Amelia the Level Zero Hero

Chapter 110

Ar’elith exploded.

Noele stumbled back as she watched the First Lich King’s bones shatter. Guardian Angel Z357’s lance hadn’t just broken the joints and separated the bones— it had completely broken each and every bone it came into contact with.

It was said that the bones of Ar’elith were nigh unbreakable. That the reason his bones were scattered across the world was because even the efforts of the greatest [Warriors] and [Mages] combined, they could not destroy the First Lich King’s bones.

And Noele had seen its durability with her own eyes. Even her strongest attack hadn’t even scratched the pale ivory. But, in a single instant, it was completely destroyed.

She blinked a few times as she tried to process this scene. But then she flinched as she watched the lance fly back into Guardian Angel Z357’s hands.

This was the power of an angel— it was the real show of strength of one of the sentinels of the World System.

While Noele had already intuitively known that Guardian Angel Z357 was incredibly dangerous, seeing it up close was an entirely different matter. She stumbled back, only for an arm to catch her.

She glanced back at the burly man steadying her.

“Are you alright?” Garron asked, even though he wasn’t in good shape himself.

“I’m… fine.” She shook her head as she turned to face the shattered pieces of the First Lich King. “But I don’t think it’s over just yet.”

The Steel Tank frowned, and that was when the pieces of the First Lich King’s bones began to tremble where they lay. Noele’s eyes flickered as Saros called out.

“Seriously? What will it take to put down the Lich King for good?”

The four figures looked on as the shattered bones of Ar’elith began to zip through the air, piecing the skeletal figure as a purple aura pulsed. Noele knew that this was the power of the Void— unlike earlier, when the First Lich King had recovered from her attack all thanks to his own magic.

She glanced towards Guardian Angel Z357, expecting him to finish off Ar’elith. But the angel did not move. Even as the First Lich King’s skull was fully reformed, and the purple flames in his eyes blazed brighter than before.

“Are you going to stop this?” Noele asked as she took a step forward. “Or are you going to let this happen like you did with the ritual?”

Guardian Angel Z357 fractionally craned his neck to face her. He didn’t visibly react to her words. But he did answer simply with his thoughts.

I shall destroy this Lich King when he revives, he said as he raised his lance. But I shall not dispel the Void from his body.

Ar’elith screamed in anger and pain as he was restored to life. He pointed a finger at the angel, unleashing a blast of purple lightning— one that crackled louder than before.

But Guardian Angel Z357 simply threw his lance once more. The attack sheared straight through the purple lightning, before striking Ar’elith in the chest, shattering his skeletal frame once more.

If I must, I will repeat this process again and again and again and again…

Noele watched as the angel strode forward and picked up his lance, before spreading his arms wide.

…until the Fal-Deus possesses this vessel—

She blinked. And her eyes grew wide as Guardian Angel Z357 finished.

Then I shall purge this planet of the Void once and for all.

—--

Guardian Angel Z357 made the declaration of his plan, even as the skeleton continued to regenerate right behind him. It was a bold goal— but it served to complete his objective.

Or so he told himself, even as the World System informed him otherwise.

[Processing: Change in Objective…

…

Failed: (0/1) Ritual Halted!

• Minor Objective D: Defeat the Void’s Heir before the Fal-Deus returns!
• (0/1) Void’s Heir defeated!

Main Objective Incomplete!]

But even though the notification stated that he had failed his prior objective, before giving him a new objective which he ignored, he still believed he was ultimately acting in the best interest of the World System.

He turned away from the Noble Spellsword as she stood there, stunned speechless. And he faced down the fully-reformed Lich King. A red box flashed before his twelve eyes, overlaying the skeletal figure.

[WARNING! High Amounts of Void Essence Detected!

Threat Level: Continental Destruction(?)*

*Danger is rapidly growing!]

And Guardian Angel Z357 shook his head. That wasn’t enough. He took a step forward as the Lich King gasped.

Ar’elith looked up at the approaching angel, clutching at his ribs as he gasped. “Do not—”

But the angel callously swung down with his lance. And the Lich King was shattered into a million pieces once more.

—--

Ar’elith was the Lich King. He was the Lord of All Undeath. He was the One Who Tamed the Five Revenants of Arelioth’s Path. He was a Level 75 [Archmage of Death] who was capable of felling even Elder Dragons 10 levels above him.

He was feared. He was worshipped. And he was being killed again and again and again by an angel.

The Lich King didn’t quite comprehend what was going on. It was an angel— one of the protectors of Vacuos against the Void. So Ar’elith cried out to be saved from the vile power inhabiting him. But in response, he was senselessly cut down. Even in spite of his protestations.

“Please, purge me of this—” he begged.

And the angel destroyed him.

“I am not a follower of the V—” he said.

And the angel destroyed him.

Ar’elith felt an immense amount of pain surging through his body as he lay there— a pile of dust and broken bones. And as he was pieced back together, he was left to his thoughts.

The Void— the creation of the Great Evil. The magic of the Fal-Deus. It had infected him. It coursed through his body, bringing him back to life again and again and again, far faster than he was able to regenerate on his own.

