"No response?"
"There really is something off!"
Lucian felt a jolt of shock, but also a sense of inevitability — as though something he'd been waiting for had finally happened, and the last shoe had finally dropped.
He didn't waste another moment trying to call out. Without hesitation, Lucian gave the order: have the "Lightning Angel" hiding in the other air-raid shelter make its move!
"Preparing for the unexpected" meant preparing for something going wrong with Aire!
The Sphere of Annihilation that seemed capable of creating nothingness solidified into form. Two needle-thin points of red light atop Congus's white skull locked onto Lucian, fixing him in place with a chill that rose from the depths of his soul.
Suddenly, another figure shot out from behind Congus's left side. Six wings spread from its back, wreathed in lightning and holy radiance, trailing the residual aura of the divine domain — as if *it* were the true master of this realm.
As the imposter Seraphim, it existed at the second tier of power within the divine domain, and could exercise a portion of Aire's authority on his behalf!
No expression could be read on Congus's white skull. The Sphere of Annihilation flickered and appeared right beside Lucian, while Congus had already murmured a spell at some indiscernible moment: "Soul Imprisonment."
He had been on guard against the near-ninth-rank Lord of the Divine Domain using the Ring of Congus to ambush him — it held several Legendary-grade spells!
"Soul…" A harsh, grating voice nearly overlapped Congus's incantation, and a massive wave of magical power surged forth.
Congus had no attention to spare for the stone-like Lord of the Divine Domain frozen in place. Stunned, he discovered that a dark, eerie ring now adorned Lucian's right hand — and the sight was devastatingly familiar.
"He just ascended to the High Rank. How could his World of Cognition possibly have solidified?!"
"How is this possible?!"
In that instant, Congus suffered the hallucination that his soul was shattering, that his World of Cognition was collapsing — it completely violated everything he knew!
"…Imprisonment!" The strange, uncanny syllable fell, and Lucian's spiritual power poured into the Ring of Congus like a river breaching its dam, ceaseless and overwhelming. At the very instant the Sphere of Annihilation struck, the trigger spell activated, teleporting him to the other side. He broke free of the lock-on and watched as that patch of ruins turned into a churning "black" of annihilation.
Phantom souls materialized around Congus, trailing wispy tails as they burrowed toward his body. In that moment, the two red needle-points on Congus's face froze in place, ceasing all flickering. The Zone of Time Stop collapsed as well, and Natasha recovered to normal. Without so much as a glance at Congus, she swung her sword toward a corner of the ruins.
Then, a faint magical fluctuation rippled from the white bone frame wrapped in spectral souls. Congus vanished from where he stood, reappearing in a nearby corner — shaking off the phantom souls that hadn't yet truly burrowed in — but his forehead met the blade of "Justice of the Pale" head-on!
This was Lucian's estimate and arrangement based on the effect of "Brief Teleportation." When holy aura from the divine domain existed elsewhere, an undead creature's instinct had an eighty percent chance of choosing *this* location!
And Congus, momentarily affected by "Soul Imprisonment," was incapable of rational thought — he could only rely on instinct!
A resolute, gentle radiance bloomed along the longsword, two phantom and terrifying spatial tears coiling around it. Congus's black cloak split apart, his pristine white skeleton collapsed with a clatter, and his white skull cracked into three pieces. A shrill, piercing shriek erupted from his mouth.
But at that very moment, the golden skull spun once on the spot, and a sensation of warped space and time enveloped it.
By the time everything settled, Congus had vanished without a trace — and Natasha had been struck directly by the force of that scream.
Even with Justice of the Pale blocking the worst of it, she was sent hurtling backward by the terrifying sonic wave, crashing heavily to the ground. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She was gravely wounded.
"A Chaos Teleport… Still couldn't kill him. Legendaries really are hard to put down." Lucian's spiritual power was nearly depleted; he could barely raise his hand. "We need to leave — now. Get far away. Congus hasn't actually lost any meaningful portion of his strength."
The demilich's true body was that golden skull. The skeleton frame existed mainly to sustain certain permanent enchantments — losing it was no great loss. Right now, Congus still retained at least ninety-five percent of his power. Once he returned, he would almost certainly unleash Legendary spells in his fury. And with Lucian's spiritual power spent and Natasha badly wounded, if they didn't seize this chance to flee, the only option left would be the nearly mutual-destruction gambit — and nothing else.
Natasha wasted no words. She limped to Lucian's side, steadied him, and prepared to leave Death Valley. The intervals between the Necromantic Realm's mysterious entity's manifestations were growing longer and longer. If they could get beyond a thousand meters before Congus returned, he wouldn't be able to track them down as easily as before. This was their first real glimpse of a chance to survive!
"I'm badly hurt, but I can still keep up a reasonable pace. As long as Congus teleports even a little farther out, we'll be safe." Natasha offered Lucian a reassured smile, even as she warily scanned their surroundings. She didn't need Lucian's warning — seeing the Lightning Angel standing motionless there told her everything. Aire had a problem. She needed to be careful.
Over the telepathic link, before Lucian could finish speaking, the world around them underwent a cataclysmic change. The collapsed ruins rose back up, the little town adorned with jasper and jade returned to pristine splendor as though fresh from yesterday, and the lovely hymns and pervasive radiance reappeared, dressing everything up to look like the true Heavenly Mountain — save that the pure white souls and angels were nowhere to be seen.
Aire emerged from the "air-raid shelter," wearing an olive wreath and a white robe, his slender hands empty, smiling at Lucian and Natasha with her sword held at a slant: "One of you has no spiritual power left, and the other is gravely wounded and weakened. Even with a Legendary ring and a sword on par with a Legendary weapon, you have absolutely no capacity to resist."
His aura was ethereal and shifting, deeply intimidating — but Natasha refused to surrender meekly. Gritting her teeth, she raised her sword to charge.
At that moment, Lucian discreetly patted her arm and said through the telepathic link: "Wait a little longer. There's still a chance. When the time comes, run — run as hard as you can, and don't look back."
"You're planning to die together with him?" Natasha's voice trembled slightly.
Lucian smiled. "There's still a reasonable chance I'll survive. Over these past two days, the fragments of the Necromantic Realm's mysterious entity have weakened tremendously. Even if Eterna lets go of all control and attacks, there's still a good chance my physical body will decay but my soul can hide inside the 'Immortal Throne' magical robe. Transcendent items don't rot that easily. After that, I'll need your help. What's the big deal about a mage switching to a new body?"
"But…" Natasha seemed to want to say more, because this was only Lucian's own reasoning — and if the residual power of the fragments exceeded his estimates, both the item and the soul within it would be destroyed together.