Space-manipulating magic was unique magic used mainly for support, so it was theoretically impossible to call any spells derived from this magic “forbidden spells”. There was no record of forbidden space spells in the Sorcerers’ Association’s copyright vault.
However, the Ancient Rohlserlian era had other opinions. Books from that era had attested to the existence of a forbidden space-manipulating spell, Ultimate Compression, which was repeatedly mentioned in the many fables of the greatRohlserl the Nineteenth 1 . In these stories, the spell was called an “unprecedented spell” which had been used to “compress massive armies of herculean men” into a small space the size of a ring.
This spell, which was considered as miraculous as a god’s spell, had prompted the royal scribe to sing many hyperbolic praises of the Emperor Rohlserl the Nineteenth, such as “marvel”, “indescribable”, “of unparalleled power”, and much more.
Unfortunately, when modern men tried to replicate Ultimate Compression, after conducting extensive research on it, they failed; it never worked. After too many failures, the spell was shelved under “unreliable information by historians” and “mistaken attempts by the modern man.” The details of its effects were deemed a tall tale concocted by the royal scribe, out of his personal adulation of his Emperor.
Baiyi, who was the only student of the Sage-Emperor of Magi, however, knew better. The spell had indeed existed, but the requirements to cast it was near impossible to meet. Only the owner of the Book of Servitude — a magical book that did not require a media to cast forbidden spells — could cast it.
In reality, there should be no way that the Demigod Lich survives it; after all, he had been compressed into that small space alongside two violent storms of sand and fire! The ring-sized space in which the energies of these three forbidden spells had been encased was sure to be destroyed, including everything in it!
The damage that was wrought by the combination of these secret forbidden spells surpassed any means of defense that a human could put up. It was akin to the devastating power of Void Energy.
“For being able to cast three forbidden spells in this sequence and successfully combine them, in order to unleash an effect more devastating than the maximum damage of a single forbidden spell could theoretically deal… the First Walker really is a terrifying opponent,” said the Sorcerer Walker; even he — someone renowned for his pride — could not hold back his feelings of awe at the Archmage’s dexterity. “He truly did attain the peak of magic! No wonder he was banished to the Void 2 … A frail world like the one we came from could no longer accommodate his existence.”
However, the Archmage had to pay a hefty price for a combo like this. He had burned an unfathomably large amount of mana to forcibly control these forbidden spells and combined them into one. After using that much mana, even the Sage-Emperor of the Magi, who had mana as voluminous as the ocean, had to pause his actions in order to recover his mana.
If it was not for the identity of the Archmage’s opponent, at this point, Baiyi would have gone on to declare his teacher the victor.
The Archmage also knew this. The Demigod Lich had not been done it, yet. Other Demigod-level powerhouses would have found this combination too troublesome, and the Archmage would be declared the winner; however, the Demigod Lich was a unique creature, who exploited the loopholes of common sense.
Just as expected, on a dune not far from where the Archmage was standing, a skeleton crawled out of the sand.
It looked decrepit, armed with only with a rusty cutlass and half a shield. It was the lowest level of undead — the type that could not even be considered cannon fodder.
However, the Archmage’s senses screamed danger of danger, and his face fell; suddenly, right in front of the Archmage, several rotating defensive formations appeared in mid-air. He seemed to have considered the low-level undead a threat, but he did not attack it.
The creature’s lower mandible moved, and a familiar low, hoarse voice rang out of it. “You really are worthy of the worship of sorcerers, Sage-Emperor of the Magi. Only the first few exchanges have occurred, but I have already been forced into such an embarrassing state. In fact, I must count myself lucky to have not been borne in the era you existed…”
As soon as the lower-level skeletal undead had said these words, it burst into green flames. When the flames dissipated, the Demigod Lich was standing right where the low-level undead had been!
“That bony son of a bitch! I knew that he would use that dick move — reincarnating in the corpse of another!” the Cleric Walky snorted in the Void, duly unimpressed.
“In necromancy, he’s basically the god of soul-transferring spells, man. Being the target of many assassination attempts and hunts for all of one’s life can do wonders to a man, making him do anything to hold on to his life. In fact, I think there is no one more proficient in the art of escape than him! If it wasn’t for Sir Fairy and her miraculous bow, I’m goddamned sure he would still be an outlaw who no one could ever capture,” the Soul Armature Practitioner replied. As one of the Voidwalkers in the Lich Walker’s team, which Baiyi had tasked with soul research, the Soul Amature Practioner had learned a bit about his skeletal colleague, in the time they worked together.
“Then again, he was forced to reincarnate in the bones of a spartoi, the lowest-level of skeletal undead. This goes to show that the First Walker was more than I could have ever imagined…” The Soul Armature Practioner finished.
