The Lich Without a Soul Vessel

Evan had no idea who the new demonology teacher was. Since that conversation with Jessica, he hadn't given it another thought.

Ortlando's group had returned. Professor Marshall had fully recovered, and the school was already deep in preparations for the coming term. Once back, Ortlando called Evan and Jessica in once to go over the details. Grawvor's whereabouts remained unknown — one account held that the Pope had banished him outright, casting him into some alternate dimension.

Ortlando showed real interest in that piece of goblin history, though the full picture still remained hazy. Still, they'd all reached one agreement: the goblins had once carried an advanced civilization, and had built, in their time, a weapon of staggering power — one that drew tremendous energy from the atom itself, a weapon that had ultimately brought that civilization's own end.

Once satisfied with the account, Ortlando said, "You two did well. Tell me — is there anything you'd like? I'll forge you each a magical item myself."

"Thank you, Headmaster," both said at once. Anything the headmaster himself forged counted as a legendary item — no reason to be modest about accepting an offer like that, whether for their own use or to gift elsewhere, it was precious beyond measure either way.

"Term starts in a few days, and the floating city's nearly complete. Your reward will have to wait a bit longer. Wang, I've set aside a residence for you in the floating city. Jessica, the same for you — recognition for what you've both contributed to the school. Both residences are permanent. Aside from legendary mages, you two are the only ones with that standing. Keep up the good work — the school doesn't shortchange anyone who earns it. Go take a look at the construction site these next couple of days, see how the floating city's coming along," Ortlando said.

Evan and Jessica exchanged a glance, delighted. "Thank you. We'll keep working hard," they said.

"Off you go, then." Ortlando watched them with a small smile.

Once outside, Jessica said, "I never expected to have a residence in the floating city. Wang, when are you going to see it?"

"In a couple of days, I think. I need to stop by the Magic Items Department first, pick up some materials — my crescent blade's damaged, and I want to forge a new one. See you." Evan waved goodbye and set off alone toward the Magic Items Management Department.

A number of students had already arrived early, along with a few who'd stayed on through the break. Seeing Evan, they greeted him warmly, and he nodded back with a smile.

He came to a sudden stop, spotting a figure ahead in a grey mage's robe. Evan hadn't expected to run into him here of all places, and the man across from him looked equally startled, his face flushing with alarm.

"I never expected Lord Boniface would end up at Hollingburton. What is this — walking straight into the net, or simply tired of living?" Evan said, his voice cold.

He hadn't imagined his mortal enemy Boniface would turn up at Hollingburton of all places. He'd heard from Jessica that a necromancer Arcanist had come to teach demonology, but hadn't thought much of it at the time. Now it all clicked into place, and something almost darkly amusing struck him — Hollingburton was turning into a proper shelter for liches.

"Nich— Professor Wang. Whatever grievance lay between us before, we're colleagues now. No need to keep dwelling on the past," Boniface said, bitterness thick in his voice. Did he want to be here? Not remotely. Ormani had forced his hand.

Evan studied him closely, something nagging at him. Boniface's behavior had always struck him as strange — moth to a flame, again and again, hunting Evan down despite knowing full well he was walking straight into danger at Hollingburton each time. Something didn't add up. Running back through every one of Boniface's past attempts at revenge in his mind, especially their most recent duel, understanding clicked into place — the man had likely sacrificed himself into a devil's contract just to manage this much. He remembered what Ormani had said to him at the end of that last meeting — that they'd meet again. So this was it.

A strange expression settled over Evan's face. For Boniface, every second stretched unbearably. Neither man moved, though nearby students had already begun watching them with curiosity. Boniface had steeled himself for a confrontation — but engaging Evan here meant exposing his own nature entirely. He hadn't forgotten the grudge he carried for his fallen brothers, even knowing full well it was their own greed that had cost them their lives in the first place. A grudge was a grudge regardless, and he wasn't inclined to think too hard about it. Just as he braced to throw everything into one desperate strike, Evan suddenly smiled and lowered his voice. "Seems you're not entirely acting of your own will either. Never mind. We're colleagues now — set the grudge aside. If you want to keep your place at Hollingburton, I'd suggest you forget it entirely."

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Evan considered striking him down himself, but even killing him outright would achieve little — the man would simply take up a new body. That thought never stopped bothering Evan, and there was no easy answer to it either, short of reaching demigod status himself, which was hardly within reach. A single array — the Gate of Legend — already stood in his way, and he hadn't even completed his own path to Arcanist mastery yet. As far as he knew, no one but the Pope had ever reached demigod rank at all. Better, then, to keep Boniface out in the open where he could watch him, rather than have him lurking like a ghost, striking whenever he pleased. That Boniface had called him Professor Wang instead of Nicholas was exactly the point Evan was making.

Boniface let out a breath of relief, having survived the moment. Evan clearly understood his own undying nature — but Evan himself couldn't truly die either. A genuine deadlock, in the end.

