“That’s impossible! You are lying!”

  “Well, I could show you my path to prove my words, but you are trying to kill us all, so that it will be stupid. And about killing. Can you stop? Please.”

  “What?” The spell almost slipped from Joana’s control. She needed a lot of mana to regain it. “Wait. I don’t know how you are here, but I know what you are doing. You want to break my ritual.”

  “That is plan B. Plan A is convincing you to do that voluntarily. Listen, because of my past, I see this as the worst thing anyone can say to someone, but I need to say this to you. You can’t win. But not that you're stupid or something!” Naomi hastily added. “It’s just that there are not enough people for your zombies. I won’t reveal the details about my dungeon, but it’s specifically designed to be highly effective against undead. You will need ten times, if not more, of zombies to overwhelm my defences.”

  Those words made Joana recall her long-forgotten past, when everyone told her what she could and could not do. What she should or shouldn’t.

  “You wench! No one is ordering me!” Joana was furious. Her spell once more started slipping from her grip, but she didn’t care.

  “I’m really sorry!” Naomi genuinely apologized. “You can do all this invading again. You need more zombies. With a big enough number, you should overwhelm my defences. But for now, you don’t have enough of them. Oh, and I promise a secure passage to the north. You need to stop the spell. I swear.”

  Joana had had enough. Her spell will survive for a few minutes without control. It should be sufficient to kill this worm. And even if she needs to start from the beginning, so be it. She doesn’t care.

  “You just signed your death warrant.” Joana hissed as she pointed her staff at Naomi. “That if you can write in the first place, which I strongly doubt.”

  Naomi sighted and got ready. She was thinking about what she could do more before the fight started. Then she remembered something that both her swordfighting teachers had said.

  “The worst enemy is a calm and composed one. He can think, easily sees your weaknesses, and exploits them. You have to find a way to let his emotions take control over him. Angry, scared, or anything that will make it difficult for him to think straight.”

  “Well, I really wanted to resolve this all peacefully, but I’m ready for plan C, D, and E too. But before we start fighting, can I ask you about something?”

  “Be fast!”

  Everyone watched the unstable wall of miasma closely. Its round shape, fluctuating, and more of misama were shot from it in a random direction. Then they hear an inhuman shriek from the inside.

  “YOU WHORE!!!”

  “What was that?” Someone asked.

  “A lich met our Dungeon Mistress.” Paoli, who was nearby, answered. “I can’t wait to hear what she told to piss a lich so much.” She was grinning.

  “Everyone, get ready!” The Adventurers Guild Master shouted. “The lich spell will break apart any moment!”

  At the same time, Naomi was in her first serious fight, and it was with someone who really wanted her dead. Naomi doesn’t know what to think about that. On one hand, she should feel fear, and she did, but only because there was a possibility that in the future, this lich or someone like her would reach her dungeon heart. There was also a pity and sadness. Naomi truly believes in chasing your dreams, a good one, preferably, no matter what. And now she needed to destroy someone's dreams. Yes, they were bad, killing, torturing, enslaving people was evil. But they were twisted by evil gods. Naomi believed that without them, necromancers could create their own society, or maybe even become part of an existing one. That, however, was for the future. For now, with a heavy heart, Naomi must assist in executing this lich. And that means she needs to buy time until the spell collapses completely.

  To Naomi's surprise, this task looks easier than she expected. Her golem's movements feel sluggish and lagging, but it was enough to avoid most of the attacks, and definitely the worst one. Having a body made of metal helps in situations that would normally end with cuts and bruises. There was only one important issue. She was burning through her mana reserves like crazy, while the lich didn’t look tired at all.

  “Why are you making that face!” Joana shouted.

  “I don’t make any face. It’s a mask, only my mouth can move, and only up and down.” Naomi retorted after evading a slash.

  “Don’t lie to me! I can feel your pity hidden under it! You are like all of them in the past!”

  “I’m sad because of your choice, not because of who you are. I’m sad because I need to take away from you your chances for a future.”

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  “I’m the one who decides about my future! Not you, not anyone, not even the false gods!”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Naomi simply answered, and the fight continued.

  Just like she predicted, her mana reserves slowly run dry. She also started feeling mental fatigue. Thankfully, the spell almost collapsed, and soon someone will get a clear target on the lich. Hopefully, she will disconnect in time so she won’t see that. Suddenly, after a wide swing, a lich lost her balance. Naomi, distracted by observing her dwindling mana, made an instinctive lunge. She, on the contrary to a lich, hit directly in the center of the chest. Golem’s strength and lack of armour caused the sword to plunge deep, destroying the magical array carved from twisted runes, inside the hallowed chest of the lich.

  “Shields! Everyone down!” General Serator shouted, seeing the spell breaking apart. A second later, a tremendous explosion occurred. The blast knocked people off their feet and created a crater, a dozen meters wide at the epicenter.

