Chapter 453: Angel Phylactery

"I hope your decision this time is correct, Master!" Celestina spread apart her pitch-dark wings as she gnashed her teeth. She flew upwards, at the same time, lashing out countless thorny whips from her sleeves at the Lich. Meanwhile, Celia flew forward like a meteor, her body scorching with extraordinarily glaring holy flames.

"Oh? An Angel and a Demon?" The impossible duo peaked the Lich's interest as it set sight on Celestina's wings. After all, although the Country of Darkness didn't have a favorable impression of the Demons, at many times, darkness and evil had an inseparable relation. Liches had dealt with Demons and had even transacted with them for hidden secrets. However, the Lich didn't expect an Angel who was born in the light and always stood on the side of kindness and order to not compete against a Demon who was by her side.

I have found some interesting toys.

The Lich grinned and clenched its right hand. Then, a gigantic, translucent magical palm emerged out of thin air and grabbed for Celestina. The air surrounding the magical palm was packed with chilly white mist and in an instant, the piercing cold caress of breeze spread across the entire city ruins.

"Hmph!" Celestina knew what the Lich was up to.

If Celestina was in her complete form, Lich wouldn't even have the rights to lick her toes, not to mention attempt to capture her brazenly. However, her incomplete self now had to suffer the humiliation of this low-grade creature. It's all the stupid human Master's fault!

After berating Rhode mentally, Celestina had no choice but to retreat and avoid the magical palm's capture. However, the Lich clearly enjoyed this cat and mouse game as it shifted its right hand to manipulate the magical palm.

However, this gave Celia a chance to strike. "Divine Judgement!"

The Angel fluttered above her elder Sister. The silver-whitish flames on her sword flared and formed a light beam as she dived down towards the Lich. Celia struck from the Lich's right side, which was the best direction and angle. This way, the Lich would be forced to use its right arm to defend itself and the magical palm would definitely dissipate due to the caster's distraction.

However, that was on the condition that both of them were on similar levels.

Initially, Celia had no intention of attacking the Lich and she hoped that her holy powers would force the Lich to evade as this would be advantageous for them. Then, Celia widened her eyes in disbelief.

To her surprise, the Lich remained unmoved and didn't cast any defense spells to protect itself. Just like this, the silver-whitish flames packed with pure holy powers crushed the Lich. But the flames weren't effective at all. Instead, the flames burning on the Lich's body coalesced to its left hand and formed a small silver fireball.

How is this possible?

Celia was flabbergasted as she gawked. As a Battle Angel, she knew what this meant. Not only did the Lich not suffer from its holy powers, it actually controlled her holy flames?! Oh lord, how is this possible? Apart from Angels, no one should be able to control holy flames!

"Ah... The power of holiness..." The Lich glanced at Celia with a teasing expression while tossing the silver fireball between its hands. "Oooh... It feels so good. I never thought that holy flames would have such a touch to it. It feels as though my soul has been cleansed from the inside-out..."

"Shut your filthy mouth!" The Battle Angel bellowed furiously and charged forward with her burning sword.

However, the Lich simply swept a glance at her and tossed the silver fireball back.

"No!" Celia repositioned her sword before her and folded her wings over her body. At the same time, the silver fireball exploded and engulfed Celia. Soon, Celia felt that something was off.

Logically speaking, the holy flames shouldn't be effective to an Angel at all. Yet Celia felt a hidden ice-cold sensation in the holy flames which shouldn't exist at all. Although the ice-cold sensation was almost insignificant compared to the holy flames, it still felt as though a viper was lurking in the bushes unpleasantly.

"Ha!" Celia brandished her sword fumingly to dissipate the engulfing flames and suddenly, a scarlet radiance expanded in Celia's vision and shrouded her entire world. The 'Finger of Death' punctured Celia's defense and struck her body instantly. In a blink of an eye, Celia felt as though her heart had been clutched tightly and it had stopped beating.

"Celia!" Celestina revealed some anxiousness as Celia fell from the sky. She lashed countless thorny whips to grab Celia's descending body, but she widened her eyes suddenly.

The Battle Angel that seemed to have lost all signs of life shuddered and expanded its glorious wings apart, flapping into the air again.

What's going on?

Rhode twitched his brows as he thought that Celia was a goner from the Lich's attack. After all, Celia's current abilities couldn't compare to the Lich at all and the Lich's skill was definitely a killer blow to an Angel. However, Celia actually survived?

How is this possible? If Celia were a dark type creature or an undead creature, perhaps she could have neutralized the power of the spell due to their similarity in attributes. However, Celia was a pure citizen of the light while the Finger of Death was an undead spell. These two polar opposite attributes would result in death, so how did Celia survive?

