Chapter 49: The Lich and The Masked Man

Somewhere in the world, an ancient lich arched in pain as it cursed the name of a child.

"Damn you, Auguste!! I swear to his greatness that I will kill you!!"

While his body and soul are eternal, they can still feel pain. Thus, that pillar of fire earlier that Auguste cast caused him a great amount of pain.

A lich's weaknesses are fire and holy magic, and fire tends to damage liches badly.

In his base, somewhere not from the four continents, 4 statues equipped with the weapons and armors of 4 legendary heroes from the past were erected on the left side of his room, a table was bolted to the ground in the middle with 2 chairs, bookshelves and a bed were on the left side of the room, just by the side of the armored statues.

As he endured the ghostly pain that he's still feeling, he heard the stone door open and he turned around to see a masked man wearing a white suit and a white fedora.

"How did it go, Halvazar?" He asked, politely taking a seat on one of the chairs.

Halvazar, the lich's true name, stood up immediately in frantic, as he said in a deep and respectful voice, "I apologize, the mission my Lord gave to me, I failed to accomplish it. The sect elders ganged up on me, and I didn't notice that Auguste had already cast numerous spells and took me by surprise. Again, forgive me, my lord."

The masked man just waved his hand at him, and said, "Don't worry about it, Halvazar. I was just testing him. As I said before, everything I'm doing to him right now is but a test. He can never beat me, or any of my subordinates, with his current measly strength. And I purposely told you to just use a flame skeleton so that he could beat it, but I guess he still needed help from other people. Don't act on your own for now, wait for my orders. I'll have one of Derillia's servants test him next."

Halvazar kneeled, and said, "Yes, my lord. Your subordinate understands."

He glanced at the lich, and smiled, "Either way, good job, Halvazar. And you have my gratitude for doing me this unreasonable favor."

The ancient terror shook his head and respectfully said, "This subordinate does not deserve your gratitude, my lord. I was only doing my job!"

"Hmm, then I have to go now." He promptly left, leaving the lich alone in the room.

Halvazar remained kneeling for a few minutes, and stood up, as he muttered, "A being above the cultivation of Senescence, it is only my pleasure to serve you."

(Auguste POV)

The ninth elder narrowed his eyes at me, and said, "Just because you helped us defeat the skeleton, doesn't mean you can just question my authority! I am your superior—"

With no care for the rest of his sentence, I said, bored, "You're superior to me, yada, yada, yada. Listen, I don't want to listen to someone who has a superiority complex. I'd rather talk with Miss Jade here, who, in all accounts, divorced my father figure just because they couldn't conceive a child. And is now spending all of her wealth trying to get away from her current marriage with the fourth-elder."

By Jade, I meant, the sixth-elder, who is currently standing behind the ninth-elder, fuming after she heard me say those things.

"Listen her—" She started, but I already cut her off.

"Nevermind, you sound more annoying," I turned my attention to the grand elder, "Can we talk privately, without these people who have superiority complexes? Especially the ninth-elder, he looks like someone who will have a god complex in the future, And, I gotta tell you, that's bad for a sect like this."

The old man watched in amusement as he saw the younger elders, fuming from what I said.

Maximus then shooed them away, saying, "You heard the brat, go, go away for a little. The adults have to speak." He humored me.

"B-But, first-elder! This kind of insolence warrants a stay in the disciplinary department! And he is an important witness and the victim of the incident earlier! Don't tell me you're just going to ignore all of that!?" The ninth-elder said, still trying to take me away.

But, the thing is, he cannot take me away. I know that Scarlet cares for me a lot, for some reason I don't know. And with the previous grand-elder being her grandfather, they can never take me in without his permission.

Maximus then said, "So what if I do? What are you going to do about it?"

"Guh…"

The ninth-elder didn't know what to do. He cannot just ignore the first elder's words, he still has some authority in the sect, with his son the current grand-elder.

Since Maximus was the previous grand-elder, when he retired, he became the first-elder. Which is kinda fair. And yes, if I remembered correctly, the old man's son, who I think is Scarlet's father, is the current grand-elder. Terra failed to become the grand-elder because she was defeated by the old man's son in the battle for the tournament a few months ago. If I remembered correctly, maybe that was the reason why Terra left us; to participate in the tournament for the position of the grand elder.

Embarrassed, the ninth-elder, along with the other 2, left us alone.

The old man smirked, "I hate young elders who are full of themselves. It's quite annoying to watch that they let their ego get over them, which is bad since we're running a sect about equality between races."

I yawned, "Can I leave now? I really want to sleep. Tomorrow, I'll have to take care of a baby."

"Auguste!"

As I was saying that, I heard someone shout my name.

"Auguste! Auguste!"

Yeah, just like tha—wait, was that Vane's voice?

I saw Vane running towards me, worry apparent on his face.

"Hey, Vane!!" I waved at him, and when he reached me, he checked to see if I was okay.

He leaned to my level, and said, "I'm glad that you're okay. I heard that an attack happened and I tried to go here as fast as possible but the sect elder stopped me mid-way. Let's go meet with everyone so that they could see that you're okay, they must be worried sick."

I nodded, "Yeah, let's go. Some elders were trying to detain me though, so just be careful of that. They seem to be the type of people that have superiority complexes," I said, using every chance I get to state the truth, which is just me insulting them.

He replied; "I'll talk with them later. Since I'm the oldest right now, I'll be the one to protect you all. I promise."

"Mhm," I nodded, and he stood up, then I levitated off the ground with my wind as he also did, too.

We both flew away, leaving the old man behind.

"These youngsters, not even offering an old man a ride. Ah, my back!" Maximus said grumpily, complaining about his back now and then.