At this point, neither Lucian nor Natasha dared to fly. Flying low risked being obstructed by peaks and trees, wasting precious time, while flying high would leave them exposed against the open sky, visible from far away.
After casting Greater Haste on himself, Lucian wasn't much slower than Sky Knight Natasha. The two raced through the dark, steep mountains like fleeting phantoms. As they ran, a blindingly bright light suddenly exploded before Lucian's eyes. His naturally keen dark vision left him momentarily blinded. Natasha's bloodline, however, was immune to the Blindness spell—she spun in midair and lunged toward a massive tree nearby. The evening Star of Dusk, tinted by the lingering glow of the setting sun, radiated a vivid crimson hue, warmly bathing the great tree and sheltering within it a sensuously beautiful woman clad in white robes.
"The God of Love and Beauty—Ashin!" Natasha recognized the woman's identity but didn't hesitate for even an instant. She swung the longsword in her hand, and a spectral rift, as though belonging to another world entirely, materialized along with the blade's arc, cleaving the light of the Star of Dusk cleanly in two.
Ashin darkened his body and prepared to merge with the surrounding shadows before the defensive spell could be cut through. But the instant he was about to sink into them, a spell cast by Lucian through spiritual sense detection took effect—an invisible wall of force suddenly solidified upon the shadows, bouncing him out. Natasha's longsword sliced across his neck. A thin black fissure, as if capable of cutting through space itself, flashed into existence. The two defensive spells that had reflexively triggered around Ashin shattered like paper. His head, red flames dancing in his eyes, thudded to the ground, and his body rotted and festered. In the "Life Sacrifice," he had already died, becoming an undead creature under Congers' control—thus he could not withstand "Pale Justice," which now rivaled legendary power.
Bits of divine radiance drifted from within his body, quickly adhering to the cracks in Natasha's damaged Violet Guardian Armor. The rotting corpse also reverted to its centaur form. Natasha suppressed her doubts and curiosity, put force into her core, and flew back to Lucian's side. "We need to go! If Ashin took such an enormous risk to intercept us, it means the Demigod Lich is nearby!"
Ashin seemed to possess a divine blessing when it came to tracking and concealment, which was why he had managed to follow them undetected for so long. Had matters not been so dire, the part of him that still retained a sliver of consciousness would never have chosen to attack—it would have tried to avoid being shaken off instead. Lucian's eyes had recovered, and he could still make this simple judgment. He turned, ready to round the cliff with Natasha and head toward that gloomy forest.
Suddenly, a mournful, grief-stricken wail erupted from behind. The atmosphere around them turned deathly. Moisture and life force began draining away, bit by bit.
"The Demigod Lich is here!"
The same thought flashed through both their minds simultaneously. Natasha turned and held "Pale Justice" upright before her, blocking the deathly sonic waves of the Demigod Lich's wail. Crack, crack, crack—with each peal of the wail, birds within two hundred meters dropped from the sky one by one, showing signs of rot before they even touched the ground. A warm, resolute glow lit up along "Pale Justice," and the blade trembled violently beneath the wail, as if struggling to hold. A legendary powerhouse over a thousand years old, a wizard rich in spells—from any angle, Lucian and Natasha had no hope of winning. Being able to die quietly would be a blessing from the
Suddenly, Lucian stepped forward and raised his left hand high. Silver-white moonlight gleamed as a layer of black destructive flame coiled around it.
"Hmm?"
As the voice sounded, milky-white life force and pure moisture gathered like a rising storm, combining with streaks of dark green and ashen light to form a wall of defense. Lucian swung his left hand down hard—and nothing happened.
He turned and fled. Through their mental link, he shouted to Natasha, "Run! Get beyond three hundred meters and we still have a chance!"
Just now, Lucian had made Etna briefly relinquish control, showing signs of taking action, in order to frighten the Demigod Lich. But such a deception could work only once. Etna could take action if she wanted, but then the Netherworld fragment would go completely out of control—and the one who would die would still be Lucian. As a last resort, he would not choose this method of mutual destruction.
At a time like this, how could Natasha not understand the danger and urgency? Without the slightest hesitation, she drew her longsword, turned, and rushed to Lucian's side, grabbed him, and carried him around the cliff. Under enormous pressure, Natasha achieved a speed beyond her own imagination—in the darkness, she was completely invisible. Only a dark, blurry shadow trailed long behind her, while an angry voice called out from behind, rapidly closing in.
"I'll turn you both into corpse thralls!"
Solidified black, white, and gray colors spread outward, covering Lucian's entire body—the aftereffect of Etna briefly releasing her control. Fortunately, Natasha was no fool. Having understood Lucian's actions, she had been prepared for this. She tightened her left arm around him and continued sprinting, not even having time to swing "Pale Justice" for a single strike. The long mountain path quickly shortened at this speed. Two different choices appeared before Natasha: to the right was that gloomy forest, and to the left was the very, very deep lake
"According to his description, it's at least four or five hundred meters deep." The thought flashed through Natasha's mind. She slowed slightly and with one strike shattered the dull, congealed colors from Lucian's body, then—like a fish leaping into the ocean—plunged with him into the lake. The air around them became transparent, shimmering lake water, and Natasha pulled Lucian along as they sank rapidly.
*Glug, glug.* Not yet having reached Sky Knight level, Lucian couldn't move freely or breathe underwater. He wanted to cast "Cloak of the Sea" but feared being detected by the Demigod Lich Congers. Natasha glanced at him, tightened her arm, and pressed her pale red lips against his mouth, prying open his teeth to breathe in fresh air and draw out the stale, turbid breath. Lucian had no time to savor this intimate moment—he sank rapidly with Natasha, pointing toward the cliff to indicate an upward-sloping cavern there.
