The Birth of a Lich
The place Venya led Simon into was a small pub in Rochest.
The inside of the old wooden building, stained dark with years of grime, was thick with the smell of black ale. It had the warmth of lived-in humanity—a place better suited for the townsfolk to knock back a drink than for Kizen students to frequent.
Yet the moment Simon stepped through the door, one particular table erupted into noise.
"Simon, my boy! Welcome!"
A bearded man raised his beer mug in a cheerful greeting, and the two seated beside him waved warmly as well.
"Ah!"
Faces Simon knew well. The Vanilla undead artisans who had built his aquatic undead, the Deimos, back when he'd visited the fish market with Venya.
"Lord Diego! Lord Marco! Lord Rodrion!"
The memory of being scolded by these three while crafting magic circles was still vivid in his mind. Simon broke into a wide grin and ran over. Diego, the de facto leader, rose and spread his arms wide, and Simon threw himself into the embrace as the two men hugged.
"Hahahaha! It's been a while! You've grown a bit, haven't you?"
"Have I?"
"Good to see you, Simon."
"Hey there, friend. Don't forget about the rest of us."
Meeting in such an unexpected place made the reunion all the sweeter, and the four of them fell into boisterous chatter.
"Funny, I don't seem to exist? Gentlemen?"
As Venya approached from behind, the artisans bowed with meticulous formality, greeting her with a chorus of "Milady." Simon then asked,
"You startled me! What brings you to Roc Island?"
"We had some business with Kizen, so we stopped by while we were at it. And."
Diego jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
"Someone here has business with you. He's right over there."
A man was weaving his way between the tables toward them. A middle-aged gentleman in an out-of-fashion autumn-colored coat and a fedora, which he removed with a respectful bow.
"It's been a while, Student Simon. Do you remember me?"
"Of course! It's good to see you!"
The subspace craftsman, Gallen Eclipse—the man who had created Simon's dedicated Overlord subspace.
Simon looked around at them all with slightly bewildered eyes.
To think everyone had gathered here like this.
The subspace ring, the Deimos—every person in this room was an engineer who had helped Simon on the technical side of things.
"I've come to deliver this to you, Student Simon."
Gallen Eclipse set a small box on the table, about the size of a ring case, and tapped the lid lightly with a fingertip.
Pop!
The box sprang open, and a subspace bloomed in the air above it.
Inside was a heart—one radiating a bluish glow, as if to flaunt its magical properties.
"This would be the Heart of Herseba you ordered."
"Ah!"
Simon's eyes sparkled.
An item worth a staggering 25,000 gold sat right before his eyes.
"A Life Vessel heart demands the utmost care in storage and transport, you see. That's why we keep it in a subspace like this one, with temperature and humidity control. And one more thing."
Gallen handed the heart over, subspace and all, and gestured to the item beside it.
"This is Herseba's skull. It's useless unless it's synchronized with the heart, so I believe the seller threw it in for free."
"Oh! Thank you so much."
Gallen chuckled softly.
"Of course, you'll need to return the subspace once the work is finished."
"Naturally."
"The Overlord subspace I made for you—is it serving you well?"
Simon grinned and showed off the ring on his left hand.
"Yes, sir. Thanks to this little guy, I've made it through any number of crises."
Then Diego, leader of the Vanilla artisans, stepped forward.
"And this is on the house."
With that, he began laying out boards inscribed with magic circles. Simon's eyes went round as saucers.
"Wh-what is all this?"
"You said you were making a Lich, didn't you? We heard the story, so we prepared the setup circles. All you have to do is pour in your Jet-Black."
Simon's eyes brimmed with gratitude.
"Thank you for going to all this trouble!"
"Aw, come now. It's nothing so grand as all that."
Diego scratched his head, embarrassed—then put on a deliberately serious expression.
"Honestly, we'd love to swarm in and assist you, but you know how it is. Lich creation—"
"—cannot have another person's Jet-Black mixed in. Yes, of course I know."
He had learned it from Aaron.
Why the necromancer shops sold no assemble-it-yourself Lich kits. A Life Vessel had to be crafted from a single, pure strain of Jet-Black. If any impurity worked its way in, the eventual Jet-Black conversion rate would plummet.
It was an undead that had to be made entirely alone, with no one's help whatsoever.
I'm nervous.
In the past he'd had the artisans' guidance, but now Simon had to manage it all by himself.
"Thank you all! I'll give it everything I've got!"
Even so, Simon could feel himself drawing tremendous energy from this little pub.
The artisans clapped and roared their encouragement.
