Creating a weapon out of vapour whilst maintaining and feeding more energy into the divine manifestation of Watchful Undeviginti was far from being simple or easy, but somehow, Ny-Hor had managed to and successfully caused the solar spell to detonate, engulfing a wide area in a destructive force, which included both him and his opponent, but of course, he himself was immune to the effects of his own inner vapour, if anything, having the energy was over him was refreshing.
'To think that something other than a solar beast could require more than a single divine manifestation to defeat… What sort of monster was this Ir'Houwl? And how can such a creature refer to itself as a minor lord to an empire? She's powerful enough to fight both me and Khasekhemwy at the same time… Even being able to kill him… There is nothing minor about that!' Ny-Hor caught his breath, the soft pink shine of Illusory Undeviginti illuminating the desert for him.
It was rare to behold the true form of the trickster sun, usually disguised as Prime Undeviginti, but it was said that the mirages it produced were far more potent when in this form.
As such, Ny-Hor did not believe his eyes when everything cleared up, convincing the pink star was playing a trick on him, but the sight of an Ersta'ra of Watchful Undeviginti was not easy to fool, and his guts twisted within him, as though warning him that impending doom was drawing close.
"How?" he muttered, the undead was out of sight, it was a wall of red sand that his eye was bearing witness to, the intense destruction of his transcend-level spell should have formed a demi-sphere into the ground, but that was far from the case, as all destruction had ceased once it had reached that wall.
'Moments ago… That sand could not have possibly endured such power… It was struggling to contain the sun just moments ago!' he cried out in his mind, his muscles tensing up reflexively as the sand began to fall and slither upon the ground, revealing the minor lord, who had not suffered any additional damage from the blast.
'What did she say just before? That she was grateful?' he thought to himself, his eyes meeting the infernal flames of dark red within the corpse's sockets, the abnormal fire felt deeply disturbing, for he could feel some sort of glimmer within them, a glint that could only be found within the eyes of someone who had just realised something so important, that it could change them as a person forever.
Or perhaps, it was a feeling of joy that was simply alien within the cadaver.
"This is more than a step forward for me alone, this a grand step forward for the empire itself! You have my thanks for aiding me in reaching this height, you must have played your part exactly as Sir Loimos envisioned it!" the abnormal warmth in her tone was more chilling than anything else she could do, and yet, it was the mention of Loimos that made the living's heart sink, he had no idea who the pure undead was, but the name alone was enough for a lamb lost in the nightmare that was life to shudder in terror.
He hit his own chest, causing his frightening heart to beat normally once more, eye shining with a pale glint.
"Don't you dare monologue like you have won, I am Ny-Hor, Ersta'ra, faithful to Watchful Undeviginti, I will not cave in, I will fight with the intention to defeat you until my last breath" he spoke, with the intention to convince himself more than anything else.
"Oblivion, Silence, Compassion, Eternity, Dark, Destruction, Decay, Fear, Agony, Love, Peace, Truth, The Unknown- There is no need to struggle any longer, Death welcomes you with open arms, saints and sinners alike are welcome into Death's embrace! From the insects that crawl on the ground to the very gods, all are invited to join the empire- Yes, we can all be together, united as one in death!" she brought her palms together, the fabric usually wrapped her hands was gone, so the dull sound of bone against bone was all that it created.
"But I suppose that you are not one to fall for grand speeches, right? So I will just kill you"
"And who knows, perhaps this realm's conquest will be what solidifies light as the fourteenth aspect of death?" Ir'Houwl shrugged, she could have said that the empire would separate the Undevigintis from one another, but it was clear that the living was unwilling to listen and would only take her words as a crazy person's rambling.
"Kill me? Don't think this will be easy, I still have plenty of energy left!" and with these words, he rose his hand and began to manifest another miniature sun, not hesitating to use this intensely draining solar spell again, knowing very well that anything else he could try would easily be countered by the undead, he could only bet on the fact that she would not be able to resist another blast of such strength.
When everything else fails, one can always just fall back on brute force.
Ir'Houwl did not move and instead just spoke a single word in death tongue, one she, as a pure warrior, had never imagined herself able to pronounce for real, the minor lord didn't even know if speaking the word was actually necessary or not, simply doing the same thing she had seen others do before her.
Whether it was correct to give that name to something spawned from an innate ability instead of an energy was dubious, as the definition of zone did not account for anything other than for a zone made out of energy, and indeed, what happened was much different from what The Earthen Catastrophe or Volcano Witch would do when using this most supreme ability.
Ancient pillars eroded by time rose out of the sand, eight of them in total, four on each side.
Each of them bore old scriptures and carvings depicting and speaking of various events of the undead empire, but all was written in death tongue, and even the depictions could hardly be looked at by the eyes of the living.
The energy within was not converted to Ir'Houwl's own, instead, it simply bowed and vowed to serve as her shield, the miniature sun being manifested was instantly taken apart by the ambient energy, Ny-Hor himself was immediately besieged, feeling himself being drained at, but there was no red sand.
And unlike normal, what was drained wasn't simply lost, it was instead all converted into death force that was then given to the minor lord, bringing her back to a pristine state and even allowing her to easily extract the vapour still stubbornly clinging within her bones.
Even her scimitars were restored to mint conditions thanks to this.
She could feel that more could be done, but it was not necessary, the passive effects had already brought the weakened living to the ground.
Still, Ny-Hor wasn't allowing himself to grovel, exerting his body greatly to stand upon his knees, watching as Ir'Houwl approached him.
"Ny-Hor, your aimless wander is over"
His head fell to the ground, and his body soon followed as the pillars sunk back into the sand, the minor lord sheathing her weapons.
She was able to overcome the challenges picked by Loimos.