In the command room, Reaver abruptly shook and threw up all over the floor.

Ubel, who was thinking about how their allied army should storm the final castle and take the prize’s head, turned his attention over to Reaver.

“What’s wrong?”

Kist held the trembling and muttering Reaver and turned to Ubel with dread in his voice.

“The target Malous… has ascended to lichdom.”

Crack.

Ubel's empty cup was crushed in his hand, but he managed to keep an impassive face.

“Order everyone under tier three to retreat from the battlefield. Get the message out quickly if you don’t want needless death on your hands.”

Reaver wiped her mouth as she steadied herself and nodded. There was no arguing. She thought as well that this was the correct choice. After all, she had just witnessed a monster.

...

Urist stared at the sky as the lich revealed itself and the earth mages hurriedly pulled people into the ground to protect them. The being cracked and twisted its neck in gruesome angles. The creature consisted of sinister black warped bone that wiggled, throbbed, and pulsed. Each time the bones moved, a sound alike massive war drums resounded in the ears of the allied army. The being stood over four meters tall with green necromantic flames running along the entirety of its body. This… creature had four skeletal arms and was crowned by a sharp, bony skull that had three points to its eerie maw. Its yellow pupils were surrounded by black sclera, and as the creature’s eyes rolled around in their sockets, moving disconnectedly from one another before abruptly snapping onto Urist’s figure. The being then stood straight, snapping its neck back into place, and everything stilled as the two stared at one another.

Death.

Urist felt as he was being choked. It was like reliving the feeling of utter helplessness he felt when he faced the rat king. But this was worse. Urist became overwhelmed by fear, to the point that his body went numb, to the point that he felt as if his sanity had been stripped away.

This… thing. Shouldn’t. Exist.

Though it was filled with pain. Wrath. Despair. Revenge.

It felt wrong. Insane. Evil. Twisted. Cursed.

As Urist stared at the creature, his emotions blended and mixed into a confusing mess as he struggled to wander through some mental gymnastics.

“What the fuck made you?” He finally asked.

“God. And I killed her.” The creature hissed as its jawbones twisted and warped to form a terrifyingly mad grin.

Then it moved, faster than anything Urist had ever witnessed.

And it was headed straight for him.

Urist tried to move but his body felt like it was trapped in quicksand.

The numbness he felt from this being’s killing intent had poisoned his body. There were no flashy moves from the lich as it reached out to rip out Urist’s neck. Yet as the lich closed in on him time seemed to slow, and Urist despaired at his own weakness.

This is how I die? Too afraid to move? Didn’t I say I would survive this battle? That I wouldn’t fail again like I did with the rat king? I told everyone I would make it back alive... I guess… I’m going to be a liar.

No. A failure. Like you’ve always been.

“MY KING!”

As he traveled into the depths of rage into despair, a voice rang out like a beam of light shooting through the darkness.

A silver flash knocked into his side, pushing him away.

It wasn’t Snorri, Bishop, Valkus, or any of his powerhouses, but one of the many simple dwarfs that made up his army. Urist watched with wide eyes, catching the utter resolve on Elrish's face as his chest was impaled by the lich.

In its rage, the lich let out a howl as it grabbed the dwarf’s legs and ripped him in half. The lich threw the parts on the ground with such force that they exploded into a bloody mist and only left a messy pulp of bones behind. Dwarfs in the area were showered in Elrish’s blood.

“>Formation: Resist + Despair<.” Bishop called out as Urist numbly stared at Elrish’s mangled corpse before slowly turning his gaze to the bloody specks covering his hands.

Memories flooded into his mind, sounding in his ears, as he was dragged away from the area by Snorri.

Failure. Useless ‘Hero.’ Faker. Leech. Liar.

Betrayer.

Urist wanted to scream, to shout, to rage against the lich who had shaken him so. Deep within his psyche, Urist could feel something stir inside his mind. Something he didn’t want to see. Something he didn’t want to face.

>Formation: Clear + Clarity<.

A voice cut through the spiteful words ringing in his ears as a finger wrote on his back.

The words, the despair, the ugly memories that he almost saw, all faded from his mind as he took a deep, shuddering breath.

Bishop grabbed him by the shoulders, turned him around, looked him in the eye, and yelled at him. “Wake the fuck up, you fucking idiot!”