"Fine. I'll do as you say — but only within Hollingburton's walls. Make no mistake, I will kill you," Boniface said through gritted teeth, low and venomous.

"Can you manage it, though, Professor Boniface?" Evan said, a flicker of mockery crossing his eyes.

"You'll see," Boniface growled under his breath.

Evan smiled and walked off without another word — he had business at the Magic Items Department, and no interest in prolonging the exchange. Not until Boniface abandoned his desire to kill him would Evan bother engaging with him further.

At the department, he collected his materials — mainly heavy silver sand, something he didn't already have on hand, requiring magic points to purchase since it was nearly impossible to find on the open market.

Back at his quarters, he was relieved to find no sign of Boniface anywhere in the faculty housing district — the man must have been assigned elsewhere. He found Xiaoshuang and told her about the encounter, warning her to stay alert.

He made his way to the alchemy lab and set to work forging his magical item — another implement, still in the crescent-blade shape. This time, rather than the Whirlwind array and Lightning array, he used the Mana Gathering array alongside Gale and Reinforcement arrays, adding an Anti-Magic array as well. Combined, the finished piece gleamed with a silvery light. He tested it and found its speed had doubled, perhaps tripled over the original — though it lost the lightning and whirlwind effects entirely. Through practical use, he'd realized those flashier effects, however impressive to look at, hadn't actually been that effective in practice. An implement, in Evan's hands, functioned closest to a hidden throwing weapon, and this new crescent blade suited that role far better. He gave it a name: Dark Moon.

Once the forging was done, evening had already settled in. Xiaoshuang returned, having already eaten dinner — Evan sometimes skipped meals entirely these days, being a lich, after all, with no real need for food.

He sat on his bed, running back through the day's events, and found his thoughts drifting to the Pope. A demigod, and he'd witnessed the man's power firsthand — along with a true divine artifact, far more formidable than anything Evan's own implements could hope to match. That was exactly why he'd turned to heavy silver sand as his base material — its remarkable malleability made it nearly impossible to shatter, and combined with several hardened materials plus the Reinforcement array, Dark Moon, at least in theory, wouldn't crumble the way his previous crescent blade had, even against a genuine divine artifact. In raw power, though, the gap remained considerable, and Evan couldn't quite puzzle out why.

His thoughts turned back to the Pope. Something about it struck him as strange — every pope, without exception, only became a demigod after ascending to the office itself. Common wisdom held this as a papal privilege, a mark of divine favor — and yet a pope's lifespan never actually extended. This current pope had to be in his sixties already, and popes typically ascended to heaven somewhere in their seventies or eighties, leaving him perhaps twenty or thirty years left at most.

Privately, though, rumor held that the Church kept a cultivation method reserved exclusively for the Pope. Something stirred in Evan at that — before he caught himself and set the thought aside. The gap between himself and the Pope ran far too wide; get anywhere near the man, and there was no guarantee the Pope wouldn't sense him immediately.

He mulled it over a while longer, found nothing else worth dwelling on, and settled into meditation. His mental sea rose once more, the rolling grey-dark mist gathering, and within it, two worlds seemed to overlap — that tree, the one Evan had come to call the World Tree, its countless buds still tightly closed. This time, though, he noticed something like a pattern etched into its leaves.

He couldn't make it out clearly, no matter how he focused, though something about it felt familiar. He had no idea what it meant, and in this meditative state, he wasn't inclined to press the question — the thought rose and was pressed back down at once.

Deep into the night, he came out of meditation, sensing his own growth had advanced a little further — a slow, ongoing process he felt no urgency about. He rose and went to the lab, meaning to test electromagnetic waves. The experiment: use an induction coil and capacitor to generate the waves, and at a distance of several cubits, a second coil and capacitor to receive them. When metal drew close enough, a spark should appear — and if it did, that would confirm the existence of electromagnetic waves.

Evan suspected no one else had ever attempted this. He assembled the equipment, leaving the door unlocked — who would come wandering in at this hour, after all.

He extinguished the magic lamp, since the spark he expected would be faint and small, best observed in total darkness — which was exactly why he'd chosen the dead of night for this. He killed the light and closed the switch, the battery beginning its work. Just then, Xiaoshuang stirred from sleep, pulled out of a pleasant dream. She slept high up, in a small house of her own perched near the ceiling. Spotting the light in the lab, she muttered, "A lich, up in the middle of the night, playing at some scheme or other," and flew down, a thought striking her. She pointed at a cup filled with water, meaning to soak him through for the trouble.

The cup lifted into the air, a sly little smile spreading across her face as she guided it silently toward the lab. In that exact instant, the light went out — Evan had closed the switch — and Xiaoshuang found herself plunged into darkness. The cup tipped in the air, and with a soft splash, a spark of electricity flared to life.