The scattering flames from the blue wisp bathed the chamber in fleeting light, shadows twisting wildly across the jagged walls.
He crouched low, stick gripped tightly, eyes darting to every corner, every crack in the stone.
The heat from the fireballs had faded, but his pulse still hammered from the near-death moment.
And then… a detail caught his eye.
A long stretch of shadow extended unnaturally from the lich's floating body toward the corner of the chamber.
Within it, faint strands of mana shimmered, thin, threadlike currents intertwined with something unseen.
Invisible chains.
Subtle. Almost imperceptible beneath the wisp's glow.
His gaze followed the strands carefully, tracing their path behind jagged rocks buried in darkness.
Not yet.
He forced himself to stay still. One wrong move and whoever truly controlled this chamber would notice.
The floating corpse was only a puppet.
And the real host was hiding somewhere.
He bit down on his lip until he tasted iron. The sharp sting steadied him, clearing the paralysis creeping through his limbs.
Then he moved.
He bolted toward the massive sealed door, not with courage, but with convincing panic. His steps staggered. His shoulders hunched.
He flinched as if barely surviving each second. Dust erupted beneath his boots.
The lich reacted instantly.
Chains whipped outward with a metallic shriek. Four magic circles bloomed in the air, intricate rings layered with glowing sigils. Ice formed first, shards screaming through the air. Then fire.
Then fire again, followed by ice.
The bombardment was relentless.
"Running away already?" the host's voice echoed mockingly through the chamber, distorted and disembodied.
"I expected more."
He didn't respond. He let his breathing grow ragged on purpose. He stumbled deliberately, barely dodging a fireball that exploded against the stone and sprayed heat and debris across his back.
Each step was measured.
He wasn't even trying to flee. He was guiding it.
He weaved through falling rubble and rising smoke, subtly shifting the fight toward the shadowed corner where the mana strand had led.
The lich floated above, skeletal robes drifting as if caught in an invisible current, its skull tilted downward in silent contempt.
"Where do you think you're going?" the voice taunted again.
He coughed through the dust, letting his movements look frantic. The more reckless he appeared, the less carefully the host would observe.
Finally, he dove behind the jagged rocks.
The chamber filled with smoke and swirling ash.
The lich hovered, scanning.
"Where did he go?
The lich paused midair, its eye sockets burning faintly, unable to see through the smoke and debris created by its own magical barrage.
"Checkmate."
Kael pressed low against the stone, heart racing, stick held close. Then he leaned slightly around the rocks, and saw it.
A small figure crouched in the shadows.
Gnome-like. A tiny body with oversized eyes reflecting the wisp's blue light.
Red skin etched with fine tribal markings spiraled across its cheeks and forehead. Two short horns curved from its brow.
In its trembling hand, it clutched a bone staff bound with dark thread.
Its gaze met his.
For a heartbeat, neither moved.
Then the creature slowly sank back onto the stone as if its legs had given out.
"I...Impossible…" it whispered, voice small, like a child trying to sound braver than it felt.
"How did you…?"
He didn't lower his guard.
"You're the one controlling it."
The creature flinched.
"I… I was."
Silence pressed in.
"I am just guarding the seal behind that door," the small being said shakily.
"The cursed dragon priestess is imprisoned beyond it. I do not remember how I came here. Only that when I awaken, I am inside this chamber… and a command fills my mind."
Its fingers tightened around the bone staff.
"Guard the seal… wait. Did you just say Dragon Priestess?" he asked in disbelief.
Its voice faltered.
"That is all I remember. My name… Firioz. At least, that is the name left to me."
He studied the dark chains coiled faintly around Firioz's small body, barely visible before, like distortions in the air.
"So you were ordered to control that lich."
"Y... yes." Firioz lowered his head.
"It was the vessel given to me. Through it, I guard this sealed door and attack intruders."
Firioz's hands trembled.
"I… I do not wish to fight you," he said quietly.
The moment the words left his mouth,
something changed.
The air snapped.
The connection between Firioz and the floating lich flickered violently, like a cord stretched too tight and suddenly severed.
The lich froze midair.
For one suspended second,
The invisible thread between them snapped. The mana strand recoiled into nothingness.
The lich's skull jerked upward sharply, as if awakening from a long sleep.
Its eye sockets flared crimson.
A new presence flooded the chamber.
Firioz gasped.
The faint chains around him suddenly became visible, thick, black, and writhing. They coiled around his small body, tightening viciously. One end wrapped around his torso and throat.
The other end... Vanished into the cracks of the massive sealed door.
Connected to something inside.
Firioz choked, claws scraping at the chains.
"He already... knew…"
The pressure increased. The chains glowed faintly and dug into his red skin.
Kael stepped forward, alarm flashing across his face.
"Hey... what's happening to you? Who are you talking about?" he asked.
The lich drifted higher.
And this time.. It laughed.
A dry, hollow, independent sound.
The puppet no longer had strings.
It had been cut from its source.
And now it was its own entity.
Free and now have it's own will..
But still bound to the will behind the door.
The true controller was no longer Firioz.
It was something sealed beyond the massive door.
He clenched his jaw.
The realization struck quickly: the lich was now the guardian. Firioz was merely collateral, bait and leverage.
The chains that once allowed him to command the lich were now restraining him instead.
Firioz's breathing grew shallow.
"I cannot… disobey… it's order…" he rasped.