"Well then, I'll be off!"
Simon bowed politely and left the pub. The necromancer artisans let out a hearty "Hoo-ah!" and settled back around the table.
"Our beer's gone warm."
"Order fresh ones!"
"Master Gallen, come sit and drink with us."
"Oh, may I really?"
The four men fell into lively conversation. Then Venya, who had been sipping her beer beside them, drifted over with both cheeks flushed pink.
"Honestly, you'll use any excuse, won't you."
"What do you mean by that, Milady?"
Diego asked.
"Coming all this way just to see Simon—after going so far as to lie about having business with Kizen."
"Ahem, ahem."
Diego reddened and coughed awkwardly, while the rest burst into loud laughter.
Diego had handed over the magic circle boards to Simon as if it were nothing, but in truth they were the product of something close to an all-nighter.
"Why go to such lengths for Simon? Could it be... you know, that kind of thing? Investing in the future power of Kizen's Special Admission No. 1?"
"Hahahaha! Milady!"
Diego roared with laughter and waved his hands dismissively.
"You act like you're above such things, but every now and then you show that Vanilla blood of yours. Us necromancers are eccentrics—stuff like that doesn't matter to us."
"Then... why?"
Diego spread his arms wide.
"Self-satisfaction, what else!"
"Hahaha!"
"She's drunk already, drunk, I tell you!"
Taang!
Venya burst out laughing along with them and wedged herself right into the men's drinking party.
"More! More! Tonight I'm drinking my fill too!"
She hoisted her beer mug high above her head and shouted,
"To our proud junior—Simon Polentia!"
"Cheers!"
Five mugs collided.
With every preparation complete, Simon entered Pier's Ruins.
Tonight, this very night, he intended to create his Lich in a place where no one could interfere.
[There's our Legion Commander~]
Erzsébet came bounding over first.
[You've arrived, Young Master.]
Akemus bowed at the waist with impeccable courtesy. Prince, who had been in the middle of a card game, flew into a tantrum—What took you so long!
[Khhh-hahahaha! So you've come, boy!]
Pier swept toward him as well, cape billowing. Simon smiled and followed him toward the altar at the center of the sanctuary.
"This reminds me of the old days."
Simon set down the subspace he'd received from Gallen, along with the various setup magic circles, as he spoke.
"Back when I'd just enrolled at Kizen, I assembled Pier right here."
[Khhh-hah! That you did!]
Simon set down his things and took a light, steadying breath, centering his mind.
[Have you prepared enough?]
"Yes. I can make three bands now. It was only an experimental heart, but still."
[Good!]
The four Ancient Undead surrounded him at a respectful distance.
"I'm beginning."
There was no reason to delay. First, he unwrapped the package of the Crystal Mage he'd obtained from the After-School BMAT.
Rip!
Snap!
He removed the contents and assembled the skeleton the way one stacks blocks, building upward piece by piece. Skeleton assembly was Simon's single greatest specialty, and in no time at all, it was complete.
[Legion Commander! Shall the skull be crystal as well?]
Erzsébet, assisting at his side, asked.
"No—for that."
Simon drew Herseba's skull from the subspace, where it had rested beside the heart.
"We'll use this."
He had originally planned to make the entire body a Crystal Skeleton, but with a finer material now in hand, he changed course. Placing an ordinary-looking skull atop a skeleton body covered in gleaming, crystal-grown bone did make for a somewhat unbalanced figure.
Now for the summoning circle.
Simon drew a massive magic circle across the sheet, then brought out every one of the circle boards the artisans had given him. Examining what was inscribed on the boards, he felt a surge of gratitude. They'd claimed it was just a few simple circles, yet quite a few were of considerably high difficulty.
Truly, thank you, master craftsmen!
Thanking them from the bottom of his heart, Simon poured his Jet-Black into the circles on the boards. Thanks to the artisans' help, he could husband his concentration and Jet-Black far more efficiently, completing the summoning circle in record time.
"Now—everyone, take your positions!"
But the heart of a Lich was, first and foremost, the Life Vessel. A body meant nothing without it, and neither did a summoning circle.
Only when this Life Vessel was complete could the undead known as a Lich truly be raised.
Simon drew the ordered heart from his subspace ring.
[Oh!]
[Magnificent.]
The Ancient Undead murmured among themselves.
Merely drawing the heart out of the subspace brightened the entire ruins, filling them with a palpable surge of mana. What would happen, then, if he made a Lich out of this?
Heart pounding, Simon released his grip.
"Here I go!"
