Chapter 66: Fort Polwyn (5)
The battle ended quickly with Kaen’s victory.
“Whoa… I ruined all my clothes.”
The blood mage had tried to blind Kaen with a final burst of blood, but it hadn’t worked very well.
The result was that Kaen’s clothes were all covered in blood. It didn’t matter, though, because I had brought a change of clothes, knowing this would happen.
Handed a clean cloth by me, Kaen wipes her face.
[Basically, a swordsman dealing with a mage knows how to approach the situation…Hmm…Makes me wonder who her teacher is… was there a pink-haired swordsman…?]
Sierra muttered to herself as she watched Kaen’s battle.
‘I hope I’m not as curious as my teacher…’
On the plus side, the Sword Saint had no children. Or so Sierra knew.
Kaen and the Sword Saint didn’t share a handful of blood, so if her master was the Sword Saint, Sierra hadn’t gotten anywhere near it yet.
Now it was time to collect my reward but because I didn’t need to use it, it was for Kaen.
It was a springboard to further have Kaen’s help in the future. But first, there was something I had to do.
“Miss Kaen, what do you think is the first thing we should do after we capture the blood mage in his lair?”
“Hmm… Should we check for the presence of bloodstones?”
“That’s a half-right answer. You look for bloodstones and I’ll look for the bodies of the victims.”
With that, we split up and searched the lair.
Well, I already knew this, but there were no bodies. Not even when I came here in the game.
I don’t even want to think about what the blood mage would have done with a body with all the blood drained out of it.
I grabbed the reward for Kaen and quickly returned to her.
“I found the bloodstone.”
As she said this, she held a small red stone in her hand.
“Technically, it’s called vampiric iron, before it becomes a bloodstone. Would you mind giving it to me?”
I took the vampiric iron from Kaen and bit my finger, smearing it with my own blood, then vampiric iron whirred and crumbled into dust.
“Bloodstones have many recipes, but when unrecorded blood enters them, they shatter like this.”
Kaen nodded her head slowly as she listened to my explanation so I looked at her and continued.
“The recipe won’t be here. Blood mages don’t trust others by nature, so they don’t keep things in writing.”
I finished explaining and tossed the item to her.
“What is this…? A ring…?”
Kaen catches the ring and stares at it.
“I didn’t find the body, but… I found this instead. It seems to be enchanted… Since you solved the problem, wouldn’t it be nice to have a reward?”
It was a ring that gave a small attack boost, but I doubted it would be of much use to me so I handed it to Kaen, thinking about the reward I had to earn from the lich.
***
One day before the Three Black bloods and Mikhail, commander of Polwyn, left the fortress. It was also the day before the lich was revived.
After returning from an uneventful night scouting trip, I hadn’t slept during the day, and I’d done my research on the lich.
The tome with the demon’s language would be useful whether or not he was fully revived since it makes it easier to deal with the lich but I have never faced a fully resurrected lich in the game.
The rewards were better… but it also meant that his existence was more dangerous.
In the end it came down to whether I could handle it alone.
My plan was to climb the snowy mountain and kill the lich as soon as he was revived. That way, as long as I didn’t get killed by him, he wouldn’t be able to harm anyone else.
Besides, I had no intention of getting myself killed or hurting anyone else because of my foolish greed.
There’s not much time left before the Demon Worshipper revives the lich and I needed to do some research on the lich before he was frozen.
The last time the Lich was active in the North was decades ago. So…I needed to meet with older people who were alive at the time but they couldn’t be regular people, they had to be veterans.
After asking around among the soldiers, I found an old man, a seasoned veteran, now old and retired.
He had been a soldier of the Empire, and after the outbreak of the war, he had joined the Alliance and then retired.
“… You asked how strong the lich was in those days?”
“Yes, I was out scouting and heard about the Lich, and I was curious about him, and I thought you might know something.”
“Hehe, Lich… I miss him… You’re in luck, because I was there when they slaughtered the lich.”
“Is that true?”
The old man smiled and stroked his beard, obviously amused by my question.
“You do know that the Liches have classes…”
“There are Liches who are turned into undead by demons, and there are Arch Liches who become undead themselves, right?”
The Liches in this world fall into two major categories: those who have been empowered by demons to become undead and those who have chosen to walk the path of the undead without borrowing anyone’s power.
In particular, the latter are known as “Arch Liches,” and they are far different from ordinary Liches.
A major difference between the Lich and the Arch Lich is the presence or absence of a Life Vessel.
