Sinmara had used the experience gained from her previous defeats to devise spells that when used together would conjure an inescapable trap for someone the size of a human.
Sealed Space blocked dimensional magic, Small Sun used gravity to both pull Aylen toward the burning mass at its center and to generate heat that put a heavy strain on the enchanted protections that ensured the Lich's survival.
Sure, her white core allowed Aylen to recover from any damage the moment it was inflicted upon her, but the same didn't stand for her equipment. On top of that, Starfall had conjured a hail of small green meteors imbued with the power of all elements.
Air gave them speed, light made them as hard as diamonds while earth gave them physical mass that the gravity spell could draw in, increasing their kinetic energy and giving to each fragment that was the size of a marble the energy of a cannonball.
Fire made them detonate, pushing Aylen closer and closer to the Small Sun, water made the fragments seep through her armor, carrying the darkness along and sapping her strength.
'Crap! Every second that I spend here takes away a big chunk of energy from the power cores of my artifacts. If I don't find a way out, even if my phylactery doesn't break, I will be a sitting duck.
'Sinmara already has a physical prowess greater than mine. If I also lose the edge that my anti-Phoenix equipment gives me, I'm as good as dead.' Aylen thought.
She took a vial from her belt and removed its stopper, freeing the stream of bright violet Origin Flames that was stored inside. Small Sun sucked them right in its own core, weakening the perfect balance that the elements needed to keep such a powerful gravitational effect.
'Cunning bitch!' Sinmara cursed as Aylen exploited the split second when Small Sun lost its efficacy due to the Origin Flames and escaped from the death trap.
Once outside the Sealed Space, the Lich used a long range Blink to get to a safe distance and kept blinking non-stop until she was outside the mountain range. Much to her surprise, Sinmara had yet to give chase.
She hadn't fallen for Aylen's trickery and she knew that the Lich was just trying to lure her away from the mines.
'If Aylen is fighting with me, then she can't be the one extracting the natural resources. My mission is not to kill her, just to keep her from stealing Mom's property.
'Life Vision is not spotting any array powerful enough to build an instant network of caves nor any dimensional spell. Even if her miners all wear some kind of cloaking device, the ores they carry cannot be concealed.' Sinmara thought.
She knew of the existence of bloodline abilities that allowed people to move through the ground as if they swam through water and suspected that was the case. When Sinmara saw a Vagrash emerge from the ground, dropping a load of violet crystals on the surface, the Phoenix understood what was really happening.
Aylen was just a diversion while her apprentices took away everything they could and Warped the resources back into her secret hideout.
Sinmara had never stopped weaving her spells, keeping them at the ready for that precise moment. She swooped down where the Vagrash was, storing the crystals inside her pocket dimension while attempting to bite its head off at the same time.
The Emperor Beast survived solely because it had already started to sink back into the ground, but Sinmara still pecked off its mane and left ear.
"My fur baby!" Aylen screamed in outrage.
Her series of Blinks had brought her too far away to stop the Phoenix's attack. To make matters worse, Sinmara would have no problem dodging her spells from such a distance and even if they hit, their power would be more than halved.
"Do you want to go all out? Challenge accepted!" A wave of the Lich's hand opened a dimensional door from which poured out what looked like a waterfall of living beings.
The hapless creatures belonging to all races had their extremities fused with each other, making every one of their movements cause them unspeakable pain. Aylen touched the nearest of them, exploiting the connection between their life forces to suck all of them dry at the same time.
Liches were artificial undead that, unlike Baba Yaga's true children, had no need to feed. Their mana core was safely stored inside a white crystal that provided it with all the energy it needed while the pressure exerted from the crystal also kept the core from dispersing.
As for their body, without nourishment, it would rot but not die. No matter how weak their life force became, as long as the mana core was intact, they could always convert part of their mana into life force to replenish their strength and continue existing.
Liches usually chose not to eat simply because it was a waste of time and because, unlike the other undead, they could absorb life force but not mana from an external source.
Their blood core was just an extension of their mana core and feeding like a vampire would cause them mana poisoning instead of making them stronger. A Lich's magical prowess was no different from that of when they were still alive.
Fixed if they were fake mages and capable of growing over time if they were Awakened, but still dependent solely upon their own man core. Yet back when she had devised Lichhood, Aylen had made sure to imitate the undead's ability to feed upon others.
Absorbing life force temporarily bestowed upon the First Lich not only a greater mass and physical prowess compared to that of her original body, but also access to the bloodline skills of her victims.
It was the reason why Zolgrish had turned into a reverted orc after feeding off his rebellious assistant and why no one dared to fight a Lich in close combat even though most of them had no training outside of magic.
Aylen had not fused her prisoners' life forces together out of cruelty, it simply made it more efficient to consume them. She activated her white core's ability, Food Chain, adding the maelstrom of life forces to her own.
"Oh, crap." Sinmara said as she noticed how the Lich's physical prowess now surpassed her own.
Having discovered Aylen's plan and how she had been pillaging the underground mines wasn't of much use if she didn't survive to tell the tale.
Aylen's appearance was now that of an odd hybrid. She looked like a humanoid woman in her twenties with feathered wings coming out of her back. She had now three sets of arms, all made of wood and vines, and her skin was covered in scales.
A wave of the Lich's hands generated a burst of a different cursed element from each of her palms. Thanks to her overflowing life force all the damage that casting so many dangerous spells at the same time inflicted upon her body was almost instantly healed.
Almost.
Her arms withered, burned, froze, dissolved, pulverized, and melted just to regrow a second later and unleash a new barrage of cursed elements that formed a deadly rainbow as big as the Phoenix of Darkness.
