“Sean, they’re coming.” Elendria said, pulling me from the edges of dreams back into the real world. “Five liches. I can see the tethers leading back to their phylacteries.”

“Well, that makes fighting underground a bad idea. Up we go.” I said, blasting a hole upward. As the dirt cleared, the mana packet I had sent into it flared with light, giving Elendria and I cover to fly out of the hole and make it past the treetops.

“Death miasma!” Looking down was horrific. The liches were arranged in a line, six feet between them. From each of them a purple mist flowed outward, creeping along the ground. Leading back toward the city was a dead zone, thirty feet across. As the miasma touched living things, they immediately withered and started rotting. Within seconds, the trees surrounding our hideout were gone.

“Blizzard.” Elendria snarled, sending shards of razor sharp ice in their direction. I added a few bullets made of light, only to watch as they were easily disposed of with a wave of their staff.

“Shield of Night.” A dark shield appeared, and our spells shattered against it harmlessly. That was all the respite we had, as we were suddenly assaulted by volleys of dark missiles. I summoned my mana armor, reinforced with light magic while Elendria used several shields of ice to deflect the missiles. Any attempt at retaliation was neutralized with that damned shield.

“Distance won’t save you, mortals. You will join our ranks.”

“Don’t count on it.” I snarled, sending a void sphere in his direction. To his utter shock, it went straight through the shield and took a chunk out of his arm.

“Oh?” He smiled, running a hand over the damaged bone. A ray of darkness shot out, and when his hand was done he was healed. “You’ll have to do better than that.” He taunted. “Necrotic ray.”

I frantically dodged, not wanting anything to do with a necrotic spell. It clipped my wing, and I felt my mana take a dive as my armor fought off the spell. Elendria wasn’t doing too well either, all her energy focused on defense as two liches tried to catch her in the crossfire. Two were doing the same to me, while the final lich was simply defending the group. We needed to counter somehow, and in a hurry. Eventually they were going to get lucky, and they only needed to get lucky once.

The middle one saw me start climbing, and spoke in a raspy voice “We are undead. We fear nothing. We will never tire, and we will never stop. Even death won’t save you from us! We shall be reborn with the rising sun, and resume the chase. Why do you struggle against the inevitable?”

“That’s what humans do.” I said, hoping to buy some time as I charged up a spell. It was then that I recognized their plan. They had slowly been driving a wedge of spells between myself and Elendria, driving us further apart!

“Ah, you begin to see.” One said. “But it is too late. Heh, heh, heh.” It gave a dry chuckle, switching from smaller spells to more of the necrotic rays. As he held me off, the second one turned toward Elendria and started chanting.

“All eventually meet your embrace. The great equalizer, that treats the highest of kings the same as the lowest of slaves. I rend the strands of fate to bring one to your grasp far before her time, claiming her potency as my own. Death’s Hand.”

“Elendria! No!” I screamed, blasting through the rays of necrotic energy that were hemming me in to the surprise of the lich. Just before the enemy spell struck, I slammed into Elendria’s side, forcing her out of the way. As the icy feeling of the death spell struck my chest, my perception of time slowed and the world turned to shades of gray. From the lich’s hand, I saw a spectral skeletal hand extending into my own chest, pulling at something important. Something vital. My entire body recoiled in horror, instantly fighting the intrusion.

“I shall feast upon your soul, and steal your strength for my own. After, I shall follow its threads to claim all those dear to you.” I heard it whisper in my mind, and it tauntingly flashed a picture of Danielle and Isabelle. It had the gall to steal the memory from her fifth Christmas, as she leaped into Danielle’s arms after opening her life sized (for a child) rechargeable car. I saw red.

“YOU DARE TO TOUCH THE MEMORIES OF THEM! I WILL ANNIHILATE YOU!” The world thundered with my rage, as I focused everything I had on destroying this thing. I sent tendrils of spirit back into my flesh, further anchoring the Astral Tether that I could sense attached to my navel. The gray world started to turn white as it reflected the glow of rage from my eyes. I could see the lich’s spirit, eyes radiating horror, and a thin trail leading off to what must have been his phylactery.

