“What in the world is the true nature of this mist?”
The gray mist had already thickly enveloped his head. What happened next was even more startling. The rising vapors were trying to burrow into his skull—through his nose, ears, and mouth.
Alarmed, Zichrate hurriedly stopped his casting. He had instinctively sensed that something ominous was about to happen. As the casting ceased, the mana he had gathered began to churn violently. And in the next instant, Zichrate’s eyes filled with shock.
“Wh-what is this?”
Astonishingly, the casting had not stopped. It seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then the mist began absorbing mana again as if nothing had happened—every bit of the mana Zichrate had gathered. He could not help but feel a chill run through him. He quickly shut his nose and mouth and turned his head, intending to ask the lich who had brought him this strange spell what was going on.
There, Zichrate was forced to be surprised once more. The lich, who had been kneeling face-down, had somehow risen and was staring straight at him. Hostility streamed from the other’s eyes. Dumbfounded, Zichrate stammered out his words.
“Y-you bastard?”
“The great art has been activated. Since all the necessary conditions have already been fulfilled, you will never escape the Ghost-Spirit Soul Subjugation Art.”
Having spat out those brief words, Damon immediately launched himself forward. His targets were the stone statues standing blankly around them. Their true nature was surely stone golems, and if Zichrate gave the order, they would attack at once, so it seemed better to seize the initiative first. From that, Zichrate realized that his opponent had come thoroughly prepared. Rage could not help but boil up within him.
“You wretch.”
He tried to raise his upper body to unleash an attack, but suddenly an excruciating headache surged through his skull. Only then remembering the existence of the otherworldly art, Zichrate clutched his head with his enormous hands.
“I have to deal with this spell first.”
After ordering the stone golems to attack the lich, Zichrate hurriedly rearranged his mana. He intended to cast Dispel in order to break the otherworldly spell that was tightening around him by the moment.
Kwakwang!
Two of the stone golems standing blankly in place were shattered to pieces before they could even move. No matter how sturdy their bodies were, they could not withstand Hell Fire, the flames of hell. Without stopping, Damon charged toward the enormous stone golem by the door. He had already figured out on his way in that opening the door was its role. If he wanted to prevent reinforcements from entering, he had to deal with it first.
“Hah!”
Long pillars of light appeared from both of his hands. Three in each hand, six in total. They were Energy Bolts. It was a fairly high-level spell capable of inflicting both physical damage and chemical harm at the same time. It was also a choice made in consideration of the fact that fire and lightning spells did not work well on stone golems. The Energy Bolts, formed in tremendous size, shot down like arrows toward the stone golem that had just begun to move.
Kwajijik!
The golem’s chest, shoulders, and flank burst apart all at once. Each of those areas seemed likely to contain magic stones. They were parts specially made sturdy to protect the magic stones inside, but they could not withstand Energy Bolts cast by a great mage of the 9th Circle.
However, the golem did not fall. A dazzling light flared from the hideously broken section of its flank, and at the same time, the golem began swinging its fists ferociously. The attack had fortunately landed, but its magic stone had luckily remained unharmed. Yet that was not the only attack Damon had launched. Countless Magic Missiles, unleashed almost simultaneously with the Energy Bolts, were already weaving between the stone golems. It was a divine display worthy of calling him the god of Magic Missiles.
Several Magic Missiles under Damon’s control unerringly burrowed into the targeted golem’s magic stone.
Pupupuck!
The exposed magic stone finally met the fate of being shattered to pieces—along with the stone golem, of course. Damon spun around, and blue flames surged once more from his hands.
Kwakwakwang!
A second Hell Fire exploded, and two approaching stone golems crumbled into fragments and tumbled across the floor. Even though Damon was a great mage of the 9th Circle, Hell Fire was by no means a spell that could be fired in succession. Thus, Damon kept them in check with Magic Missiles to buy time, and in that opening used the mana he had gathered to destroy the stone golems one by one with Hell Fire. Since he had even cast Haste, the stone golems could not so much as step on his shadow.
Zichrate’s guardians were being annihilated in truly futile fashion. The sight of them falling one after another even evoked a sense of helplessness.
Of course, stone golems were by no means weak beings. They were simply being overwhelmed because their opponent was far too powerful. Moreover, that opponent was a veteran warrior who had fought so many battles they could not even be counted, and the method of fighting effectively was ingrained into his very body.
Kurururu.
The body of the final golem broke apart and collapsed powerlessly.
But Damon did not even look at it as he turned around. Fortunately, the door leading into this place remained firmly shut. Perhaps they had heard the commotion, for someone outside was pounding on it continuously, but because the door could only be opened from the inside, he could feel somewhat at ease. Calming himself, Damon turned his gaze to Zichrate. When he saw Zichrate’s state, a satisfied smile spread across his face.
“Even the elders of the cult probably didn’t know that the Ghost-Spirit Soul Subjugation Art would work on a dragon.”
Pitifully, Zichrate was hunched over, his body trembling nonstop. At a glance, it was clear he had been half-subdued by the Ghost-Spirit Soul Subjugation Art. Zichrate was casting Dispel again and again, but from the start, it was far beyond his ability to break the Ghost-Spirit Soul Subjugation Art, which was not magic. He no longer even dared to unfold magic. Just defending against the gray mist that was trying to penetrate his mind by the moment was already more than enough for him to handle.
