76 A Predator turned into a Prey

"MALAKOV OPEN THIS FUCKIN SHIELD RIGHT NOW! Don't even dare to say you aren't in control of at least one lich nearby, so open the shield. Please, just do it." Without even his main body, a lich was harboring a smug face while looking at the panicked duvodiad outside. In truth, in the beginning, he was fearing that something was happening. But after a few seconds, where he felt and saw nothing, he relaxed and just enjoyed the spectacle.

Kardel was just a shadow of his former self. His large body, his powerful muscles that were easily seen even in his original form were not even half of what it was. He was looking as frail as the weak Meridiana, even if her appearance was just a mirage. His two eyes were nearly completely red, and one couldn't even distinguish one broken vein from another. As for the rest of his body, it was filled with small injuries and little wounds.

Even if he had thinned out so much that even Malakov had a hard time believing it was really the duvodiad he knew, the fact that he was speaking a language that was only known by them was the only proof needed. With only a glance, the undead already knew that he will have to rest at least a month to recuperate from what he experienced. At the same time, he was obviously puzzled by the fact that Kardel seemed strangely scared of staying outside. Even when he was already in a safe zone.

"C'MON STUPID LICH! OPEN THE FUCKIN DOOR! OPEN IT!" He was smashing the barrier separating him from the haven he sought. If the rest needed to rely on their magical powers or others to find it, it was as obvious as ever for him to spot the strange distortion. Even after the few weeks that have passed, he instantly managed to found the traces of the skeletons leading to this very place.

"I'm sorry Kardel, but it seems that I have a hard time opening a safe passage. I guess you will have to stay outside a little more. But even if it rains, the worst we could have would be a wet dog entering my clean house." The mocking words of the Envoy of Leilade only made the duvodiad smash harder the magic shield. But what could brute force achieve against one of the most advanced spells created by the Demonic Empire?

Even without hearing what happened before and only by seeing the attitude of a peculiar lich standing right in front of Kardel, Leilade more or less guessed what happened. No one under her was submissive and all were proud individuals that were only listening to stronger beings. If she hadn't been here, she was certain that the group would have imploded right at the beginning. Especially Kardel, his kin were the worst, merely animals in human skin.

"Please … fine, I submit. Malakov, Herald of the Empress, Envoy of Death and whatever else titles you managed to create in your twisted mind, open this door. I am fucking begging you."

He was even half kneeling on the thin magical membrane separating the two worlds. Seeing this, both Malakov and Leilade were shocked. That a duvodiad obeyed an order was possible, for him to do whatever he wanted was a certainty, but to kneel? Instantly, a small door was opening near him, but Kardel didn't look at that way and just screamed at something behind him.

"No, no, no, nO, NO! OPEN NOW! THIS FUCKING THING IS COMING! FUCKI … Oh." He finally saw the opening and jumped in it. The passage was closed right behind him and seeing the levitating lich standing in front of his sorry face, he jumped on it and attacked it. Even weakened, he was still strong enough to deal with the feeble bones of an undead.

"YOU ENJOYED IT? HA! NEXT TIME YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT, I WILL HUNT YOUR MAIN BODY! NOW GET LOST!" Crushing the skull of the lich while saying those last words, he fell on his back and began to catch his breath. He had run away for the last weeks and while the rest were probably enjoying their holidays or easy days in human societies, he was escaping a monster. The stress of not sleeping for that long and having to use the reserves in his body was too much.

But after all this long travel, he was finally fine. Looking through the transparent protection, he saw the thing that was responsible for his unhappiness being smashed on the magical shield. The dark shadows were acting like a hungry pack of wolves, assaulting without any rest the spot where Kardel stood previously. The mass without any real form kept attacking a few more seconds, before realizing it lost track of its prey. It then carefully extended its tendril around the area where the small passage was formed.

"Where did you find this?" The infantile voice surprised Kardel, that didn't expect Leilade to be back so soon. From what he understood, she was planning on getting some well-deserved rest in the primitive civilizations of this world. Even with her extremely reduced mana reserve, her expertise was big enough to create a disguise that no one could pierce through. But not daring to make her wait any longer, he quickly explained what he encountered.

"I was in the Synnada Empire, hunting creatures here and there. I found some delicious scorpions, a little too small, however. Then, I met a group of sandmen and humans that were battling. After destroying maybe, a camp and killing some of them, they decided to use a strange thing that contained this. And here I am."

Leilade rolled her eyes while hearing this. Especially the part where the duvodiad clearly minimized the fact that he probably slaughtered those encampments, and maybe not just one as he said. Otherwise, why would they react so strongly and unleash this monster to counter Kardel? Approaching a bit closer, she watched the dark beast stuck like a leech on the magical shield.

