The Lich Without a Soul Vessel

The downpour of light-arrows struck the Medusa Shield, which hissed under them; the shield, being itself a thing condensed of magical force, met a force made to counter it and was riddled with holes in an instant. But the two grayish-white beams struck their target squarely — Oliver's figure faltered, a grayish-white spreading across his skin as petrification set in.

He let out a shrill cry, not a shred of New Church dignity to him, a burst of holy light erupting from his body; the petrified surface abruptly crumbled, scattering like a cloud of dust. But his arrows of holy light had already pierced the Medusa Shield. Evan was about to dodge when a current of will flowed through his heart — the flower in his Sea of Consciousness blazed with light, the Divine Domain stirring. Without meaning to, he stretched out a hand, and a mass of green light appeared in his palm, brimming with vitality. The arrows of holy light shot into the green light without so much as a ripple. The green light had no time limit at all, as though it had always existed there, and it appeared before Oliver, who watched, wide-eyed, as it engulfed him.

For an instant he felt wonderful beyond words, as though his youth had come flooding back, his life-force blazing — lost in a sense of his own boundless vigor, never realizing that in that brief span he was aging with terrible speed. By the time he noticed, he was already old and withered, his life draining away in a rush. Before he could fully come to his senses, his end had arrived, and the aged husk of a man crashed to the ground.

To the others, it looked as though Oliver had suddenly been wrapped in green light, then rapidly aged, running through a whole lifetime in a few blinks. This terror playing out before their living eyes raised a nameless dread in the hearts of all who saw it. What kind of magic was this?

At the sight, Julian beat his wings and put a great distance between himself and Evan. The other knights, too, fell back a step at the scene.

Evan didn't stop. The scythe appeared once more, and in the space of a blink three of the knights who'd lost their will to fight perished beneath it. The scythe seemed to be changing — within its deep black blade, sounds like the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves seemed to stir. Ronaldo watched it all; he'd never imagined Evan so ruthless. And yet there was a manly mettle to the sight of him like this.

Tina stared blankly at it all. Among the three dead was one of her comrades. Caught in her turmoil, she had no idea what to do. Seeing Evan unleash such might came as no surprise to her — in her heart, Evan had long been invincible. But watching her former comrades fall one by one before her, an unspeakable pain welled in her heart.

Just then, the pillar of light that had shot skyward suddenly contracted, and the ground began to quake. Evan felt an overwhelmingly powerful presence rising from the pit. He set his slaughter aside and flickered back to open up distance — pure instinct, the way beasts, meeting one another, first pull apart. Ronaldo flickered back to open distance as well.

Only Tina still stood staring blankly, a line of tears trickling from the corner of her eye. Evan knew he'd wounded her heart. It was just as well — his own heart ached, yet if she could stop loving him, perhaps that would be for the best, for them both. Still, he couldn't simply abandon her; he tugged her along and pulled her clear.

Tina didn't resist, letting Evan draw her along. The two of them retreated to a safe distance. The surviving knights, and the Gonno Society's people too, fell back one after another. But Julian was overjoyed, prostrating himself on the ground. "We await the return of His noble Majesty Josephine — to unify all nations! Glory to our lord; in heaven and on earth, the lord alone is supreme!"

The other Gonno Society members exchanged glances, then all prostrated themselves together. Watching them, Evan thought a moment and understood. Though he didn't know the whole truth, he'd guessed most of it. It seemed the Gonno Society was a body that held Josephine as its faith, and through the long ages had made the pursuit of Josephine's return its cause. This place had to be the Divine Domain left after Josephine's fall. Where they'd learned that the Saint's Skull could bring the god Josephine back, he couldn't say — though of course they didn't believe the god had truly fallen. And so they'd searched everywhere for the Saint's Skull, never knowing who had brought it here, entirely in the dark about it.

Now the god had returned. Evan felt a rueful turn in his heart — he seemed fated to cross paths with divine beings. The last few times it had been the Life Goddess, and fortunate then that she'd had need of him. Twice the Life Goddess had displayed a god's might — though only through the remnant soul she'd left after her fall — and that unfathomable power was nothing his own magic could ever manage. This time the god Josephine had returned, and by the murals he was an evil god through and through. Evan was on the other's home ground, seemingly without recourse; all he could do was act as the moment allowed.

Within the pit, a phantom rose, and at its center was the Saint's Skull, now a golden yellow — plainly using the Saint's Skull for its bones, though with no flesh around it. No sooner had it cleared the ground than countless phantoms burst into being all around, grotesque in a thousand shapes. At the sight, Evan's expression changed — Divine Spawn!

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The moment these Divine Spawn appeared, they paid no mind to anyone else, hurtling toward the Saint's Skull with shrieks — not to merge into it, but to fight over it. Clearly the Saint's Skull exerted an enormous pull on them.

