When the Ven'Thur shed his form, revealing the dread of a skeletal form that stood at the pinnacle of might in this new world, a distinct presence had filled the entirety of the cavern. It was like death personified, causing the air to chill, to almost feel as if it had solidified into creeping tendrils that snaked across the skin, around the neck to constrict breath, sinking into the heart and making it race.

Even the mind controlled beastwomen and criminals could not suppress their survival instincts, and they all shivered in unison as they huddled behind rocks, tables, anything they could find some solace in. Azhar could resist it, his adventurer's heart having been tempered through the forge of countless life and death battles.

As Li's manifested into existence, it was almost like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. His barked and horned form stretching out from the peels of his human encasing in a metamorphosis that precious few in this world had ever seen and lived to tell the tale of.

And when Li peeled away his human façade, an entirely new presence arose. No, rather, it charged in like cavalry, crashing into the lich's deathly presence and driving it away like a lantern light raised against the dark.

It was not a presence of death, nor was it one of hope. It was one of sheer, neutral power. Pure, devastatingly raw power that rumbled the cavern. It surged around Li's form, shadowing it in tendrils of darkness so engorged on magical power that they seemed more like pillars that rose far up, crashing into the cavern's ceiling and shattering the rock, sending debris falling every which way.

Amidst this raging sea of darkness, there was but one point of glowing whiteness, but this light was not at all a symbol of hope: it was Li's skeletal face, his eye sockets glowing with green.

Li did not look back as he addressed Azhar, but he could tell through whatever it was that linked them that the bowman was not taking well to seeing his true form. "So? Now you truly know what I am. Any second thoughts? And do not worry about your wounds. I will heal them later regardless of your answer."

Azhar had fallen upon his knees, his hand thrust on the ground as a hasty pillar to support his shaking body. His breathing was deep but still only managed to take in shallow breaths, as if he were suffocating in a vacuum. Blood trickled from his mouth, ears, and eyes as the intensity of Li's presence wreaked havoc upon his body and brain.

"I thought you were just similar, but yer exactly like it. The dark presence in the spirit realm, the sleeping void that's gonna swallow everythin' up when it wakes. Yer the end of all things."

Li remained neutral. "Perhaps I am, perhaps I am not."

"But ya know what? I don't care." Li heard as Azhar's body gave out, slumping onto the stone floor. "I followed you cause' I knew you were good enough to protect the old man and the farm, even if you felt off. If it������s the end yer bringin', so long as yer bringin' it against the people and things I care bout', then I'm fine with it."

"Where did that humanitarianism you preached go?" commented Ven'thur. "Truly you lot are fickle."

Azhar was too weak to answer by this point. Perhaps he had not even heard the lich's words. Instead, Li spoke.

"Is this better?" asked Li as he stepped forwards, a small cyclone of debris starting to whirl around him as his power convulsed.

"Much better." Ven'Thur peered upon Li, and his monocle shattered, the glass breaking up into brittle dust. He took the spheres of special distortion shimmering above his palms and mashed them together into one, preparing an attack.

"Wonderful. I cannot glean at all what you are, and yet, I understand you are above me, above Kel'Thor, above the gods themselves, perhaps. You are one above all and yet known by none. It is truly an honor to have the chance to indulge my final moments facing against something so new, so unknown. I shall consider it my final study."

"Unfortunately, this study session might have to end early," said Li as he waved a skeletal hand around him. Even through the mind control, the normal beastwomen and humans had become petrified in Li's presence, their breathing even halting as their eyes widened, their minds slowly breaking apart at the seams.

"But I will give you a chance to impress me: let loose your blows, spells, and skills - all the crystallization of your journey for knowledge."

"It would be shameful not to grace your presence with but my very best." Ven'thur thrust his hands out, sending forward the condensed ball of special distortion.

In a flash, Li appeared directly in front of Ven'thur and grabbed the ball between his own branched hands. It was [Gravity Bomb], a projectile that would explode into a void that sucked in everything to deal damage over time, but if it was stopped early, it would instead become massive damage to a single target.

Li chose to stop it to prevent environmental damage coming upon either the slaves or Azhar.

The spell itself was a formidable B ranked spell, and one that magic users with a subclass as Portalists favored as their best damage attack until they reached the late game. The lich himself slightly over level 80, nearing the top end of this world's power scaling.

Li put pressure into his hands, squashing the ball of manipulated space out of existence like popping a balloon. "So you're a Warlock primary with a Portalist subclass. You have two other subclasses to show off. Show them."

A purple tether flashed behind Venthur, attaching at the end of the cavern. His body vanished as he teleported to the end of the tether to create distance between himself and Li. This was [Anchored Presence], an useful spell to use for Portalists who wanted to scout out unknown areas but needed to instantly teleport back to a spot when they encountered danger.

By setting an anchor point in space and tethering themselves to it, they could achieve low cost, instantaneous teleportation where most portal spells required channels and high mana costs.

The lich splayed his fingers out and then curled them back in a squishing motion.

Li watched as the ground under him split apart. A massive skeletal hand rose upwards, slamming its fist shut around him in a cage of reinforced bone. He put his hands on either side of the fist enclosing him and pressed outwards, forcing the hand open.

