Like with a Hydra, killing a Lich makes more spawn and increases the difficulty of Trox Mael, but the amount of Experience we can get for a kill makes me salivate. If only we could pull out Patrono here and wipe the floor with them, we'd certainly gain a couple of levels.

But the goal here is to have our men level up, not us, so we'll have to suck it up.

"Maybe we can kill one more…" I mumble to myself as I retreat.

"Full of mana!" Roxanne happily reports.

"Didn't have much to do till now," Alissa remarks with a shrug.

But Hana and Ciel are tired. The former because her [Fire Breath] is expensive, and the latter because she had a shit ton of divine power pass through her in an instant. Even I'm feeling a bit weird even though I only "guided" it, so I'm not sure I'm in the best condition to continue fighting.

And Alissa decides to help out, "I'll get my parents to help with the Lich."

With the last of my MP, I summon three more fire-Hanas, and with each summon reducing my total MP, it's now at 1/4th. It's always a pain to have my max MP reduced since I rely on mana a lot to fight, but the extra eyes from my elementals are too useful, and I can afford the luxury of taking it easy while I recover my meager MP pool.

I drink one of the faster-acting MP potions, then Ciel and I return to the wall while the rest of the girls unite, and Hana will stay and fight in melee while her [Fire Breath] recovers.

Ciel checks on the wounded, which aren't many, and I go check on my groupies, then I join our Companions on the wall. It's really easy to find Hukarere because of her wolf helmet, and also because she's a bit taller than the average soldier.

The two Greater Liches lift both hands above their heads with their palms up, and they begin to gather the mana in the air again. The one on the left summons a ball of fire while the one on the right forms an ice lance.

"The fuck did you do?" Hukarere questions me as I land beside her.

A Symbol's head pops up on the battlements, so she stabs her halberd into its throat, keeping it still while I decapitate it. "Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. We saw an opportunity, so we took it, but we have no idea how to repeat that," I casually reply.

"That's a shame because those fuckers look really dangerous!" Romy shouts as she slams her halberd into a helmeted head with glowing red eyes, then points at the two Liches.

"The Blessing will protect us!" I shout back and crack a skull with a tentacle-mace.

"If you say so!"

"Are you fine, tho? Your tail is a bit low," Hukarere concernedly asks.

Awn… It warms my heart that she can read me just through my tail.

I smile lovingly at her. "That flashy stuff tired me out, so I'm staying here until I recover."

And Romy cheerfully chimes in, "Fine by us. At least now we'll be able to do our job and protect you!"

I'll never not be happy to hear that I'm loved.

Ciel moves on to help the men at the breach, and the rest of the girls start clearing an area in front of the fire Lich to allow the diamond orb to absorb the Darkness again. The ice Lich is less dangerous, so we'll let it do its thing, though Roxanne does blow up both of its wrists to slow down its gathering of power.

Just because the fire Lich is conjuring a fireball doesn't mean he's immune to fire, and Aoi blankets the big skelly with her breath. Meanwhile, Alissa fills the Lich with [Sapping Seeds], and the arrows sink into its large bones where they won't be burned away by the fire, then she feels vigor flood into her, which is surprising considering the Lich is a goddamn skeleton.

Ciel gets really confused about my surprise, so I explain to her that skeletons are supposed to be… well, dead, so absorbing the life of a skeleton should be like eating the flesh from some bones. There just isn't any.

But then Ciel kindly explains through [Bind], "Wolfy, the undead of your world are different from ours. The Lich is still a living monster, so it has a life force that can be absorbed, and even the undead here need some sort of energy to live, so they'd also be affected by [Sapping Seeds]."

Oh, right… these monsters are made to be frightening, so they're "fake" skellies. The Greater Lich might have life-draining powers, but it still has to store that life energy somewhere, which is what Alissa is stealing from it.

But this gives me an idea. Arreira made quite the number of bows with a variety of enchantments, and I know for a fact that we have enough of them with [Sapping Seeds] to equip all of the girls.

"Yunia, see if you can use [Disruption Field] on the other Lich to slow it down!" I excitedly order through [Bind], then I start pulling out the bows.

"What are you doing?" Hukarere curiously asks, her casual tone making the wall seem way too calm, given the ongoing battle.

