Five by five blocks, the solid foundation above the mucky floor of my expanded room. They charged up with incredible speed, cross-linked organic elemental circuitry of a very, very different style from the virindi lighting up as the single strongest magical nexus in Dereth poured into them once they were connected.


    Oh, yeah, this was working just fine. Vivus sparked at the corners already, and began to dance and sparkle in unwhite mist.


    There was no Fellowship or Mark chatter, because the virindi could just listen in to such stuff, so it was self-defeating. On the other hand, Briggs and Kris were likewise sensitive to the hivemind connections shouting back and forth, and if they couldn’t really understand what they were saying in their group mind, it was pretty damn impossible for the virindi to surprise them when the two had excellent ideas of where all of the creatures were.


    If Kris was broadcasting a lot of killing intent and enthusiasm for the fight as the Trembling Song reverberated through the stone and filled the virindi with uncomfortable thoughts of the emotional killing power of their Rynthid rivals, well, too bad for them.


    Fourth level, sixteen blocks.


    Third level, nine blocks.


    Ho, getting pretty loud up top. A lot of magic was being used to bore into the ground and try to excavate a way down here.


    Yeah, they had five minutes and whatever Ritual they tried to use wasn’t going to happen in time.


    Second level, four blocks.


    Capstone, bringing it all together.


    Ho, would you look at that, a freaking wave of magical force coming down and ripping apart the stone with overwhelming power. It blew past my Pyramid and tore open a sheer access route to the sky, down which a solid stream of virindi started pouring, itching to get down and at us.


    I dropped the capstone, and the Obsidian Pyramid lit up with a whole lot of Silver Magic as the primed power poured into the stone. Before any of the incoming horde of virindi could let off a single spell, the capstone lit up. There was a pulse and a surge as its Domain went off, and ALL the magic around converged on it.


    Hundreds of virindi wobbled, crashed into one another, and fell awkwardly down to the ground, scraping it with their armored shells as all their spellcasting was instantly disrupted. The air filled with vivus, the weight of the world got very Heavy indeed, and it blew outwards.


    The stone above the Pyramid opened up like a flower, and a fountain of vivus more like a jet shot straight up. Somehow, the Bore Crystal was right above, and it ate that jet of vivus and huh, wasn’t that a big change from raw Elemental and unconstrained ley line mana.


    The guttering plume of virindi energies became a coruscant flare of hot, bright mana blazing forth, right up into the receiving formation of Aerbax’s Citadel. The pressure on the Veil expanded in a visible sphere, vivus sparking and flaring at wild magic in the air. It swept over everything around us, and things not of this world were politely shoved off it as the Banishment Domain took hold.


    The virindi, and ALL the Summoned creatures, wavered, and popped out of existence, forced off the planet by the weight of Reality pressing down on their magical selves. Ectoplasm and energy matrices didn’t quite do the job, and away they went.


    Vivus spat and swirled around Spawn Points, Sealing them in passing as their residents were forced away. Empty armored robes from real virindi were scattered all over the place, sparks of vivus poofing up here and there as the Domain expanded, expanded… while up above, the receiving Formation began first to spark, and then it began to Burn.


    Not set up to handle the vivus-enhanced, interwoven Elemental fury that was punching up now, delicate crystalline lattices and Rune-matrices sparked, ignited, flared, and then popped, starting to blaze as they collapsed. As they did so, they conveyed uncontrolled surges of mana out along the arms of the structure to the floating towers and platforms at the ends of the diamond shape.


    I watched the mana circuits lighting up and popping in showers of Burning crystal and bright mana, the whole platform above the Bore shaking and shuddering… and as the central tower above fully ignited in a holocaust of blazing mana and shattering Runeworks, rupturing and taking out the central Formation and precipitating a rapid fall towards the Bore as they did so.


    The crystals of the Bore were now fused to the capstone of the Obsidian Pyramid, power continuing to blaze upwards even as the Pyramid’s Domain continued to expand. I watched it crest the inner hill line of the blast crater in the distance, leaving behind mushrooms and some random mounds of empty armored robes and masks, the tips of the hills igniting in little plumes of vivic flame as the Domain passed them and expanded out into the plains proper.


    The virindi, rynthids, and all the Summons were going to be Banished, the Spawn Points being Sealed by vivus as they did so. The only creatures left alive were going to be real shades and undead, who would find themselves basically alone, save for one another, on a landscape dotted by many, many spots of vivus, and they would not be able to Portal away.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    I expected some rather sudden violent activity directed at one another. More pointedly, I expected the teams of Royal Guards flowing up along the trail we’d blazed to spread out and clear the entire Obsidian Plains of anything still moving.


    Probably two hundred powerful Tuskers led by King Bobo were already racing about with real speed to make sure it was done, too, hauling around Healers to keep them alive as they moved in squads of four to kill any of the shades or undead still left here.


    The virindi had enslaved uncounted numbers of tuskers for years and years. King Bobo had a very big and long grudge against them in general, and Aerbax the maker of Prodigal beasties in particular.


