Solus

**Solus**, born **Elphyn Althena Menadion**, is a human-artifact hybrid and Lith's companion in all things. She is also known to the Guardians as **Menadion's Desperation**, and is Ripha Menadion's daughter. She has two bodies and two cores, and this hybrid condition allows her to control Menadion's artifact in ways not even Menadion herself could. She used to have a glorious tower form filled with all sorts of treasures, however due to being without a mana source for a long time, she degraded into the form of a stone. As her host expands in power, her powers and functions expand.

## Appearance

### Ring Form

After Lith achieves a bright green core, Solus unlocks the ability to transform into shapes other than a pebble, such as a smooth stone ring that Lith wears on his middle finger (to which Lith references the Green Lantern Corps).

### Gauntlet Form

*Main article: Gauntlet Form*

Solus is able to take the form of a silver-coloured stone gauntlet, with runes of power glowing all over its surface. The more Solus regains her strength and progresses her core, the bigger her physical form becomes, allowing her to turn into a more complex defensive artifact.

### Tower Form

*Main article: Solus Tower Form*

At her prime, Solus was a gigantic tower, whose vault was so deep it reached the bottom of the ocean, its top so high it touched the sky. Her entire structure pulsed with mana. Her tower currently consists of 12 floors, 6 above and 6 below.

#### Stone Form

*Main article: Solus Stone Form*

Solus has a stone form which is currently a stone doll 1 meter (3'3") tall with dull hexaelemental streaks in her hair.

#### Wisp Form

Solus' wisp form is the size of a tennis ball that can feel warmth as well as touch. Her wisp form later becomes tangible.

#### Humanoid Form

As her tower grows, Solus gains a humanoid form made of golden light. It has no facial features aside from her shining eyes and mouth and a cascade of golden hair floating around her. This form slowly develops more human-like features, gaining outlines of organs, veins, and bones. During her first visit to the Blood Desert, her humanoid form gains nails, eyelashes, and even irises.

When she cries, honey-hued tears stream from her energy body's eyes. The mana that comprises the tears quickly dissolve into specks of golden dust that make Solus look as if she is crying pure light. Her humanoid form is limited by two things - her damaged cores and lack of world energy. It has no hormones, no physiological or emotional needs, and everything feels if she is wrapped in plastic wrap.

After Solus breaks through to the deep blue core, her humanoid form develops into her complete human form.

### Human Form

She has light brown hair which had streaks of orange and silver during her childhood before developing the remaining 4 colored streaks later on. She is a petite, pretty woman in her early 20's, about 1.54 meters (5'1") tall. She takes after her mother's gentle features and bright eyes. As Elphyn, Solus owned a selection of tailor-made and heavily enchanted roman togas and gala dresses.

After regaining her human body, Solus has long hair that covers her body almost down to her heels that is streaked silver, orange, black, red, blue, and yellow all over, giving the impression that she uses a rainbow for a blanket.

### True Form

According to Leegaain's Soul Vision, Solus is a short young woman wearing a golden roman toga and sandals, the attire of Menadion's apprentices that had been outdated for centuries. Her figure is wrapped in two kinds of chains. One was big, thick, and made of life connects her to Lith through their respective mana cores, hearts, and minds. The second kind of chains are grey and thin, yet they weigh Solus down, forcing her to kneel. Of the six original grey chains, four are broken and are slowly fading away. Two more remain and suck her vigor, keeping her from achieving her true potential. The energy coming from the first chain is amplified by her body and slowly erodes the grey fetters.

Ratpack, being part elf, is able to see Solus' true form, describes her as having very long hair, big brown eyes and ears, all dressed in gold and with many chains binding her. Solus wears a golden roman toga and sandals, an attire outdated for centuries She is bound by two kinds chains - a big one binding her to Lith, and another thinner one. 2 thin chains are broken and she is nonstop hammering at a third, with 4 remaining.

## Personality

### Solus

Over time, Solus begins to adopt Lith's paranoid and cynical view on life; however, most of the time she acts as his moral compass, bringing light to his darkness and attempting to bring out the good in him and change his worldview to be more positive.

