The explanation from his students was pretty basic: They overheard the slavers referring to whoever they were going to sell Illivere to as ‘the dragon’, and that a representative of the dragon had examined her during their captivity to confirm that she was who the slavers said she was. Illivere wasn’t conscious during that, but Faron was.

The representative was… well, no one they knew. Some human who didn’t introduce themselves within Faron’s acute elven hearing. It did, however, explain why their stuff was kept in their vicinity, though. Illivere had something the dragon wanted in her possession, but wouldn’t elaborate as to what it was in advance.

“Given the various possibilities, particularly their recalcitrance on exactly what they wanted, it was likely this.” Illivere explained, taking out a rather large amethyst ring she kept on a chain around her neck. “It would serve as proof of my identity, and acts as a key to certain locks. With it, they could more easily penetrate some high security areas.”

“That makes sense.” Casimir agreed. “They couldn’t know if the item in question was in your possession, or if you had passed it to another before capture. So they had to not steal your stuff until the dragon paid up and took what he wanted.” This fit neatly into the doppleganger plan that Polium had discovered. They hadn’t fully given up on it, apparently.

As Hanna stabilized the slavers that were dying, Casimir went through their documents. Most of it was coded, of course, but there were also some decrypted or yet to be encrypted documents that gave him enough of an idea of what was going on. Also, they used the same methodology to encrypt their documents as the ones on Anima, even if it required a different code wheel. Code wheels that the slavers had several of, hidden away. Between him and Illivere, they quickly managed to get a fairly complete picture of the slaver’s operations, and more importantly, when and where the dragon’s representatives will meet for the handoff.

…Well, he’ll need to hire a portal to get back in time. Worth it.

----------------

After they had gotten the slaves into the custody of the Adventurer’s guild, first double-checking that they didn’t stumble across a country where slavery was legal, they got to work.

The slaver’s messages and notes left an incomplete picture as to the details of the deal, with frequent dodges like ‘the usual precautions’ and ‘code phrase 5’ instead of anything actionable. Therefore, depending on the nature of these protections… the dragon’s representatives might not even show up. It was still worth pursuing.

The meeting place was the middle of a featureless desert, where you could see for miles if anyone who you didn’t like was approaching. A reasonable precaution for trickery.

“Remember kids, if they’re prepared for directness, use trickery. If they’re prepared for trickery…” Casimir said as he caught sight of a very familiar stone construct, cleverly blended into the terrain as a random landmark. If Magnus ever needed to go quickly, he always used that construct to move quickly. He could easily go hundreds of miles away in mere hours if he caught on to their approach.

“Be direct.” Finished Faron. Casimir had passed out the pieces from the dungeons that he thought they could use, so his new enchanted breastplate, big enough for the boy’s broad chest, would likely see some excellent use today.

Casimir wrapped light mana around himself, concealing his presence with a lazy invisibility spell. It was nearly noon, and in terrain like this? A heat shimmer was the perfect disguise. He ran along force discs that he created for the briefest instant of contact, to prevent Magnus from detecting him via sensing tremors. One of the biggest drawbacks, in Casimir’s opinion, of becoming a sorcerer is that it cripples your ability to sense mana without relating it to your specialty.

Magnus will be ready for them, of course. While Casimir was confident in his ability to elude his former friend’s senses, his students cannot claim the same, and they’re right behind him, trailing by about two miles as he ran at twice their speed.

But he was counting on that. Magnus’s construct shook off the dust he used to allow it to blend in with the rest of the desert, and charged… straight at Illivere. Just as planned. Casimir spent several seconds dumping a large chunk of his mana heart into his fancy new… well, it was really old… whatever. He put a bunch of mana into swinging the greataxe he picked up in that dungeon, which was made with a similar philosophy of the one he had before: maximum damage in a single swing. It was a little bigger than his last one, true, but it was made of sturdier materials and enchanted with mithril inlays that let it last over a thousand years without tarnish.

Put simply, it was better. If he tried using this much mana on his last ax, it would break. Which was good, because if he tried this with any less mana, he’d break more than just his weapon.

Timing his swing just right, his weapon impacted the front of Magnus’s stone construct as it rapidly rotated the exterior of the sides, moving faster than any mundane vehicle. It exploded into tiny stones, and Casimir grinned as he felt the mana signatures of Petranis, Magnus, and at least four other unidentified undead of similar strength each spasm as his attack cut all of them in half.

