Lich Apep
“This is…!”
Terra had sensed the same colossal surge of mana that I had. She shot to her feet and began hastily gathering her gear; the rest of the party scrambled up after her in clumsy confusion.
“T-Terra? What’s going on…? Even the mage is—?”
“My friend… what in the world has you in such a rush…?”
There was no need to answer. Even those who could not feel mana had begun to pale, staring down at the floor as if something terrible were rising beneath their boots.
The direction of the flow never changed. Anyone attuned to mana could tell that a vast, death-laden power was bearing straight toward us.
“This is bad… We move. Now.”
Alfonso took the lead and broke into a run. The melted residue of the corridor clung stickily to our soles, but no one had the luxury of caring about something so trivial.
Krrrrrk—!
Stone scraped and groaned. The floor gave way; the ceiling collapsed. Walls split open, revealing new passages.
The straight path I had carved remained, yet the dungeon corridors flanking it began to shift and twist without cease. Whoever was approaching us was rewriting the dungeon’s structure at will.
“Th-this can’t be…”
Like someone climbing a staircase from the deepest underground, the mana that had once felt far below now pressed right against the soles of our feet.
When we finally reached the end of the melted corridor, every gaze turned to me. I could only shake my head. My mana had not recovered enough to give them what they hoped for.
Worst possible timing. If I’d known, I never would have wasted mana forcing that path open…
Despair settled over the party’s faces. Then the side corridor rumbled—krrrrrk!—and began to move. Just as before, a wall sank into the floor, opening a new passage.
From the newly revealed darkness came the chaotic clatter of skeleton feet mixed with the heavier tread of death knights.
“Everyone… draw your weapons…”
Alfonso’s face was bloodless, yet he still pulled his sword free. He had already guessed this might be his end, but he refused to surrender. Even knowing death was coming for his throat, he raised his blade.
Moments later the undead emerged beyond the faint glow of the lanterns: pure-white bones wreathed in ominous mana, and knights clad in rusted armor.
There were only two death knights, but the skeletons were beyond counting. They poured endlessly through the narrow passage, jostling and climbing over one another.
Then the white tide parted, and their master appeared.
The lord of the horde was a pure-white skeleton draped in a black robe. Yet it was no ordinary skeleton. Floating in mid-air without a lower body, its unreal form stirred an instinctive revulsion.
Black mana coiled around it, shaking the very air. The sinister power that radiated from it felt as though simply facing it was shaving years from one’s life.
When those burning black eyes locked onto me and then slid away, I saw what it held: a massive grimoire in one hand and a staff that pulsed with the same foul mana in the other.
A horrific voice spilled from within the white skull—as though the screams of countless souls cast into hell had been fused into one. It was not produced by vocal cords. The creature was vibrating the mana that cloaked its body to manufacture sound.
Several party members began to retch. The foul mana and the voice born from it were clearly poisoning living flesh.
No one answered. We could only swallow dryly, swords leveled, every muscle taut with dread.
The king of the dead spoke of death, and at once the horde stirred. Skeletons collapsed and reassembled in chaotic waves, forming living pathways. At the same time the lich gestured. Walls that had sealed us in sank away; white skeletons flooded into every gap.
The walls that had guarded our backs vanished completely. The undead tide filled every space, and the finished wave of death began to surge forward like an incoming flood.
“U-uaaaaagh!”
One of the Silver-rank swordsmen snapped. He flailed his blade wildly at the white tide crashing in from every side. There was no skill in the strikes, yet skeletons shattered and fell. It was not enough. Fresh bones instantly filled every gap and reached for him.
“G-gahhh—!”
Hundreds of hands seized him. The white surge dragged him under; his scream faded, and a ribbon of crimson blood welled up from within the bones.
“Terra…”
“What now…”
I swallowed hard, eyes fixed on the two death knights advancing beyond the skeletons.
“Can you hold those two for a while?”
“How long?”
“As long as you can.”
Terra did not boast. She simply lifted her greatsword without a word.
Alone she might struggle, but with everyone here we could buy a great deal of time—if Terra smashed a path through the skeletons while the rest pinned the two death knights.
“And you?”
“I’m ending that thing.”
“Is that even possible…?”
I closed my mouth. Honestly, I had no confidence. Only a vague, instinctive certainty that somehow I could.
The enemy was a king commanding a vast army, yet its essence remained that of a mage.
Mages in this world fell into two kinds. One type, like the mages I knew, spent long preparation to unleash devastating barrages. The other, like Leoniss, poured every scrap of mana into physical reinforcement and fought at close range.
The creature hiding behind the white tide was clearly the first type. Even now I could feel a massive gathering of mana beyond the skeletons—preparation for a powerful spell.
I kicked off the ground and dove straight into the white wave.
A death knight tried to intercept me, but Terra’s greatsword slammed into its path and stopped it cold. Skeletons rising from the floor clawed at me, yet their attacks barely scratched my reinforced body.
I crushed skulls underfoot and charged the king of the dead.