"Something stupid, but I really want to kill those two Liches," I answer without looking at her.

And she gives me some cheeky encouragement, "We'll be cheering you on, Lordling. Show your might like a tornado and make everyone shit crystals again."

What a colorful expression.

I grab her head and kiss her metal snout. "Thanks, love."

"Awn… look at the Lordling and his lover!" Romy teases and laughs out loud.

I turn to the tanned Asian and give her a seductive look. "You want a kiss, too? I know how much you love my cock, so there's no need to be shy!"

"Your Highness, please! The battle!" The Lordsguard officer exclaims exasperatedly.

Oh, well…

Before the rest of the Companions can start to get too distracted, I give them some encouragement, "Focus on the battle, girls. You can all join my tent later."

"Yes, sir!" They shout back in unison, and Hukarere gives me one last glance before turning to the battlements again.

Anyway, back to the bows. They all have [Mana Arrow], so they don't need ammo, and once I'm holding them all with my tentacles, I fly away towards the girls.

Yunia stops above the ice Lich, its hands already growing back, then she cuts her wrists right where they'd bleed the most, I think, but I don't know, I'm not a doctor.

Even just standing above the Darkness makes her uneasy, but when her blood drops fall onto the pitch-black blanket, she gets a horrible chill up her spine that gives her pause.

"Wolfy, I don't want to do this," she soberly states through [Bind].

So I immediately adapt, "Alright, switch targets. We'll take yours, and you take ours."

The fire Lich's robe may be… on fire, but his bones still aren't showing any sign of damage. The girls might need to do more to even disrupt its casting.

Then Roxanne gets an idea. "You know what? Fuck it." And she blows the fire Lich to pieces with repeated [Explosion]s.

Well, that works.

And the men cheer as they see the large ball of flame getting snuffed out, but the problem with Liches is that they're "like" undead. They'll always regenerate unless they're either completely annihilated or drained of all their mana, which is exactly what I want to do with [Sapping Seeds].

The Liches are close to each other, so it only takes a moment for the girls to switch positions, and Lina starts clearing the Darkness of the ice Lich while Yunia begins to bleed all over the fire Lich before I even reach them.

"This is the oddest plan I've ever heard!" Léonne shouts as one of my tentacles hands her a bow.

"The oddest plan so far!" I cheekily reply.

Then the ice Lich turns its skeletal head towards us, its glowing, purple eyes staring at us creepily, but it's a bit too late to try to stop us now.

"And fuck you too!" Roxanne shouts and also blows it to pieces.

The men cheer again as the ice lance shatters into thousands of pieces, then quickly melts into nothing. But our boom boom mage has used up quite a lot of mana to do this twice, and it's best that we don't let the Liches regenerate.

"Pepper it up!" I shout, and we unleash [Mana Arrow]s infused with [Sapping Seeds] all over the pile of bones.

I immediately feel something trickle into me, and I soon feel myself gradually getting less tired. Even the "weirdness" from the divine stuff is slowly being cleansed out of my body.

"HOOH! I FEEL GREAT!" Hana shouts and continues to fire arrow after arrow.

Yunia lets a few drops of blood fall onto the pile of white bones and burning robes, and as each drop touches the Lich, she gets a stabbing pain in her heart. She immediately checks her "Status" and notices that her HP has dropped by 1.

Oh, right, life-draining powers.

"Fucking-…! This was a stupid idea!" She loudly complains in my soul space.

Ay~, you didn't make the connection either, so it isn't all on me.

And she begrudgingly agrees, "Fine… but now what?"

Try to make a circle around it.

I unsummon four fire-Hanas and summon one water-Roxanne to help her spread out the blood faster. The fire Lich is starting to reform itself, so there's no time to waste.

"Switch targets!" I shout and point to Yunia's Lich.

Then I get another stupid idea, and Alissa groans internally, but doesn't stop me. I guiltily lower myself down to the ice Lich as I put some of my points in [Nature Magic]. Then I cast [Mana Transfusion], which makes my hands glow, and I touch a large piece of white bone.