She often feels frustrated and sad at being stuck in a stone ring, living her life through Lith and unable to express her own feelings. She feels scared of losing Lith and at the thought that he will grow old and die while she will be forced to look for a new host, losing the person with whom she has shared every one of her feelings, dreams, even thoughts. She hates her lack of a body and being powerless whenever someone needs her help. Solus wants to move around, hear her own voice without using magic, to be able to feel another person's touch, frequently feeling extremely isolated and lonely especially when separated from Lith.

Solus is also extremely socially awkward. Due to her mind link, she is accustomed to saying anything that comes to mind no matter how rude, and is completely oblivious of her body language. She yawns whenever the topic at hand bores her and eats like a starving beast because she becomes so engrossed in discovering new flavors that she forgets her manners.

After some of her memories are triggered by Ratpack, Solus gains a renewed passion for magical research, as the more she learns the closer she feels to unlocking her lost memories.

Between her mind link with Lith and her tower half, Solus' mind is always filled with countless plans. Lith's worries are her own and she constantly searches for a way to relieve his endless to-do list. On top of that, her tower side floods her brain with information about how to improve each of its floors and abilities that she has to constantly update.

Solus is a big foodie, stemming in part from her long standing inability to eat and drink regular food due the lack of a "host" for centuries.

### Elphyn Althena Menadion

As Elphyn, Solus was a bright, talented child and loved spending time with her parents. However, she resented her mother for always being absent due to work, even more so after her father Threin died after a breakthrough. She became reclusive like her mother and never let anyone into her life. Even those she liked she would dump due to the memory of her father's death whenever they became intimate.

Sometimes, during her sleep, Solus remembers bits of her past so deeply etched into her brain that they had left a permanent mark even after being destroyed. Just like Lith, she had been born thrice. The first time as a human, the second after Menadion had turned her into a hybrid, and the third when her bond with Lith had allowed her to awake from the slumber she had put herself into to make her damaged core last as long as she could. Yet even if Solus manages to repair both her bodies as her mana core regained its full strength, her memory remains broken. There is no trace of the person she once was and she has no recollection of her life as a human or a tower.

## Background

### Elphyn Althena Menadion

Solus was born as Elphyn Althena Menadion to Threin and Ripha Menadion, 10 years after their marriage. She was Awakened by her mother at the age of six and due to her talent learned the first three tiers of magic in less than a month with Ripha's teachings. Ripha was proud of her daughter's magical talent and nurtured her daily, though Threin often scolded Ripha for not spending enough time with their daughter and for teaching her too much about Forgemastering and too little about everything else. Against her friend Lochra Silverwing's recommendation, Ripha Awakened Threin so that they could get old and watch Elphyn grow into a powerful mage together. However, Threin's lack of magic practice and body training ultimately led him to turn into an Abomination one day during a breakthrough while playing tag with Elphyn.

Afterwards, Elphyn blamed herself for forcing him to play with her so often and Ripha for being absent, like always, when her father needed her the most. She began studying much more, becoming just like her mother despite her resentment towards her, spending all of her time practicing magic and training her body. She grew to consider her fellow apprentices rivals rather than friends and never let anyone into her life. Elphyn was a prodigy, reaching the violet core by herself at twenty, her genius rivaling that of her mother.

Elphyn became best friends with Malyshka (who was actually Baba Yaga, Ripha's close friend) and the two spent a lot of time together. They studied magic together, visited the most beautiful cities of Mogar by traveling with either of their towers. Moreover, Malyshka accompanied Elphyn during her rebellious phase, followed by a different phase where she experimented with all kinds of pleasures that a young adult without supervision could desire.

Elphyn dated but only those who had reached the blue core, afraid that they would suffer the same fate as her father. It limited her suitors to only powerful Awakened, most of whom she dumped anyways because they were just using her to get to her mother. Even those she cared about and they her, she dumped nonetheless. The more she liked someone, the more the scene of her father's death would flash before her eyes whenever she became intimate. She became close with her godmother Lochra who she nicknamed "Aunt Loka" and sought her advice on crushes, love, and sex due to her complicated relationship with Ripha.