The black-cloaked Demigod Lich looked at the two paths before him, unable to decide. Casting spells yielded no definitive results. Two needle-like points of red light flickered as he growled, "This damned world—spiritual sense can only extend a little over two hundred meters. Detection spells relying on the spiritual field only add another hundred meters. Otherwise, why would I need so many spells!"
After a full day of tracking, he understood that Lucian's fate trajectory was unusual and Natasha's was masked by Etna's power, so he hadn't wasted time on astrology and divination. However, as a legendary wizard, how could the Demigod Lich Congers be a fool? After a brief moment of thought, he waved his hand and sent his undead servants—Soul Fiends, Death Giants, Mummies—into the gloomy forest to begin their search and pursuit, while he himself flew over the lake and chanted an incantation.
"Foul Poison."
The lake surface where his gaze focused suddenly took on an ashen hue that spread rapidly. Fish of various sizes floated belly-up to the surface, their bodies covered in filthy, putrid pus. *Glug, glug*—the ashen lake churned like boiling water, and a massive shadow the size of a castle rose from below. It turned out to be a colossal creature with dragon bloodline. But it, too, had already rotted and died.
Underwater, Lucian and Natasha spotted the upward-sloping cavern from afar, and a hint of joy inevitably welled up in their hearts. But at that moment, Natasha suddenly noticed the lake above them being rapidly stained ashen—the algae, waterweeds, and fish all vanished, replaced by deathly silence.
"Swim fast!" Natasha shouted through the mental link. Pulling Lucian along as though their backsides were on fire, she swam toward the cavern at top speed. Neither could afford to worry about anything else now—hoping only that this was the lakebed, over four hundred meters deep, and that the tiny disturbance wouldn't catch the Demigod Lich's attention.
The cavern was right before their eyes. Behind them, murky ashen water was closing in. Natasha gritted her teeth, and catching Lucian off guard, shoved him into the cavern. She spun around, drew her sword, and slashed at the ashen filth. A layer of sacred, gentle light appeared, splitting the ashen color in two. Natasha pressed hard with her left hand against the adjacent cliff, did a flip, and leaped into the cavern. The weight behind her seemed to lift as she emerged from the underground lake.
"Careful." Lucian saw the ashen mass behind Natasha writhing like a living thing and quickly cast a spell to contain the contamination. Natasha also recovered her composure, swinging her sword behind her to finally destroy the ashen filth—but her Violet Guardian Armor suffered yet another devastating blow, her back feeling as though it had been corroded clean through.
This entire gauntlet of sprinting and danger was something Natasha had never experienced before, leaving her feeling drained. But she knew they hadn't truly escaped the danger yet. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Hurry! Once we reach the other side of the mountain, we'll be safe!"
"Will you?"
A sinister voice came from ahead. The black-cloaked Demigod Lich materialized right before them.
"Didn't you know that this ashen foul poison is also my eye?"
After fleeing for so long, they had still been caught. Both Natasha and Lucian felt a wave of dejection and despair—but both were extraordinarily tenacious. After a brief exchange through the mental link, Natasha charged at the Demigod Lich, swinging Pale Justice.
"Hmph, Life Str—" Knowing that Pale Justice countered the undead and could harm him, Congers didn't take it lightly. The needle-like red light flashed, about to kill Natasha—
Suddenly, she vanished from where she stood. Congers' lock-on missed entirely, and Lucian was now holding a Solar Scepter set with a massive gemstone.
"Ninth-rank Bizarre Labyrinth? Heh—you want to face me alone?" Congers sneered, preparing to cast "Soul Imprisonment" on Lucian.
Lucian said with desperate madness, "Don't you want to kill me? Don't you want the Silver Moon and the Netherworld's mysterious entity's fragments? Come and take them! But please let her go—she's innocent, only dragged into this because of me. Oh, and she's a descendant of Lady Hathaway."
Congers rarely saw this acclaimed junior mage—known for being as calm as ice—lose his composure like this. He actually paused for a moment, then said with amusement, "Precisely because she's Hathaway's descendant, I won't let her go. You expect me to wait around for that old pervert Storm to hunt me down? What a shame for your little sweetheart."
"You would have become a Grand Archanist before long, far surpassing my student—perhaps even surpassing me. But you had to meddle in affairs of the Netherworld, and you obtained Masklin's amulet. It would have been hard even to avoid death."
Having seen through the deception, he no longer believed Lucian had any capacity to turn things around.
Tears streamed from Lucian's eyes. "Let her go! Don't you want the Silver Moon and the Netherworld's mysterious entity's fragments? I'll give them to you—all of them!"
No sooner had the words left his lips than Congers' gaze sharpened. He watched Lucian's right hand grab his left arm and, with a violent wrench, tear the entire limb clean off. White bones and tendons, red blood vessels and flesh—so blindingly vivid they were horrifying to behold.
"Don't you want it? Here—take it all!" Lucian screamed madly, hurling the arm toward Congers, his voice unmistakably cracking with sobs.
Had he gone mad from despair? Congers didn't let his guard down, carefully casting Mage Hand to catch it. Suddenly, silver-white light blazed from the severed arm. The solidified black, white, and gray rapidly spread, infecting the Mage Hand and enveloping the Demigod Lich Congers entirely.
All expression drained from Lucian's face at once. Calmly and gravely, he raised the Solar Scepter and pointed it at the void. Natasha's figure materialized. Without even glancing at the situation, she raised "Pale Justice" and struck straight at the Demigod Lich!