The ground and buildings around Frescan shook as he was moving towards the two intruders and Frescan could feel the very air around him vibrating violently.
He tilted his head in confusion, it was then.
Qar-aaaaanggggg!
A huge purple storm swept through the area to his right.
Frescan hurriedly formed a barrier and wrapped himself in his mana to protect him, but the storm crushed Frescan’s barrier immediately and threw him backwards in shock.
“What, what… …?!”, Frescan shuddered as he staggered to get up.
Nothing was left in the place where the purple storm had passed.
Frescan’s expression stiffened on the spot, thinking something was clearly amiss. He turned his gaze towards the direction in which the tremor had begun, where the storm had originated from.
“What… you call this a rat……?!”, Frescan stammered, his shoulders trembling.
The level of power that just passed by him was by no means at the level of a so-called ‘rat’.
Frescan was stuck in his head debating whether to go or not.
But in reality, there was no choice for him. Even if the person who wielded that power was able to destroy Frescan on the spot, he would never truly die, as his life vessel was hidden far from here.
But not Arbeth.
Arbeth’s powerful black magic assimilated the existence of Frescan’s Life Vessel and dissipated his spirit itself.
It was fatal for all beings, but a hopeless attack on Lich, who believed in endless invincibility and immortality.
That’s why Frescan couldn’t refuse Arbeth’s orders.
He became a Lich to further achieve his dreams and pursuit in the pinnacle of magic, but he could not face death before achieving them.
Frescan was irritated and gloomy as he approached the direction of the attack.
He felt that the loss of his Lich’s body here would be better than eternal death.
—
The severed and dismembered ghouls corpses lay strewn around Lee Sungmin and Envirus, but it was not the end.
Their numbers were endless because of the amount of people that died in the square that previously lived here.
It was cruel. Monsters and humans alike came out to enjoy the night atmosphere in the city square, only to die and be revived as brainless undead from black magic.
“I’m sorry to say this, but they are already dead. There’s no way we can save them even if we mourn them. We have to kill them all if we want their souls to rest.”, Envirus spoke solemnly as he lifted his wand that was emitting a bright light.
The emitted light from Envirus’ wand simply did not make the ghouls stray away from him, as the surroundings near him were spotless compared to Lee Sungmin. It was that the Light magic disintegrated the corpses into ash before they could even approach him.
When Lee Sungmin entrusted the treatment to handle the ghouls properly and rest their souls to Envirus, he recalled the spear technique he used with the yokai powers assimilated into them that he used not too long ago.
Lee Sungmin was reaching new heights with this power, ones he had never achieved before, even if he reached transcendence in the trial from Denir, this power was something in its own league. However, he could still not fully control it.
It was so strong that it was impossible for Lee Sungmin, even if he used the breathing technique to try and stabilize the power, it would still be unbalanced and rough around the edges.
He tried adding the Blood Ring Techniques on top of it but failed to control it. But, what if he was able to use a higher level move from the Nine Heavenly Spears techniques and properly use the Blood Ring Techniques on top of it?
Lee Sungmin gulped down his saliva nervously, thinking about the amount of sheer destruction he could unleash in one move.
Envirus was also wary of the destructive firepower Lee Sungmin had just unleashed. It was an unreasonable amount of force. It was a force that should not even exist in this world.
Envirus was a little bit regretful about his decision to fulfill Lee Sungmin’s favor of processing the dragon’s heart for him.
What if he used that incredible power just now, along with the obscene amount of mana from a dragon’s heart? Envirus held his breath, half in anticipation, half out of complete fear and worry.
“……Hmm?”, Envirus furrowed his brows as he felt another undead existence approaching.
At the same time, he felt the mana surrounding the area fluctuating fiercely. Envirus looked back at Lee Sungmin with a stiff expression.
“Someone’s coming here. Just based on the mana flow, as you can probably already tell, it’s a Lich.”, Envirus spoke to Lee Sungmin in a worried tone of voice.
“Is it the mastermind behind this massacre?”, Lee Sungmin asked with his eyes narrowed in the direction of the mana fluctuation.
