End of the Magic Era

Feeling that the five rings were taking himself away with Dereksey, Jophany closed his eyes in desperation. Vampires were so vigorous that he couldn’t kill himself even if he wanted to. He had to be a puppet under someone else’s control. His fate would surely be miserable.

He would just be a human-shaped key who had lost all his freedom. When the Bloody Lich needed to enter the Kingdom of Nightmares, Jophany would be useful. The Bloody Lich was not wrong that he only needed to be alive. It would be fine even if his tongue or his limbs were cut off.

Considering the Bloody Lich’s abilities, as long as Jophany was alive, the former would be able to enter or leave the Kingdom of Nightmares freely.

Nine of the 13 vampire ancestors had perished in the past year. Another one perished not a long time ago. There were only three vampire ancestors that were still alive. Two of them hadn’t been seen in a long time, even though they were likely still alive.

Seeing the Bloody Lich, Jophany realized that it was all part of his scheme. The guy intended to control or kill all vampire ancestors.

If nobody could enter the Kingdom of Nightmares freely, then his phylactery would be indestructible…

Thinking about everything that happened in the Kingdom of Nightmares, Jophany knew that it was a perfect plan. Nobody could possibly come out. Even if anyone entered the place, they would run into the Leopard Tail Worms, which were invincible in the Kingdom of Nightmares. Even the vampire ancestors were unwilling to confront those parasites.

It was even more perfect to just hide the phylactery deep inside the Kingdom of Nightmares. In that case, nobody would be able to destroy the Bloody Lich’s soul unless the King of the Undead took action in person, but even if the King of the Undead were to take action, he would still be stranded in the Kingdom of Nightmares forever. He would never go to that kind of place.

Thinking about that, Jophany became even more desperate. He knew that the King of the Undead could rip apart the Bloody Lich’s body any moment, but was unable to destroy his soul. If his soul was hidden well, the Bloody Lich’s body would be a shell that he could abandon at any moment. All he needed to do was revive in a body that he had prepared in advance.

If there were no alternatives, he could always revive in the body of a random undead creature in the Plane of the Undead. As long as he didn’t voluntarily expose himself, who could possibly identify the Bloody Lich among the countless undead creatures in the Plane of the Undead?

When a war started, considering the longevity and capabilities of liches, it wouldn’t be difficult for them to retaliate for thousands of years.

Most liches were knowledgeable experts when they were alive. After they died, they turned into undead creatures. When they awakened their wisdom and memories, they would transform themselves into liches.

There were also the terrifying mages who converted themselves into undead liches for the pursuit of the truth of magic when they approached the end of their life. Thanks to the knowledge they had accumulated over a long time, all of them were very strong.

That was exactly why liches were horrifying. Every lich was at least an extraordinary undead creature. The Bloody Lich, which had existed for countless years, boasted a shocking amount of knowledge.

Dereksey was quite satisfied with his plan. Although the trap he had set up earlier had been seen through, he was still able to collect a lot of information.

He had neatly created a transformation trap based on the language and strength systems dating back to the Nesser Dynasty. He disguised a sacrifice ritual as a seemingly perfect lich transformation ritual. It took him a lot of time to do that.

Ever since the Nesser Dynasty, Dereksey had been picking the knowledge of Noscent. In the age of mages, he had been learning from mages too. Unfortunately, he was still stuck in level 49, and couldn’t rise to level 50.

However knowledgeable he was, he could not advance again. To accomplish the advancement, he would have to find his soul first. If a lich’s soul wasn’t kept a perfect secret, then it wouldn’t be long before he died.

That was the dilemma.

However, an opportunity had presented itself. The Leviathan Plane and the Plane of the Undead collided. Dereksey didn’t know why it happened. Even he didn’t see it coming.

Still, it was a rarely seen good opportunity. The Leviathan Plane was adjacent to Noscent, and was the most important resource plane for Noscent. It had been the biggest colonized plane so far.

