Sometimes, I was glad I was just a skeleton that wasn’t capable of showing facial expressions, because I was freaking out. Why? Why’s it always some crazy shit?! What the fuck, lady? Ugh. Who’s writing this trashy story, huh? I palmed my face mentally. “Why do you want to rule the demons?”

“If I rule the demons, then we get the highest chance of survival. Under Fyren,” she clenched her fists, “our younglings will die out. There will be endless wars, and what started as just a simple mission to get more ambient mana will turn into hatred that cannot be reversed. Humanity will be gone, and if humanity is no more, demons will eventually cease to exist. No one wins.”

From her explanation, I knew that there was some common knowledge that I was missing. It felt like a mistake to get involved, but Lilith spoke of things that would not only save demons, but humanity as well. From her tone, I didn’t think she did so for benevolence, but because of a unique relationship of humans and demons.

I sighed. It was so much to take in that I was scared. What were the choices I could make that would lead to the least death? What was the best thing to do? “What’s Fyren’s objective?”

“Same as mine, he wants to save the demons from starvation.” Her gaze never left me, as if she was hanging on to every twitch I made. “To do that, he needs humans.”

Ugh, so much, so much. My mind passed on the grimoire. I knew I could find the information I needed there, somewhat. “Can you get him to stop for a while? Until we figure things out.”

She shook her head. Apparently, she warned him about the thinning ambient mana in Nemus many times during the years. I didn’t even know such a thing existed. Lilith wanted to integrate sentient demons, those who didn’t emit the toxic miasma, into human society. She had a plan on how to bypass the immediate issues until a solution was found. But Demon King Fyren didn’t want to do so, mainly because the other clans’ masters didn’t want to live amongst humans. By the time Lilith thought of integration, there was already bad blood between humans and demons.

I was mentally a child at the supermarket throwing a hissy-fit because she couldn’t get what she wanted, and what I wanted was just a peaceful life with love and freaky stuff. But no, I had to get myself mixed up in things way above my paygrade. So, people are being taken.

“Lich God Deidre, I have everything planned out. We can stop Fyren from invading Reuland if we claim what he wants there in the first place. It’ll halt his plans long enough for us to do something, and he’ll be desperate enough to resort my methods.” She walked over and retrieved a scroll.

“And, what does he want to claim in Reuland?” I asked.

She unrolled the scroll and placed some paper weights on it. “The Shadowsiphon Dagger.”

After our talks, I teleported back to my castle. It was a rather confusing world. There were real people, real monsters, and real demons. There were consequences for your actions, and a life lost could not be regained. Yet, everything felt like a damn RPG game. According to my grimoire, there was a dungeon in Reuland and one in Nemus, both of which weren’t ever conquered.

An item given as a reward for defeating the dungeon in Reuland was the Shadowsiphon Dagger, which could steal mana from others. Fyren’s plan was to use it to feed young demons because they required mana to mature. Of course, I thought about magic powder, but it wasn’t nowhere good enough to be a permanent solution.

When I teleported Queen Ayana back, she told me to visit her in the morning. So, I spent some time with Solina, Adam, and Tina, then teleported to Ivora the next day.

She was back in her criminally sexy form with blonde hair, and dressed all queenly this time with a fancy dress and the crown on her head. She welcomed me when I entered the royal court and stood up. The presidents of the Knight Guild and Wizard Guild were there. “Deidre, would you mind teleporting us to Perseverance?”

“S-sure?” I was a bit confused. “Where in Perseverance?”

“The Wizard Guild, if you will,” the president said.

Okie-dokie. I conjured up a portal and they walked through. When I went through as well, I found Adam and Solina standing next to Tina. When the queen came through, everyone kneeled and showed their respect. By the looks of their faces, they weren’t expecting such important people.

Hell’s going on here? In the middle of the courtyard was a man in a robe, and there was a pedestal with an orb in front of him. “What’s this about?” I asked Archwizard Kaelyn.

“Well, the news got out that your friend fought and won against demons.” Kaelyn clutched her staff tightly. “That’s, unheard of. Because of how strange it is, and because you’re her friend, this gathering today is both to ensure her anti-necromancy seal was not broken and to appraise her as a wizard.”

I immediately grew irritated. That was such a ridiculous thing. She was essentially condemned and questioned for fighting against humanity’s common enemy. I walked over to her before she could reach the center of the yard, where the appraisal was supposed to happen. “You don’t need to do this.”

She sighed. “My father is a minor noble. If I don’t do this and prove my innocence, he’ll lose all the things he worked for because nobles, well…” She sighed again and looked down. “I can’t mess up my father’s work.”

I couldn’t do anything about it. I grew to despise the Wizard Guild every time I got involved with them. If anything went south, I was prepared to level the entirety of Perseverance and wipe them out should they turn their blades against her. Whoa, whoa, Deidre, what the fuck was that?! I pondered about my feelings the past few weeks. Why was it I felt most comfortable in lich form? Why was it that I viewed life on the whole as less and less valuable? Was I truly becoming a lich? I wasn’t ready to have the answer to that question.

They checked the magical seal on her, and it was properly intact. Well of course it is. Then she put her hand on the appraisal orb, and then on a parchment paper. By the way the appraiser’s eyelids shot back, I assumed something was different. The man presented the piece of paper to the guild president.

She had a look of surprise on her face, but quickly regained her composure in front of her guild. She then presented the paper to the rest of us.

Murmurs swerved through the crowd. A few people muttered “Expert” on seeing the strange character on the parchment.