That didn’t, of course, mean that the fight was over. Magnus was still a wraith, and he recovered himself after just one bounce, turning to face Casimir now that the illusion was missing. Another one of the undead in his group was also a wraith, its fiery form continuing to go at the same speed as it went to engage Casimir’s students. Petranis was just going to reform, and if one of the other three were liches, so would they.

…Ah, another one of them just managed to survive. Another dwarf, pale and wispy, struggled to repair the damage that Casimir’s cut had inflicted, but wasn’t destroyed just yet. It was a specter, a revenant spawned from a warlock. Hopefully Petranis was the only lich, or else that would be embarrassing, using that much mana to kill so few.

Well, the fire wraith was definitely going to fight his students, so all Casimir can do is keep the other two combatants busy. “We have to stop meeting like this, Magnus.” He shouted. “Don’t worry, though. This’ll be the last time.” Casimir stowed his axe, bringing out his casting stiletto for the fight.

Magnus let out a grinding laugh. “So you did have a tracker on the princess.” He said, presumably referring to Illivere. “Those sand-headed slavers are useless, missing that.” The wraith stomped the ground, mana pouring out of him as he shaped his usual battle armor.

While Magnus was busy with that, Casimir decided to finish off the specter. Warlocks weren’t quite sorcerers, but they had a lot in common with one, magically. It was why wraiths and specters were so similar to each other. This one felt like it used wind and water aspected mana, mostly, so Casimir cast his newest original curse, inspired by his studies of domain magic. As it was a curse that relied on the target using mana, it worked on the only halfway material monster without issue. “What’s your name, by the way?” Casimir asked the specter, to be polite.

“I am Hilvas.” The specter said, gasping. Ah, he was a known Revenant from the list he perused in preparation. Veteran-ranked adventurer, and was listed as a wind wraith. It was an easy mistake to make. “And you’re dead.” It reached out, its arm thickening into a drill of water.

“Nah.” Casimir said, flicking the drill with a tiny mote of of lightning mana before jumping clear of the explosion.

His curse worked exactly as designed. It twisted the water mana in the monster’s system, churning it in the way that was done in the water domain to prime it to convert into lightning. So his water magic all flash-converted into lightning, which was not something survivable for something as weakened as Hilvas was. If he was less injured, and knew anything at all about utilizing lightning mana… he may have been able to do something. But he was not.

“That’s a new one.” Magnus commented, his voice just as grinding but much deeper than before. His stone armor was much more closely connected to himself after his reanimation.

“Wizard.” Casimir replied. That said it all, really. He learned more tricks over time. With a glance, he could tell that the fire wraith had not immediately incinerated Casimir’s students, so that was a good sign.

Still, Magnus knew, roughly, what was effective against him. Further, Casimir’s mana heart was depleted from dealing with his backup. This would be tricky to do without taking an insane risk.

Magnus, finally deciding that the waiting game didn’t favor him, started to lumber forward, simultaneously launching chunks of stone at high speeds, the Shrapnel Burst spell being aimed more to limit Casimir’s mobility rather than seriously attack him.

Casimir remained stationary, twitching his limbs to block or avoid the shrapnel that actually got near him as Magnus shaped his limbs into a set of axeheads. Casimir frowned at the decision. His usual hammer would be much easier to avoid… which was the point.

When Magnus finally reached melee range, still blasting out random shrapnel bursts in an attempt to catch Casimir off guard, Casimir tested his preparedness. He coated the sole of his foot in stone, tapping the stone behemoth’s leg with it as a feint. The section immediately attempted to seize the limb, stone softening into mud before re-hardening. Casimir just slipped out of the stone covering his foot, allowing Magnus to subsume the decoy. He ducked, weaved, and allowed the minor blows to score hits on his armor as Magnus did his best to try to kill him. Fortunately, the man never really figured out how to apply his mana into making himself faster. His mana cultivation did increase that over time, but compared to David, the dwarf might as well have been standing still.

But stone magic allowed him to increase his weight directly without making him any slower, so if he scored a proper hit… Casimir might survive. Maybe. The man was leaving tons of openings, but they were traps. He expected Casimir to back off, to make some distance, and he was dedicating a lot of his magical efforts to make Casimir regret that.

