Chapter 744: The Reliquary of Death
Vel’Kha’Lems offered two small crystalline orbs that hovered in the air toward Ethan. From within the containers, faint yet harrowing wails and agonizing laments echoed out.
[Master, activate your amethyst eyes,] Crul suggested in his mind.
Ethan channeled his energy and activated his spiritual vision. Instantly, the crystal turned transparent to his eyes, revealing the interior of the vessels. He could see two tiny spectral figures—the souls of the Sect Leader and the Grand Elder—writhing and plunging into a sea of spectral green fire, screaming endlessly as the lich’s flames devoured their essences over and over again.
Ethan stowed the orbs with an ice-cold smile.
"I am returning to the realm, Vel’Kha’Lems. It will take me some time to come back to this place," Ethan told him, preparing to turn around.
"Wait, Master," the lich hurriedly intervened. Vel’Kha’Lems knelt upon the deck and extended his bony hands, holding out a translucent orb within which a dense black smoke danced. "This will serve you on your journey."
Ethan looked at the artifact with curiosity. "What is this?"
"It is the Reliquary of Death, Master," Vel’Kha’Lems explained with profound respect. "A mystic container designed to house undead forces. You need only hold it up and command them to enter."
Ethan raised the orb and issued the command in his mind. Immediately, the hundreds of undead deployed in the area, including the imposing Death Knights, dissolved into wisps of shadow and were rapidly sucked into the interior of the orb.
After watching the army being stowed away, the lich’s projection looked up at Ethan.
"I have loosened my shackles enough to step out a certain distance from this place," Vel’Kha’Lems told him. "So I will await you here, Master. I am certain you will keep your word to set me free in the future."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "So you will no longer draw blood through the servitude marks?"
"No, Master," the lich replied submissively. "You will be far too distant, so there is no need to maintain that connection. I only ask that you remember me as you wander the world."
Vel’Kha’Lems was betting all his chips on Ethan. Despite his ancient age and power, the lich had been far too impressed by the young man’s growth and unfathomable potential to ever doubt his sincerity.
Ethan gazed at the orb in his hand, feeling the dense dark energy pulsing within it.
"Thank you for the gift, Vel’Kha’Lems," Ethan said with a slight nod. "This will make things much easier."
"It is no gift, Master, but something that belongs to you by right," the lich replied, bowing his head with almost sacred solemnity. "Only a true Sovereign deserves to wield the Reliquary of Death. With this artifact in your hands, you will not be limited by terrain or territorial barriers; you will be able to instantly deploy your undead army anywhere your feet tread."
Vel’Kha’Lems paused briefly before continuing:
"Even if you find yourself thousands of leagues from here or crossing the boundaries between realms, your troops will answer your call in the blink of an eye."
Ethan stowed the artifact away with his belongings, satisfied with the acquisition. He then cast one last glance over the vast ruins stretching beneath the warship.
"Take care of this place until my return," Ethan concluded, turning his back on the lich as he walked toward the command bridge. "We will see each other soon."
"I shall await your glorious return, Master," Vel’Kha’Lems proclaimed as his spectral projection slowly began to dissipate into the air.
As Ethan walked up to the upper deck and entered the main quarters of the Annihilator-class warship, he moved with composure, stowing the Reliquary of Death into his storage space. However, the two small translucent spheres he held in his other hand did not go unnoticed.
Louisa, Mary, and the maids approached with curiosity, intrigued by the soft green glow emanating from within the crystals. Even Roy cast a sideways glance from a safe distance, feeling an instinctive chill.
"Ethan... what are those spheres?" Louisa asked, leaning in slightly to take a closer look at one of the orbs. "They look like mystic jewels, but... they emit a very strange heat."
"They are containers," Ethan replied calmly, raising one of the spheres to eye level. "A small souvenir from the leaders of the Crimson Sect."
Mary frowned, feeling a sudden tightness in her chest as she drew nearer. "I don’t understand... a souvenir?"
At that moment, the silence of the room was broken by a distant murmur. At first, it sounded like wind filtering through a crevice, but as the women listened closely, the sound grew sharp and agonizing.
They were wails. Pure gasps of agony, muffled screams that didn’t vibrate through the air, but echoed inside their minds.
Louisa abruptly took a step back, clapping her hands over her mouth with wide eyes. Mary turned pale, feeling her skin crawl from the disturbing vibration emanating from the crystal.
"Those... those aren’t ornaments," one of the maids stammered, backing away in terror as she saw two tiny shadowy figures with faces contorted in pain slam against the inner walls of the vessel.
"They are the souls of the Sect Leader and the Grand Elder," Ethan explained with an ice-cold tranquility, gazing at the spheres without the slightest hint of remorse. "They are bound to the eternal flames of a lich. Their physical bodies no longer exist, but their consciousnesses will be devoured and restored in an infinite cycle of torment."
A deathly silence fell over the chamber. Roy took two steps back, his face pale and his throat dry, understanding for the first time the true extent of his brother-in-law’s cruelty and power. Louisa looked at Ethan with a mixture of shock and reverence; she knew those men had caused the destruction of their original world, but witnessing the eternal punishment to which they had been condemned was enough to chill anyone’s blood.
Ethan closed his fist around the spheres and stowed them away serenely.
"They paid their debt," Ethan concluded without further explanation, walking toward the command throne. "Now, rest. The journey back has only just begun."