Chapter 238: An Unwanted Guest
The Immortal Lich’s power was increased by leaps and bouunds after his ritual, and his newfound connection with the [River of the Afterlife] allowed him to gain a new way of controlling the bodies of dead creatures. It was now possible to share his mana with these creatures and reanimate them. And he used this ability to fight against the battalion of Mages that came for him. But in the end, even with all the power, he was still incapable of matching the power of so many high ranking mages from a Rank III world. He was nearly defeated and he had to flee that world and escape into a world three hundred Dimensional Leaps away in order to survive.
After finding himself in Ruen, Logof decided that he was not yet done with his research. He was powerful, but not powerful enough. He needed to make sure there were no creatures that could match him in this world or the next! He would never allow the humiliation of the past to come upon him again! And that was how he began to kill the inhabitants of that world for more research. He drowned the world in death and despair and forced the few remaining survivors underground, where they remained till this day.
At the peak of a dark mountain within the Ruen forest, a dim light could be seen breaking out from the darkness of a large cave. Inside the cave, a single creature moved around at a calm, curious pace as he read through various texts and papers littered around him. The creature was well over ten feet tall and it wore a long, thick set of coats that covered its entire body from view. Its head was covered with a hood and the sound of muttering could be heard echoing off the walls of the large silent cave. Anyone who saw it would think that he was just an enthusiastic mage who was engrossed in his work, but their assumption would be brutally destroyed once they caught sight of its face and arms. Ashen white bone was all that was left of its body. Its fingers that turned the pages of its book were nothing but long, bony appendages and its face was nothing but a skull. Its eyes shone with an eerie dark light as it took in everything on the magical journal with intelligent curiosity.
"So that’s where I went wrong. The time difference between the Rune activation and the Soul leaving the body is too large. A few more experiments. All I need are a few more experiments before I can reach my ultimate goal. I’m so close."
The Immortal Lich turned his head towards the pile of bodies lying on the floor beside him. The bodies had been torn apart and their blood had been fully drained, but the Lich didn’t show any form of revulsion to it. He was already so used to the sight of death that it was now a part of him. His gaze shifted to an experiment table on the other side and the Ruen man that was strapped to it and he watched as the man’s eyes stared up at the ceiling of the cave with wide, unseeing eyes. The Lich had used a special rune on the man that would slowly kill him over a long period of time and that was why the man was unresponsive. Right now, the man was in a space between the world of the living and the dead. But he would succumb to the rune soon, and the Lich would have to take another subject for experimentation.
"But it isn’t enough. I’ve advanced Necrosis as far as it can go with the mortal body. There is nothing else I can discover while using living test subjects. I need more! I need something that can grant me a direct connection with the [River of the Afterlife]! I need... a soul."
The Lich felt an indescribable desire rising from his heart as he stared at the body in front of him! He had discovered sometime during his research that the mortal body could only tell him so much! As it was now, he was doing nothing more than reanimation! And that would never open the true secrets of the world to him! He needed more than that! He needed to find a way to separate the immortal Soul from the mortal body! If he could do that, then he would find the power he had been looking for all along! The realm of the Primordials would finally be within his reach!
The end goal of every magician from T’laina was to reach the realm of the Primordials, and the Lich was no different. From a very young age, the magicians of T’laina had looked up to the Primordials as the apex of power. To them, the Primordials were no different from gods and every magician aimed to reach that realm of power with their research. But the Lich knew that he wouldn’t be able to get the power he was looking for the way he was going now. His research had slowed down considerably and he knew he hadn’t made any major progress in a long time.
But there had been a development recently that gave him new hope. A group of powerful individuals reached out to the Lich from across the Primordial Expanse and asked him to join their ranks. The Lich had been skeptical at first since he didn’t enjoy working with others, but now that he was hitting a roadblock with his research, he realized that this might be the only way to gain more power! The Lich decided that he was going to accept their offer, so he would be moving away from this world with all of his research. He just had to finish his experiments with the current test subject first. He already moved many of his research materials out of this world, and only the most important ones were still with him since he needed them for the experiment.
But the Lich suddenly stopped in his tracks as he felt something poking against his consciousness. The Lich had set up magical signals all around the world of Ruen so he would know whenever anyone arrived on this world from another world. He did this to make sure that the Magical Institute from T’laina never found him here, and so far he hadn’t noticed anything powerful crossing into this world. The last things that entered here were a lost group from a parallel world, and the Lich’s minions were able to dispatch them quickly enough. They had been good ingredients for his experiments, but they didn’t give him any more insight into the soul than what he already possessed.
But now, there was something else that triggered his magical senses. Far away from his location, a single person had appeared from an artificial Dimensional Tear. That meant that this person hadn’t entered this world by accident, they had come here with their own power. The fact that the person was knowledgeable enough about the Primordial Expanse to be able to create a Dimensional Tear at all meant that they were dangerous, but from the power he could feel, he knew that they shouldn’t be anywhere above SS rank. They were likely from a Rank III or Rank II world and they were passing through this world to get somewhere else.
"It’s too bad that this is where your journey ends. Kill him."
The Lich sent this message to his subordinates and then turned his attention back towards his work. He trusted his subordinates, and he was sure that no single person could hope to match their might. It wouldn’t be long before he got another test subject.