Ning and the rest of them arrived at the center of the field where nothing was there. However, a moment later, a coffin lifted itself out of the ground and flew overhead.
"Who dares tread inside my realm?" a raspy, evil voice spoke in a language that only Ning and Sorlus could understand. The rest of them had to rely on their translation skills in their artifact to get it secondhand.
Ning looked at the monster that had appeared in front of them.
It was a floating humanoid body that had its clothes wrapped in a cloth that was furthermore wrapped around in chains. Various magic circles were drawn on its leg, but from the look of it they were no longer working.
The figure wore a blue mantle that was completely torn up in most places ad only covered up to its chest. Its stomach and arms were visible and to everyone's surprise, they were skeletal arms.
Its head was a half-rotten human head, with bones being visible through some of the cheeks. Its eyes were nowhere to be found, and instead, it was glowing a crimson red.
The figure held a black skull that seemed to have some immense amount of power.
"I knew it!" Ning said with a wide smile. "A Death Lich. Which one of you wants to fight it?"
They all looked at the beasts. Saphandra looked a little disgusted and didn't want to fight it at all. Ning wasn't even sure if she could. Mana was far stronger than Spiritual energy after all.
"I can give it a try," Blue said and walked forward.
Seeing this, Sorlus had to show off as well. "No, I will fight it," he said and walked forward.
The two started quarreling as to who got to fight and neither of them actually started fighting. However, seeing as the two had moved towards it, the death lich moved.
Suddenly, the black skull on its hand opened up and a terrifying screech left its mouth. Nearly everyone had to hold their ears to ward off the sound and even that didn't help.
Sorlus was the only one affected in the group for some reason, but the most he was feeling was slight dizziness. "Urgh! I hated that," he said.
"Are you okay?" Ely asked Sorlus. "What was that?"
"It's attacking our souls," Ning said. "You three have a strong soul so you weren't affected. Meanwhile, Saphandra and I don't really have any souls, so we are also fine. In the end, Sorlus is the only one that took some damage, but he's too strong to be hurt the same way a normal mage would be."
"That must be it," Sorlus said. "My head aches slightly, but I'm fine."
"Alright, Sorlus, step back. I don't know if you are strong enough to face it or not, but it won't be an easy match for you. Whether you like it or not, you are one of the weakest of the group after all."
Blue gave a wide grin that screamed 'I'm better than you towards Sorlus. Sorlus grumbled and went backward.
"Alright, Blue, go take it ou—"
"No, wait! I want to fight it," Ely said and moved forward. "Can I fight it?"
"Of course, sister Ely. Please go ahead," Blue said.
"Are you sure, honey? You're too strong for this fight," Ning said.
"I know," Ely said as she reached into her storage amulet and brought out something. "But I have a few artifacts that I've been wanting to test out for a while. Let's see how good this work."
The Death Lich moved again. Its left hand grabbed on top of the skull on its right hand, and together they pointed it into the sky.
The skull opened its mouth again and this time ie shot something into the sky.
"Be careful, it's attacking you," Ning told Ely.
"It's fine," Ely said, not giving much thought to the attack that was going to fall on her at any second. Instead, she planted something firmly onto the ground and propped it out.
Ning looked at the camera like equipment and almost even thought it was one. Except, Ely opened the front of the artifact and there was nothing but a giant hole.
Ely grabbed it by two sides and just like a camera lens, a long tube popped out from the front.
Like lightning, something flashed from the sky and struck the ground right where Ely was, destroying everything in a small radius. However, when the light disappeared, not a hair on her head had been touched.
"Well, I hope this works," he said and poured Qi into the artifact. Suddenly, the tube at the front glowed and something shot out of it, just like a cannon.
A massive Qi blast shot from the front and struck the lich right where it stood. The world shook at the attack and even Blue and Night had to step back in surprise.
The power was just too much with it.
"It must have all been decimated," Saphandra couldn't help but say.
"I don't see how anything could have survived that—" Ely's words stopped in her mouth when she saw something still floating in the air, even after her cannon had attacked it.
"No way!" she shouted in surprise. "How can that monster still be alive after taking an attack from my— oh wait, it's just Ning. Honey, what are you doing?"
Ning floated in front fo the mostly destroyed lich. "You should have told me if you were going to destroy it so suddenly. You nearly destroyed the mana core hidden in it too," he said. He turned around and looked at the remaining body of the lich.
His hand reached into its chest and pulled out the SSS-ranked mana stone. When the lich's dead body fell to the ground, it dissipated in flakes of darkness and a portal appeared right in front of them.
Now that they had cleared the dungeon, they were free to leave.
So, one by one, all of them walked out of the portal, arriving back in Berlin where Ning could see the director just turning around to leave.