  The general started giving orders while the sand was still falling from the sky.

  “Start looking for everyone. Kill the remaining zombies and cultists. Priests begin clearing the land of any miasma. And I need a messenger for Grand Priestess Pinera. She had access to the Dungeon Mistress's private quarters. She must check on her immediately.

  When Pinera appeared in the Dungeon Mistress's core room, she was almost out of breath.

  “Excuse me, Dungeon Mistress. I’m here to check how you feel.” She announced while knocking on the doors leading to the Dungeon Mistress's living quarters. When she entered a bedchamber, she immediately knelt.

  “Goddess.” She bowed. “Is Dungeon Mistress all right?”

  “Not quiet. Mana surge and her killing a lich greatly affect her. I will take her for a few days to the realm of the gods, to help her heal.”

  “Understood. I will inform people. We will pray for her fast recovery.”

  “Please do. Your word of assurance would help. In the meantime, please carry my blessing. It will help you with healing injuries and clearing a land desecrated by lich foul magic.”

  “I promise to work tirelessly,” Priestess answered, and the goddess with the Dungeon Mistress vanished.

  Naomi was sitting in the meadow, curled into a tight ball, trembling, and her eyes were wet.

  “I killed her, I killed her.” She muttered with a trembling voice. She couldn't close her eyes because instantly, she would see a whole scene with the tiniest details.

  The Lady sat next to her and hugged her. Both of them sat like that for a long time, until Naomi stopped trembling.

  “Are you feeling better, my daughter?”

  “I killed her. I’m a murderer.” Naomi looked at the goddess with eyes red from constant crying and wide with fear.

  “I have a lot of things to tell you, and you need to be composed enough to listen to me. We can wait more, if you need to.”

  “I’m ready for my punishment.”

  “There won’t be any punishment for you. You didn’t do anything wrong. On the contrary, you save a lot of people.”

  “But a lot of them die because of me. It all happens because of me.”

  “On the contrary. Now, with certainty, we know that this invasion was much better organized than those before. Yes, a lot of people died, but it’s only a fraction of the victims if their plan succeeds. Their next plan was not only attack the northern border, but also attack us from within. They somehow managed to create a vast network of spies and traitors. If they implement their plans, cities would burn, people would fight each other for no reason, and most likely we would lose a whole war.”

  “You need to warn people!” Naomi shouted.

  “We would.” Goddess smiled at her. “And it was all thanks to you. And now you managed to destroy the greatest threat looming over us. Until now, all gods have been thinking that until we don’t find someone capable of uniting everyone, if a grand lich were ever sent to the battle, we will need to intervene.”

  “Then…” Naomi didn’t finish her sentence, but the goddess understood her question.

  “Why don’t we do that? Because you planned to force a grand lich to retreat. And she would be, because just like you said to her, your defences were strong enough to stop her. We probably would intervene anyway if she decides to rampage and start destroying everything instead of running away north.”

  “Are you, Goddess, telling me all this so I won't feel guilty for killing her?”

  “Yes. But there is more. Are you familiar with stories from your world, about liches?”

  “Yes. They are powerful mages who decided to become immortal. Through forbidden magic and knowledge, they separate their body and soul. Soul is hidden in an artifact, and because of that, their body and mind still live, because their soul cannot leave the mortal realm.”

  “Yes. That story. In the past, we didn’t have those kinds of stories. Undead happen rarely, and due to natural causes. Then, after the cultists rose, liches began to appear. Because twisted gods shrouded the Citadel of the Undead in darkness, we can’t say what exactly is happening there. So, while we have a lot of doubts about the credibility of their claims about the lich's skills, we were accepting them.”

  “Doubts?”

  “Knowledge and skills needed to create a lich from these stories should be beyond anyone in this world. And souls are the reason that the universe exists. Without them, it will collapse. So the universe itself is keeping an eye on whether someone tries something. And I assure you, the universe is watching cultists closely. But, back to the liches. Now, thanks to your intervention, we know that it’s another lie. The beings called liches had nothing to do with liches from your stories. They are actually a soulless husk, just with copies of their minds.”

  “Soulless?”

  “The twisted gods most likely devoured their souls during ritual. Varo is still checking to see if he somehow missed those souls as they were departing for the ocean of souls. But so far, he hasn’t found anything.”

  Naomi looked at the goddess in horror.

  “It’s not right!” She said. “Their chance to redeem themself, find happiness in a new life was stolen from them!” Naomi was horrified and agitated.

  “Yes. It’s exactly like you said. And I see that you calmed a little more after our talk. Come. There is something I want show you.”

  “Knowing I don’t kill her helped, but knowing that I can kill isn’t.”

  “We are all capable of ending others' lives. What really matters is why we are doing that, and what we feel after. Until you do that to preserve others' lives, as a last resort, and you don’t feel pleasure doing it, your actions are justified. Now come with me.”