Chapter 143: Lazy Bum

The glow slowly spread from its hands, travelling across the skeleton’s arms and through the rest of its body. A strange spiritual cry echoed through the surrounding ice, faint at first but carrying an unnatural quality that made Damien’s attention snap towards the Therizon.

The creature’s feathers began to change.

The pristine white feathers around its body started to decay, their colour darkening as their surfaces withered. They lost their vitality as if years of age were being forced upon them all at once, crumbling and deteriorating beneath the Lich’s touch.

"Oh."

Damien exclaimed in genuine surprise.

He had expected some kind of ability from the strange runes on the skeleton’s bones, but this was beyond anything he had imagined. The Lich was making it decay.

Damien’s eyes narrowed.

"Why isn’t it moving quickly?"

The Therizon screeeeeeeched and suddenly rose sharply into the air, its enormous body jerking violently as it attempted to throw the undead Lich off its back. The Lich’s hands were torn away from its body as the creature twisted, and its skeletal frame was sent tumbling through the air.

Damien hung on tighter, his arms tightening around the Therizon as its massive body continued to move beneath him. He had barely managed to keep his grip when the creature suddenly shifted again, and for a second, he thought it was about to crush him against the ground.

Andrea suddenly appeared.

She punched the Therizon from the side with enough force to send its massive body staggering away, forcing it back onto its feet before it could slam Damien into the ground.

The Therizon opened its beak.

A soul-crushing sound erupted from its throat and shook the surrounding ice. The scream was so violent that the crystalline walls seemed to tremble under its force.

Andrea immediately covered her ears and jumped back, trying to put some distance between herself and the sound.

Damien, on the other hand, was forced to release the Therizon’s feathers. His grip broke, and his body dropped toward the ground.

He barely had time to react before the undead priest rushed forward and caught him before he could collide with the frozen surface.

"Priesty, make some distance between us."

The undead priest obeyed without hesitation, immediately carrying Damien away from the Therizon.

Damien couldn’t help but like him even more, unlike the lazy undead Lich, Priesty actually listened when he was given an order.

Damien looked around, searching for the Lich. It was half buried in the snow, with nothing but its bony ass sticking out.

Damien sighed helplessly.

He connected directly to the Lich through his mind, but the connection was severed almost as quickly as it had formed.

His expression twitched before he shouted angrily, "Get your ass over here, you can sleep after we kill the Therizon."

The undead Lich wobbled its legs until its body finally managed to fall out of the snow. It glanced around curiously, as if it had just woken up somewhere unfamiliar, before slowly standing upright.

It continued to stare blankly at Damien, its empty eye sockets fixed on him without the slightest indication that it understood what he wanted. Then, without warning, the Lich suddenly turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.

Damien’s face froze. Even Priesty seemed slightly surprised by the Lich’s decision.

"Huh... What the hell?" Damien exclaimed.

Andrea was already standing beside him.

The Therizon was back inside Damien’s miasma, so it couldn’t move through space and was forced to remain within the physical world. It could only screech and flap its massive wings as it tried to escape, occasionally attempting to run on its two feet.

"The Therizon seems hurt, what did you do to it?" Andrea asked.

Damien pointed at the undead Lich in the distance. "He did it."

Andrea seemed taken aback when she looked at the undead Lich. It was walking in circles in a single point, its movements completely aimless as it wandered around the same patch of snow without showing the slightest interest in the battle raging nearby.

"Did the Therizon hit it senseless?"

"If only I could blame the Therizon, but no. It’s naturally a lazy bum."

Andrea gave the Lich another look before turning away and saying sharply, "Find a way to utilize its abilities, I’m going to keep the Therizon occupied."

Damien watched her rapidly disappear into his black miasma, low tumbling sounds echoed almost immediately afterward as the Therizon screeched in rage.

Damien turned his attention back to the undead Lich.

He approached it and knocked on its empty skull with his knuckle. The sound of bone echoed faintly through the surrounding snow. The Lich slowly turned around and stared at him, its empty eye sockets giving Damien the same blank look it had given him throughout the entire fight.

Then it raised its bony hand and its fingers struck Damien’s head. Damien cursed loudly and rubbed the spot where it had hit him.

"How dare you hit your master, don’t you have any loyalty?"

The undead Lich simply stared at him.

The Lich clearly couldn’t exactly answer him, but the problem was that it wasn’t even attempting to communicate. There was no reaction in its body, no attempt to obey his commands, and no indication that it understood what Damien was saying. Yet at the same time, it had reacted to him.

It had even hit him back.

Damien frowned as he studied the skeleton. He was fully aware that there was probably some residual consciousness within it, but that didn’t make any sense to him.

Even if the person hadn’t been dead for eons, his ability typically destroyed all residual consciousness when he turned a corpse into an undead, granting him complete control over what he created. There shouldn’t have been anything left behind that could act independently.

Yet this Lich was clearly different. Damien wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or curious, he eventually decided on both.

Damien summoned the Tome of Avarice and held it up in front of the undead Lich.

"Do you want this?"

The undead Lich stared blankly at the Tome.

It couldn’t answer him, but Damien didn’t need an answer. Whatever faint consciousness remained inside the skeleton, its intentions were as clear as day.

Damien’s lips curled into a cold smirk.

"Well, too bad, it’s mine now."