The First Lich Lord

Chapter 35

I appeared in the middle of the mindscape, the compound having grown with Damien and Ilore working on it.

Are you okay? Damien asked when he saw me.

Yeah, that village just shook me up, I assured him.

Well, there was some good to come out of it, Damien said. The way your mind reacted caused the stronger emotions tied to what you saw to act up. None are core emotions, but they did reveal their locations to us.

I dont have a lot of time, but we should go try and capture a couple of them, I suggested.

Wed discovered that the core emotions were often hidden inside strongholds or dungeons. While lesser emotions, things like envy or success, were more often than not monsters wandering around my broken mindscape. They were much easier to deal with, even if they were individually more powerful than the bosses.

From what Ilore said, it seemed like the core emotions in the strongholds distributed their power to minions. It made them harder to deal with, but weakened the emotions avatar. The power of the emotions wandering around the mindscape varied greatly. The weaker ones, Damien said, were emotions I didnt feel strongly, while the stronger ones were those that affected me more.

I think we should go after regret, Damien said. Before all of this, it wasnt something you felt very often, which was quite remarkable considering how much you didnt like where you wound up in life. With this fight at the village, you immediately regretted your actions, while that gave it more power than normal, it also made it easier to find.

Shall we use the battleship? I asked, trusting Damiens guidance. If we do capture it though, lets not fix it right away. I feel like regret is a dangerous emotion to have when I dont have other emotions to balance it. I struggle enough with love and not being a weirdo.

Thats fair, Damien chuckled. You really annoyed Raven there for a few days.

I snorted at the memory. When that primary emotion was first returned, Id been incredibly clingy with the lynx. To the point she started hissing at me whenever I came near. That being said, her presence helped me get a handle on reigning in that emotion. I was just glad Rhea hadnt visited during that time period.

Our battleship moved through my mindscape, soaring past dozens of islands. You think the floating islands will remain when this is all done? I asked. Part of me will be sad to see them go.

I actually think they will, Ilore said. Even as we stabilize different regions, they havent quit floating. Though we have gained a certain amount of control over how they float, and have been able to stop them from colliding with each other.

Thats good. I hadnt seen any islands collide, but I can imagine how that would be an issue. Maybe we can turn more of my mental defenses into these battleships. Instead of having fixed in place defenses, well have a fleet of ships to attack anyone who dares come here.

That would be a novel defense, Damien said. I dont know how well that would work outside your mindscape, but they would be powerful.

I would guess without serious measures taken they wont fly outside your mindscape, Ilore said. Though it might be possible to make work. Either way, your mindscape is likely going to be one of the hardest for anyone to ever assault, even without a defensive force.

Why is that? An island that had a waterfall looping around its base and back up to its top floated past, making me smile.

Because, any invasion force sent here will be affected by the strange gravitational forces as soon as they enter, Damien answered. Formations wont matter and abilities would be harder to use. We can innately use abilities here because were natives, but others will have a very hard time gauging how their abilities are affected.

This is very true, Ilore agreed. When I first got here, it took me a bit to adjust my powers to work in this place. Though some of that had to do with the time distortion effects.

Ilore, Ive been meaning to ask I gave her a hopeful look. Can you teach me time magic?

She didnt answer. Just looked at me for a long time. I now wore black robes to hide my skeletal body. When wed gotten one of the emotions back, some of my organs had reappeared, and I was quite disturbing to look at.

You know, when I first met you, I thought you were just a monster, Ilore finally said. I had never heard of a Lich who wasnt one. But watching you over these past months has made me realize that youre different.

Of course, hes different, Damien practically shouted. I tried to explain that to you. He didnt necessarily choose to be a Lich. He saw this world very differently just a place to blow off steamhe didnt know it was real.

So you say, Ilore said. Still, to become a Lich, especially one of your power, means you had to do horrible things in this world. A world I care about.

Youre not wrong, I said somberly. Though I disagree with the whole power thing. Im quite weak if you havent noticed.

The power of a Lich is not solely dependent on their level, Ilore said. A lot of it has to come from the power of the ritual that turned them. According to Damien, you sacrificed the entire city. And not just any city, a capital city. You have the potential to be one of the most powerful Lichs ever created. However, despite the atrocities you committed to create yourself, I am beginning to understand what Damien means I will think about teaching you time magic.

Thank you, Ilore, I said sincerely.

We continued through my mindscape until we came to a larger island, which we began to circle.

Its here somewhere, Damien said.

It didnt take us very long to find the emotion. It was a robed figure covered in a dark blue robe. It seemed to glide along the ground at a slow rate. We tried firing our cannons at it, but the big weapons of the battleship continuously missed, deflected by some unseen force.

Were going to have to fight on the ground, Ilore said. But first let me try something.

