The monster darted toward Lith faster than a bullet, tanking everything he threw at it. Burning Prison, Lith’s personal tier four spell conjured six fireballs, one above, one below and four around the creature, detonating at the same time.

The head exploded and regenerated, the limbs got turned to shreds but all the pieces managed to reattach themselves before the blast could scatter them away. Lightings burned its flesh and burst its heart, more icicles pierced its body that needles a pincushion.

None of it managed to even slow it down. Yet recovering from all that damage took its toll, the creature’s body had become thinner, while the talons fell, leaving the creature with just its fists.

Fists that struck Lith with the might of a titan, uncaring of his footwork and the technique he used to deflect part of their force. Despite being hardened by earth fusion, Lith’s right arm shattered at the ulna, the humerus and the radius.

Bone segments pierced the muscles and skin, the white of the bone glittering under the sun because of the blood dripping on them.

Lith got blinded by pain, his eyes watering like waterfalls, yet managed to remain conscious, once again being saved by his restless paranoia. He knew that being a true mage was not enough, that being prepared was not enough.

The new world was a big place, he was bound to meet sooner or later someone stronger than him, someone capable of hurting him for real.

Among his trial and error experiments on himself, he had learned how to use darkness magic to cut his pain receptors, an that’s what he did the moment he realized that all he had was not enough to stop a single punch of the monster of his own creation.

Lith also jumped sideways at the last second, borrowing the strength from the hit to put some distance between them. While flying through the air he kept casting as fast as he could, making all kind of spells rain down on his pursuer.

Even with only his left arm remaining, he managed to land another four explosions before the creature caught up, striking again, this time at his chest. Lith felt his ribcage collapse, spitting blood realizing that even breathing had become an excruciating torture.

The Raghul-thing lifted him by the neck, licking every single drop of the precious liquid, feeling its strength returning.

Both of them were wheezing, their expression distorted, but while Lith was desperate, Lith’s monster was triumphant, using its unnaturally long tongue to lap all the blood dripping from his face.

Lith used that precious moment to wave a final spell, and when the monster opened its mouth to tear his neck open, he managed to conjure an icicle inside it, so that when the jaw attempted to close on him, it pierced its tongue, palate and brain.

The creature didn’t care for it, not until realizing that not it could not bite. Then the monster simply grabbed and pulled the icicle out, uncaring for its own wounds, accelerating the decay process.

Its eyes withered and rolled into the skull, leaving only the red light of undeath behind.

The fangs finally bit Lith’s neck, blood sprayed out his jugular.

But then the jaw fell off, shortly followed by the creature’s right arm, holding the prey no more.

Lith’s monster emitted an angry gurgle, drool flooding its mouth, right before the whole corpse dried out and collapsed on the ground, turning into ashes.

- "In your face, Mary Shelley." - Lith thought, casting all the healing spells he could manage before falling onto the ground, sprawled like a rag doll.

After so much pain and struggling, Lith finally felt at peace. His vision blurred until everything went black. He could feel all his anxieties, all his fears and traumas fading away. The pounding ache from the wounds was reduced to a dull sensation, no longer important.

He just wanted to sleep and forget about everything, but from a corner of his mind, something kept tugging at Lith’s consciousness, refusing to give up. A part of him was fighting the stupor, knowing he would never wake up from that slumber.

Solus tried non-stop to reach his mind through the numbing pain and exhaustion, but to no avail. He had gone too far, the wounds were too deep. The only thing she could do, was use her own mana to keep his conditions stable.

Yet with only a yellow mana core to back her endeavour, she was just delaying the inevitable. Finally, light fusion was able to purify the wounds from the dark energy festering them, allowing all the healing spells Lith had previously cast to kick in.

The bleeding stopped, the wounds were still severe but no more life threatening, at least for the moment. Lith was now able to hear Solus’ voice, to grab the light of her will and use it with his own to finally open his eyes.

Waves of searing pain were still ravaging his battered body, but he couldn’t afford to heal himself. Not only he had little mana left, in his current conditions even light spells would add strain to his body, potentially killing him.

Gritting his teeth to endure the agony of each breath, he used Invigoration, to both assess his conditions and gain the energy he needed to survive.

- "Comminute fractures all over the ribcage, comminute and open fracture of the right arm, minor internal bleeding, several bones cracked and open wounds. I doubt I would still be alive without light fusion’s regenerating factor and your help, Solus."

"Thank me later, first fix your chest. If any of the bone fragments pierces your lungs its over." –

Invigoration was an incredible tool, but it wasn’t perfect. To use it, Lith required to remain still, focusing his mind and spirit to align the mana core with the world energy surrounding him.

The slightest distraction would severe the connection.

That was the reason why he couldn’t use it during battles, otherwise he would have access to an endless supply of mana. Following Solus’ advice, he used light and spirit magic to collect all the scattered bone fragments rebuilding his ribcage.

The process was slow and painful, but he couldn’t make haste, his own life was on the line. After that, he had to take care of the hunger. Invigoration could make up for the lost stamina and mana, but recovering from so many wounds required nutrients.

The right arm was still a mess, but with the pain receptors disconnected it was bearable.

Lith felt like he had been fasting for a week, his head light and dizzy. He took food out of his pocket dimension, wolfing it down as fast as his left arm allowed him to. Light magic was accelerating his metabolism to the extreme, the food digested as soon it entered his stomach.

Time was of the essence, he walked up to Rodimas, removing her gag to get his answers.

"Who sent you here? And why?"