It would be hilarious if he defeated her with her own magic, but surely she’d stop before she was actually in danger.

Wait. That was it. Her own magic could hurt her, even though he had trouble doing it himself.

He’d just have to take down the shield first.

Serenity called his axe back to his hand. It was a magic-canceling axe, and he’d repeatedly shown that it would temporarily knock out her shield. He’d just have to time it right. He threw the axe one more time and followed it with Evoking his Infused Slow spell, targeting the City Lord. If it worked, great; if it didn’t, he wasn’t counting on it.

The only effect Serenity could see was that she seemed to move a little slower and her aim was off a bit more when he dodged quickly. Perfect.

Serenity wasn’t certain if the shield had to be down to affect the City Lord with magic, but if it did, he’d proven it worked. It wasn’t like he had any other spells to use against her anyway. If he took the time and concentration to build one, she’d surely realize that he didn’t have to dodge her attacks. Serenity called his axe back to ready himself for the next part of the plan.

Serenity circled Aith, dodging several more bolts and watching the local concentration of Death energy rise until one finally lined up perfectly - slightly misaimed high, but close enough that he’d be able to move into it. Serenity Evoked his Infused Speed spell; it was a small boost, but even a little could help him get the timing right.

When the Death Bolt was about to hit, Serenity threw the axe under the bolt, parallel to its course. It was a deliberately “bad” throw; he’d aimed at her feet, since all he needed to do was drop the shield and that way he could throw the axe without it intersecting the bolt.

He immediately stood up, holding his spell deflection bracers where they would be hit by the Death Bolt. When it hit, he grabbed control of the bolt and deflected it back at Stojan Aith. The timing had to be nearly perfect, but he knew he could manage.

He was glad he’d used both bracers, because the left bracer failed almost immediately, burning some stripes into his arm and armor as it disintegrated and leaving him to control the speed of the reflected attack with only the right bracer. He released control of the bolt as it slammed into Stojan Aith immediately after the shield went down. As he did, the second bracer melted then burned as it failed, leaving large raw patches of burned flesh. The magic running through it to control the bolt had clearly been the only thing holding it together.

Serenity was very grateful for his healing ability.

He walked over to his opponent. She was dying and her shield wasn’t back up, but she wasn’t actually dead yet. She would be shortly, since she was no longer able to hold off the death energy she’d created.

She looked at him and croaked out, “My lich will kill you…”

He didn’t really want to kill her; he wanted to spare anyone he could. That wasn’t an option here. It was clear she’d just keep coming after him until one of them killed the other, even if he somehow handed the Lordship over to her.

Like her, Serenity knew how to keep a DeathLord from rising. He buried his antimagic axe in her skull; it would buy him time.

[Lord’s Challenge Complete]

[Challenger Defeated]

He needed to make sure she didn’t get back up, especially not as a lich. Liches were annoying. If she knew she was going to be a lich, she’d clearly made quite a few preparations. He didn’t have the mana capacity to do it the normal way, so he’d have to get creative. There were several option available

As he was thinking that, he heard someone coughing behind him. When he looked towards the coughing, he saw it was Hale; the bubble was down and Hale was walking towards him through the heavy Death energy. Serenity raised his voice to be sure everyone would hear. “Get out, it’s not safe in here for you. I’m fine, I need to deal with this - you can come in when I’ve got the Death level down to something safe.”

Hale retreated.

Serenity had two problems now. The Death energy didn’t bother him; could he use it to supplement his mana the way he had in the Last Refuge dungeon?

Serenity pulled his axe out of her skull. He couldn’t leave it in and do what he needed to do, but he knew the former City Lord would start trying to return the moment it was no longer blocking her.

Before he started, Serenity took the necklace with the mystery crystal off the former City Lord and tucked it in a pocket. He’d want to find out what it was before he did anything with it, and he didn’t have time right now.

Serenity expanded his aura and started pulling the energy in. It gathered and he could feel it available to supplement his Death mana, so he started the “normal” way for a DeathLord to prevent another DeathLord from rising as an intelligent undead: raising the body himself.

He’d have to hold it under his control for long enough that her energy would dissipate - a day plus an hour was traditional but Serenity knew the true need was closer to an hour per Tier of the DeathLord. Even though he could have raised the body with his own mana, he didn’t have the mana reserves to maintain it as long as would be necessary, even before accounting for potentially having to fight with Stojan Aith’s spirit for control.

