<h4>Chapter 454: An Undead Angel</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>AsStudios <strong>Editor: </strong>AsStudios


    “T-This is...!” The Lich widened its eyes in shock as the overwhelming scarlet mes erupted on Rhode’s right hand and extended along the viper-like sword towards its arm. The Lich retreated immediately. At the same time, its dull gems glittered in a mysterious magical radiance and formed an inverted triangle as the Lich turned illusory. In an instant, its body distorted strangely while glinting mes shrouded it.


    <i>Boom! </i>Along with an ear-deafening explosion, the Lich had been shrouded entirely in the inferno of mes. However, this apparently wasn’t able to end the Lich’s life because it charged out of the mes almost instantly and miserably. The Lich was no longerposed; instead, it was feeling emotions that it hadn’t experienced—fear, panic, and astonishment.


    “How is this possible?” Although the Lich’s body was burning with mes, it widened its eyes at the ground in disbelief instead of extinguishing them instantly. A youngdy enveloped in scorching mes from head to toe lifted her head and cheekily smiled towards it.


    “Huhu... It’s not easy catching your tail. To be honest, I actually never expected Master to seed... However, this isn’t bad news to me.” Gillian thought aloud as she pointed her finger at the wavering Lich who was wrapped in her mes like a ghost in a carnival swaying and serving their eternal owners. Meanwhile, the two undead mercenaries stopped attacking and shivered as they retreated to the side.


    However, the undead mercenaries weren’t the only ones who retreated.


    Even Anne and Delno backed off to the sides hurriedly because Gillian, who had recovered the strength of a Fire Elemental Lord after unlocking her seal, had be a being that was linked to the Fire ne of Existence. Suffocating and unbearable waves of mes hit everyone in their faces.


    Delno rubbed his eyes dubiously before scanning the figure who had blended into one with the mes. However, he turned around quickly. This being was so zingly hot that any living creature that gazed at it would feel their eyes burning. If they didn’t turn their gazes away, perhaps their eyes might melt entirely.


    Only the dead could avoid their getting their eyes melted, but the Lich wished it wasn’t this fortunate.


    “How is this possible...” The Lich gaped and the pure mes sneaked into its body along with an inhaled breath. Then, the mes exploded within the Lich’s body and it seemed as though a skyntern was being lit on the inside. However, as a matter of fact, this didn’t inflict too much damage to it because it was no longer a living human.


    The Lich gazed at the striking, burning figure foolishly as it couldn’t figure out what exactly had happened. Although a Lich’s style of attack wasn’t orthodox, it was still highly confident with its senses. It was sure that this youngdy wasn’t this powerful just a few minutes ago. Even though the Lich did sense pure fire elemental powers in Gillian, it chose to neglect it due to its insignificance. At this point, the youngdy’s fox ears and tail had be her best camouge. Perhaps one would be suspicious if a human possessed such pure fire elemental powers, but it wasn’t that strange for a half-beast at all.


    But now, the Lich realized that its thoughts werepletely wrong.


    “This is the end for you, little imp.” Gillian disyed her palm at the Lich while grinning proudly. The Lich raised its arm in response; however, it wasn’t trying to escape or counter Gillian’s attack. The surroundings had beenpletely superimposed by the Fire Elemental ne of Existence under the Fire Elemental Lord’s maniption. The air began to twist and seal itself and it had be impossible for anyone to flee. If the Lich tried its luck, it would definitely find itself in the Fire Elemental ne of Existence and vanish in a puff of smoke immediately.


    But even so, the Lich continued to lift its arm innately in the face of death and destruction. It tried to leave at least a trace of itself in this world.


    Gillian clenched her right fist abruptly.


    The Lich was instantly devoured by the mes. In a blink of an eye, its extended shriveled arm was as though a withered piece of firewood lighting up in a raging inferno. Before it knew it, the Lich’s arm had vanished into a puff of smoke while the ring mes spiraled and twisted in the air as though a throbbing, swelling heart.


    Although Liches could still revive themselves using their phctery, this pitiful Lich wasn’t this fortunate because Gillian had sealed this creature within her mes entirely. The Lich’s spirit howled furiously while struggling in the mes. An image of its face revealed itself on the surface of the mes for a split second before disappearing instantly, like a stone through a water surface.


    The mes shrunk abruptly before it swelled and exploded.


    Everything had ended.


    “Phew...” The mes surrounding Gillian dissipated gradually and the city ruins that were shrouded in full red returned to their usual, quiet state. Thenterns on the metal trestle that were lit with spiritual mes previously had been reced with true, glorious mes, bringing color back to this lifeless, ice-cold city.


    “Oh, lord...” <i>ck. </i>Metzel’s sword fell to the ground as he stood foolishly while gawking at the city that had changed beyond recognition. His unfortunate mercenarypanions standing before him vanished into thin air and nothing remained of them apart from their scorched shadows. Meanwhile, Shirley was equally dumbfounded as she was frozen to the spot. After all, a battle involving a Commander Level Lord was unimaginable for these two mortals.


    Grey, snow-like ashes descended from the sky slowly andid a thinyer of dust. Anne stood on her feet and scanned the surroundings before picking up her shield. Although Rhode had exined to Anne the battle n before they entered the ruins, the youngdy wasn’t fully satisfied. It seemed like her battle with the undead mercenaries wasn’t exciting enough for her. “That’s all? Anne still wants to y a little more...”


    “You’ll have more chances next time.” Rhode kept the scarlet card and let out a long sigh of relief. Although everything seemed to be working out, Rhode suffered some losses. He didn’t receive a single EXP from killing the Lich. Furthermore, Rhode paid for Gillian’s ‘entrance fee’ with two-thirds of his current EXP and he was close to almost dropping a level.


