Lich Lord, Chapter 148

Damien and Ilore were on the edges of my mindscape. When I got there, they were working on a ritual in smooth stone.  Once I understood it I nodded in approval and asked. “Trying to replicate the barrier that once held this place closed off?”

“Yes,” Ilore said. “My ability to work time magic is helping, though I doubt we’ll get anything even close.”

This wasn’t them doubting their skills, Damien by himself was far more talented at ritual magic than I was, comparing his skills made me look like a child playing with crayons. And I was certain Ilore was quite a bit more skilled than me as well. The barrier we were talking about had been around my mindscape had been created by Altor himself, who was the creator of this entire place, back when I got sent over to this world.

There was no way we could truly replicate what he’d done. “Even if it’s just an imitation of it I’m still certain it will be immensely powerful.”

“It should be,” Damien agreed. “However, you might need to face another core memory so that we have the mental energy to power this hungry barrier. Anyways, what did you want to ask me about?”

I shuddered because I did not look forward to facing another core memory, but I did plan on doing it eventually. “Life thieves, what would an evolution for them look like?”

Ilore winced at my question and Damien gestured for us to fly off. The time wizard was a lot more accepting of what I was and what Damien was than she had been when I asked her to help me. Heck from what I understood, her and Damien were doing the tango—and no, I don’t want to think about what that means since it’s inside my mindscape. But the topic of undead was still not her favorite.

“I saw Vito had managed to get you some of those,” Damien floated over and sat down on a rock outcropping. “Life thieves are very interesting, with their etheric trait They’re really hard to kill.”

“I guess that’s good considering it’s hard to get more,” I said, taking a seat next to him and leaning back on my arms.

“Yeah,” Damien agreed. “You can forcibly cause the situations that gives the required materials to create them, but I have the feeling you don’t have the stomach for something like that.” There was no judging undertone in those words, though Damien, like Vito, didn’t actually understand my hesitations. “Anyways, one of the interesting things about life thieves is that one of their two most common evolutions isn’t just a single advancement in grade.”

“Okay, I’m assuming that means it’s a pain to do,” I said.

“For most, definitely, the divine power is really hard to acquire.” He paused. “Though, I guess you already have access to some. The other materials are still hard to get but that would’ve been the single biggest hangup. The first evolution is something called a life poacher. If they consume enough of their targets’ life force, they will gain minor versions of their abilities. If they fully consumed that target’s life force, they get one of those abilities permanently.”

“That sounds really good,” I said. “What’s needed for that evolution?”

“A bunch of different stuff, but mostly they need to have consumed enough life force.” Damien shrugged. “I’ll get a list together for you, but I honestly would recommend trying for the other evolution since you have access to the divine energy to do so. It will take a while and some really hard to get stuff, but the power is worth it.”

“Okay you have me hooked, what is it?”

“Reaper,” Damien said simply. “More accurately, lesser reaper, but a reaper is still a reaper.”

“You mean like a soul reaper?” I looked at him in disbelief.

“That’s exactly what I mean. It is why they require divine energy to create. Where life thieves are hard to kill, reapers are almost impossible to kill, at most they just become discorporate and reappear.”

“Sooo… what does it take?” I was certain it would not be easy.

“Along with divine energy, for it to happen in a non-natural manner you will also need a ritual with soul energy, a death core infused with eldritch power if you want them to have eldritch abilities,” Damien continued listing off resources. This was going to be a long-term project.

Before I left, I told Damien they should work on making something that would allow me to more easily bring information out of the mindscape, something like a messaging board. Because there is no way I was going to remember all of the ingredients. He just laughed it off and told me he would figure something out.

“One last thing before you go,” Damien said, stopping me from disappearing. “Do not be too hasty to level your troops, that will end up eating more command points than you realize. It is possible to command very powerful individual soldiers, but they eat up exponentially more command after a little while. The strength of the undead lies in numbers not necessarily individual power.”

***

We stood in the gatehouse with Vito out in the cavern. Beyond us my troops were arranged in columns. Vito had created five controller types of the sergeant rank. As a sergeant, they could command up to twenty troops with a one command point cost. That meant for each leader of sergeant rank they could command 200 mindless zombies.

The mindless undead stood in five, roughly column-shaped sections. Considering what they were I was impressed.

“I will keep working on getting the commanders that can lead troops to you,” Vito said. “I will also further develop the defenses around your phylactery. Watch out for that priest. The defenses will not completely stop him, only trap him temporarily.”

“I’m hoping Friar Brown will deal with him for me,” I said. The power of the priest that had nearly killed me was why we’d all been grinding so hard. I was still a long way from catching up, but I was a lot stronger than I was last time.

“Also, if you get the chance, you should consider your own race advancement.” When I gave Vito a questioning look he explained. “You aren’t an elder lich, but you could become one.”

“What would that mean?” I asked.

“Becoming an elder lich wouldn’t change much, with the biggest difference being your eldritch magic becoming more potent. The reason you should consider it, and why I am telling you this, is that it also makes your soul more difficult for non-eldritch beings to understand and interact with.”

“What would it take? I don’t have to sacrifice another city, do I?”

Vito laughed. “No, it requires you to find a compatible substance that is old and infuse it with your eldritch power. We could’ve used the Nephelium bones, but that would’ve been a waste.”

“And then what, I eat it?” I asked raising my eyebrow, which I had now.

“Not a bad guess,” Vito shook his head. “But no, it will take some more work after that, but once you have the right object, get word back to me and I will help you with the rest.”

After assuring him that I would keep an eye out for something like he described, we headed back to the dungeon. When we arrived we saw Kellnock waiting for us at the edge of the dungeon. “Please follow me.”

As Kellnock led us into the dungeon, I lead my army as a solid column of packed troops through the halls we passed. We came out onto the open section of the harbor where supplies were set out in heaps. “I also modified the armor taken from those who risked it in the duels for the Terhaim. I focused on armor for the front line, though I did specifically have a bow for E’lon.”

I was about to ask Kellnock about the supplies when a suprising notification appeared before me.

Your dungeon, the Reliquary of the Damned, is under attack.