69 Fighting against an ancient Lich 3
Meanwhile, as the prince was busy dealing with the undead, the girl was set to assist him. However, she sensed that there was a fluctuation of mana from the lich.
Just in time, Atropa erected a barrier to intercept an attack coming from the opponent.
"Give me, my Lumina." He lunged at Atropa.
She was a bit taken aback by how close the lich was able to approach her. Without the barrier, she wouldn't be able to get away unscathed.
"You kept saying that she is your Lumina but she remains unresponsive to you." The girl concentrated her mana and used it to push him back.
"Clueless mortal! Don't you know who I am? I am the great wizard, Antfol!" he raged as he made the mist swirl around him.
"Antfol? Never heard of him in history books." The girl muttered. Lumina glowed and several images flashed before the girl's eyes.
Antfol used to be a young wizard from the neighboring country village. He used to come to the forest of silence to gather ingredients for his spells and it so happened that he had met Lumina.
It was love at first sight for the young wizard. Unfortunately, love between the two races is impossible. One is a mere mortal and the other a high ranking spirit. It was a love destined to have a tragic end.
They became friends for he had aided Lumina in protecting her territory. In turn she had allowed him to get rare herbs and other ingredients for her spells. But that was as far as their relationship go.
Although he was in love with her, Lumina had never reciprocated his feelings knowing the boundaries between two races.
Until such mere affection turned into obsession…
"Atropa! Snap out of it!"
Atropa was brought out of the vision when Briar stepped in and severed an attack coming her way.
Because of that temporary lapse in concentration, her barrier had wavered. Added to the momentary distraction, the girl seemed to have already depleted her mana, hence the barrier almost disappeared.
"I am sorry for spacing out." She apologized as she tried to fortify her barrier once again.
She noticed that the prince was able to prevent the onslaught of undead from underground and the other openings. The flaxen haired had also managed to lessen the number of undead which Antfol had summoned.
The only remaining ones were the canines which are a bit difficult to deal with.
From the corners, Atropa had also caught a glimpse of Attie. The tiny being had emerged from one of the fissures.
Her eyes glowed red as she conveyed a message to her mistress. For which Atropa had just nodded in response.
"Those undead are really troublesome." Briar muttered as one of the undead canines tried to get past the almost disappearing barrier.
He thrust his sword on its jaw and forcefully split its head open. While he remained on guard for the other undead to lunge.
"I am almost at my limit. Please brace yourself, your highness!" she said as she stomped her foot and several pentagrams had appeared on the ground.
The girl took down her barrier and allowed the prince to deal with the undead canines while she gathered her remaining mana and concentrated it on her right hand.
She then combined the mana with her flame and a huge fire ball was produced. However instead of aiming at Antfol, she launched her attack towards the wall behind the lich.
Not expecting the change in the assault, Antfol was not able to prevent the fireball from reaching the wall.
With a sudden contact, the fireball burst and the entire wall exploded. The explosion had shaken the ground but the pair were able to avoid the debris that had fallen down.
Briar was quick to enclose the two of them with an earthen dome. They had remained safe while the ones outside had received the brunt of the impact.
When things had settled down, Briar had taken down the protective dome and they cast their gazes around.
It was quite lucky that such blast took care of the undead canines that Briar had to deal with.
As the dust had settled, they noticed that the lich had been able to make its own barrier and only his legs were buried on the rubble.
But what got their attention was the hidden chamber that was exposed due to that explosion. There were hordes of treasure inside. Gold, silver and other precious gems littered on the floor.
But amidst the glittering stones and shimmering metals, a single item caught Atropa's attention. "Found it!"
Raising her hand, she produced a huge reddish pentagram. With it, several mana bullets and fireballs had appeared.
"NO!" Antfol shouted as he realized what the girl was trying to do. However, because his feet were immobilized, he could not do anything but struggle.
Then with a snap, Atropa made the fireballs and mana bullets assault the metal jar with ornate writings.
But despite that combination of attacks, the jar remained undamaged.
"Barrier huh?" Atropa muttered as she tried to assess the phylactery.
"Do you honestly think it would be that easy to destroy my phylactery?" the lich chuckled as he summoned his mist of darkness. That mist gobbled up the rubble in his vicinity and freed him.
Though Briar stayed on guard for any attacks coming from the creature, Atropa paid him no heed.
She looked at Attie and gave her signal. In turn, several Attie dolls emerged from the horde. They took some of the gems and lay them down strategically adjacent to the phylactery.
Antfol laughed. "Such tiny things… do you think you could defeat me with such puny summoned beings?"
Pouring her mana on the pentagram, Atropa activated the trap which lighted up the gems near the phylactery.
"What do you think you are doing!" The lich stopped his mockery and tried to intercept the spell but it was too late.
With the light from the gem, the barrier dissipated and the girl launched a barrage of attack.
The phylactery cracked and was gradually being destroyed. In an attempt to stop the girl, it summoned its dark mist to envelop her.
"Not so fast." Briar cut through the mist which had disintegrated due to the enchantment that Atropa had cast.
With its attack turning into fiasco, the lich lunge towards the girl but Briar stepped in and with a swing of his sword, he cut Antfol's arms.
Just as the same time the phylactery was destroyed, Antfol started to decay as well.
"No! Curse you! Child of Kre-!" He wasn't able to finish whatever he wanted to say. Briar, for good measure, had severed its head.