    <i>What a headache.</i>


    Gillian was simr to those damned nuclear weapons. Although those powerful nuclear weapons could destroy the world in a single strike, their horrifying side-effects limited their usage. At this point in time, Rhode was hoping that the EXP reward forpleting the Castel teau Ruins Mission was still avable. If not, he couldn’t justify suffering so many losses without even gaining a single level.


    However, this was a problem for the future. Soon, Rhode turned around and gestured to the group. “Let’s go.”


    After the Lich had been annihted entirely, the group had been on a in sailing journey. The four meter tall walls and the iplete, yet majestic statues weed them along the corridors.


    Rhode didn’t search in the Lich’s ashes as he knew that there was nothing left of it. Nothing could survive the pure mes of a Fire Elemental Lord, which was also something that Rhode was depressed about. From a living human’s perspective, this grand victory was an encouraging one. However, from a yer’s point of view, losing two-thirds of his EXP and facing the threat of dropping a single level while being unable to obtain any equipment from the BOSS was an utter tragedy.


    The worst thing was that, in future, he would lose much more if he wished to summon the Fire Elemental Lord again as he had utilized the two privileges granted to him. However, he was d that the battle with the Country of Darkness would only happen next year and he had more time to reset the summoning cooldown. If not, he would be grieving badly now.


    The group passed through the corridor in the central area and arrived at the pce located in the deepest area of the city ruins. This once glorious pce had lost its grandeur and sobriety, but waster redecorated with the Lich’s strange sense of beauty. Fortunately, almost all of the odd furnishings had been swept away by Gillian’s mes.


    Celia and Celestina had returned into their cards. The former was recuperating after suffering a fatal blow from the Lich while thetter returned into her card instantly after the battle ended as she was extremely dissatisfied with Rhode’s rude actions. She continued to ignore him no matter how hard he called for her.


    The mission wasn’tplete yet.


    Rhode entered the pce and witnessed the filthy corridor under the bright, burning me. There were bones, dpidated putrid limbs, and revolting shoddy creatures soaked in crystal bottles scattered all over the ce like a low budget, third-rate, sci-fi horror movie. Every Lich had a research field which they were experts in, and it seemed that this Lich was interested in the maniption of creatures. If it were born in Rhode’s human world, perhaps it would have been a promising madman in the scientific research of gic modification.


    Rhode turned his gaze to the mission details interface before him and the Castel teau Ruins Mission was still iplete, unsurprisingly. This 5 Star Mission would require an item to prove its 100%pleteness. Rhode would need the Necromancer’s skull and teeth; however, as the BOSS had be a Lich that eventually burned into ashes, there was nothing for Rhode to obtain. In this case, Rhode had to obtain something else: the phctery.


    The phctery was a necessity for a Lich on a journey as it would retain the Lich’s soul forcefully in this world even if the Lich were annihted. Given enough time to regenerate its soul, the Lich could revive and seek revenge on its murderers.


    However, this Lich wasn’t that fortunate because its soul had vanished in Gillian’s scorching mes entirely before it had the chance to be reimed by the phctery. This phctery was now just a meaningless artifact and perhaps it would still have a chance to be used in exining the spells of the undead creatures.


    But...


    “Hmm?” Anne stopped walking and pricked her ears with a puzzled frown. “Leader, Anne hears something.”


    “From?” Rhode questioned.


    Everyone stopped moving as soon as they heard Anne’s report. Although Anne was usually carefree about many matters, her hearing was much more sensitive than Rhode’s and Gillian’s. Gillian twitched her mouth with a look of disapproval before regaining her usual expression.


    Rhode turned towards the direction Anne pointed to.


    It was a room with a sealed wooden door smeared with vicious, profane patterns. A putrid smell assailed their nostrils through the cracks of the filthy, broken door. Rhode pondered for a moment before approaching the wooden door and pushed it open.


    Then, Rhode twitched his brows.


    As expected.


    A naked Battle Angel stripped of all her majesty presented herself before them in a shameful posture with her four limbs bound and hung up by steel chains. A pair of shriveled bones expanded in ce of the wless, feathered wings and her ashenplexion made clear that she was no longer alive. However, her faint breathing seemed to deny this spection.


    Rhode scanned the Battle Angel and paused his gaze on her stomach.


    Her smooth belly was bulging as though she were pregnant. Leaving the question about how Angels got pregnant toter, the strange lines slithering beneath this swelling skin surface proved that it was definitely not an adorable infant hidden within.


    “Master, what did you find out?” Anne peeked her head out from behind Rhode’s arm and eximed when she witnessed the Angel. “Woah! What’s that?”


    “T-that’s...” Metzel’s group were bbergasted as soon as they recognized the Battle Angel that they were so familiar with. Rhode stepped forward and stroked the bulging belly that felt ice-cold to the touch and had some strange ‘fetal’ movements.


    “This is the Lich’s phctery,” exined Rhode.


    Rhode finally understood how the Lich had the powers of an Angel despite being an undead creature. Although it was true that Angels possessed sufficient powers to fulfill the requirements for the evolution of a Lich, the conflict between their negative and positive energy was definitely unavoidable.


    However, this Lich came up with a genius move. It didn’t purely borrow the Angel’s powers. Instead, it came up with an unknown method to create an embryo that lived between life and death and forced it into the Angel’s body. This way, since the embryo wasn’t a pure undead creature, the holy powers that the Angel possessed couldn’t cause enough harm to eliminate it. Then, the Lich could receive the filtered powers through the embryo to execute its evolution. However, there was a w in this almost perfect scheme: the Lich’s most powerful undead powers had been weakened after mixing with the additional holy attribute. However, at the same time, the Lich received a certain extent of resistance against attacks of the holy attribute. Perhaps this Lich would have be a disastrous monster if it managed to reincarnate.


    However, it had lost this chance forever.