Chapter 783: Back from the Dead
Mana exploded from my soul, forming several sixth-circle Mirror Locks behind me. As the silver magic began to coalesce, Lord Evlon’s eyes widened, and he launched a bolt of raw mana at me. Fable pounced on it like a cat playing with a mouse, batting it from the sky.
Without the inquisitor’s interference, the spells resolved, and four gleaming silver spheres snapped into place. Only four, and yet soul casting that many at once had taxed my soul to the limit, leaving me gasping for breath.
I watched, stomach twisting, as nothing happened. The Mirror Locks had formed around empty air. Had I been wrong? Was Evlon’s plan unrelated to the anomalies I’d spotted earlier? If that were true, then I’d just wasted my only chance to resist whatever he was plotting.
A shimmer appeared in the sphere closest to me, around the strange warp in Fate I’d picked out earlier. Mana appeared out of nowhere, shedding from a figure-shaped blob of empty space like cascading water. The same thing happened in the other three spheres, which I’d placed as much by instinct as anything.
I hadn’t been wrong. They were using the same tactic as before, but this time, I was ready for them.
"Damn it," Evlon hissed, glaring at me past Fable.
Four sixth-level inquisitors appeared, whatever magic they were using to hide themselves from the Oracle of Eternity failing within the discordant field generated by the Mirror Locks. Only, Mirror Lock would only cut them off from anything on the outside, not cancel any effects they had personally on themselves, which meant...I’d missed one. The one actually casting the spell.
But before I could search for another anomaly in fate, the inquisitors struck. Ignorant of my spells’ power, or perhaps confident they could break through, each mustered their mana in an explosive attack. AN assassin, with a silver dagger gleaming with mana, was the first to move, launching a sixth-level magical technique at the shining sphere trapping him.
"No!" Evlon shouted, but his warning came too late.
The dagger crashed into the Lock, releasing an explosion of sun magic. Adaptive resistant flared, protecting the spell from the worst of the damage, while the Mirror Lock absorbed the mana itself, directing it into a shockwave that reflected back into the sphere even stronger than before. The explosion lit the sphere like a beacon, reflecting countless times within the enclosed space, consuming the inquisitors in blinding light. The faint silhouette visible within staggered back, eroding in real time until nothing remained but rocheting sun magic.
The other inquisitors froze, staring in horror at the mirror lock that held their companion, which now resembled a miniature, burning sun, the light getting ever bright. To managed to stall their attacks in time, but the third--a mage--was already too far gone.