Since Ripha couldn't give Elphyn any siblings, she took in many apprentices, hoping that they would fill the void in their lives and help Elphyn overcome her grief. Elphyn disliked one such apprentice, Bytra the 4th Ruler of the Flames, since she considered her work merely a derivation of her mother's. One day after many failed attempts to create her own tower, Bytra stormed the tower and killed Menadion's apprentices as well as Elphyn before wounding Menadion and stealing Menadion's Fury. Elphyn never saw her own killer due to Bytra backstabbing her heart before Elphyn could even realize what had happened. Menadion injured her life force to desperately merge Elphyn with the tower, creating Menadion's Desperation, before pursuing Bytra. However, her lack of focus and vigor led to her death.

From her memories, Solus used to be a magnificent mage tower that extended both upward to the sky and downward through the ground. However, when the tower owner died, there was no mana to nourish the tower's core, leading to its decline. Centuries passed in solitude with the tower looking for a new host and using illusions to scare away those it deemed unworthy or lacking talent. To prolong its existence, it was forced to consume its own walls, floors, everything within it, even its own memories, until it was reduced to the size of a pebble and possessing nothing more than its sense of self.

In a final gamble, the tower spent its remaining life force to emit a signal to any creature that had the bare minimum requirements to sustain the tower's life, first coming across a Ry (later known to be Protector), then Lith. During his struggle to liberate the pebble from the Ry, Lith's blood falls onto the pebble, resulting in a bond. The tower then falls into a deep slumber to recover from its wounds, slowly siphoning a small amount of Lith's life force. Later, when Lith hunts a giant boar, the tower awakens and stores the corpse in Soluspedia after Lith wishes for a way to transport it. The tower communicates with Lith for the first time, and Lith gives her the name Solus.

### Solus

Lith had found Solus a few days before his birthday, though she considers the day of her awakening her real birthday, which is mid spring.

After Lith saves Protector during Balkor's attack at the great cost of cracking his life force, Protector convinces Solus to keep his survival a secret from Lith to prevent him from throwing away his life again and to learn to accept loss as a part of life. Solus expresses that she doesn't want Lith to become a saint or a hero, nor to forget about his past, but to learn to live life without letting Carl's death affect every important choice he makes. Solus reluctantly agrees, though later reveals the secret to not hinder Lith's newfound perspective on life, driving a wedge between them. They eventually reconcile after Lith's vision updates.

During Nalear's insurrection, Lith is ambushed and abducted, and Solus locked inside a dimensional box. Solus manages to break free and nearly reunites with Lith only to be captured by Nalear again, but she uses her snake form to inject Nalear with a sample of Balkor's venom. Solus merges with Lith, temporarily evolving her gauntlet form and core to deep green and with the help of Orion, Jirni, and Phloria, kill Nalear.

Solus finally makes her first human contact in Tista when Lith helps his sister Awaken. From time to time Solus participates in and wins chess tourneys using Lith as a proxy. As chess gains a slow but steady increase of popularity among mages and nobles, Queen Sylpha herself promotes the game by participating in a tourney hosted by Marchioness Mirim Distar. Solus defeats Mirim in the semi-finals but finds her equal in Sylpha during the finals. Lith begs Solus to lose on purpose and successfully distracts her enough to lose to the Queen.

During Lith's 18th birthday, Solus reveals that she has attained her Tower humanoid form but keeps it a secret from Lith to avoid affecting his relationship with Kamila. Lith and Solus' fight against the warg-Abomination hybrid Tezka makes Solus gain hope that not every living being is bound to be just what someone or something turns them into. Perhaps she too, despite her being confined to her tower form, could fall in love and wish for a better future. Solus learns to become more independent of Lith at Tista's behest and begins spending time with her, Kalla, and even Nyka.

Zolgrish's undead servant Ratpack, due to being part elf, is able to use Soul Vision to discern Solus' True Form. Describing it to her, Solus unlocks some lost memories that identify a "Master Menadion" as her mother and her having wielded a hammer for Forgemastering before. Later, while fiddling around with a hammer on a forge after Lith's Forgemastering experiments, Solus unlocks a glimpse of her human hand holding a hammer while working on something, but the memory quickly fades.

