I contemplated going down there, since I was in the process of being mad at Tina. But this was more than her now. Demons trespassed on my territory and that couldn’t go unpunished.

I landed in my lich form and pulled in one of the demons with Telekinesis leg-first. Binding of Bones trapped him at the side of me as he dragged on the ground. Aether Imprisonment then took away his movement and mana.

There was a hellish trinity of expert spells I put aside in the case that I had to make a point or send a message. The first spell, which essentially trapped multiple opponents was Cage of Exhaustion. Enemies within it had their HP sapped periodically, and the walls would render any spell lower than expert nil.

The second was a false reprieve called Circle of Divinity which would heal fatal injuries and restore HP every few seconds. I could feel that they fired off multiple spells already, but that fire would soon extinguish.

The final spell, also covering a large area, was Graveyard. Sharp bones would constantly pierce enemies within the set area until they died or until the caster stopped the spell. The hellish torture went on for a few minutes before the demons inside began begging for me to stop.

Sam used what I did as proof of me being a monster not just by definition, but by character as well. He didn’t know how much it irked me, how much it bothered me to hear their screams one after the other.

By the horrified and disgusted look on her face, I could tell she bought everything he said. Her distrust in me bothered me more than the wails of those demons. Shit, just surrender already!

After Tina had enough, she began storming off. “What a revolting creature!”

Oh, geez, woman… “Here,” I put up a portal to Perseverance, “you can go directly.”

“I refuse to use your stinking magic!” Tina barked. Adam was about to say something but kept quiet.

“The monsters in this forest are dangerous, Tina.” I used Pacify on myself. “Please just use the portal.”

She folded her arms. “I can take care of my goddamn self!”

“Why are you being such a fucking child?!” I lost my shit. “Oh, great, you’re an almighty expert wizard. But are they?! You know damn well your team will follow you! Would you put them in danger just because of your ego?” I turned away from her and looked at the trapped demons before me. “Stop being such a selfish prick and use the fucking portal, Tina.”

Her mana flared. “Don’t you dare talk to me li—”

I flung her in the portal with Telekinesis, closed it, then opened a new one for the others. Pacify calmed me down a little. Was she always like that? God, what a pain in the neck. Adam pulled Solina along, and they went through the portal. Sam glowered at me with intent, to the point where I wondered if I should permanently do something about him. Ugh, fuck’s going on with me? Maybe I am kind of thinking like a monster. I released a breath of air, figuratively. One guy appears and my friendships go to shit.

After some time, Sam hopped into the portal. The demons, about a half hour after, begged with their all for me to simply end their lives. Once I heard it from enough of them, I stopped and cast Mana Shield on myself, then released the trapped demon from Aether Imprisonment. “Take heed, demon.” I faced him. “Demons are not to step foot into the Lich God territory. If this happens again, I will spare none of your kind. Now return from whence you came.” I turned around and walked into a portal that led me back to my room.

The rest of that day was spent beefing up security. Each undead team had one revenant, one archer, one wizard, and two knights. I spread twenty thousand teams throughout my territory to protect it from demons. There were five undead berserkers spread throughout the forests, and five that protected the castle itself. One of those were strong enough to wipe out Perseverance, or at least severely cripple the city.

I sat in my throne room that night, and pondered about myself, about Lich God Deidre. Was it naïve of me to think I could have proper relationships with humans? I always felt like a lone soul. Would that also be the case even in a fantasy world? Perhaps it was more realistic to form bonds with monsters that had a similar level of intelligence instead of relying on human kinship.

Perhaps vampires were a good place to start. Like me, they were human once. My heart bled the more my conscience was assailed with the silence of the castle. Being lonely hurt. I at least wanted one person I could share everything with, otherwise I felt like I’d go insane. Ah, I miss you, dude. I thought of Isaac, and wondered what he was up to.

I couldn’t stand being alone with my thoughts anymore, so I went to bed. In the morning, I decided on visiting Lilith. She was engrossed in magic scrolls when I teleported there. She dismissed her subordinates the minute I appeared.

In truth, I didn’t know why I went to her. Part of me wanted to revert to my old ways and remain alone, because it was safe, it was what I knew. This meant breaking ties with Lilith Darkviper and the humans, and remaining neutral to their conflict as a monster. The other part – although it pains me to admit it – was hopeful of something happening. No, I didn’t wish to befriend her, but she knew things, so maybe she could point me in the right direction.

She waited until her underlings left then kneeled before me. “Lich God Deidre. Permission to speak freely?”

Hmm? I found it odd that she didn’t ask why I was there, and instead asked for free speech. Was I overstepping my boundaries by going there? “Sure. And stop with the kneeling.”

She stood up, offered me a seat, then sat next to me on the lounge-like couch. “In all my years, I’ve never seen an undead exhibit such, human emotion.”

I froze. Does she, know? Maybe I underestimated her intelligence network. Well, it didn’t change the fact that I was now a lich. “What are you trying to say?”