Liam stared at the other side of the battlefield as an explosion of fire erupted behind the monsters Aranis’ group was facing against. Steam rose in the air after the explosion happened.
He then turned his attention over to Jude’s group where two loud shouts echoed over the room.
Even though the fighting was slower than it had been from the previous floors, he was still impressed with how far they had made it. It was also added with the dead bodies of the slain monsters.
Majority of the weaker monsters were now gone. Thanks to his opening salvo with the two Magnetic Shockwave vials, he was able to take out all the Zombie Mages. The two Implosive Heatwave vial took out majority of the Mummy Guards, leaving just small handfuls spread out throughout the battlefield.
“If we can keep this up then we’ll get…,” Liam started to say until he felt it again. That uneasy feeling that was filling up the room as they pushed forward.
As they kept slaying each creature, the feeling grew even more.
He still couldn’t pin point where exactly it was coming from or what was triggering it. It was starting to feel like a nagging feeling at the back of his head as he really wanted to figure out what was going on.
After a few moments of racking his brain over it, he decided to try and see if it was something magic related. He activated his Mana Sight and scanned the room. As he did this he realized something truly was going on beyond their normal senses.
As each creature dropped, a sickly green and black colored orb was released from their bodies and swam up into the air.
Liam followed the orbs up above them and was shocked. His mouth flung open and his eyes widened.
Hovering high up into the ceiling was a massive sea of the sickly green and black orbs floating around close.
As Liam stared at this he noticed something. The orbs didn’t expand throughout the whole ceiling. Instead, they were clumped together on the side of the room they were on.
He watched as they tried to go towards the other side but were bounced back almost like an invisible barrier stopped them from moving forward.
Liam opened his mouth and was about to say something until he heard an ethereal voice say, “I think that should be enough.”
The voice was so quiet amongst the sounds of magic and weapons clashing that Liam knew he wouldn’t have caught it if he didn’t have his enhanced hearing.
In the corner of his eyes he noticed Blair, Mica, Roman, and the other beast-kin caught it too as they straightened their backs and looked around for the source of the voice.
The other three leaders were about to question why they had stopped until a shockwave suddenly shot out from the cloaked individual and washed over everyone, including the undead creatures.
The force of the shockwave caused Liam and the others to lose their balance and bring them to a knee as the undead creatures suddenly collapsed.
“What the hell was that?!” Jude yelled out looking around.
“I’m not too sure,” Aranis replied as he slowly got back to his feet.
“It was the cloaked figure,” Liam shouted as he ran up to his group.
Everyone turned to look at him with a confused look.
Aranis, Inyis and Jude made their way over to him as Jude asked, “Are you sure?”
Liam nodded. “I’m not sure what exactly it did, but that shockwave did shoot out from it.”
“How were you able to tell that?” Aranis questioned.
“I’ve been feeling that something has been off during the fight,” Liam started. “Right before the shockwave I felt it even more than normal, so I thought I’d see if it was magic related instead of something physical.”
The others looked at him and listened.
“I found out what was making me feel off,” Liam continued. He then thought about how to describe what he saw, but then decided, “It would be easier to show you instead of me trying to describe it and fail. If anyone has Mana Sight, activate it and look up.”
Liam waited as he watched them all look up. He knew who had Mana Sight and who didn’t just by watching each of their expressions. Those without Mana Sight looked confused, but the ones who were able to use it had a look of horror as they stared at the massive clump of orbs swimming around above their heads.
“What the hell are those?” Mica shouted with a pale expression.
“Where did they all come from?” Rez asked as he stared wide eyed.
“They came from each fallen monster we slew,” Liam stated. “However, the last few monsters that dropped from the shockwave didn’t release any of those orbs.”
“What does that mean?” Jude asked, looking irritated.
“I don’t know,” Liam shrugged. “I still don’t know why those orbs came out from the slain monsters. However, I can guess that it could be related to the boss.”
Jude nodded as he faced the cloaked individual who still had its back facing them.
Liam looked at it too and tried assessing it once more.
Once again, nothing happened.
Liam narrowed his eyes and focused as hard as he could trying once more. This time something did appear.
“?. ?/? HP. ?/? MP. Level - ?”
Liam had mixed feelings as he shook his head after seeing the notification. He was happy that his assess went through, but at the same time he was confused that it was all question marks.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“You know,” a voice called out, making everyone turn to face the creature. Its voice had a dispassionate yet smooth sound to it. “It is quite rude to try and peer into one’s personal information.”
Liam turned his attention towards the cloaked figure as it turned to face them.
Inside the cloak was nothing but darkness, the sleeves were so long it covered the person’s arms and hands.
“Is that the Necromancer?” Jude asked.
“A Necromancer?” the cloaked individual questioned. “I guess you could say I was once one long ago.”
Liam’s brow raised after hearing what the figure said.
“Do you mean before the downfall of the Askith Nation?” Inyis asked.
“No,” the figure replied.
A confused expression grew on their faces as they stared at the figure.
“I was a Necromancer long before I came to the Askith Nation, however I ascended to a higher race thanks to my master. One that better suited my talents and abilities,” the figure continued. “However, due to my new…looks, I would have been met with fear and disgust from those who look down upon my race.”
“I don’t understand,” Inyis stated with a confused expression.
“Sadly, many wouldn’t,” the figure said as it slowly shook its head.
Liam remembered Eri telling him a bit of what she could remember of the fall of the Askith Nation. There were some gaps that he wanted to fill and since he was confused about a few things the figure was saying, Liam asked, “If your new looks would have made others fear you then why did the people of the Askith Nation welcome you. And why did they mistake you for a healer?”
