Helce pinched her nose as she neared the scene of carnage. The stench was overpowering, especially for an Elf like her. As an Elf, their sense of smell was especially strong.
Arriving in front of the lich, she commanded all of their attention, as one who was filled with the vitality of life. Even the female lich couldn't help but gulp as the Elf came near.
It was the instinct of all undead things to covert those that were alive.
As the only being here that contained even a semblance of living essence, the undead under the lich had trouble keeping themselves still. Only the might the lich was exerting was able to force them to comply. Had they been left alone, they would have all pounced on the Elf and ripped her to shreds. The process would have been long and messy, leaving not a scrap behind.
Despite this, the Elf carried herself with unmatched confidence, standing before the massive army of undead without a care. It was as if she had the complete confidence that she would be able to handle everything thrown at her.
Had the undead contained anything within their skulls, they would have felt indignant at this nonchalant display of mockery, but nothing went through their minds, only leaving the most basic of instincts that hungered for what they could not have.
"What brings you here, to my humble domain?" the female lich questioned. Her tone was unbearably haughty now that she had formed for own army.
The Elf smiled before she abruptly backhanded the female lich, causing the lich to tumble to the ground disgracefully. "Make no mistake of your status, slave. You might think that you have power now, but all you are in our presence is a lowly servant that we can end at any time. You are only still alive because you have use to us."
Although the lich felt no pain, the humiliation brought upon her was almost too much to bear. Unfortunately, she was unable to do anything due to the branding on her soul. She had been called back from the living by another who had put her under their command.
As such, she had to grit and bear with it. Even though she had to contain her humiliation, her pride only allowed her to stand silently and bear the indignity without apologising.
Helce, seeing that the slave before her was reminded of its rightful status, looked away from the lich, overseeing the army of undead.
As far as her eyes could see, the nauseating sight of the lowly undead crawled in every direction. Although they should have been still due to the presence of the lich, they moved staggeringly, stepping forward before stepping back.
In Helce's eyes, this was only the sign of incompetence from the lich before her. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like they would be better off with another lich in command instead. This one seemed to be filled with delusions of grandeur and didn't have sufficient power to control all her forces.
Unfortunately, she could not go against the King's orders blatantly, so she could only comply.
Helce scoffed. "We've already given you such a long time, and so many corpses, but you can only raise this many?"
Although the grounds were teeming with undead, it still wasn't enough for what they wanted to do.
"All I'm given are defective corpses. They're all worthless," the lich said, barely holding back a snarl. To be able to raise this many was already quite a feat. She kept it a secret that she really couldn't raise more, lest they run amok.
Helce seemed to sense the unspoken words, sneering at the audacious female lich. She really should have chosen a better candidate for this role, but she thought that the hate the woman must have felt would have been enough. Clearly, she had been wrong. If they had enough supply of darkness elements, she would have reselected another chosen to be a lich, but unfortunately, it seemed like their movements had been detected already.
If they wanted any chance at succeeding with their plan, they had to carry it out sooner than later.
The heavy disdain lurking in Helce's eyes caused the lich to burn with anger, but she had no choice but to suppress herself. With a single thought, the Elf in front of her could end her life. To secure her life to see her love again – that was the end goal here. She wouldn't let her pride stand in the way of that. The lich shuddered to think that had she not been obsessed enough, she would never have answered the call to live again.
The undead army in front of Helce's eyes was barely satisfactory. It looked like they would have to go with Plan B instead due to this. Helce cut a glare at the undead slave in front of her, feeling more dissatisfied by the minute. The carefully laid plans were going awry because of this lich's incompetence.
Helce narrowed her eyes and studied the lich. Bones that were steeped in sin, dying themselves utterly black, and soulless eye sockets that contained a strange blue fire within. As if unknowing that she had already become the highest form of undead, a lich, the woman still dressed as if she contained her beauty before death. Conspicuous amounts of makeup were applied to the bony angles of the skull, resulting in the ghastly sight before her. The dress that the undead was wearing would have looked gorgeous on a beautiful woman, but on the lich, one could only feel a sense of revulsion and disgust.
Although the lich was unsatisfactory, at least she was easy to control. Helce could read her like an open book even though she didn't have a face just based on the way the fire in the eye sockets of the skull danced. All she had to do was mention her lover, and the lich would comply, willingly or not.
"His Majesty has already given the order. We are to attack at any day now, so pull your worthless self together and try to form some semblance of competence. His Majesty's glorious light is shining down on us, watching us at all times. You are not allowed to fail!"
As she spoke, light parted in the gloomy clouds above them, shining down on the Elf's dazzling blonde hair. She was cast with a glow that made her seem all the more beautiful.
The female lich stared with envy, hate, jealousy at the Elf's glorious looks. The tips of the Elf's ears were pointy, and the Elf's chest was busty despite her slim body. Her skin was milky pale and shone with lustre and vitality.
She thought about her own beautiful looks and shoved away the negative feelings, consoling herself that her lover had always told her she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Rest assured, she would never allow the two of them to meet. Even if she had to die trying to do it, she would kill the slut standing in front of her. She would never let this whore of an Elf meet her love.
The undead army shifted visibly as she lost control of her emotions, surging at once towards the Elf.
Helce looked at the undead slave in front of her with a glare so scorching that the female lich was unfortunately reminded that the other had her life in her hands.
The lich reluctantly got a hold of her emotions. Now was not yet the time to kill her.
The lich hoped that the war that was bound to embroil the entire planet would quickly start. She could not wait to take advantage of the situation to get her revenge for all the venomous words that had spilled out of the Elf's mouth from the time she reawakened.
But for now, she could obediently cooperate and listen to the Elf's orders. Their goal was the same for the time being, but the moment she saw an opening, heh.
One Elf and one lich stood together in front of an undead army, both wanting the chaos to quickly come, but with vastly different intents and ideals.