In an attempt to trigger more memories Solus asks Nyka and Tista to help her with Forgemastering a cloaking ring. She recalls how all the enchanted items in her memories had runes of power engraved on them and decides to try to discover their secret to help Lith's true Forgemastery, which doesn't use runes. She successfully crafts the ring using Bloom Forge, though no flashback occurs. Nyka pushes Solus to express her true feelings about Lith.

On the day of her "birthday"/their anniversary (meaning the day they spoke for the first time and she was given her name), she reveals her humanoid form to Lith who reveals he knew all along, and gifts her an Orichalcum hammer. Solus gifts him the Orichalcum cloaking ring she Forged in return.

In the underground of the Odi City of Kulah, Lith's fourth world tribulation occurs. Solus protects him from a sword strike and shatters into pieces. Upon waking up, she finds herself in a luscious sea of green grass sitting below a blue sky. She discovers she has a human body, though cannot use magic or see her own face. Mogar appears in the form of Elina Verhen.

Mogar explains that Solus' close state of death returned the most human part of her mind back to Mogar. Solus sees the three Guardians, brought by Mogar as witnesses to pass judgment in case Lith dies. The destruction of the Mana Reactor releases the souls trapped inside, some of which invade Lith's mind and body in an attempt to force him to become the instrument of their reckoning. Solus' mind reenters the arm protector and they manage to kill the Odi until the last of them dies.

After Lith's promotion to Archmage, they spend a lot of time inside her tower where she can take her physical form. No longer limited by time and space, Solus begins to develop her personality while experiencing what life has to offer her. When the Ernas sisters are ambushed by undead and traitors in the army, Lith rushes to the Feymar Crystal Mines. Solus separates from Lith and coordinates the tower's Sentries to assist Protector and Nalrond with locating the Ernas while weaving true magic spells for Lith as he engages the enemy. Solus meets the Ernas sisters herself for the first time and Warps them to the tower away from the battle. Afterwards, Solus helps Phloria survive her imminent Awakening.

### Reclaiming The Past

Solus starts regaining bits of her memories during sleep, though most are insignificant aspects such as hammering a piece of Davross to give it the proper shape. She learns that Ripha Menadion was her mother in one memory, how her mother was friends with the First King Valeron, and of her father Threin, a painter. She also learns about the existence of the white core, and white crystal enhancement.

Solus, Phloria, Tista, and Lith travel to the beast city of Reghia for Lith's test of wisdom from Faluel, where they settle in Solus' tower. While Lith is recuperating from life force injuries sustained against Westhar the Puppeteer Abomination, and Phloria and Tista are exhausted from healing Lith, Solus is contacted by Friya from her trip to Nalrond's Fringe. She is told about Nalrond's encounter with Ripha Menadion's shade in Mogar's mindscape and offers her insight. Solus suddenly meets the First Magus Lochra Silverwing after the latter finds the tower and bypasses its protections. Though initially amicable, the meeting quickly turns deadly as Lochra attempts to "free" Solus from Lith, whom she views as Solus' slave master. Desperate, Solus fuses with Lith for the first time instead of the other way around and manages to drive Lochra away. The fusion also restores the balance in Lith's life forces.

During the infiltration mission to the Lost City of Kolga, Lith smuggles Solus' ring onto the Kolgan soldier who take Khalia the merfolk into the inner city for the ritual. She witnesses the Kolgan ritual butcher Khalia's life force and mana core, reducing the merfolk to a mindless husk, and the process of sacrificing a newborn to double another's lifespan. Distraught, she realizes too late she has regained her human form due to the Forbidden Sun providing the tower the nourishment it needs to reconstruct her human body. A pair of Kolgans capture her, but Lith arrives in time and his darkness spell inadvertently reverts the Kolgans from unliving back to living, allowing the dead souls haunting the pair to exact their vengeance.

After regrouping with the others, Lith performs mind fusion to help Solus familiarize with her human body and moves her limbs along with his own, using the mirror effect to teach her the ropes and instill in her mind how controlling the joints is supposed to feel. Lith suggests she stay in Kolga to live a life of her own, but Solus rejects the idea and resolves to destroy Kolga and retrieve the Hands of Menadion to prevent anyone from abusing her mother's legacy again. The group devises a plan to have the Council assault the Light Torch while Solus deals with King Ykrah and retrieves the Hands.

