Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 9: Phylactery
"What plans do you have for yourself when this is all over?"
After the fierce battle, under the ever-changing and gorgeous sky of the Moon Realm, William, who was cleaning the battlefield, suddenly asked the lich beside him, whose body was as dry as a straw and whose feet were floating in the air.
"With such a huge gap between the enemy and us , can you still be so optimistic?"
The lich who was commanding the dead to collect the void dust left over after the moon realm monsters dissipated turned his head and looked at William with his empty eyes and answered.
At that time, the seven great disasters had just been eradicated, but because the disasters had shaken the foundation of the world, the shell that protected the world became extremely unstable, which led to the outbreak of the largest "Moon Crisis" in the history of Vic Continent.
Anyone who knows the true severity of this crisis will never be optimistic enough to consider what happens “after the crisis is resolved.”
"It is precisely because of the huge gap between the enemy and us that if we are not optimistic, despair will first devour our souls. I know too well what terrible choices people who are truly in despair will eventually make."
William replied.
In response to the presiding judge's answer, Nihle, the third seat in the judgment seat and known as the "Frost Witch", moved the few muscles on his face and revealed a slightly bitter smile.
Now, just a tentative attack by a Void King alone is enough to overwhelm the already large-scale End Watchers. Meanwhile, many kingdoms on the Vic continent are still fighting each other for those petty gains, completely unaware of the impending storm of destruction. Some even believed the instigation of the Void Kings, openly spread the worship of the Moon Realm in their territories, and chose to side with the Moon Realm camp.
No matter how optimistic the presiding judge is, he has to consider more realistic issues at the moment.
However, after a moment's silence, Neh replied:
"If... I can finally live to resolve the Moon Realm Crisis. I hope to return to the Holy Tree City in Ravenwood and become a Druid priest who worships the 'Great Mother' again. However, I think it is impossible to do so even if I can live to that time."
After all, the forest elves, whose culture extremely hates the undead souls between life and death, would never tolerate a lich serving as a priest to worship the "Great Mother".
As Nehe said this, he stopped controlling his undead, then used ice crystals to freeze their corpses and stored them in his storage space.
Unlike other necromancers who were used to using whatever was available during battle, Nih was very careful in selecting the undead he used, and after using them, he would freeze the bodies and regularly use life spells to maintain them so that they would not decay until they were released again.
This approach can be said to completely abandon the advantages of cheap raw materials and easy replenishment of Undead spells, which is completely a loss-making behavior. Several magic chanters in the Judgment Seat often complained about Nih - using Undead spells like this is not as good as majoring in Summoning spells.
But William understood why the other party did this.
How could Neher, once a forest druid who celebrated life and cycles, be willing to continue awakening lifeless corpses to spread corruption?
After finishing the work in his hands, Nih sighed - even though he had become a lich and no longer needed to breathe, he still retained his old habits.
Then he looked at William and said:
"Your Excellency the Judge, if I am not lucky enough to survive to the end, can I ask you to do one thing?"
"When I die, please do not revive me through the phylactery, but scatter my ashes at the foot of the World Tree."
…………
After hearing the final conditions offered by Ebony, William stood up unconsciously.
He stared at the forest elf who was several heads taller than him, his face livid, and he said in a serious and somewhat ferocious tone:
"That phylactery... where did you get it ?"
Nehe's Phylactery is the final quest in Nehe's personal questline in the game.
A group of necromancers stole Neh's phylactery and used it to release the power that the top necromancer in the divine realm was usually unwilling to use. They committed a series of terrible crimes and almost created Corrupted Moon Undead Tide 2.0 in the end.
At the end of this mission, the Tribunal destroyed the clown-like Undead Wizard Society, and Neh's life box was finally recovered.
At that time, William, as the player, had two choices: one was to return the phylactery to Nehe, in which case he would destroy the phylactery and commit suicide after a week, thus completing his atonement. Alternatively, the player could throw the phylactery into the sea without telling Nehe, in which case Nehe would continue to live with the guilt for the rest of his life.
At that time, William wanted to see the judge's seat in order after the game, so after much hesitation he finally chose the latter.
To be fair, if William knew that he would travel to this world, he would definitely respect the other party's will and choose the former.
Because of this, after he came here, among the twelve members of the Judgment Seat, William felt that the person he felt most sorry for was Neh. His selfish choice at that time, which was due to his collecting addiction, caused Neh to continue to wander in guilt and pain.
Therefore, after William learned that Neh was killed in a battle with the Takma Order hundreds of years ago, he had already sentenced the oldest magic research order to death in his heart.
No matter how noble the other party's reasons are, no matter how valuable the research of this organization is, no matter whether the Takma Cult has the potential to become his partner... just because they killed Neh, William made up his mind to completely destroy them without leaving a single one alive.
William couldn't quite tell how much of this angry mentality came from regret and dissatisfaction with his original behavior.
If the lich's body was destroyed before the phylactery was destroyed, his will would be imprisoned in the box, and he would suffer the torment of eternal loneliness.
Normally William tried not to let himself think about how many years Neher had been tortured like that, and how many more years he would continue to be tortured when the phylactery was almost impossible to recover.
Now the person in front of him told William that they had Nehe's life box in their hands. How could William not be excited?
The surging magic power, along with William's high emotions, naturally triggered supernatural phenomena around him.
The flowing electric light jumped and flickered on William's fingertips, making crackling sounds. At the same time, a small cyclone formed around him, blowing away the surrounding decorations. If there was no barrier in this temple that shielded the magic of fire attributes, the whole temple might have burned up out of thin air.
Ebony only felt a majestic aura like a mountain instantly spreading out from the thin human in front of him. The feeling of extreme danger activated all the tattoos of the beast spirits on his body in an instant.
It was a chill that crawled along the spine all the way to the back of the head. Ebony felt as if he heard the sound of wild beasts sharpening their claws while walking on the road at night. He felt all the muscles in his body contract instantly, his spine straightened, and he was ready to fight or flee at any time.
What happened? The conditions I offered should be generous enough... After I finished speaking, the other party started chanting a spell. What was going on?
The souls of several wild beasts began to take shape around his body. At the same time, the power of the World Tree was connected to his etheric domain, continuously filling his vitality.
Fighting with the listener of the "Great Mother" in the Holy Tree Great Mother Temple was a suicidal act. If Ebony fought with all his strength, even if several powerful gods joined forces, they would not be able to defeat him who was blessed by the "Great Mother".
But for some reason, his wild intuition told Ebony that if the other party really attacked him, he would most likely be the one to die in the end.
"Let me ask again, where did you get that phylactery you mentioned?"
The terrifying man in front of him completely ignored the beast spirits that materialized around him and asked again in a low voice.
"I can't tell you where it came from because of the confidentiality agreement... But as long as this thing is real, you won't care about its origin, right?"
Under the strong pressure from the other party, Ebony barely squeezed out these words.
This sentence calmed William down a little. He restrained the magic that was unconsciously caused by his emotions, then took a deep breath and said:
"Show me the reward you promised me first. If it's true... I can let you sit on the throne of Holy Tree City by next week."