“First, to take care of this.” I snarled, sending a blade of divine energy to slash through the thin trail, reveling in the rictus of agony that crossed the lich’s face. I really wanted to sever all of them, but I couldn’t see anyone else’s. “A pity I can kill you but once.” I growled, sending another divine blade to sever the link between the lich and myself. My own spectral hand grabbed the severed arm, and pulled the lich towards me.

“NO! No! This can’t be! How can you have such strength?” He wailed, terror radiating from him as I felt his severed arm wiggling it’s way inside me. With my other arm, I smashed his skeletal frame, severing it from the spectral form I held in my grasp.

“System, can you tell me what would happen if I destroy this thing in my hand, and what the possible consequences are? And tell me about that bit that is trying to worm its way into my soul.”

You hold the soul of Wyrran Inana, the Plunderer of Souls. For centuries, he has stolen attributes from the souls of his victims, though those attributes wither away after the time his victims would have perished had Wyrran not interfered with their fate. The following options are yours.

Destroy the soul. This will end in his utter destruction, forever removing him from the cycle of rebirth. Due to his crimes, there is a 98.2% chance that this would be his eventual fate. A punishment reserved for the most heinous of criminals, and for good reason. You would not receive any benefit from this action, and it would forever mark your soul. Those sensitive to such marks would immediately recognize your power, though not necessarily your reasons behind the destruction of a soul.

You have already destroyed the phylactery and released the soul from its physical vessel. Releasing your grip upon it would give it true death as you are outside of the cursed area, allowing it to face judgement for its crimes. That you had an enemy soul within your grasp and granted it freedom will forever mark you for those who are sensitive. Reactions will vary.

Chain the soul, binding it into an artifact. Depending on what it is bound to will determine what magical enhancements it receives, but they will be based upon the skills of the soul and powered by the soul until it either withers away or is freed by the artifact’s destruction. You will receive the Soul Binder title, a title that is unable to be hidden. Increased chance of fear based interactions turning in your favor. Decreased reaction from factions that value freedom.

The detached portion of Wyrran’s soul contains a portion of his skills and attributes. Allowing it to integrate with your soul will transfer a portion of his accumulated karma along with the skills and attributes.

Skills: Necromancy, Spectralmancy, Death’s Hand, Crocheting

Attributes: +16 WIS, +52 INT

-128,472 karma

The entire time I was reading the options, I noticed two things. My health was slowly draining, and Wyrran’s soul was whimpering about not wanting to face oblivion. “Shut your mouth asshole.” I snarled, pulling his soul close to my face. “Tell me, how many souls have you sent to oblivion? And you tried to do it to a woman I love and then hunt down my family? The only thing stopping me is the fear that my daughter would recognize the mark on my soul and be disappointed in me.”

“I’m sorry! I’ll never do it again! I swear!”

“I know you won’t. The knowledge of the skill is trying to worm its way into my soul.” I said, before reaching a spectral hand inside my own chest and ripping out the worm. “AAAAAAAAHHH! MOTHER TRUCKER THAT HURTS!” I screamed, slapping the soul fragment back onto its original owner and letting it merge. “There. Didn’t want there to be any unexpected consequences for destroying just a part of your soul. The system sounds like it really wants to destroy you, but I’ll give you a bit of advice. Do you want to avoid that fate?”

“Yes! Gods above and below, yes!” It screamed.

“There are planets that wounded souls are sent to. Beg, plead, do whatever you have to, but maybe the system will have mercy on you if you agree to keep reincarnating on one of those planets. Spend the next several thousand lifetimes healing souls, begging the system to grant you a warped version of your current skill set. One that lets you heal instead of hurt.” With that, I threw the soul away from me, releasing it to its fate. The last thing I did as the gray started to disappear was charge as much mana as I could into my right hand.

“SEAAAAANNN!” I heard Elendria scream, but I had a part to play. I started to let myself drop, hoping it looked natural. I needed to be lower for my spell to work. As I fell, the body of Wyrran crumbled. As he was fourth in line, only the last lich saw it and started to look confused.

