Chapter 563 – The Lich versus the Knight (Part 2)

Growling, Edina motioned the five death knights forward. The skeletal berinath flew circles above, waiting for its chance to strike. Spectres continued their watchful vigil. Petyr came to blows with the hulking undead. Felmetal and Shifting Steel clashed with savage weapons born of necromantic powers. The harsh ring of metal, crushed plates, and cracking bones orchestrated battle unheard of until now. Through it all, the crowned Paladin, Petyr Stormcloud held her own against monstrosities that demanded the strength of armies to fight back.

"Petyr faces an entity of endless constitution, mana, and stamina. Edina will not tire. In a battle of attrition, the lich undoubtedly wins," Archbishop Patrice explained.

"But you seemed confident about Camilla standing a chance, going as far as to suit a Saint Priest up in vaulted equipment. Clearly, you hoped to win," Kanae reminded her.

"Yet Camilla lost. Forfeited!" She groaned, demeanor souring for a moment before recomposing herself. "But yes, Camilla did have a path to victory— killing Edina."

Kanae gaped at the archbishop. Fury didn't describe what welled up within her chest, hearing that.

The archbishop continued, "Do not think me a villain, Amethyst. At the end of the day, you will always look after the Commonwealth's best interest. I must do the same for Radevic. Camilla is Radevic's greatest duelist. Her speed is unmatched. Her carefree attitude leaves no room for fear. Their exhibition proved to be a wonderful observation in calculating how one might defeat a lich."

"And that's what? Outright killing my friend?" Kanae glared.

Patrice snorted. "Don't be silly. The Edina you see here is merely a glorified suit of armor. The body's destruction sends her consciousness back to her phylactery, where she will slowly reform. Slaying a lich in the truest sense is no simple feat, given one must destroy all the soul cairns and the phylactery. However, she is very much still capable of defeat."

In other words, Petyr needed to be fighting Edina with every intent to kill her. She was probably more than happy to.

Death Knight Cantu and the other four death knights managed to surround Petyr. Their flurry of attacks forced her to be more defensive. Shifting Steel transformed back into a tower shield, blocking the heavy swings and blows. Anyone else trying to block them would have their arm broken instead. Her own attacks felt meaningless. She crushed the skull of one death knight, caving the helmet straight into the torso. The undead monstrosity staggered back and collapsed. Seconds later, necromantic threads restored it back to form.

"Tch. Fodder!" Petyr escaped through the break in their ranks

The countless undead destroyed earlier began to rise again. Petyr destroyed them a second time all the same. A single arc of her hammer pummeled through three skeletal warriors. Smashing the ground sent shockwaves of holy energy that tore swaths in their horde. The unstoppable force went straight for Edina, who watched from atop a Asa Mareer.

"On the dirt and kneel!" Petyr glowered.

"Fuck!" Edina's body moved on its own, dismounting from the gargantuan undead gwarmceros to kneel on the ground. "Protect your mistress!"

The berinath rocketed towards the earth. Petyr looked up just in time as the once mighty and magical beast chomped her whole, taking a chunk of the soil with it. A flash of golden light erupted from the seams of its closed fangs, and one side of the head exploded with flying shrapnels of bone.

"Stay down— Divine Smite!" Petyr smashed the backbone from within, sending a rippling force that traveled all the way down to the tail. It let out one final groan before sections of the spine came apart.

"Cantu, run her through!" Edina demanded, struggling against the paladin's Command skill.

"As long as I stand, none shall harm the mistress!" Cantu caught up to Petyr in his stampede. The high elf spun around too late. He grabbed her with all four arms, squeezing her tightly to his chest. She couldn't so much as swing her weapons like that.

Petyr headbutted Cantu. He recoiled in a daze but shook it off. She pulled back to do it again, and again, and again, badly denting the face of her dragonscale helmet.

"It's going to work!" Kanae gasped.

"How? That thing is an undead death knight," Patrice countered.

"Not entirely. Cantu's a mummy lord whose head Edina put onto the body of a death knight. That's very much a somewhat living head that Petyr is bashing," she explained.

One final headbutt knocked Cantu's head square off his shoulders, rolling to a stop in front of the other four death knights. His body let Petyr go and dropped to the ground to feel around for him.

"No, wait! Stop!" Cantu cried at the charging death knights. They grinded to a halt only a few feet away from stomping his head. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Petyr turned her attention away from them and to Edina instead, who rose to her feet as Command wore off.

"Clutch of the Lich Lord!" Edina fisted the air.

