Augmented Aspects: Chapter 142 The Lich (Patreon)

Chapter 142

The Lich

A Lich, how do you know you are in a Lich’s lair, simple. A Lich is both extremely powerful and not at the same time. They have an immense power over Death energy, but this one clearly lacks a well-balanced feel for magic, making him weak on so many levels. First of all, there is the fact that he is all bones and Spirit energy that has one fine line of weak concentration leading to a grossly beating heart in the other room. If I had to guess that was its phylactery, or some other enchanted device used to keep the Lich’s life going on longer.

As for the Lich’s lair, it was everything I had sort of expected and less. There were grand arrays set up and designed all around to collect ambient mana, pull it in, process it, and ultimately convert it over to Life energy that would then be consumed by the being that was nearly pure energy at this point.

Just entering his lair, I knew two things, first he was exceptionally high in level, the second thing was that I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw.

“Who dares to enter my lair.” The Lich bellowed out, its deep rumbling voice echoing in the open chambers as he began calling forth energy to form an attack spell.

The only problem, the spell he was casting was weak, well weak is not the correct term. There was clearly a lot of power to it, I guess loose would be a better term. The spell focused on power rather than form, and was cast by someone who I would swear was at the beginner stages of magic.

Honestly, I was almost embarrassed for him, I mean here we are, going against a full-grown Lich, someone thought to be the pinnacle of Death magic, and what are they doing? Creating spells that are worse than the ones that my daughter and a few of my more advanced students could cast.

Dispel.

Without thinking, I dispel his attack, before it even gets started. All while turning my back on the Lich, going around trying to check the warding circle. It seems familiar somehow, but I can’t quite remember why. The whole array looks like it was built on great principles, but then had to be adapted slightly and the person doing the adapting did not have a creative bone in their body.

Chuckle.

I laugh at my own joke about the creative bones, being that I realize the Lich, who is all bones likely created this. Bad form, but I couldn’t help it, as I thought it was a bit funny.

“You dare mock me?” The Lich stated, almost yelling, as even more magical energy began manifesting and forming in his hands. The spell he was casting was one that was clearly augmented by his Death aura that seemed to permeate every inch of space around him.

Power-Dispel.

Once again, I cast dispel, this time I don’t just break apart the spell, but I vibrate the energy wave as it enters his sphere of control, disrupting the spell causing the mana to disperse wildly from his grasp. This is the same thing as you come in carrying a fully made cake, and your kid trips into you, slapping the cake causing it to fly everywhere. Not that this happened, but it would be really annoying to any mother, especially when the kid who destroyed the cake was not the birthday child. Fun times being a parent.

Then just as expected, the workings of the old array system around me spark to life. In seconds the energy that had been dispersed gets pulled out and away, towards the various arrays around us.

In my mind I am mentally mapping out this place, as the array is inefficient, pulling in a lot of different energy types and then converting them to Life energy, which I assume the Lich needs in some way. More than likely the Life energy is needed to keep the heart still beating in the other room.

Again, though this whole thing seems super easy to solve, or defeat. As all it would take is a slight tug of magical energy to slice through the magical umbilical cord that attaches the Lich to its still beating heart. That is partly why I am not really afraid of the Lich, as I am fairly certain I could take him out with one well place Qi strike.

That is the other reason why I was drawn here, Qi, or rather the runoff from the inefficient array seems to be producing golden Qi. Just seeing it from the entry way was setting off my treasure hunter’s instincts.

Then to get here, I find out that the golden view I see is not actual gold, but the golden energy of Qi just being drained off and allowed to pool together in a chamber below us. I should have known better, as real gold has a faint color to it, one where you could see that there is the ability for it to resonate well as a magical foci for enchantments and the like, but it doesn’t glow like this to my senses.

Is it odd that I am more excited about a possible pool of golden Qi, than I would be about a stack of gold bars?

Now all I need to do is find a way to this run off. In a way it is gross, as I almost imagine this being similar to going into an old Burger joint and finding out that if you dug your way under the pit where you poured out your grease at the end of the night, you would find it had congealed into treasure. Still despite that thought, I am determined to find a way to get to the vat of Qi energy.

Looking at the array work, I can’t help but be amazed by the whole process.

Not the array mind you, as that is a poorly constructed design. But rather, I am amazed to see that somewhere in the conversion process, of taking other mana types to Life magic particles, part of the residue that is left behind is a drop or two of Qi. Meaning the vat under the chamber floor must have been set up and collecting these drops for years.

“You dare!” The Lich bellows angrily, as it glides forward.

“Look, I don’t want to start a fight. I just saw your waste, down there,” I say, pointing to where I see the pool of Qi ultimately getting funneled to. Then I continue, “and wanted to take it away so that your array could continue working as expected.”

“Gah!”

The Lich, who was clearly now and had always been a mage who always skipped leg day lumbered forward and tried to attack, as it moved a black scythe similar to the one used by Mallory appeared in its hands as it swung.

Sigh.

Celerity.

