The First Lich Lord - Chapter 171

Inquisitor Cleric of Olattee

Archbishop of Olattee

Level: 175

Inquisitor clerics have taken an oath to their god similar to that of the paladins. They swore to seek out and purge all that stand before the righteousness of their god.

Inquisitor clerics of Olattee are powerful servants of the god of purity. Their powers burn out all inequities and impurities from all they touch.

An archbishop of any god has their divine favor and power. They can smite with real divine power with great authority and abundance.

I had run into inquisitor clerics before, they were never good news for anyone. They were the perfect blend of fanatic and powerhouse. I had never seen the archbishop title before, and did not like the implication of what divine power they could deal out. I really wished my Dread Thirteen were here.

Power already spent from Mercy, I channeled magic back into it. My horde of zombies crashed down on the archbishop. But a blast of white light erupted out from him, vaporizing the nearest zombies. I grabbed one and held it between me and the archbishop. When the light faded, I let go of the zombie and it crumpled to the ground. Better it than my barriers.

Music reached me as I charged, Maxwell had made it. I hope that meant the Dread Thirteen would be arriving soon. Raven was coming in from the other side, the bishop she had been fighting was down. That surprised me. Raven was strong, but I didn’t expect her to dispatch such a powerful enemy so quickly. Her life thieves were all gone, but that was worth the trade.

Silver-white light burned from the archbishop’s eyes as he swung his warhammer around, decimating zombies with each swing. Chains made of black erupted from the ground and tried to wrap around his arms. He sneered, and slamming the hammer down, released another wave of power. The barriers of my armor took the blow. This time, no zombies were around to use as a shield.

An arrow whizzed past me. Freya gasped and staggered back. An arrow protruded from her chest. Arcane power bled from the arrow into the death priestess. There was a roar of anger then bursting forth from the crowd the forsaken charged the cleric.

Freya never explained what she had done, but it seemed the forsaken’s hatred of me had been converted into fanatical love of her. The forsaken stood no chance against the cleric, still he threw himself against the mighty foe only to be bashed back by a blast of divine energy dealt from the warhammer.

I had no time to worry about Freya. I went after the archbishop. The warhammer descended towards me. I deflected it with Mercy, the divine energy instead obliterating the ground where the hammer struck. Interestingly the force on Mercy from deflecting the warhammer was less than deflecting a single blow from the meathead paladin.

Raven’s sickles sought the weak point behind the knees in the archbishop’s armor. The quick attack managed to get through and the wicked blades left behind a shallow cut that spewed blood. The archbishop snarled in pain and before Raven even pulled out of her slide, light flared where the wound was and it sealed shut.

Mercy was reshaped into the slender razor-sharp blade that I had started the fight with the paladin with. The speed ability of my armor was constantly active to stay ahead of the archbishop. The armor was burning through power. The very act of being near the archbishop tore at my defensive barriers. I had resistances to holy magic no Lich had ever had, but they were only resistances. The power still sought to destroy me for I, in its eyes, was un-pure.

The warhammer flew towards me as the archbishop dove forward in a punishing attack. I was about to dodge, my precognition not even needed to see the oncoming slow attack, when another attack made me stop. I held my position and gritted my teeth. The warhammer slammed into Mercy driving me back, the explosion of divine power evaporating what was left of my barriers and driving me to my knees.

I looked over to where I would’ve dodged to. An arrow was lodged in the middle of a crater. The power coursing through the arrow arcane and destructive. If that had hit me, it would’ve been far worse.

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Raven continued to land small cuts, but every time she did, the wound was instantly healed and she didn’t always escape unscathed.

The eldritch power within Mercy erupted into a spell. As I made to strike, I was forced to dodge once again as another arrow passed through where I had just been standing. The warhammer followed me, and I had to roll on the ground to avoid being crushed. Where the warhammer struck the road was turned into fine dust.

Before I could even recover, another arrow flew towards me. I rolled back, folding myself practically in half to avoid the attack. Then the warhammer came for me again, filled with divine power. I tried to dodge, but I was on the ground and already tangled up in myself. I only mostly dodged.

At the last moment I tried to deflect the blow with Mercy, but it was futile. The momentum of the attack bore through, and the massive warhammer crashed down on my right calf. The divine power tore into me. The kinetic force pulverized every bone from my calf through my foot. If I had still been a skeleton there would have been nothing left.

