Chapter 253: The Realm of Death

The most powerful of those undead creatures before were only at the Golden level, even weaker than ordinary Golden-tier fighters. Carlisle could usually dismantle those bone sticks with just one or two swings of his sword, without any real satisfaction in fighting them.

This time, a rival at the Legendary level appeared, which immediately excited him. As soon as the opponent showed signs of attacking, he swung his sword at the lich.

Donald was also glad that Carlisle was holding off the opponent while he continued to harvest Soul Flames.

As for those four celestial beings, though they detested evil undead creatures deeply, they realized after the appearance of the Legendary Lich that they likely wouldn’t be able to land even a single strike against him. Thus, they wisely chose to pause their attacks like Donald and the others, waiting secretly for an opportunity.

Celestial beings are a race as intelligent as humans and elves, so it’s not surprising that they know how to assess situations. Only those mindless puppets would keep charging forward without thinking.

Now that the battle had resumed and the Legendary Lich was occupied, they turned their attacks on the undead creatures around them.

Donald couldn’t bear to see those undead destroyed by the four celestial beings, so he quickly stepped in to harvest Soul Flames.

He unleashed a Level 4 Dance Chain Spell. The iron chain he had prepared from his storage space instantly grew to fifteen feet long, covered with spikes and blades.

This was his signature spell from his transformation school. The activated chain moved like a serpent, following Donald’s will. With a single sweep of its sharp and heavy chain, more than a dozen undead creatures had their bones crushed into fragments. Yet this physical attack didn’t harm the Soul Flames inside those creatures. Every undead killed by Donald had its Soul Flame completely captured into his own soul.

Three of the spells he had prepared earlier had already been cast. These were advanced casting techniques he had mastered quickly through knowledge from the Divine realm after practicing in the House of Time. He could prepare spells in advance, suppressing them within his body without releasing them, and only unleashing them at critical moments in battle. This eliminated the need to chant spells during combat, saving a lot of casting time—almost as fast as innate spells.

It should be noted that spellcasting without chanting is a highly advanced skill for high-level mages. Even a Golden Archmage can only cast spells up to Level 5 instantly. For powerful spells above Level 5, some of the incantations can be shortened through practice, but true spellcasting without chanting remains impossible.

Thus, the technique of preparing spells in advance emerged, greatly helping mages overcome disadvantages in battle. However, this method also had its flaws—prepared spells could not be changed, and if a mage abandoned a spell mid-use, they could not cast it again for a day. This required precise calculation to choose the right spells for later use; otherwise, using the wrong spells could backfire and prove disastrous.

On the battlefield between Carlisle and the Legendary Lich, swords flashed everywhere, and negative energy filled the air, creating a highly dangerous atmosphere.

Kartefi knew his opponent was also a legendary-level powerhouse, so he didn’t prepare any powerful offensive spells. Instead, he opted for spells and abilities that could be cast instantly.

A sinister gaze, emitting an eerie red light, was directed at Carlisle first. If it hit its target, it would cause paralysis, leaving even a legendary warrior temporarily unable to move. But seeing that ominous red light approaching, Carlisle dodged in advance.

Kartefi quickly unleashed another curse spell. This time, since it was a mental lock, Carlisle couldn’t dodge the instantly appearing curse.

The Legendary Lich’s curse spells were powerful negative-energy curses with various effects—aging, weakness, cold, pain. If all these struck one person at once, the curses alone could be fatal.

Professionals had stronger resistance than ordinary people, and Carlisle also had divine bloodline—bloodline cursed by the God of Hatred. Thus, the Legendary Lich’s curses had little effect on him. He countered the Legendary Sword Saint’s attack with a shield of negative energy. If Kartefi could frown, he would have been deeply concerned now. But confident in his own strength, he wasn’t discouraged. Noticing that these soul- and curse-related spells had little impact on his opponent, the Legendary Lich immediately changed tactics and opted for energy-based attacks.

“Boom!”

A fierce burst of negative energy formed a shockwave that rushed toward Carlisle. Against such a large-scale energy attack, Carlisle had little way to hide.

But he didn’t need to dodge. With a surge of sword energy in his hand, he swung forward. If it were an ordinary professional, they would likely have been completely corroded by the terrifying negative energy, along with their weapons.

The powerful legendary sword energy, already imbued with the power of laws, scattered even the energy emitted by other legendary spellcasters, sending it in both directions. It struck several unlucky undead creatures, causing half of their bones to vanish under the corrosive effect of that intense negative energy.

Then Carlisle countered with his powerful sword energy. Since swordsmen generally have faster attack speeds than spellcasters, this put the legendary lich in a difficult position. If he hadn’t just reached the legendary realm and yet not fully mastered domain power, Carlisle would have already unleashed his own combat domain to fight the legendary lich.