Just as quickly, Petyr infused Smite to the warhammer and smashed the ground. Edina hissed, waving her hand as if she had felt that. The paladin transformed Shifting Steel into a smaller, more curved hammer and flung it. Edina turned Spectral Form, and the flying weapon passed harmlessly through her. She stuck her tongue out.

"Loser!" Edina taunted.

"Fuck you!" Petyr snapped

"If you insist! It's about time I win anyway. Sacrifice Undead!" the lich boomed.

The remaining death knights and Asa Mareer, including the dragon and berinath in the middle of being restored, shattered into hundreds of thousands of bones. They flew into Edina, sticking to her to form a single enormous undead monstrosity. Six arms each holding a different weapon. Its open ribcage bristled with a foul necromantic core oozing a purplish miasma. The behemoth loomed over Petyr like a spire monument.

However, Edina's creation was only made up of the waist and above. The spine seemed to be staked to the ground, unable to move and only capable of turning.

"Die and let me raise you as a death knight, Petyr!" Edina roared, carving into the earth with the swing of her giant sword.

"After you!" Petyr made a run for the main body, but a flail in another hand knocked her away. She crashed into the side of the arena. The barrier shimmered weakly, but mages promptly reinforced it.

Kanae and Patrice flew closer to get a better look. Partially buried under rubble, Petyr shoved a chunk of stone off her chest. She got up and pulled her helmet off, resting it gingerly on the ground. Blood flowed down the right side of her face. The left eye was swollen shut.

"Lay on Hands." Petyr pressed a palm to her chest, and restorative magic healed her back to shape. The blood stopped pouring, and she regained sight in her left eye. Without her helmet, everyone saw the big wide grin on her face.

"You sure are smiley. I've always pegged you for a sore loser." Edina giggled.

"On the contrary, I'm fucking thrilled!" She broke into a full sprint towards her again.

"Has Petyr gone mad? If she gets hit again, Lay on Hands won't be available to heal her next time. Why not use Retribution's Cross now?" Archbishop Patrice wondered aloud, chewing her thumb.

Why, was right. Kanae thought the same. Maybe it was the armor around Edina? A quick look around, most of the undead were gone now. They had all become a part of her.

Petyr looked more agile now. While not the quickest, she was always surprisingly fast despite wearing a full suit of dragonscale plate and wielding felmetal. Edina lashed out with all six weapons, kicking up earth and debris. The high elf dodged it all. She snatched up Shifting Steel on the way in, transformed it into a pick, and jumped onto the behemoth.

"Get off me, you ant!" Edina almost attacked herself, but she dropped two weapons in an attempt to swipe down her giant form. But having six arms was much too crowded. She had no range of motion. The necromancer growled in frustration as Petyr scaled up the spine.

Undead that had amalgamated into the layer of armor grabbed at Petyr, only to be met with the flat of her warhammer. She scraped them off her greaves, bit down on grasping hands with her own teeth, and kicked any that dared grab her legs.

"How many Smites do you think you can take back here, CUNT?" Petyr hooked her knees around one rib and repeatedly smashed her smite-infused hammers into the spine.

Edina screamed in pain. A web of cracks glowing with holy energy snaked up her spine and intensified in brightness. All six arms desperately clawed at Petyr with little success, and finally—

The behemoth came crashing down. Petyr leaped off. Bones and fragments showered the arena. Edina hit the ground, rolling. Her combined scythe and staff had fallen away out of reach. She scrambled for it, but…

"Kneel!" Petyr commanded.

Edina tried to resist, but she ultimately dropped to one knee. Panic washed over the squirreling necromancer. With all of the death knights in pieces, the dragon and berinath in shambles, she had little else to defend her.

"Spectral Form!" Edina shouted the spell in desperation.

"Idiot. As if the incorporeal can escape divine magic— Retribution's Cross!" Petyr flung both hammers into the sky.

Kanae and Archbishop Patrice quickly moved away from their trajectory. Petyr's weapons stopped just shy of the barrier ceiling. Strands of holy energy collected on them both, glowing in intensity until they were as blinding as the sun. Nearby spectres Edina had summoned forth at the beginning of the match burned away.

Below, the giant outline of a cross enveloped Edina whole at the intersecting point. The ground hissed and smoked from searing holy magic. Kanae grimaced as her friend howled in agony.

"This isn't your fight!" Archbishop Patrice grabbed her wrist, holding on with a vise the second Kanae inched forward.

"That doesn't make watching this any easier!" Kanae winced.