The crafting of a Lich's Life Vessel admits no outside help whatsoever.
A battle against oneself.
Beyond the punishingly high difficulty of the craft, the failure rate remained high even with expensive materials—which was why so few summoners ever attempted a Lich at all.
But.
[Legion Commander! I've stitched this circle up for you!]
The Ancient Undead were aiding Simon from every side.
Ancient Undead shared their Jet-Black with their Legion Commander. All four of them were raising Simon's blue-black energy as they worked.
It was a kind of trick only a Legion Commander could employ. And for this Lich creation, each of them had honed their own particular specialty.
Over the magic circle Simon had engraved onto the heart, Erzsébet was coating spider silk with Jet-Black to pin down several segments of the formula. The high-difficulty technique known as stitching—she was performing it with her own unique power.
[How long am I supposed to hold this?]
[Take all the time you need, Young Master.]
Prince and Akemus held the vast magic circle suspended in the air, perfectly steady.
[Leave the circuit-tuning to me.]
Pier reached into the circle and bent the Jet-Black circuits into shape. Then Simon etched the Rune Script, carrying the formulas onward, link by link.
I can do this!
He had come this far with the help of so many people.
Even now, creating a Lich, he was not alone.
Sweat dripping, Simon drew the micro-fine magic circles.
Hours slipped past in what felt like an instant.
Now—link the heart's circle to the summoning circle.
Pop!
Pop!
Both circles ignited at the same moment.
The first band!
The circle rippled and spewed out Jet-Black, and that Jet-Black took the form of a band, coiling around the heart.
The second band!
Soon two bands encircled the heart. He could hear the Ancient Undead cheering.
[You're doing beautifully!]
[Keep it coming, straight and steady!]
When the figures of Prince and Erzsébet began to swim before his eyes, Simon wiped his face with the back of his hand.
A brief wave of dizziness—but there was no time to rest.
Thump— thump—
The heart was beating. Now that it had left the subspace, everything had to be finished quickly. The longer the delay before it became a Life Vessel, the worse its eventual performance would be.
Now the third band!
He gathered every last thread of consciousness into a single point. His mind expanded; his emotions soared.
Before he knew it, even his vision had faded to grey.
Herseba's heart before his eyes began to beat, slowly at first, and all sound sank into a muffled unconsciousness, as though he'd been submerged in the deep sea.
Perfect immersion.
The heartbeat driven by the dark magic's effect, and the movement of the two bands flowing in their separate directions—he could see both with crystalline clarity.
Now! It has to be now!
Simon's arm moved. Perhaps from the sheer depth of his focus, the specific advice Aaron had given him about constructing the third band had vanished from his memory entirely.
But he knew exactly what to do. His hands moved on their own, swift and sure.
Attuned to the rhythm of the two bands and the heartbeat alike, he drew the third small band, stopped, and drew again—over and over without pause, matching the pattern of a beating heart.
A ceaseless contest of concentration, so total he even forgot the sensation of time passing.
Whew.
After hours more, Simon finally lifted his hands away.
Three bands rippled there, complete. The exact form Aaron had shown him stood before his eyes.
Now, one last step!
Simon drew a single simple circle in front of the heart. Simple—it was nothing more than a button.
Simon chanted the spell.
⟨ Summon Lich ⟩
Then he activated the circle.
Fwoooooooosh!
Every element began to turn like the gears of a great wheel. The heart beat; the bands revolved.
And the skeleton he had assembled earlier stirred of its own accord, raising the heart aloft.
Prince recoiled in alarm.
[Wha—what is that?]
[Khhh-hah. Watch quietly and see!]
The skeleton then opened its own ribcage and nestled the heart tenderly at its center.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The heart's beat rang out like a drum. Mana was drawn toward the two revolving bands.
The mana flowed along the bands like blood through vessels—and the instant it passed through the third band and the heart, it turned black.
That's it!
The conversion of mana into Jet-Black had taken place.
As the converted Jet-Black coursed through the entirety of the Crystal Skeleton's body, the legs lifted the frame upright and the arms began to move with far greater freedom.
And at last, the moment the Jet-Black reached the magic circle etched into the skull—
FLASH!
A mind descended upon this Lich.
[Hmm.]
A human voice rang out from the skull's magic circle.
[Aah?]
The skeleton creaked as it flexed its crystal-covered body. Then it tilted its skull and looked at Simon.
...!
Simon stood trembling, too tense to look anywhere but straight ahead. Then the Lich's jawbones parted.
[So. You are my creator, then?]