Chapter 86: Ash to Ash
The world blurred into a motion-drenched haze.
The lich’s attention locked onto the rising star that was Dominic Kane. Its jaws parted, and the dark energy around it compressed into a single, terrible focus.
"You persistent little pest!" it bellowed, its thunderous voice shaking the heavens, resonating with fury and disdain. "You think you can stop me? You’re nothing! A lowly cockroach crawling toward the inevitable boot that will crush you!"
It lifted one gnarled hand.
The beam of pure annihilation that had been erasing the city now turned. It was the same attack, the same colossal pillar of absolute darkness that had been carving a path through the capital. It shifted, swung, and aimed directly at Dominic. A column of nothingness, so deep black that it seemed to devour all surrounding light, shot toward him with the weight of a falling sky.
Dominic flew straight into it.
The anti-magic blade of the halberd touched the beam, and the world became a scream. For a single, terrible moment, Dominic felt the darkness’s chilling hunger, the incomprehensible emptiness that sought to unmake everything, including him. It pressed against him from all sides, a pressure beyond pain, a cold that reached into the very core of his being.
But the halberd flared.
It was not a light that faded. It was a blade of pure, stubborn defiance. The anti-magic edge cut into the beam, and where it touched, the darkness broke. It split apart, parting around him like a river around a stone. The column of annihilation that had been erasing city blocks now had a gap in its heart—a narrow, impossible gap, through which Dominic shot like a bullet piercing thick smoke.
The beam continued to fall behind him, still ravaging the city, but he was through.
The lich towered before him, immense and terrifying, its glowing eyes wide with something it had not felt in centuries: shock.
"You cannot—" it started.
But Dominic was already rising.
The force of Florence’s throw carried him higher than the lich itself, his body arcing upward, the halberd still blazing in his hands. And then, at the apex of his climb, he twisted.
He raised the halberd high.
And dove downward.
The halberd’s blade drove straight into the lich’s chest, piercing through its dark, necrotic flesh.
The impact was colossal.
Dominic’s momentum drove the gleaming silver halberd deep into the lich’s ribcage, splitting through the brittle bones and through the writhing shadows coiled around its form. The anti-magic edge erupted with a sudden flare of radiant blue light, burning fiercely as it tore through the dark enchantments, unraveling the necromantic magic that bound the creature together.
The lich emitted a piercing scream, a deafening, echoing cry that shattered windows for miles and sent a cascade of fresh cracks across the ruined streets.
It thrashed violently, warping the air as its claws slashed outward, while shadowy tendrils writhed and lunged, seeking to envelop and consume Dominic. He held his ground, muscles straining and his body aching, refusing to release his grip. The halberd remained embedded within the creature, relentless in its destructive path.
Then, without warning, gravity claimed them both.
The lich toppled backward, dragging Dominic down with it as the world spun wildly around them. The sky roared with tumult, and a swirling vortex of energy churned fiercely. Together, they plunged from the stormy heavens, bound in a deadly descent toward the battered, smoldering earth below.
The impact shattered the ruins for a hundred meters in every direction, creating a deafening shockwave that caused the ground to tremble violently. Stone turned into fine powder and dust, settling slowly over the debris-strewn battlefield. The earth buckled and split open, throwing up a cloud of dust and shattered masonry that spiraled into the churning, darkening sky.
The shockwave rippled through the streets with a force that knocked soldiers and adventurers from their feet, their armor clattering and weapons slipping from their grasp. Those watching from the edges of the Tribunal district shielded their eyes as billowing clouds of dust, smoke, and the acrid scent of scorched earth swallowed the battlefield in a suffocating haze.
At the center of the crater, the lich lay impaled on a massive, blood-stained halberd. The weapon was deeply embedded in its chest, its anti-magic edge still flickering with fiery blue sparks, burning brightly as it unravelled the dark magic that bound the creature together. The lich’s withered, skeletal body twitched spasmodically, its claws scraping feebly at the cold, packed earth. Its icy, fathomless eyes, now betraying an ember of vulnerability, gazed upward at the ominous sky above, streaked with dark clouds and flickering lightning.
