Chapter 109 - Gains And Losses

The blustery winter wind howled as it passed through his smooth, white bones, reminding him that he had actually made it back into the physical world. A lich like himself had the ability to reconstruct their physical body should it be destroyed, but the process was slow and painstaking, taking anywhere from a decade to half a millennium to complete, if forming the body from scratch. If the lich had set up either a spare corpse, or other resources to utilize beforehand, the time it would take could be drastically reduced.

With so many raw materials graciously donated by the nameless destroyer of worlds, and the overwhelming power granted by the plane his phylactery resided in, he was able to recreate his body in a matter of moments. He had noticed it while inside the soul-plane, the connection between his soul on this plane and between his phylactery in the other had been drastically improved, allowing for vast quantities of the otherworldly energy to surge within his body.

His new form felt as light as a feather as he jumped up and down, although, when he landed, the stone beneath his feet was driven deeper into the frozen soil beneath. Prying a large stone from the roadbed, he held it between his bony hands before applying a bit of pressure. Thin cracks spiderwebbed across the rock's surface before it violently exploded, sharp bits of rock clanged off his naked bones, the rest fell to the ground as dust.

Naturally, with a body consisting of nothing but bones, his strength wasn't derived from any muscle. His body moved through the very same energy that powered his spells, mana; and just as with any enchanted weapon or armor, the conductivity of the material would greatly impact its performance. As he felt the flow of mana through the mana pathways within his bones, he could tell that there was practically no resistance at all, meaning that his body was as close to a perfect conductor of mana as could be possible. After some time admiring his wonderfully remarkable new body, he looked around himself, trying to determine where he was in the city.

The wooden buildings around him were largely untouched, though a few had been destroyed, and one was leaning dangerously to the side. The street he found himself on was littered with bodies, both soldiers and withered corpses alike. It was obvious that a battle had taken place very recently as the blood staining the stones had not yet frozen completely.

Huge columns of black smoke choked out the sun, and rained soot down over the city. He didn't know for sure how long he was inside the monster's soul-plane but figured it couldn't have been too long since the fires hadn't spread very far. Perhaps, now with no more black-eyed monsters being created, the city may have an opportunity to react to the blaze, fighting to keep it contained before getting completely out of control.

Moving forward, he sloshed through the mess spread out under his feet. After walking a few steps, he bent down and started to sift through the gore. He started in one area before quickly moving onto the next. His leisurely movements began to become more and more frantic as his search failed to bear any fruit. Just before he resorted to burning away all of the filth covering the street, he finally found what he was looking for.

He rolled the cold metal through his fingers as he lifted his storage ring up and out of the grime. Although it had just been lying in a pool of blood and guts, and being digested by a monster just before that, it was still spotless as it gleamed in the fading sunlight. He was a little disappointed that the robe he had gotten from Old Kushim's hoard had been destroyed but was greatly relieved to find his ring had survived.

Sliding the golden ring over his bony finger, his mind… drew a blank. A little taken aback, he poured his mana into it once again, but his mind, again, failed to connect with the ring. Impatiently taking the ring back off his finger, he closely inspected it, trying to find any defective areas. The surface of the ring itself seemed to be just as it always was, the inscriptions were small and delicate, but were surprisingly sturdy. They should have been able to survive being dropped into an active volcano, or dipped into a boiling vat of acid, or even being eaten and shat out by a dragon, he had that much faith in the craftsmanship of his ring, but there was still something preventing him from accessing it.

"Damnit." Professor Kal cursed loudly.

This was a major issue, one that he would need to rectify as soon as possible. Those unfamiliar with the way enchanted storage items worked may think that should one be destroyed, that all of the items inside of it would magically appear, but that was far from the case. If they were to be destroyed, everything inside of them would be lost forever, trapped within a sub-space bubble. His ring acted like a door; his mana signature was the key. Without a door there to open, there would be no way for him to retrieve the things he had stored away. Luckily, his door hadn't been completely destroyed, only damaged, he still had a chance to repair it and retrieve his items.

Unable to do anything about it now, Professor Kal dropped his hands to his side, looked up into the ashen skies, and let out a frustrated groan. Everything he had procured from the church's forbidden library was inside his ring, all of his potions, robes, wands, scrolls, everything was inside of it. That's not to say that he was cut off from all of his belongings, he still had plenty of spare gold and clothing back inside his underground lab but retrieving it would be a great inconvenience.

Cursing again, he put the ring back on his finger before turning his attention to the two-story building that was leaning heavily to the side. As soon as he had rematerialized back into the physical plane, he could feel multiple sets of eyes watching him. His mana empowered senses told him that his wayward students were one of the groups, while another was some distance away, watching from an elevated position and were much more discreet in their voyeurism.