Keen observers were quick to point out that the souls circling the Souls of the Enslaved had become visibly less than it originally was. This implied that surviving the Archmage’s forbidden spells were more than a walk in the park for the Demigod Lich.
The Archmage — whose vigilance was at its peak, due to the seriousness of the battle — also noticed the disappearance of some of the souls orbiting the staff. The corners of his lips curved upwards, and he guffawed. “Looks like your toys didn’t do a great job shielding you, right…”
“I admit that in order to escape your spells, my banshees all had to die a second time. Good thing this was just a simulation, I tell you, or else, even though I’m technically a dehydrated body, I would have felt my heart aching at this loss!” The Lich replied, and his hand moved towards his empty chest as he spoke.
However, the Lich smiled slyly, “But none of these losses are in vain… That, I can assure you. Did you notice that I’m finally standing oh-so-closer to you—”
The Souls of the Enslaved suddenly struck the earth heavily, and the remaining souls orbiting the staff let out piercing howls before dissipating into thin air. At that same time, the Demigod Lich’s body reverted back to that of a spartoi, which also quickly crumbled moments later.
“Hmm? Playing his trump card already?” The Archmage muttered while maintaining his calm, as he watched that skeleton crumble into bone spurs.
Suddenly, underneath his feet, the yellow sand was replaced by an ocean of crawling, wriggling, undead! The ocean contained all manner of undead, ranging from the lowest level skeletal undead, spartois, to the highest level undead, the intelligent dead riders, and dreadshamans. It seemed as though every grain of sand had transformed into an undead, filling the battlefield and the field of vision of the spectating Voidwalkers.
Even the sky was not spared. It turned dark as if the sun had been blocked. A closer look would reveal the presence of an innumerable amount of skeletal dragons. Where one enormous skeletal dragon’s bony wings ended, another skeletal dragon’s bony wings began, filling up every available space in the sky; the world was now covered in their shadows.
Wraiths, phantoms, and apparitions suddenly surfaced right beside the Archmage. They emitted chilling cries as they rushed forward and surrounded him, in a spherical formation. Their incorporeal bodies instantly hardened, and even the small sphere of space that had only the Archmage was filled up with the undead.
The entire area was completely filled with the undead; space, edge, crack was unoccupied. This was not a world of the undead; it was a world constructed using the undead.
“Earlier you told me that numbers meant nothing to you, Sir. That sparked my curiosity, and I thought ‘what would happen when the numbers approach are near infinite? Would you repeat your assertion with the same confidence?”
The Demigod Lich’s low, hoarse voice rang out, but he was not even in sight. His real body was nowhere to be found. However, one could say that every undead here was his real body.
Suddenly, rotating magical formations appeared in mid-air, around the Archmage; the formations were of fire, lightning, and storm magic. Elemental magic came from nowhere and perforated the undead creatures squeezing the Archmage, reducing them to bits. This allowed the Archmage a little space to move his body.
However, it was of no use. Not even a second had passed before more undead had crawled out of the ground to occupy the free space, and under the Demigod Lich’s command, they began to unleash attacks.
Undead spartoi archers fired arrows with an acute timing, and their sheer numbers meant that the number of raining arrows was uncountable. It looked as though thick black clouds was plummeting towards the earth and would consume the entire desert upon impact. In comparison, the Archmage’s figure was like a single pixel in a high definition image.
Closely trailing the descending arrows were magical attacks. Undead sorcerers and dreadshamans had utilized every bit of magic they had to cast all manner of energy balls and energy rays, causing what seemed like colorful balls of light to blanket the sky. Like a web, the attacks plummeted towards the Archmage.
The skeletal dragons high above all sucked it deep breaths and spewed out grey fires, from deep within their, out of their mouths. These dragon breaths seemed like descending pillars of light that had no space in between them. From afar, they resembled falling mountains.
Even if an individual undead was insignificant, when one had a near infinite amount of undead on their side, — numbers so large that a human mind could not count it — their collective attacks would be a disaster.
The target of their collective attack, the Archmage, was squeezed right in the center of the sea of undead, like a lone duckweed in the middle of a stormy sea — completely insignificant.
“Whoa whoa whoa! This is way beyond the limit, right?” Watching the frightening scene unfolding before his eyes, the Demigod Lich’s best bro, the Devil, exclaimed in alarm and confusion. “Attacks like these need highly synchronized movements, mate, but undead are literally braindead; and he can’t possibly be controlling this many undead, at the same time, let alone command them to fight like this…”
“I-it’s… T-true….” Baiyi stated his own reply with as much strength as the Devil did. “Th-this… is the p-power… of his… territory.”
‘What does it mean to be a demigod?’
Being a demigod required one to possess powers that were only meant for gods.
This was the primary difference between other ranks and demigods. Just like gods, the Lich had created his own territory around the Archmage.
What the Voidwalkers’ eyes could see was the Demigod Lich’s territory — Tartarus.