"You're so talented—you don't need it at all. All it will do is bring you trouble..." Sosk said urgently, his dry voice coming out hoarse and indistinct.
"I've already got more than enough trouble as it is."
Anser looked up to see the lich and the death knight charging toward him together, their eyes filled with undisguised malice.
Not far away, Brunhilde stared at the suddenly appeared Anser in surprise, her lips parting slightly. She quickly snapped out of it and shouted, "Run!"
Anser moved in a blur and slipped into the Ethereal Plane, vanishing from everyone's sight.
Brunhilde froze for a moment. When she turned around, she found quite a few people shifting their attention toward her. A sense of foreboding rose in her heart. She wanted to leave, yet she couldn't bring herself to abandon Anser.
A fierce gust howled past.
The death knight reached Sosk before the lich did.
"Come out—!"
He glared furiously around him, waving his greatsword as he roared. His vocabulary was limited, and... so were his methods.
By then, Anser had already flown thirty or forty meters through the Ethereal Plane. Looking back at the enraged knight spinning around like a carousel, he couldn't help feeling puzzled.
'Huh? Why isn't he chasing me in here?'
He had already prepared himself for a game of cat and mouse with the death knight inside the Ethereal Plane.
'Wait... the horse!'
A flash of realization struck him.
Looking more closely at the mount, he found that it looked exactly like a nightmare, but the flames around its hooves were noticeably more ethereal, and their color lacked the same blazing intensity.
'It's a Phantom Steed! No wonder it's faster, but can't fly.'
That meant the nightmare had probably been destroyed, and the death knight had replaced it with a mount summoned by the Phantom Steed spell, made to look exactly like the original nightmare.
'He's surprisingly sentimental.' The corners of Anser's lips lifted as he relaxed.
The death knight might be powerful, but he had no way of entering the Ethereal Plane. There was simply nothing he could do to Anser.
The moment Anser turned his head, he met a pair of icy eyes.
The lich had arrived.
Even with the Ethereal Plane separating them and the world shrouded in gray haze, Anser instinctively knew the lich was looking directly at him.
A lich naturally possessed Truesight, allowing it to see through invisibility, illusions, and even the Ethereal Plane with ease.
Anser remained completely calm.
He rapidly retreated while constantly changing direction. Before long, the lich's figure became hazy and indistinct, leaving only the two faint glimmers in its eye sockets standing out in the gloom.
The lich pursued him through the Material Plane, but as the distance widened, its gaze repeatedly lost focus. It was always a step behind, constantly having to change direction.
'He can't get in here... and his Truesight doesn't reach as far as my vision.'
Anser relaxed.
He had been somewhat wary of facing a legendary creature like a lich, but after watching it stumble around like a headless chicken, that intimidating aura immediately shattered.
An ordinary lich was a master of magic.
This lich... wasn't all that impressive.
Still, Anser had no intention of fighting it to the bitter end. His plan was simply to take Brunhilde and leave.
As he approached Brunhilde, he discovered that the lich had also followed her, staying right behind her while its gaze constantly swept across the surrounding empty space. Its intentions couldn't have been more obvious.
'What a crafty bastard.'
Brunhilde's warning earlier had been nothing but genuine concern, but in doing so, she had exposed the connection between the two of them.
Brunhilde was quick-witted enough to realize from the lich's actions that Anser hadn't actually left. The thought that she had once again become someone else's leverage against Anser filled her with fury.
This was the second time.
The first had been back on Rock of Bral.
She tried casting spell after spell, but every one of them was precisely interrupted by Counterspell. There was no way she could escape on her own.
Anser observed for a moment before focusing his mind and casting spell after spell. Layers of magical radiance shimmered across his body—Intellect Fortress, Fly, Fire Shield, Mage Armor, False Life...
Then he stepped straight out of the Ethereal Plane.
A flash of silver mist later, he appeared just a few meters away from Brunhilde.
A streak of black light burst into existence.
The lich, who had been watching him all along, teleported over at the same instant, stopping less than ten meters away from them.
Its lifeless eyes fixed on them as its crimson robes billowed. An invisible, dim aura spread outward, enveloping both of them.
Brunhilde let out a muffled groan as a patch of black corruption appeared on her exposed cheek.
The soft radiance shimmering across Anser's scales rippled gently, but he felt absolutely nothing.
[You are enveloped by the Thayan lich's Aura of Disrupted Life. You are immune to necrotic damage and suffer no effects whatsoever...]
None of the lich's three legendary abilities were of any use against him.
Instead of leaving immediately, Anser decided to show off a little and remind the lich not to think too highly of itself.
Sorcerous Incarnation + Metamagic: Empowered Quickened Spell, Empowered Heighten Spell, Empowered Subtle Spell + Forcecage!
A short phrase in Draconic rang out.
Instantly, a cubic prison of invisible force walls sprang up around the lich, each side measuring over three meters.
The moment the walls formed, the lich's aura was completely sealed inside. Not even the slightest trace of its power could leak through.
The crimson-robed lich reached out and touched the invisible wall.
Then it slowly opened its mouth into a stiff smile that looked deeply unsettling.
Magic surged around its body.
Its form blurred, and even the Forcecage rippled with concentric waves.
Yet... it failed to teleport out.
[The Thayan lich casts Deathly Teleport and is forced to make a Charisma saving throw. Saving throw failed.]
The lich's Charisma wasn't particularly high, nor were its related saving throws.
Unless it burned one of its Legendary Resistances, escaping a Forcecage was extremely difficult.
"Is that all you've got?"
Anser was just talking trash.
He had no intention of fighting the lich to the death.
After all, it had Legendary Resistance, was effectively impossible to kill permanently, and possessed a whole arsenal of innate spellcasting abilities.
For example, the infamous 9th-level spell Power Word Kill.
If the target had fewer than 100 hit points, they died instantly on the spot.
Even if the target's health exceeded that threshold, it would still deal 12d12 (12–144) psychic damage.
There was simply no way to fight something like that.
At least... not yet.
He swept his gaze around.
The death knight was already charging toward him on horseback, now only a dozen or so meters away.
Meanwhile...
Sosk had somehow been hacked into a bloody pulp.
Blood and chunks of flesh flowed along the grooves between the stone slabs, while his severed head remained upright on the ground.
His eyes were wide open, filled with unwillingness, resentment, fear... and helplessness.
'This...'
Anser's heart trembled, leaving him with mixed emotions.
He had actually intended to bring Sosk with him.
Not out of kindness—but because he wanted answers.
The entire incident was shrouded in mystery, and Sosk might have been the only one capable of explaining the truth.
"...Sigh. Time to go."
There was no time to lament fate's unpredictability.
He reached out and grabbed Brunhilde by the wrist.
"Can we take them too?" Brunhilde asked, pointing toward several adventurers in the distance.
"Sure."
Anser instantly cast Dimension Door, bringing the two of them beside the adventurers.
He signaled for them not to resist, then immediately cast Teleport, vanishing from the underground city before the lich could force its way out of the Forcecage.
The crimson-robed lich stared at Sosk's corpse and the fleeing priests of Myrkul.
The smile had completely disappeared from its face.
Its Counterspell might have been exceptional... but there was no interrupting an instant spell that required neither verbal nor somatic components.
Its restricted spellcasting left it tied hand and foot, unable to use many of its usual methods.
"Who... was... he?!"
"Uh... I think he was the Lord of Durlag's Tower..."
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