Telekinesis slammed him against the ceiling and Aether Imprisonment locked his movement and mana away. Unstable. I hated myself for even letting him get so close to Tina and the party. Yet I was happy that his impetuous behavior was shown in private. “Why?” I asked.

He snarled, and I could see his claws grow out. Aether Imprisonment only locked voluntary muscle movement away. Involuntary movement like breathing or heartbeats, or anything tied with consciousness like his claws growing out when angered, were still available. “You disgusting monsters! I hate you all!” His breath grew rougher. “Release me!”

I healed myself, sat on a nearby chair and switched to my lich form. “You knew I wasn’t human from the start. As an undead vampire, you could tell. But you didn’t show hatred, at all. Two-faced people like you are amongst some of my most hated as well. So, since we, hate each other, and there’s no real benefit to having you around, and you like jumping the gun, why should I keep you in existence?”

He scoffed. “Go ahead then. Kill me. I’ve already died once.”

I sighed. “I knew you were hasty, but I didn’t know you were a dumbass too. Your sister is still alive, moron.”

His eyes grew large.

“But you,” I crossed my boney legs, “you aren’t welcomed here anymore. I opened a portal to the forests surrounding the castle, released Aether Imprisonment, and used Telekinesis to throw his ass out, along with his weapon and belongings. I then kicked him from the party through my grimoire.

Solina was curious as to my return without the knight. My quietness must’ve told them something was wrong. And I was sure they knew he left the party as well. “Had a fight?” she asked.

I paused in the middle of crawling up on the bed. “Yeah, we did.”

Tina glared at me. “Okay but, why did you remove him from the group?”

I stopped the crawl and sat on the edge of the bed, my back facing her. “Because he’s dangerous.”

“How can he be dangerous?” She retorted. “You’re the Lich God.”

“Not to me. He’s a danger to you, to all of you,” I explained but it didn’t seem like that got through to her.

“How?! He saved my father’s life! How is he a danger, Deidre?!”

Something ticked in me. “Don’t shout at me, Tina. And, I don’t know. Maybe if he’s strong enough to floor me with a punch, then he might be a danger to you guys.” Even if I had my guard down, even if I wasn’t in lich form, a punch like that would kill any normal person. That, combined with the way he indifferently stepped up to fill Dan’s position in the raptor quest were enough signs for me. It could be seen as respectable, but it could also mean that a few screws were loose to put oneself in harm’s way without a second thought.

“Where is he?” she snarled.

“I put him out in the forest.”

“Unbelievable!” She got off the bed. “You sent the man who saved my father’s life out into one of the most infested territories in existence! Maybe Father was right about you after all. You don’t care about life at all.” She gathered her things and left to go find him.

I immediately got pissed. I don’t care? I clenched my teeth. It took all my fucking control to not remind her about how I found her in the orcs’ cave.

Solina stood up a few seconds after Tina left. “S-sorry, Deidre, I have to make sure she’s okay.”

“It’s alright, Lina. I’m not mad at you.” I cast Camouflage and Conceal on her. “Be careful, okay?”

Next up was Adam for the buffs. He chuckled. “You knew I would go after them?”

“Yup. I get the feeling you were the one keeping them alive in quests before I met you guys.”

His arms dangled. “You have no fucking idea how dumb those two are! N-no offence. But I swear it’s like they have no sense of danger!” He grumbled and ranted for a bit and admittedly, made me feel a little better. “Ah, right, I probably know this castle better than you now because I work as a scout too. I can catch up to them easily, but uh, if you don’t mind…” He did a circle gesture with his finger.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” I opened a portal for him, a bit away from where I put the portal for Sam. “Take these with you as well, just in case.” Three undead revenants were put under his control.

In the end, I still wanted Tina to be safe, and I knew emotions were high so I couldn’t leave their safety to chance. Ugh, I rolled about on my bed, this feels so dumb. How did I manage to lose the only friends I had in a couple minutes? It irked me, but if she wanted to risk her life, then that was her choice. You idiot…

Before I could spend time loathing myself for being so bad at socializing, an explosion smacked me out of my own mind. See? I told you he was dangerous, but nooo, no one wants to listen to a lich! Another one shook the castle a little.

Wait, that’s not Tina’s spells. I realized soon that something was amiss, so I teleported above the area of the explosion. There was a large area of scorched land and next to it, about three hundred demons.

The Hellfire clan…