The two worlds were so closely connected that it was very easy to travel in between. It was even possible to do so with teleportation arrays.

Most planes could only be communicated with Planar Paths. If teleportation arrays were optional, it meant that the space barrier between the two worlds was extremely thin. Also, some of their space might be overlapping.

The Leviathan Plane was fine. It was just a plane anyway. However, it was possible to reach Noscent, a main plane, with the Leviathan Plane as a platform, which made it completely different.

He easily instigated the undead creatures to attack the Leviathan Plane crazily over the new territory.

Also, Dereksey disseminated the information he obtained from human beings. None of the undead creatures and dark creatures who had awakened their wisdom would ignore it. Even the King of the Undead wouldn’t abandon the opportunity to attack the main plane!

Earlier, Dereksey didn’t really know why the King of the Undead would attack the main plane. He didn’t know why the top demons and devils from abyss and hell were determined to do that, either.

But he figured out everything at this moment…

Although the Plane of the Undead was a supreme plane, the laws here were imperfect. They were just the branch rules that derived from the law of darkness. Death and darkness were the main themes here. There was never light in the Plane of the Undead.

Such a flaw could be most critical on higher levels…

Ever since the Plane of the Undead formed, the King of the Undead had always been the King of the Undead. It was not until recently that Dereksey finally realized why the King of the Undead rarely stayed in the Plane of the Undead. It was because he was looking for a way to progress.

The King of the Undead’s level and strength were the same after so many years. For any intelligent creature, and especially such top experts, the loss of hope was most terrible.

The King of the Undead was immortal. Time didn’t mean anything to him. However, the inability to further strengthen himself at all was the greatest torture.

Therefore, the King of the Undead was asleep most of the time, just to kill time.

If the main plane was conquered, and its core was swallowed, then the King of the Undead would have more possibilities.

Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult for the powerful creatures from those planes to attack Noscent. The terrifying restraints and limits prevented them from appearing in Noscent easily.

Demon overlords, devil overlords, the King of the Undead, and similar terrifying creatures would seldom appear in Noscent. If they were to travel in person, it was possible that they would be squeezed to death by the two worlds before they arrived. Even the overlords couldn’t possibly endure the pressure between the main plane and a supreme plane.

Neither the King of the Undead nor Dereksey would give up such a precious opportunity. It was the best chance, and probably the only one, for Dereksey to reach level 50.

The Kingdom of Nightmares was such a good place to preserve souls. He certainly wouldn’t let it go to waste. If he killed all the vampire ancestors, it wouldn’t matter even if anyone found out his secret. Those who were capable of killing him wouldn’t want to die with him.

Dereksey floated in the sky in a great mood. He had never been so delighted in at least 10,000 years. Taking Jophany, he drifted away unhurriedly.

Remembering how he easily trapped two experts who were on his level and three level-48 ones, and that all of them were Saint Alchemists, Dereksey couldn’t have felt happier.

Even though his scheme fell through, and his trap didn’t work, he did receive some information. Five of the six Saint Alchemists had died there. It was impossible for human beings to stop the Plane of the Undead from swallowing the Leviathan Plane.

The last Saint Alchemist hadn’t arrived yet, but a skeleton king came. It seemed that Fogus had woken up. But it was fine. When Dereksey reached level 50, he wouldn’t need to worry about anybody.

That guy is just a stupid undead creature who happens to be very strong. Knowledge is power. Wisdom is the best solution to any problem. Nobody could’ve lured that terrifying man into the Kingdom of Nightmares unless they were as wise as me.

If Fogus had come here in person, he couldn’t have accomplished what I had…

Dereksey somehow felt proud of himself. For countless years, he had been doing his research in the Plane of the Undead, keeping a low profile. He rarely showed his wisdom, and when he did take action this time, the result was perfect. Dereksey was quite proud.

Fight with wisdom instead of strength.. That was Dereksey’s motto. It was why he despised other undead creatures, even though he was one of them…