I rolled to the side, my body wracked with the divine power. It wared with the eldritch magic inside of me. But the divine power was a higher grade than the eldritch power. I was in trouble. As a reaction, I poured two points of second tier death energy into my body, hoping it would stop the pain. It worked. I had been right in assuming they were close enough in grade that the second tier death energy would work.

It didn’t stop the pain, instead it made it worse as the powers clashed, I let out a ragged scream. When my vision cleared, the archbishop was stalking towards me, and my precognition warned of an incoming arrow. I barely dodged the first arrow, but the second predicted where I would go.

Ehud dove out of the shadow cast by the archbishop. He tried to deflect the arrow with one sword, but failed and it plunged into his chest exploding in power. The archbishop looked in surprise at the sudden presence of the exalted living dead. He cocked his warhammer back preparing a blow. Crackling eldritch lightning slammed into the archbishop and drove them back.

Suddenly, Gideon was between me and the archbishop. I was trying desperately to rebuild my leg and restore the massive amount of health I had lost. My Dread Thirteen were powerful, but I doubted they could handle the archbishop without me. A blow from the warhammer sent Gideon stumbling back, and his sham guard stepped in releasing a blast of power would battered the archbishop.

Magic entered my body as Tola and Izban poured power into me. The soothing necromantic energy took away the pain. Refocusing on the world, I saw a stream of arrows and black projectiles hammering the archbishop from Jiar and Jepthan. All while flashes of powerful arrows darted back and forth in the air above us as E’lon engaged that bastard who had been shooting at me.

“My lord, you are an idiot,” Abimelech snapped, grabbing me and yanking me behind her.

I didn’t argue, she might have a point. “Unholy smite, waterfall that bastard.”

“What do you think we’re setting up?” Abimelech asked, adding her own ranged attack to the barrage hammering the archbishop.

Just then, the second tier death energy ran out and I leaned on Mercy, exhausted. The power had been expended fighting the divine power within my body, and now I was paying the price.

I was about to channel a second point when Freya said, “Best not to do that.” The arrow was no longer in her chest, but there was a hole. “Not a good idea, besides, these thirteen seem to have it.”

The archbishop had fallen back by the sudden onslaught from the Dread Thirteen. On the ground was Ehud not moving and felt a pit inside of me. I ordered some of the mindless undead to grab him and drag him back to me, maybe I could save him.

It began with Samson. He flew through the air towards the archbishop. As he had been pushed back the bishop had raised powerful barriers. Sampson’s hammers crashed down and there was a flash of black power as he activated his one point of divine energy.

“What?” Freya demanded as she saw the attack.

“Just keep watching,” I said, trying not to think about Ehud being drug towards me.

Next came De’Barak, a series of rapid blows leaving behind more broken barriers as black divine energy leapt from her blades. One by one they all delivered their own blast of power shredding barriers and driving the archbishop to his knees.

A spear of eldritch power from Othniel laced with divine energy broke the archbishop’s last barrier and drove into their body. Moving faster than I realized she could, Abimelech was suddenly standing over the archbishop.

“Nighty night, bitch,” she said as the archbishop looked up at her and the magical hand cannon pointed at his head. The blast from the barrel was a combination of eldritch, death, and divine power. The contents of the archbishop’s head splattered across the ground.

“Raven,” I called, “find that sniper, it has to be the general. We kill him, this is over. Take,” I paused, having almost told her to take Ehud with her. “Take De’Barak, E’lon, and Jepthan with you and bring back his head.”

Raven nodded and ran off, trailed by the others. The death of the archbishop caused a lull in the battle, and Abimelech was having none of that. Moments later, my forces surged forward once again. It still wounded Freya looking down at Ehud. I’d already tried to bring him back, but his death core had shattered.

“I’m sorry, Zeke,” Freya said. “The best we can do is reanimate the body. What are these? It was one thing for them to be exalted living dead, but able to wield divine power.”

“They were created to serve and protect me,” I said. “Like they once served and protected the god they followed. That god’s skeleton was used to create Kellnock who in turn created them.”

“That explains it,” she said. “If they were created to serve you, do they have the born to serve trait? Or something similar?”

“Born to serve,” I said.

“Then I was wrong, there is something we can do.” Freya smiled.