“Wha—?”

Bishop scoffed when he saw Urist still in a daze and slapped Urist square in the face.

Right away light returned to Urist’s eyes and his mind returned to the present.

“What happened?”

“No time! I have to go to help. Uria, get him filled in!” Bishop growled as he stood up and raced off towards the sounds of earth shattering combat.

The blind Fire Keeper Uria moved in to take Bishop's place.

“We got a message from Ubel, Darling. We need to…”

…

“Man and I thought I was a monster,” Valkus muttered as he spat out some blood.

He stared at the lich, steam rising off of his body through the cracks of his aura made spear armor. After Elrish had been gutted and ripped in half, and Urist was taken away by Snorri, Valkus and Bishop had fought together to hold back the lich.

Bishop had placed formations to repel the lich’s dreadful aura, allowing those still on the battlefield to finally be able to move without being crushed by the suffocating feeling of death. Yet the moment he had placed the formations down Snorri appeared and pulled him away.

Out of the corner of his eye, Valous saw Snorri drag Bishop away, but he couldn’t focus on that. He exchanged a dozen moves with the lich, knowing that one good hit from his foe would cost him his life. Still, even when he did his best to dodge, Valkus had broken one-fourth of his bones in the short exchange.

He would’ve lost a few limbs as well if it wasn’t for his spear armor making him slippery, allowing him to break free from the lich’s grasp.

Honestly, every instinct in his body roared at him to flee. But he couldn’t. Not after seeing Elrish’s fearless charge. Not after seeing him use his own life to save their king.

For Elrish to use his breakthrough into tier three to power through the lich’s dread... He had potential. Vaklus thought as he cracked his bones back into place.

“So, why are you standing there looking like a dumbass?” He asked the lich, whose eyes twirled around the area, taking in the landscape.

“I see. So I failed.” It muttered.

The liches' hands cracked and twisted as it lifted its arms. Bones within a ten thousand meter range around the lich abruptly began to shift and move.

“Even so...”

The bones began to float into the sky, combining into an enormous mass right above the lich.

“I’ll rage against the heavens...”

Valkus began to sweat, hyper focused on the lich as his body fixed its torn muscles. It was a risk he was willing to take as he watched the mass of bones being created, and one that quickly paid off. The massive floating bone heap exploded outwards, forging hundreds of thousands of weapons of different types, shapes, and forms.

“Even in death!”

The weapons shot forth, streaking across the cloudless sky, before raining down upon those below.

Valkus warily knocked away a few weapons heading in his direction, noticing that they didn’t have much force behind them.

Don’t tell me...

The lich dropped to the ground with enough force that a small cloud of dust rose up to cover his figure, hiding the lich from sight.

>Bladed Sea<

Malous grabbed a short sword from the rain of weapons and threw the sword at Valkus with such speed and force that the large dwarf couldn’t dodge in time and had to parry the weapon.

*Crack*

Valkus’ arm broke from the force, and as he withheld a scream his aura stabbed into his arm, pulling the bone back into place. Before he could recover his stance, a hand axe was sent straight at his chest. Valkus would have died had it not been for Quake, who pulled him out of the way.

Valkus couldn’t open his mouth to talk before another weapon headed his way. He somehow managed to deflect it, breaking his other arm in the process. Valkus glared at Malous, who had finally exited the cloud of dust. The lich was slowly walking towards him, picking up weapons along the way and juggling them for a brief moment before casually throwing them at anything that moved in the area.

Within ten seconds, all of the dwarven forces’ powerhouses had been decimated.

Zen the brawler had been split in half.

The twin water mages, Aqua and Vesi, had lost three arms and a leg.

A dozen or so of Reaver’s wolves had been slaughtered.

Joy the lancer had had her forearms crushed when she attempted to block the strike headed her way.

Unicy the mounted archer had been lucky enough to make a shot that slowed the lich’s attack, allowing her to flee into the ground without injury.

Before the injured could be finished off, the earth mages rose from the ground and dragged them and their severed limbs away.

“They will face judgment soon enough,” Malous spoke as he walked, his eyes twisting around again before focusing on Valkus and Quake.

“I will kill the two of you first.”

Valkus grabbed a spear that had been stabbed into the ground, sweating as his bones reattached and inwardly preparing for the onslaught. He readied himself to charge at any time towards what was sure to be his death.

