I became a legion lich

118 Field of the dead

A few minutes ago.

“They look animated.” Athos spoke as he looked at the wall. He couldn’t see in detail, but a flash of light appeared at the top of the wall and a war cry reached him despite the distance.

Athos is currently mixed among the army, trying to go unnoticed. He’s wearing city guard armor and his skin is retracted back onto his body so he looks like just another skeleton.

“The general must be trying to cheer up the army.” Emilia answered a few rows away. Caio and Treevor were also nearby, while Sevenus was in the prominent position riding a rock bear with most of the mana users surrounding him. It was a gimmick to keep attention away from the truly important.

Athos had considered spreading his commanders across the army, but chose not to. Unlike humans, he wouldn’t need multiple leaders to spread orders, all it took was a thought to do so. Spreading out your best assets would only make them easy targets that could become isolated when the battle gets chaotic.

“In a few minutes we’ll be within range of the siege weapons, stay tuned because I’m going to scream and everyone runs to me, understood?” Athos spoke. Caio and Emilia nodded, but Treevor looked a little wary.

“Are we really going to do this? I mean, I can manage, but the three of you are probably going to die, you know that, right?” He asked just to confirm. He was currently human-sized at 1.90 meters tall, the maximum size the willow could shrink without crushing his real body.

He hated to reduce his size so much, but it was necessary to not stand out too much. Treevor needed to possess the willow, but that would make his body unconscious and he would need to control it like a puppet. The corrupted willow didn’t have the same limitations as his humanoid body and Treevor had to be very careful not to break his bones in impossible moves.

“It won’t be a problem. The three of us are going to work together so we don’t die while you do your job. Look at it positively, man. If it works, the army will get close enough that siege weapons are ineffective, and if we fail, I’ll die and you’ll be free. Or you will die along with me, we still don’t know what will happen to you if I die anyway.” Athos said it like it was no big deal, making Treevor roll his eyes.

.....

“Master, there’s something strange here. These people seem to belong to the church, but I don’t remember seeing any churches when we investigated yesterday.” Caio spoke suddenly. He had already resigned himself that Athos would be reckless and decided to just do as much as he could to keep him safe, so he was using the hive hawks to look inside the fortress, even if from a distance.

“Um? Let me see.” Athos did the same and realized he was right. Right in front of the gates, there were soldiers wearing white armor that easily stood out from the rest of the army, who wore armor of metal plate or reinforced leather.

There were a few old men who wore more suitable robes for ceremonies than a battle and a second group wearing silver armor. The paladins had decided to form an elite group rather than scatter across their crusader units.

All the priests seemed intent on conjuring something, Athos suspected it would be something like the holy field that Treevor used against him.

“I’m seeing church reinforcements, but there don’t seem to be any kingdom reinforcements. Why?” Athos asked confused.

“It is likely that the nobles do not want to commit their own forces to an unprofitable enterprise. They must want to incite their political enemies to do so until the church has volunteered. The political situation in the capital is unstable at best and a single victory or defeat can cost a lot.” Emilia explained, since Athos was a layman when it came to politics.

“No matter the reason, it’s best they don’t have too many reinforcements. Treevor, a little change in plans. Attack the church reinforcements first, then go to the massacre. We’re going to attack the siege weapons.” Athos reformulated his plan and the skeletons nodded.

Athos touched the teleportation crystal stuck between his ribs and realized that it was almost full. Once they were almost within range of the catapults and soldiers on the walls had become visible, Athos used the eyes of the hive hawks to look for the perfect location for the teleportation and finished feeding the crystal, ordering the others to approach him.

A black sphere appeared around them and sucked in air before teleporting them into the midst of the priests’ formation, causing panic among the humans. The gust of wind knocked most of the priests into deep concentration causing them to lose control of the large scale spell they were casting and wasting their mana.

Large-scale spells could be created temporarily without enchanting them into an object, but doing so would require dozens of mages working in sync to keep it stable and would consume your mana like a bottomless bucket.

None of the priests had expected the sudden intrusion and they didn’t know how to react for a second, but that was enough time for Treevor.

The thin vines and branches that made up her hair elongated and pierced the nearest priests, injecting the venom into them. Treevor still couldn’t control that many vines accurately, but a target lock enchantment connecting the helmet to the vines solved the problem. He just focus on one point and one of the vines would pierce the spot.

Like his spear and whip, his venom merged with his parasitic spores and morphed into something new. Now, its venom drained the victims’ vitality and used it to increase their volume like a parasite, increasing the rate of vitality absorption until the victim became a dry corpse.

Treevor released the priests as soon as he hit them, certain they were finished. Even if they could use healing magic on themselves, it would accelerate the loss of vitality and kill them faster.

He grew to 5 meters tall and took a whip in each hand, swinging left and right, releasing blades of aura that cut the still-living priests in half. Treevor felt that the shockwave enchantment would not be appropriate for his fast-attacking form and preferred to enchant aura blades instead.

“Protect the priests!” All of this happened in less than 6 seconds and that’s how long it took for the paladins to come to their senses and attack Treevor with everything they had.

Light spells rained down on Treevor, but the last one didn’t care. He raised an arm as high as he could and the darkness pooled in his wrist like a black hole and whispered.

“Field of the Dead.” Darkness spread from her wrist and formed a 50 meter dome around her. The air became toxic and the darkness drained the paladins of their strength, but these were just side effects. There was one thing Treevor hadn’t taken into account when he enchanted this spell in corrupt willow.

He didn’t know the corresponding dark element runes to create the field of darkness, so he used pure mana runes, which naturally turned into corrupted runes, and hoped for the best.

The field of the dead not only passively healed all undead and weakened any living being, it also corrupted the world energy, extinguishing the surrounding light element. The light spells already cast were unaffected and continued towards Treevor, but everything around them became a barrier that diminished their power.

The corrupted world energy sapped the spells’ power, so when they reached Treevor’s body they were nothing more than sparks that didn’t even leave a mark. The paladins were in a bad spot right now. The mass of darkness that surrounded their bodies blinded them and even their mana vision became useless.

Even Athos and the other skeletons were unable to see normally in the field of the dead, but death vision solved the problem. Athos and the other skeletons were shocked by Treevor’s preposterous display of power, but they didn’t stand still.

Athos, Emilia, Caio and two skeletons wearing guard uniforms who were caught in the teleportation scattered among the paladins, taking the opportunity to attack them while they were defenseless.

To add insult to injury, the paladins could not even cast magic. All paladins tried to use magic, but their conjuration rings were unable to withstand the corrupt world energy and turned to dust.

“Everyone, regroup at my position! Improve your hearing instead of your eyesight, the skills are still effective!” The paladin leader screamed, trying and failing to find a solution to this desperate situation. He was the first to regain his calm and realize that his other senses were still the same, only his vision was compromised.

He considered ordering them to turn around and run as fast as they could, but he had no way of knowing how far the darkness extended or if other domes of darkness had appeared, so he decided to try to persevere as much as possible while they waited for help outside.

The paladin leader was circulating maximum mana through his body to slow the darkness, but he was still human and would still need air. He had the idea to activate his equipment’s light enchantments, but it was useless.

He couldn’t see it at the moment, but the elemental light runes around his armor and weapon were glowing. No matter what, everything that existed in the world of Elbon possessed world energy and naturally absorbed energy, no matter how slow the process was.

Corrupt world energy was using this to infiltrate equipment, much like Athos did to corrupt weapons made of wood.

Of course, it would take decades for weapons to corrupt and it was likely that a rune would disperse and cause a chain reaction that would destroy the weapon, but still serve to render the weapon useless.