Fortunately, Serenity knew how to do a “permanent” version of raising the undead, though he hadn’t taught it in the Tutorial; it raised the initial cost too much to be usable at low Tier, but once the undead was raised, it wasn’t expensive to maintain. Even better, since he would fully control it, it would be far cheaper to repel assaults by the former City Lord. There was all this Death energy he could convert to mana provided by the former City Lord to help him. He was sure she wouldn’t be pleased at the irony that he was using her failed trap against her.

Serenity pushed his death-tinged mana through Stojan Aith’s body. The first thing he needed to do was clear out anything she’d left behind, but he also needed to make sure her body was saturated with his mana as quickly as possible. It was normally a balancing act, but Serenity found it far easier to take over her mana than he expected. Either his Incarnate was stronger than he thought or she hadn’t actually been at 100% Affinity. She had to have had a high Affinity or she wouldn’t have been counted a DeathLord, but it was possible.

Serenity swept his magic through her and found only a small pair of traps. It was less than most DeathLords established, and as paranoid as Stojan Aith had seemed, he’d expected to find more. He would have worried if he hadn’t also found the remnants of the ritual she’d used to prepare for lichdom. It had all the markers of being used on someone with a high Affinity, but was clearly the method she was using to raise herself, rather than allowing her Affinity to do it.

Serenity hadn’t set any traps in himself, and he didn’t plan to establish any soon. The only person he’d fought since his return through time who he was certain knew how to handle someone with full Affinity was the woman he’d just defeated; it was unlikely there were any on Earth.

It was too bad he couldn’t take the time to ask more about her or even investigate the necklace before he finished this; Serenity was getting the feeling of a deeper mystery, but he couldn’t let that stop him from making sure she was well and truly gone.

Once he’d pushed his Death mana throughout the body, Serenity started expanding it to cover everything - he needed to be absolutely certain there wasn’t even a small niche where she could survive. It was probably relatively safe given her apparent Affinity issue, but Serenity couldn’t trust that when the consequences were allowing a determined enemy to come after him and those he cared about.

The downside to this method other than the large upfront cost was the time it took. Serenity spent hours painstakingly taking control of each bit. He repeatedly removed places where the remnant spirit established small footholds.

Serenity noticed that he used a tiny bit of essence with each piece he took control of, and that it cost more essence when he had to fight. He experimented a little and found that the more essence he used, the less mana he had to use, but also that more essence invested would result in a more powerful creation. He didn’t want that - not with this - and he went back to using only as much essence as he had to.

Someone called to him from a distance, but Serenity wasn’t sure what was said. He called back, “Still working on it!” and continued the task.

When he finished, less than half of the Death energy Stojan Aith released was used up, and Serenity’s mana and essence were both nearly full. He was mentally tired from the effort but not physically tired, even if he was a bit stiff.

Serenity had the mindless zombie stand up and walk towards a wall, then stand facing the wall. He could feel that Stojan Aith’s spirit was still active, but her attacks didn’t seem to damage the defenses he’d established around the undead.

He needed to deal with the remaining Death energy; there was still too much to really be safe for most living beings. First, though, he wanted to find out what the necklace was. Anything that made him hunger for it the way it did was worth checking out.

Shard of Tzintkra’s Core

This was once part of the World Core of the Deathworld Tzintkra. It was chipped from the World Core and stolen by Stojan Aith and used by her to gain power over Tzintkra itself and its residents.

Grants Death-related power and abilities; may be used to improve understanding of Death.

No wonder Tzintkra itself had told him to destroy her.

He took another look at it and reminded himself that however much he wanted it, it wasn’t his. He needed to return it to the World Core so that it could heal; he didn’t know what the effect of a damaged World Core would be, but he doubted it was good.

Serenity stepped over to the City Crystal and touched it with the caged shard held between his hand and the City Crystal. He couldn’t think of a better way to contact the World.

[Login Requested]

[Confirming Credentials… Welcome, Lord Serenity!]

[Thank you for defeating Stojan Aith]

Unlike most uses of a City Crystal, a menu didn’t immediately appear. Instead, it felt like the entity speaking to him was waiting for him to say something.

Are you the World Core? Is this shard a piece of you?