However, it was right not to use a domain—attempting to clash an incomplete domain with a powerful, long-established domain would likely result in complete suppression, even damage to his own domain, potentially causing him to drop back to the golden realm, which would be a huge loss.

“Haha! What more tricks do you have? Use them all!”

Carlisle laughed loudly as he swung his sword in pursuit of his opponent. In the past, he had always been suppressed by spellcasters of his own rank, but now that he had reached the legendary realm, he could unleash his full power and finally suppress his spellcasting opponent, making him extremely pleased.

At that moment, the thousands of undead surrounding the intruders had suffered heavy losses under the attacks of Donald and the four celestial beings. Especially Uther and that Archangel Caleb, two silver-ranked powerhouses, wielded sacred energies that could counter undead. Those lower-level undead were killed or injured in a single strike at their hands.

Although Donald kept attacking, he couldn’t keep up with those celestial beings, who were better at fighting undead. As a result, among the thousands of undead, there were several silver-ranked ones and even a few golden-ranked Holebeasts. After being defeated, they only contributed tens of thousands of units of soul energy—at least half less than expected.

If it weren’t for these helpers summoned by spells, who would serve their caller for at least a year as long as they didn’t violate their principles, and although the time was reduced to about a month on the Totem Continent due to slight differences in plane rules, they were still excellent allies. Otherwise, Donald would have already terminated the contracts and sent them back to their original world.

Although summoning them required him to abstain from sex for a month, he wasn’t in the mood to seek out local women here on the Totem Continent. That ban was practically meaningless!

Watching his army of the undead being slaughtered, only the nearly hundred humanoid intelligent undead behind him remained intact as they hadn’t entered the battlefield. Though their minds had become somewhat sluggish after transforming into undead liches, Katerfi still felt a sense of dread.

Yet these undead “believers” were crucial for his quest to become a god again—gathered through great effort. He wouldn’t sacrifice them as pawns unless faced with death itself. So, despite still having the strength to fight back, this legendary lich was secretly preparing an escape route. Having died once, he understood all too well the wisdom of preserving one’s life at all costs.

But Donald and his men had no intention of letting this legendary lich leave alive. As those humanoid undead and spirits prepared to retreat to a secret location on the island, Donald, along with Vincent and others, rushed to intercept them first.

“No…”

Seeing his “believers” slaughtered and his hopes of becoming a god crumbling, the legendary lich Katerfi let out a shrill scream.

Seeing dark rays shoot out from the lich’s withered fingertips and head straight for him and the others, Donald panicked. In a flash, a pale golden divine shield enveloped him and Vincent beside him.

As for the female sword saint and Uther, one was out of range of the rays, and the other possessed the invincible skill of a sacred shield, so they should be able to withstand the ambush—at least they wouldn’t die. As long as they survived, he could find a way to heal them.

Though he possessed divinity and elven blood, Donald didn’t want to experience the effects of a death spell like “Death Finger.” Only those celestial beings like the Archangels were unlucky—they were in the path of the attack and, unable to dodge in time, were struck and turned into specks of light.

Normally, with their silver-tier strength and celestial divine blood, the Archangels should have had a 50% chance of surviving “Death Finger.” But due to the legendary lich’s enraged attack and the huge difference in power levels, they unfortunately perished.

Next, the three Alpha Divine Messengers also couldn’t escape the lich’s fierce negative energy. They suffered attacks from Carlisle’s sword strikes while the lich Katerfi killed four celestial beings with a single strike. These beings, radiating positive energy, were the most hated by undead creatures, making them prime targets for the lich.

It was a shame he didn’t realize these four were merely helpers summoned by Donald. Their deaths were regrettable, but they wouldn’t affect their strength.

Even Uther activated his sacred shield to protect himself and the Female Sword Saint. Though his face was pale and his holy light energy was greatly depleted, he remained unharmed by the negative energy blast emitted by the legendary lich.
“Damn mortal beings, you’re all going to die…”
Kartefi was now extremely enraged, his mind somewhat confused. His obsession with becoming a god had been deeply ingrained in his soul. Now, just as he was on the verge of success, he was interrupted by outsiders who destroyed the “believers” he had cultivated over years—how could he not go berserk?
“Death Domain!”
The enraged legendary lich was unable to defend himself against the siege by everyone present. No one wanted to fight against an immortal lich, so they all chose to avoid direct confrontation, even the newly risen legendary Sword Saint Carlisle. If he had mastered the power of his domain skillfully, he might have had the strength to face it head-on.
A dark and murky domain unfolded, covering an area of a thousand feet in radius. Within this domain, everyone felt their strength suppressed completely, and their life force continued to drain.
“Finish this quickly! We can’t let it fully unleash its domain power!”
Donald, who was largely unaffected by the domain’s power thanks to his divine shield, hurriedly shouted at his companions.
Realizing the situation was dire, everyone unleashed all the strength they had saved up.