“I don’t think so. The large surge of mana from the center I initially felt still hasn’t moved.”, Envirus said, swinging his wand in the direction of Lee Sungmin’s gaze preparing himself.
The light from the wand suddenly burst out much brighter than before, vaporizing the remaining undeads in a split second.
“……I don’t think we should drag on any longer. I’d like to personally take care of the Lich coming here and get some information if I could… But it seems I need to get to the root problem as fast as possible. Will you be okay on your own against the Lich?”, Envirus asked Lee Sungmin with expectant eyes.
“What are you going to do?”, Lee Sungmin asked back.
“I… will …go to the square. The magic circle fluctuations are coming closer to completion. It will still need more time for the spell to fully manifest, but if that spell is released unabated, something much worse will befall this city… And possibly all of Eria.”, Envirus replied with a grave and serious expression.
“Okay, leave this to me.”, Lee Sungmin spoke confidently with a nod of the head.
Confirming Lee Sungmin’s confident expression, Envirus floated upwards and shot forward with flight magic at a much faster pace than Lee Sungmin had ever seen before.
—–
As Frescan warily approached the two of them, he felt a huge and gigantic presence of mana approaching him at an incomprehensible speed.
He hurriedly tried to prepare another barrier as he was worried something even worse than the purple tornado was coming at him, but before he could even cast the reciting words for the spell, Envirus shot right past him completely ignoring Frescan’s presence.
Frescan realized something was wrong and shouted out, “Nooo!!!”
If Envirus avoided Frescan and headed straight to Arbeth to ruin his concentration on the magic circle, Frescan was going to face severe punishment later.
But even as he shouted desperately, Envirus wouldn’t stop.
Frescan knew he could not chase Envirus even at his top speed of flight magic, as Envirus was flying at a speed close to breaking the sound barrier.
Shaking with anger and despair, Frescan noticed that there was still another man left where Envirus had come from.
‘I can’t help it. I’ll have to do something about at least one of them.’ , Frescan thought to himself.
On the contrary, he felt a little relieved. Although the wizard who passed by, was already gone from his sight. Frescan could tell at a glance he was no match for the wizard.
He thought positively thinking that the terrible attack he had been hit with earlier was done by that wizard. If so, it was obvious this guy was nothing much.
Although he had his life vessel hidden and tucked away far from here, he wanted to avoid losing his body here as it could cause him several losses.
‘This aura… it feels familiar.….’
As he approached the man left behind, Frescan noticed that the man’s aura was something he had felt before.
‘Where did I feel this aura?…This… I should have never forgotten this bastard!!!’
The black mist surrounding his presence as a Lich shook with anger as he recognized the aura as the one who had constantly made him suffer despite his weak body and flimsy martial arts.
‘Wait…What the hell is that?’
Frescan noticed another ominous aura on top of the man’s previous aura. Something much, much more sinister than before.
He could feel the presence of a monster that was completely indescribable within Lee Sungmin’s aura. It was something unfathomable and ominous. Something that should never be within a human being. He could sense Heoju’s soul deep within Lee Sungmin’s dantian.
‘It doesn’t have a body.’ , Frescan realized the existence of the soul and slightly trembled.
Everytime he had met this bastard, something terrible always happened. Lee Sungmin was never easy for Frescan to deal with. But this time, something was much different, Lee Sungmin’s personal growth was already incomprehensible, but…. This ominous soul that seemed to be protecting him within his dantian was way out of Frescan’s league.
In the moment of fear enveloping Frescan, he unwittingly retreated his steps back.
The King of the other dimension that Frescan contracted in order to obtain the Black Heart, even that presence was nothing compared to the being before him.
“…….hup!”, Frescan inhaled a sharp breath nervously.
Frescan felt as if time slowed down and everything went black and white for him. He was being stared down by the ominous soul inside of Lee Sungmin and he felt a sweat trickle down the back of his neck.