"You wretched things, you dare contend with me!" The phantom of the god Josephine gave a cold laugh. He raised a hand and, with a single stroke, plunged it into a Divine Spawn's chest, wrenching outward; black aura rose, and he tilted his head as though swallowing something down, his body seeming to gain a shade more black aura.

The Divine Spawn shrieked and railed at him, "You just happened to be in this place, that's all — you're Divine Spawn too, no different from us. Who are you to talk?"

Hearing this, something stirred in Evan — could it be that this thing was only Divine Spawn? Meanwhile the Divine Spawn nearby grappled with and devoured one another, their motions all much the same: plunging into the other's chest and wrenching, as though tearing out some object and swallowing it down.

The Divine Spawn's numbers were dropping fast. A calculation formed in Evan's mind — what they were devouring was probably divinity. If he wanted to live, there was only one way. However slim the hope, some hope was always worth seizing.

At that thought, Evan's scythe appeared once more, hooking through the air; a Divine Spawn vanished into the blade, and a string of information poured into his mind — far more than before. Josephine, it turned out, could grant his believers vampire blood, impure though it was, and could grant werewolf blood as well; in his realm, werewolves and vampires were the higher bloodlines.

Evan began to understand why Julian had a vampire's body. Whether they had any connection to the Thirteen Clans, he didn't know — vampires and werewolves. Evan vaguely sensed the god's form was a wolf's head with bat wings on its back. That was all the information there was.

In hunting the Divine Spawn, Evan had braced for their counterattack. Confident in his magic and swordsmanship, and armed besides with the Ptolemaic Planetary Ring and the string of legendary items, the mala — seventeen beads still left — he didn't fear these Divine Spawn. But strangely, the Divine Spawn seemed to take no notice of him; only Josephine spared him a glance, his eyes cold and full of killing intent, though he made no other move.

Evan was somewhat puzzled, but on reflection — perhaps his opponent reckoned they couldn't possibly escape; this was his home ground, after all. Setting that aside for now, the scythe flashed again and again, and several Divine Spawn that had devoured a good many of their fellows were themselves devoured by the blade.

The scythe grew deeper and darker, seeming ever closer to a true Reaper's scythe, its path impossible to follow — to an onlooker, it seemed to leave no trace at all. Everyone's eyes were fixed on Evan; every single person present was watching him. He had all but become the common enemy — yet the god Josephine did not lash out, and their hatred plainly dared not show itself. Only Ronaldo was left wondering what that scythe was made of.

More than that, though, his attention was on Josephine. He was turning a plan over in his mind — how to get the Saint's Skull back, now that it seemed to have become part of that so-called god Josephine.

Tina came to her senses now, her eyes full of tangled feeling. When her gaze fell on Evan's back, tenderness welled up in them despite herself; but the moment she saw the remaining knights, her gaze wavered again, caught in conflict.

Julian's eyes, though, were full of hatred. Kneeling on the ground, he watched Evan's scythe reaping the Divine Spawn, puzzled at why Evan did this, stealing glances toward Josephine. But Josephine paid them no attention, his focus on the two Divine Spawn before him.

Only those two Divine Spawn remained, neither yet taken on solid form. Evan grew more certain still that Josephine was nothing but Divine Spawn. He stopped his hand and withdrew the scythe into his body, leaving three of them — meaning to watch them fight it out. That was the plan Evan had in mind.

The three Divine Spawn exchanged a glance, then abruptly all turned together and lunged at the crowd. They did not lunge at Evan's group of three — clearly they knew Evan's danger — but at the remaining knights and the Gonno Society's people.

Caught off guard, the crowd broke into screams. The knights rose to resist, and Tina was the first to loose her short sword — a magic tool, one of only two Evan had forged that remained out in the world. A flash of blue light cut a Divine Spawn in two, but the Divine Spawn wavered and reformed to its original shape.

The knights' bodies glowed with white light, but blade and sword seemed useless against the Divine Spawn — though the sword-energy on their bodies held the Divine Spawn back.

Tina turned a pleading gaze toward Evan. Evan smiled ruefully. He'd meant not to let a single one of these knights escape; to put it plainly, the Divine Spawn's attack suited him nicely. But that was then and this was now — however his feelings ran, his reason understood: preserving a measure of strength now meant that much more security later.

At that thought, the scythe appeared again. The moment the Divine Spawn saw it, their wariness of it was plain; with a long shriek, they flickered, changed direction, and made for the Gonno Society instead.

On the Gonno Society's side, Julian hadn't expected two of the Divine Spawn to lunge at him — he'd assumed the one that had merged with the Saint's Skull had come to save them. He flipped his hand, bloody light bursting forth, and blasted one Divine Spawn, while looking on the Saint's Skull one with reverence. With a resounding boom, the bloody light struck one Divine Spawn, its enormous force flinging it away at once — but the very one he'd taken for the god let out a shriek, fangs bared in its wolf's maw, and bit down straight at his neck. His eyes filled with disbelief, but the overwhelming ecstasy soon drowned him.