Yarrow once more forced its attention back onto him, his blade biting with wounding light woven around it. Ash dropped the other illusion spell once the paladin had pulled it to face fully away from her. It was time for the next part of Fel's plan.
She placed both shield spells in her storage though she would cast them only once. With any luck, they wouldn't need a recast with what she was about to do. She started with mana absorption, taking in the tainted magic of the dungeon to turn it into her own regardless of the price she might later pay. Her second act was to re-enchant her spells with Mana Thief. Her last two acts were simultaneous.
Shields belonging to the pure one wrapped around the paladin in front of the reaper once more, one of fire and one pure magic. The paladin's magic kept it from looking behind it, from looking where the pure one's magic radiated from in large quantities. The entire room felt oddly charged, as if it was being changed and even the enchanted cold that had blanketed it was beginning to fail.
The spells came next, powerful magic far beyond what its intelligence told it pure ones wielded that hammered into weak points. Enraged, the phantom slammed a blow into the paladin in front of it leaving behind a wide gash on his arm. Before its inky black eyes, the wound knit closed even as another bright arrow of light sunk into its back. It was as if the arrow had taken its life-force and used it to heal the paladin.
No matter how many wounds it inflicted in its rage, all were healed as soon as another of the pure one's blows hammered into it if they weren't blocked entirely by the one that had warned it of its impending death. The pure one wasn't alone in her attacks either. The little one with the blades wove expertly between magical blows to sink her daggers into its legs, to bring it to its knees. The priestess that had attacked hammered it relentlessly with far more powerful light spells than she'd used before.
In its rage came a moment of clarity. All without ever once letting it know, they had concocted a plan. They were not holding back any longer and had every intent to end the battle or lose their lives trying.
It managed to strike out, to lash out fast enough and strong enough to force the paladin away and break his damnable hold on the instincts that wove the monster underneath the phantom's intelligence. Inky black eyes turned onto the pure one, prepared to feast upon her and regain all of his strength in one swift blow.
Her eyes glowed brightly beneath the hood, a gentle glow in an inky darkness that seemed to promise a swift end. The swift one's daggers were biting into it again, they would not be enough. The priestess' spells were hammering it relentlessly, they would not be enough. It began to approach, thinking the little one frozen in fear and unable to help her companions. She would be the death of them all and he wanted that to be understood.
As if to taunt the monster, the slight glow under the hood seemed to shift to a deep and dark purple that mimicked the fear that had played a part in weaving it and the dungeon around it. The pure one began to launch spells at a far more rapid pace than its knowledge told it was possible. Spell after spell sunk into its body, ripping pieces of it apart with their blinding brilliance. The entire time, the pure one continued to tear the magic it had painstakingly woven into the room apart.
Gone was its comforting blanket of frost that replicated the chill of anxiety and death that had begun the weave of its consciousness. Gone were its spells, its defenses to force enemies still, the defenses it built out of fear of facing the very same fate that had made it. Gone was the agony and rage that screamed within the magic of the room. The pure one left behind only brilliant peace in her wake and it knew that its name, Phantom Reaper, could not change that the pure one and her party would be the ones to destroy it.
It collapsed under the onslaught even as the paladin's blade emerged from its chest to pin it to the floor, to keep it from approaching any closer to the pure one it had wanted nothing more than to devour. The slight hint of violet beneath the hood changed once more, a beautiful silvery sheen that seemed almost sad, then the phantom was gone.
They waited, silent and worried, concerned that at any moment the phantom would try to possess any of them again. Fel was the one to stalk around behind the throne, to poke her head out and inform them that the door was open. Their treasure awaited. They had triumphed.
Relief spread through everyone quickly and they all spent several long minutes just catching their breath and drinking from flasks to quench parched throats. Without the phantom, the room was a pleasant temperature closer to that of the meadow the dungeon once had been.
Fel moved up to Ash first, offering a high five and one of her wolfish grins, "You did good."
Gardenia stepped up almost immediately, "But are you alright after that? Absorbing a dungeon's mana…it is generally not advised."
Ash shrugged slightly, not entirely certain yet of what price she would pay. She'd felt fine after the morph as well. There was a chance that no problems would arise, but she doubted it. She felt just the slightest bit off, as if something was wrong though it wasn't something that felt immediately concerning.
Their delve done, Ash lost patience with the tiny spells she'd felt following them the entire time they had traversed the dungeon. It had taken quite a bit of concentration to not destroy them as well, when she'd been using the dungeon's mana to fuel her attacks. She turned and caught hold of one particular spell that had hovered with a marvelous view of her rear end and little else throughout the journey, crushing it out of existence even as she dismissed all of the notifications that had appeared as soon as she'd deemed it safe.
"Lucrum. Our deal is done. If you wish to see us now, it will be in person," she grumbled.
The others startled slightly at her way of addressing him. One was not familiar with gods without their permission. As a creature formed of Sidus' own magic, Ash was the type to follow such rules rigorously. She'd also always addressed him properly before, so they were left wondering what had changed.