Solus slowly siphons control of the geyser away from the Hands, regaining part of her tower half's weight and power. She attacks the Eye of Kolga with her hammer and is confronted by Ykrah. The battle begins poorly, with Solus being inexperienced fighting in her own body nor fighting alone without Lith. She turns the tide by using her increasingly regained superior mass and empowerment from the Forbidden Sun, causing Ykrah to summon the city to his defense. Lith intervenes, allowing Solus to battle Ykrah alone. Lith undergoes his fifth world tribulation while fighting the Kolgans, and Solus temporarily regains her bright violet core thanks to the Forbidden Sun. They both deal damage to the tower, weakening the ritual. In a last ditch effort, Ykrah attempts to use the Hands to overload Solus' mana core, but it backfires and Solus gains control of the geyser and the Hands. She executes Ykrah and takes the Eye of Kolga, causing the city to crumble, before Tower Warping back to Reghia.

When Lith meets Baba Yaga face-to-face for the first time in the undead city of Lightkeep, the Red Mother asks to meet Solus. She shapeshifts into her Maiden Form whom Solus recognizes as her young adulthood best friend Malyshka, causing Solus to regain several memories of their time together. When Xenagrosh and Bytra visit Lith's home to celebrate his 19th birthday, Solus introduces herself as part of Salaark's Court to exchange pointers with the Fourth Ruler of the Flames, unaware of her identity as Menadion's killer.

After the winter solstice passes, Solus participates in swordsmanship training from Phloria, though being unable to reveal her existence, practices in the living room by following the others' moves through a window and her bond with Lith. Phloria advises her not to catch Lith on the rebound, mentioning Lith's reactions to women hitting on him after their own breakup years ago. The pair share a moment reflecting on their relationships with Lith, though Solus spends some time marveling at Phloria's figure.

In the aftermath of Quylla's "death", Elina comforts Solus as she takes time away from Lith to not let their negative feelings overflow into each other through their bond. She advises her to focus on her own feelings for once.

During the Verhens' visit to the Blood Desert, Solus recovers a memory of Threin when she was four years old. The flashback is followed by her breakthrough to the deep blue core, restoring four more floors (2 above, 2 below ground) in the tower as well as her memory of their functions. She shares the memory with the family and Salaark, triggering more fragments of the same memory, before giving them a tour of the new floors. One morning, Solus wakes up to find that she has regained her human body.

Lith is summoned to the Nestrar Region to quell a rebellion led by ex-Ranger Alman Quaron. Elina consoles Solus after the latter sustains injuries to her human form from the battle, explaining it as a good thing for Solus to be able to verify her humanity. She proceeds to teach Solus to bake cookies.

## Flashbacks

Flashbacks to Solus' memories as Elphyn Menadion. In all her dreams, she sees the world in a first-person perspective so the only part of her body she can clearly see are her hands.

