"Next, we will break down Gunsel's protection of him and make him your servant. This will require your full cooperation," Bessarius's voice became ethereal. "Open your mind, and let me guide you."
"Can you hurry up? I want to make it to dinner." Unas was extremely annoyed by the demon's nagging and impatiently urged him on.
The Dreadlord chuckled twice and instructed Unas to carve his mark. Unas lifted his head and carved a small "Wu" character behind his ear.
The demon finally began chanting the incantation, Unas continued to repeat it like a broken record. After finishing the first part of the incantation, with a bang, Gnoll was suddenly engulfed in green flames and burned to ashes in less than half a minute. At the same time, the green flame turned into a beam of light and flew towards Unas, who quickly reached out his left hand to catch it.
As the scorching Fel entered his hand, he struggled to control it, preventing it from seeping into his body. The constantly pulsating and deforming green orb in his palm finally stabilized, but the second and third Gnolls immediately burst into flames.
After they burned out, two more green lights shot out. Unas could no longer stop them from entering his body with his own control. The Shadowfiend was too young to be relied upon. He could only mobilize his Holy Power to condense a shield in his left hand to resist the invasion of the Fel.
When Holy Light and Fel met, Unas quickly discovered that if they touched gently, they would dissolve into each other like fire and water; but if they collided violently, they would explode to some extent.
Knowing this, in order not to hurt his hands, he transformed the Holy Power Shield into a slowly rotating disc. He didn't know which TV series he had seen, Tai Chi Chuan uses softness to overcome hardness by constantly drawing circles, and surprisingly, it worked somewhat here.
But as the remaining six Gnolls were sacrificed, the Fel surged several times over, forcing him to retreat step by step. The Holy Power disc was barely held up at his elbow, and half of his left arm was pierced by the scorching energy.
"Relax your mind and body, and do not resist the power of my Lord." The Dreadlord was clearly not satisfied with this situation.
Unas ignored him, stabilized his position, and began to push the Fel outward. Seeing this, the demon could only helplessly continue to guide the spell. The tone of the incantation suddenly changed, the Fel surged, and the demon began to cast a soul-stealing spell.
A green light flowed toward the Undead Mage's head, and his tightly closed eyes suddenly snapped open, two green flames burning within them. A demonic voice rang out. "Go in!"
Staring into the Undead Mage's eyes, Unas's consciousness seemed to instantly pass through a tunnel, leading to a hazy, gray space, neither above nor below, with a ball of eerie blue flame burning in the center.
"This is his consciousness space; that is the fire of his soul."
Unas asked, "What do we do now?"
"Identify your mark on his soul as well, but of course, you'll need to break the Lich's protection."
Unas then noticed a faint protective shield around the blue flames. "How do we break through this shield?"
"Leave this to me. You just need to imprint the mark. But the divine power gained from this sacrifice is only enough for me to break through the shield once, and the shield will instantly regenerate. So you only have a split second to succeed."
"Understood, let's begin."
A crack suddenly appeared in the gray space above, and green light shot down from it, silently hitting the protective shield outside the blue flames. The shield trembled but was not broken, and the green light dissipated without a trace.
This was just a probing attack. Then, seven or eight more green beams shot down, each more powerful than the last. The demon shouted, "Final attack!"
All the remaining Fel twisted into an arrow and stabbed down, puncturing the precarious shield like a bubble. It turned into a cloud of mist that swirled around the Soul Fire, ready to reform in the next moment.
Unas had been waiting for this opportunity. Without hesitation, he transformed a sliver of light from his consciousness into his own mark and shot it into the blue flames in front of him, without igniting a single spark.
"I succeeded..." Unas's cheers came to an abrupt halt as a strange change occurred ahead. Instead of transforming back into a protective shield, the cloud of mist was also drawn into the Undead Mage's soul fire.
The blue flames surged violently, Unas asked, "What's going on?"
"Let's go outside first and talk about it later."
The scenery around him blurred, and he was back in the cave. The head in his hand was trembling, and the two bloodshot eyeballs were bulging as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.
"Save me..." The Undead Mage whimpered weakly, black blood gushing from his eyes, nostrils, and ears.
Unas roared, "Bessarius! What the hell is going on?!"
Knowing he was in the wrong, the demon wasn't angered by Unas's attitude. He calmly said, "I didn't expect Gunsel to be so ruthless. That spell couldn't protect the Undead Mage, so it destroyed him. Now his soul fire is about to be extinguished."
"We can only watch him die, don't you have any other options?"
"The offerings are all used up, my divine power exhausted, what can my remnant soul do?" The demon changed the subject, then added cryptically, "Unless..."
Unas had no interest in the demon; he was preoccupied with the consequences of the Undead Mage's death. The Overlord Spider might become unusable; would he really have to learn Necromancy to control corpses?
At this moment, the Dreadlord coughed and continued, "Unless you are willing to sacrifice your own life force in exchange for divine power, don't worry, I will teach you the spell of life absorption, which will allow you to replenish the life force lost from others."
Seeing that Unas still didn't react, the demon continued, "Moreover, the divine power gained from sacrificing oneself is several times that gained from sacrificing others. You only need to sacrifice two years of your lifespan to gain the equivalent of the divine power gained from sacrificing ten Gnolls. What do you think of this deal?"
"You think I can save this guy if I live two years less?" The head's eyes were closed, but blood was still flowing, and Unas's hands were stained black with filthy blood.
"Of course, and you won't lose two years of your lifespan. As long as you learn how to Drain Life, you can make up for the lost lifespan."
"Is this how demons lure people into the abyss step by step?" Unas scoffed. "Your suggestion sounds reasonable, but this failure has disappointed me greatly. My trust in you has temporarily vanished. See you next time."
Without waiting for the demon's response, he shut down the Holy Power Vortex, sealing the Dreadlord's will once again.
Trying to scam me? I'll lock you up in a dark room for a while first.
Unas looked down at the head in his hand. The trembling had gradually stopped, and the skin and hair began to fall off, soon turning into a Skeleton covered in blood.
But Unas sensed that the connection with the Skeleton had not disappeared; deep within the eye socket, a faint blue light was still flickering.
That damned demon had been lying to him; the Undead Mage hadn't been completely destroyed. It seemed he still retained a tiny spark of his soul.