“Ah, a strong soul has returned to the cycle. Pity that Wyrran couldn’t siphon more, but oh well.” The middle lich said, turning toward Elendria. “Fear not woman, you shall join him soon. Rejoice, for we don’t partake in matters of the flesh.”

“Face the fury of the universe. Gamma Ray Burst!” I snarled, having dropped low enough I could target all four liches while still using the ground to stop the beam from destroying whatever it encountered in the distance. Safety first!

“Huh?” The lich managed to utter, before a beam of intense energy bisected the lot of them at chest height, cutting through all their staves, their bodies, and blasting a furrow into the ground behind them. It was almost comical to watch them fall to pieces, with the magic only able to hold together their upper bodies.

“SEAN!” Elendria smashed me into the ground, arms wrapped around me. “Oh thank the gods you’re alive.” She sobbed.

“Easy there, I’m ok, I’m ok.” I reassured her. “But we have some things to finish off first.”

“What is this madness? How could you best Wyrran?” One of the heads demanded as I lifted them all with telekinesis and pulled them away from their bodies.

“Oh, you have more pressing matters than that.” I said, setting the heads up in a line. “Elendria, can you see what part of the body they all used to form their phylacteries?”

“Why yes, yes I can.” She said, walking over and sifting through the bones. She came back, shaking her head. “Annoying. They used their pinky fingers.”

“Oh? Well, let’s do this then.” I said, pulling over and making piles of what I thought were hand bones. “We’ll search each hand by hand, looking for three bones that don’t have a match in the opposite pile.”

At a half hour, I cursed myself. It was like doing a jigsaw puzzle with no edge pieces. At an hour, we had three done, and I was ready to give up. Luckily it only took another fifteen minutes to finish them up.

“Just what do you expect to do with our pinky fingers, boy?” One finally asked.

“Destroy your phylacteries.” I said.

“Ha! From here? I’ld like to see you try!” One laughed, and the others joined.

“Oh, he won’t be doing them. I will.” Elendria stated, pulling out the last of the bones we needed. “These are yours, yes?” She asked, squatting down in front of one of the heads.

“Yeah.” He said, smugly. “Do you think to use sympathetic magic fool? These aren’t our original bodies. It won’t work.”

“Ah, but you are missing something.” She taunted. “Something Sean recognized. Well, there are two things. First, Sean knows I can see your soul linkage. I could just sever that. But when you reform your bodies, the magic copies the portion of your body that you left behind. That means your bodies are indeed connected to the remnant, you just have to search for a strange connection. Now watch.”

She held the fingers up to her mouth, and whispered, “I call to those that formed the base of your formation. Those bound to your soul, and kept within a prison on this world. Receive my gift of power, and freeze your prison until it shatters.” With that, she gently blew icy air. Her lungs seemed to be able to exhale forever, and the cone of icy power seemed drawn to the three bones. As she stopped breathing, there was a thrumming that seemed to vibrate in my chest.

“Impossible!” The head cried.

“End him Sean.” Elendria said.

“Sure thing. First though, we need to be thorough.” I said, using a gravity well and a bit of telekinesis to send all the bones we weren’t using into a massive pile. Keeping it simple, I sent a stream of hydrogen and a stream of oxygen into the mana shield I formed around them, and a spark ignited it. “The quest said that we have to obliterate the body.”

“So what happened with the other guy? I got a notification that we did indeed free him from the curse.”

“Oh, I ripped his soul out. Not really sure how to do that again without taking over someone else’s spell, and I think I want to keep it that way.” I explained.

“Who are you people?” One of the silent liches asked.

“Me? I’m the summoned hero of Arianna. And together we are going to free your people from the curse.” I said, before destroying the skull of the lich without a phylactery. Seeming to accept their fate, the undead remained silent as they were destroyed one by one. Once that grim work was done, we moved to a new area a bit further away from the city before making a new hideout. This time I kept it simple and just made a reinforced dome with a few small ventilation holes.

Hidden quest update:

Souls freed: 17