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## Trivia

* **Author's Note**: "Solus' character was born with 2 purposes: 1) to give Lith the tower. He was conceived with finding the super duper artifact xianxia like but without the OP BS from start, something that would grow with him, and 2) he was born to be dark, edgy, and an asshole, so she was supposed to be the light - to temper him, make him less obnoxious and object when he went full dark side because he was too broken to heal by himself."
* Solus is named after a fictional forgemaster Lith admired as a kid. The fictitious character is Solus Prime, a character from the Transformers franchise.
* The name 'Althena' is based on the Greek Goddess Athena, the goddess of war, reason and handicraft.
* The Guardians seem to care for her a lot, since it's emphasized that they want her existence to be kept a secret and make sure she is as happy as possible.
* Elphyn is bisexual while Solus is straight.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1242: Clash of Artifacts (Part 2)
2. ↑ Chapter 1189: Long Waited Reunion (Part 3)
3. ↑ Chapter 1187: Long Waited Reunion (Part 1)
4. ↑ Chapter 250: First Floor (Part 2)
5. ↑ Chapter 1191: A Worried Parent (Part 1)
6. ↑ Chapter 1623: Failure and Success (Part 1)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 27: Merits and Trust
8. ↑ Chapter 158: A New Power
9. ↑ Chapter 987: Boss Monster (Part 1)
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Chapter 16: Revelations
11. ↑ Chapter 1980: New Floors (Part 2)
12. ↑ Chapter 1437: Family Time (Part 1)
13. ↑ Chapter 177: Tickle
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Chapter 249: First Floor (Part 1)
15. ↑ Chapter 1070: Life Maelstrom (Part 2)
16. ↑ Chapter 1544: Quality Time (Part 2)
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 Chapter 1144: Burden of the Past (Part 2)
18. ↑ Chapter 1441: Birthday Party (Part 3)
19. ↑ Chapter 1631: Domestic Issues (Part 1)
20. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `ch1627`
21. ↑ Chapter 1145: White Cores and Crystals (Part 1)
22. ↑ Chapter 1225: Soul Vision (Part 1)
23. ↑ Chapter 1238: Dollhouse (Part 2)
24. ↑ Chapter 1627: In the Flesh (Part 1)
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Chapter 991: Questions and Answers (Part 1)
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Chapter 538: Master Plan (Part 2)
27. ↑ Chapter 18: Heart to Heart
28. ↑ Chapter 127: Suffering
29. ↑ Chapter 339: Final Wish (Part 1)
30. ↑ Chapter 468: Pointless Struggle (Part 2)
31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Chapter 515: Ernas Household (Part 1)
32. ↑ Chapter 569: Balance of Power (Part 1)
33. ↑ Chapter 1332: Domination (Part 4)
34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Chapter 487: Growth (Part 1)
35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 35.4 Chapter 1190: Long Waited Reunion (Part 4)
36. ↑ Chapter 1146: White Cores and Crystals (Part 2)
37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Chapter 1385: Rebellious Phase (Part 1)
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Chapter 952: The Apprentice Surpasses the Master (Part 2)
39. ↑ Chapter 1443: Master Plans (Part 1)
40. ↑ Chapter 1053: Shapeshifting (Part 1)
41. ↑ Chapter 1597: Back and Forth (Part 1)
42. ↑ Chapter 217: After the Storm
43. ↑ Chapter 222: Death Visions
44. ↑ Chapter 235: Insights
45. ↑ Chapter 306: Escape (Part 2)
46. ↑ Chapter 336: Life at the Academy (Part 2)
47. ↑ Chapter 483: Meet the Parents (Part 1)
48. ↑ Chapter 1285: Keeping Busy (Part 1)
49. ↑ Chapter 502: Fury (Part 2)
50. ↑ Chapter 595: Bloom Forge (Part 1)
51. ↑ Chapter 609: Success and Failure (Part 1)
52. ↑ Chapter 623: Birthday and Anniversary (Part 1)
53. ↑ Chapter 724: Judgement (Part 2)
54. ↑ Chapter 725: Lord of Destruction (Part 1)
55. ↑ Chapter 728: One Shall Fall (Part 2)
56. ↑ Chapter 986: Struggle for Power (Part 2)
57. ↑ Chapter 1031: Phloria’s Choice (Part 1)
58. ↑ Chapter 1194: Split Up (Part 2)
59. ↑ Chapter 1224: Light and Decay (Part 2)
60. ↑ Chapter 1235: The Eye and the Hands (Part 1)
61. ↑ Chapter 1240: Mother of Wrath (Part 2)
62. ↑ Chapter 1248: Against the Odds (Part 2)
63. ↑ Chapter 1254: Demons of the Flames (Part 2)
64. ↑ Chapter 1255: Spoils of War (Part 1)
65. ↑ Chapter 1442: Birthday Party (Part 4)
66. ↑ Chapter 1453: Past and Present (Part 1)
67. ↑ Chapter 1481: Motherly Duties (Part 1)
68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 Chapter 1600: Four Floors (Part 2)
69. ↑ Chapter 1628: In the Flesh (Part 2)
70. ↑ Chapter 1670: Fields and Ovens (Part 2)
71. ↑ Legion on Discord
72. ↑ Legion on Discord
73. ↑ Chapter 1153: Shadows of the Past (Part 1)
74. ↑ Legion on Discord