The Lich King despised it. He cursed himself of his fate. He was a devout follower of the World System— it had given him the power to achieve life even in death. And with it, he was going to conquer all of Vacuos.

With it, he was going to bring peace to the world.

There would be no more death. No more suffering. No more wars. No more disease. And no more famine.

He remembered what it was like to live through a time of pestilence and pain— when the aftershock of the Void’s incursion with Vacuos was still rippling across the three remaining continents. And even as a child, he had sworn to ensure that such a world would never exist again, and that those who had wronged him would forever pay for their actions.

But now, he had been reduced to a mere vessel to the Void’s power. He weakly gasped as a voice resounded in his head.

“Submit.”

The Lich King ground his teeth together as he replied.

“No—”

And the angel destroyed him.

He screamed as his vision cracked into thousands of fragments facing different directions. And his gaze focused on the angel. He was restored to his full stature, and he raised a hand.

“Listen to me!” he yelled.

And Ar’elith created a barrier of ice. The angel swung down. The lance struck its target, piercing through the barrier. But it didn’t break all the way through— there was a flash of purple light as the surface cracked.

The lance was lodged halfway through the barrier, and there were sparks of the Void’s essence wisping off the cracks in the ice. Ar’elith felt the magic surging through him. The alien power that was neither his nor the World System’s. He tried to reject it, but in this moment, he drew from it to hold the angel back.

“If you are truly an angel, save me from this plague—”

And a second lance appeared hovering above the angel. Ar’elith stared for a moment. Before the second lance shot down, crashing straight through the Lich King’s skull.

Once again, his bones were shattered. His vision winked out of existence as he could not see anything anymore. But the pain never left him. He felt like his entire body was burning— dipped in molten rocks and thrown through a grinder.

…why? he asked himself as he lay there in darkness.

Why was this happening to him? This was supposed to be his grand return. But now, he was infected by the Void, and a plaything to a false angel.

His vision slowly returned as he felt his skull hovering high in the sky— being repaired slowly by the zipping chunks of broken bones.

And he remembered. This wasn’t the first time he had returned, was it? He had already come back once before— his bones pieced together by one of his disciples of this era. And when he was revived, he hadn’t been tainted by the Void.

He had been himself. He had been the Lich King. But then he was killed in an instant. His vengeance— his conquest— ground to a halt with a single swing of the sword. All because of…

“Her.”

Ar’elith stared at a brown-haired woman. He saw the bored look on her face— he saw the familiar rusty sword. She stood there on the edge of the cliff, wearing strange clothes and a tattered cloak.

And his eyes blazed. The rage in his heart only grew stronger as he felt his pain numbing. Only his fury remained.

“I can give you the power to destroy her. I can give you the strength to exact your revenge.”

Ar’elith didn’t respond. His eyes flickered for a moment, and the girl was no longer there. He looked down at the angel as he caught a glimpse of the lance’s glint.

“All you need to do is—”

The angel’s second lance shout out once again. And the Lich King roared in a distorted voice.

“SUBMIT.”

The voice echoed in his mind as he screamed, unleashing a cone of purple frost at the angel. The lance turned to ice mid-air as the blast of magic mixed with the Void’s power crashed into the earth, freezing everything Ar’elith could see.

The ruins of the castle surrounding him were frozen. A large section of Arelioth’s Pass was coated with ice. Every piece of rock, debris, and rubble in miles were coated in a thick layer of sleet.

And it wasn’t ordinary ice either— it glinted with a purple tint, infused with Void essence.

Ar’elith descended to the ground as his gaze landed on where the angel had been standing. A rainbow-colored dome stood there instead— a barrier. It dissipated moments later to reveal the unscathed angel.

And the Lich King raised a hand. The pure white ivory of his bones had been painted purple. The Void’s essence wisped off his body, coating him with a dark aura. His eyes flared as he pointed at the angel.

“Perish for what you have done to me!” he screamed.

And a blast of purple lightning crashed down from the darkening skies.

—--

Guardian Angel Z357 saw the attack coming. He watched the eddying clouds above shone with a purple aura. The heavens crackled with a purple electricity as thunder cracked in the far distance. He looked back towards the Lich King as the bolt of lightning shot down his way.

And he raised his lance, blocking the attack.

There was a flash of light. A powerful shockwave rippled over the landscape as the frozen ground shattered from the sheer force of the impact. And even though Guardian Angel Z357’s lance took the brunt of the bolt of lightning, he found himself being forced back from the blast.

He raised his head as Ar’elith descended from the sky. His twelve eyes flickered, taking in the devastation that had been wrecked across the landscape in such a short amount of time. For a moment, he wondered where Noele, Garron, and Saros had gone. Had they been destroyed from the previous frost blast?

But his attention was immediately diverted by a flash of red light. A message from the World System appeared before him, and he read the words it had said.

[WARNING! Abundant Amounts of Void Essence Detected!

Threat Level: Planetary Cataclysm(?)*

*Danger is rapidly growing!]

Guardian Angel Z357 stared at it. He looked back up at the empurpled form of the Lich King. And he finally readied his Techniques.