I almost feel bad, but then use Celerity to slow down the world around me. Realizing this is a powerful Lich, and one that will likely need to be put down quickly, I spring into action.

I infuse Qi into my fingers, not much, but I remember seeing the different focal points that came to life during my last duel where I used Celerity, and remembered that nothing seemed to stick until I infused energy into my fingers.

This time I do the same, lashing out and striking at the few glowing points of energy on the Lich. Though there is something off, as there are no true golden points, likely as this is an undead creature I am fighting. Still, at the acupuncture points, where I would expect a golden glow of Qi, I see the bright blue light of mana. Realizing those are likely the same pressure points, just adjusted due to the undead opponent, I reach out and strike those with my Qi infused fingers.

Poke, press, chop.

My hands and fingers move with lightning-fast movements. Both hands lashing out and striking at the now extremely slow-moving Lich. The Lich is moving so slowly that I almost didn’t think I needed Celerity, but that said, I knew not to take any opponent lightly, especially not an opponent that was so many levels above me.

Crunch, crackle, pop.

There were faint sounds of bones breaking and snapping from the course of my blows. In a matter of seconds I lashed out ten times, finding multiple critical spots and applied pressure. Then moving around the Lich, I reached out and gave a powerful glowing open palm strike to the Lich’s back, right where its glowing core was.

Golden Palm Strike.

Hidden Quest Complete (Upgradable): Forging A Qi Path: You have started down the path of true Martial Mastery, developing the first strike that incorporates Qi into an attack. Results: Experience, Title (Upgradable), New Martial Ability, New Martial Skill.

Experience Gained: 5,000 / 2,500 / 2,500

Ding.

Level up.

Akashic Qi Master has increased to level 107.

Title: Qi Path Creator (I): One who has begun the path of a Mystical Martial Master. Effect: Variable.

New Martial Strike: Golden Palm Strike: An attack move designed by Cassiopeia Spiritlight, an attack infused with Qi that can disrupt or disable the spells of magicians. Effect: Deals Strength Plus Skills damage to the magical core of a spell caster. Note: This is upgradable.

New Martial Skill: Golden Palm Strike has increased to level 1.

Golden Palm Strike is a Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Perception, Intelligence, and Willpower X2 skill.

Seeing the message, I realized I might have gone too far. Especially as those messages generally only come after you have done something reckless. Instantly I stop my Celerity, and wait.

There is a moment as I am there, standing at the back of the Lich, seeing it still winding back to strike at me with its manifested killing scythe blade. Then the next, there is a slight riffle in its billowing cloak, as the movement I made to get behind it is registered and causes a wind gust to be generated. Then I see the Lich slowly begin its downward strike, only there is something inherently wrong, as the Lich sort of melts? Yeah, melts would be the right word. It melts as parts of bones and rib cages crumble away from the Lich’s chest, which is on the opposite side of me.

Crack.

There is also the quick cracking and fracturing of the Lich’s core, which also causes the pile of bones to collapse faster.

“Shit.” I curse out, as I thought the Lich could take the strikes given its exceptionally high level. But apparently, I was wrong. It is at this point that I realize in this new magical equation Qi would be the soap, while Death and to a minor extent Spirit magic would be the grime that gets dispersed. The two forces are not even close in terms of scale or capability to deal with each other.

Seeing the Lich break apart, I could almost swear that this dungeon would be perfect for a squad of Qi warriors to go through, as damage almost seems to be doubled, or even more against undead creatures like the Lich here.

Then I see the spirit of the Lich reemerge from the broken pile of bones. For the moment he appears to be a regular elf, slightly pompous, especially with he look of disdain that it has for me. Then I see it trying to follow its lead to its phylactery in the other room.

Reaching out, I grab the spirit with a glowing magic hand. Now that my Celerity is deactivated, I can once again use magic, a fact that I am grateful for, as I intend to fix this.

How do you Resurrect a Lich? I don’t really know. I assume I could just put it back into its old body, but that seems a bit backwards. Sort of like I’m only doing half the job that I could.

“Hey, do you want to be resurrected as a pile of bones.” I say, pointing to the collapsed pile of bones and magic core dust that soils the ground. “Or do you want to be in your real body?”

The Lich just scoffs at me. Then I see the moment its hands begin to glow, as his face is filled with malicious intent. It is clear that he still wishes to attack.

This time I don’t block the strike, instead I just use a slight Dispel on the glowing hands, while testing out a theory and cycling my internal glowing Qi.

“HAH!” The Lich cries out in anger, as its fingers try to wrap around my neck. Only with the protective shielding of its magic disrupted by my spell, its spiritual fingers end up making direct contact with my neck.

There is still a bit of pain that I feel on my end, as at this range I am not able to apparently disperse the full spell of the Lich, but I did manage to disrupt enough to both survive the strike, and immediately begin to Heal myself.

Sizzle.

The fingers of the Lich began to burn away, as the unprotected energy of its free-floating spirit met the golden energy of my internal Qi that I was purposefully pressing into my skin in an effort to make my skin more resilient to the Lich’s spirit attack.

