Chapter 371: The Best Ending (Part 1)

  Diya Valley, the highest peak of The Shadowspire Peaks.

  On the small altar, The Black Star was constantly humming. The death energy that had accumulated in The Shadowspire Peaks for millennia across the continent had begun to slowly awaken, like an ancient demon god, sleeping for eons, was exhaling its first breath of awakening. A tide-like surge of black aura continuously spread out from the inch-wide blade, filling the surrounding space. It was so dense it was no longer just an aura, but naked, living death.

  In this extremely dense death, even the strongest dragon could not survive, yet there were several human figures. Standing or sitting, they were all motionless, like sculptures seamlessly integrated with the obsidian mountain body. They were the masters of Diya Valley, the Necromancers.

  The brand in their bodies gave them a privilege no other creature in this world possessed: the ability to survive in the aura of The Black Star, to live in The Shadowspire Peaks, but it also gave them an inescapable fate. And now, each of them was here, feeling this fate approach step by step.

  Perhaps no word is more ethereal and baseless than "fate," seemingly something that anyone with a bit of intelligence and fortitude could ignore. But only those who sense the irresistible reality pressing down step by step can truly understand that they are but a tiny ant between heaven and earth.

  Everyone here was a supreme sage, a powerful being, a mage who had stirred up turmoil across the continent. Now, they could only wait here quietly.

  There was no escape. No matter when or where, once this world-destroying artifact was fully drawn, the brands on their bodies, in their minds, and on their souls would simultaneously transform them into undead loyal to the Lich King. Whether they would become Wights with no self-awareness, or Liches retaining a sliver of thought, no one knew, nor wished to know. But they knew, all too well, that this moment was not far off. The gradually fluctuating and intensifying aura signified that the Lich King was approaching, step by step.

  They understood the meaning of The Black Star more clearly than anyone, and understood better than anyone the irresistibility of this fate. Just as no matter how strong a person is, they cannot resist the laws of nature, this was no longer a difference in power, but a difference in essence. And they, perhaps the strongest group on the continent, would have their self-awareness wiped clean the moment they approached the Lich King, becoming his undead servants.

  Vedenina was among them. Her mummy-like face remained devoid of joy or sorrow, only the green fire in her eye sockets flickered ceaselessly.

  No Necromancer bothered to quarrel with her anymore. In the gradually intensifying aura of The Black Star, all grudges had lost their meaning.

  Suddenly, the Lich turned her head to look down from the mountaintop. In the distant valley floor, a figure was moving. The fire in her eye sockets flickered. She leaped from the mountaintop platform. A pair of wings, composed of pure black magical energy and death-green flames, materialized behind her, carrying her withered, emaciated body as she flew down.

  The Necromancers on the mountaintop either just glanced at her or didn't look at all.

  In the valley, Sandro, walking briskly, started slightly and looked up to see Vedenina descending from the sky, surrounded by a large cloud of black-green mist, landing before him.

  "Teacher, where are you going?" the Lich asked, looking at Sandro.

  "None of your business. Get out of my way."

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  "At this great moment when all Necromancers are waiting quietly, you are in such a hurry. I'm quite curious."

  "This is my own business. I told you to move." Sandro said in a low, stern voice.

  "That's where the gargoyles are placed. Are you going to get a gargoyle?" Vedenina looked in the direction Sandro was heading. "With your corpse control skills, do you still need a gargoyle? Are you going far away? From your expression and spirit, it seems something good has happened that has lifted your spirits?"

  "It has nothing to do with you. Didn't you hear me tell you to move?"

  Vedenina seemed not to have heard. She was silent for a moment, then said: "I heard something unexpected happened at the end. You know about it."

  Sandro replied coldly: "Recently, almost everything has been unexpected."

  "I'm referring to what happened after you and Inham left here. You seem to have found out about many unexpected things."

  "He actually had the mood to come back and tell you. I'm a bit surprised."

  "No, I was monitoring you with my puppet eagle eyes. Don't look at me like that, Teacher Sandro. As a Lich guarding The Black Star, my power far surpasses both of yours. It's not difficult for my puppets to avoid your detection. However, when you went to Whispering Woods, I was helpless. The Sunwell seems to have some residual effect. Even if it couldn't affect you, it could affect my puppets. It seems a major turning point happened there, otherwise you wouldn't be so energetic. Could you please tell me?"