Dominic lay a few paces away, trembling. He had rolled clear at the last possible moment, throwing himself aside to escape the worst of the blast radius. His body was wracked with pain; his muscles ached, and blood trickled from a cut on his forehead, staining his clothes. His arms and ribs throbbed with pain. The amplification of his magic still flickered faintly within him, but now it wavered and faded, leaving behind a deep, bone-weary exhaustion that made each breath laborious.
Despite everything, he was alive.
And the lich was defeated, but the counter attack wasn’t over.
Theresa had been chanting steadily since before Dominic was thrown into the midst of the chaos. The Astral Grimoire was open in her trembling hands, its ancient, rune-etched pages blazing with an intense, golden fire that seemed to flicker with a life of its own.
The incantation that had been building within her chest now spilled from her lips in a rapid, relentless stream, each word merging into a single, rising note of pure, unfiltered power that echoed through the air.
The sky responded.
Above the capital, the churning black clouds parted suddenly, splitting with a violent crack, and jagged lightning descended like celestial swords. It did not strike just once or twice; instead, it rained down in a relentless, crackling barrage, bolt after bolt of blinding, golden-white fury that lanced from the heavens in a storm of divine retribution. Each bolt targeted the same thing.
The halberd.
The anti-magic blade, forged with gleaming runes etched along its length, acted as a lightning rod, channeling every strike directly into the ashes and ruin of the lich’s desiccated chest. The creature shrieked, a sound raw and primal, more a scream of agony than the thunderous voice it had previously used, echoing with pure torment. The lightning seared through its shadow-stuff flesh, turning it to smoke and ash, leaving behind a faint, acrid smell in the air.
The lich thrashed violently, claws gouging deep furrows into the cracked stone beneath it. It struggled, trying to rise and wrench the halberd free, but its charred, smoking hands sparked and sizzled against the enchanted steel. The anti-magic blade had become a deadly poison to it, unmaking the very fabric of its being with each passing second.
𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
"You... cannot..." it hissed, its voice cracking and crackling with static interference. "I am... eternal..."
It laughed, a broken, horrible sound that resembled the rattling of old bones more than any semblance of human mirth. Yet, unmistakably, it was laughter.
"You think this is victory?" the lich rasped, its head turning sluggishly toward Dominic, its once-blazing eyes now dimming but still burning with a cold, feral light. "You believe you can truly kill me? I am but a servant, a vessel. The Eternal Will has many hands, and all of them are reaching for your world."
Its gaze swept over the destroyed skyline, the streets engulfed in flames, and the terrified faces of witnesses frozen in horror.
"The reckoning is coming," it declared. "And you will all burn—"
A soft, wet sound interrupted its final words, drawing everyone’s attention.
A small blue shape tumbled from the lip of the crater. It was a Wobbly clone, dirtier, scorched in patches, yet unmistakably alive. It bounded down the jagged slope and stopped near Dominic’s side, clutching a translucent body pulsating with ominous light, the phylactery. The lich’s eyes snapped to it.
"No—" he began, but the clone spat the phylactery into the air.
The life vessel spun wildly, trailing dark ribbons of energy, rising a few feet before beginning its descent.
And the clone made no move to catch it.
Instead, it dissolved into a shimmering flow, merging seamlessly back into the larger Wobbly coiled around Dominic’s shoulders. The original Wobbly swelled, its glow flickering then stabilizing.
The phylactery struck the stone with a dull thud.
Silence stretched heavy as everyone waited, hearts pounding.
Then, Dominic’s lips curled into a thin, bloody smile, yet a genuine one.
"You’re right," he rasped, voice shaky but firm. "The reckoning is coming. But you won’t live to see it."
He fixed his gaze on Wobbly.
"Eat."
Without hesitation, Wobbly surged forward, its form flowing over the broken stones, swallowing the phylactery whole. The lich let out a scream, beyond sound, beyond magic, beyond mortality. Its body spasmed, shadows ripping away in ragged shreds as centuries of life essence was devoured.
The light in the lich’s eyes flickered out.
It tried to speak, to curse, to vow revenge, but no words came.
Its form crumbled inward like ash, and its dark magic dissolved into the wind.
The lich was gone.