Arch Liches keep a vessel of their life force or soul, called a Life Vessel, hidden in a place where no one can find it, and as long as it is intact, they can be revived at any time.
However, this Life Vessel was also his weakness.
Even if he was immortal, any damage to the Life Vessel could easily lead to his death.
“I can still remember what he said. If only I had that damned Life Vessel, how could I fall prey to the sneaky tongues of those demons? Even looking back on it now, I’m such an idiot, hehehe.”
“Haha, that’s… Funny.”
I chuckled softly, agreeing with the old man.
This was a lich who had foolishly joined forces with a demon and became undead. That’s why Aisin’s ice magic was enough to deal with him.
“Yes. Ignorant…He was arrogant and unnecessarily talkative….The famously reticent Aisin even told him to shut up.”
With that, the old man gulped down the fine gin I’d bought him.
As we talked more, I tried to compare him with the lich I’d encountered in the game.
‘I’d say it’s about twice as strong.’
I don’t think being fully resurrected adds anything special. All it did was increase the power of its magic so I decided that I could handle it on my own.
The second boss, Lich, was an undead warlock. As he was a mage, I had a Dispel that could negate his magic, and as he was undead, I had the Hero’s Favor Necklace.
The necklace was especially helpful as it was the Hero’s possession.
It was easy to notice in the game that if you get this necklace first in the Labyrinth, you can easily defeat the next boss, Lich.
It would’ve been a little more difficult if it was a demon, as some demons are immune to light, but the game’s Lich, who was merely an undead, couldn’t withstand the Hero’s Favor.
I even had Reverse Heaven, so I could have used two cards to amplify the effect of the necklace. Moreover, his pattern was something I had memorized by heart.
“You should have a drink, too, but you’re supposed to be a night scout, aren’t you?”
“Oh, I’m not much of a drinker, no thanks.”
“That’s too bad.”
I continued to chat with the old man for a while longer. It was mostly just listening to what the old man had to say, but he was happy with that.
As I was walking back from the old man, Sierra stopped in front of me in a deserted alley and opened her mouth.
[A book with the language of demons… and a lich… you seem to have a point, apprentice.]
“Yes. I’m returning the book to its owner, and I’ve already figured out who it is.”
Now it was time to slay the lich and obtain the complete reward.
***
A man stands in front of a large chunk of ice on the side of a snowy mountain.
This is the day he’s been waiting for as in his eyes, he sees the Lich, trapped in the ice.
He sees a parallel between himself, an apostle of the demon Helgenas, and the warlock who became a Lich by the power of demons.
Resurrect the lich and strike a blow against Fort Polwyn.
That was the order given to him by the Dark Cult to which he belonged.
Fort Polwyn is no pushover and Resurrecting the Lich will not bring it down.
He wasn’t sure what the higher-ups meant, but they said it was enough to deal a blow.
He didn’t question his orders for old fashioned reasons since in the end, he firmly believed that all would go according to the will of Helgenas.
Moreover, the fact that the commander would be absent so soon after his arrival in Polwyn… this must be a sign from the Demon God.
But there was one problem.
“I’ve lost the book… It won’t be a complete resurrection, but it should be enough…”
The man muttered to himself in front of the block of ice.
He had lost the book that would be used to resurrect the Lich when he was chased by the Yeti because he didn’t know that there was a Yeti lair in the vicinity.
He was no match for the creature yet somehow he managed to get away from the rampaging Yeti, but he couldn’t find the book.
The good news was that he had memorized the important passages.
All he had to do was place his hand on the block of ice where the Lich was trapped, and chant the demonic incantation.
He felt the cold ice on his hand, and was about to open his mouth to say the words when he sensed that someone was approaching him.
’Today is the scouts’ day off, so they shouldn’t be here…?’
He turned quickly to see who it was and saw a man with a white bandage over his eyes, an Academy cadet on a field trip to Fort Polwyn.
“Zetto…How did you get here…?”
“I’m surprised to see you here, Buckland. Wasn’t today your day off?”
Buckland was puzzled.
Why was Zetto here?
Why had he come to this snowy mountain, to this icy mass, on a day when he was supposed to be resting?
But the question didn’t last long as Zetto spoke up.
“Should I call you Apostle instead of Buckland?”
“Who are you…?”
Buckland says, immediately pulling a sharpened dagger from his hip but Zetto’s next words were unexpected.
“The drunken Helgenas…”
“To……”
To the drunken Helgenas.
Perhaps this man, Zetto, was a demon apostle like himself but Buckland remained wary.
