“How can you be standing there” Rika shouted, her grip tightening on her staff. Her eyes darted to the elf standing behind him “What have you done to him!”

Luriel sighed as he backed away “I’m not getting involved with this, you handle it.”

Hoffman waved him off “That’s fine, you stand off to the side, I’ll handle my pupil.” The smile never left his face.

“Jimmy Hoffman, and the elf there behind them, under the authority of the NDSA you are both being detained for suspicions of kidnapping and murder. Get on your knees with your hands behind your head” Cedric shouted, combat pistol in hand. The rest of his team had taken up positions around the warehouse, weapons ready.

Clay looked on in silence behind his barrier prison, in the back of his mind he was relieved that his team wasn’t on the frontline fighting the orcs. Of course, this wasn’t exactly going to be a touching reunion given the fact they didn’t remember who he was.

Hoffman snorted at the bold demand of the NDSA officers, his gaze shifting to Cedric “By kidnapping and murder I assume you mean these” multiple teleport circles appeared around the room, dropping over a dozen corpses into the warehouse with them.

Except they weren’t corpses, pushing themselves off the ground, they were all possessed by spirits he had summoned and bound to the bodies. Their sudden appearance broke the NDSA team's formation, as each member found themselves surrounded by multiple attackers.

“I will take care of them” Rika shouted as she raised her staff into the air, focusing her mana to prepare a spell that would unbind the spirits from their hosts.

“Stop.”

Rika held her breath as the mana she was building was suddenly gone, dissipating back into the mana crystal she drew it from. She had no idea what just happened.

“Rika what’s wrong!?” Cedric shouted as he started firing at the approaching corpses. The sounds of gunfire erupted through the warehouse as the NDSA agents were attacked.

“I… I’m sorry, I’ll do it again” Rika began building her mana again to prepare the spell.

“Attack.”

Rika gasped as the spell she was preparing changed, a fireball erupting for her staff, aiming at Cedric. Just before it hit him Lauren managed to cast a barrier, saving him from death. “What are you doing!” Cedric aimed his weapon at Rika.

Hoffman burst into laughter “Don’t blame my darling pupil officer, she isn’t in control of her actions.”

Rika gripped her staff tightly, knuckles turning white, but said nothing.

“What have you done?” Cedric turned back to Hoffman, keeping Rika in his peripheral.

“She’s just being obedient to my orders is all, like any of my summons would be.”

Summon? He was treating her like a summon? Rika’s anger flared, mana boiling through her as her rage built “I’m not your summon, I’m not yours to control” she spitted out venemously.

Hoffman raised his hand “Calm down.”

Suddenly the anger and mana that was burning through Rika went out like someone had thrown water onto the fire raging in her. “How” she whispered, the rage that had been in her being replaced with fear.

“My poor little Rika” Hoffman said mockingly “After all this time you haven’t figured out what you are?”

“What have you done to her” Clay yelled out, Cedric and Rika for the first time noticed who exactly it was trapped behind the barrier on the far side of the building.

“Nothing at all, she’s the same as she always was. I’ve done nothing” Hoffman said as he turned back to look at Clay.

Seeing the opportunity, Cedric surged his mana, the ground near his feet clumping together and forming into small projectiles. They began spinning rapidly as they fired toward Hoffman.

“Defend.”

Rika stepped unwillingly between Hoffman and Cedric’s projectiles, a barrier forming before her. Cedric tried to dispel the stone projectiles, but they were moving too fast. The first two hit the barrier but deflected off. The third shattered the barrier, but lost most of its momentum while doing so, falling harmlessly to the ground. The fourth continued uninterrupted, piercing into Rika’s eye.

Rika’s scream filled the warehouse, echoing through the mostly empty building. Her left hand grabbed at her left eye, wetting with the blood that ran down her face. Her left side had lost all vision, her hand shook as she felt the destroyed skin and rough outline of rock where her eye once was.

Rika stumbled backward a few steps, righting herself with her staff. Grabbing it with both hands, she focused the mana into her arms, the pain radiating from her eye turning into a fire in her chest, filling her with strength. She screamed as she swung her staff around with all her enhanced strength and speed, intending to have it connect with Hoffman's face.

Instead of his face, it collided with Hoffman’s hand, which caught it easily. “A nice try,” he said as he yanked the staff towards him with his right arm, Rika stumbling forwards as she lost her footing. His hand curling into a fist, his arm swung down, viciously connecting with the left side of her face as she was sent tumbling away from him.

Shakily Rika pushed herself off the ground, spitting out several teeth in a pool of blood. She focused her mana as she prepared another spell.

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“What are you… oh, you’re attempting to purify yourself. Smart assumption, but I haven’t corrupted you.” Hoffman stepped towards her.

“Stand up.”

Rika obeyed unwillingly, pushing through the pain as she returned to her feet. Focusing her mana once again, she reached out, grabbing onto Hoffman’s shoulder.

The smile dropped from his face, the amusement leaving his eyes as he looked down at her in pity. “I’m not corrupted either, purifying me will do nothing.”

“You’re not the same man that saved me, that raised me and taught me everything I knew” She said, her voice soft and raspy. “You can’t be” her grip on his shoulder loosened as the strength in her legs gave out, falling to her knees.

“My poor Rika. Well, you’re technically right, I’m not the man I once was. But I’m not as different as you might think. I didn’t save you.”

“What do you mean, you always told me you saved me from the lich of salem.”

