"No!"
A desperate and sorrowful wail echoed through the half-plane littered with bones. Mikaela, her flames dimming, swung her sword and beheaded the lich Yorlam.
"Muria, this is for you." After beheading Yorlam, Mikaela proceeded to destroy the lich's body and then tossed the head towards Muria, who had just entered the half-plane.
"How do you feel, Mr. Lich?" Muria caught the skull, which was the size of an ordinary cloud giant's head. He looked at the soul fire retreating into the skull and asked mockingly.
"If you want to kill me, go ahead." A detached soul voice emanated from the skull.
"Such an attitude, it seems you are quite fearless." Muria felt a bit annoyed. "Aren't you even afraid of the Seraphim's divine fire?"
"Hehe, don't compare me to those ordinary little liches."
"Even if your soul is burned by flames, you still have confidence in being reborn through your phylactery." Muria played with the jet-black skull in his hand.
"But have you considered? If you don't die, how can you be reborn through your phylactery?" Muria's face showed an amused smile. "Do you know the usual way to deal with an unkillable monster?"
"Sealing."
"So you know!" Muria tossed the skull up and down in his hand. "Merciful me has decided to give you another option: sign a thousand-year servitude contract with me. Serve me unconditionally for a thousand years, and then I'll let you go. How about it? For a lich, a thousand years is nothing, right?"
Realizing that threats wouldn't work, Muria switched to inducement, using freedom as bait to tempt the lich. It was a reasonable approach, considering this lich wasn't even afraid of the Seraphim's divine fire, making things difficult for Muria.
"If you disagree, let's see who can live longer!"
"..."
"Smart choice, as expected of a lich. Always able to make decisions beneficial to yourself."
Half an hour later, Muria shook the soul contract in his hand with satisfaction. It was a contract witnessed and signed by Bahamut, the Dragon God.
Without the Dragon God's help, if Muria had dragged a lich to the Radiant Lord, a powerful deity, to witness the contract, it would have been a provocation, simply asking for trouble.
For the next month, Muria led Mikaela and Irvist through the undead dungeon, following the intelligence provided by the ancient golden dragon Barthelme to search for liches. As time passed, Muria's forces grew like a snowball.
When you're unlucky, seeing others share your misfortune can alleviate your depression. After a period of recuperation, the liches subdued by Muria eagerly helped him subdue their peers once they regained their combat strength.
Thus, the process of subduing liches became increasingly smooth for Muria. Towards the end, he didn't even need to act; three or four legendary liches, accompanied by a group of soul-intent level liches, would swiftly deal with the target and bring them before Muria, forcing them to submit.
These liches' behavior reminded Muria of the infamous traitorous collaborators from his previous life, although it was only somewhat similar.
Liches, despite being the same type of undead, were independent entities with no inherent connection and often clashed due to overlapping resource needs, leading to frequent disputes.
...
"Lord Naraku will not spare you!" An enraged and resentful shout echoed in an undead half-plane, followed by a violent explosion.
"He self-destructed. This is the first time I've seen such a valiant lich, preferring death over submission." Muria pushed aside the three legendary liches who had shielded him and saw a crater thousands of meters in diameter with molten lava at the bottom. He was amazed. He hadn't expected a lich to be so unyielding.
This great lich, who had no background in the intelligence provided by the ancient golden dragon Barthelme, self-destructed when escape was impossible and victory in battle was out of reach, giving Muria no chance to subdue him.
"Your Highness, we might have a problem." At this moment, a lich with purple soul fire burning between his skull approached the magma, rummaged for a while, and handed Muria a bone insignia emitting a cold, oppressive aura.
"If I remember correctly, this seems to be the insignia of Naraku, the Death God." Muria played with the bone insignia, which bore the symbol of a skull and scythe. "So this guy was a pawn of a deity, no wonder he self-destructed so decisively."
"Your Highness, this is Naraku, a Death God with great divine power." A legendary lich reminded Muria with some trepidation. For liches, gods with the death domain were to be revered. In terms of attributes, death gods held absolute dominance. Any incarnation of a death god could easily suppress them.
"Just a god with great divine power, what's there to panic about? If he causes you trouble, just come to me." Muria remained calm and composed.
Among the gods, those with the death domain were more domineering than others because their divine arts were more lethal, giving death gods a more transcendent status. But transcendent among gods still meant just that.
"I've told you before, rampaging underground like this will eventually offend someone. Now, you've offended a god with great divine power. This guy was clearly part of some grand plan, and you've unwittingly disrupted it."
Irvist's schadenfreude was evident as he spoke. Although a god with great divine power couldn't pressure Muria, seeing Muria make a mistake was quite gratifying.
"Just wait, Muria. This god will come for you eventually. You attacked his servant without provocation, blew him up. There's no way this death god will let it slide. I've heard he's quite troublesome."
"I'm not afraid of him."
"I know you're not, but you're at fault."
"..." Muria was silent for a moment. "If he really comes after me, I'll compensate him. It's just a legendary lich."
"Compensate a god? You actually said that. Do you know how greedy gods can be? Besides, he was plotting something. A legendary lich hiding his identity, who knows what grand scheme he had."
"Do you think I'm someone who would let others extort me? If he tries to extort me without limits, I'll have no qualms about confronting him."
Muria spoke confidently, making the liches around him exchange glances. At that moment, they felt firsthand what it meant to be the dominant race of the world, disregarding even special deities like death gods.
"You've subdued so many liches, it's time to restrain yourself. Even if the intelligence isn't 100% accurate, recklessly subduing liches will inevitably offend another god."
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