  Sandro replied lightly: "There was no turning point. I just went and played the clown with Magnus and the others. What's supposed to happen will still happen. There's nothing I can do."

  "You can't do anything? Then what are you doing now?"

  "Doing what I must do. It's none of your business." Sandro paused, looking at this Lich student with a strange gaze. "But you, coming here specifically to ask me these things, do you also feel a bit surprised?"

  "Yes, things turned out that way. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised." The Lich's words were hoarse. Her voice had always been hoarse, unlike any sound a living creature could make, but now the hoarseness wasn't just in her voice; one could feel the hoarseness in her words themselves.

  "Oh. You can actually be surprised. I thought everything was within your prediction and control." Sandro's eyes were full of mockery.

  "After all, I am not a god. Although I can grasp the threads of fate, I cannot control everything within the wheel of destiny." The flames in the Lich's eye sockets dimmed slightly, then reignited as if with new energy. "But the process is ultimately not important; the result is. You see, just as I said, this great moment has finally arrived. A new world is about to begin because of my push..."

  "Right, you've won. Soon, everything you hate and look down upon will be reduced to dust under your great push... including you in the end. Is that the result you want?"

  "I am merely following the path of fate to push history forward. Teacher, why can't you understand this greatness and instead immerse yourself in the humble values of humans?" The Lich's voice and the flames in her eyes were no longer fluctuating. She now looked like a statue of death.

  Sandro ignored her, walked around Vedenina, and continued in his original direction. "Right, I am human. So I can only do what a human can do."

  "I will not let you go." Vedenina raised her hand. The black aura and green flames around her shot into the sky. "Although I don't know what you are planning to do, it is most likely to obstruct this coming great moment. As a Necromancer, this is an absolutely forbidden act."

  Sandro suddenly turned around. His eyes were full of bloodshot veins. Looking at Vedenina, he asked, word by word: "You dare to fight me?"

  "I am stopping you from making a terrible mistake." Vedenina said lightly. Her withered body seemed to have difficulty even standing; a slight impact could knock over this skeletal frame. But even Sandro looked small and powerless, like a Goblin, before the magical aura surging around her. This was no longer the power an individual, even a magically modified undead monster, could unleash.

  Sandro laughed in his fury, a great laugh, like a madman. "Good, good, good. You actually dare to fight me. Wonderful, wonderful, I never thought, I never thought..."

  "I know. This power, this identity as a Necromancer, this body, and this great ideal... all of this, all of me, was given to me by you, my teacher. But now, this is not my own will. It is the will of The Black Star. Can't you feel it?"

  The aura and flames shooting into the sky were powerful to the extreme. This was not her power, but the power of The Black Star. The other Necromancers paid no attention to Vedenina. The most important point was that they no longer had the ability to interfere. In the current, extremely dense death energy, the Lich's physique was the only vessel that could truly unleash the power of The Black Star's brand.

  "Teacher, I do respect you. But that is just as an individual. Before fate, before the wheel of history, personal feelings are meaningless. Rest assured, even if you die, it will only be temporary. Death has no meaning before the great The Black Star. As long as the Lich King comes here and draws The Black Star, he will immediately awaken you, and you will become the Lich King's servant, just like us other Necromancers. This is our fate as Necromancers, the fate that the great Archibald destined for us."

  In the massive, mountain-like black magical energy, specks of death-green fire flickered and danced. The Lich stood in the center. Her voice was still unpleasant and hoarse, but her tone was as if she were chanting the greatest epic, the most sacred oracle. She looked like an emissary of death.

  "Oh, great fate, oh, great fate, what are you? Are you a law hanging high above, incomprehensible to us mortal ants, or just an excuse used by the weak and bored to numb themselves and shirk responsibility..."

  A voice sounded, gradually approaching.

  Only a Necromancer could enter the current Diya Valley, but the person speaking now showed none of the bearing of a Necromancer. He staggered, unable to walk steadily, like a drunken farmer who had just stumbled out of a low-class tavern.

  At the same time, in a blind spot where neither Sandro nor Vedenina could see, a patch of darkness was quietly twisting.