Read Daily Updated Light Novel, Web Novel, Chinese Novel, Japanese And Korean Novel Online.
Heir of the White Lotus (Web Novel) - Chapter 1556 Cost of Eternity
Chapter 1556 Cost of Eternity
This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl
Lichdom began long before magic was cast.One had to arrive at a single, irrevocable conclusion that death was unacceptable.
That was the first step to becoming a lich.
The second was the acquisition of this forbidden knowledge. The rite was never taught freely. One had to be willing to cross moral thresholds, as the knowledge itself was a test.
Aspiring liches gained the dark secret through bargains with dark entities of the universe. This gave them knowledge, but also enslaved them in the process. Aldo Wagner had already accomplished the first two steps.
And now... he had to sever his soul.
The old man sat within the prepared runic formation, his body restless and his mind constantly echoing with mad ravings. The ritual inscribed in the book of the devil had already stripped away exhaustion, pain, and fear, leaving only awareness behind.
He could feel the physical corruption that permeated his body slowly corroding away under the effects of the ritual magic.
Becoming a lich had truly been the right choice for him to counter the abomination's corruption.
As minutes bled into hours, and hours into days, Wagner sat in the underground chamber. Gradually, his breathing slowed, then steadied, until it felt distant, as if... it belonged to someone else.
The process did not tear his soul from his body. No. It worked more quietly than that.
Memory by memory, the ritual isolated him from his flesh. His sensations dulled. His heartbeat no longer felt like his own.
The body became something he inhabited, not something he was.
Identity, will, and thought were drawn inward, separated from instinct and blood. The longer it continued, the more wrong it felt. His body rejected nothing, but neither did it respond. By the end, it felt like an empty shell waiting to be vacated.
Wagner's flesh began to fall first. His skin split and sloughed away, peeling from bones in wet sheets. Blood poured out, then dried, then turned to black residue as it lost all meaning. Muscles soon followed, tearing loose from their anchors, dropping in heavy, lifeless masses on the floor.
There was no pain.
Only detachment.
Organs collapsed into themselves, then writhed into nothing. What remained clung briefly, then fell away as the ritual drained every trace of life from his body.
In the end, only his skeletal frame stood within the runic formation. His bones were bleached pale, etched with mysterious symbols. Magic seeped into every joint, every fracture, reinforcing what was left.
The abomination's corruption had nothing to cling to anymore. It had nothing left to corrupt. And so it withered away.
Aldo Wagner died.
And was reborn as a lich.
The next step was to create the vessel.
It was prepared in silence. It was not meant to contain the soul, but to anchor it. The phylactery was an object made hostile to all existence except the one essence it was shaped for.
The lich carved wards into the crystal by hand, each layer reinforcing the next. The magic was forbidden and absolute. By the end, the crystal rejected mana, matter, and will alike. Only his soul would be tolerated.
He extended his will inward and called his soul back. Drawn by the anchor, it flowed from within his skeletal frame, stripped of warmth and weight. The small crystal sphere flared once as the soul settled within.
The bond was complete.
Without ceremony, the lich turned to Bartholomew's corpse. He opened the chest and placed the crystal deep within, sealing it with magic and flesh. His friend's body became the final hiding place.
The phylactery was hidden.
And the lich was no longer bound to death.
He stared at his dear friend's cold, unmoving corpse. Ghostly green light flickered in the depths of his hollow sockets. He couldn't cry because he no longer had tears. He felt... cold.
The lich raised his hands and indifferently wove a series of precise hand seals. Boundless mana surged from within him, and in an instant, crystal spread over Bartholomew's body, sealing it completely.
When the light faded, his remains lay encased within a clear, solid crystal
coffin.
The lich remained standing before the coffin for a long time. His jaws parted,
and he murmured in a cold, grating voice:
"The Beyond... the Beyond... the Beyond..."
He had managed to take care of the physical corruption, but the mental corruption still remained. He had trumped death, but in doing so, he ensured that he would be driven to insanity for the rest of eternity.
Suddenly, the lich's shadow stirred.
It then came to life, rising from the ground and coalescing into a face with barely recognizable features. The only striking detail was a pair of horns jutting from the face's forehead.
The orbs of green light in the lich's sockets flickered with fear and caution.
And then, the shadowy face spoke:
"So, you did not falter. Flesh abandoned, soul anchored, and death denied." "You..." The lich instinctively took a step back, realizing who it was. "Welcome," the shadowy apparition said with dark satisfaction, "to eternity. From this moment onward, the world will no longer claim you... and neither
will the grave."
The lich quickly realized that the existence before him was none other than the devil who wrote the vile book, the one who provided him with the forbidden
knowledge.
The devil's following words only reinforced the lich's suspicions.
"Now that you've become a lich," said the devil calmly, "it is time for you to
uphold your end of the bargain."
"What... do you want?" The lich asked in a low, solemn voice.
The devil's shadowy face radiated a cold aura.
"My request is simple," it said. "The price was never unclear."
Its voice echoed through the chamber.
"I want the souls of every living being on this planet. Kings and beggars. Saints
and sinners. I want them all."
There was a pause.
"Harvest them, one by one or all at once. It matters little to me. When the
world is empty, our bargain will be fulfilled."
The shadowy face leaned closer, its tone gentle and bewitching.
"That... is the cost of eternity."
