Mar was...frustrated. The elemental refused to die even though they had practically conjured a lake on top of it, and in the process had shattered the walls of fortress Valean and washed the army of the Antmite General down the plains. Thousands of Units had been sacrificed to draw up all the groundwater for miles to flood the entire plains.
And yet, the lava elemental squirmed and resisted being drowned and extinguished. Molten earth ruptured out of the ground and the aura of heat started to slowly knit itself back together, while Mar poured more and more energy into drawing water out of the soil. Energy Pylons back in Hor ran out of energy, the factories stopped producing Biomass, and several Units fell dormant in the ocean and on land.
The unfortunate weakness of Mar's Power was that it was dependent on external sources of water. The dry plains of Chilvale, unfortunately, did not have that much water all considered, so having already drawn up a lake's worth of it the Sovereign Swarm found that they had scoured most of the soil for every drop of moisture it could spare.
It was at that point that Mar began to wonder if they had finally been bested, as the elemental stood defiant against the rushing water and slowly drew more and more power into itself. Mar lashed out in frustration and once more shattered the aura of the creature with a roar of anger emanating from every Unit and Subject within 30 miles of the battle.
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Elarma Tor had been born three times now all things considered, first when she had been born from two human descendants of the Leigh. A so-called half-elf, then a second time when she had been overwhelmed by the magic she had learned from studying the North Wind, and then a third time when an unfortunate glass elemental had been merged with her.
Two lesser elementals had become a medium one, and that would normally be that. The unnatural fusion would roam the world until it was put out of its misery, but Elarma had more of a mind than a medium elemental should. Presumably because of her past as a mage, but the added presence of the glass elemental merged with her own wind-consumed mind had been enough to re-awaken her sapience at least for the moment.
And she sensed an opportunity in the battle below her as she flew away in her disintegrated form. The greater elemental that had sent her fleeing with it's mere presence alone, was now weakening as it battled against the Thrall-King. Elarma didn't see it but she remembered the foe that had caused her to be reborn as a creature of the wind, but she didn't care about it. No, what she cared about was that kindred magic within the lava elemental. The magic that a certain scepter had used to melt the essences of two elementals into one.
Elarma felt that it was an opportunity and she would grab it, so she steered the Silver-Wind that was her glassy/windy body and dove back towards her weakened creator. He was distracted as he attempted to reassemble his aura again before the water could engulf him fully, and he didn't sense the threat before it was too late.
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Cooling air hit the proud Ulgorizumas like a divine fist from above before he was then pierced by thousands of minuscule glass shards. Each shard dug through his body and before they could melt the power of the cool air protected them and let them pass fully through him. Lava sprayed out like a fountain as he was pierced and his body practically exploded as the Silver-Wind tore through him and lapped up his essence like a starving swarm of locusts.
Stolen story; please report.
A woman of air and glass manifested behind Ulgorizumas as he desperately tried to repair himself and began tearing into his body and unleashing the wind like a miniature hurricane around them. Wind, glass, water, and lava convalesced within the heart of the storm to great effect as the two elementals clashed, and the one who had been lesser prevailed.
Ulgorizumas stared forwards in shock as the human-like face made out of perfectly sculpted glass winked at him before disintegrating into a swirling flurry of glass and wind and took off into the sky as the tonnes of water crashed down on him and smashed him to the earth. He howled in despair and fright as the water finally doused him fully and left his insides to cool for the first time ever.
Lava died and was replaced by pure obsidian and the new obsidian elemental lay dormant as his nature and being was irrevocably changed. Only when the Oceanic Crawlers found him did he move and that was only to be thrust up by cables and dragged through the water back towards a very furious Swarm and their barely cognizant General.
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Downstream a small cabal of cultists and mages had been able to survive mostly through luck as the water had smashed through the fortress and sent them floating out while clinging to improvised driftwood. Eventually, they hit a hill and managed to climb their way up on it and watched as their honored teacher made battle against the Thrall-King and then the treacherous wind elemental. And ultimately they saw their teacher be buried beneath the water and not come back up.
So, when the swimming Soldiers with their small contingent of human Subjects approached the hill with the trapped Mages and their Servants, they did the only sensible thing as Magmaspeaker Marol stepped forward and knelt.
"We surrender."
Her voice to her credit did not waver as she did so, it would waver and scream many times before the infection process was over but at least in that moment, she maintained her dignity along with her fellows. In spite of their bedraggled appearance.
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Mar leveled up for the first time in over a month as the battle caused them to jump two tiers. The Antmite General had 50 new Subjects added to his armies which helped restore his mind far more than even 500 new Units could do. And a new greater elemental had been born and raged through the world on the lookout for new adventures and a certain Catkin Enby that had abandoned her previous team. The wind might be fickle, but glass did remember and was as certain as the earth about bringing such things about.
Elsewhere, a demon unlike anything the world had seen before unleashed horrific abominations down from the Ortal mountains and made war upon the unsuspecting villages below. Three Carnies slowly regained their power by letting fate play out as they plied their mundane crafts waiting to regain some semblance of control before the next round. Fleshpits disgorged newborn elementals now that Resil was gone and could no longer artificially keep them merged with himself. And the Order of the Apocalypse fell into panic as no words from the High Council could be heard or found and began unleashing their more unhinged schemes upon the general populace.
A Devil Prince moved to gather information about a recent divine conclave while divine emissaries left to approach a certain new deity on behalf of the Chilvalen gods. A Necromancer, a catkin Adventurer, a former Woodsman, and a former second-rate Sorcerer all happened to enter the same town at the same time. And of course, something crawled through the crack left by a conquest seed and slowly slithered through the sky on the lookout for something interesting, while reality wept around it and fell down as a pale imitation of rain upon the soil.