Rory had to bite out the words. “What do you mean, alive?”

They explained quickly. Allen faltered in places, and Trish happily picked up the slack. All the souls travelling to the back of the hall had been congregating in a corner where the lich had been reborn. Somehow, she was regenerating herself using the souls. The Emberfang’s spirit had been the last piece she needed to be reborn.

“You didn’t stop it?” Viv asked.

Allen looked sheepish at the accusation. “We didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. By the time we got what was going on, the lich was alive again.”

“I was going to attack, but…” Trish shook her head. “We decided it was better to warn and get the Mana to everyone first.”

Rory was impressed that Trish had shown great restraint and come here instead of taking on the lich by herself. Fear might have had something to do with that, but he was just glad to have more Mana again.

“Let me get this straight,” Sue said. “You have a reborn, undying lich attacking you from withing the bank, while outside, you’ve got the unkillable Knight charging in to finish what it started at the substation. You realize how nuts that sounds?”

They lapsed into worried silence. Rory could hear loud and clear how the Thunderclaw Knight was getting closer and closer. And now he had learned that the lich he had helped to kill was back too. Trapped between a rock and a hard place was an understatement.

“There’s no point twiddling our thumbs,” Viv said. “We need to prepare.”

Dez nodded. “Agreed.” He faced Miles. “Go outside and try to map out how long we have until the Knight gets here and attacks. Don’t go too far, though. Trish, the same for you but for this lich of yours. I want both of you to retreat and let us handle them together instead of engaging them head-on individually.”

Trish looked annoyed that she wasn’t allowed to engage in combat, but after Miles shot her with a finger gun, they both shuffled off.

“You said fire was the lich’s weakness, right?” Dez asked Rory.

He nodded. “Right. But also, Trish, hold on.” She had already started towards her post, but Rory’s raised voice stopped her. “What happened to the souls that went back? Are they still lingering or…?”

“They disappeared,” she said. “It was like the lich absorbed them. When she came out, I saw a couple of them enter her, and part of her armour reformed instantly. Like she was sacrificing them to recreate herself from scratch.”

“Alright, that’s all I needed to know.” Rory turned back to Dez, Viv, and Sue. “Now we’ve got proof that the lich used up the souls. That means if we kill her again, she’s going to stay down. There aren’t any more souls for her to use here.”

“Not in the bank, yeah,” Viv said. “But what about outside…”

“We’ll have to hope they’re too distant for her to use.”

“Now to figure out what to do about the Knight,” Dez muttered.

Viv’s face went fierce. Rory knew that look. She was taking on her juggernaut mood. “We can take it. We’re stronger now, we’ll be fine.”

Nobody argued. It might or might not be true, but they could hope. After all, their Sigils had grown stronger since the last time they’d faced the Thunderclaw Knight.

“I’ll go check on Mikey and May,” Jerome said, heading out of the hall as well.

“One more thing.” Rory looked to where Evelyn was still slumped over, staring blankly at the wall. It reminded him of what May must have seen, rendering her mute from shock. “I’ve got a powerful Sigil from the lich, but Evelyn has the Sigil that killed the lich. We just need to… make her help.”

“Her family…” Viv’s face had blanched as she stared questioningly at Rory.

He could only shake his head, swallowing down the lump in his throat. There was no time for sentiment right now. Not if they wanted to survive.

Viv marshalled the flash of devastating grief, all-consuming anger, and teary-eyed empathy into the pressed line of her mouth. She walked over to Evelyn, kneeling beside her and talking in a soft voice.

“What powerful Sigil did you mean the first time?” Dez asked. “And why can’t we use it?”

Rory showed him the Sigil of Rending Blizzard. He whistled appreciatively at the green circle indicating its Tier. “This summons a powerful storm,” Rory said. “But ice is the lich’s element. I get the feeling if we use anything of the kind against her, she’ll just bounce it right back at us.”

“Unless someone could use it, like Miles did with the Emberfang’s fire.”

“Can you? I’m not so sure…”

Dez took the Sigil and tried to insert, then frowned. “It says I can’t use a Sigil that’s in a stronger Tier than my strongest Sigil.”

“I figured there would be a restriction like that. Otherwise, you’d have everyone zooming up the Tiers by getting more powerful Sigils.”

The other point was an interesting thought, though. Sigil users weren’t hurt by the element their Sigil controlled. Miles was a strong proof in case. As was Dez with his Abyssal Inferno, and Evelyn who hadn’t burned with the lava or choked on the ashen fumes.