"Hngh…!" I moan loudly as my body is flooded with sweet sweet stolen mana. I also feel a chilling sensation of my life being drained away through my hand, but my drain from [Sapping Seeds] is so high that the net drain is positive in my favor!

I'm a fucking genius.

Yunia really feels like retorting, but she's too busy right now.

Then a bone hits me in the back of the head, sending me flying away. The impact was absorbed by my helmet, and I recover almost instantly thanks to [Acrobatics], but my pride was still wounded.

That's it, I'm sucking you dry!

The energy flooding in from [Sapping Seeds] gives us all a second wind, and I tackle the floating pieces of bone like a hungry dog in a dumpster.

GIMME YOUR BLUE JUICE!

Bones smack against my armor and lightning crackles on my back, making the [Rainbow Shield] enchantment flare. Then fire envelops me, but it does no better, and even the proto-[Ruin] strikes me, only to be nullified by the Sanctuary Blessing.

I unsummon my spent fire elementals and use my quickly refilling mana pool to summon fresh ones, and they help me keep the bones away while I play the mana-vampire.

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Yunia finishes the circle of watered blood with the help of the elemental, then she activates [Disruption Field] while the rest of the girls cover her, and the reassembling bones collapse back into a pile again.

CHECK MATE, BITCHEEEEES!

I laugh maniacally while we continue to bring down the Liches. Lina's diamond Artifact starts to become a bit too full of Darkness, so Hana briefly takes it and casually throws the excess black liquid into the nothingness.

"Don't ask, don't know," she preemptively states before Roxanne can make her jealousy known. It's like Hana can simply make the pseudo-mana bend to her will, so it's not something that can be easily explained or learned.

Suddenly, my Lich crumbles into dust, so I immediately dart to the other one, and we quickly kill it, too.

"That was a dumb idea," Yunia remarks as we gather up.

"It's not dumb if it works," I offhandedly reply.

And she gives me a rather vexed pout. "You hugged a life-draining being and out-drained it to death. That's pretty dumb."

"I have no comment," Ciel dryly adds, and Alissa just silently nods in agreement. Not even Léonne and Jacques have anything to say; they're simply stupefied.

Then four Greater Liches spawn, but they seem even bigger than the two from before, and bigger equals more power, so we're kind of in the danger zone. If the Liches attack all at the same time, there's a chance that our Blessings will be drained instantly, and then we'll be swatted like flies.

Roxanne will also start to feel the effects of mana overuse if we have her blow up more Liches, so now we really can't kill these four.

"RETREAT!"

The adventurers leave their positions first and make their way to the Great Steps, then we evacuate the walls, and finally, the boots at ground level perform a fighting retreat from the breach.

The adventurers create a path covered in Sanctuary, so those who retreat after them have an easier time keeping the monsters at bay. The Symbols of War follow our men closely, but Aoi and Jacques are enough to keep them from being swarmed, so the retreat goes swimmingly.

And the moment the first person touches the Great Steps, their Blessing starts to spread throughout the entire, massive structure, becoming like a beacon in the oppressive darkness. Then the Steps rumble, and stairs grow from the blocks of cement, allowing us to climb higher.

We allow Bell-end to position his freshest men at the bottom of the Steps to keep the horde at bay while everyone else catches their breath.

Without anyone to reinforce the Sanctuary at the walls, it quickly runs out, and the Greater Liches have free reign to fulfill their purpose: to turn the settlement into rubble.

Ice lances rain down, embedding themselves into the cement whenever they don't outright demolish a building; huge balls of fire are launched in arcs and cause massive explosions, but the heat causes the ice lances to shatter, adding to the chaos; the ground opens up and swallows houses whole, then the cracks close up violently, creating small hills of jagged rock where it was flat before; tornadoes kick up and spread the fire and rubble all over; and then the lightning bolts of proto-[Ruin] spread all throughout the settlement, finishing off whatever was left standing.

All of this takes place while the streets are swarmed by the horde of Symbols of War, causing massives casualties for them while we just watch, the Sanctuary protecting us from any splash damage and flying debris. It's all free Experience for us, but the Devastation phase could've lasted longer if we didn't decide to kill the three Liches and hasten the settlement's demise, so not all of the adventurers are happy about how things progressed. Bell-end is neutral since he got the training he wanted to give his men, but for the following phase, we'll try to appease the adventurers more.

