Chapter 41
At this range, Simon was certain of it: even if she saw the blow coming, she wasn't escaping unscathed. She was dead.
Lilith shifted one step to the side.
The claw passed through empty air. She'd seen it coming all along, and a faint, contemptuous smile rested on her lips.
The miss — and that look — tipped Simon over into rage.
"Stop looking down on me!" He unleashed a storm of strikes, claws ripping through the air at blinding speed and from every angle.
Lilith avoided every one of them, turning and slipping aside with effortless precision, weaving through the assault as if following the steps of a dance.
Simon's breathing turned ragged. His movements slowed.
He had allowed for the possibility that Lilith had grown stronger — what he refused to believe was that she'd already reached a level where she could fight him.
The truth was, Simon had never once seen Lilith fight in person.
He had simply assumed that Tier 9 Veteran made him strong enough to kill her.
A few days earlier, he might even have been right.
Not anymore. He was still injured, and the battle against the three Overlords had burned through a large share of his bloodline power — among Tier 9 Veterans, he now ranked with the weakest. Lilith, meanwhile, had gone toe to toe with a peak Veteran Orc without giving ground.
Why would she fear an ambush from a wounded Simon?
"Impossible!" He threw everything he had into another attack.
She sidestepped it just as easily — and she was done toying with him.
Darkness flooded Simon's vision. Undead mist erupted around Lilith, swelling and condensing into an enormous skeletal form that sealed her inside.
Before he could so much as react, a gigantic scythe swept in and struck with crushing force, and Simon lost all control of his body and sailed backward across the snow. The instant he landed, Soulfrost Chains lashed around his limbs and pinned him flat.
He struggled. The frost sank straight into his weakened soul, deepening his injuries and wrenching a scream out of him. For someone squatting in another person's body, soul attacks were uniquely devastating.
"This is impossible!" Simon writhed in the snow like a worm. "How could you beat me?" A single exchange — he could not accept it. He held the power of a Tier 9 Veteran. Talent or no Talent, she should never have developed this fast.
Lilith watched him in silence. She had known who he was before he ever moved.
Ossuary Colossus faded. She took hold of the Soulfrost Chains and dragged Simon toward Frostbound Bastion like a carcass — and somewhere along the way, his anger curdled into panic and came out as curses.
"Lilith, you're going to die horribly!"
"You think you've won? Your death will be worse than mine!"
"Go to hell!"
Lilith glanced back. "Keep talking, and I'll kill you right here."
Simon froze. Then the implication of her restraint landed on him. "You actually want to save that worthless Giles?" He laughed. "Even the System can't detect what's wrong with us. What makes you think you can fix it? You should kill us both and be done with it!"
Maybe dying once had blunted his fear of death. Or maybe Lilith's wish to save Giles had convinced him he still held a card. Either way, if he could make her suffer, Simon was willing to die for the privilege.
Lilith ignored him. She hauled him inside Frostbound Bastion and approached the Portal, and a System notification appeared.
[An enemy Lord is attempting to enter your Portal.]
[Authorize passage?]
[Note: Portals located within a Territory require the Lord's authorization before hostile or neutral creatures may pass through.]
More secure than she'd expected — she had assumed any creature that reached a Territory Portal could simply walk through. She authorized Simon, brought him through to her Territory, and from there took a second Portal to Verdant Spire.
The Wonder was heavily defended. Hundreds of Angels and undead were stationed through the area, more than a dozen Veteran-ranked commanders among them. Lilith had already briefed Auriel on the situation; she was on her way back. So Lilith dumped Simon on the ground and waited.
Simon took in his surroundings, spotted the Angels immediately — and could not make sense of what he was looking at. Why were Angels and undead sharing the same ground without tearing into each other? And this place had every look of a Wonder. Unease started to creep in.
"What the hell are you planning?"
Lilith smiled coldly. "You'll find out soon."
"Angels?" he said. "You think they can remove me? Don't be ridiculous. It's impossible." Still fishing for information, even now.
Michael, assigned to guard Verdant Spire, approached and bowed. "Lord Lilith, I have been informed of the situation. My Lord may need some time to return — with your permission, I can examine him first."
Lilith weighed it, then nodded. Michael was Auriel's strongest Angel commander. If Auriel had any means of separating Simon from Giles, Michael could at least pinpoint the problem. "Go ahead."
Michael folded his wings and stepped toward Simon — and realization hit the trapped werewolf all at once.
"Don't touch me!" he roared. "I'll kill you!"
Michael ignored him. He shared Auriel's remote temperament and had exactly no interest in Simon's threats.
Nobody present treated Simon as a serious danger; several other Angels even drifted closer to watch, and Lilith allowed it.
Every additional Angel examining him raised the odds of finding a solution.
Michael crouched, summoned a sphere of golden energy in his palm, and pressed it against Simon's head.
Holy light flowed through Simon's body, and wherever it met the werewolf bloodline, black smoke curled up from beneath his skin.
Lilith could feel the bloodline weakening as she watched — the Tier 9 Veteran aura slipping, then dropping clean to Tier 8 within moments. Simon screamed in agony.
No one paid him any mind.
When the examination ended, Michael withdrew his hand and turned. "The situation is simpler than expected."
Her attention sharpened. "Really?"
"There is still considerable risk—"
Before he could finish, everyone sensed an approaching presence. The Angels stepped aside, opening a path, and a white-haired young woman descended from the sky.
Auriel had returned.