“To think such a spell existed…”
He truly could not understand himself for having obediently unfolded dragon-language magic without realizing he was falling into the bastard’s scheme. If turning back time were possible, Zichrate’s honest wish was to return to before he had cast the spell and smash the bastard to pieces in a single blow.
But there was no way out. While he was desperately fending off the otherworldly art, the hateful being who had placed the snare around him was walking toward him, step by step. Judging from the situation, it seemed all the stone golems had been defeated. He had no strength left to subdue his opponent.
“You look like you’re suffering quite a bit. What should I do? I feel terrible.”
Sparks flew from Zichrate’s eyes. A gaze as if he would devour him poured onto Damon.
But he soon had no choice but to lower his head with a groan. Because of the otherworldly art, he had not the slightest leisure to divide his attention. Yet his opponent, hateful as ever, continued to grate on his nerves.
“Hey! Where did that pride of being the strongest race on the continent go? Can creatures who get done in by a mere lich really call themselves the strongest on the continent?”
“Y-you bastard.”
In the end, unable to contain his fury, Zichrate raised his head. In his mind, there was no longer any thought of the otherworldly art or anything else—only the desire to smash the bastard apart at once. The moment he lifted his head, he saw gray pupils burrowing into his own, as if they had been waiting for him.
“Huk.”
Damon had already gathered mana and was unfolding sorcery. As Zichrate stared directly into Damon’s eyes, which blazed with ashen light, his pupils gradually began to grow clouded. With the aid of the Ghost-Spirit Mind-Subjugating Eye, cast without missing the moment, the Ghost-Spirit Soul Subjugation Art had begun to activate in earnest.
“Th-this cannot be…”
There was no way to resist. It felt as though his soul itself was being drawn wholesale into the other’s eyes. Thinking that he could not be helplessly defeated by a lowly lich, he struggled desperately, but it was futile. Zichrate’s consciousness was gradually being sucked into a deep abyss.
Pung!
“Keuuuu.”
With a heavy groan, a gaunt body flopped onto the floor. The owner of the voice was a lich clad in a robe torn to shreds.
The magic circle that had bound him until just now had exhausted its power and was losing its light.
The fallen lich struggled desperately to rise. But after the repeated blows, his body had been reduced to rags, making it difficult for him to get up.
“Damn it.”
Cursing, he barely managed to raise himself, but his body was trembling like an aspen leaf. He desperately wanted to move, but his body was so wrecked that he could not put that desire into action. In such a state, it was obvious that he could not properly cast magic either.
Though he was an immortal lich, there was no way he could remain intact after being battered by Magic Missiles for nearly five hours. Having barely propped himself up against the wall, Gedenhide had no choice but to wait indefinitely until he could gather mana. When he suddenly thought of the one who had reduced him to this state, he shuddered as if he did not even want to think about him.
“A-a terrifying bastard.”
If one were speaking of tenacity, he could assert that the man would be second to none in the entire universe. Five hundred years ago, he had been dragged in with his body in tatters, subjected to cruel torture, and as if that were not enough, had even experienced Verkis’s mental magic. Gedenhide did not know how he had undone the brainwashing magic, but the fact that he had completely fooled his eyes and become a master of the 9th Circle was something he could only admire. Especially when the man had been nothing but a 3rd Circle fledgling.
But that was not what mattered to Gedenhide. Since he had to inform Verkis of the truth as soon as possible, he could not help but feel extremely pressed.
“What in the world is his intention? Seeing as he kept me trapped, he must have gone to Lord Zichrate, but for what reason…?”
Of course, Gedenhide had not dreamed for even a moment that Damon was aiming for Nidelhark’s sealing orb. Nor that he had already completely subdued Zichrate. Gedenhide shook his head, and a sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“I do not know what he is aiming for, but he will never achieve his purpose. Because as long as the Life Force Vessel exists, no matter what happens, he cannot escape Lord Verkis’s grasp.”
Not only Gedenhide, but all the liches serving as guardians had their Life Force Vessels personally held by Verkis. That was why the liches did not dare defy Verkis’s commands, even without brainwashing magic. If, by any chance, Verkis were to break a Life Force Vessel, the lich in question would have no choice but to end its life in futility.
Gedenhide firmly believed that Damon, too, could not escape that category.
“No matter how much of a master of the 9th Circle you may be, you will not be able to avoid the fate of annihilation.”
When Gedenhide tried moving his body, he could feel that he had recovered to some extent. As a high-ranking lich, his recovery speed surpassed imagination. After checking his condition, Gedenhide was once again seized by a terror that made it feel as though his hair were standing on end. His opponent had damaged him far too precisely.
“It is difficult for me to move properly, and difficult to use magic. But the most important thing is that he damaged my body only to the extent that Lord Verkis would not be notified.”
Ordinarily, when a lich suffered severe damage, the life force contained in its Life Force Vessel was naturally affected as well. That was a fact that applied to most liches.
As a previous example, that was precisely how the sleeping Verkis had accurately realized that the liches under his command had been defeated. He had already placed a limited detection spell on the liches’ Life Force Vessels. Therefore, if Gedenhide were to suffer serious damage or be annihilated, Verkis would immediately become aware of it. If that happened, he would certainly stop sleeping and come out of his lair. After all, if the lich leader had been defeated, it could not be an ordinary situation.
“He had all of that in mind.”
Gedenhide was stiff with fear at his opponent’s meticulousness. In his mind, there was only the thought that he had to hurry and report the bastard’s rebellion to Verkis. But mana did not gather as smoothly as he wished.