Making a path through the tightly packed skeletons in the long and narrow tunnels was quite the hassle, Ilmna's blunt attack seemed to be weakened as the skeletons stuck to one another, forming compact walls of shields with both actual shields and with their bodies.
Still, these skeletons were no match for her heroic way of swinging a big club around, she had to hold back though, the tunnels didn't seem like they would be able to take swing much more powerful than that, it wasn't a problem though, she was advancing steadily and she managed to avoid getting wounded, only a few scratches on her armor and nothing else.
Their defensive tactic didn't allow them to attack freely at all.
'Why are they so defensive?' she wondered as she shattered a few skulls with a swing, their helmets not helping much in cushioning the blow.
"Any idea?" she asked her weapon, stopping just far enough to be out of range of the skeleton wall.
"Makes sense, let's hurry then" she then spoke out loud, raising the goedendag's base up to her chest before suddenly raising it above her head and smashing it on the ground, throwing away any safety measure, the ground formed spiderweb cracks before suddenly being breached by spikes of earth, crushing the skeletons on the ceiling of the tunnels on many meters.
The spikes lost their shape and formed a ground to walk on made of soft earth, mixed with bone shards and bonemeal on top of the ruined equipement the skeletons had been wearing.
______________________________
Hearing the sudden and loud sound followed by utter silence, the lesser lich almost froze for a moment.
'What the hell is that?!' he thought without stopping his chant.
The man behind him was still completely still, unfazed by all of this.
All of the skeletons had been crushed by that one attack without the tunnels collapsing in the slightest, this was the worst outcome for the lich and the best for the heroine.
The lich had no one else to serve as an undead shield, he had no undead champion of his own, the man wasn't under his orders at all but it was all right, the primeval rot suddenly started expanding, the ritual was complete.
Just in time for Ilmna as she entered the large room a few moments after its completion.
The white-cloaked man pulled out a pocket watch stained with blood and took a look at it with his unfeeling eye.
"Perfect timing, good luck colleague of the lord" he spoke a few words that only the lich heard, before taking a step forward, putting one of his hand on the lich's shoulder and pushing him directly into the pit of primeval rot.
The man then vanished, leaving only the confused heroine and the lich in the room.
"Wait! I can't! I am not worthy!" yelled the lich as the rot coiled around him, pulling him down.
"Pull me out of here!" he pleaded to the heroine.
Seeing that she wasn't keen on putting her hands in this mass of moving rot, he had to come up with a good reason before it consumed him.
"Kill me then! Kill me before it assimilates into my body!" he screamed and she swung her weapon, sending a strong gust of wind that was definitely capable of shattering his skull but the rot blocked it.
The lich completely sunk into the rot, any undead would want to be able to use the primeval rot but the lich knew that it wasn't a simple thing, only a pure undead could truly use it, he wasn't, no undead was, the only pure undead was the harbringer death.
His bones cracked as the rot became part of him, his bones kept cracking and regenerating back to normal, his wish would be granted eventually, he would inevitably break under the pressure put on his bones by these majestic rot.
All of the rot vanished from the pit, leaving only the lich, his eyes casting forth a purple light that kept on flickering.
It was the worst outcome possible, having assimilated the rot meant that upon his destruction, it would disappear with him, the rot wouldn't be able to spread across the world and decay it all.
The lich cimbed out of the pit, rotten flesh spasming over his body, he was being broken and put back together at all times, everything was, his bones, mind and soul.
The rot took on the shape of various objects and creatures, replicating them perfectly but none of it mattered, the lich couldn't control anything at all, he couldn't even spread a little bit of death before it ended.
Before long, he started melting, catching onto a variety of fire, freezing and anything else possible.
"Aah, Lo-" not letting whatever it was that was happening, Ilmna struck the lich's skull before repeatedly clubbing its body into the ground.
The lich soon disappeared, crumbling into nothingness, having left no mark on the world at all.
The heroine was understandably confused about the whole ordeal, she had come here to pound some skeletons into fertilizer and had witnessed some strange stuff.
Seeing that there was nothing else to see and no more enemies, she swiftly turned back, her job here was done.
"Are you sure you want to let her live?" asked the white-cloaked man to his lord.
"Yes, she would be incapable of describing what she saw well enough to be understood and it really doesn't matter anyways, I prefer having a good relationship with a heroine and isn't it preferable when she is alive?" responded Ithelisemou as he stepped out of the darkness alongside the man.
"..." the man didn't speak for a few seconds before turning to his lord, no expression visible on his large eye.
"Do you not already have that Malina to-" he started saying before being stopped by his lord putting his finger where his mouth should be.
"Chut, do not finish that sentence AL-PS-4" said Theli.
"Alright, wrap things up boys" he then ordered as many similar figures to that of AL-PS-4 appeared, except that none of their face was visible and their color pattern was swapped, wearing dark cloak and white uniforms.
Theli looked at the small vials containing a sample of the primeval rot in its subdued state, the state before the lich completed the ritual.
It was quite the prize for such an easy experiment, if that lich was to be trusted, this rot could literally kill anything, even if it wasn't alive to begin with, the lich had also spoken of a plague created by the same being he refered to as death most of the time.
With this, the Cult Of Rot was taken care of, meaning he should be able to gain some reputation with the other, much hotter, lich, he had also managed to create a link with an actual heroine and even spoken with the young king, things were looking bright.
He would be able to see the actual sins from up close too, it was a great opportunity for research and progress, he had know about some of the former sins but they were either dead for good or turned into other things, rendering them effectively dead for the system and robbing them of their sins, same thing for the virtues, though he didn't have a clue were they could be.
"Ah, let me tell you AL-PS-4, all this stuff happening at once reminds me of my youth, what a glorious time that was" he said with his arms crossed.
"My lord, you are only twenty four years old" simply responded AL.
"I don't mean it literally, I mean when I travelled the world, explored ancient civilisation and ruins, fought monsters and people amongst other things" he explained, AL knew that the 'other things' involved distasteful things that he had a hard time understanding, he was just an assassin after all, having discussions was already difficult enough but his lord insisted that he should try to grow past his default state, whatever that could mean.
"Oh and before I leave, make sure to come say hi to your new colleague" said Theli.
"Her name is UP-UH-1 or just Upuh" he elaborated before disappearing, leaving his assassins to clean up.