"You're also a Skeleton Mage, I see." Li noted as in the brief time he had spent in the hand, Ven'thur had raised a dozen undead. They were brawny, large boned skeletons that Li recognized as Skeleton Brutes, level 50 warrior class monsters. Each was dressed in glowing magical armor and wielding a variety of weapons ranging from swords to spears to axes to bows.

"Interesting. So you know how to work your skills together." Li was not interested in the skeletons. They were fodder to him. Instead, he looked to Ven'thur. The lich floated in the sky and channeled his magic through a portal that spat out more and more skeletal warriors and, now, robed bone mages. These were previously created summons that he was simply transferring over, explaining how he could raise them so quickly.

Li, for the first time on this world, manifested his staff: the Black Beauty. He felt the familiar weight of the staff, of the Orphan impaled at its end that cooed in anticipation for carnage.

"But surely, you can do better? An eternity to research, and this is all?" Li's words were not demeaning. They were encouraging. He truly wanted to know if the lich had more.

With casual motions, Li swung his staff around, annihilating skeletal summons in one hit, each staff blow reducing the mighty summons into showers of bone fragments. Flickers of swirling green and red followed his swings, indicating that he had been buffed with [Dire Frenzy], his favorite stat boost spell.

"I have always been fascinated by the nature of death," said Ven'thur from high above. "Liches, dragons, spirits, and vampires. All creatures that have cheated it, and yet, they cannot truly escape it. If vampires are deprived of blood, they die. If we liches have our cores destroyed, we die.

So I thought: is it true for the gods also? Those four great wonders that etched their magic and knowledge into the very veins of this world?"

"An easy question to answer. It is true." Li made his way forwards, obliterating a horde of skeletons as he did so. He did not rush. Though he knew he could not let the lich go on for too much longer considering the condition of all the mortals around them, he did want to see this one attack the lich seemed to be stalling for with his summons.

"Then I am relieved to find that the vast breadth of my research has been proven true." Ven'thur peered down at Li. Countless purple and black runes were circling around him, swirling into formations that clicked and crackled with power. "But this is the problem with searching for knowledge. There are only more questions. Like now. If the gods can be forced to face death, then how about you?"

Li found himself surprised as darkness spawned from the runes around Ven'thur, engulfing them both.

"Now this is new," said Li as he peered around, his voice projecting magically through a vacuum. An environment of cratered white rock and dust expanded around him. The darkness of space was visible above, each twinkle of every star and celestial body distinctly visible now that there was no atmosphere to impede them.

The moon.

Venthur's form floated above Li. A capsule of obsidian energy shimmered around him, and behind him, a thin thread of purple linked back like a tether, extending infinitely back towards the green and blue rock of the planet that floated an incalculable distance away.

"Spirits are immortal for they draw upon the earth and the elements. The gods themselves are above death because they reside upon the World which grants them an anchor upon which they can imprint their power and influence." Ven'thur pointed a finger back to the planet. "But they are only worshiped upon that tiny little rock. What influence do they have here? What greatness protects them here?"

"So you intend to try and kill me here." Li had never seen this spell before. It was Ven'thur's own invention, and the idea of the unknown did bring a bit of caution to him.

"I have already tried." Ven'thur shrugged. Cracks began to form around his skeletal face, magical energy leaking out as he exerted himself sustaining this spell. "This spell is two parts combined into one. The first binds us together and channels our presences out here. The second imparts an instant death spell during travel. You have already been struck by it. You are beyond death, even in this cold, distant void."

Ven'thur floated down to the ground. Clouds of dust arose around him as his form settled upon the moon's surface. "If you are bored of this poor display, then eliminate me to return. The tether keeping us here will reel us back in when I am unable to sustain it."

"By the looks of it, you will run out of magical energy quite soon anyway," said Li. "But I commend you. This spell shows me just how much the rules of magic can be altered. How knowledge and research can produce miracles from magic that I once thought immutable.

For that, I will send your physical form off in a nova of destruction. The site of your grave will be visible to all upon the world to remember."

Li appeared in front of Ven'thur before the lich had time to perceive anything. Li wrapped his hand around the lich's skull, enveloping it entirely. The lich did not move, nor did he have the energy to.

A bright, orange light began to emanate from Li's body. The brown of his bark became infused with an intense brightness that lit up the emptiness of space. Heat cascaded from his form, turning everything around him intensely red hot.

"Become witness to magic you have never once fathomed. Be basked in the light of an Ultima-class spell." Li felt a surge of health leave him, and he took his hand off from the lich. On the lich's forehead, embedded into the ruby on his skull, was a single golden seed that seemed to be fashioned out of pure light and energy given solid form.

"So this…," said Ven'thur in pure awe and wonder as he felt power he could never even conceptualize flowing through his body in such an overwhelming torrent that it broke him down at a primordial level. As cracks etched through his skull, leaking bright energy, he uttered, "This is enlightenment."

"It's good that I could make you wonder again. Then, until we meet again. [Fusion Seed: Release]."