It really didn't matter to him who saw him in his true form, they wouldn't be able to connect him to his living half, and even if they did put two and two together, they would be hard pressed to convince anyone of the truth. Deciding that what he needed at the moment was some levity, he quickly turned around, his fiery eyes settling on the two-story house that was leaning heavily on another. With a devilish grin, he took off at a run, his bony feet kicking up frozen blood and muck with each heavy step. Panicked screams abruptly gushed out of the broken front window, their owners hidden behind the white chiffon curtains that flapped in the harsh breeze.

A small explosion rocked the already battered building, pushing the structure past the point of failure, causing it to begin collapsing in on itself. Halting his steps, Professor Kal began to cackle with childish glee. Even mixed in with the sounds of the falling debris, he could hear three sets of scampering footsteps getting further and further away coming from the street adjacent to the one he was standing on. He figured that they must have cast a spell, creating a hole in the back of the building for them to escape through.

He was happy to see that at least they acted quickly, that all of his teachings had at least made them able to think on their feet without freezing up. Now with nothing left to do, Professor Kal made his way into the abandoned house next door, he needed to find something to cover himself with before he warped back to the inn.

…..

"What in the Nine Hells was that?" Sarah asked as she stared slack jawed at the empty street some distance away, where a very animated skeleton just was.

Marissa was staring at the same empty street, her fair-skinned face scrunched up in a strange expression. She did not recognize the undead that had… emerged out of the towering monster's remains, but for some reason a strange sense of familiarity was nagging at the back of her mind. Shaking her head, she drove the feeling from her mind.

"I don't have any idea." Marissa admitted.

…..

'Clink, clink, clink'. The sounds of stones striking hard metal echoed within the dark and damp basement underneath the inn. Princess Alessandria was sitting cross-legged, with her back against the cold iron bars, throwing small pebbles at the bars adjacent to her. Lilly was sitting off to the side, much like the princess was, both of them had bored looks on their faces.

"When do you think he'll wake up?" Princess Alessandria asked, tossing another small pebble, and hitting Ryan's dirt covered, unconscious body sprawled out on the floor just outside their prison cell.

"I do not know, Your Highness. Though it has been some time, hasn't it?" Lilly answered with the back of her head resting against the bars.

With no natural light making its way into the underground space, it was difficult for them to be able to tell how much time had passed since becoming trapped down there. Neither one of them thought that it had been a full day as of yet, but it must have been getting close. Several hours ago, a Warp Gate had opened up, giving them some hope that the Professor was returning and would set them free, but the only thing that came through the portal was a large clump of soil surrounding the body of one of the students.

They could tell at a glance that he wasn't dead; his chest was still moving in and out, telling them that he was still breathing. At first, they had tried to wake him up, shouting out to him. Thinking that he would be able to tell them what was happening outside, and maybe convince him to release them, but nothing they did even so much as made him twitch, so after some time of trying, they reluctantly gave up.

"Do you think Mage Kalcifer will even let us go?" Lilly suggested, "We've seen many things that would be better for him if we were not to speak of them." She motioned to the zombified dog sitting just outside their cage, drooling messily as it looked at Ryan as he slept.

"I… I trust that he won't do anything he might come to regret in the future." Princess Alessandria stated meekly, "And we… we don't know anything for sure. Maybe he was working with the church, that's how Priest Unilith had a warp scroll that led back here. Maybe that dog is just very ill…"

"Princess... that dog's ribs are showing, OUTSIDE of its body."

"...very, very ill." Princess Alessandria mumbled, her voice barely audible even in the silent basement.

Quiet came over the basement once again as the two women both let out worried sighs. With nothing else to do to pass the time, their imaginations ran wild with the various horrific scenarios that were likely to befall them should Mage Kalcifer return. The only sounds within the large room were the slow drip of water falling into a puddle, and the low whining of Trist as she eyed Ryan's sleeping form with hungry eyes.

Just then, breaking the deathly silence of the gloomy basement, space itself tore open. A large fissure that split the air ran from the spider-web coated ceiling, down to the dusty, dirt floor. A sharp tearing sound grated their ears as it spread apart, allowing crimson red light to flood the previously dark room. Shielding their eyes from the sudden assault of light, the two women pushed themselves as far back from the fissure as possible, straining against the cold, iron bars.

Bathed in the blood-red light, a silhouette of a man leisurely walked out of the fissure and into the dingy basement. Once safely outside, the wounded space closed, stitching itself back together as if nothing had happened in the first place. The basement was once again plunged into darkness, the terrified women blinded by the sudden shift in illumination.

A deep voice reached inside the cage from the darkness, causing the two women's skin to crawl as it wormed its way into their ears. "Hello there, ladies.. It's wonderful to see you both alive and well."