    The corners of Aerbax’s Citadel settled heavily to the ground, shuddering and tilting as the hanging paths also hit the ground and surrounding mushrooms, allowing access up to them. The central tower was shattered and Burning away, falling away from the devastating flow of energy racing up to the limits of the Domain and consuming all the energies inherent to the place.


    I did see a twitching dark bundle fall from the central tower, blazing with vivus as it hit the ground, twitching and clawing with spidery, jagged extra limbs rippling with energies of shadow and lightning.


    The False Aerbax struggled to lift itself up on its limbs, slick Shadow Diamond armored shell spitting and trying to defy the veins of whiteness licking across it in waves and surges.


    It had just enough levitation to remain upright, but not to move. It used its limbs to turn, and its eyes settled on me, sitting there on the second level of my Pyramid, watching it.


    Watching it, and then unloading a whole mess of magic into it.


    It had made itself a Shadowed creature, which made it vulnerable to Disruption, positive energy, and all sorts of fun doubling effects. I pulled out Virindi Slayer on an off-hand Wand, Infused Shadow Slayer into Crown, and somehow was not surprised when both Effects somehow managed to stack on the composite thing. Add on Disruption’s doubling against negative energy lifeforms that somehow also stacked, and the False Aerbax was taking eight-fold magical damage from my attacks.


    Aerbax’s strongest defense was the power to render itself immune to magical, missile, or melee attacks in series. It could also Dispel most Debuffs quickly as needed, and it had like a million health to punch through, making taking it down quite the slog… and this wasn’t even the real one!


    However, an Arcane Fusion of Bestow Major Curse and Mana-Tier Vulnerability to Slashing wasn’t quite so easy to deal with.


    Bestow Major Curse was used to deliver a 75% chance of spellcasting failure, which would put a severe crimp into all of its abilities.


    The False Aerbax took all the Shardrays slamming into it, and Toppling overcame its tentacles stuck into the ground and sent it slamming to the black ashen soil, flailing. It twisted and moved in ways things with bones simply couldn’t, trying to get back upright, and my second volley slammed into it, even stronger than the first as Repeated and Residual Metamagic stacked ever higher on it as I began to pound the fucker.


    It took three desperate attempts to get its immunity to magic online as it struggled upright, while I punched holes into its armored shell which vented black and red-purple energies aggressively, lingering damage raging over it and demanding all of its attention as it tried to Cast.


    But it got the immunity out, shoved itself to its feet, and then began to scuttle towards me with impressive speed.


    Of course, that was plenty of time for Kris, Briggs, and the Mick to make it back up here at speed.


    Kris was naturally the first, bouncing off the bottom layer of the Pyramid and abruptly in its face, impaling it with Quaver in both hands and tearing it tumbling off its tentacles. They went rolling and shoving as it ripped and tore at her, and then she shoved it off of her with both feet, opening a huge gash in its armored robe.


    Oh, hey, Briggs was literally thirty feet in the air at that point, and coming down hard.


    Endure smashed the Construct down into the whitening ground with overwhelming force, cleaving open its backside in a massive venting of animating energies.


    Unable to do much more, I flipped Darts into Kris to Heal up the savage cuts from the Hollow Lightning-imbued tentacles, the gashes venting icy steam as her injuries closed.


    Briggs actually let go of Endure, reaching out to grab those lashing tentacles slicing in all directions. He wrapped them up in his arms, leapt and spun horizontally and heaved over to get the things coiled up and locked in place, now firmly wrapped up into a knotted mess around the handle of his Hammer and going absolutely nowhere.


    The False Aerbax was dragged off the ground just in time for the Mick to arrive and slice it across the throat.


    It was a killing blow, and would have worked on anything alive in a normal sense. The venting Health Qi was almost solid as it blew out, and then Briggs was keeping its tentacles locked and position fixed, the thing unable to even execute the normal virindi spin moves and chopping attacks as it faced the Mick and Kris erupting into full Wolfpack mode.


    Lost Light, Blackfire, and vivic streams bloomed around the two of them with unbelievable speed, Swords working faster than the eye could follow. Blood Roses of Shadow Virindi energy blurred, Seven Ripping Dragons fed Seven Circling Dragons, bonus damage piled on and was multiplied by Virindi Slayer, so much Precision Attack feeding in and finding all the weak spots that were becoming more and more obvious…


    I just Healed the pair of them as desperate and ungainly sickle attacks attempted to drive them back and injure them, and instead found themselves glancing off adamantine Swords and not doing what they were supposed to as the Health Qi depletion only accelerated…


    With a fifth effort, it managed to shift its immunity to melee to deal with the firestorm of death swallowing it.


    Two Swords licked out, and cutting sickles that could rip steel armor like taffy were locked in place against armored sleeves. The Mick and Kris twisted, even bringing up their feet and bracing against its robe to yank its sickles out of line and pin them in place.


    They also pivoted to make it totally vulnerable to me, unable to dodge or parry my magic at all.