POV Rio
I shut down anything that might cause issues and then lock down the lab. I then ran to the command centre in Sanctuary and called an emergency meeting. It took 2 hours for everyone to arrive, as I called literally everyone, even those who were not nearby. The ones that took the longest were Nick and Deacon, who were both on The Island. They had teamed up to investigate DiMa's crimes. I had given them plenty to go on, and I wanted to be there, but I had been far too busy with the mirror and couldn't delay it. Nick understood that saving the world was more important than confronting DiMa, which he doesn't even remember.
"Sorry, we're late. Traffic was crazy," Deacon jokes as he enters the room.
"No problem. I bet most are wondering why I brought you here," I respond.
"Yeah, but it must be pretty good as you got a damn smile brighter than the sun," Cait jokes.
"Indeed, I am extremely happy to announce that I succeeded," I say with a massive smile.
Everyone freezes for a moment, and then I watch as their eyes show a slowly dawning conclusion.
"T-Truly? Did you do it?" Piper asks.
"Indeed. I got the weapon needed. All that's left is to find and eliminate the Lich," I respond firmly.
"That's amazing, Rio! Congrats!" Hancock says while patting my shoulder.
"What's the plan, General?" Preston asks.
"And I hope you don't have any dumb ideas of leavin' us behind?" Cait comments.
"No, we do this as a team. And I wouldn't have it any other way. As for the plan. I have a compass that can lead us to my heart's greatest desire. My greatest desire is to find and destroy the Lich. So we'll follow it and find that monster. At worst, I might need to kill his current physical body so I can strike his soul, but that shouldn't be that hard," I reply.
"Then I'll get my super suit," Cait says with a smile.
"Good, everyone meet back in 4 hours. We'll take AHO," I reply.
Everyone runs to find their gear, and I talk with Guto and Pharynx. Both wanted to join me, but I chose not to bring them. Honestly, I didn't see a need for them to waste their time. Bringing all my friends was already overkill. I had complete faith that the weapon I was given would do what I needed. Instead, I gave them the job of locating the mechanical beast sleeping on Mars. I didn't need them to excavate it, just confirm it's where it should be. I gave them what was needed to access the beast, but that was about it. From what I know, fully activating it would require some excavation.
Once the 4 hours had passed, I brought everyone together and had them get on the AHO, which had seen numerous upgrades over the months.
'Huh, I just realised I passed my one-year anniversary of being in this world. I guess it's been far longer since my rencarnation but only one year has passed so far. Which also means Christmas isn't that far off.'
Putting aside those thoughts, we flew West. I was piloting as we followed the compass. We followed the compass for several hours until I put it away as I didn't need it anymore. There was an almost buried structure ahead, and it was literally seeping out evil magic. I couldn't see inside, but what I could see from the outside made it seem like this was a recently uncovered structure. Like it was buried and recently excavated.
"Okay, remember the plan. And most importantly, remember, safety comes first. If you start hearing things, you say something. You see something, you say something. I don't know what the Lich has planned, but it can't be good," I reiterate.
Everyone calmly nods as they know this isn't the time to joke around. The AHO lands outside the hole, and we all start walking into the ruin. The inside was... not what I was expecting.
"Is this... a temple?" Nick asks.
"I think so. And look at the art on the wall," I comment.
The art depicted humans worshipping a skeletal creature that I was almost tempted to say was the Lich. It showed various methods they used to worship the creature. Living sacrifices were the most common. But it also showed raiding, bonfires, dancing, and some other things that were harder to make out.
"I got a bad feeling about this," MacCready comments.
We all stop and look back at him.
"What?" MacCready asks.
Curie slaps him on the back of the head.
"Monsieur has given us the jinxes," Curie comments.
"What? You believe in that? Aren't you all about science?" MacCready replies.
"Many of our new citizens are magical talking horses that defy normal laws of physics. Monsieur Rio can create an Eclipse whenever he wants to," Curie replies.
"Fair point. I shut up now," MacCready says.
