50 An Offer in a Snowy Mountain

The intense reaction from their leader immediately gave away that something was standing behind the rest of the group.But because he was frozen in place, not even daring to blink, they were unsure what should they do. Unleash their weapons and turn to face the threat or just slowly get behind the human statue to see what they were facing? The half-elf decided to do the second choice and soon, he was under the same condition that their leader. In the end, everyone was looking at the huge monster in front of them and cursed the elementals for their drawing. They had no idea what was the lines on the snow, but if they knew what they represented, they would have immediately come back to warn the headquarters.

The only word that could describe the immense beast standing in front of the humans was a demon. Unlike most of the commoners and even some nobles, and because of their allegiance, they knew more about monsters than they preferred to. Especially the ones located in the deadliest regions of this world. Not even the giants living above the dwarven kingdoms were that tall and the very arm of the demon was bigger than a man. The red skin looked thicker than the armors the knights wore during battles and looking at their weapons, they wondered if they could even make a dent in it.

The monstrous face that looked like a disfigured boar was void of any emotions but deep inside them, they felt the same primal fear that a prey encountering his natural predator. And to even scare them more, the demon was surrounded by a magical shield that was barely visible. And that detail that could be negligible was the most important one. Only a very few monsters could materialize such a magic shield outside of their bodies and all were categorized as threat menacing nations.

So, if they knew such a creature appeared here, they would have not the guts to stay. They underestimated the threat and thought that they could reach the trolls to know what was going on, but now they would need to pay the price for their foolish ideas. As they were praying every god they knew, they were still staring at the demon. Only to notice that although he found them, the monster didn't make any move yet. For a few additional seconds, the two groups kept staring at each other.

"My deepest apologizes my lord, this servant was too slow for your speed. What are your commands, now that we have found the humans?" A lich suddenly appeared behind the demon and begin to converse with him. From the point of view of the humans, the lich was a subordinate of the demon, because of what the former said. The more they learned about the demonic being, the more they realized that it was way above their level. At this point, the only thing close to what they were witnessing was maybe the dark gods from the old legends.

The demon only looked at the lich and without even saying anything, the lich still bowed. "I understand my lord; it will be done" The silent conversation was reinforcing, even more, the mystery surrounding the huge creature but that was not the issue for the humans. Because the lich was getting closer and closer. It was a type of undead that everyone was familiar with, rotten flesh, an aura of death surrounding it and the sensation of their own body getting colder as the undead crept closer. The only different thing was the fact that the clothes of the lich were looking quite new and not as riddled with holes that some old liches often wore.

The feeling that their bodies were transmitting finally broke the stupor that the group was in and they immediately unleashed everything they had. Four men had small crossbows loaded with bolts visibly enhanced with mana, four others were ready in the front line and both the leader and the half-elf were ready with the magical bombs. They didn't dare to attack first since the immense demon was watching them, but they won't get down without a fight. However, to their surprise, the lich stopped a few meters and tried to … smile?

"Rejoice, mortals, for you have an opportunity that will only appear one time in your entire life. My master is seeking information about your organization and those that will offer their knowledge will be rewarded. As for the others, if you can't meet our expectations with what you know, you will meet them with your life."

The more the undead talked, the more sinister his speech turned. What he asked was a blatant betrayal that could have probably be successful, if the way it was presented was not that one-sided. They had no idea how strong the lich was, but it was a certainty that the thick demon was dangerous enough to make a drake flee in panic. And who would trust the words of such a powerful creature? In the minds of all the humans, what awaited them was either be killed or be killed after telling everything they knew. And if someone, like the trolls nearby, heard them fraternize with such an enemy, their organization will make an example of their families.

Besides the few that were lone wolves, the rest had people they cared about. And since no one thought about bargaining with the undead, an awkward silence installed itself between two cold winds. The smile plastered on the face of the lich was slightly worsening as time passed and anger could be seen rising inside it. The façade of respect and courtesy crumbled and without even looking at the demon behind it, it unleashed his wrath.

"Miserable worms, you rejected the open hand of my master. For your foolishness, you can embrace your death NOW!" The humans were ready for this and four arrows immediately were released in direction of the undead. This was just the first wave but they expected that while the undead was casting a spell, the rest of the group could get closer and threaten the body of the lich. To destroy the undead, arrows won't be able to really harm it. Only by destroying the core located where the heart was or dismembering it completely one could really kill a lich.

However, to their despair, the lich merely waved its hand and a few snowballs appeared and destroyed the momentum of the four arrows. Unlike inferior creatures of backward planets, this lich was tutored by the knowledge of Malakov, the Envoy of Leilade. To this superior lich, having to cast a spell by saying its name was utterly inefficient and dangerous. But that destroyed any expectations that the group of humans had.

To them, only the Archmage and some of the highest Magus were capable of pulling that feat off, and if liches were capable of doing it, the fallen kingdom of Pankow would have already ruled the world. Because of this, the leader of the humans finally broke his silence. "Wait for a second, can we talk?" Feeling the scared stares of his companions and the exasperated look of the lich, he raised his hands in the air and repeated his question.

"Can we ask for something?"

"You have ten seconds to make your demands, ants, before I'll crush you all." This time, even them could see threads of mana assembling themselves in the hand of the lich, ready to unleash a terrible spell on them. Sweating a lot, the poor human tried to negotiate hope for themselves.

"If we manage to beat you, can we escape unscat …"

HEHEHE KEKEKE KAKAKAKAKA

The lich began to laugh maniacally at the pitiful sentence of the living being. Normally, those inferior creatures just naturally submitted to them and it had been a long time that he really fought. Most of the time, he just supplied mana to the Empress of the Underworld or her Envoy while they invaded planets. So, for the lich to finally have the chance to have some fun with humans, it will definitely not let that chance go away. As for the fact that it could lose, that thought never crossed its mind.

"Nothing, you demand nothing of me, pitiful humans. This world will be ours and ours alone. What my master offered was just a place in it but you refused it. Now, you will have to pay for that. Behold, what millenniums of war produced."

Without even waiting for the lich to end his threat, both the leader and the half-elf launched their bombs at the undead, quickly followed by four additional bolts. However, this time, instead of magically enhanced iron bolts, they were made of mithril, a metal too rare to be wasted. Those bolts were even more costly than the magical bombs because they had to pay a huge price to convince some dwarves to sell it. But no one thought that it was wasteful to use those bolts right now.

A small tornado of fire englobed the frail undead and a huge explosion resonated nearby. Even from where they stood, the humans could feel the intense heat provoked by the two mighty spells. The snow around them at turned into vapor but that only created a smokescreen, not allowing anyone to see what was the result.

Nodding at the four warriors in front, six humans reached the location where the bombs exploded but met an unexpected obstacle. The same mana shield that was surrounding the silent demon stopped the living beings to get any closer. And to make them even more hopeless, they realized that the lich was completely unscathed by what happened. In fact, it was not exactly true.

A deep hole was visible in the right shoulder of the lich and the three other bolts were broken at its feet. The undead will never admit it, even in front of Malakov, but the bolts were absolutely capable of killing it, something that it didn't expect. Because of this small moment of carelessness, it ended up injured and had to quickly conjure a shield. If that shot was lucky enough to pierce its heart, the fight could have been finished in a second. Based on the components and the enchantments of the previous bolts, they shouldn't even be able to harm it but the recent projectiles were far more deadly than he expected.

But now, those humans won't have any chance of ever harming the undead. Because it had those orders, he could only harm the souls of those inferior beings and not torture them as it wished. Feeling that it had already lost too much time, he quickly ensnared everyone in dark chains, not letting anyone even move a finger. This time, no hidden tricks or surprise devices happened that foiled its plans. Turning to face Ymir, the lich bowed and let him took its place.

The Akûl finally could end the masquerade. This entire ploy was done solely in case of one of the humans decided to betray their organization. Contrarily to what they were thinking, Ymir and the lich would have truly let anyone that talked go, albeit with something more in their body. But they wouldn't have been able to detect it and that would have allowed Davion and Meridiana to contact the underground leaders. But that plan was a failure, once again.

After listening to the reports of those two, the Akûl realized that it was visibly harder to conquer a planet without using sheer strength. Normally, he would have just arrived on a world, killed the two or three strongest being and pacified it in a few weeks if it was as archaic as this one. But because something was definitely fishy around here, they had to lay low for a while, until they knew whether or not something from the Ancients was still alive or even active.

Just keeping the leader and the half-elf alive, the demon began to devour the rest of the humans under the terrified eyes of the two survivors and also, the trolls that were spying the battle from afar. Feeling his hunger finally satisfied, Ymir grabbed the two in two of his arms and left the lich behind in the snow as he performed gigantic jumps and came back to Malakov and the rest. As for the equipment still laying on the ground, it was until a day later that the trolls gathered their courage and took them before turtling inside their camp, not daring to leave for a while.