Chapter 289: Lich

Three days later, Witte’s soul had decayed badly. While his Soul Sanctuary was still relatively stable, Ace, after obtaining Witte’s consent, decided to hold the Lich transformation ritual for him.

In a sealed chamber, Ace cast the derived 2-Ring Spell, Undead Transformation Spell.

A Negative Energy environment slowly formed. Witte continued to weaken. He had already placed the conch and the head outside the chamber, staying alone in the Negative Energy environment.

The walls of this chamber were painted with complex sealing and encryption Rune Arrays, firstly to prevent Negative Energy leakage, and secondly to delay the escape of the True Spirit.

Witte’s body and soul had long been corroded by Negative Energy. Being in it further broke the balance between Negative Energy and the flames of pain. He felt his life draining away rapidly and seemed to hallucinate, seeing Misha’s figure.

He reached out trying to grab her, only to find his hand had rotted away, turning into white bone. Witte wanted to say something, but found he had lost his voice.

“So, I’m going to die.”

This thought flashed through Witte’s mind. He gradually gave up, prostrating on the ground.

Ace observed from outside the chamber. He paused the Undead Transformation Spell and, using the Hand of Mage, delicately extracted Witte’s still-beating heart and the sesame-seed-sized Soul Sanctuary, sealing them away.

This was the hardest step. Ace continuously injected vitality Mana into Witte’s body and soul, striving to keep them from collapsing. After removing the heart and Soul Sanctuary, Ace restarted the Undead Transformation Spell.

Witte died. His body rotted extensively, and his soul turned into a Residual Soul under the erosion of Negative Energy. The True Spirit floated out from it, temporarily blocked by the walls.

Ace took the opportunity to capture Witte’s True Spirit and temporarily sealed it with a sealing spell.

“Just one step away, waiting for the soul fire to generate.”

As time passed, the Residual Soul hadn’t ignited yet and seemed poised to dissipate.

Ace intensified the injection of Negative Energy, instantly dispelling the remaining flames of pain on the Residual Soul. The Residual Soul gradually spontaneously ignited, turning into soul fire.

“Done.”

Ace murmured, canceled the Undead Transformation Spell, placed Witte’s True Spirit and soul fire under the microscope, and slowly roasted them.

Through the microscope, Ace observed the True Spirit gradually mutating under the roasting of the soul fire. Some kind of vitality substance seemed to flash by and dissipate into the environment.

A bit of flame from the soul fire entered the True Spirit, replacing that vitality substance. The entire True Spirit appeared somewhat ashen.

“The loss of this vitality substance inherent to the True Spirit and its replacement by soul fire might be the secret of Lich transformation. What secret lies within the True Spirit? And what is this vitality substance? What are the consequences of losing this vitality substance?”

While pondering, Ace sent Witte’s soul fire back into the skeletal remains.

Whoosh!

The moment the soul fire entered the skeleton, the prostrate skeleton stood up. White flames suddenly burned in the empty eye sockets of the skull.

As a living person, Ace seemed to have an extremely fatal attraction to the skeleton. Even with Ace’s powerful mental pressure, the skeleton still instinctively rushed toward Ace.

Ace didn’t hesitate to lock the skeleton with Mana Crystal Chains, removed a rib, and then, using Bone-Melting Water as the soup base and Spirit-Suppressing Fruit as the starter, threw the rib, the still-beating heart, the not-yet-collapsed Soul Sanctuary, and Witte’s True Spirit into it together.

The aforementioned items gradually merged, turning into a grayish-white paste. Ace burned the paste with flames derived from the True-Illusion World. The paste gradually solidified into a grayish-white rectangular prism, resembling a brick.

Inside it, Witte’s True Spirit had already entered the Soul Sanctuary, and a blurry skeleton infant formed.

“Unlike the Phylactery I created with my clone, this infant is a skeleton, filled with Negative Energy.”

Just as Ace was recording, a small soul fire emerged in the skeleton infant’s hand, trembling slightly.

With the trembling of the soul fire, the skeleton locked by Ace’s Mana Crystal Chains stopped struggling. The soul fire in the skeleton’s eye sockets also trembled slightly, its frequency gradually synchronizing with the small soul fire inside the grayish-white rectangular prism.

The soul fire in the skeleton’s eye sockets seemed to become somewhat lively suddenly. Ace tried releasing the Mana Crystal Chains. The skeleton indeed didn’t continue struggling but pondered, adapting to its own body.

The skeleton’s maxilla and mandible opened and closed continuously, making clacking sounds.

“Do you want to speak?”

Ace asked.

The skeleton nodded.

“Skeletons don’t have vocal cords. Try using Lesser Sound Runes to create sound.”

Ace casually flicked a few Runes to form a Rune Structure. Without moving his lips, he spoke to the skeleton using a phantom voice created by the Spell Model.

The skeleton looked thoughtful. After trying a few times, he found he had no Mental Power. He switched to using the soul power of the soul fire to replace Mental Power, constructed a Spell Model, and said in a somewhat stiff and weird voice:

“Lord Ace, I am still Witte. I can feel the existence of my self.”

His voice gradually became like it was before death, seeming to slowly find the method to control the Spell Model.

“Witte, congratulations. We succeeded. Now, please tell me in detail your feelings starting from entering the chamber.”

Ace said somewhat excitedly.

“I felt very weak when I entered the chamber. When the Undead Transformation Spell created the Negative Energy environment, I felt my life draining away rapidly, and all sorts of hallucinations appeared.

“When you extracted my heart and Soul Sanctuary, especially the Soul Sanctuary, I felt almost unbearable pain. Eventually, I clearly knew I had died.

“But my soul still existed. In the Negative Energy environment, I could feel the corrosion of Negative Energy on my soul, but the flames of pain delayed this process. Finally, I discovered the True Spirit, attached my spirit and all my memories to the True Spirit, and then knew nothing more.

“When I woke up, I found I had become a skeleton. I can freely control the skeleton body and soul fire, and I can sense my Phylactery; it is very important to me.”

Ace looked at the soul fire flickering in the skeleton’s eye sockets, smiled slightly, and tossed the Phylactery to him.

The skeleton caught the Phylactery and continued to say to Ace: “I can feel that my foundation lies in the Phylactery. As long as the Phylactery is not destroyed, even if my skeletal body is destroyed, I should be able to be reborn.”

Saying this, the skeleton held the Phylactery high. The Soul Sanctuary inside it glowed faintly, actually leaving the Phylactery and merging into the skeleton’s soul fire.

Inside the Phylactery, the skeleton infant, having lost the Soul Sanctuary, had its True Spirit jumping and soul power condensing, seemingly brewing something.

Ace watched everything before him, recording while saying, “The Phylactery can breed a new Soul Sanctuary, right?”

The skeleton said to Ace, “That’s right. As long as I provide a steady stream of soul power, a new Soul Sanctuary will be bred. Moreover, the Phylactery can store soul power.

“As long as prepared in advance, even if my skeletal body is killed, relying on the Phylactery, I can generate soul fire again and bestow the soul fire with a Soul Sanctuary. As long as the Phylactery is not broken, I am undying.

“Lord Ace, I have become a Lich!”

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