He had never heard or seen a blind apostle in the Order.
There was a moment of silence between them, and then Zetto pulled something out of his arms and at the same time, Buckland flinched.
Zetto was a man of great strength, a man who had killed a Yeti with a single strike.
“You left this behind. It’s important, and you can’t afford to lose it.”
He held out the book to Buckland. It was the book he had received from the Order, containing the demonic spell that would resurrect the Lich.
Buckland hesitantly accepted the book but the question mark on his face didn’t go away.
“I figured that if you were going to resurrect the Lich, it would be on this day. Thankfully, it seems I’m not too late.”
“So you’re like me…”
“Yes, I am. I guess it’s just that my infiltration was from another place and we were not supposed to cross paths.”
Buckland suddenly understood why he didn’t recognize Zetto, even though he was a demon apostle just like him.
The Order had an apostle undercover at the Innocence Academy and if Zetto’s identity was discovered, it would be devastating.
Even the Order would not be immune to damage, so they had kept his identity a secret because the stakes were high.
Buckland laughed, overwhelmed by the greatness of the Order.
“Haha…I didn’t realize an apostle infiltrated the Academy… Anyway, thank you. Thanks to you, I’ll be able to resurrect the Lich in one piece.”
“I won’t report this mistake, but please be more careful next time… I almost had the book discovered by a Suin who was with me.”
Buckland gave a small nod and placed his hand on the block of ice once more. It was time for the Lich resurrection.
Buckland recited the incantation, trying to read the difficult demonic language and when he had recited the entire contents of the small book the block of ice began to vibrate and crack.
“It worked! I resurrected the Lich!”
Buckland shouted in excitement and looked at Zetto. Zetto, on the other hand, felt nothing.
Maybe it was because he was blind and couldn’t see this.
Soon enough, Zetto looked at Buckland and asked a question.
“…So the resurrection is over now?”
“Yes. Any moment now, the Lich, having completely shattered the ice, will come crashing into Polwyn, and we will have to flee. I’m getting out of Polwyn.”
“Good. Hmm… Buckland, I have one last thing to tell you.”
“What?”
“About the book. You must not lose it, must you?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.”
Buckland replied and tucked the book into his arms.
‘I managed to fully resurrect the lich, and you’re going to give me a reward?’
Buckland grumbled to himself but the sound of a sword being drawn was heard and Buckland’s head went flying through the air.
“…”
After wiping the blood from his sword, Zetto stood still in front of the cracking and shattering block of ice as he waited calmly for the Lich.
***
On the ramparts of Polwyn, at lunchtime, the sleepiest time of the day, Lucia was yawning.
“Haaah… I’m sleepy…”
“…”
Orphele was standing next to her, looking down at the ramparts without responding. She had never been good to Lucia in the past.
As a member of the city wall guard, they were having a leisurely time.
“It’s not snowing much today, so the view is nice.”
Lucia struggled to open her stiff eyelids and took in the northern landscape. Then something about the snowy mountains caught her eye.
She could see a strange chunk of ice so she got curious and turned to the guard next to her and asked.
“Excuse me, what is that on the snowy mountain…?”
“Alas, it’s a beautiful day and you can see all the way up there. That’s the grave of the Lich, who died a few decades ago.”
“Lee, Lich…?”
“Yes. It’s a block of ice that was created when we captured the Lich decades ago, Orphele, you know that, right?”
Orphele, who had been listening to the conversation between Lucia and the guards, nods and after a long silence, she finally speaks up.
“…It’s a story I’ve heard many times in my family. They used to say it was ice that would never melt.”
“Really? It hasn’t even broken in decades…?!”
Lucia said to Orpheus with a twinkle in her eye as Orphele looked at her quizzically before answering firmly.
“The ice of the Aisin family is not easily broken.”
“Hehe… Interesting…”
Lucia approached the edge of the city wall and looked at the chunks of ice when suddenly a loud sound could be heard in the distance but she couldn’t quite make out what was going on.
“What is that…?”
“There’s no construction today.”
“Quick, find out what’s going on.”
The guards on the ramparts started to get nervous but Lucia could hear the sounds coming from the snowy mountains.
Lucia’s eyes catch a glimpse of a chunk of ice on the side of the mountain cracking.
“That… Orphele…”
“What’s wrong?”
Orphele tilts her head and approaches Lucia as Lucia’s mouth drops open and she points her finger at the snowy mountain, where Orphele could see the chunk of ice shatter.
“There… The ice… It’s broken…?”