Eventually, the crystal core of the cloaked undead shattered under the strain of constantly repairing its body, leaving me huffing in anger and exhaustion. I unsummoned my Chaos Storm and sat down heavily on the ground. I did not trust myself enough to be around the others right now, so I needed to calm down first. Ishu appeared not too far away, causing me to growl with annoyance before I realized what I had done.
"What was that thing?" I barked, not able to fully suppress my anger.
"A Lich. They specialize in controlling lesser undead like the Animated Corpses and Ghouls that you have been fighting. They have an arsenal of Yin spells which all carry curses that are difficult to remove quickly, as well as having the ability to summon a small army of skeletons, or a Death Knight which can fight Apprentices with ease," he replied.
"What rank would liches be at?" I asked.
"Traditionally, Journeymen would be sent after a rising Lich while a Master would handle an Elder Lich."
I snorted at his statement since he had placed me between the Master and Elder ranks, but I reminded myself that his world did not conform to myself. It had been a moment of arrogance which almost cost L'Naan's life, just like what had caused me to lose Raven... A simple mistake could cause the death, and worse, for those that I loved if I let down my guard for even a single moment.
"Watch over Echo and L'Naan. Your attacks might be useless, but you can alert them if you see something coming their way," I ordered.
"I will, but... the new one... she is ready to start on the Immortal Path. Her body is at the peak of the Acolyte rank, yet hasn't advanced into it truly, likely because of her not properly cultivating her mana," Ishu said.
My brow furrowed, since it was out of place for him to give me any unsolicited advice, and asked, "Why are you telling me this?"
"I have underestimated you, far more than I thought possible. Your mana may only be at the level of the mid-Master rank, but your strength eclipses the Grand Master rank. You are far more powerful than my former master and, if what you have told me is true, I might have a chance at true redemption for my Soul. I apologize for my past offences and can only beg for your mercy," he replied respectively, for the first time that I had ever known him.
I knew that there was more to what the Lord Spirit was saying, but at the moment, I did not care. All I said was, "Go."
He dashed off without another word, leaving me alone to stew in my own thoughts. I had not expected for the lich to target L'Naan, but she was the obvious choice if I had taken the time to think about it. If my senses were not as strong as they were, I would have likely missed the Yin arrow and she would have been seriously injured, if not killed outright. Then, I would have had to turn my focus to healing her quickly, leaving Echo to hold back the lich-controlled horde, or I would have had to sacrifice her while I protected Echo, since she was not strong enough to defeat them alone.
I pushed the thoughts aside and tried to meditate, but there was no quieting my mind at the moment. I gave up after half an hour and stood up, rolling my shoulders while trying to relax my body. My anger had mostly faded, and what was left was solely directed at myself, so I made my way back to the tower.
Echo and L'Naan were waiting for me at the entrance of the tower by the time that I reached there. Through our connection, I could sense that Echo was disappointed with her improvement over the past year after seeing my display, but there was also acceptance, and a new sense of determination; her goal had shifted from wanting to match me to mastering her own abilities. L'Naan looked at me with a hint of awe and desire in her eyes, which did not surprise me with her Klingon nature.
"Ishu," I called out.
The ghostly assassin jumped off the wall and raced over to my side. "What do you need, master?"
His formal address of me caused Echo's eyebrow to rise, but I explained it away by allowing her to see the memory of us talking before I said aloud, "You said that L'Naan is ready to start using mana, right?"
"That is correct," he said, causing L'Naan to be surprised.
"How do we teach her? We all knew instinctually how to use our powers and meditate. I honestly don't know how to teach her to feel the mana in her body," I said.
"The simplest method would be to baptize her by channeling your mana through her body. If you do it enough times, she will start to feel the circulation on her own, but it can only be done in short bursts or her mana pathways could be ruptured by the extra energy. If she starts feeling any pain, you must stop, but those moments afterward will be her best chance to grasp the sensation," Ishu explained.
"Alright... Echo, can you work with L'Naan as he said?" I asked.
"No problem," she agreed.
"We'll save that for daytime though, so if you want to get some sleep L'Naan, go ahead. I'll handle anything that comes close to the tower," I suggested.
"I'm not tired," she replied.
"Suit yourself. Ishu, do you know anything about Weapon-Force?"
"When I was alive, my skill was considered to be in the lower Master rank with Daggers and Journeyman rank with Bows as I relied mostly on my poisons," he replied.
"Good enough for us. Can you explain the principles to Echo?"
"Of course, master. What is your weapon of choice, Lady Echo?" Ishu asked.
I gave him a deadpan stare as I had never heard him so respectful in the fifteen years that he had been one of my summons, and even Echo was weirded out by being called 'Lady'. Still, I was not in the mood to root out the reason behind his change of demeanor towards me, so I ignored it for now.
"I use a bow and a sword."
"Bows are more difficult to learn, so we should start with the sword as a base for you. Please draw your weapon."
Acting weird or not, the assassin had proven in the past that he had knowledge that we needed to help develop our powers, so Echo did as he asked. He began to explain the subtle nuances of Weapon-Force and how it was different from casting elemental and non-elemental spells. While I had tried to learn Weapon-Force in the past, I quickly understood why I never did through his instruction.