We take off our helmets and watch as the arcs of proto-[Ruin] light up the chaotic landscape, then I pull out one of the [Ruin] daggers we got from the assassins. Alissa was mildly uncomfortable with the Liches, but seeing the daggers brings back unpleasant memories for her.

"Sorry, I just felt like studying them," I softly apologize.

She tiredly shakes her head. "It's fine. Study is always worth it as long as it isn't dangerous." Then she gives me a sharp stare.

I smile wryly and turn to the dagger, but then Ciel takes off her gauntlets and starts massaging Alissa's furry ears, distracting me again.

"Oh~…" My orange fox moans softly. Helmets are never comfortable for the kemonomimi, even these elven ones made by Arreira.

But I raise a questioning eyebrow at Ciel, who smiles embarrassedly and hastily replies, "I'm just… doing what you wanted to do, so focus on what you wanted to research, and let me do this."

"You don't have to make excuses to cheat on your wife," Roxanne immediately teases.

"We all know you're horny for Alissa," Yunia casually piles on.

And the fox in question just grins while her masseuse quietly burns with embarrassment.

Anyway, I turn to the dagger again and activate the enchantment. The blade glows with an ethereal blue light and becomes semi-transparent, the only clue that it isn't material anymore and can pass through solid matter.

[Ruin] could be said to be the negative aspects of both the God of Order and the God of Change fused together. But it's more commonly believed to be related to the God of Destruction, and it's considered to be the opposite of [Heal], which is believed to be related to Creation.

I can also feel hints of [Arrow of Annihilation] and my [Chaos Breath] in the proto-[Ruin], but the modern [Ruin] feels very different. There's something cold and calculative in the modern version, but I'm bad at looking into the inner workings of spells, so I don't know how to explain it better.

Lina extends her hand to me, so I hand her the dagger, and she promptly begins to deliberate, "The monster version of the spell seems to have something related to divine power in its construction while the enchantment is from [Necromancy Magic], which is entirely about living beings and has similarities to [Light Magic], [Nature Magic], and [Spirit Magic], but 'inverted.' I can see how someone would use the monster [Ruin] to create Necromancy's version, like they removed the 'unnecessary' parts of the spell and 'focused' it on living beings rather than just matter in general."

I grin happily as I pat her head. "It always makes me happy to see how smart you are."

"Praise me more," she deadpans.

And I snort. "You have to earn it."

She leans against my breastplate and reaches up to my face with her little hands. "I love you, daddy…!" She cutely exclaims, and that's a critical hit to my heart.

I moan and kiss the top of her head. "You know me too well. There's nothing more that I could ask for in a wife."

And she grins cheekily. "Hehe…"

As the razing of the settlement come to an end, the Symbols of War stop spawning, and then the Liches finish their attack. All that's left are random ruins, fire, ice, and bodies everywhere. A desolate landscape.

And now begins everyone's least favorite part: Blight.

The corpses come back to life and stand up, or at least those that have legs, and then they slowly walk towards the Great Steps. They're not shambling like zombies, but casually walking closer until they're just a few meters away from us and so heavily clumped up that they're standing shoulder to shoulder.

Then, from our elevated position, we see a new monster enter the light, the Bestower of Dread, the ancient equivalent of a Dark elemental.

A small group of adventurers begin summoning light elementals, and I also summon five of mine. Bell-end wanted to use his ranged troops to kill the Bestowers, but the adventurers and even we seem to have more mercy than him because we'd rather use light elementals to deal with that abomination. Nobody deserves to have to stare at it while aiming arrows and spells.

The elementals fly out, and soon after, that abominable monster's existence comes to an end, but when it dies, it releases a cloud of rot that empowers the revived Symbols.

A couple of them start moving forward, and they resist the Sanctuary's Blessing, so the knights and Sworn Hunters engage the Symbols, making quick work of them. And this is how this phase will progress.

Our men will take the first shift while the elementals kill the Bestowers of Dread and everyone else snipes the Heralds of Ruin.

A Herald that gains resistance to the Blessing can do a lot of damage to weapons and armor if engaged in melee, so everyone is to kill them ASAP.