John took out his long staff to confront his enemy. He tapped into the void, and thousands of clones appeared around him, and he controlled them to attack the Lich. All the clones raised their staff to cast a spell.
At the same time, the Lich reacted.
Dark Magic: Blood Suction
Hundreds of the clones suddenly dispersed into motes of lights.
'Illusions?' thoughts the Lich as he marveled. He could not tell the difference. And before he could further analyze the situation, one of the clones' spells hit him, activating his passive defensive measure to create a shield to protect him.
'So, some illusions can use spells, but some cannot?'
The situation was tricky as it would be a disadvantage to him if he had to constantly worry about which of his opponent's spells were mere illusions and which ones were real.
So, the Lich decided to defeat his opponent as rapidly as possible. Based on the information received from headquarters, the weakness of these Arcanists that use technology to fight Tiers above them is their souls.
It is challenging for them to control vast mana without their souls reaching the same tier.
Dark Magic: Hell Flame.
A dark flame manifested from the Lic's staff, burning all of the illusion clones. The Lich planned to use a spell with a large area of effect to force the real body to defend itself, thus finding John's location.
However, to his surprise, all the clones were destroyed, but the real John was nowhere to be seen. Then, the Lich felt a sudden danger behind him. A laser beam pierced his shield before passing through his body.
'Danm it,' thought the Lich. He did not care about the destruction of his body. However, that spell had purification capabilities and could have killed him. Luckily, he used a Soul Protection Spell to protect himself, but he was still injured.
The Lich turned around, his soul flame obviously displaying unbridled rage. Then, he said something in an eerie voice:
"In the name of the great god, Guzznad, ruler of death and heir of the Magus, I shall pass judgment upon my enemy."
Death Authority: Death Light
A dark beam of light came from above John containing the power of death.
His face contorted as he knew that once this attack reached him, he would not survive. So, he clenched his teeth and said: "I am an Arcanist, and I shall pursue the truth–even in my death."
Then, he suddenly aged rapidly, turning from a young and handsome man in his 20s to an older man about to die. Then, a golden shield appeared to protect him, an act that made the Lich sneer.
As a First General, he could borrow Death God Guzznad's [Authority] to execute his enemy. Although he will use all his mana and enter a deep state of weakness for a while, it usually gets the job done.
Soon, the Lich frowned as he saw the golden shield lasted a few seconds against his spell. However, considering his opponent had sacrificed their lifespan to boost their powers, he felt it was plausible to resist a little longer.
And as expected, after a few minutes, the golden shield broke apart, and John was annihilated from the face of the world by the dark beam. The flames in the Lich's eye sockets became smaller, but his bones seemed to smile even brighter than before.
He flew to the position of John's death for a final check before taking out a magic scroll from his interdimensional bag to exit the mirror dimension. Regrettably, before he could activate it, a bunch of chains appeared to tie him; they sealed his mana regeneration and his soul.
Then, to the Lich's horror, John appeared before him, perfectly intact without a scratch.
"Do you want to know how I did it?" asked John with a smile as he took out a black jewel. "I won't tell you." John placed the jewel on the Lich's forehead, and it disappeared, entering his Soul Dimension and isolating his soul.
As a follower of a Death God, the Lich's soul belong to his god. So, John has to use a special magical artifact to prevent Guzznad from summoning his follower's souls.
'With this Tier 8 Soul, my Illusion World Magic should take another step.'
John is one of the best Illusionists in the Empire, even ranking in the top 10. And that's because his spell, the Illusion World, allowed him to craft an entire world of illusion.
From his first confrontation with the Lich, he was never present. He created his illusion world, similar to the concept of a domain. Inside that domain or space, he can create illusions within illusions.
He can also influence people's emotions, which was one of the reasons that the lich quickly became so enraged, deciding to destroy his opponent with one powerful attack that drained most of his mana.
So, from the very beginning, he never came close to the Lich. And when the latter used that powerful spell, he had teleported countless distances away to ensure not to get hit.
According to the law, the lich was not his war trophy, and he could use it as he pleased. So, John placed the body away before exiting the mirror dimension. The first thing he did was remove an orb from his Soul Dimension as it put significant pressure on his soul, hence his mind or spirit.
The orb was a magical artifact that allowed him to access the ship's mana core in the mirror dimension. He could not bring the ship with him since he would lose his power if the lich destroyed it.
He looked in the distance to see a silver-grey dragon and giant fighting two Tier 7 Undead. John did not waste time before taking action. He controlled the spaceship to launch one is its canon.
The two Tier 7 Undead tried to evade once they felt the danger, but John used a restriction spell to render them immobile. And after the canon almost killed them, he captured the two.
Immediately afterward, he felt intense pain in his body. Then, the veins in his neck began to spread to his neck. John held his head, screaming. At the same time, some age spots appeared on his face and hands.
"Activate emergency healing protocol," said John's Artificial Spirit. Then, he disappeared before reappearing in a healing cabin inside the spaceship.
Gorm and Abiodun checked on him and saw that his condition was slowly stabilizing. Then, they reported to HQ, who would send people to this star system.
Although this region had no life, all the planets had precious resources, so a mining crew would soon arrive with the proper equipment. Finally, the crew returned home once the minors arrived.
Meanwhile, back at HQ, Olivier received visual records of the victory in the Red Number Star System. After checking for any anomalies, she focused on the different battlegrounds of this war.
For a moment, things appeared stabilized before a red screen appeared before her, making her concentrate.
"Luna, what is it?"
"Omicron, Shasta, Cala, Prenut, and Cafree: all these star systems are being invaded," Luna said with her eyes completely white. "No, I'm too late. Omegon has gone dark."
"Did you say Omegon? Show me the visual," Olivier hurriedly said. And soon, she saw a star system completely enveloped by darkness. She suddenly thought of something and called two people.
"Did Guzznad show up in your area?"
"How did you know?" responded Rowena. "I have detected a Tier 9 individual was coming my way, most likely a clone."
"The same for me," responded Dumbledore. All these people had the same weird veins as Olivier in their necks.
"You two must use the floating cities to deal with your opponent as swiftly as possible. Do it, no matter the consequence."
"What is the situation?" asked Rowena.
"Omegon is too close to our territory's border. If the Undead Legion can create a base there, it becomes easier to attack us. So, we must destroy Omegon at all costs."
"I'm sorry I could not detect it beforehand," Luna said.
"No, if it were not for you, we probably would not have detected anything until the base was created."
If the Undead Legion created a base, removing them would become a thousand times more difficult since each base is connected to Guzznad's Divine Kingdom.
From these bases, they essentially have an infinite amount of reinforcements, and Guzznad can quickly descend on these bases without being noticed.
So, Olivier would not let one appear so close to the Empire's borders.
----
For anyone wondering, the last chapter was a mistake. The ship was 5 kilometers wide, not meters.