Maybe Sigils offered a natural immunity to whatever substance they offered their user.

Dez went on to quiz Rory about any and every pertinent detail regarding the lich. They didn’t get to talk for long.

Sounds of battle erupted from farther down the hallway. Rory’s heart paused for a second, jumping when he realized Trish had engaged the lich.

“Time to get going,” Dez said.

Viv looked up. “Let’s go.”

Whatever she had said to Evelyn, it hadn’t worked. She kept sitting while Viv and Dez got ready to fight, staring blankly at her lap. A part of Rory wanted to give her a hug, remind her that she wasn’t alone, but the rest of him was too stressed about the approaching lich.

It didn’t take long for Trish to fall back enough for them to hear her creative cursing. “Why won’t that thing stay dead?”

“Trish,” Dez shouted. “Fall back. I’m about to engage.”

He stepped forward, then quickly stopped. The lich floated into view.

Rory stared at the monster. She had changed. Her armour was more intricate, decorated with more spikes on the pauldrons on her shoulder and the faulds around her war skirt. The iron crown was back on her bony head, as was the skull-topped iron staff in her hands.

“I recall explaining how your efforts would all be utterly futile,” the lich said. “Do you believe me now?”

“I believe you’re about to get yourself whooped,” Dez said.

He stepped forward with his fists flaming. Without warning, Dez threw a black-and-blue fireball at the lich. The monster countered with a swing of her staff. A wave of frost collided with the black flames, summoning an icy pillar that stopped the Abyssal Inferno in its tracks.

Then the lich fired off several icy bolts. Dez’s flames shielded him, as did Trish and her steel. She wasn’t getting past their defences that easily. Even when she used her Rending Blizzard, Sue stepped forward to erect an Electrium barricade, keeping them all safe.

On the other hand, they couldn’t get to the lich either. Neither Dez’s fires nor Trish’s spears went past the constant arcs of frost that the lich was releasing in waves.

This, of course, led to Viv stepping forward. Her arms were raised, her red sabre burning out of the gap in her enclosed fists. Before Rory could warn her about the lich’s defensive powers, she had thrown an arc of burning crimson at the monster.

The lich was distracted by the attacks from Dez and Trish. She didn’t see the arc of energy flying at her until it was too late. Viv grinned, then disappeared with a red flash as Rory shouted in warning.

Just as she reappeared when her arc was a foot away from her target, the lich summoned the icy shield. It clasped Viv in a terrific grip of cold. As the lich started to encase in her in a frozen prison, she screamed and threw out another crimson arc and disappeared in scarlet light.

Rory staggered to her when she rematerialized a second later. She was half-frozen and glaring at the lich like she wanted to murder the lich with her bare hands.

“You can’t charge headlong at every monster you see,” Rory said.

He activated his Weaving, using it on the ice all over her.

Viv’s furious look mollified to show a tiny bit of chagrin. “She reacted too fast.”

Dez tried his hand, using his dark flames, but he had no more success than Viv. His black blasts never came close to penetrating the icy shield. After her death, the lich seemed to have improved its defence.

Rory had to agree it was the better idea. And if all else failed, his Weaving was ready.

Before they could advance, the lich summoned its furious blizzard again. Rory started Weaving it away from his vicinity, pulling Viv close and yelling at the others to get behind him. Sue tried to create barriers, but it wasn’t enough. They were thrown into disarray by the storm.

The lich didn’t aim for them, however. This time, several of the columns cracked and buckled, the floor separating into chunks as fissures tore a delta across it. Overhead, what remained of the ceiling began to fall down among them. Only Sue summoning more barricades overhead prevented them from being crushed.

“Get back,” Rory yelled, trying to raise his voice over the din of the collapse.

A shout thundered through the wintry storm. Rory’s heart spasmed. It had sounded like Dez, and it didn’t sound good.

“We need to help them,” Viv said, edging forward against the blizzard’s press.

Rory shook his head. “I’ve got no idea how.” He suddenly realized the lich’s intention and felt cold as though the blizzard was now within him. “She’s keeping separated us on purpose. That’s what her storm’s for.”

As though to prove Rory right, Trish’s shriek of pain and rage lanced through the storm. Rory grimaced. He needed to find a way through the blizzard. Holding his arm over his head, Rory started pressing forward. His Weaving’s lines of light were dissolving the snow and the wind into another Sigil he needed to check when it was finally gone.