>Slayer Art: Iron<

Before the lich could throw another weapon, Snorri came speeding in, sending an iron kick straight into the crown of Malous’ skull, knocking him down into the ground.

Thank god she came back before I died.

“Fall back Quake, this isn’t a fight you can take.”

Valkus warned before he rushed at the lich implanted in the ground.

“I know my limits. Stay alive, friend.”

Quake understood that it would be pointless to stay and fight, and was quickly dragged into the ground by one of the earth mages.

Snorri dashed over to Valkus and stood by his side.

“You think you killed him?” Valkus asked as he readied his spear.

“No way in hell. My grandfather managed to reach that level so I know we’re doomed. Oh wait, what's up with the speech? You don’t speak like someone thick in the head anymore.”

Snorri commented as she got ready to face the lich, who twitched and used its flames to push its body out of the hole Snorri had knocked him into.

“Oh, you know... Some memories came back. Where's Bishop?”

“He’ll be here soon. Had to smack our king back to his senses. That’s enough chit chat, he’s coming.”

Malous placed a sword in his mouth and picked up a double bladed sword, an axe, a spear, and a halberd.

The lich took a step and disappeared from their sights. Yet even with the lich out of sight, Snorri and Valkus could feel his thick killing intent swirling around them. The pair jumped away, breaking left and right as a sword and spear came from above and smashed where they stood not even a moment before, creating a hundred meter crater in the ground.

>Rain of Blades<

The impact sent hundreds of weapons into the sky where Malous hovered with flaming green wings. He grabbed and threw weapons at the two dwarfs at a speed almost impossible for them to see, creating a horrifying torrent that caused countless craters to form as the pair either dodged or parried their way through the deadly rain.

Every time a weapon hit the ground, new ones were thrown up into the air, allowing for the lich to continue the horrifying downpour. What’s worse is that the lich moved faster with every weapon it threw.

Valkus’ bones broke repeatedly as his aura held his body together while his bloodline worked overtime to heal him. Meanwhile, Snorri used her Speed and Iron forms to the limit, making minute adjustments as she slapped weapons out of the sky, leaving her hands littered with cuts.

In a short amount of time, Snorri and Valkus were left bruised and battered by the endless rain of weapons, slowly being pushed closer and closer towards death.

This isn’t even a fight, this lich is merely toying with us!. Is this… is this what hell feels like?

Valkus thought as his arm broke for the seventh time. As his aura pulled the bones together, he leaned back to escape yet another close shave. Valkus couldn’t even spare a glance to see how Snorri was fairing, as he had to kick away a blade heading for his skull. His foot broke in the process, but he used the force to push him away from his previous location, dodging another dozen blades that skewered the area where he once was.

Valkus bit his tongue to stay alert as his aura finished pulling his cracked bones back into place.

Then he finally heard the voice he had been waiting for.

>Formation: Haste + Reaction<

>Formation: Regeneration + Vigor<

>Formation: Strength + Defense<

>Formation: Slow + Restriction<

>Formation: Weakness<

Formations abruptly appeared, floating above Malous, Valkus, and Snorri. The beneficial ones were layered on top of the dwarfs while the harmful ones centered around the lich.

Valkus, who felt like passing out, suddenly felt power coursing through his veins. His healing kicked up a notch and he could finally catch sight of the accursed undead that had been toying with him.

Malous didn’t care about the formations attempting to hinder him and threw another short sword at Valkus. This time when the dwarf parried the blade, he could see the weapon clearly and his arm only felt somewhat numb instead of breaking for the umpteenth time.

“You couldn’t have done that sooner?!” Valkus roared as he pushed off the ground and charged at Malous.

Bishop’s nose bled as he moved his hands firmly and rapidly, laying out more formations as quickly as he could.

“You think formations are easy? I need to use all my concentration just to make sure they stick to that creature! That’s pretty hard when the fear of death is looming over you! Also I—”

His words were quickly cut off as a great hammer smashed on an invisible shield in front of his face, causing cracks to appear throughout it.

“—need to deal with not dying!”

Valkus stabbed forth with his spear covered in hundreds of miniature spear auras, only to have his weapon backhanded away by a skeletal hand covered in green flames. The lich followed up with an overhead lightning fast battleaxe slash, but Snorri appeared and kicked the axe out of alignment, causing it to miss Valkus by a mere few hairs. Yet the wind resistance still cut through his aura and left a gruesome cut across his chest.