The dark hooded part of the cloak shifted and looked at Liam. “Interesting that you should ask that. Thanks to my new master I was given an ability to make others see me in a way that would give them peace of mind. When I arrived at the Askith Nation they viewed me as a healer only because they truly needed one.”
“What do you mean they needed one?” Inyis inquired.
“The Askith Nation was a Proud country. They never requested aid even when they faced the harshest trials. They even viewed themselves as Supreme beings. Stronger and better all around than any race or country. Albeit, even the proudest have their moments when they need outside aide, especially when faced with an unknown disease,” the figure started back up.
“Disease?” Inyis muttered as she scrunched her face.
“You see I found the best way to get people to view me in a way that would garner trust is to create something the proud wouldn’t be able to fix. In the Askith’s case, they had an unknown disease with unknown origins,” the figure continued.
Liam thought about what the individual was saying. He thought about what he saw on the wall outside of the room and remembered seeing the cloaked figure passing out some weird item to everyone.
However, something didn’t fit in the story. He had an inkling he knew what had happened but there was something that he needed to confirm.
“If the nation had a disease spreading then why didn’t they just cure it with healing magic?” Liam questioned.
“It might have been able to be cured using healing magic, but Healing magic is not omnipotent,” The figure replied. “It is something that needs a lot of knowledge and experience to be able to be of use. But that wasn’t what you were asking. You see something had happened that required all of their healers to…travel and take care of. This happened right before this disease hit the main capital.”
Hearing this clicked some things in place. Following his gut, Liam said, “So what you’re saying is, you did something that caused all of the healers to go take care of and while they were away you somehow spread this disease throughout the capital, came in disguised as a healer and gained the trust of the people?”
The figure stared at Liam not saying anything.
That has to be it. It kind of reminds me of an old game I played. Liam thought shaking his head.
“How were you able to piece that together?” the figure asked.
“The hieroglyphs outside this room showed you passed items to everyone. I assume those items were ‘the cure’,” Liam air quoted. “But it wasn’t was it? Instead, it hastened whatever disease you concocted within the people of the Askith Nation didn’t it?”
“That is where you are wrong. It didn’t hasten the disease. It had a different purpose…”
“It would transfer their life energy to your summoning circle didn’t it?” someone asked.
Liam turned to see Rez with a look of realization and horror.
“I must say that I am impressed that you were able to figure it out,” the figure stated. “It would do that and one more thing.”
Everyone stared at the figure as they waited to hear what he was going to say.
“It would not only transfer their life energy, but also corrupt their very being thus turning them into my eternal minions,” the figure finished.
“Shit I was afraid of that,” Rez cursed. “We’re not dealing with a Necromancer. We’re dealing with a fucking Lich.”
Everyone turned to look at him as he announced this.
“What?” Inyis questioned with wide eyes.
“Are you sure?” Aranis asked.
Rez nodded. “Yes. I am very sure.”
The figure started laughing, causing everyone to turn and look at it.
“How astute of you to figure it out,” it said as it lifted its right robed arm.
A deathly pale hand escaped from the cloak and gripped the collar. With a swift motion of the figure’s hand, the cloak that covered its entire body was pulled over its head and taken off. As it slipped its right arm through the sleeve of the cloak it threw it down and allowed everyone to get a better look.
It was a middle aged man with a deathly pale complexion. It wore an open chest black robe with violet outlining the edges revealing a sunken chest with a pulsing ghastly violet orb in the middle of his chest.
The orb pulsed, sending violet lights running through the veins that stood out against his pale skin and throughout his chest into the robe.
The man had icy white long hair that floated around behind him almost like he was underwater. His eye sockets were pitch black with piercing white orbs. In the middle of the orbs were violet dots that kind of looked like pupils.
Liam tried assessing once more to see if anything had changed and what he received was terrifying.
----------------------------------------
“Hubristic Arisen Lich. 15,000/15,000 HP. 10,000/10,000 MP. Level 27 (Partially Sealed).”
----------------------------------------
Hubristic Arisen Lich? Liam thought. I don’t understand the Arisen part…Is it a race or a nation? Also, hubristic? As in…
Liam was taken out of his thought process as the Lich continued.
“It seems that not all of my power has been released,” the Lich started back up. A look of slight irritation appeared on his face. The facial expression disappeared as it was replaced into one of nonchalance. “As annoying as that is, it matters not. You are all too weak to do any noteworthy damage to me.”
Jude’s face turned into a scowl as he yelled out, “What makes you say that?” He went to take a step forward towards the Lich, but was rebuffed as soon as he went to step on the stairs leading to the platform the creature was standing on.
Liam be careful. Eri suddenly warned in Liam’s mind. This isn’t a normal Lich. It belongs to one of the Seven Immoral Vices.
Immoral Vices? Liam quickly asked, confused. As in Sin? So, then the Hubristic part means its related to the sin of Pride?
Focus Liam! Eri stated. He’s about to do something.
The lich let out a laugh. “See, you can’t even damage a simple barrier spell. No worries. I have a few friends of yours that are dying to see you again.” The Lich snapped his finger causing the crystals above the doors on the left and right walls to light up and open.
The doors opened wide, much wider than they thought the door was.
After the doors opened they were able to hear clattering and scrapping from within the halls.
Liam and the others stared at each door with bated breath as they waited for whatever was making their way in to appear.
Groups of skeletons scuffled in, dragging something behind them. When the objects were dragged into sight, Liam felt his heart drop.
Gasps and sounds of disbelief rippled throughout the groups. Liam even heard Artem let out a slew of curses as all the color in his face drained.
These skeletons weren’t bringing in just anything. What they brought in was two very familiar creatures. Creatures they had slain back on the third floor.
On the right side was the corpse of the Black Widow Matriarch while on the left side was the corpse of the Spider Tailed Horned Viper.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Liam muttered under his breath.