The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 28 (Patreon)

Chapter 28 – Assault

Tatsumi was listening to her radio as we moved towards the stairs. The explosion had already knocked out the elevators, setting off the safety mechanisms in place to deal with earthquakes. That meant that our prey would be advancing up the stairs. So, to meet them, we only needed to go down.

“The swine destroyed the checkpoint on the twenty-first floor! Both the North and South staircases, heading up! Surveillance says there are at least a hundred of them, all heavily armed.”

I nodded slowly, and removed the ring that suppressed my aura as I strode to the southern stairwell. Opening the door, I could see men coming up the stairs, already to the twenty-second floor, it looked like. With a wave of my hand, I placed a barrier of black flames at the top of the stairs.

These soulflames were something of a specialty of mine, for dealing with the living. Burning the soul, but leaving the rest unscathed, they were perfect for warding areas against the living, or in acquiring suitable raw materials for undead fodder to use in my armies. At my command, the black flames began flowing downward, like liquid death, filling the stairwell and descending down towards the ground level. That would hold the enemy, keep them from coming up behind us to try and kill the oyabun while we dealt with the rest.

I turned back to the yakuza princess, appraising her as we walked to the northern stairwell. “Excellent. Now, tell me, Lady Tatsumi, how much experience do you have with a blade? Combat experience, not exhibition or sparring at the dojo.”

“In single combat, I’ve killed six men, and thirty more in group fights. I have been training with the sword since I was a child.”

I raised my evaluation of the yakuza princess a few points. Not put out by the question, and didn’t try to embellish anything. Yes, that was workable.

“Very well. I will move first, and pass a foe to you. Dispatch them to gain their vitality, and then, if you are injured, the blade will use what vitality you’ve saved to heal your wounds. There is a safety feature in it so that it cannot drain you of your own vitality.”

Tatsumi nodded. “I understand. Once I have that to fall back on, I can take more risks in attacking the rest of the enemies, yes?”

“Exactly.” I couldn’t help but smile, or I would have if I was still wearing my human guise. “Really, you should give thanks to your rivals for aiding in your ascension this way. They have sent so many souls to fuel your power. Once you have been empowered, I will step back, and allow you to handle the others, stepping in only if you are being overwhelmed.”

Tatsumi smiled. The girl would not have risen so far, so fast, in a world dominated by men with conservative attitudes, even with her grandfather’s aid, if she were slow on the uptake or ignorant of the possibilities. Allowing her to take the lead in fighting off the attack would let her cement her place in the clan, once and for all. None would be able to argue with her ascendance.

“And what do you get from this, Lady Akagawa?”

“Good, you realize that there is more than the moment. Remember, once the blade you hold has tasted the souls of your enemies, you will rise from the ranks of the merely mortal to something more. Not a true immortal, as your life can still be worn down, and not an undead, like myself. You will be human, but ageless while your stores of stolen life endure.

“As a nascent quasi-immortal, you must look to the future. Time, the one resource that most humans lack, with their all-too-fleeting lifetimes, is something you will have in abundance, if you do not fall prey to overconfidence, and the false belief that none can overcome you. That way lies overconfidence and true death.”

We had just gotten to the twenty-third floor landing, and found the rival yakuza pushing upwards. More were attempting to push their way out of the twenty-first and twenty-second floor landings, no doubt those who had been on the south stairwell. A gun fired, the bullet bouncing off my shield, as one of the men noticed me.

I had to force back a sigh. These fools were clearly unaccustomed to fighting mages. Massed numbers could work, but only if you could bring them to bear. In a stairwell like this? You may as well just slit your own throat. Actually, that would be more useful, as death magic could be very potent.

As it stood, however, they could have had ten thousand times their number, and they would never have even scratched me before I wiped their souls from existence. It was a simple consideration that even the most novice RPG player would understand. Simply put, bunching up in large groups was bad when you were facing those with Area of Effect spells.

Still, I didn’t want to just wipe them all out at the start. The point of this little venture wasn’t to slaughter the enemy herself. After all, if I killed them all, then it would do nothing to empower Tatsumi.

So, instead, I simply conjured a hand of necrotic power to snatch up the closest of the invaders by the throat, and throw him at Tatsumi’s feet. To her credit, the woman did not even hesitate. The moment the enemy lay before her, her blade was already in motion. The katana sang with magic as it cut through the air, killing the man instantly.

Blood sprayed from the wounds, but it was all absorbed by the blade, even as the shocked yakuza looked on. It was a little faster than I had intended, but that was fine. The blade was newborn, and was no doubt parched. It would drink deep tonight.