Then the lich was suddenly before them. Rory had no idea how the monster moved through the chaos, but it was no surprise to see her standing there with her staff pointed at them.

“And now to end your annoying meddling,” she said.

Just as the tip of the staff burst with blue light, a bolt of pyroclastic fire collided with the lich’s barrier, setting the entirety of it ablaze. She cursed, now weaving her staff in a complicated gesture. The storm’s wrath shifted to hammer down on the ashen and lava-flecked flames that had doused her.

Rory grinned. Evelyn had come through.

“Now’s my chance,” Viv said, rushing past Rory with her crimson sabre glinting out from her hands.

While the lich was distracted by Evelyn’s attack, Viv slammed her sword forward. It cracked against the icy shield like a bolt of lightning, crimson sparks flashing across its transparent face. Viv held her sabre’s tip against the lich’s barrier, using her power like a blowtorch to carve a hole through the ice.

Rory took a second to look away and find the others. With the decrease in the storm’s intensity, he was able to locate Dez clutching a wounded arm and Trish flash-frozen against a column. But they were moving, attempting to get out of the lich’s line of fire. Rory’s breath whooshed out in relief. At least they were alive.

Apparently, the lich still had way too many tricks up her sleeves. A Sigil flared on her breastplate, and a piece broke off fading to nothing. In its place, the Emberfang’s ghost arose.

Rory frowned. He hadn’t seen a Sigil activating anywhere else on the lich yet.

Viv was forced to roll back as the giant Emberfang slammed down upon her position. The hall’s ground shook as Rory stepped back. This was getting ridiculous. They needed to bring the lich down, not suffer from every new card she played.

Rory was just beginning to fall back and start wondering how he could get to the lich when a barrier materialized in front of the Emberfang’s spirit. It flashed silver then shot forward, both the lich and her summon screaming as they were pelted back. Rory grinned back at Sue. Perfect timing.

Unfortunately, that was far from enough. Sue’s barricade had dissipated, likely because her Sigil didn’t allow that kind of distance. The lich was free to attack. But instead of resuming the furious blizzard, she slammed the butt of her iron staff on the ground and began to float upwards, a horrid, ethereal moaning noise blaring out like a constant gonging.

The Emberfang’s spirit disappeared again, and the remainder of the storm dissolved into a dozen threads of chaotic energy whirling around the lich like tentacles of a gigantic monster.

“Don’t let those hit you!” Viv shouted through the room.

She nodded at Rory, then jerked past him to pull Evelyn away, leaving him to handle an unconscious Ned all on his own. But that was fine. Rory had his Weaving to protect himself—though he wasn’t sure how well it would work if the lich started whipping those stormy vines around—while the others had to make do with more mundane defences.

Just as he had expected, the lich’s stormy tentacles lashed out everywhere, raining devastation on them all.

Rory used his Weaving to keep himself safe, dragging Ned back with him. Thankfully, the tendril hadn’t whipped him. Instead, it had swung around and rammed into him head-on, which gave his Weaving enough time to act on and reduce it to another Sigil of Rending Blizzard. The others were far less fortunate.

Dez and Trish had dragged themselves behind a column for shelter, but the stormy tendrils coalesced and shattered them whole. Rory winced as the broken pillar piled upon them, the dust hiding the outcome. Nearer at hand, Evelyn powered up her Pyroclastic Hellfire to stave off the blizzarding tendril trying to smash her and Viv. Several more tendrils added to the pressure, but Sue quickly joined in to add to their defence with her barrier.

“Fall back,” Viv shouted as even Sue’s addition failed to stop the stormy tendrils for long. “We need to regroup.”

Rory was doing just that. He was also holding off on the frustration that they were unable to do anything to the lich. But then, they didn’t need to. They’d more or less confirmed that the ones they’d come to rescue were now dead. There was no reason for them to linger.

He frowned. Evelyn threw our more lava and fire and ash all at once. Rory shook his head. He couldn’t let himself be caught up in her grief and rage. Now that he was responsible for the others, there was no room for the luxury to feel.

Despite the din, Rory heard the noise of hurried footsteps approaching from behind. Miles was coming back in.

“It’s here,” he shouted, his panic-stricken voice rising over the noise within the hall. “The Thunderclaw Knight is here.”