Chapter 372: Giving The Lich An Honorable Death, Learning About His Original World

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Riven quickly reached the Lich, who had no room left to retreat, and confronted him without fear. Rather than backing away, the Lich raised his staff and gathered all the magic he could command.

"You will know the might of the Great Magus of the Dark Tower! Kahahahahaha!"

The Lich laughed maniacally and unleashed his most potent magic. Black Flames bombarded Riven from above. Purple Lightning struck his body, while Shadows surged beneath his feet and took the form of serpents and enormous jaws that bit into him from every direction.

At the same time, the Lich summoned the upper half of a titanic skeleton behind him. It began punching Riven with all its might, its enormous fists crashing down hard enough to shatter the floor and send broken stone flying across the chamber.

However...

"Your magic is quite impressive."

Riven continued walking forward. The spells struck him one after another, but none of them stopped his advance. He lifted his bare hand and swung it horizontally as if it were a sword.

Abyssal Assault Arts Internalization – Umbral Sword Hand.

By internalizing Abyssal Assault Arts and combining them with Ki, Riven had reached even greater heights of power. His body no longer needed a weapon to reproduce the technique. Every part of him could become a blade as he continued evolving without a ceiling!

SLAAAASH!

A massive black slash of pure umbral darkness tore through the chamber and consumed the Lich’s spells. His barrier resisted for only a moment. Cracks spread across their surface before they shattered under the overwhelming force.

Crack, crack...!

CRASH!

"G-Gaaaaaaahhhh! Impossible...!"

The Lich screamed, almost as if he were enjoying the battle. For one brief moment, as his core was cleaved in two and his body began to explode, Riven could have sworn he saw a spirit emerge from within him.

It resembled a handsome young man with short black hair, and he was smiling. Perhaps this was the person the Lich had once been, finally satisfied that his long imprisonment had ended in a real fight.

BOOOMMM!!!

Once the Lich died, the remaining Undead stopped moving. Their weapons slipped from their hands, and their bodies quickly fell like puppets whose strings had been cut.

With their master gone, the battle was over.

It had not been difficult for Riven. He was already far too strong for an enemy at this level. Every curse the Lich had cast on him had failed, and although his spells were powerful, they had not been enough to leave a scratch.

Even so, Riven did not regret freeing him. For a few moments, the Lich had been allowed to fight as the ruler of this dungeon instead of dying while chained to a wall.

"It’s done."

Riven looked at the remains of the Lich Lord. He gave the shattered core one final glance before storing the body, staff, and everything else in his Shadow Inventory. Then he turned toward the Dungeon Core at the center of the chamber.

He brushed away the dust and soot covering it, revealing a beautiful blue crystal ball beneath the grime. Faint light moved within its depths as if the dungeon itself were still breathing. Riven placed his hand against its surface and immediately began the bonding process.

Beside him, the Sovereign Codex manifested, and the Authority of Pride once more answered the call of a newly conquered dungeon. Its pages turned by themselves as power flowed from the Core and gathered around Riven.

The moment the bond was completed, memories flooded his mind. They belonged to this fallen, fragmented world and to the countless lives that had once existed within it.

It was a fantasy world like many he had seen before, divided among kingdoms and vast wildlands where monsters prowled. Humans and other races have built cities, fought wars, and raised heroes to protect their people. For a long time, their world continued like any other.

Then, at some point in history, the Evening Star fell onto the planet. It was a giant obsidian meteor carrying massive quantities of Nether and Ghostly Energy. Its arrival poisoned the land and changed both the living and the dead.

The infection spread across the world until it became what people in Earth’s modern era would call a "Zombie Apocalypse." Kingdoms collapsed one after another, and those who survived were forced to fight against the remains of their own people as the endless horde of undead continued growing endlessly.

People were slowly turned into Zombies and even Skeletons, losing their memories and attacking anyone who crossed their path. The stronger Undead fought and devoured one another to evolve, while the weaker ones gathered into hordes and hunted the living.

Every town they destroyed became part of the "Domain of Death," a growing territory where plants withered, rivers darkened, and the dead refused to remain buried. Those who escaped carried terrifying stories of entire villages disappearing overnight, only for their former residents to return as monsters.

An evil presence slowly spread across the world, corrupting the land and strengthening every Undead creature within its reach. Kingdom after Kingdom fell before the endless hordes. Armies were overwhelmed, cities were abandoned, and the survivors fled toward the only nation that continued to resist.

The last standing Kingdom, Evercrest, gathered every soldier, knight, mercenary, and mage it could find. Its people built walls around the capital, burned the bodies of the fallen, and fought with everything they had to keep the Domain of Death from swallowing their home.

At the center of Evercrest’ resistance were two royal siblings, an elder brother and a younger brother.

The elder was the King, a respected warrior who commanded the armies and refused to abandon his people.

His younger brother was a genius of magic who had studied every known school of sorcery since childhood.

While the King strengthened the defenses and led his soldiers into battle, the younger prince searched for a way to destroy the evil controlling the Undead.

They were very different, but they trusted each other completely, and the survival of Evercrest soon depended on them both.

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