He is just too odd, my curiosity won't let me just ignore him, so the undead will have to wait. He could also be a clue as to what actually happened to this city. It was a human city, so the downfall of the city was most likely caused by humans.

As I sneak along behind the human I keep myself wrapped in mana to hide my lifeforce. This allows me to go close to the undead in the areas the human is avoiding. These shortcuts allow me to keep him from getting too far ahead of me in the ruins.

The strange human moves through the ruins like he is very familiar with them. Eventually he heads into the ruins of a large cathedral which is still mostly intact. The top floor has collapsed so the roof is gone but the rest of the structure looks okay.

Luckily, the windows have not survived so I easily find a way in without being spotted. The inside of the building is bare, but the sides are lined with columns that give me a place to hide. Inside the room are two more humans and an undead standing where the altar should be.

The first human is a man in robes with the same weird energy as the one I was following. The other is a woman in a white dress, her hands and ankles are bound, and she is kneeling. The undead looks like a skeleton but his eyes are just orbs of purple energy.

To my mana scan the woman seems completely normal, but the undead has a huge mana signature. It might even have more mana than I do, so I am thinking it must be a lich. Other than the mana and the undead energy in its bones there is a third energy.

This energy is located in its eyes, but to me it feels kind of like lifeforce. I can't help but wonder if this energy is what allows it to be an intelligent undead. If so, Bones is lacking this type of energy and might need it to survive being released.

As the human I followed approaches the others I dart behind a column that is closer to them. I want to be able to hear anything they say, but I also want a closer look at the lich. The more I can learn, the better my odds of being able to help Bones develop it.

Human1 says "Everything is quiet. There is no movement from the nearby cities."

Human2 says "Good! That should mean they have no idea we took the princess!"

Princess says "Even if they don't know now, they will figure it out!"

Human2 says "By then, you will have already been sacrificed!"

Human1 says "With your sacrifice, our master will grow strong enough to control all the undead. Then our army will be strong enough to trample this entire kingdom!"

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Lich says "Silence! There is an intruder!!"

The two humans immediately shut up and start looking around the room suspiciously. The lich on the other hand turns his purple eyes to look towards the columns where I am hiding. However, he is not looking directly at my hiding place but looking around the area.

From that I am guessing that while he can sense my presence, I am not close enough for him to pinpoint me. It looks like hiding my lifeforce is only partially effective against him, but I was expecting that. Now, the question is do I want to save the princess or just leave?

According to every manga and story I can remember reading or watching, saving a princess is always trouble. From the way they were speaking it is safe to assume that she is the princess of this kingdom. The rewards for saving her would probably be pretty impressive, but I don't know if it is worth the trouble.

She is innocent as far as I know, which makes me inclined to save her. If they complete the sacrifice then the lich will be able to command all of the undead, or so they believe. That would put the lich somewhere close to the power of the maker, which would be bad.

This kingdom isn't far from the island, if the two were to work together it would be a disaster. Or worse, the maker could take control of the lich and then she would have a beachhead. Not to mention, if the kingdom is fighting here they won't send troops to the island.

The kingdom currently fighting on the island borders this kingdom, so what happens here matters. If this kingdom falls then the kingdom fighting the maker would suffer as well. Having a kingdom of the undead on their border would be more important than the island.

If they retreat from the island then there would be nothing to slow down the maker at all. She could wipe out everything on the island and then try attacking the mainland. I doubt the neighboring kingdom could deal with two undead kingdoms.

When I released the maker I just wanted her to cause trouble for the humans. I don't actually want her to win and take over the island, or at least not quickly. So, based on that logic it would benefit me more to prevent this kingdom from falling to the undead.

So, I guess that means that I need to save the princess from being sacrificed. Besides, I am curious about the two humans and how strong the lich might be. Since my mind is made up, I step out from behind the column where the lich and humans can see me.

Lich says "Who are you?!"

"Well, since I am going to save the princess, I guess that makes me the hero!"

Lich says "A hero is it? Then I will be sure to raise your corpse as something interesting!"

"First you would need to kill me. Do you think you are capable?"

My attempt to anger the lich fails and it calmly starts to cast a spell at me. Meanwhile the two humans move closer, but don't draw any kind of weapons. Once they are about ten feet away from me they extend their hands towards me.

Instantly I can sense their unusual energy reaching towards me and start trying to draw away my lifeforce. It is similar to my Drain Touch, but much weaker and it isn't able to affect me. The two humans look really surprised when their ability doesn't work.

With a shake of my hand I summon the dagger, but before I can take a step the lich finishes his spell. In front of his boney hands a raging ball of fire forms and then flies towards me. It looks like an upgraded fireball spell, but since it is fire based I completely ignore it.

The ball of fire hits me and explodes, but to me it actually feels pretty good. When the fireball has no apparent effect on me the lich kind of freezes. His purple eyes even blink off for a few seconds, I guess that is how a skeleton shows surprise.