A Bored Lich

After another long day of sparring, Elero and Thomas chugged some water, wiped the sweat dripping off their bodies, and went to sleep on top of the not-so-comfortable moss at the corner of their new home. Doevm wasn't part of the tired duo. He had been in his little corner, harvesting the day's salamander corpses for their venom and trying out new life essence experiments at the same time. Frey, even though he was even more beaten down than both Elero and Thomas combined, took the first watch.

Doevm placed some Burnsticks down and activated them before turning towards the exit, which lead to the long system of winding tunnels below. "I'll be back in an hour." The second he had his back turned, he heard Frey click his tongue. He stopped. "Do you have any issues with me leaving?"

"A little bit," Frey said while staring at the Burnsticks. "The rest of us are tired and you are more than capable of handling yourself. I know even if I pressure you, you won't tell anyone where you're going or what you're doing, just like when you kept disappearing back at the front lines. Any other reason I can think of for you leaving doesn't take an hour. I don't know if you've noticed. I hardly even realized it myself until recently, probably because I'm so damned stupid. You have been changing. You have been prying into my past and my family life with questions I didn't even think of nor do want to ask myself."

"And?" Doevm asked, turning to him. "Are you going to tell me to stay away so I do not become tangled in your problems?"

Frey shook his head. His shoulders slumped down. "You already know that I can't keep secrets for the life of me. Whenever I try to, I just end up getting mad and going quiet. I wouldn't be surprised if you've pieced the situation together already."

Frey let out a long sigh and lay on the ground, his eyes absently staring upwards. "So tell me oh great Doevm who has read thousands of books. If you're so smart and my guess is correct…" He paused for a time, conflict bubbling under his furrowed brows. Doevm waited. Eventually, Frey's defeated voice drifted on the stale air softer than whisper, but it echoed loud in Doevm's ears.

"What the fuck should I do?" Frey dug his head into his hands. "How do I explain to Gwen that she isn't nearly as important to me as she thinks she is? What reason do I have for finally leaving her, the only family I have left?" He sat back up, a single tear streaking down his cheek. "Please give me a single reason. Just one. I tried to lie to everyone, even myself. I can't go back to that shitty shack and live out the rest of my damned life. I just keep thinking: Is that why Hopi died? Is that why I was allowed to live? Just so I could comfort my sister whenever she needs help as if I'm still slaving over her half-broken body. While she was recovering, I prayed my heart out to the goddess every night and day for years that Gwen wouldn't leave me all alone. I'm happy she's found someone, even if he pisses me the hell off. I want to live my life but no matter what I tell myself I can't leave her either. It's just…Fuck!"

Doevm stood there, looking down at this child in a giant's body. His mind raced faster than his heart, trying to find a reason, some method where he could tell Frey. "I'm sorry." But even with all Doevm knew, even though he had thousands of spells at his command, not one could break the thing watching over Frey's soul. 'If only I still had my necklace,' he thought. "Not yet. Just be patient." The edges of Frey's lips ever so slightly moved. 'No,' They began to curl upwards. 'That is not fair.' Finally, Frey's mouth changed into that accursed smile of his.

"Got it." Frey forced his voice back to normal. "Well. You have to leave now, right? You'll be back though." Doevm's eyes went to the floor.

"I hope so." Doevm glanced at the other two and found that they were somehow still asleep. They had probably passed out from exhaustion. "Later," he said over his shoulder as he walked away from the rest of the group. While only he could see it, clutched in his hands was "Lich's Malice". 'Just a little bit longer. Just wait. I'll tell you everything. For now however, I have my own problems.' He worked his way down and through the system of caves which they had been clearing out. Just in case, he unsealed his mana and scanned through the area. After confirming nothing was there, he took several deep breaths, and opened "Lich's Malice" to the first page.

His heartrate spiked and a warm sensation traveled up his torso. Blissful thoughts of painful murders swirled in his head. He turned to the second page and his face went hot. His teeth clenched together. 'Let it flow but do not let it overwhelm you,' he thought. 'Let it out. Let it fuel your actions. The savages made this process so clear in their writings on rage, but it is so much harder in practice. I just hope I'm alive tomorrow.'