Ilore took control of her cannon, powering it up. The spell flared, and the twisting gray magic flashed down toward the creature. A dome appeared just before the beam struck the creature. Many of the grey tendrils of magic spent themselves against the dome, but it wasnt a total loss. A pair managed to punch through.

The creature staggered when the time magic slammed into it.

Go now! Ilore said, rushing to the ships edge and jumping off.

Damien and I followed, accelerating until we passed her, and slammed into the ground before the dome could reestablish itself. We were inside the emotions protective dome, and the grey time magic remained wrapped around the robed creature, constricting it. I rushed forward. Dark magic flowed from Damien, bringing forth a bone golem that ran beside me.

The emotion was bigger than it initially appearedtwice the size of the bone golembut that didnt intimidate me. This was my mindscape.

The creature raised a robed arm, and a twisting beam of blue energy arced out toward me. I kept my pace, leveling my staff, and let my blade meet the attack. The beam split and shot to either side of me.

Despite having countered the attack, the beam itself emitted a strange sound filled with disembodied voices, wailing and whimpering. They eerily resembled my voice. Especially one that sounded like regretful sobbing. I did not want to know what wouldve happened if that beam had struck me.

In the next instant, I was upon the emotion, and slashed deep into the creature, leaving a massive rent in its robe. Beneath the robe, was a skeletal body surrounded by a miasma of swirling blue energy. The creature roared in anger, unleashing another ball of blue energy.

I dodge to the side, and the bone golem leapt into the fray. Damien timed his own attacks to assist his minion in a barrage of dark bolts that ripped into the robed figure. A moment later, great tendrils of magic from Ilore reached out and amplified her magic already slowing it down.

There was a surge of energy and the bone golem was tossed back. Blue energy left behind blue flames that dissolved its bones. Before the bone golem hit the ground, it had been burned to nothing. I swiped at the creature with my blade-staff, scoring another deep tear that let more of the blue miasma free.

Ilore and Damien continued their barrage, and the creature turned its focus on them.

My job was to buy them time and not let enemies close in on them. As the robed figure made to attack, I drove my blade-staff down, stabbing through its robe and pinning it to the ground. Before the creature could free itself, I quickly twisted the staff, balling the fabric around it and making it harder to rip away.

The creature struggled, ripping the rents wider. As more energy escaped, I got an idea. I continued to twist my staff as fast as I could, twisting the fabric more and more, the rents grew wider and the creature turned desperate, unable to escape Ilore in Damiens hammering attacks.

When I thought I had enough of the fabric wrapped around my blade to prevent it from cutting through, I yanked, receiving a satisfying ripping sound. My strength here was immense, and was why I focused on melee fighting and not magic in here. The creature shrieked and a wave of blue energy washed over me. My own clothes smoldered against blue flames, but I refused to let up, pulling all the more.

The creature decided to follow me instead of letting its robes rip any further, and the tension slackened. Damien and Ilore caught on to what I was doing, and a rope made of black and gray magic wrapped around the creature, pulling it in the other direction.

All thought of offense fled the creature, and it thrashed about madly, but we did not relent.

Something gave. A loud ripping could be heard over its cries, and almost half the robe on the lower half was torn away, revealing the skeletal body underneath. The miasma of blue energy went wild, and I leapt back just as it expanded into an angry blue cloud. Blue flames coated the ground around it, dissolving all they touched.

Damien and Ilore shifted their rope, and it became a burning noose that tore into the creature. I changed my grip on my blade-staff and hurled it like a javelin, aiming for the creatures head. It punched through, stopping halfwaythe blade gleaming on one side, shaft on the other.

I shifted over to magic, and the three of us poured attack spells into the creature as fast as we could. The blue cloud around the lower part of the emotion remained, keeping us at a distance, but it soon began to fade, burning away under our spells.

With a shriek, the creature exploded into a gaseous mist that quickly faded.

Left behind in a crater was a skeleton, and already there was a miasma energy building around it. Ilore acted fast, despite how tired she appeared. This was too great an opportunity to let up now. Binding spell after binding spell fell upon the creature, covering it in constricting chains of gray magic. Blue energy continued to build around the chains, so we layered in our own dark magic to suppress it.

By the time we subdued the emotion completely, we were all exhausted.

Good call on ripping off the robe, Damien said. This fight wouldve taken a while without that.

Once I was certain the skeleton was fully subdued, I extracted my blade-staff from its head. Im just glad it worked. That blue magic is dangerous.

Damien looked at the smooth crater we were standing in. No kidding.

Now that this is done, I really should be going. Max is bound to be waking me up soon.

Of course, Ilore said. We will track down where the other emotions that flared up are and be ready to hunt them down later.

Sounds good to me. I waved as I focused on leaving the mindscape.

The world faded and I slipped into something similar to a deep, dreamless sleep. My last thoughts were satisfaction. Despite not feeling great about what Id done in the physical world, I was truly making progress in repairing who Id been.