Weapon-Force required synergy with whatever weapon that the person was using. It was more than simply infusing a weapon with mana as I had been doing in the past. It was an infusion of mana and a hint of Soul Power, meaning that it would be a great way for her to train her Soul Power, but the commitment to a specific weapon was essential to truly developing Weapon-Force which I had always been lacking.
After that night, our routine changed. During the first hour of the daytime, Echo would sit with L'Naan, channeling her mana into her, which took two and a half weeks before L'Naan could sense her own. During that time, I would spend that time using the mana-gathering array to assist me in creating mana crystals, so that we would have a stockpile of them for Echo and L'Naan to use in an emergency. We still collected herbs, hunted, and had Echo and L'Naan using the herbs during the day. During the nights, I took over the defensives so that Echo and L'Naan could train with Ishu to develop their own Weapon-Force.
Not surprisingly, Echo was the first to develop Sword-Force after three weeks of instruction. L'Naan took about five months to develop her own Bat'leth-Force, which Ishu remarked was on high-average level for people from his life. I had even developed a few minor Weapon-Forces, but they were weaker than both of theirs since I did not 'identify' with a single weapon as they did.
On the second night after I woke up, only a single lich appeared, and the pattern continued until the eighth night, where a second lich joined the horde. With the addition of an additional lich every week, the undead horde quickly became an organized army every night, and skeletons and Death Knights had started boosting their numbers with more frequency. About nine weeks after that point, another change was added.
The number of zombies seemed to stop at five thousand, but new undead joined the ranks. There were now ghostly wraiths as well, which Katye and I had faced before during the Final War against the Disciples. Physical attacks were useless against them and, for every two that could only use 'physical' attacks, there was one that could use a Yin-based elemental spell, just as the special wraiths of the Disciples with mana had been able to.
The number of wraiths grew at a strange rate, but they were not the only new additions to the horde. For lack of a better name for them, mummies began to appear at the same time as the wraiths, but their numbers were always greater than the wraiths. They were similar to Ghouls in that they could only be killed by shattering their mana core, though theirs were located where their hearts should be. Their bodies were covered in dark blue bandages which made them much more resistant to slashing attacks and, surprisingly, Fire spells.
As the months progressed, the undead horde grew more and more powerful. Occasionally, after I thinned the numbers, Echo and L'Naan would come out of their training session with Ishu and fight against what was remaining. My condition was simple as I only required them to remain within the boundaries of my Chaos Storm, so that I could defend them from any ranged attacks that the liches or the elemental wraiths would try to launch.
Before we knew it, three and a half years had passed since we started this game. I was still managing to hold off the horde on my own strength, but I could not deny that it was getting difficult for me. The number of liches was around a hundred, so they could command the horde with frightening precision. The ghouls numbered over a thousand, the mummies were over five hundred, and the wraiths were roughly at two hundred for the physical ones while the elemental ones were around a hundred.
It had been a night just like the others over the past two years. Echo and L'Naan were sparring in the small stone dome coliseum that I made every night under Ishu's watchful eye. Nothing approached the tower during the first three hours as the liches collected the undead horde.
I waited patiently on top of the dome with my Chaos Storm coiled around it. Over the past two years, my control over the storm had grown significantly as I used it constantly to ensure that nothing got past me. I could only wonder if we fought against Annorax now if I could have protected Voyager with the defensive nature of my storm having been refined so much.
At the seventh hour mark, the liches made their move. Over a hundred Yin arrows were fired at me simultaneously, alongside different Yin-elemental spells launched by the elemental wraiths. My storm surged outwards as I stripped the spells of their power and counterattacked with crimson lightning.
I managed the first volley fine, same with the second, and the third, but then something new happened. A hundred bone arrows rained down on me which could not be dealt with like the spells, so I was forced to meld with my storm to dodge them. The arrows managed to penetrate a few inches into the stone dome, proving just how strong the attack had been. My only assumption was that the liches had called out the Death Knights instead of the skeletons, but they had never used bows before, only large bastard swords.
I returned to my physical form quickly since it used a lot of Soul Power to remain like that, but now the horde was rushing in from all sides. There were no skeletons this time, confirming my guess, but to make matters worse, the horde was radiating Yin mana which was new. As soon as they crossed into my domain and I attacked them, I quickly realized that the Yin mana made them more resistant to magical attacks.
"Fuck," I cursed, realizing that I could not handle this horde on my own.
Without any more hesitation, I teleported myself inside the stone dome and dropped down not too far away from Echo, L'Naan, and Ishu. Echo knew what was happening outside, so they had already stopped their nightly sparring.
"Why would the Death Knights suddenly have bows and the undead horde be buffed by some kind of magic?" I asked while I activated my Earth Domain and started strengthening the dome around us.
"An Elder Lich must have joined your trial," Ishu replied.
"Great, just fucking great," I sighed, already sensing the undead horde launching attacks against the dome. "I'm not going to be able to hold them back with just the dome and the wraiths can get past it whenever they want. This fight is going to get messy quick."
"It was bound to at some point," Echo remarked as she summoned her bow and a quiver of arrows.
"Let's see how much we've grown over the past three years," L'Naan said after grabbing her own bow, which had been off to the side.
I nodded my head with another sigh and replied, "I'll focus on crowd control and defending you two. Don't move too far away from me or each other and be careful. I'm going to open a small hole for some to start coming through."
A/N: Sorry, for the delay. This is a super busy time of year with both my job and social life.