Selphira had penetrated the complete depth of the rectangular defensive formation supposed to stop her or at least delay her sufficiently to make her spend all her mana.
But she'd done it in record ti, communicating that the individual power of an exceptional tar could overco almost any nurical advantage when the caliber disparity was sufficiently large.
Three thousand soldiers. So elite rebel forces that had a long ti to have prepared positions while she fought mutants and they also had ho ground advantage.
Yet she'd carved through them like they were a training exercise rather than serious military opposition.
But the cost had also been real even if the result looked easy.
She was panting slightly. Breathing accelerated, showing her effort that the fast approach had required.
A rapid evaluation of her reserves would have indicated she was operating at approximately thirty percent capacity. Perhaps less if she was honest about how much cumulative small attacks had drained her during the advance.
Not critical levels... But considerably less than ideal when the final confrontation with Orion still waited.
She'd spent a bit more than two-thirds of her remaining mana killing mutants and getting through the army. That left barely enough for sustained combat against a Gold-rank opponent who presumably was fresh and operating at full capacity.
The math wasn't great… It was what it was. She'd made her choice when she'd charged forward alone rather than waiting for a better opportunity that might never co.
And then, shortly before completely overcoming the last stretch of soldiers separating her from the ruin's entrance, she saw sothing making her calculations beco secondary to an emotional reaction that overwheld the discipline she normally maintained.
Orion erged from the ruin and from the building that guarded it. Appearance she'd been anticipating but that ca with sothing she didn't expect in his hands.
He was dragging a body that Selphira recognized instantly despite so big changes making it difficult to process what she saw.
Worse was that being this close she didn't feel his signature.
Victor was...
But it wasn't Victor's body as she rembered from last ti she'd seen him days before.
He was semi-crystallized in a way that was more terrifying compared to Dragarion or Sirius.
Not a complete crystal statue like his father who'd been transford into a monunt leaving him immobile. That had been terrible but at least had looked dignified. Like a sleeping hero rather than this torture.
This was sothing worse in many aspects. Interdiate state communicating suffering instead of simple stasis.
It was the body of a poor wounded man in many places. Damage visible even at this distance to her enhanced eyes as Selphira processed details that her maternal instinct tried rejecting as impossible.
And from those wounds appeared crystals in multiple colors that shouldn't exist in a human body.
Purple mostly… Manifestations of corruption that had been forced through thods Selphira didn't understand nor wanted to contemplate. The purple crystals grew from open wounds like tumors, foreign growths that didn't belong.
But also so black that absorbed light unnaturally. Making holes in the visual field where they existed.
And white that glowed with vigor hurting the eyes when focused directly. Brilliant and pure but also wrong because they shouldn't be growing from tissue.
The overall effect was nightmarish.
Selphira hadn't felt his energy neither now nor when approaching. Absence that made terrible sense.
She'd seen corruption before. Had studied the crystallization phenonon that had claid Sirius and others. But this was different. This was controlled… Weaponized suffering rather than the other accidental transformations.
This was torture and Orion had done it to her family mber.
To the boy she'd watched growing up. The spoiled prince she'd protected despite his flaws. The future of the kingdom she'd sworn to preserve.
And fury like she hadn't felt in decades exploded through her control.
She raged with intensity that made ice around her manifest spontaneously without conscious command.
Temperature fell precipitously as emotions translated directly into elental manifestation. The air froze. The ground crystallized and moisture in the atmosphere coalesced creating falling snowcrystals despite the clear sky.
Soldiers near her backed away instinctively. Recognizing that whatever was happening, they didn't want to be close to it. That the old woman who'd been advancing through their lines had just transford into sothing considerably more dangerous.
That conviction pushed her to make a decision she'd normally reserve as a last resort.
Selphira fused with the little mana remaining to her. Approximately thirty percent of reserves being channeled into the technique that would multiply her capabilities for a few minutes at the cost of exhaustion coming shortly after.
She couldn't wait or be cautious anymore. Couldn't hold anything back when Victor was right there in a sorry state that made her want to scream.
The Black Tortoise manifested in her body simultaneously with the White Serpent. Both emitting power that made the ground tremble and the air shimr.
And then the fusion began. The rging of woman and beasts into a single entity that exceeded what any component could achieve separately.
Her body altered and shifted. Scales erupting along arms and legs. Shell fragnts appearing across back and shoulders. Eyes changing to reflect serpentine and chelonian qualities simultaneously.
The power surge was imdiate and overwhelming. Thirty percent reserves would last at maximum 10 minutes but were suddenly providing a capability equivalent to full mana strength through the fusion's multiplicative effect. Weakness beca strength through a technique that Orion apparently hated not to possess.
It was ti to finish the most hateful Starweaver with mad violence…
But the increased perception from the fusion stopped what would have been a big attack and brought a small hope cutting through her rage.
Her first thought had been that he was dead. That Orion had killed him and was bringing the corpse as a trophy or final mockery.
His mana signature was that small. Reduced to almost nothing by so process that had consud the majority of his vital energy normally radiating from a tar of his rank.
It was a signal communicating he was at the edge of complete extinction. Life sustained by margin so narrow that any additional perturbation could end it permanently.
But it was still there.
Victor lived.
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