At the same time, a glow passed from the fallen yakuza, up into the sword. The man’s body looked as though it had been dead for a couple days, though, thankfully, it did not have that lovely ‘three-day corpse’ smell. The glow passed up the sword, and into Tatsumi, making her look healthier, more alive, more real than she had before. Proof that the enchantment worked as intended.

I placed a hand upon Tatsumi’s shoulder, and surrounded her in a warding that would protect her from bullets. “Now go, ascendant lady of the Inugami-kai. Your enemies are gathered before you. And Chionomu Sakura thirsts!”

“Then she will drink deeply, ere the night is done!”

With those words, Tatsumi launched herself forward, upon the nearest invaders. Legend holds that, in feudal times, when a noble received a new katana, they would test it upon the bodies of still-living prisoners condemned to die, strung up like pigs in a row, to test its cutting power. The number of bodies the blade went through with a single slash would tell the power of a blade. So, you would hear of blades that were two- or even three-body blades.

With my own deathless eyes, I witnessed the proof that the blade which I had forged was at least a three-body blade, perhaps even a four-body! For, in a single cut, I saw three men cut down together, and another missing the arm that was holding a hatchet just a moment ago. And, as the life force left her victims, Tatsumi smiled.

I watched as she fell upon the men like a typhoon. No bullet touched her, thanks to my spell, but blades and clubs? Those were unaffected by the barrier.

The first time one of the men managed to get his blade up in time to strike at Tatsumi, catching her across the face? I could see in the enemy how they all breathed easier, knowing that her protection was not absolute. Which made the resulting despair when the saw her wounds heal even as they watched, leaving not so much as a hint of a scar, all the more delicious.

And, when she redoubled her assault, the will to fight broke within them. Their mission was forgotten. There was no stopping the ceremony or avenging the humiliation I had given their clan. Their only thoughts were of surviving long enough to escape this asura that had been unleashed upon them.

But I couldn’t have that. I left a wall of soulfire behind me, to keep any rats from ‘escaping’ upwards, where they might plead for mercy from the oyabun’s guards. Then, I cast a simple levitation spell, lifting me up and over the handrail, before I began floating downward, ignoring the yakuza soldiers, even those who tried, flailingly, to strike at me. None of their weapons were of any consequence to me, after all.

On the fifteenth floor, I landed, mere steps in front of the Yakuza who had been towards the rear, and had tried to break and run. They had the look of desperate men. Perfect for what I intended.

The first screaming yakuza who tried to attack me with a machete found himself grabbed by the throat. Not by any magic, but by my own hand of magically enhanced bone. I grabbed him, and pulled him in tight, turning him around so that his back was to me. At my command, a barrier popped up, keeping any other idiots from trying the same thing.

With my hand, I forced the man’s head up, making him look at where the festival of blood was in full swing. “No, little boy. You are not going to escape. None of you will escape. The elevators are down, and both stairwells are blocked. The only escape, if you can call it that, would be to cast yourself from a window, falling to near certain death.”

I saw a ray of desperate hope flitter across a couple faces. “Oh, but do not believe that simply escaping the building that way will save you. Anyone who falls from the windows will find their bodies used as part of my army, and their souls harvested to fuel my magics. There will be no afterlife, no reincarnation, no isekai for you. Truck-kun won’t save your soul if you take the coward’s way out.”

More delicious despair and panic. “The only way any of you will survive is if you can take down either the yakuza princess or myself. I give you my word, as Lich Queen of Risen Athelia, that any of you that can take one of us down will be allowed to flee the building.” I stroked the face of my captured witness with one hand. “Don’t worry, your kouhai here will witness your pitiful deaths, and give a full accounting to your bosses.”

Two men launched themselves at my shield, only to be rebuffed. They may as well have tried to break through a brick wall, for all the good they did. “Oh, dear. Are you even trying? Perhaps you will have better luck with the princess?”

I could see the thoughts going through their heads. My reputation, by now, had spread through their organization, so they knew that my threat of desecrating their bodies and defiling their souls was legit. Seeing two of their number simply bounce off of my defenses was enough to convince them that there was no hope that way. That left only one choice, if they wanted to live.

Lady Tatsumi was still mortal, in the sense that mortal weapons could still touch her, could still harm her. But each life she took with the blade added to her own, making it harder and harder for any injuries to actually stick to her. She could probably even survive having her head cut off, if it was placed back with her body quickly enough.

Faced with absolute failure, certain death and postmortem enslavement, and a nigh-unkillable swordswoman with an enchanted blade, the members of the Sumiyoshi-kai turned and looked upwards, at the laughing Tatsumi, with the resigned expressions of those who know they are already dead. To their credit, they did not cry, or try to run. They pushed forward, hoping to wear her down. Hoping against hope that they could bring her down, or at least die with honor.

And all the while, I made my captive witness everything.