The chain around his neck tightened further.
He couldn't help him. His powerless..
"Damn it…" he muttered under his breath.
If the lich wasn't destroyed, Firioz would suffocate.
And if Firioz died, whatever was behind that door would gain it's full control over this monster.
The lich's aura exploded outward.
Magic circles formed again, larger.
And much powerful than before.
The first barrage descended. In just a blinked of an eye..
He sprinted away from Firioz immediately, forcing distance between them.
He couldn't risk the lich's spells striking near the chained gnome.
Ice spears rained down, shattering stone into splinters. Fire followed, igniting debris and sending waves of suffocating heat across the chamber.
He ran in widening arcs, circling the chamber's outer edge, forcing the lich to track him from above. His lungs burned.
His feet slid across the broken stone, ignoring the tiny rocks poking under his feet.
But his eyes never stopped observing.
The lich floated effortlessly, untouched by gravity. Its robes drifted without wind.
Beneath it, faint streams of mana pulsed rhythmically through the air.
It was not random. It has patterns.
The magic circles did not form from its hands.
They formed from its chest cavity.
From inside the ribcage.
A dark core pulsed faintly within.
The spells fired in sequence, never overlapping completely. There was always a fractional delay between barrages.
He ducked under a chain lash, rolled across scorched stone, and came up running again.
Think. How is it staying airborne while casting all these spells?
Then he saw them, faint sigils rotating beneath its ribs.
A levitation array. Anchored to its core. If it destabilized… it would fall.
Then.. another volley screamed toward him.
He slid behind a broken pillar as fire detonated above, fragments raining down around him.
He wiped soot from his eyes and looked again.
The levitation sigils flickered each time it attacked.
It's prioritizing mana… attacks first, then maintains it's levitation.
But that doesn't solve the problem… reaching it from here will be difficult.
Chains lashed outward again. One nearly caught his shoulder; he twisted away just in time.
He needed to ground it.
Force it to burn mana faster than it could stabilize, and force it to overextend.
He sprinted again, deliberately baiting a larger barrage. Three circles. Four. Five. The lich responded aggressively, pouring power into its attacks. The levitation sigils flickered harder now.
Its altitude dipped, just slightly. Good.
He grabbed a chunk of broken stone mid-run and hurled it, not at the skull, but downward, at the faintly glowing sigils beneath its floating body.
The rock disintegrated against a barrier, but the sigils flared. For a split second, the lich dropped half a meter. Its chains lashed violently in response. It noticed.
He was right.
He ducked another spell, breathing hard, mind racing. Ground it. Shatter the array. Then break the core. Behind him, Firioz gasped weakly as the chains constricted tighter. Time was thinning.
The lich rose again, crimson light blazing in its hollow gaze. The presence behind the door pulsed through the black chains, feeding it. Watching. Waiting.
"I don't need to overpower you," he muttered under his breath.
"I just need to make you fall."
The lich unleashed another storm of magic. He ran straight toward it, forcing it to adjust. Ice spears fired downward, but he slipped between them, a shard grazing his arm.
Fire followed. Heat slammed into his back, pushing him forward. Above, the levitation sigils flared violently as the lich compensated for the sudden shift, burning more mana.
He reached the chamber's center and snatched a jagged shard of crystal from the fractured floor. He hurled it upward with all his strength.
It struck the invisible barrier around the lich and shattered instantly, forcing the barrier to pulse. The levitation array beneath the ribcage flickered violently.
The lich dropped a full meter before stabilizing, chains lashing across the chamber.
One lashed across his shoulder, tearing through fabric and biting into flesh. He gritted his teeth and kept moving. The crimson light in the lich's eyes intensified.
More magic circles bloomed, six now. Too many to dodge at the same time.
"Fall," he whispered.
He ran in tight, erratic bursts beneath the lich, forcing constant micro-adjustments in its altitude.
Every shift cost mana. Every correction destabilized the array further. Lightning crashed into the stone at his feet. Ice exploded to his left.
Fire scorched the air around him.
The lich dipped lower to maintain precision, lower and lower.
The levitation sigils sputtered like candles in the wind. He seized the moment. He grabbed a fallen chain from the ground and swung it upward—not at the skull, but at the rotating sigils beneath the ribcage.
The chain slammed into the barrier. The array misaligned. One sigil fractured.
The lich dropped violently, crashing into the stone floor. Cracks spread across the shattered array beneath it, glowing unstable white against crimson light.
The black chains around Firioz tightened savagely. He choked, small hands clawing at his throat. Mana surged through the conduit again, reinforcing the lich.
The levitation sigils stabilized, but barely. He saw the core inside the ribcage pulse irregularly, straining under the effort.
He sprinted toward a fractured pillar and kicked it with all his weight. It collapsed, smashing into the lich's side.
The barrier absorbed most of the impact, but the already cracked array shattered. Levitation collapsed instantly.
The lich dropped hard, crashing into the floor with a thunderous impact. Bones cracked against stone as dust erupted outward. For a heartbeat,nothing moved.
Then the lich rose, grounded, skeletal frame jerking upright, crimson flames blazing brighter than ever.
Chains coiled around its arms like living serpents.
Behind him, Firioz's breathing weakened, the black chain around his neck digging deeper. Time was gone.
The lich lunged, but before the ice blade could pierce his chest something ignited.
A burning heat erupted beneath his sternum. The blade stopped.
"What's.. happening??"