Taresia couldn’t order the newborn Ring of Space to attack without accumulating enough battle experience first.
She knew how powerful Tezka was, and there was no guarantee that Taresia could craft another Salanoth. Forbidden Magic was a fickle mistress. Even if Taresia survived the ritual again, the chances of victory of a second Ring of Space would have been close to 0.
Taresia had spent most of her life studying Tezka’s grimoires, and considered the Severed Sky array and the Eternity Seal spell her best shot at killing him, but only if Salanoth took the Suneater by surprise.
Taresia knew Salanoth had one chance and had to make it count.
Salanoth, on the other hand, had no reason to play her part in a gamble that didn’t benefit her. If she succeeded, she would be forced to return to Taresia and obey her orders as long as the Fylgja drew breath. If Salanoth failed, she would die.
Luckily for her, munication amulets didn’t exist back then, so after Taresia set Salanoth out on her journey, the Fylgja had no way to contact the Ring of Space again. Taresia had died wondering what could have possibly gone wrong.
The thought that the Forbidden Magic ritual had created the perfect vessel and imbued it with the wrong personality never crossed her mind. After Taresia’s death, her orders had bee a faint echo in Salanoth’s head, and she was finally free to live however she wanted.
The Ring of Space still kept her ears open for rumors about Tezka’s presence, but now it was to avoid him. If they met, her programming would take over, and the dice she had stalled for so long would finally roll.
Now, the dice had been cast, and she could only hope that luck would favor her once again.
Tezka’s cruel smirk disappeared as Salanoth told her story, and by the end of it, his expression became unreadable. She could neither understand if he believed her nor what his intentions were.
The only thing that was apparent to the Ring of Space was that Tezka never stopped chasing after her, and his sword kept ing for her true body.
"I’m appalled." He said, his voice holding a slight tremor that didn’t match the firmness of his grip over Endless Night. "I never knew my people went through so many ordeals.
"If we met just a year ago, your words would have hurt me, but they wouldn’t have changed my resolve. I’ve long since embraced the weight of my crimes and traced the only path that will allow me to make amends for them, if not even grant me redemption.
"I would have still killed you, kid. Yet just a few months ago, I met a young Fylgja from the Summoner Clan, and she told me a pletely different story!" His voice rose into a growl, and his eyes burned with the color of the six elements and a spark of emerald.
"She told me that our, no, my clan survived! That they thrived despite all I did to them. She even invited me to rejoin the Summoner Clan! Do you know what it means, you filthy liar?" Tezka waited the time for three exchanges for an answer.
"It means that the only thing you’ve achieved with your ridiculous story is to make me angry. I’m going to enjoy killing you way more than I should!" A pulse of Unbreakable Bond made Tezka fast enough to sever the right arm of Salanoth’s host.
The wound healed immediately, but without the connection with the cursed ring, the Infinity Blade the woman held faded away. It was all that Tezka needed to dice Salanoth and her host with a second pulse of Unbreakable Bond.
"Stop cutting me!" The Ring of Space screamed in panic. "If I take any more damage, the Davross of my body will bee incapable of containing the power of my enchantments, and I will explode.
"I will die, but so will you and the people you came here to protect."
"You’re a funny thing, filthy liar." Tezka laughed in triumph as he kept cutting the ring as soon as the enchanted metal reassembled itself. "I almost regret having to kill you. You’d make an interesting jester.
"Too bad that I’ve already learned everything I need from you. Your existence is no longer useful to me, and you’ve proven to be a threat that can’t be underestimated."
Salanoth tried to object, but her voice didn’t e out.
The damage her host had suffered exceeded what even the cursed ring could heal. Each swing of Tezka’s blade was infused with Chaos, cutting and destroying everything it touched.
Death freed the woman-Upyr from the torment of serving Salanoth and freed her from the corruption that Orpal’s blood inflicted upon her. It also halved the Ring of Space’s prowess, making her incapable of resisting what came next.
"Thank you." A crying creature of light said before departing towards the sky.
It was nothing new for Lith, but a stunning revelation for Tezka.
"Order and Chaos, souls do exist." The surprise didn’t stop him from sealing the fragments of the Ring of Space inside the Chaos Dimension and stopping its attempts to self-repair by applying what he had learned about the Eternity Seal.
"Nice trick, uh?" He couldn’t hear Salanoth’s thoughts, but guessing them wasn’t hard. "Thanks to your repeated displays of Eternity Magic, now I can control not only the space, but also the movements of all those who step inside my Chaos Dimension.
"I can stop spells, weapons, and even a body from healing itself. Or rather, I’ll be able to do all that and more with a bit of practice."
The Davross fragments were slowly moving towards each other, spreading small tendrils of metal to reconnect and form the Ring of Space.
"As for you bastards..." He turned towards the rest of the Upyrs, only to notice they weren’t there anymore. "Sons of the Piss King!"
The moment Tezka had sealed Salanoth inside Chaos Dimension, the Severed Sky array had crumbled, removing both the dimensional-sealing and the space-pressing array.
Uragar’s real body contained several Warp Spells that only lacked the dimensional coordinates of his current position to be activated, leading him to safety. His first move had been to Blink Jorl and Akhton to his position as he opened and crossed the first Steps.
After that, he had never stopped casting.
’Without the Severed Sky array, Tezka has access to his Suneater spell again.’ The Book of Knowledge thought. ’If we couldn’t defeat him while his powers were sealed, facing him now would be suicide!’
Jorl was thankful to Uragar, but crushed by the loss of Salanoth.
’How will I explain to Orpal how she died?’ He thought. ’Even worse, how can I hope to defeat him without her? Tezka didn’t just kill a few of my most powerful soldiers. He also killed one of the two only true immortals who can fight the Dead King on equal footing.’
’We’ll worry about that if we survive!’ Akhton said. ’That’s Tezka the Suneater, and hoping to avoid him by using dimensional magic is as stupid as shooting fireballs at the sun!’
Meanwhile, Lith and the others were exhausted from the continuous use of Invigoration.
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