Balefire

During his last moments, the Lich Balefire took a good look through the battlefield in which he was evidently victorious. The souls that withered around their corpses as Revenants of the century-long war was, without a doubt, his bounty to harvest and he never wastes a soul. Cowardly as they may have lived, they now have a place on his side whether he makes them into his Mana or his minions.

Between these souls were those who wore crowns and those who wore rags. These harrowing incarnations of the dead lying around the fields are nothing but what has remained and left to haunt. Every time he touches them, they would dissolve into Mana and get reborn as whatever undead monstrosity he may wish. He would create Oozes from their blood, Ghouls from their flesh, Skeletons from their bones, and Ghosts from the remaining revenants.

And thus the army of the dead kept growing to no end.

To some end.

To an eventual end.

The end their master has chosen.

"BALEFIRE! You damn coward."

That end.

The voice of a prideful knight echoed through the heavens. It shook the souls of the revenants that stood still dissolving them to the void. The Army of the Dead remained defiant but that wouldn't be much of a problem to whoever spoke with such power and anger.

Balefire, at the back of his army, stood facing the general direction of the sound as he looked up the valley for the army of the horsemen which stood on top with the sun to their backs. This scene happened a few times in the centuries Balefire lived and every time he sees it, he is taken by the awe and the beauty of those men and women.

He opened his arms. He, who no longer looked anything like the human he used to be, opened his hundreds of arms.

The Ghoul Goliaths and the Bone Dragons which he always preferred to hide his phylactery in were roaring as they met the enemies he so much longed to meet and he spoke.

"Come!"

The Knights in Silver glimmering by the Golden Sun were a few men and women who swarmed down the dead with bravery, beauty, and absolute faith in each other as well as the willingness to sacrifice it all.

They were all heroes; beautiful, strong, brave heroes. In their unity, in their coordination, the Lich couldn't just stand his ground anymore and spread his influence through every corpse and skeleton and zombie he commanded. All those empty eyes of the dead lit with the blue flame of the necromancer.

And he, the Legion of the Dead, charged ahead in masses of thousands and thousands of skeletons, zombies, and ghouls all by one mind and myriad of bodies dancing for the strings of the Necromancer.

And with the clash, all his forces were dissipated. The might of the heroes wiped out his army to the last undead. The last which was him.

There was no large flying skeleton, no howling dead dragon, no ghastly figure of ethereality. Just a very old skeleton carrying an oversized Phylactery. That thing that contained thousands upon thousands of souls which he collected throughout the ages to form his inexhaustible pool of Death Mana.

When the army of the dead was all over, the sole undead remained carrying the true form of the Lich. A heart submerged in strange liquid which acts as a container of Mana. The Heroes couldn't believe what they saw as they finally managed to strike the Phylactery.

It was all over.

No Undead, no Lich, no Evil, no Darkness. The clouds of heavy gloom started to dissipate as the holy light of the sun broke through them to turn all of the remaining undead to dust.

And rain.

And wind.

Only the skull remained facing the Heroes who were looking at it in disbelief.

"Is this true? Is this actually happening?" The First Hero, Sidavil, the Lion of Kalagan, muttered with his golden hair sticking to his tired face.

"The Lich King… it is finally no more." The Second Hero, Chieftain of the Giants, stood forward and threw his horned helm revealing his scary face as he spoke in denial while leaning on his great hammer.

"So many sacrifices! So many years. And now… it dies?" The Third Hero, Queen of Skalland, descended from her ice mare as she could no longer carry her frozen mace.

Amidst the three emotional Heroes, a fourth stood in their lead covered in black robes and wielding a single blade. It was the individual who delivered the last blow towards the skeleton carrying the large Phylactery.

"Sword Saint." The Lion of Kalagan spoke, "You killed it. You killed the Monster that haunted our land for ages." The Lion walked to the Sword Saint and bowed his head, "I am honored to have fought alongside you."

A glorious cheer came from the Lion of Kalagan who was also the King among all the men here.

"Sword Saint, you saved us all." The Chieftain of the Giants bowed deeply to the Sword Saint.

Both men exchanged congratulations before hurrying back to deliver the news to the rest of the troops and cheer in unison.

Meanwhile, the Queen of Skalland stood behind the Sword Saint with a pained face.

"You took its life too fast! You should have made it suffer, Sword Saint. It shouldn't have died this fast." She said.

"…"

No reply came from the Sword Saint who stood staring at the last skeleton he killed. The Queen had no words to say as she was starting to grieve for her lover that died in the last battle.

Meanwhile, the Sword Saint finally relaxed as their eyes turned yellow before going back to normal.

"Balefire!" The voice of the Sword Saint came like a whisper carried through the wind as it called for that name.

The voice of the saint was undefinable whether it was the voice of a male or a female and the figure of the Saint themselves was also undefined yet most people assumed this Sword Saint to be a male judging by the outside appearance.

Still, that voice conveyed a hint of sadness over the still skeleton on the necromancer. Just a moment of pity which didn't last for long.

The Necromancer is finally dead, there's nothing to do now except purifying the world of all the Death Mana lurking around. If that is not dealt with as soon as possible, new undead will arise from the corpses of the fallen.