Golden Body Radiance.

Hidden Quest Complete (Upgradable): Forging A Qi Path (II): You have taken the second step in forging your true path as a Martial Master. You have developed a way of infusing Qi directly into your body as a means to help resist and stave off attacks. Results: Experience, Title Upgrade, New Martial Ability, New Martial Skill.

Experience Gained: 5,000 / 2,500 / 2,500

Title: Qi Path Creator (II): One who has begun the path of a Mystical Martial Master. Effect: Increased damage and resistance to undead.

New Martial Ability: Golden Body Radiance: A defensive ability designed by Cassiopeia Spiritlight, by infusing pure golden Qi into your body you can strengthen your body and its resistances. Effect: Reduces direct damage effects, twice as effective against undead attacks. Note: This is upgradable.

New Martial Skill: Golden Body Radiance has increased to level 1.

Golden Body Radiance is a Strength X2, Dexterity, Stamina X2, and Willpower based skill.

Once again, I see that the powers of the body are extremely powerful and seem to be anathema to the undead. This in a way makes sense as the living and dead do not get along, the presence of Qi might explain why creatures like Zero take continual damage in the real world, as the ambient Qi might be slowly breaking down their ectoplasmic shell. Of course, I will have to do research into this, but I do think I have hit on a potential goldmine here for different ways to expand our understanding of magic and Qi both.

Sizzle.

“HISS!”

The undead Lich hisses out in pain as it pulls away its still burning fingers from my neck. In seconds I heal the wounds caused with both Qi, Regeneration, and subtle Healing magic. As expected, some of the Healing magic is pulled away and dissected to for both Life magic, with the now expected Qi run off residue.

Boom.

At this point the Knight and his Lieutenant from the entry way had found where I had gone to. It didn’t take much, as the Lich’s spells are so loud and pompous that they can likely be seen and felt from all over the city.

Seeing the Knight and Lieutenant, I don’t know what they expected to find. From the shock on their faces, I assume they expected me to be laying on the floor being dissected by the Lich. Which is why they seemed totally shocked to see me holding the spirit of the Lich in mid-air, my hand glowing blue while golden light came from still open wounds around my neck.

“Are you done?” I say, shaking the Lich that has both hands pulled away from me like I am some type of volcano monster. Thinking about it, I guess that isn’t too far of a stretch, all things considered. I apparently do burn to the touch, and judging by the other spirit’s reactions I do give off a bright glow that is easy to see and be frightened of.

“You, you attacked me, then killed me, and now you dare torture me!” The Lich hisses out, clearly trying to garner sympathy from the Knight and Lieutenant that are just staring at me.

At that, I blink, as I am totally caught off guard by the sudden outburst. “You attacked me three times. Then when I went to disable you, you collapsed like an old bag of bones. I am sorry, had I known you were so brittle I would have gone easier on you.”

“Brr, brittle, you dare call me, Arch-Mage De’Gravitas brittle?” The Lich’s ghost stammers out.

“What else do you call collapsing and breaking apart from a few quick taps.” I answer.

“Taps? You call those Taps, you assaulted me with, well I don’t know what. Also, my spells, how did someone of your stature negate my spells so easily?” The Lich said, clearly calming down as he realized that for the moment he was safe, as I was already using my mana to reform his body and keep it from dissolving into nothingness.

“Your spells are sloppy.”

“Sloppy?” The Lich shouts.

“Yeah, there are students at the local community college who can do better.” I state, thinking of Penelope and a few others who clearly have more control over their mana than this Lich who has supposedly had thousands of years to practice.

“Let me guess, you think you are one of these students who are better than me?”

“First, I am not a student, I am their instructor. Second, I am clearly better. But again, you are missing the point.” I state.

“The point?”

“Yes, do you want me to Resurrect you back as a pile of bones, or as your old elven form.” I say pointing first to the pile of bones on the ground, then to his spirit.

“What?” Was all the Lich could say, clearly confused, especially as the Knight and Lieutenant who had been charged with protecting the city looked on at the two of us, clearly not wanting to intervene in the fight that was taking place between the two of us. “And what of you two, why are you just standing there?”

The Knight just looked at the Lich with a questioning glance, then answered, a slight knowing sneer forming on his lips as he replied.

“Forgive us oh great one, but we figured if the great Arch-Lich could not handle the intruder then what were we mere mortals supposed to do?”

At that, I could tell that this Lich was a piece of work in life, and now especially so in unlife.

With that, the Lich turned to me.

I made sure to lock gazes with him, or at least I tried to. His eyes flashed with a magical resonance, it was a spell meant to improve his own sight, which is why I let it go. Then taking a look at me, he shuttered.

“You, what are you?”

Seeing the once proud Lich quiver in my hand and try feebly to get away, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Hahaha.

In the confines of the Lich’s lair, my laugh echoed out in odd disharmonious tones that sounded like I was a little unhinged. Even the Knight and the Lieutenant wilted away at the sound of the laugh. Then I answered honestly.

“I am…”