“I did find a girl named Rika, that's true. But by the time I found her, it was too late. She was too close to death, there was nothing I could do. It was around the time I first began studying necromancy. I hadn’t yet summoned anything, and hadn’t tried binding a spirit before. And so, instead of letting that girl's death go to waste, I used her to perform my first summoning.”

Rika’s breath caught in her chest. “But…”

“You still haven’t realized it after all this time? You have no memories from before you awoke in my workshop, you don’t even know your parent's faces. Your affinity for necromancy, your ability to sense the spiritual energy of the people around you, the relative ease you have learning spells, all that isn’t normal for a human.”

“You’re lying… I’m a person.” Rika's jaw clenched, her vision going blurry.

“Hardly, everything you know I taught you, your personality I molded. Even after my supposed death, I stayed connected to you, watching through you every move you made. Whispering suggestions into your mind. Everything you are is because of me.”

“That’s not true… it can’t be. Jimmy…”

Flames erupted into the warehouse, barely being held back by barrier constructed by the mages in the room, as the wall on the far right of the room blew apart. “Hoffman!” Brenner yelled as he flew into the building, heading straight for him.

The barrier around Clay fluctuated, then broke entirely. He wasn’t sure if it was due to Brenner’s attack, or Hoffman losing focus on maintaining it, but that didn’t matter. Grabbing his side arms, he specter stepped straight for Hoffman, who had his back turned to him. Clay was going to kill him.

“Defend.”

A barrier raised between Clay and Hoffman, as Rika stumbled in between them. Clay looked in disgust as he saw her injuries up close. “I’m going to kill you” he shouted at Hoffman.

Hoffman ignored him, focusing instead on Brenner who was smashing through every barrier he created. As Brenner could close the distance Hoffman dropped into a portal leaving Clay, Rika, and Brenner behind.

Brenner looked over Clay for a second before turning away, his eyes snapping to Rika. He said nothing as a silent fury built inside him.

“Leave the kid to me, I expect you to handle Brenner like you said you would,” Luriel said to Hoffman, who had teleported next to him.

“This isn’t how I wanted things to go, I’m not sure how Brenner found his way here. But looks like we don’t have a choice.” Hoffman created two teleports, one under Clay, who tried to climb out of it, losing his guns as he fell through. Another formed under Luriel, who was taken by surprise, cursing at Hoffman as he disappeared.

Brenner turned towards Hoffman once more, preparing another spell as he approached. “I learned this spell specifically to deal with a Lich after you died back then. I was helpless against him, and I vowed to never let myself be weak like that again. I never imagined I would be using it against you though.”

Hoffman smiled widely “Show me.”

Rika looked on from the back. With Brenner here, Hoffman’s attention was no longer focused on her, allowing her some respite. Her legs shook violently, struggling to keep her up despite the fact she had most of her weight leaning on her staff. Her mind raced, searching for an answer to prevent Hoffman’s manipulations. Only one idea came to mind, it wasn’t one she was fond of. She focused her mana for her next spell even as Hoffman’s teleport appeared beneath her feet.

Brenner fired his spell at Hoffman, the only spell in the necromancy class he had ever learned, but a very powerful one that used mana to tear the soul of the target apart. A spell he had learned from studying texts recovered from the Lich of Salem.

He watched in shock as Rika fell out of a teleport, dropping in between him and Hoffman, right in the way of his attack. There was nothing he could do as it struck Rika, and he watched helplessly as she collapsed to the ground.

“Hoffman, you’re a monster!” Brenner yelled, not noticing a second teleport forming to his left, Hoffman appearing through it and striking him with a powerful wind spell. Brenner spun through the air, unable to break his fall as he collided with the walls of the warehouse.

Before he could get to his feet Hoffman was on him again, this time hitting him with a lightning-type spell that left him paralyzed temporarily.

“You’ve gotten sloppy old friend. The Brenner I knew wouldn’t have let himself be so easily distracted.”

Brenner grunted as he tried to power his way through the paralysis, but it would take him several minutes to recover enough to be able to move. He was helpless. “Why haven’t you killed me then.”

Hoffman laughed “I don’t want to kill you. In fact, I need you, you’re going to help me kill that pain in the ass elf, and then we have some invading orcs to deal with.”

“So you do have a way to mind control people,” Brenner said, hoping to keep him talking long enough to be able to recover.

“Yes, it’s a spell I learned after becoming a lich, I’m able to corrupt the souls of others. I haven’t tried it on someone as strong as you though, it should be interesting” Hoffman reached towards Brenner, his mana building as he prepared the spell.

The sound of a gunshot rang through the building, a bullet emerging from Hoffman’s chest. More followed as the entire clip of Clay's pistol was unloaded into his back. Coughing up blood, Hoffman slowly turned to look behind him. The sight that greeted him filled him with fear for the first time since becoming a lich. With rendered flesh oozing blood that trickled down her chin from one eye, fury and disdain filling another, images of death flooded Hoffman's mind.

Dropping the gun, Rika reached out, placing her hand on his back. “I don’t belong to you. I am not yours to control.”

“Sto-” Hoffman's words were cut short as a surge of mana blasted through his body, tearing his soul to pieces.

…

Brenner carefully lifted Rika, cradling her broken and battered body in his arms. After defeating Hoffman she collapsed, losing consciousness. Not surprising given the state she was currently in.

He looked down at Hoffman's burning corpse. Adding more mana to the flame he kept the spell burning, making sure nothing but ash remained. Slowly leaving the ground, he carried Rika off into the night.