Unlike the darkness that she cultivated in her own body, this lifeform, because it was one, showed no properties concerning the mana surrounding it. If it had been here, the entire spell protecting the base would have been absorbed in a short time. But even after nearly a minute of waiting, she felt no weakness in the work of Malakov, meaning that they had no worries to have on that part.

Deciding to play a little about that thing, she voluntarily opened a very small breach, barely larger than the head of a needle, to see how the monster will deal with this. It didn't take long for the unknown form to find it and soon, a very small drop of shadows was dripping from the orifice. It didn't separate from the main body, merely hanging in the hair.

The process kept going, while Kardel silently began to step back as the creature managed to pass most of its body beyond the protection. Even with the nearby Leilade, the disastrous time he spent fleeing was still too fresh for him. Especially the fact that this thing was just fast enough for him to never have the time to complete a transformation faster than the black mammal similar to a big panther. For example, the white bird would have allowed him to be carefree, but the minute that was the bare minimum for him to turn was never an option.

"Truly interesting, you really don't know where they got that thing?"

"No, Empress. I did hear that it was a very costly device. Also, they had a few other, one was harnessing a huge amount of electricity, enough to incapacitate my entire body for hours. The other was just normal magical fire, even if I would have died if it was a direct hit. As for the name, I think I heard something like flaming fist, flaming hand, burning head maybe? They have a strong accent compared to the humans of Massalia."

"It was [Burning Hand]. So it seems they still managed to condense a spell into an object, and even improve its might. Yes, I met two old farts that tried to kill me with this spell. Even when they used their life force to compensate for the difference between us, they were still not able to even be more threatening than Candaith. Even that space bunny would have been more dangerous. As for this…"

Without even moving a single finger, the darkness that was constantly following her ensnared the shadow monster. At first, the latter tried to fight back and at a certain point, knowing that it had lost, tried to escape. But it was not facing some mindless being, and its path was already cut off. In the end, most of its body was lost to Leilade and only a small part still alive was encircled in a sea of even more terrifying darkness. Finally breathing seeing that Leilade quickly dealt with the threat, Kardel could finally be at peace.

"As expected of the Empress, your ability is still as terrifying as ever." Snorting at this lowly attempt of praising her, she was far more interested in what was in front of her. Toying a bit more and launching a few basic spells on it, she realized that the monster was still quite resistant. In a sense, it was the weaker version of her own creation, albeit a crude one.Looking at Kardel, she questioned him once more.

"Are you certain that you didn't hear anything unusual?" The duvodiad tried to remember, but that was clearly not his forte.

"Not really. They asked me if I knew the dark gods, hum, they may have talked about a certain lad. A lich called, the Lich Lord, with a big tomb or city at his name, Malekh, Moltekh, Palekht?"

"I see; I guess you will have to pay a visit at this Lich King. Once you have recovered of course, if you encountered something else like that, you will be defenseless. Malakov."

"Yes, my Empress?" Moving out of the shadows, the lich never truly left the scene. He had seen the entire thing, even the destruction of one of his servant. Even if they were the weakest of the liches he could create, it was still an affront against him. He also heard the useless information brought by Kardel. If they hadn't learned the real names thanks to Leilade, they wouldn't have understood a single thing of his tale.

"Take this thing and find its weakness. Something that should be cheap to produce and that Kardel can use. As for you follow me, you have a lot to catch up."

She didn't even bother looking back to see if the duvodiad followed her. Here, in this place, her orders were absolute. She also didn't care to see the two angered stares that her subordinates threw at each other. Whether they were friends or not, all she cared was that they won't attack their peers. When he entered, even Kardel was a little bit surprised by all the progress that was made in his absence.

Just in a few short weeks, and a quite impressive entrance was already created. As he saw the infinite waves of skeletons carrying rocks and minerals leaving the deep tunnels, he realized that it was just the tip of the iceberg. Instead of using the teleporter located right at the beginning, he and Leilade followed the lead of a lich that brought them inside the depths of the mountain.

In the end, they arrived inside a great natural cavern where they were seeing hundreds of undead working without any rest, trying to dig with their own bones. Of course, they were not human skeletons, but the same type of mole that Malakov mainly used. As they watched this spectacle, they saw one of them crumbling and being reduced to ashes. Immediately after, one of the liches that were supervising the entire thing summoned another one to take its place.

Feeling satisfied by this, the two living beings exited this area filled with the dead and walked back toward the main control room. But before meeting with Ymir and Davion again, Leilade had to see what master Agnil had in stock for the future. Because now, she was certain that their three groups had managed to cause enough problems to be taken seriously.