Volcanic Swordswoman, Former Hero, Mia.

“I was wondering why Evan asked me to check this place out, but things really went bad here, it looks like.”

With only a hilt of a sword, a girl with a shoulder length bob cut of brown hair stood with two bodies over her left shoulder, her right arm holding a sword hilt. Out of that hilt was what looked to be a mere lump of mud extending out of it, but orbiting around it at hyper speeds were rocks and other small dust particles, such that massive amounts of heat and light was created. This heat caused an orange light, black smoke, and occasional blue lightning-like static discharges. All in all, the girl appeared to be holding a five meter long volcano mid-eruption as a sword.

“Oh, Archmage Draven, right? You’ve actually lost half of your body mass.”

Draven’s pale countenance contrasted the golden glow around him, and it was clear that he was running on fumes to Mia.

“Sorry, I hope you won’t be too angry when I do this, same for you two, uhm, Archmage Lirael and Archmage Seraphina.”

With that, the weakened Archmage Draven and Archmage Lirael, who had a silver glow around her and a phantom of a clock tower begin to manifest below her feet, only barely saw an afterimage of Mia knocking their head with the hilt of the volcanic sword appear before them as their world went dark.

Archmage Seraphina, enveloped in a blue glow with a phantom of a monstrous blue-black creature manifesting behind her, and the archlich, only silently watched Mia’s figure. It hadn’t been able to see her movement, and it even went so far as to bring its Mother Tree of Rot to a stop to carefully observe her.

“Archmage Seraphina, please go back to maintaining the barrier, this time with the full might of the spell you’re using.”

Using an upgraded version of the rune structure used to enchant pocket dimensions on people that allow them to freely access talismans onto people, Mia swiftly stored the five mages within a pocket dimension with frozen time to heal them later. After Archmage Seraphina drifted back to the bottom of the sphere to do as she had been instructed, Mia gently levitated up to the same level as the archlich.

“Hmm, Noah said you would be stronger than the false heavenly kings, but you don’t seem like that much…oh! no offense!”

“...Wielding a pyroclastic sword, as if harnessing a natural disaster as a weapon. A level of dominion over mana to the level of being able to use it like a sovereign would aura, albeit without the offensive capabilities of aura. You must be the Volcanic Swordswoman, Mia of the Former Heroes.”

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“Hehe, all those titles are embarrassing, but yeah, that’s me.”

A faint blush crept up onto her cheeks as she responded with a slightly flustered air about herself.

“I hope you would not take offense if I were to wish to skip the formalities, child. Aside from the final minute of some slight entertainment, I did have to spend a dreadful amount of time waiting around, after all.”

“Waiting? Why wait? Wouldn’t it be better for you to break out of here and obliterate the army below?”

“The army? Why waste time exterminating the ants when the elephants would come to me in time?”

“Huh? So you used the archmages as bait? You wanted us to arrive?”

“Of course. The Lord will surely reward eliminating one of you three. Though ultimately lower than flies in the face of the might of the demons, you’re undoubtedly among the heavy hitters of this world.”

“Huh. But what makes you think you could beat me, or Evan, or Noah? Aren't the false heavenly kings we manhandled roughly as strong as you?”

“It seems you’re struggling from a misunderstanding of some sort. Do not place me on the same level as those mere placeholders.”

Out of the hundreds of tendrils that had been reeled back and held at the ready, the archlich only mobilized one tendril. Yet, when it moved, it zipped forward a mere meter in space before vanishing seemingly through an invisible portal. When it reappeared a distance of over a football field away, its tip was bloodied with Mia’s blood, skewering her by rematerializing inside her heart and exiting out the left side of her chest where her heart was. All done with a casual swipe of the archlich’s bony arm.

“...!”

“As you can see, I am more than capable. These tendrils are still part of my body, and can be teleported the same way my body can.”

Mia coughed up blood as she turned her gaze down to the tendril sticking out of her chest, then spoke with a raspy voice.

“Definitely capable. But still, this much isn’t enough to-”

“Certainly, just that much would be insufficient.”

The archlich mobilized another five tendrils to skewer her neck, her forehead, a thigh, a calf and her liver, all of which exited without any visible entry wounds. After a moment, her head drooped, falling lifelessly. Archmage Seraphina, at the bottom of the sphere, watched this happen helplessly, knowing that she herself could not dodge such an attack or block it even with infinity or her forbidden spell.

“Hmm, it still seems insufficient.”

The archlich teleported before her with his arm extended and slowly drifted his fully outstretched bony hand to the center of her chest, then began to drain her mana.

“What a delectable taste. As expected, an otherworlder’s mana is sweeter than a thousand nectars.”

For a full minute, the archlich drained her mana, then relaxed its arm back down into its robes. At this point, the spirit of the archlich had fully swelled to the level of an ancient dragon.

It cast its gaze downwards to the defenseless Archmage Seraphina, who was still channeling mana into the barrier as instructed to and began drifting downward slowly toward her.

“Foolish girl. Enough maintaining the barrier. Take up your staff and entertain me in the last moments of your life. With the increased might of that forbidden spell of yours, you should be worth something.”

Archmage Seraphina, still enveloped in the blue glow, did not respond, which would’ve contorted the archlich’s expression in annoyance if it had a face of flesh to contort.

“Fine. Perish as you are.”

Another tendril zipped forward, eager to enter the transparent portal and claim the life of its escaped victim.