The spheres formed a six-pointed golden star that took away Veeza's magic and pinned her in mid-air as if time had stopped for her. It was the perfect form of Silverwing's Hexagram which employed spirit magic as well.
Spirit magic carried the mana and the willpower of its Awakened caster, allowing Milea to conjure an array in a matter of seconds instead of minutes. Also, spirit magic gave the magical formation a physical manifestation, so that while the elements restricted the Lich's blood core the green energy trapped her body.
Without her hands, Veeza had no way to cast more spells. The undead tried to unleash the power of the artifacts she wore, but the containment field turned them against her and since they weren't fueled by her mana but by their own pseudo cores, Veeza only ended up harming herself.
"Nice trick, Empress." The Lich was burning in humiliation, feeling helpless like a child in front of an adult, but she wouldn't give her enemy any satisfaction.
One more defeat was nothing compared to the magical wonders she had witnessed. Not only the Empress' tactic had opened her eyes about the true potential of mixed arrays, but it had also shown her enough spirit magic to enlighten the Lich about the true nature of Awakening.
Even the loss of her army was a small thing if it led to infinite power to complement her already eternal life. Veeza was sure that once she got back to her lab, she would achieve both infinity and eternity, something that in due time would make her akin to a god, if not even a to a Guardian.
"I've learned a lot from you. The next time we met, I'll make sure to show you my gratitude." Veeza's skeletal figure had most of her face intact and it was now distorted into a cruel grimace.
A Lich's appearance depended solely on their whims. They could appear as alive, undead, or any shade in-between. Veeza liked the sound of her own voice, so she preferred to keep her old human appearance.
It saved her the trouble from relearning how to draw runes with bone hands.
"There will be no next time." Milea clenched her fist, making Silverwing's Hexagram shrink to the point that the six spheres overlapped completely. The resulting cage trapped the Lich within its boundaries and ravaged her physical form and the same time.
The Empress took a purple flask out of her omni pocket and placed her thumb on its cork. Veeza withstood the elemental onslaught without emitting a sound. She couldn't feel pain and even if she could, Milea's words were bothering her.
Once the Lich's vessel was hanging by a thread, the Empress dispelled the array and opened the flask. A stream of white Origin Flames destroyed Veeza's physical form, forcing her mind to go back to her phylactery to be born anew.
Unluckily for her, the white Flames stuck to her, burning at her conscience. Veeza felt pain for the first time since she had achieved Lichhood, but it wasn't pain that worried her.
It was the white fire trail that she was leaving behind, which betrayed her movements and the position of her phylactery. Veeza couldn't keep her mind from re-joining with her missing half, no matter how much she tried.
Milea had not moved the Lich away because she was determined to end their fight once and for all. No matter how strong Leegaain's Origin Flames were, they couldn't kill a Lich by themselves nor would they last for too long a trip.
Milea was certain that the Lich's phylactery was bound to be hidden not too far from Dograth. It was the only way Veeza had to be both able to protect the fortresses while retaining her full might and get away in the case things went south.
Keeping the pace with Veeza's mind was impossible since it moved at the speed of light, but the fire trail it left behind lasted long enough for the Empress to Warp without losing sight of her prey.
It led Milea to a wheat field where only thanks to Invigoration was she able to reveal the presence of several powerful arrays surrounding one of the most powerful artifacts she had ever seen.
Both the phylactery and the magical formations were invisible to other mystical means of detection, Life Vision included.
"Remarkable. I would have never found it in a million years." The phylactery was made out of a white mana crystal, but it had been painted with such a mastery that it looked like a pebble.
Hidden amid dozens of similar-looking stones, it was part of a small mound supporting a scarecrow. Milea dispelled the arrays one at a time, without triggering any of the traps that Veeza had set up at the best of her skill.
"I wish I could let you live. There is so much that you could teach me, so many artifacts stored in your lab, wherever it is, that could be put to good use." Milea sighed.
"But you have slaughtered my people out of boredom, threatened everything that all the Magic Emperors before me worked so hard to build. Even if it pains me losing all the treasures you possess, I can't possibly trust you."
Milea activated her communication amulet, generating a signal that was picked up by all the communication devices in the Empire, whether their masters wanted it or not. She publicly executed Veeza, shattering the phylactery with a single strike of her sword, Dragon Maw.
"Let this be a lesson to those who conspire against the Empire. No matter how old you are or how strong you think yourselves to be. Struggle as much as you want, only death awaits you."
With Veeza's gone, Dograth fell before sunrise. Before the following sunset, the war was over and the Gorgon Empire was restored.
***
Months had passed since the situation of Laruel had been resolved. Spring had given the three Great Countries the time they needed to heal from the many scars that the undead invasion had caused during winter, but the situation was far from being solved.
The days were getting longer and the nights shorter, leaving little time for the undead to move whereas their hunters were always on the prowl. When summer came, it made it even easier to spot the unwanted guests from the Jiera continent.
Even the north was dealing with a heatwave and it was impossible for the undead to pretend to have perspiration problems. Lith didn't like his current situation much. There had been no hard missions ever since he had returned to active duty and he had promoted to captain, but that didn't mean that he had lots of free time.
Quite the contrary, his final year as a Ranger was way busier than he would have expected.
'Previously, on Lith the Vampire Slayer…' He thought while listening to his handler describing to him his latest assignment.
For the first time since Lith had started his military service, the Kellar region's Lords and their citizens were at peace. Unfortunately for him, his workload was more than doubled.
During spring and summer, the monsters' spawn rate peaked. On top of that, he had to deal with all the undead sightings that were reported to him. Local constables could deal with a single vagrant creature, but they were powerless against cadres of powerful entities.