Malous didn’t let up, using a claymore to send a horizontal cut at Valkus, who had moved out of the lich’s range by using his aura to pull himself to the ground.

“That’s fair! Totally understandable!” Valkus yelled.

“Why are you talking normally?” Bishop asked as he layered more formations over the dwarfs to strengthen them.

“Ya know, I asked the same thing.” Snorri chimed in as she decked Malous in the face before the lich swung a Warhammer and sent her flying away like a comet.

“WE CAN TALK ABOUT IT LATER!” Valkus shouted, fed up by the questions.

“Indeed. Die.”

Valkus smashed away a dozen weapons Malous sent at him as his chest healed back together. Once he recovered, Valkus lashed out with his spear once more with Snorri assisting at his side after she popped her dislocated shoulder back in.

With Bishop supporting them from below, sending formation after formation out to buff and debuff respectively, Valkus playing vanguard and Snorri taking a supportive role to knock the lich off balance, an uneasy balance was created. And within that balance, someone saw an opportunity.

Valkus lashed out with his spear from the left, aiming at Malous’ head as Snorri engaged into some extreme melee, adding in attacks with her knees and elbows along with her punches and kicks to parry the dozens of strikes aiming to cut her into ribbons.

>Formation: Chain<

>Formation: Platform<

Waiting for just the right moment, Bishop cast a formation he had been saving for a time when Valkus could land a decisive strike.

Dozens of small circles appeared around Malous, either shooting out chains that bound his limbs or peacefully hanging in the air, waiting to be used as platforms by the two dwarfs.

Snorri took this chance to finally unleash a fury of blows, jumping between the platforms to unleash hundreds of strikes that only caused some minor cracks along the lich’s bones.

Meanwhile, Valkus closed in for the kill, aiming to drill his spear into the lich’s head.

Finally, I can kill you.

“Die you fucker!” Valkus roared as he put everything he had into his strike.

To Bishop, it seemed like the battle was finally at the end. That they had managed to kill a foe that seemed unbeatable.

Then the lich’s head whipped around to face Valkus, using the sword in its mouth to block his strike and smash the dwarf away. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Malous tensed his bone made muscles and the chains containing him snapped to pieces just as Snorri was going in for another attack, allowing the lich to grab her leg with ease.

Snorri didn’t falter and merely switched her aim to the arm holding her foot, sending out strike after strike in the hopes of saving her leg. She got the lich’s arm to crack a bit before Malous grabbed one of her arms, then the other, then finally her unrestrained leg.

Snorri grimly stared death in the eye as the lich’s eyes rolled about chaotically.

“So this is how I die for the second time, to some bonehead that lost their sanity? Don’t fuck with me!” She spat on the lich’s face, locking eyes with him as Malous’ arms began to tense and pull.

“Snorri I’m coming! Hold on!”

Valkus yelled, furiously dashing back to the battle, using all his power to launch himself forth, all to try and sever the lich's arms.

But deep down he knew he was too far away. He knew wouldn’t make it in time.

Snorri screamed out her lungs despite being within her Iron Defense form, despite the lich having debuffs placed on him to weaken him. Malous’ monstrous strength allowed him to slowly pull her limbs out of their sockets.

Snorri screamed and screamed even as she tried to dig deep within herself, to hold her body together. She also knew it was over, but so what? It’s better to rage against the night sky then to go quietly, without a fight.

As one of her arms finally gave way and was pulled out of its socket, a voice shook the heavens, resounding from above with a roar filled with fury.

>Lightning Beheader<

Snorri was blinded by a blue light that suddenly appeared from above along with the chirping of a thousand birds. Then she suddenly felt weightless and found herself falling down to the ground. She braced herself to hit the ground, silently glad that the lich had only managed to dislocate her arm, only to feel a pair of warm, strong hands catch her before she even came close to the floor.

“Sorry that I’ve missed most of the party, but everything will be fine for I am here!”

Snorri opened her eyes to see a youthful Volt holding her with a dashing smile upon his face. A blush slowly rose up her face, and with her heart beating wildly she opened her mouth without so much as a thought.

“Marry me”

“Eh?”