He felt for the first time since being a Lich, that he had regained his human feelings of fear. He thought if he really had his old human body, he would have pissed himself on the spot.
Frescan quickly shook his head and came back to his senses.
He convinced himself that it was just an illusion. After all, how could one being emanate an instinctual level of fear higher than the being he contracted from an alternate dimension? It had to be an illusion… it was too unusual for a human being to make a Lich tremble in fear, and was just plain unrealistic.
Frescan suppressed his bubbling emotions and instincts that screamed at him to run away, as he walked towards Lee Sungmin.
—
The undeads that Lee Sungmin were dealing with were finally gone and vaporized. He looked down the empty streets and realized the lights from the lanterns that were previously lit were all sucked into Envirus’ wand as he left.
Lee Sungmin lowered the spear in satisfaction. He was being unrealistic to think he could control all the power he wanted to use right now. But nonetheless, the amount of power he could control resonated fiercely with the magic ore inside his spear.
He was looking forward to the day when he could master the forces completely without needing to stress his body.
At first when he tried synchronizing the powers in the forest, he had to do it under pressure and pain when not doing the breathing technique properly. But he was getting used to it now and felt pretty comfortable with it.
‘He’s coming.’ , Lee Sungmin’s warrior instincts shot a warning at him as he felt the incoming presence of the Lich approaching him.
Lee Sungmin gripped his spear tightly, half in excitement to see how well he would fare against a Lich with the amount of control he had at the moment, half wary that things could go terribly wrong if he or Envirus didn’t do well.
Then he noticed something. He felt that he recognized the presence coming towards him, and slowed down his steps to a casual walking speed.
Lee Sungmin finally saw the Lich’s presence come into full view and widened his eyes in surprise.
“Frescan?”, Lee Sungmin spoke with his mouth agape.
He didn’t really expect to see Frescan here, as he had basically ruined Frescan completely the last time he saw him in Travia and although he was the only Lich he had ever met, it wasn’t like he was the only Lich in all of Eria.
The dark aura surrounding Frescan convinced Lee Sungmin that it really was him.
Frescan noticed Lee Sungmin’s presence a little earlier than Lee Sungmin, because he had the home field advantage of being in a giant dome of black magic.
Frescan came closer into view and Lee Sungmin already knew what was happening. Frescan’s bony fingers were moving at a rapid pace as he quickly started to murmur a spell. It was pretty much how Lee Sungmin expected Frescan to be.
So he ran. Lee Sungmin quickly broke through the distance utilizing his footwork technique of One Thunder.
Frescan eye sockets seemed to widen as he noticed Lee Sungmin approaching with a rapid pace as tendrils of lightning were sparking from his feet.
“You blasted Heart Thief!”, Frescan roared at Lee Sungmin after he finished the recital needed for the spell
‘Ha! what a piece of cake!’ , Frescan thought arrogantly, as he saw Lee Sungmin approach right into the area of his spell.
Black mana waves reverberated from Frescan’s bony hands and shoved a current of mana towards Lee Sungmin with a strong force. The surging current came to Lee Sungmin as he stretched the spear forward with zero hesitation.
The magic was definitely strange and threatening as Lee Sungmin knew black magic was a bit different than other types of magic, but he was confident in the orchicalcum ore inside the spear when it came to working against magicians.
Because it was a metal with high resistance to magic spells and high conductibility for the user specifically, it could ignore the degree of magic fired off from Frescan with just the spear shaft alone he thought.
Of course, the magic from a Lich, who was another level of existence higher than an average black wizard was not such an easy opponent. The flow of current banged against the speartip and turbulence was created in the air surrounding the two of them.
He was not going to risk rampaging his power out of control against this bastard Lich, so Lee Sungmin decided to just work with his own internal energy to start with, disregarding the yokai powers.
The golden aura of Lee Sungmin’s internal energy coalesced into the tip of the spear as he unfolded the Nine Heavenly Spears techniques.
Nine Heavenly Spears Techniques 5th move : Void Rendering (空道)
Qaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The current of mana fired off from Frescan’s spell hit the golden aura moving in a circular fashion and dispersed in multiple directions creating a clearly open space between Frescan and Lee Sungmin.
