"Stab her, my knight, grant your daughter eternal life as you have," commanded the lich, exhilarated upon seeing the girl standing in front of the Dark Knight. The lich continuously issued commands through the brand it left in the Dark Knight.
However, an unprecedented resistance came from the Dark Knight through the brand, causing the soul fire of the lich to flicker.
"Dammit, why are you hesitating?" The lich, draped in an ancient black robe, descended to the ground and flew next to the Dark Knight. Grasping the spear in his hand and leaning close to the blue nether flame-illuminated helmet, the lich scolded, "Don't you want your daughter to have eternal life? A body that doesn't feel fatigue, pain, or the nuisance of emotions?"
"..." Under the helmet, the soul fire of the Dark Knight trembled intensely, followed by a clear wave of soul energy expressing, "I don't want to!"
"Insolent creature!" The lich, unable to contain its fury, turned and pointed at the girl with her face paled by the seeping death aura, "I command you, kill her!"
With a non-human low growl, the Dark Knight resisted the command to control his soul. Resisting a higher-ranked undead's control always came with a price.
Having lost most of his memories from life, he didn't understand why he would rather endure the soul-tearing pain than harm the girl before him.
"Kill her!" The lich roared, its soulful voice stunning several of the remaining ordinary humans.
Due to the lich's continuous urging through the soul brand, the Dark Knight entered a state of complete frenzy. The thick, snake-like death aura around him furiously surged into the spear in his hand.
"Whoosh!" The cold, dead, gloomy, and icy flames blazed around the spear, freezing the moisture in the air into ice shards that fell to the ground.
"This is more like it. As a Dark Knight, you should obey my commands." The lich "laughed" wantonly and let go of the spear, "Go on, grant your beloved daughter immortality."
Watching the robed lich with a soul fire burning in its skull, and her father, the Dark Knight, slowly lifting his spear aimed at her, Orianna, trembling from the dense death aura, slowly closed her eyes.
"Roar!" After a few moments, instead of her father's spear piercing her, Orianna heard an angry roar from the soul.
An impact wave mixed with thick death aura and ice shards hit her, breaking through the three pre-arranged Mage Shields on her, knocking her to the ground.
The girl, sitting dazed on the ground, opened her eyes to find the once arrogant lich gone, with only the Dark Knight enveloped in death aura still standing.
On the nearby city wall, a smoky crater had appeared.
"What happened? Where's the lich?" The girl, in pain, looked around in confusion.
"Sister, Dad just blew away that big skeleton with his spear! He's protecting us," Balk, lying at the carriage door, excitedly described what had just happened.
"Father!" Orianna stared blankly at the Dark Knight before her, emitting a chilling and fearful aura, her lips trembling as she uttered the word.
In the world of the undead, rank is strict. Resisting the control of a higher-ranked undead comes at a great cost, unimaginable to the living.
"Survive with your brother." The Dark Knight, who had lost most of his memories and didn't even understand why he said these words, swung his spear, cutting through the surrounding undead, and unleashed several spear beams.
The black spear beams, leaving traces of frost, instantly slashed several abominations, oozing pus and emitting foul stench, into piles of rotten flesh. The beams then exploded, tearing apart numerous specters and half-corporeal wraiths.
The trapped people, seeing a gap created by the Dark Knight, cheered and surged through the opening.
Suddenly, the soul fire in the Dark Knight's skull violently shook and then exploded, dispersing massive amounts of soul energy until only a small amount remained. His nether flame-burning skeletal warhorse burst into pieces.
"You bunch of ants, with one rebellious Dark Knight, where do you think you can escape?" A soulful voice filled with rage echoed in everyone's minds.
The lich, having detonated the controlling brand in the Dark Knight's soul fire, flew out from the crater it had created. The runes on its ribcage flickered with an evil light, and the broken ribs slowly moved and healed.
"Father!" "Daddy!" Orianna and Balk screamed together, rushing towards the Dark Knight lying on the ground, his body nearly depleted of death aura and his soul fire flickering weakly.
"Escape!" A faint voice from the Dark Knight's helmet urged.
"Escape? None of you will survive today!" The furious lich waved its bone staff, and the undead surrounding the fleeing group, already restless, instantly charged towards the hopeful survivors.
Abominations swung their scythes, tearing apart one human after another; ghouls and specters swarmed, preying on humans amid their screams; wraiths swooped down, draining life from anyone they brushed past, turning them into mummified corpses...
Listening to the desperate wails and screams, the lich opened its arms, landing beside Orianna and her brother, "Listen, what a wonderful sound!"
"Lich!" Orianna lifted her head, staring intently at the skeleton in the ancient black robe, her face filled with undisguised hatred. The young boy beside her shared the same expression.
"Good expression." The lich's eyes, engulfed in blue soul fire, fixed on the siblings, "To compensate for the loss of an excellent Dark Knight, you two will pay with your souls!"
"Boom!" Just as the lich was about to extract the souls of the siblings for torment and creation into wraiths, a huge claw covered in bright red scales and as big as a house suddenly stretched out behind it and slammed down...
Orianna and Balk, dumbstruck, watched in disbelief. This was beyond their comprehension. But what truly shattered their composure was the sight of a fierce yet majestic head, covered in bone armor and with two horns, appearing out of nowhere above the claw.
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