In a way, he was trapped in Magnus’ preferred combat range. But from another point of view… Magnus was trapped in Casimir’s preferred combat range. If Magnus knew Casimir as well as Casimir thought he did, he was probably thinking something along the lines of ‘okay, Casimir’s going to try and baffle me with an illusion about… now.’ Not one to disappoint, Casimir tossed out some mind mana, reinforcing the idea that Casimir was not where Magus thought he was and that he should do something wide area when Casimir least expected it.

Instead, Casimir crouched down and put all of his armor’s stored force mana into reinforcing a shield he put all of his effort into erecting. Magnus’ armor exploded off of him, the massive chunks of stone going even faster than the herding shrapnel bursts. Casimir was a little concerned that his students might get hit by that, actually. Well, hopefully they’ll be in a state where Casimir could heal them up…

The force shield held, two of those large chunks deflecting off with hits that were not at good angles. Dropping it, Casimir focused his senses on the one weak point of the now-vulnerable wraith: its monster core, right behind the nose of the stone mask that pretended to be the wraith’s face. He stabbed his stiletto right at it, channeling metal mana through the blade so that its durability and sharpness, for just a moment, exceeded anything that Magnus could bring to defend himself. His arm was strong enough to drive it through.

Magnus’s body crumbled apart, his voice silent. “Rest easy, buddy.” Casimir said. “I’ll take care of things from here.” Now, are his students still alive?

…Yes. Fantastic.

----------------

“Tell us where your master is!” Peter shouted at the imprisoned wraith.

“Fuck off!” The flaming prick shouted back. “The Master will reclaim me soon!” Despite the appearance of intangibility, even fire wraiths had some solid parts. Faron had a long set of tongs that were fiercely gripping his, and there was a barrier that absorbed fire magic cut into the ground, presumably by Illivere. The wraith must be pretty spent if he didn’t think he could overpower that barrier… then again, Faron only needs half a second to crush him, and the barrier can certainly buy him that.

“Y’all get anything?” Casimir asked. Turning to the wraith, he started with one that Revenants were usually willing to answer: “What’s your name?”

“I am the great Giles!” The wraith insisted. Ah, that one. Veteran-ranked as well. Good job, kids.

“And your friends? I knew Magnus, Petranis, and Hilvas…” He said, trailing off. Revenants hated the idea that they were forgotten, and if he knew those other Revenants in life…

“They are of no consequence!” Giles retorted. Guess he didn’t know them before he died. “You will soon join us, for the Master will not tolerate this insult!”

Hm, so the Master was creating them? No one that Casimir had ever heard of had ever admitted to studying negative magic deeply enough to be able to animate a revenant… Time to guess. “So the Soul-Devouring Dragon lives…” Casimir said, faking conviction.

Giles laughed. “You can’t trick me, Last Breath!” Drat. “You know nothing!”

Illivere spoke up: “I know everything. Kill him.” Faron immediately crushed the core of the wraith with his tongs before dismantling them to reclaim a portion of the mana he formed them with.

Casimir grinned. Sometimes it pays to bring a literal mind reader to interrogations. She’s gotten a lot better at it since he last saw her, if she was able to get actionable information that quickly.

Hanna finished doing whatever she was doing and approached the group. “We did it, Professor!” She said, moving her left arm to test the range of motion. It must have gotten hurt.

Casimir smiled. “You did.” He agreed. “You made me proud, handling such a high class monster all by yourselves.” Each of them perked up, puffing up their chests at the praise. “Now, I need to see if I can pick up clues in that wreckage, but afterwards…”

Illivere immediately understood his instruction. “I’ll tell you everything.”

After checking the corpses of the two mysterious revenants (one was definitely a mummy, but it wasn’t Luci. The other… probably another Lich), Casimir joined his students around the fire they started to cook lunch, Casimir breaking out Magnus’ old cookware and the box of steaks. “So, what’s this Master? Archmage? Dragon? Undead Archmage? Spirit?”

Illivere’s expression was stony. She hated what she was about to say way too much for it to be anything but the truth. “Yes.” She said. “The Soul-Devouring Dragon… has become a lich.”

…a dragon lich? But… that’s impossible. Monsters can’t become undead… right?

“It gets worse.” Illivere continued. “The Dracolich is under the direct control of…” She swallowed her words, fear overpowering whatever part of her bloodline normally cooled her emotions. “Malice, the God of Monsters.”

…Shit.