NOVEL NEXT B1 | Intermission 4
The Other Side of the Vein
Year 820 | Month 3 | Day 26
When Sylvester left the island to finally make an attempt at the mainland for some ichor, he didn’t expect to find the mainland in chaos with some unexpected visitors. But in his mind, that just made for a wonderful distraction for him, allowing him to breach the continent and head straight for the vein.
Where he found another surprise.
An Embodiment. One of Wrath no less.
The lich just chuckles as he watches that very embodiment run around slaughtering the ice wraiths in droves in the form of a werewolf. He doesn’t bother moving from the vein despite being done with it, leaving the undead around him to continue standing watch over the other monsters – none of which would ever dare to challenge him in the first place.
This world is just growing more and more interesting since I woke up. I wonder what else there is to find?
First was his home island laid to ruin, filled with nothing but undead. Then he found the borders closed off and heavily guarded by hunters when he went to check on them, only for half of the hunters to vanish one day, letting him escape with relative ease.
Not that the hunters would’ve posed much of any threat to him if they’d tried. Because even at this low point in his life, the lich is still Tier 4.
A loud explosion sends the not-so-sane lich into another bout of laughter as the girl lands right next to another vein, slamming her fist into the ground and sending a wave of Wrath energy outwards.
Ah, the last time I saw an Embodiment… when was that again?
The lich stands in place, his bony fingers rubbing his chin as his black cloak whistles in the wind before he eventually just shrugs.
Oh, well. Doesn’t matter.
After a few more seconds of watching the girl go on her rampage, the lich is distracted by the throaty sound of a voice originating from the current leader of the wyverns, “You’re not going to do anything to it?”
Sylvester doesn’t bother taking his eyes away from the girl as he addresses the old wyvern who – while also Tier 4 – isn’t anywhere near as strong as him, “Someone needs to kill off that annoying dragon. After all, I didn’t spend all those years trying to break out of my own prison just to find the planes not long from their own end.”
The wyvern – a massive creature located only a single vein away from the lich, with a couple dozen meters in between them – turns its head to watch the girl as well. Then it turns its head back and comments, “And if the Embodiment grows too powerful for even you to handle?”
Sylvester just laughs at that, not even considering that a possibility. But after that, he does still answer the foolish wyvern’s query, “Then all the merrier. It’ll just mean I could have a successor on this plane for the aftermath.”
Silence reigns between the two as the embodiment simply continues killing ice wraiths. But eventually, the ice wraith leader seems to think it too much and approaches the lich while bowing and asking, “Great one, this one wishes to request-”
Before the monster – who had developed the ability to speak the human tongue after reaching the peak of Tier 3 – can even finish speaking, Sylvester turns his soulless eyes made up of green hellfire to look at the creature, somehow cutting it off in just a glance. Then he says in a sinister tone that sends shivers down the spines of any who hear, “That embodiment has only just reached the first percentage of transformation. I will not allow anyone to ruin this moment for her.”
Then the ice wraith begins to dissolve into puffs of green and black smoke, frightening everything nearby and leading the remaining ice wraiths to all go on various rampages.
Every monster nearby freezes, not moving a single inch. Not even when the same wyvern as before says, “I see. So, you’ve decided, oh once great Reaper? Irregular and slayer of a Protector?”
This comment catches the lich’s attention as he turns to glance at the wyvern, sending a shiver down its spine. But then he turns back to continue watching the embodiment as he casually says, “Been a while since someone recognized me. Especially looking like this.” He pauses for a second as the girl begins to slow down slightly in her killing spree. “But yeah, I think I have decided.”
The wyvern grunts its response, turning its gaze to the girl as well.
I might just let her run wild for a while first though. It’s always more fun to see a lovely protégé grow up on their own rather than coddle them.
Sylvester chuckles at the thought, briefly thinking of his own former master who he had slain with his own hands. The former Protector of the plane of Hell.
Satan.
Someone who also happened to use the Sin energy of Wrath. One of the very few Protectors to primarily use a Sin energy rather than some other type of power.
Even if he was nowhere near as close to the Sin as an Embodiment of that very Sin could ever be.
Ah, the memories. Such horrible times.
“Are you going to greet her again?” the wyvern asks, genuinely curious about the embodiment and the Reaper. One who can be said to be the one behind the birth of the three Great Sin Beasts, and one who is likely the only hope of ending the greatest of the beasts.
After tapping his chin with his bony finger a few times, the lich simply shakes his head and answers, “No. I think I’ll leave our next meeting up to fate.”
His answer surprises the old wyvern, who quickly asks, “And if the embodiment dies before then?”
Sylvester just shrugs and says, “Then she wasn’t meant to be my successor.”
And before the wyvern can say anything in response, the lich disappears in a puff of green and black smoke.