"Celia, how are you feeling?" Rhode checked in on Celia spiritually.

"T-Terrible, Master... I don't know why, but I feel that its undead powers are impure..." Celia struggled to answer.

"Impure?" Rhode was appalled by Celia's surprising answer. Then, he was enlightened. Why did the Necromancer BOSS turn into a Lich? If it previously was a Necromancer who had turned into a Lich, it would need a massive amount of spiritual energy. However, there weren't any living humans in this ruins and even its own undead creatures weren't enough to support the ritual of turning a Necromancer into a Lich. So how did the Necromancer turn into a Lich? Besides, from Celia's description, this Lich's undead powers were impure. Furthermore, it wasn't afraid of the holy flames that Celia had cast. Even though both of them had huge differences in levels, the opposition of their attributes shouldn't be negated by it.

Rhode's eyes sparkled with hope.

That's right. When they fought the Necromancer BOSS previously, the Necromancer had once summoned two undead Angels and an undead mercenary. Those two undead mercenaries were Metzel's companions, so where was Delno's Angel companion? Could it be that... This damned Necromancer had turned the Angel into its phylactery and evolved into a Lich?

Perhaps others wouldn't believe this conclusion because, after all, pure positive energy and negative energy were incompatible. The Lich was basically asking for death by turning an Angel into its phylactery. However, Rhode was unconcerned about this because he had seen too many illogical situations as a player. What else was impossible in this world when an Angel called a Demon her elder Sister?

Since this was the case, apart from accepting the strangeness of this Lich, its impure undead powers were totally possible. Now that this had happened, it might be due to the failure of evolution to a Lich or something wrong happened during the process.

At this thought, Rhode came up with a countermeasure. "Gillian, attack!"

"Got it!" Gillian nodded excitedly and lifted her chin to the sky.

In a few seconds, the Fire Elemental Lord cast her specialty fireballs which filled the entire air densely. In an instant, the fireballs gathered and formed into a hurricane towards the Lich.

"Oh? This seems interesting too!" The Lich had no intentions of evading. Although it was weak to flames as an undead creature, the difference in their levels was too huge for the flames to be threatening to it. At this moment, Rhode and Gillian could be said to have revealed their identities and there were no threats to the Lich, as it could sense that there was no hidden strength amongst these enemies.

The Lich extended its arm and formed a spiritual barrier. The fireballs extinguished one after another before even reaching the Lich. However, Gillian didn't intend to defeat her enemy with this move. Instead, she was only buying time for others.

"Celia!" Rhode sprung in the air. As he commanded, Celia retreated hurriedly and transformed into a light beam which projected towards Rhode. Soon, the Battle Angel was nowhere in sight and a pure, white sword replaced her position.

"Oh?" The Lich was starting to feel anxious.

These enemies were no longer just interesting to the Lich anymore because it had never seen a Battle Angel transform into a weapon, or a weapon transform into an Angel before.

The Lich began to take this battle seriously and it roared hoarsely. The Lich shifted its full attention from Celestina to Rhode and along with its movements, two magical palms emerged in the air and grabbed towards Rhode.

This was what Rhode wanted.

Rhode continued to dart forward with a string of afterimages. The corner of the Lich's mouth lifted as it discharged yet another red beam of light from its fingertips.

At this moment, Rhode stopped abruptly while a pair of white, flawless wings emerged behind his back and folded around his body.

Boom! The Finger of Death struck the wings shield and the wings shattered instantly, dispersing white feathers all around. At the same time, the glittering radiance of the Star Mark emitted from within.

The radiance of the Star Mark began to dull, perhaps due to the overwhelming pressure of the undead powers. However, it continued to rush towards the Lich and struck against the Lich's spiritual barrier heavily.

But this wasn't the end.

Silver-whitish flames once again exploded and Celia emerged from within the billow of smoke, slashing her sword downwards at the spiritual barrier, which cracked wildly. However, the Lich calmly extended its right hand and pushed forward.

"Back off!" The Lich struck Celia and the beam of white radiance vanished entirely. However, at the same time, a pitch-black viper-like sword secretly found its way through the cracks and bound the Lich's arm.

Rhode gripped the sword hilt and yanked forcefully.

This time, the Lich couldn't escape and it was drawn forward by half a step.

Yes, just half a step. However, this was enough for Rhode.

He slid his right hand across the sword hilt and extended to the side, palms-up.

A gorgeous red card emerged and blazed above his palm gracefully.

The card shattered to bits in the blink of an eye.

The Red Lotus Flames erupted.