Supreme Magus

Bytra's cloaking item concealed Tezka's aura but the Gernoffs knew who he was and what seven tails in a Fylgja meant.

It was the reason seeing ten of them made the Gernoffs recalculate their odds of success, finding them abysmal.

"Tezka the Suneater? Are you a friend of the Ernas Household?" Okham's voice was calm and steady as he moved a hand behind his back to give new orders to his team.

"You dare question me, boy?" Tezka snarled but his expression quickly relaxed. "I know the Ernas Household just like anyone else in the Kingdom. They can all die for all I care. Some of their guests, however, are a different story.

"Go away while I ask you gently and I might not stab your hearts the moment you turn your backs. No promises, though."

"We have no business with anyone but Jirni Ernas." Okham said while updating his orders. "Let us pass and you have our word we won't hurt her guests, no matter who they are."

"And they say the Gernoffs are a bunch of humourless bastards." Tezka burst in a mocking, cold laugh. "Who do you think I am, boy? I met your precious Oghrom, the man you idiots still idolize to this day.

"I still remember the day when he told me that his word was piss and his honor a joke. Oghrom Gernoff didn't care about such trivial concepts. He would have done and said anything to carry out his mission and I bet you kids are no different."

"We-"

"Have stopped amusing me." Tezka cut Okham short. "I'll make you an offer you can't refuse, because if you do, you'll die. You have five seconds to leave before I kill you where you stand. Five."

As he spoke, darkness fell as a pitch-black shroud the size of a crescent moon covered the sun. Tezka never underestimated his enemies. Even though he doubted Oghrom's descendants were at his level, he had no reason to take risks.

"Our original mission failed but another can still succeed." Okham said via the hand signs. "Despite all his power, Tezka the Suneater is just an Eldritch with no Spirit Magic. He can't use dimensional magic due to the arrays of the mansion, and once we seal the darkness element, he's no match for us.

"We must kill him before the Suneater spell takes effect. Prepare Silverwing's Annihilation and remove the only stain of failure Oghrom suffered while at the service of the First King.

"We'll be the one to strike the Suneater's name off Oghrom's kill list!"

Okham had already finished casting his spells while Tezka talked, while the others needed just one more second to complete theirs.

A darkness-sealing array covered the Fylgja and Okham Spirit Blinked behind Tezka to buy his companions the time to weave their share of the Annihilation.

"Dimensional magic against me? How cute. Two." What looked like a helm with white crystals on its sides appeared on Tezka's head.

As he spoke, one of his tails whipped down on Okham with the casual movement of a hand swatting a fly. The tail shattered Okham's Spirit Barrier, crushed his armor, and cut the Awakened's enhanced body asunder like a hot knife through butter.

Okham would have exploded on impact if not for the searing heat of the fire tail turning him into ashes faster than he could splatter around.

To the eyes of the remaining six Gernoffs, Okham had been wiped out of existence like chalk on a blackboard.

"Three." Tezka said as a face mask studded with mana crystals forming a cruel Maw filled the empty space in the Skull of Bytra.

Almost half of the sun was now eclipsed.
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"Scatter!" Narisa Gernoff, the second in command, recognized the design of the Ears and Mouth of Menadion from Oghrom's notes and knew her squad had no chance of victory.

The infiltration team's members stopped trying to hide their presence and activated a Spirit Blink spell. They moved each in a different direction and kept Blinking until they were past the crystal walls.

The alarms started resounding, but Tezka didn't mind.

"Four." The Endless Night blade appeared in his hand as six of his tails detached themselves from his main body and gave chase to the Gernoffs.

"And five!" The Suneater armor covered the body of one of the clones while the rest of his equipment was split between the others, leaving two of them disarmed. "Game on."

***

Meanwhile, inside the Mansion, Dripha was still being passed around among her relatives and friends as they introduced themselves to her.

"Hello, beautiful." Friya caressed the baby's cheeks with her finger. "Is she Awakened?"

"You wish." Lith snorted. He had arrived late but faster than Vastor. "Plenty of Awakened couples have children but none gave birth to an Awakened. Elysia is special due to the conditions of her conception and Kami spending most of the time in the Desert or over a powerful mana geyser."

"That actually reassures me." Jirni sighed. "The last thing I need is worry Dripha might choke on something she picks up the floor with Spirit Ma-"

As the sun turned dark, she knew that her worst fears had come true.

'The Gernoffs have come for my life and Tezka stopped them. I could deal with them but not with Vastor's anger.'

"Is it a good or a bad sign for a baby to be born during an eclipse?" Orion wasn't superstitious, but the day turning into night felt like a bad omen.

"A good sign." Vastor arrived in a rush, panting a bit after sprinting for quite some distance with his short legs. "Sorry if I'm late, Jirni, but I made sure to leave you in good hands."

***

The Gernoffs thought they had a chance of escaping but their dream shattered the moment they left the peril of the Ernas' arrays and Tezka's tails regained their full powers.

The Blinks and the Warp Steps opened by the Gernoffs refused to close until he crossed them too and their Collapsing Space spells were cancelled by Tezka's Restoration spells that relaxed the space just as much as the Gernoffs' destabilized it.

"You said you would let us go!" Narisa said while using Spirit Magic to boost her flight spell's speed beyond what Tezka was supposed to match.

"No, I said you had five seconds before I killed you where you stood. There's a big difference!" The light tail laughed at her and slashed the air with Endless Night.

The Nightmaze enchantment of the blade conjured countless dimensional openings that covered the space surrounding the Awakened for dozens of meters.

Narisa cursed and activated the Warp Steps she kept at the ready to escape the encirclement before it was too late.

'Okham was a damn fool!' She inwardly cursed. 'Each tail is supposed to possess only a fraction of the power of the full body yet now that the cloaking object doesn't block my Life Vision, the aura of that thing exceeds everything I've ever seen.

'That's no Eldritch, that's a monster I couldn't beat even we didn't break the battle formation.'

She crossed the Warp Steps and turned around, putting all her willpower into a Collapsed Space spell. She hoped to shut down the dimensional corridor long enough to throw the Fylgja off her tracks.