…

"What the hell did you do?" Arthur yelled as he kicked down the front door to Doevm's library. Doevm looked up from his book to find his blue eyes alive with a fury. Gwenivier trailed behind him looking like a lost child. Guards appeared to his left and right and drew their weapons but Doevm ordered them to stand down. Arthur stormed right up to Doevm's throne, the veins in his forehead throbbing. Spots of blood appeared on his shirt, his recent wounds opening under the strain. "You killed the leader of the magic academy and resurrected him as your minion! Why?"

"He failed at his job so I made him do his job," Doevm replied, glancing at Gwenivier, whose gaze didn't leave the ground. "It had to be done."

"Not like that!" Arthur yelled and took another step towards him. "You caused an uproar throughout the entire Capital. This morning I had to talk down an entire army from attempting to storm through your library and destroy you."

"No you did not," Doevm marked his page and shut the book.

"Well…practically!" Arthur stopped in a fit of coughing, his face growing paler by the second. "They just kept going on and on about what they would do to you, in graphic detail."

"And in the end, they took no action," Doevm slowly rose to his feet, stopping the rays of colored light shining through his stained-glass window from reaching the two intruders. Gwenivier took a step back and tugged on the back of Arthur's shirt. "They will never attack because they know who I am." A magic circle engulfed Arthur and his facial expression, while it was still a little tense, somewhat relaxed. "To humans, rage blinds. Use it as a fuel instead." Arthur took a deep breath and held onto his side, but he didn't back down yet.

"That does not make you a god," he insisted. "You could have done it differently. You could have just moved some people around. Do you ever think of not killing people, for once? I thought you said you were over that."

"I am," Doevm replied. He internally took notes on what his spell for converting one's rage into fuel for one's actions, "given" to him by a tribe of Savages, was doing to a willing participant.

"Clearly you are not done killing because you just did it," Arthur began to pace in the room but his wounds did not bleed as much as before.

"I assure you; I am done with killing people." Doevm sent out a thought for his guards to slowly get closer. 'Maybe I should find someone else to spar with,' he thought. "When I say killing people however, that is different from your definition of killing people."

"And why is that Doevm? Is that because you can bring them back from death if you want? Putting them in a state of half-death doesn't count?"

"No." The guards drew ever closer, but only the ones who Doevm specifically instructed. They were the oldest of the many Undead under his command. They all wore different uniforms, were of different species, and they all wore emblems of long dead kingdoms. "Killing is killing. People, however, does not refer to a single decrepit man surrounded by books and his own failures. He might lead the magic academy but he is still one man, no matter how important. People, by my definition, means cultures, beliefs, kingdoms, or even entire races when I had felt like it back then."

"What?" Arthur halted his pacing, his gaze moving from Doevm to the small army of Undead marching through the door he had kicked down. After the library filled up, the rest went to the walls, and when that was full, they occupied the forest. All that had knees knelt down. If they floated, they bowed. If they didn't have heads, they lay down. If they had wings, they folded them up. All knelt in front of Doevm. He chuckled at the screams of nearby villagers, terrified of the undead flooding through their village.

"Every Lich has dreamt of the atrocities I have committed. I have burned holes in history just to gather the ashes and organize them within my shelves." Doevm pointed to the rows and rows of books, a mere portion of his collection. "I used to kill people." He repeated. "If I translate those words into your vocabulary, that means genocide."

Gwenivier huddled against Arthur. "Let's just go." Arthur however, had his blue eyes locked onto Doevm's blue flamed eyes.

"But you are different. We both know that. That is why I have not sworn to slay you. There is a reason you have not wiped out humanity. Hell I bet if you wanted you could have destroyed this world long ago. You can be good, but you choose not to be. Why?"

…

Doevm found an isolated cavern, where no one could hear him even if he screamed at the top of his lungs. For safety of the world, he put several protections in the surrounding area. He pulled out light crystals and set them around him on the ground. With another magic circle, the room shifted and morphed into a perfect sphere. Another spell blocked the exit with thick layers of stone. 'That should be enough,' Doevm thought. He sat at the center, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes.

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