The infused hammers hurled to the earth. A deafening explosion of immeasurable magnitude devastated the arena. Archbishop Patrice struggled to maintain her shield around them. The shockwave blasted them into the barrier around the stadium, which also barely maintained its integrity.

Everyone waited with bated breath for the dust to clear. Instead, a column of necromantic energy fired into the sky and destroyed the barrier outright. The cloud of dust, no longer confined, blew away from a gust of wind to reveal Petyr standing over Edina, whose body was the source of the surging pillar of magic.

Then, it stopped. Edina went still on the ground within the scorched black soil left behind by Retribution's Cross. Her body disintegrated into dust, carried away by the wind. Kanae turned pale as a ghost. She broke free from Archbishop Patrice's grasp and flew down to where Edina was just lying.

"Amethyst, declare the victor!" The archbishop descended next to her.

Petyr waited on them. She teetered on her feet, knees shaking and on the verge of collapsing.

"Your champion of Knights' Tournament, Petyr Stormcloud!" Kanae announced into the scroll which Patrice held up to her mouth.

However, Petyr didn't have time to savor the cheers. She fell sideways to the ground first, falling unconscious just like her previous match. The roaring audience had completely and utterly forgotten that Petyr had turned on Radevic once. Their energy today was greater than all of the matches combined. As confetti rained down, clerics hurried out to tend to Petyr. A few of them stopped in front of the dust left behind by Edina's body, unsure of what to do.

"I… I gotta go," Kanae said.

"What? Where? Now?" Archbishop Patrice exclaimed in exasperation.

Kanae didn't bother responding. She flew into the barrier and pounded on it until the mages opened a hole for her. She returned to Amethyst Hall without a soul present. After all, everyone was still at the stadium.

Kanae kicked open the door to Edina's room. Aside from the undead critters scurrying around, there was no sign of the soul cairn. They were a good indication that Edina wasn't dead dead though. If she was, these animals wouldn't be moving around without her magic to fuel them.

"I know you put a soul cairn in Amethyst Hall. Just where did you put it?" Kanae sighed.

A squeaking undead rat climbed onto her boot. Normally, Edina would talk through it. The little guy hopped off and took off running under the bed. Kanae kneeled down, and there it was. Resting sideways on the floor like some discarded belonging stuffed into hiding.

"Really? That's how you're treating something vital to your very existence?" Kanae reached inside to pull it out with the help of the undead rat, pushing from the other side. She sat the soul cairn upright. Fragments of souls weaved in and out of the empty sockets of each skull. Just looking at it gave her the creeps.

In this state, Edina should be extremely vulnerable. If anyone got their hands on the phylactery, she would be at their mercy. However, the urn was all the way back in Ehmvier. Or she moved it elsewhere after they moved her soul inside.

"Alright, Edina. You in there? Say something. I need to know you're okay," Kanae said to the cairn.

"Ugghhhh…" Agonizing groans echoed all around. "I'm in sooooo much pain…"

"Edina! Is that you?"

"Not so loud, please… I didn't know dying hurt this bad. It's worse than a migraine dialed up to a hundred… Don't tell Claudia, or she'll pester me to show her. What in three hells happened?" Edina grumbled.

Kanae breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. Even if it was just Edina's disembodied voice, hearing from her washed away most of the worry.

"You lost to Petyr in the final match. She hit you pretty good with Retribution's Cross. Your body exploded," Kanae said.

"She actually KILLED me? Are you fucking serious? Fuck! I thought for sure I had her. I can't remember the last few minutes of the fight, but I kinda knew something bad was coming." Edina groaned in despair.

So, what now? Are you coming back as a ghost next?" She laughed.

"Pft. Arenade would like that, wouldn't she? Nah. I'm just gonna go to sleep for a bit. I'll come back… I dunno when. Hopefully soon. I feel myself regenerating though. Once I'm ready, my phylactery will pop me right out."

Kanae felt a load lift from her shoulders. She leaned back against Edina's bed, cradling the soul cairn in both arms.

"Awww, were you worried about me?" Edina teased.

"No, of course not. Why would I be worried about the greatest necromancer in the world?" Kanae chuckled.

"Hehe. You got that right! I expected nothing less from my best friend. Anywho… I'm getting tired. Snoozing as a disembodied soul is kinda comfy. I'll… check in… as soon as I'm…" The squirreling didn't finish the rest of her sentence, and the soul cairn had mostly fallen silent.

"Yep. I'll see you later, buddy," she whispered.