The Sword Saint turned around and walked away towards the other Heroes who waited eagerly to rid the world of the harmless power and mark this day as a day of historical victory.

Still, no one was celebrating among them. They were happy but just tired and wanted to get this over with.

After hundreds of years, the horror is defeated. Now it will be exorcized.

They gathered their hands, moved the light within them and together, they applied their magical pressure on the surroundings but as they did that. A magical array activated.

They were all surprised.

The Magical Array was massive, it encompassed all the battlefield.

"Damn that Lich, it is not dying!" Shouted the Giant Chieftain as he frustratingly stomped the ground.

There was no undoing this magic and whatever it may be, it is going to be massive.

All the Death Mana in the surroundings, every bit over a thousand hectare were all pulled to the array instantly and in a second, it all was sucked in through a swirl of Magical Anomaly.

There was nothing left to exorcise.

But as the big array was taking form and manifesting the phenomenon known as Magic Spell, it all disappeared in a woof.

It went away as if it wasn't there from the start.

All remains of the Undead Army, its totems, war machines, death wagons, and even the weapons… it all became dust as if it wasn't there from the start in a stunning act of departing.

Just now, the Necromancer might have saved the united armies months of cleaning up… or maybe years… but there's one thing the heads of the alliance noticed. The Magic Array has absorbed every soul, even the Soul of the Lich King. This amount of soul power should have been used to create something enormous but… the disappearance was even weirder that it should have been.

It was as if something vanished away on purpose.

Only time will tell what truly happened to those souls and the Heroes were more than ready for round two. However, that world of brave heroes defeated evil and finally knew peace. The Lich was never to return again.

***

Even with his death, he wanted to return again. He didn't just want to, he plotted for it, he begged for it.

He wanted life back at all costs.

He knew his fate would be dire but he still realized that he can't just stay there more than this. A Necromancer like him has delivered a lot of souls to the Nether, the Nether wouldn't punish him for that but what it would punish for is stealing from the Nether itself.

In his final moments of death, Lich King Balefire took with him an astronomical number of souls as he was dragged by the force of the Nether down to the abyss of the Underworld. He was crafty enough to make those souls mask his own and through them, he escaped from the Nether Wardens. Thankfully, his last spell array was more of an automatic construct as by the end of one part, the other would activate itself right away.

An array carved on his soul started to activate itself with the power of the Realm of Death and he was finally being unsummoned. The Lich King managed to cunningly cast his ghost back into the world of the living.

He wasn't willing to accept death just yet. In fact, he never accepted it from the start, he won't accept it because of two reasons. The first is that as a Necromancer, he's one of the few who know the truth to what comes after this life. The second is that he is a coward.

Just like all the cowards he killed, he realized that he is also one of them and made sure to be the last of all cowards in that world. Once that was over, he was to be taken down.

Sneaking his way back into life is a typical thing to do as a coward. He wanted to undergo rebirth and change his own fate this time. To open his eyes and see new parents and a proper childhood. More importantly, he wanted to witness the world of the braves he contributed into its creation. To live under the shadows of those heroes who ended him.

He was at peace with that.

And the moment he felt the coldness of life against his skin, the moment he felt that piercing pain, he knew it… he's back.

Instead of a dead hollow skeleton, he felt the vivid sensation of the flesh and the tenderness of the skin. He could hear his own breath and sense the liquids around him.

He wasn't able to open his eyes yet but that's the case of all new born children, right?

Just like that, he smiled, not caring anymore. He closed those chubby hands and opened them again enjoying the sensation of life.

But while the sensation of calmness lasted, pain became apparent. Noises mixed with his consciousness in words that baffled him. A strong light and colorful apparitions entered his view.

Once his vision settled, he raised his hand up to see if. He wanted to greet the new life with hope.

He did so but what he disturbed him greatly.

His hand was drenched in blood… and it didn't look like that of an infant.

It was an adult's hand.

And it was his.

His rebirth was no rebirth.

Something went wrong.

He looked around him and felt the blood coming from his chest. Looking closer, he felt pain in his chest and saw something stuck out of it.

A knife.

He held the knife which was stabbed in deep and pulled it out with his psyche almost breaking apart from the pain. Once it was out, his wounds were healed.

It was a fail-safe in his spell if the body he reincarnates in has some flaw. He was prepared for that but he wasn't prepared to be reborn as an adult right away.

What did he do wrong?

Where did he fail?

And what is this annoying place with its light and noises?

[ … Moving on to the last piece of news this evening. The City's Board of Directors signed a new legislation which enforces the city laws on the Federal Police Department. The change which targets the corruption in the Federal Police and aims to right a lot of wrongs which the innocent citizens of Titan city were subjected to. While the Union Federal Government expressed its worries over the new policy, the City's Board has made it clear that the Federal Laws will remain adhered to and the city's Special Security Enforcers and the Judicial Force will make sure to oversee the Federal Police with both justice and honesty. This has been April Skye from the 9 pm news program, we see you again at midnight… ]

Seeing the news program on a TV screen was one of the wildest experiences Balefire has gone through in his life… and he has seen many.

However, nothing can even rival Titan City.

(A/N: Make sure to throw a few nice words in the comment section. Make the Author feel kimochi.)