Phylactery
“Is that right….” Leylin spoke blandly, leaving Ilyo unamused.
Leylin had been of good mind to take him under his wing. After all, this was a legendary expert who could fight many experts at once! He was a treasure trove of knowledge, and a talent in the research of spell models.
Most importantly, he was aligned evil, so there was a possibility of him aiding Leylin.
“Alright… I’ll admit that you are very strong, but so what? As long as you’re unable to find my phylactery,the most you can do is kill me…”
Ilyo put on a front like a dead pig who was unafraid of boiling water.
“Nope! I can choose to seal you for eternity and prevent you from committing suicide and therefore, resurrecting.”
Leylin’s shoes stepped on the crystal skull. Ilyo immediately discovered that his connection with the weave had been completely disconnected. He could not even kill himself now.
“Wait a minute…”
Under such extreme terror, Ilyo finally let up. Afterall, being sealed was not a fun thing. Moreover, if there weren’t anyone to break to seal later on, it was equivalent to dying.
“Although I could have coaxed you… But you gave me a pretty good suggestion…”
Leylin smiled as he sealed the crystal skull, mockery in his eyes. “phylactery huh?”
As the highest achievement of a necromancer, the lich had chosen to store his soul into the phylactery, and obtain eternal life — as long as the phylactery was intact. Even after death, it could resurrect through the phylactery.
As for the phylactery, it was the most protected secret and the life essence of the necromancers. They would store it in the safest of havens, some even with detection and prophecy-type spells.
To put it in another way, if the phylactery was in the hands of another, the lich would be completely controlled, unless it sought death.
“It’s unafraid because of the phylactery huh?”
Leylin stroked his chin. “With the techniques in the world, finding the phylactery of a lich necromancer is extremely difficult. But…”
In the field of soul research, Leylin had obviously surpassed the world of gods’ standards. Afterall, he had the accumulation of knowledge from a completely different world.
Moreover, in this demonic life transfer, he saw many familiar things.
‘This type of life transfer, together with soul transfer, and also arcanists… No, there are traces of Magus spells in this. It seems like the wizards here have absorbed some knowledge from the Magus World… Although I don’t have a spiritual connection to the Magus World, I can still identify traces of it through this clone… Not to mention I have Dreamscape Vision to peer into its most innermost thoughts…’
Leylin now looked at Ilyo in pity. He couldn’t kill himself even if he wanted to.
……
Through the Mise core, Leylin teleported into the control room.
“Master!” The flower genie flew to Leylin’s side and rested on his shoulders.
“The intruders have been completely wiped, energy required for the activation of teleportation portal is complete…” The flower genie reported in a rather upbeat tone.
“Alright, begin to move! Make sure to mask the coordinates of the space, I don’t want those gods to find me…”
Leylin waved his hand, before beginning to operate the teleportation system of floating city. The way Leylin handled the operations expertly left the flower genie blushing.
“Hmm? The other gods are arriving now? Too bad, they’re late…”
Leylin smirked at he looked at the screen monitor. He operated the floating city and easily broke through the seals of the gods, disappearing from the Frostfall Valleys.
“He actually got away?” Oghma’s avatar looked at Mystra, as a golden light flashed in his eyes. “Prophetic spells are not working, it seems like the person is very used to the functions of the floating city…”
“To be able to control the floating city this quickly, he must definitely be a Great Arcanist! I never thought that someone from the Mise period is still around…”
“It’s a problem that you must handle now, Mystra!” The gods broke into fervent discussion, venting their frustrations on the Goddess of the Weave.
Mystra inhaled a deep breath before explaining, “Everyone here witnessed the fall of Netheril. I can guarantee you, not one legendary arcanist managed to survive it…”
“No matter what, this is your job. I hope that you’ll be able to handle this matter well…” A golden orc spoke.
At this moment, the other gods were watching on with a degree of schadenfreude. Mystra had always been too powerful, and now that she had suffered a blow, it was time for them to vent their frustrations.
Many of the divine conscients held their discussion in midair before dispersing into different directions, leaving behind Mystra who looked on at the direction of where the floating city disappeared…
……
In a quiet space of void, with boundless darkness surrounding it, the air current whistled violently, as a floating city quietly sat on the turbulent air currents.
This was the outer membrane of the physical world, where many half-dimensions were produced and destroyed. Even gods found it difficult to follow every space that was created in the outer region.
“Shaylin, send me another report of the energy stored and the armoury stock!”
Leylin sat in the control room and asked the flower genie.
“Yes master! Currently, the floating city has 12.77% of energy reserves! The Mise core will be able to regain its lost energy approximately the time of 271 hourglass trickles… Furthermore, there are damages suffered to the external parts of the floating city, and the 23.7% of the firearms are unable to be used. There are two missing legendary ranked golems, and one which is stopped operating as the damage is over 50%!
The flower genie also pulled an image, which was the golem that the legendary ranked paladin and the monk had defeated.
Right now, it had already been returned to the storage and the many golem constructs had been working to repair it, but the progress was extremely slow.
“Apart from all these, there are 3 main cannons which engages in the laws of secondary energy, 347 homing cannons, and 239812 other various cannons. 80% of them are able to function normally, and two of the main cannons have damages amounting to over 20%…”
“As for magic golems…”
“The arcane garden…”
The flower genie displayed every aspect of the floating city, which left Leylin nodding his head in satisfaction.
“This is really a fortress which can rival that of a divine kingdom in its prime… However, it’s not as it’s full capabilities yet…”
The floating city now had suffered damages and its energy reserves were lacking. Leylin would definitely not choose to use it now to war gods with casualties on both sides.
He had a better use for the floating city.
“Master, that lich has woken now, and kept crying about wanting to see you after sensing something.” The fairy reported.
“Oh? It seems like he has realised it, bring him in!” Leylin beckoned.
Seconds later, a golem walked into the hall with loud thudding on the floor. It carried a giant silver tray. On this tray lay a crystal skull, artistic like an ornament, with two dark glows in its eyes.
“Skeleton Lich Ilyo, will you finally subjugate?”
Leylin toyed with a purple-gold coin in his hands as he asked in a teasing manner.
“My phylactery, how could you find…” The lich wailed. He might have very well attacked Leylin if not for the seal.
“Ilyo, I have to admit this is rather clever. You made the phylactery a metal coin of nobility, and even put it in the hands of a coins collector. It took me some effort to find him and to have it handed over…”
Leylin raised the coin in his hand. It was an ancient coin from the previous dynasty, and there were archaic carvings on the edges. The previous owners had kept it with great care, and the reflection of the light on the coin was dazzling. Nobody would believe that this was actually a phylactery of a lich!
Leylin had read some journals of necromancers constructing their phylactery into everyday objects, some even into pebbles at a seabed, that they could never find it again on their own.
While this could prevent their enemies from finding it, but if they were casually picked up and destroyed, their life would be over.
Compared to them, Ilyo’s method was much more ingenious. The value of the purple gold coin was extremely high, often representing a hundred gold pieces in the previous dynasty. Now it had become a valuable asset for coin collectors and every of its owners would keep it in a good condition.
However, even after so much preparations, it was futile before Leylin’s soul searching method.
“It’s not important how I found it… So? Subjugate, or die?”
Leylin added, “Even if you don’t agree, I will be able to turn you using the phylactery into a golem. This means is enough to deal with another legendary…”
“If you did that, my lifeforce would be stripped almost to nothing, not to mention that summoning me to the frontlines has the greatest risk of me dying… Do I even have a choice…?”
Ilyo muttered and grumbled, but he still chose to serve. “Great arcanist, master of the floating city! I, Ilyo, will pledge my allegiance to you…”