Other than MacCready jinxing us, our journey was void of any mishaps or difficulties. This led us to the final room, the central chamber. There, sitting in a throne in the centre of the chamber, was the Lich who spotted us immediately.
"Cease," the Lich commands.
Everyone is almost instantly knocked out, and they start to float towards him, but I quickly create a pinkish purple bubble around us, preventing the Lich from affecting us. The Lich's eyes seem to narrow at me. Or that was what I guessed, as he doesn't have eyeballs or flesh for that matter.
"Not this time, Lich," I say.
"Your striving is insignificant, let your death be the same," The Lich says as he stands up.
As he stands, his form starts to shift and change into a more beastly form.
[Image Here]
We start blasting right away. Most of our weapons did nothing to him but singe his newly formed decayed flesh. But that was fine, as Loona and Cait were using magic, and that seemed to cause much more noticeable damage. I focused on finding the right time to strike while also maintaining the shield. Speaking of said shield, it was what was preventing the Lich from even getting close to us. His magic washed right off it, and his blows impacted but merely bounced away. Of course, every strike cost mana and did some damage, and I was certain the Lich knew this.
"I hold the patience of stone and the will of stars, you will all fade as is your fate," The Lich taunts.
"My friends and I refuse to go into the night quietly. We'll resist and so will everyone behind us," I firmly refute.
"My life spans millennia. Legions have risen to test me… Entire nations have fallen before me. There is nothing you can do to stop me," The Lich arrogantly states.
"I'll admit you are immortal. But you're not invulnerable," I reply.
"A fool to the very end. So be it," The Lich says and uses a large amount of his power to shatter the shield. But that was what we were waiting for.
As the shield was falling, we used all the heavy weapons we kept in reserve to cause massive damage to him. At the same time, Loona, Cait, and I all combined our spellcraft to do the real damage. The result was that the Lich was blown to pieces, but he wasn't quite dead. The Lich hadn't left his body, but he was starting to. So I saw my chance and sped towards him, grabbed the dagger from my inventory, and plunged it into the Lich's soul. It felt like the entire universe had held its breath for a moment, but then the effect triggered.
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNN
A burst of defeating sound is heard as the Lich's soul is cracked and damaged. It starts to dissolve as the damage causes the soul to fall apart.
"NOOOOOOO! YOU FOOL, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!" The Lich screams.
"You die this day, foul creature. Never shall you harm another innocent. Now get off my planet," I reply.
"I will not be your trophy. If I must die, I choose how, and everything dies with me," The Lich says, and I notice something horrifying.
The Soul was immensely powerful, but that energy wasn't being erased. It was going critical. My eyes widen, and I look back at the others.
"Sorry," I say to the others.
"WAI..." Cait goes to say, but I activate Chrono Collapse, and then Changeling Shift and I bet everything on getting a being that can fly as fast as I can get. My snout flattens, and my fur recedes as white skin replaces it. My armour fades, and a white and red suit with a red O on the chest takes its place. I grow a mighty moustache. All of this takes place within a few seconds, and I use all the time I can, combined with Temporal Seal, to adapt as quickly as possible to the new form, and thankfully, I was lucky enough to get their flight ability. I might have gotten other powers, but I didn't care what I needed was Omniman's flight speed and nothing else. As I had less than a second left of frozen time, I grabbed the Lich's soul with a careful application of magic and flew as fast as I could. I didn't even care about the consequences of flying so fast.
I chose Omniman for several reasons. In terms of power, he had several, but I had a better chance to get flight as it was based on the manipulation of Smart Atoms. I could have chosen Superman as well, but the issue was magic resistance. Viltrumites didn't have any notable resistance that I could recall, but I do recall that Kryptonians don't do well against it at all. So it was a gamble, plain and simple. I had microseconds to respond to a threat and took what first came to mind, given what I needed. You might ask why I didn't just take the Lich and run. The amount of power in the Lich's soul was enough that I was legitimately scared of what it might do if it blew up on Earth.
This all led me to flying with the Lich into outer space. I flew as fast and as far as I could, but as I was passing the moon, the soul blew up.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM