Chapter 333 Death Curse? It's a blessing for me, Garos!
Phillips, dragging his weakened lich body, moved silently through the dark and desolate wilderness.
The soul fire, representing the very essence of the soul, flickered weakly in the empty eye sockets, its light many times dimmer than when it arrived.
"Damn Red Iron Dragon... Damn Riverwood Collar..."
"I will definitely come back!"
Thinking of how his vast undead army, which he had spent hundreds of years and countless efforts to build up, had been destroyed in such a short time, Phillips couldn't help but curse again. His curses contained both deep fear and apprehension towards the Red Iron Dragon, as well as greed and desire.
It can penetrate the defenses of legendary realms even when it is of a higher level.
Even with Phillips's legendary knowledge and extraordinary vision, he had only heard of one such example over the long years.
—Lothern the Holy King!
That powerful being, when he was still at level 20, in order to verify the limits of his own power and to personally experience the immense power of the legendary realm, resolutely challenged a true legend at level 21.
After a fierce and earth-shattering battle.
The Holy King transcended the immense chasm between the mortal and the legendary, displaying extraordinary power.
Although he failed to achieve a decisive final victory, he did manage to fight that legendary powerhouse to a draw.
Even so, the power displayed by Holy King Lorthorn was enough to win countless awe-inspiring gazes and sow deep fear in the hearts of many powerful individuals.
Phillips had carefully examined the Red Iron Dragon's health level during the previous battle.
Level 17, which is roughly equivalent to a mid-adult golden dragon.
Although his own legendary domain strength was indeed far from comparable to its peak, his opponent was also far from reaching the level of level 20, the peak of mortals.
"That damned dragon, if it grows to level 20..."
"Who knows, he might actually be able to defeat a true legend in top form!"
"If he continues to grow unhindered, perhaps one day he will become an unprecedented dragon king, another extremely powerful ancient dragon after the Wings of the Sky."
"And this also means that if I can manage to control him, I will have an unprecedented opportunity to surpass my previous peak and reach a new height that I never imagined!"
A greedy glint flashed in Phillips' eyes.
At over a thousand years old, it's the perfect age to strive and achieve a comeback!
He secretly made up his mind.
Once he has successfully adjusted his condition and regrouped, he must do everything in his power, at any cost, to quickly reclaim his legendary status. Then, he must concentrate all his strength to decisively defeat the Red Iron Dragon that had caused him such heavy losses yet which he so desperately coveted.
He was envisioning a wonderful future in his mind as he silently traversed through dark forests and rolling hills.
Finally, it was midnight.
The necromancer arrived at a very secluded, steep cliff covered with layers of vines.
"In the name of the dead, open the passage!"
Phillips recited the incantation in a hoarse voice.
As the incantation was uttered, the thick, twisted vines on the cliff face began to writhe as if alive, quickly retreating to both sides. Then, the surface of the mountain, which had been covered by the vines, silently cracked open, revealing a bottomless, pitch-black cave entrance.
Without hesitation, Phillips immediately crawled inside.
The vines behind him quickly closed up and returned to their original state, and the cracked mountain also healed as if it had a life of its own, perfectly concealing the entrance as if it had never existed.
The cave stretched downwards, and the negative energy in the air gradually became thicker and more viscous as they went deeper. The cold and damp environment made the lich feel slightly more comfortable.
He followed the familiar path from his memory, winding and turning for a long time, passing through several trap-filled passages and empty secret chambers, before finally reaching the deepest part of the cave.
The view here suddenly opened up.
The walls were inlaid with countless pigeon-egg-sized crystals that emitted a ghostly blue light, casting an eerie glow over the entire space.
Under the eerie blue light, there were rows of elite undead guards standing silently like sculptures, mountains of various biological skeletons, experimental subjects emitting a pungent odor while soaking in huge glass containers, and a mysterious altar carved from a single piece of obsidian in the center of the cave.
In the center of the altar, a crystal box about the size of a fist, made of an unknown material, floated silently.
That was the phylactery of the lich Phillips, the ultimate core of his existence.
Returning to the cavern he had cultivated for countless years, and especially seeing the intact life box, Phillips' tense nerves finally relaxed, and he let out a long sigh of relief.
He walked toward the altar where his life casket was stored, stepped over the stairs, and slowly extended his withered hand toward the casket.
By touching the Life Box, he can absorb the negative energy and soul essence stored within, repairing his damaged soul and body, and slowly recovering his condition.
Without warning, a figure emerged silently from the shadows beside the altar.
The Flower Lord, Charles, emerged from the folds of space like a ghost. Before Philips could react, he slashed with unparalleled precision with his cross sword, shattering the defensive runes surrounding the altar.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Lich."
Charles's long, slender fingers shot out like lightning, gripping the crystal life box. A smile appeared on his handsome face: "This thing no longer belongs to you."
"you--?!"
The soul fire in Phillips's eyes flickered violently as if it had encountered a gale, almost bursting open!
He hadn't expected that this border traveler had been following him all along.
Spatial spells require a great deal of talent and, along with time spells, are among the most difficult types. There are many legendary sorcerers who know nothing about spatial magic.
As a sorcerer specializing in necromancy, Phillips was not skilled in spatial manipulation, but he was well aware of the terrifying power of spatial abilities. Therefore, at key points in this underground cave, he also set up some traps and warning spells involving spatial manipulation, in order to prevent anyone from silently approaching him through spatial means like Charles.
However, everyone has their own expertise, and his spatial abilities were still somewhat lacking.
All the traps were detected and avoided by the Borderwalkers, so much so that Phillips did not notice a single sign of being tracked during his entire return to the lair.
"Give me back the life box!!"
The horror instantly turned into rage, and the lich suddenly raised its withered claws, unleashing a jet-black death ray of extreme concentration that shot towards Sharl.
However, Charles's figure had already vanished as a faint phantom.
The death ray only pierced through the afterimage he left behind, slamming hard into the obsidian altar behind him.
Instead of trying to hide in the spatial crevices again, Xia Er repeatedly used short-range teleportation to escape rapidly towards the outside of the cave.
It wasn't that he didn't want to hide and slip away, but that he couldn't.
Remaining still while hidden in a spatial crevice is a completely different concept from continuously traversing and strolling through a complex spatial structure; the energy expenditure is vastly different.
The former consumes very little.
The latter, especially the task of following a legendary lich and evading his spatial vigilance, is an extremely heavy burden for Sharl now. It has already left him mentally and physically exhausted, and his energy consumption is enormous. He can no longer sustain high-intensity spatial walking in the short term.
"Chase him! Chase him! Kill him! Retrieve the Life Box!!"
Watching the receding figure flickering away in the passage, the lich let out a hysterical roar, its soulfire burning wildly with extreme anger and fear.
In an instant, all the silent undead guards in the cave erupted into a frenzy!
Skeleton warriors rose from the ground and walls, brandishing dangerous weapons; ghostly banshees let out piercing shrieks and passed right through the walls; a stench-filled abomination, made of countless pieces of corpse stitched together, smashed through the side stone door and roared as it charged out.
Phillips himself, despite his weakness, staggered to keep up, the fire of his soul almost bursting from his eyes.
Even if it had been crushed by Red Iron Dragon's claw back then, it would have been better than having its life box taken away by someone else now.
As long as the life box remains, even if his body is destroyed and it takes a huge price and a long time, he will always have a chance to be resurrected, only to fall into a longer slumber.
But if the life box is lost, for a lich, it is a true and irreversible end.
With his last strength and superb agility, Charles forcefully broke through the layers of undead guards in the cave and finally broke into the outside world.
His figure moved swiftly through the dense forest under the moonlight, his movements as light as flowing water brushing against the branches and leaves, making almost no sound.
However, he couldn't get any faster.
The life box in his hand, containing a soul with legendary essence, was unusually heavy.
Neither his spatial abilities nor the storage items he carried could contain him.
And the distance was too close.
Waves of chilling, bone-chilling negative energy, seemingly capable of freezing the soul, were constantly emanating from the life box, relentlessly eroding his flesh and soul as a living being, causing him a very serious impact and greatly slowing him down.
As time passed, instead of widening the distance, the chilling pursuit of the undead legion behind him grew closer and clearer.
"Tear him apart! Reclaim the Life Box!!"
Phillips's frantic cries echoed through the silent night, as the dead relentlessly pursued him.
Finally, Shire broke out of the dense forest and came to a relatively open wasteland.
The dead followed closely behind, surging out of the forest.
"If you come any closer, I'll destroy this thing!"
While maintaining his speed, Charles raised the Life Box in his hand and gripped the Cross Knight Sword tightly in his other hand, speaking threateningly, his voice slightly panting from exhaustion.
Phillips remained silent in the distance, desperately urging his undead mount to accelerate closer, his two empty eye sockets fixed on the human figure ahead, burning with frenzied flames.
Charles shook his head slightly, no longer wasting his breath, and focused his remaining energy on trying to find a way to break through.
He clearly sensed it the moment he touched the life box.
This life box is protected by a legendary domain-level protection that arises from within. With his power, it is impossible for him to break it or even leave a scratch on it.
Phillips was clearly aware of this as well, and therefore completely ignored his threat.
Aaaaaahh ...
A sharp sound, like an ice blade scraping against glass, burst forth from the mouth of a ghostly banshee, and the invisible sound waves instantly swept across Ciel's body.
His movements suddenly froze, and his speed inevitably slowed down a little again.
In that instant, powerful undead such as winged corpse demons, abominations, and skeletal warriors surrounded him, trapping him in the center.
Charles gripped the cross-sword tightly, but his face showed no fear, only a cold and murderous aura.
As a powerful individual who also cultivates the Arcane Knight path, he is not only exceptionally skilled in the Way of Space, but also equally adept in direct combat. Apart from being helpless against the unreasonable defenses of the legendary domain, breaking through the encirclement of these undead creatures in front of him should not be too difficult.
"Run! Why did you stop running?!"
Phillips raised his withered claws, and dense negative energy began to gather, preparing to cast a powerful binding spell, working with the undead to bind and capture this despicable human.
Sudden!
A violent whirlwind suddenly arose on the flat ground, whipping up sand and stones and causing the surrounding vegetation to bend and twist.
Phillips's soul flame flickered violently, and a terrible premonition suddenly rose in his heart. He subconsciously looked up at the sky.
An enormous shadow tore through the clouds, carrying with it a suffocatingly violent airflow and scorching dragon's might, crashing down to the ground like a meteor of divine punishment.
The deafening crash to the ground and the sharp, piercing sound of the sky being torn apart overlapped perfectly, echoing throughout the wilderness!
Galos, the King of Molten Iron, descends from the heavens!
The massive impact of his landing instantly crushed several high-ranking undead guarding the lich. Amidst the billowing dust, that familiar giant claw reached out and easily gripped Phillips, who was trying to retreat.
This moment is just like that moment back then.
The only difference is...
Looking at the enormous and majestic dragon head before him, the fear Phillips felt this time was a complete, soul-deep tremor.
Good evening, little bug.
The red iron dragon opened its massive jaws, its vertical pupils locking onto the lich's twisted face. Its enormous claws began to slowly tighten, and a sickening, tooth-grinding sound of bones grinding together could be heard.
"This time, you won't have any more chances to fake your death."
The lich hissed in pleading, "Wait...wait!"
However, before he could finish speaking, his withered body was once again crushed and ground into the finest ashes and dust without any suspense.
The remaining undead around them had lost their master's control.
Driven by an instinctive hatred for the living, they still charged forward frantically, only to be swept away into pieces by Garus's casual flick of his giant tail or his wing.
"I have successfully completed my mission, sir, and obtained the life box."
Charles presented the crystal life box with both hands, finally letting out a long sigh of relief.
Galos picked up the life box with the tip of his claw and examined it carefully.
The moment he made direct contact, he felt a pure and cold negative energy trying to erode his claws and scales.
The intensity of this energy was so high that it even made him feel noticeably cold.
It wasn't just ordinary low temperature; it was a chilling cold that seemed to penetrate his thick scales, freeze his flesh and blood, and seal his soul.
He began to increase the pressure on his claws.
The intense golden lightning and the deep black and red dragon energy simultaneously wrapped around his fingers and claws, fiercely clashing and resisting each other with the negative energy emanating from the surface of the Life Box. The powerful force began to press down on the faint legendary domain barrier on the surface of the Life Box.
Without needing to activate the Crimson Lotus state, just a few seconds later, a faint sound rang out, and the domain cracked.
Since the lich had just died, the legendary domain on this life box was at its weakest point, with its strength approaching zero.
Galos used an extremely sharp claw tip to pry open the outer shell of the life box.
In an instant, a dense, almost tangible negative energy surged out of the life box like a cold wave that had been suppressed for thousands of years.
The surrounding air temperature plummeted, instantly condensing into countless grayish-white snowflakes and ice crystals. The earth was quickly covered by a hard ice shell. However, the flowers and plants in the nearby area were not frozen. Instead, they withered, rotted, and turned to ashes under the sweep of negative energy.
This wave of negative energy slammed heavily onto the Red Iron Dragon's body.
His scales were not frozen, but one could clearly feel an extreme cold that penetrated to the bone, as if a naked human being had been instantly thrown into an eternal frozen wasteland.
The excruciating pain seeped into his body through the gaps in his scales, and his life force began to decline slowly but clearly.
However, Galus remained unmoved by all of this.
He even tilted his enormous head slightly, a satisfied, even slightly enjoyable, expression on his face.
With intense anticipation in his eyes, he fully opened the life box, seemingly hoping that the negative energy surging out from it would be even more ferocious and violent.
But the result disappointed Galos.
After the life box was fully opened, no more torrents of negative energy surged out from inside. Instead, at the very center of the life box lay a warm and lustrous bead, about the size of a thumb, surrounded by a thick, impenetrable cloud of negative energy.
Buzz—!
The negative energy within the life box surged violently, rapidly coalescing into a blurry and distorted face centered around the bead.
"Now, we can talk again."
Galos stared at the lich's blurry, distorted face and said, "State your final value to me, and I may consider accepting your belated allegiance."
However, unlike when they first met, they could no longer feign politeness.
At this moment, the lich's face, formed from negative energy, was filled only with the purest and most extreme hatred and madness.
It let out a distorted, inhuman roar and howl filled with resentment.
The life box was now under human control, and had fallen into the hands of a long-lived, incredibly powerful, and notoriously greedy and stingy dragon! Phillips' remaining consciousness could no longer see even the slightest hope of escape.
His path of revenge had only just begun when it was forced to end completely.
The lich's already twisted heart transferred and poured all his overwhelming hatred for King Lorthorn and the Federation onto the red iron dragon in front of him.
Moreover, the last vestige of pride belonging to a legendary powerhouse deep within him would never allow him to grovel and become a slave.
At this moment, his remaining consciousness had only one thought.
Make that damned red iron dragon in front of us pay the price! Make him suffer day and night, filled with remorse for his actions!
"Damn dragon! I curse you! I curse you with my utterly vanished soul!!"
"From this moment forward, your scales will gradually become brittle! Your body will grow weaker and weaker! Your life will fade away more rapidly... You will suffer this soul curse day and night, endlessly!!"
Click!
Accompanied by this extremely vicious curse, the warm and lustrous soul bead in the center of the life box shattered into the finest powder.
at the same time.
The distorted lich face, formed from negative energy, suddenly burst forth from the phylactery, shooting towards the face of the red iron dragon that was right in front of it like an arrow.
Whoosh!
Galos reacted extremely quickly, flames surging at the tips of its wings, and its massive body soared into the sky with an agility disproportionate to its size, attempting to evade this final counterattack.
However, the lich's face seemed to have locked onto his soul essence, and it did not dissipate after he missed.
It flashed briefly, then vanished into thin air, only to instantly reappear above Garus's broad back in the next second. Then, like a phantom, it disappeared directly beneath his thick scales.
"This kind of lock-on curse, which is cast at a huge cost, is as difficult to avoid as ever."
The red iron dragon's flight motion in the air visibly paused for a moment.
The lich's curse was more powerful and vicious than the serpent dragon's death curse, and Garoth's current curse resistance was not enough to exempt him from it.
All sorts of negative effects took effect at the same time, and an indescribable feeling of weakness, coldness, and sluggishness instantly swept over his body, making Galos feel extremely uncomfortable.
He circled halfway through the air, adjusted his posture, and then slowly descended back to the ground.
Charles immediately stepped forward, looking at the red iron dragon with some concern.
However, to his surprise, he did not see any anger or annoyance on Red Iron Dragon's imposing face.
on the contrary.
The corners of Red Iron Dragon's mouth were slightly turned up, and finally it even opened its huge mouth, revealing a smile that looked like pleasure.
How can someone laugh after being cursed with such a vicious curse?
Could it be that he's laughing in anger... or has he gone mad with rage? Charles wisely chose to remain silent and did not ask any questions.
In fact, his idea was completely wrong.
Galos's smile came from the heart.
Day after day, year after year, the almost self-torturing high-intensity training and tempering had long since honed him to the point that what ordinary people consider pain, to a certain extent, he regarded as pleasure and resources for self-improvement.
The negative effects of the lich curse did indeed cause Garoth significant discomfort.
But in his view, this was only temporary.
His will and body will soon adapt to the curse.
His spirit will become more resilient and unyielding, his scales will become stronger in the process of resisting the erosion of the curse, and his life force will become more vigorous and powerful in resisting the passing of time... until one day, his curse resistance will be high enough to completely exempt him from the lich curse.
He even hoped that the curse would last longer.
curse?
No, in Galus's eyes, this was the best training, a blessing from the enemy!
If all resistances could be visualized as data, Galos had no doubt that his strongest resistances at present were fire resistance, physical resistance, and curse resistance, which was about to reach a new level!
"Besides the blessings, the harvest also includes this life box."
"It can automatically absorb and store the negative energy around it, and can condense the soul into a soul bead."
"Even though the lich that created it has completely perished, I can still use the negative energy it gathered to continuously cleanse myself and further enhance my resistance to negative energy. As for the Soul Bead's ability to preserve the souls of the dead, I'll study it; I estimate it will have other great uses as well."
Galos stared intently at the life box in his hand, which had already been opened.
As the souls inside the box continue to come into contact with the outside air, the soul dust left behind after the soul beads shattered is gradually dissipating and becoming dim.
These dust particles, imbued with the essence of legendary souls, are also invaluable and should not be wasted.
After a brief but careful observation, Galos closed the lid of the casket and held it firmly in his hand.
ps:
The nanny just left these past two days, and before leaving, she taught the author some childcare techniques. After learning a few tricks, the author is full of confidence and ready to put her skills to the test.
It turned out I was overthinking it.
The little brat used his wailing technique, which was like a demonic sound piercing the ears. The author tried his best but could not stop it. All the skills he had learned were exempted, which caused the author to be unable to sleep at night, to be in a daze, and to seriously affect his writing and updates. He had no choice but to hire a postpartum nanny again. The nanny will arrive the day after tomorrow, and he should be able to resume writing 10,000 words a day.
(The above text is less than 200 words and is free of charge.)
(End of this chapter)
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