‘Oh, my God!’ , Frescan spoke to himself astonishedly.
Lee Sungmin, compared to when Frescan saw him in Travia, was strong, but now he had an undeniable feeling of strength. Frescan knew he had to take this bastard thief seriously now.
Frescan hurriedly blinked away and started to move his bony fingers and murmur a spell once more to set up a defensive framework around himself.
The moment the golden aura flung the previous currents away and created the open space was when Frescan completed his defensive spell in preparation for the terrible onslaught of Lee Sungmin’s spear techniques.
Lee Sungmin noticed the short space in between and unveiled the fastest stabbing technique he knew at Frescan hoping to pierce through the barrier.
Nine Heavenly Spears Techniques 3rd move : Lightning Strike (분뢰추살)
Gwa-a-a-ang!
Hidden inside the translucent shield spell, Frescan’s shield was hit so fiercely that his head spun and thought the world suddenly was shaking.
Well… it was partially true… Frescan’s body was flung back into the rubble with the shockwave of impact. He was hit so fiercely he looked like a ragdoll being thrown around in a junkyard.
Lee Sungmin did not stop there and chased quickly after Frescan, rousing up his internal energy and Blood Ring Techniques, giving the speartip a scarlet hue.
Quack, boom!
A series of bursts of from the speartip exploded with a powerful force cracking the translucent sphere of Frescan even further, mid-flight.
“Cheeky bastard!”, Frescan roared at Lee Sungmin in frustration, as he could not get a moment of breath from the dog-like bastard.
Frescan’s blue wisps of fire that burned in his sockets, shone brightly, as his emotional state became more enraged. Frescan quickly muttered a spell and blinked away to escape the attack and get some distance.
The afterimage of Frescan was pierced by the spear, but he had already blinked away from Lee Sungmin’s spear trajectory.
“I’ll take back what you took!”, Frescan shouted as he realized Lee Sungmin still had the black heart and this was a chance for him.
Frescan re-appeared behind Lee Sungmin and moved his lips furiously as he started a longer incantation. This time it wasn’t a chant for an attack spell, but rather a curse magic.
Frescan’s legs felt dreary and weak and his vision blurred for a moment as it was only a temporary curse, but if it landed on Lee Sungmin correctly, it would buy him a bit of time.
Frescan moved his hand in sync with his lips and his mana exploded outwards in a burst as he shouted once more, “Blow to smithereens!”
Several black tendrils of mana surged out from Frescan’s bony chest and shot at Lee Sungmin viciously like a parasite.
The dark tendrils came over to Lee Sungmin blocking out his sight as they reached at his body desperately. However… as Frescan was preparing the incantation for the temporary curse, it wasn’t like Lee Sungmin stood there idly to listen at Frescan’s annoying yapping.
While Frescan was shouting around like an idiot trying to grab attention like a teenage girl in high-school, Lee Sungmin focused his breathing and started to course the yokai power into his inner circuitry synchronizing the powers once more.
The terribly frightening power that was unleashed before, when Lee Sungmin cleaned up the ghouls to experiment with his power, started to revolve his aura fiercely arounthe blade of the spear.
This time, he didn’t try to outperform himself once more and didn’t add the Blood Rings techniques on top of his spear techniques. There was no need to have this power go out of control and completely miss.
Lee Sungmin’s choice was to use one of the deadly high numbering spear techniques he rarely showed others. The aura wrapping around the spear turned completely violent but… this time it was controlled.
Frescan’s eyes widened as the tendrils of mana from the temporary curse were obviously no match for what was about to come. The violent, and sinister purple aura shone brightly in the dark and empty street as Lee Sungmin thrust the spear forwards shattered the black mana away like glass.
Nine Heavenly Spears Techniques 8th Move : Slaughtering Spear(虐殺捕食)
The violet speartip collided against Frescan’s defenseless body. No, it wasn’t a collision. It was the first signal to start a one sided beating.