Madness(II)

Just as Amon prepared himself to launch yet another attack, time seemed to freeze, or rather, his perception of it seemed to slow to a crawl.

'Ah…'

Cultivators, as they became more powerful, began to tap into more of their latent potential, unlocking esoteric abilities.

One such abilities was affinities, which were, to most cultivators, their greatest weapon.

A person born with an affinity for lightning would be able to move as fast as it and wield its endless powers as if they were truly its kin.

At that moment, Amon realized that throughout this entire battle, apart from forming her bones with flames, he'd never seen Amelia use her affinities.

He didn't even know what they were.

'Eh—'

He blinked, and suddenly, his left side went cold as a warm liquid began to cover his chest.

Looking down, he found he'd lost his left arm to a blade entirely made of darkness. Before he could fully process this, he began to fall, his right leg being snatched away from him as well.

Just before he fully collapsed, a burning hand tightly grasped his neck, squeezing until he entirely lost the ability to breathe.

Amelia's bony fingers of fire dug into his flesh and seared it, a foul smell beginning to ooze off.

With vicious momentum, her arm moved, grabbing and digging into his chest before she viciously tore, taking away a chunk of flesh and a few ribs.

Placing her hand on the hole, flames began to gather in front of her palm and suddenly, these same flames funneled into Amon.

"ARGHHH!"

Flames burst out of all his orifices as Amelia's fire flooded his body and burnt all it could.

The worst part was that due to Amon's terrifying healing factor, he never fully succumbed, making his suffering seemingly endless.

Amelia showed a disgusting grin as she watched Amon scream in pain, but suddenly, she frowned as through the mantle of flames that covered Amon, she saw a smile.

Uneasiness crept into her soul as she amped up the level of her flames, but no matter what she did, this smile, shown through the flames, never vanished.

Just as she was about to crack Amon's neck, her gaze widened, and she looked down.

"Wha…"

Her arm relaxed, and her flames vanished as she stumbled backward, unable to comprehend when and how Amon had done it.

There, within her chest, a milky white spear entirely made of atmospheric aether could be seen.

Giving shape to one's innate aether wasn't hard as it was a mere extension of the self, but giving shape to atmospheric aether was extremely difficult. It first required near-perfect control of aether and secondly required one to be beyond proficient in the art of runes and spell formations.

But somehow, without any of that, Amon had not only given shape to atmospheric aether but had given it complex shape.

"Finally…"

The sight was gruesome as Amon's charred and melted body slowly stood up. As he did so, the disgusting sound of his flesh wiggling and his bones cracking could be heard.

His terrifying healing factor went into action as cancerous mounds of flesh suddenly grew where he'd lost his arm and leg. These mounds wiggled and moved, devouring aether to eventually reform his body.

SHAH!

His skin tightly wrapped around his muscles, and his hair regrew as he took a deep breath in and exhaled.

Amelia, who had yet to recover, looked at him with widened eyes.

"I mean, surely you don't think you're the only Lich in these ruins, right? I've battled hundreds of your kind and know most of your perks."

The reason why Amelia had yet to recover from such a seemingly simple wound was that Amon had specifically targeted the aether flow within her bones of fire.

Most people thought that a Lich's skull was their biggest reverse scale, and while that was true, it wasn't entirely so.

Their reverse scale was their bones in general. As long as the flow of aether within the bones was disrupted or corrupted, the skull would be harmed and thus, the Lich would be harmed.

Of course, disrupting the flow of one's innate aether was an incredibly complex task for anyone, but for someone like Amon, who had known nothing but aether and battle during these last few years, this was beyond simple.

"Are…you…immortal?" asked Amelia as her flames began to flicker in and out of existence and her undead summons all froze.

Amon flicked his hand, and the spear of aether was dispelled, but this only seemed to make it worse as Amelia began to tremble and convulse.

The aether within her body began to reverse, going directly against its natural flow pattern, causing pain beyond words.

As she madly screamed, Amon looked around, his gaze narrowed, and his senses primed as he felt something was amiss.

This battle had been strangely easy. So easy, in fact, he didn't need to use any of his emergency measures.

'I've already established the fact that they were priming my body and mind as a vessel for—'

Suddenly, Amelia stopped moving, and her body burst into a cloud of green flames.

All around the ground Amon stood on, runes and interlinked circles could be seen, forming a beautiful yet endlessly complex formation.

'Ah, I see…'

A dome formed around Amon, spanning a few hundred meters. Within that dome, from the rune-covered ground, an endless wave of undead began to arise.

Amon tried to move, but suddenly, chains he'd long since forgotten about, the third prince's chains, reappeared all over his skin and froze him in place.

Around his neck, a golden collar appeared, and around his ankles and wrists, halos of white formed, further binding his ability to control both the atmospheric aether and the aether his cells produced.

As if that wasn't enough, a halo formed around his head, slowing his mind to an absolute crawl.

He was trapped.

'How vicious…'