"Ugh… AAAAAHHH!"
The Elder Lich screeched, voice cracking with fury as it turned toward me.
"That fool couldn't even handle a simple task!"
It raised its massive scythe, voice grating like stone over bone.
"If you know what's good for you… get lost!"
I didn't reply.
Instead, I let the mana swirl around the blade in my hand—thick, heavy, dense. It wrapped the steel like a living flame.
The Elder Lich hesitated.
"What… are you? Controlling mana like that—freely?"
Still silent, I stepped forward.
Each footfall echoed.
My heartbeat pounded louder, matching the surging energy around me. The body got heavier with each of my steps.
**Shff… crackle.**
My skin turning pale—too pale—then cracked like dry clay. Veins beneath glowed with an intense blue. My hair shifted into a pure, unnatural white.
At this point I knew there will be no saving for me. The recoil I'll face will be first and last of it's kind.
"Huh…?"
With no answer from me, the Elder Lich lost patience.
It swung the scythe, a wide arc aimed to slice me clean in half. Instead of blocking, I raised my other hand—
—and caught the blade with tight grip holding it firmly.
"What?! How are you touching it?!" the Lich roared in disbelief.
That's when I realized—his scythe wasn't a normal weapon. It was pure mana. A construct formed from mana itself.
But so was I.
My body was corroding, white cracks forming with every second, but it wasn't destruction—it was fuel. Raw mana surged in every limb.
**Crack.**
With a grunt, I crushed the blade in my grip, overloading it with my own energy until it shattered into sparks and fragments.
"WHA—?!", It gasps in mid-sentence when
My foot struck his ribcage in a brutal, clean kick—bones cracked and splintered under the force, sending him reeling.
"I don't have time for this," It spoke.
Rising back, the Elder Lich hissed and began chanting.
Corpses laying around started to twitch. Rise and Move.
"I'll deal with you personally… once I'm done here!" it shouted, turning toward the dungeon core. "Damn it, now I'll have to knead the mana manually!"
As the Undead keeps moving towards me. I destroyed their very existence of mana I felt withing them like crushing something in thin air.
_Growl._ changed to silence as each corpse dropped again, lifeless.
One by one.
Dead again—before they could even touch me.