The sudden death of so many of his minions due to the powerful Chaos spells had drawn the Plaguespreader's attention.
'This is really Urgamakka and those old bastards found the secret of the white core after I left. I don't need to read documents when I can just study the final product of our research.' He thought.
The Eldritch believed that Lith was a prisoner of the Awakened and that they had used him as a guinea pig for the breathing technique they had recovered before attempting it on themselves.
He had then Blinked at his minions' coordinates to retrieve the specimen.
"Don't worry, brother. You have nothing to fear from the humans anymore. I'm here to rescue you." Vareen said with a smile while offering Lith a hand that Life Vision revealed to be filled with tainted life force.
"All I ask in return is to know how you got your body back and for you to share the breathing technique for the white core with me. Do we have a deal?"
'I'll stall for as long as I can.' Lith said via the mind link, grateful that Abominations couldn't see them. 'Prepare your best spells. We've got only one shot at this. The moment this moron understands I have no idea what he's talking about, he'll kill us all.'
"Not at all." He actually said. "How do I know that as soon as I tell you the secret of the white core you won't just kill me along with the humans?"
"You can't." Fury twisted Vareen's face as the little patience that he had left ran out. "Look, I'm just trying to be polite. Either you tell me or I'll make you. I have no idea if my Contagion spell works on Abominations as well, but I'm willing to find out.
"You have no idea the amount of pain I can inflict upon-"
"Get out of here, Scrooge. I'll deal with this old fart!" Zolgrish shoved his golden staff inside of the Eldritch's mouth before unleashing a tier five darkness spell that made him explode like an overinflated balloon.
'I don't know whether to be more surprised by the fact that Zolgrish is here or that for once he remembered your name.' Solus said.
'Very funny.' Lith replied while the group darted away.
"Seriously? A Lich?" Vareen reformed his body while unleashing a barrage of low-tiered Chaos spells and conjuring his minions to help him.
The infected animals couldn't catch up with the escaping Awakened but they could easily take care of the undead in his stead.
"Not any Lich! My name is Inxialot." Zolgrish lied through his teeth.
"That son of a shitting asshole!" The real Inxialot jumped up in outrage.
While facing an immortal creature as powerful as Vareen, it was of paramount importance to hide one's owns identity. Otherwise in the case that either of them escaped, the Eldritch might look for him in search of revenge.
Zolgrish had revealed his mentor's name to both get even with Inxialot for throwing him against Vareen and to make sure that he wouldn't be the one who would have to watch his back even if the Council failed to kill the Eldritch.
"Master is crazy, not stupid." Ratpack said, proud of his creator for the first time ever.
"Inxialot? The King of the Liches?" Vareen asked.
"That guy!" Zolgrish had infused his staff with several spells and had taken his time to prepare even more that he kept at the ready while rescuing the unconscious Awakened.
A simple wave of his hand turned the ceiling of the cave into a waterfall of black molten lava as the air around them became filled with black bolts of lightning and a tornado filled with darkness magic slowly engulfed them.
All those spells came from Zolgrish's mana and were infused with his will. They could do him no harm but everyone else wasn't so lucky. The still healthy parts of the infected creatures burned, decayed, and got electrocuted.
Once their entire bodies turned into Chaos, with no more life force to keep it in check, they disappeared with wails of agony and joy, knowing that pain would also be the last.
"Nice try, for a Lich." The Eldritch said while activating his tier five Chaos spell, Chaos Deconstruction.
A thin black mist burst from Vareen's body and engulfed the area one hundred meters (330 feet) around him. The Chaos particles separated the mana from the world energy, turning lava into rock, lightning into the air, and Zolgrish into a pile of bones that fell to the ground with a clang.
"Too bad that unless you guys bring your oh-so-precious phylactery with you, once I cut your link with it you are sitting ducks." He said while a Howling Void destroyed both the Lich's remains and his equipment.
"That fucker!" Zolgrish's voice now came from the phylactery that he had left in the Control Center, just to be safe.
"Yeah, that's cheating." Inxialot nodded.
"I was referring to you!" Zolgrish replied. "I demand compensation for the stuff that the Eldritch destroyed and for the time I'll be stuck inside my phylactery. Do you have any idea how long it takes to reform my body from dust?"
"I know." Inxialot said with a sigh while taking his own phylactery to not end up like Zolgrish as he Warped to the rescue.
After feeding on the Lich, Vareen was back to his full strength so he didn't hesitate to use Chaos Blinks to catch up with his prey, appearing right in front of them along with a wall of black energy that would kill anyone attempting to cross it.
"Now that you had some time to think do you still want to make this the easy way or the hard way?" He asked.
"The hard way." Lith replied as he Blinked Solus's Eye to Phloria and Aalejah Blinked her Yggdrasill staff to him.
"What the heck are you-" The Eldritch choked on his words seeing the Tiamat turning into a lesser Abomination. "Are you insane? Would you really give up on life and go back being an undead rather than sharing the secret of the white core with me?"
'I'm going to try some crazy stuff, but I don't think I can do it alone. I need your help.' Lith said to the elf via the mind link.
'If you can hold out for a minute without me, I'm almost ready with my preparations.' Phloria had never stopped chanting from the moment they had gotten rid of the infected hybrids, even using Invigoration a few times to recover her strength.
'How the heck do you take hold of so many spells?' Athung asked while sending a telepathic nod.
Lith had no idea what her plan was either, but he had no time to waste worrying about it. He focused on the Yggdrasill staff while activating the Demons of Darkness. Just like the last time, the souls flooded his body, yet the outcome was completely different.
Aalejah helped him through the mind link, using the abilities of the staff and the knowledge from the World Tree to let only one soul at a time fuse with his mind.. This way, Lith could overpower and kick out those who had no use to him while he searched for the right one.