The moment I broke through the white tide and the lich came into view, a black arrow of mana shot from behind it.
Pababak—!
I kicked off empty air the instant I sensed the attack, twisting hard. Mana gathered beneath my feet, fusing with the faint residual power to form a solid foothold.
Pung—!
A short blast, and my floating body slammed back to the ground. I never stopped. The second my boots touched stone I launched forward again.
A thin wind coiled around me. My charge accelerated a fraction more, and I swung the sword in my hand with everything I had.
Kagagagak—!
The blade met the long staff. Starlight mana coating the sword flared into searing flame; the black mana around the staff began to peel away. The concentrated power the lich had been gathering for a grand spell scattered.
Hwarrrrk—!
Orange fire danced, blurring my vision. From within the black robe, those dark eyes flashed.
It had sensed the origin of my mana. I gave no answer and simply kept swinging.
Kang! Kaang! Kagagak—!
Flame-wreathed steel hammered against barriers of black mana. The fire of ruin that once burned worlds greedily devoured even the foul power standing in its way.
Then the black eyes flared, and mana erupted outward. The robe around the white skeleton whipped as though caught in a storm.
Kwaaaaa—!
“Urgh…!”
It was only a raw release of mana, yet the sheer volume was so vast I could not keep my eyes open. The wind pressure hurled me backward; my pack burst open and its contents spilled across the floor.
"Elder, your contractor Apep desires this."
"Upon the one before me, certain death."
⟨ Sentence of Death ⟩
A chilling voice drifted from within the black robe. At the same time the ominous grimoire in its hand flipped open at blinding speed. The voice scattered, and the mana flooding the air was sucked into the book.
The grimoire, swollen with power, rose into the air. Apep’s white finger pointed straight at me. In that instant I felt formless death approaching.
Senses that had transcended humanity foresaw a sliver of the future. I flung myself backward and kicked upward one of the items that had spilled from my pack—a broad blue scale.
The scale rose on the small kick. Formless death closed in upon it.
Then a great light burst, and azure cold exploded outward.
Saaaaaaak—!
The sudden cold froze everything nearby. Blue frost blanketed the corridor, sweeping over Apep in its black robe and crashing into the white tide beyond.
Silence fell as though time itself had frozen. On the quiet corridor floor, ice that had turned pure white began to crack—jjjjjeok—and shatter together with the azure scale.
Huddeuk—
The scale that had stood against death finished its duty and crumbled into dozens of fragments that scattered across the white ice.
“This is…”
For the briefest instant I saw it: when the light erupted from the scale, the vague outline of a colossal living being flickered before my eyes and vanished.
Jjeojeok—!
Apep’s voice drifted faintly through the shattering ice. It was not dead. The vast mana within its body still protected it.
The ice was already melting. Soon the creature would rise again. The ominous eyes burning inside the black robe blazed with the clear desire for my death.
My mind went white. Senses that had drawn close to those of a monster—of a dragon—moved on pure instinct to escape this crisis.
“Huu…”
The breath that left me was hot. The cold mana saturating the corridor began to mingle with that heat. Like Kashipa’s snowy peaks, the entire passage was filled with mana steeped in freezing cold.
I could not absorb it. The moment I drew that mana into my body through breath, the boiling heat of my blood would drain away and my heart would stop.
Then how could I use the surrounding mana? The answer lay surprisingly close. My gaze fell upon the scattered scale fragments on the floor and lifted again.
Beyond the white-flickering vision, instinctive understanding arrived.
When the dragon’s instinct began to claim my body, I stamped the ground hard.
Kung—!
The impact sent the scale shards leaping upward. The moment they responded to my mana, dozens of fragments flew behind me and formed a great circle.
If I could not take it into my body, I would simply hold it outside. I could not absorb it, but for a brief moment I could command the mana as I wished.
When the cold scales of the ice dragon took the place of a heart, they began to spin in a perfect ring.
Kiiing—!
As the high-speed rotating cold Mana Circle began to draw in the surrounding mana, the other Mana Circle seated in my own heart started to turn as well.
The two circles spun and resonated. The mana of two sovereigns who stood at the pinnacle of living beings intertwined and found harmony.
I did not reject it. The dragon’s mana—the sovereign—desired this.
Hwarrrrk—!
The Mana Circle formed behind my back began to burn blue. It took the shape of flame, yet there was no heat. In its place was a cold so fierce it seemed ready to freeze space itself.
Jjeojeok—!
Apep finally thrashed free of the ice.
The burning cold gathered in the air. The tiny condensed sphere glowed faintly, as though it might vanish at any moment.
I stared blankly at the sphere of light. All the mana had condensed into that single point, which now drifted slowly toward the floor. Apep’s chilling voice no longer reached my ears.
As Apep began preparing another spell, the sphere of light touched the floor. In the next instant, blue flame engulfed the world.
The fire of ruin that once meant wrath was now wrapped in azure cold. To call that sight the sovereign’s blue fury was no exaggeration at all.