herald of Rain had told him that she was something like a half-human, half-golem, but it was another thing to see her lose and regain consciousness on command.

In any case…his spell had failed. And the Queen of the Dobhar…had apparently been holding back. More strategic spell circles formed in the air.

High-Archon Vommik had but one choice remaining…