The Executed Sage Reincarnates as a Lich and Begins a War of Aggression

Dawn had come.

The sky gradually turned white, and the rising sun illuminated the area.

I lowered my robe’s hood deeply.

It wasn’t like I would perish by exposure to sunlight, but it would make me feel itchy.

If I would compare it, it was like pouring saltwater on a wound.

It wasn’t a desirable sensation to have.

As the light brightened the area, it revealed the sight within.

Countless corpses as far as the eye can see.

All of them were blackened, and smeared with blood.

It was probably because the corpses were burned black by fire magic from earlier.

I stepped forward while covered in blood.

I felt death with every step I took.

It made me aware of what I had done.

My body felt a little heavy.

It wasn’t caused by a psychological problem.

The series of spells I had cast earlier took a toll on me.

It was an exhausting fight as expected, and my recovery speed was extremely slow.

Normally, I would have completely recovered in no time.

This level of magic wouldn’t exhaust me to begin with.

While I wanted to transfer outside the city to recover myself, I couldn’t afford to rest.

Because by doing that, it would give Makia some leeway.

Her potential was unknown.

After all, she was a person who received support from will of the world.

If given a chance to survive, she might obtain something unimaginable.

It might sound crazy, but Makia had a precedent of learning Sacred Magic.

If I were to leave her for a bit, it was quite possible that she would awaken something else by the time I return.

The world would grant miracles to destroy me while skipping all the process and reason.

Unexpected things could very well happen.

Even if I had to force myself, Makia needed to die here.

There in front of me was a crouched saint.

Her stunned figure looked full of gaps at a glance.

However, a number of chains of light circulated around her.

As I threw pebbles toward her to test it out, one of those chains reacted.

It seemed that it was even capable of automatic protection.

It was a very convenient magic.

I wanted to analyze it so I may use it someday.

I observed Makia.

Her amount of Magic power had dropped to the level of a common human.

The unfolded chains of light were also barely maintained.

She could no longer unleash hundreds of them like she first did.

It seemed to possess no lasting combat capability.

Just like what I originally intended, Makia was significantly weakened.

“…”

I approached her.

The closer I got, the greater the holy aura that burdened my body.

Bones of my whole body creaked, and gradually broke from the surface.

This holy aura didn’t come from magic.

It was something Makia herself emitted naturally.

Since it had nothing to do with her magic power consumption, I had no choice but to endure it.

I stopped some distance away from her.

It was a distance where voices could be heard.

Confronting the Saint, I emotionlessly said.

“The soldiers are all dead, your turn next.”

“… Really, you’re a crazy one.”

“I see.”

I quietly responded to her.

I was aware of it without needing to be told.

My deed’s tonight was nothing short of insanity.

I couldn’t argue regardless of how much I was denounced for it.

“Hey you… do you feel nothing seeing all this?”

Makia stood up and asked with serious expression.

Her gaze looked around the countless corpses

All of this death, done by my hands.

They were just victims of this absurdity.

I also looked around, and answered after a short delay.

“It hurts my heart. But I have no choice but to do it.”

“Heh~, so you try to justify your action. What a scum.”

She disdainfully said her opinion.

That was also a natural opinion to have.

I would honestly take it in as it was.

She coughed lightly.

There was blood in hand that covered her mouth.

Her body seemed to be protesting the overuse of Sacred Magic.

She clicked her tongue and wiped her hand with her pure white cloak.

“I was going to kill the army of the undead and current generation of Demon Lord to be successful as a Saint, but you ruined it.”

Makia’s eyes were burning with anger and hatred.

She held her staff and manipulated the magic power in her body.

“The last hero who won against the previous Demon Lord seemed to be a female swordfighter. If I kill you here, I could also call myself a hero.”

“You, a Hero, huh…”

I suddenly muttered.

Makia frowned in a bad mood.

“What? Got a problem with that?”

“—That title is heavier than it sounds.”

I rushed forward as I answered her.

At the same time, Makia unleashed her chains of light.

There were six of them.

Her protection grew weaker as she used some of them to attack.

I determined the orbit of chains of light that were unleashed together.

I stepped in and parried the chains with my sword.

The chain I deflected hit another chain and produced sparks.

I run through the gap created between the chains.

The chains of light were capable of tracking its target.

It allowed her to attack from a distance without knowing the position of her target.

Looking at its behavior and characteristics so far, it seemed to have a trait to chase after undead.

The evidence was that it still calmly tracked me despite not marking me, even while I was using concealment magic.

Perhaps it detected its target by perceiving undead existence.

That’s all I could think of since I had both my magic power and miasma concealed.

It was certainly an excellent spell.

Since it wasn’t dependent on its user’s skill, it could be used without training.

However, because of its tracking trait, the chains’ movement was linear.

It can be easily dealt with if I calmly observed it.

I quietly advanced while deflecting the chains to all directions.

“Don’t come any closer!”

The screaming Makia chanted and created an arrow of light.

This was a common holy magic.

It was also a terribly poor one.

It took time to chant for it and it only produced one arrow.

I tilted my head to avoid the arrow of light that was shot.

After that, I used my sword to destroy the chains of light.

The broken chains of light dispersed into particles of light.

The chains that protected her also disappeared.

It seemed she had no more magic power to maintain it.

“Da, damn…!”

Makia became impatient and used her magic while biting her chant several times.

The arrow of light that was created went to my side.

There was no need to avoid this time.

It was hard to hit the target without aiming it properly.

“U, Uaaaahhhh!”

The cornered Makia abandoned her staff and rushed with a dagger.

Its blade was engraved with holy magic.

It was a magic weapon to kill undead

It was also a first class item by itself.

However, it wasn’t easy to use properly.

I evaded the dagger thrust and hit Makia’s chin with my palm.

Makia leaked out breath and fell down.

Then I swung my sword, cutting her finger that held her dagger.

Blood spurted as the blade swung.

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Makia screamed and held the hand that lost its finger.

As she fell to the ground, she desperately gathered her fingers.

I emotionlessly looked at the sight

What a pitiful girl… is this the end of the current hero?

Depending on the training, she could have used various holy magic.

She could have grown to be worthy of the title of Saint.

She could have grown enough to easily slaughter this king of undead.

However, Makia was lost to her own power.

She neglected to train her holy magic, and depended solely on easy to use sacred magic.

She abandoned the choice to increase her power with time.

She was captivated by unfounded self-confidence, blinded by possible achievement and honor and chose to invade the Demon Lord’s territory.

Those were reasons for her defeat.

“Fu, fufu… ahahahaha…”

Makia held her head with one hand and laughed as if she was broken.

I couldn’t see her expression since she was looking down.

Her shoulder shook as she laughed.

Is there any chance to come out victorious in this situation?

I kept my vigilance without lowering my sword.

Makia had no magic power left, and she didn’t seem to possess any knowledge of close quarter combat.

There was no chance for her to defeat me.

Now I was this close, the holy aura emitted by Makia was intense one.

It felt as if my body were burned down to the core.

However, it didn’t mean I would immediately be incapacitated.

There was no effect on the result of the battle.

“It’s my loss. There’s no way I could do it like this…”

As Makia said that, she slowly raised her face.

She had a cramped laugh in her teary face.

It was the face of somebody who had given up.

Is her heart broken because she was cornered to her limit?

There was no sign of her doing anything.

Apparently it was truly just whining.

I raised the keepsake sword.

Makia was looking at me with her bloodshot eyes.

Silence came to the area.

That moment when I swung my sword down, Makia muttered in a murky voice

“…You truly hate humans. You seemed to be having so much fun killing me.”