"Why is he looking at me?"
Under the other man's silent gaze, the elder, who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years, felt his nonexistent hairs stand on end.
In an instant, magical auras flared around him. He cast the Holy Light Spell, Blessing Spell, Soul Solidification Spell, Extradimensional Energy Expulsion Spell, Death Ward Barrier, Control-Resistant Force Field, Dispel Divine Spell, and more on himself as though they cost nothing. He braced for an attack while checking his soul.
He hasn't tampered with my soul?
Crack!
The sharp sound struck the elder like a bolt from a clear sky. A chill seized him.
The Soul Reliquary!
When I forcibly drew on the Magic Energy surrounding the Floating City to cast that spell, did the surge damage it?
As a Mage who had turned himself into a Lich to survive, the Soul Reliquary made from his soul was the foundation of his existence.
If the Soul Reliquary remained intact, he lived. If it was destroyed, he died.
Then more cracks came from the Soul Reliquary. Each one felt as though it were tearing his soul apart.
I can't die.
I still haven't found whoever brought down the empire. I still haven't seen its glorious revival.
His heart sank as though he had fallen into the Underworld, and visions of his life rose before him.
An orphan who had never known his parents, he had fought stray dogs and other creatures in the city sewers for scraps of food. Then, through some accident, he caught the eye of Archmage Ioulaum and became his apprentice.
He revered Ioulaum for taking him in and for his immense power. Fascinated by Magic, he had commanded a Floating City in campaigns across the Outer Planes, expanding the empire's borders.
But a terrible Disaster had destroyed