Translator: CinderTL
The expected crisp sound of the blade piercing through the skeletal remains never came. Instead, there was...
Bang!
A pitch-black shield, composed entirely of negative energy, materialized instantly, clashing violently with the longsword wreathed in silver-white Battle Qi.
A dull thud was followed by a chilling, corrosive sizzle that seemed to gnaw at the marrow.
Watching the sword tip, now inches away but utterly unable to advance, Ellis smirked silently.
"Well... Sir Knight," he said, his voice no longer tinged with bitterness and resentment, but with a playful, mocking tone. "Could it be you have some peculiar preference? To pursue a man so persistently..."
Before he could finish, the previously stable negative energy shield suddenly emitted a deep hum before violently expanding outward.
A pure surge of magic slammed into the sword.
The blade groaned under the strain, bending instantly like a bow.
This overwhelming force surged through the sword, forcing the wielder to stagger backward several steps.
As the smoke and dust gradually cleared, a burly figure emerged at the center of the room.
It was Graham, who had tracked him to this place.
"Hmm?"
Seeing a completely unfamiliar face, Graham let out a puzzled grunt, his brow furrowing.
The person before him looked nothing like the Corrupted Lich he had been tracking, yet...
A faint trace of the unique "mark" left by his combat technique remained clearly discernible on the man.
Ellis's tone carried a hint of teasing warmth, but instead of relaxing, Graham tensed his muscles.
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the surging energy within him, and was about to demand an explanation when his gaze was riveted by the scroll floating in the air.
Among the myriad ghostly figures of wailing souls on the scroll, several faces he knew all too well emerged.
They were the soldiers who had followed him deep into the Mistland, only to fall on the battlefield.
"This... this is..."
Graham's voice froze in shock, his sword-wielding arm trembling slightly.
"Sir Knight, how about we... make a deal?"
Perhaps retrieving the phylactery had lifted Ellis's spirits, as the gloom in his voice had faded, replaced by a hint of mockery.
"My purpose here has been fulfilled."
With a flick of his wrist, the sheepskin scroll vanished, replaced by an eight-sided die in his palm.
"Why don't we... meet halfway? You let me leave this place, and I... will naturally let go of your earlier impudent intrusion. What do you say?"
"What is that thing?"
Graham ignored Ellis's proposal, his eyes locking onto the hand that had just concealed the scroll like a hawk's. He leaned forward, coiled like a tiger ready to pounce.
"This?"
Ellis casually tossed the sheepskin scroll in his hand, his tone utterly indifferent.
"Just some... unclaimed souls."
Before the words had fully faded, the knight, wreathed in silver-white Battle Qi, had already transformed into a blazing streak of light, launching a ferocious assault.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In the blink of an eye, the two had exchanged several rounds.
But each of the knight's savage charges was easily repelled by the pitch-black shield that materialized instantly before Ellis.
The corrosive negative energy hissed and crackled, greedily devouring the silver-white glow of Battle Qi and even searing blackened scorch marks into the knight's heavy shoulder armor.
Yet Ellis hadn't moved a single step.
He casually raised his pale hand, an ominous dark purple glow swirling around his fingertips.
Every time Graham attempted to change tactics or launch a surprise attack, a precisely cast spell would suddenly materialize, forcing the knight into a desperate defense or clumsy evasion.
With the phylactery restored, the Lich's long-dormant vast magic had fully awakened.
His spellcasting was as swift as lightning, and the power of his spells had multiplied exponentially.
Graham's pride in his speed and strength now seemed clumsy and sluggish against the true might of high-level necromancy.
The knight's breathing grew ragged and rapid, the silver-white Battle Qi around him visibly dimming under the relentless erosion of negative energy.
He was like a trapped beast caught in an invisible spiderweb, each struggle only tightening the fatal strands of magic around him.
"Damn it..."
After narrowly dodging another necromantic spell, Graham gritted his teeth, the metallic taste of blood nearly flooding his mouth.
"This guy... how did his strength become so immense?"
A curse erupted in his mind, but he had no time to dwell on it.
Staring at the Lich, who was so close yet felt as distant as an abyss, Graham's instincts screamed danger.
He knew better than anyone that if he continued to be led around and depleted by the enemy, only ruin awaited him.
"Looks like... I'll have to break my promise, old drunkard!"
The last shred of hesitation in Graham's eyes was replaced by grim resolve.
Against this unfathomable Lich, conventional methods stood no chance.
He took a deep, violent breath.
The sound was so prolonged and ferocious it seemed to drain all the air from the space around him.
His chest heaved like a bellows, emitting a dull, drum-like thud!
In the next instant, an invisible fetter within his body was forcibly torn apart!
"Ugh!"
A guttural roar, stifling extreme agony, erupted from the depths of his throat.
The silver-white Battle Qi surrounding him underwent a qualitative transformation.
It was no longer pure silver-white but intertwined like molten gold and searing white flames, radiating a heart-stopping heat and an aura of destruction.
But the price was immediate.
On Graham's exposed neck and arms, it felt as though red-hot branding irons were searing and burning beneath his skin.
Fine, metallic-sheened, dark gold scales erupted from his flesh at a visible rate, spreading across his body.
Each scale's emergence was accompanied by the faint sound of skin tearing and instantly cauterizing, leaving behind dark crimson patterns.
His knuckles cracked with a sickening crunch as he tightened his grip on the sword hilt, his nails sharpening and hardening into claw-like points.
A primal, savage, and oppressive aura, like a reawakened ancient beast, erupted from him in a violent burst.
The aura was chaotic and violent, clashing with his normally pure Battle Qi, yet it contained a strength far surpassing anything he had known before.
The stone slabs beneath his feet silently melted into molten rock, and the charred pits on his shoulder armor, corroded by negative energy, were now being melted through by the molten gold-like Battle Qi.
Ellis's icy pupils contracted slightly for the first time, and the dark purple light flowing around his fingertips faltered.
Graham raised his head, his bloodshot eyes locked onto Ellis, as if magma were flowing in their depths.
A low growl, like rolling thunder, rumbled in his throat.
"Undead defiler of the living... today is your death day!"
(End of the Chapter)