Chapter 167: Sorcery.

The undead lich steadily nodded its head, which stunned Damien beyond words and also pissed him off. After all this time, he had assumed the lich simply couldn’t communicate properly, when apparently it had been perfectly capable of understanding him.

"So you could communicate all this time and you simply refused to."

The undead lich froze in place, too afraid to make any sudden movements. Its purple runes flickered faintly, but otherwise it remained completely still, as if even the smallest movement might somehow anger Damien further.

Damien sighed lightly and decided it wasn’t worth losing his marbles over. Getting angry at an undead skeleton that clearly didn’t understand basic social etiquette wasn’t going to accomplish anything.

"You said, you recognise this."

The lich nodded strongly, hoping Damien could see its devotion to the cause.

"Do you know—" Damien paused. "Of course you don’t know who made it or what it’s actually called, even if you did. You couldn’t give me a straight answer."

The lich hurriedly nodded.

Damien didn’t know what to do with the undead lich anymore, other than test out its spells. The previous undead lich could only cast two spells, decay and wind tornado. They seemed pretty powerful to Damien at the time, especially considering how casually the lich had used them, but now that he knew the Lich’s true identity, he was convinced that was far from what it could truly do.

The problem was that Damien had no idea what those abilities actually represented. If the lich really had been the High Sorcerer of humanity, then those two spells might not even have been its strongest abilities. They could have simply been the easiest ones for its undead body to use, or perhaps the only ones it could remember. Either way, Damien was curious to find out how much of its old power remained.

"Let’s go play around, shall we?"

The undead lich appeared confused, but still obediently followed Damien outside of the gate once more. He didn’t want his little experiments to affect the people within the camp, especially after already destroying enough things in the ruins. There was no reason to create another problem simply because he wanted to see what the undead lich could do.

"Oh hey, it’s undead Damien."

Damien turned at the sight of a group of kids, and a familiar little boy was the one who yelled out his name. The others looked toward Damien as well, their attention immediately shifting toward the undead lich standing behind him.

"Andrea imposed a curfew. You kids should get back to your guardians."

The kids pouted, but still adamantly refused to return. The boy stomped his feet and declared, "The sun has barely fallen, and the monsters don’t come close to the city anymore. Besides, we’ve got high-level Awakened watching us from the wall."

Damien raised his head and waved at Jackson and his confidants. They were indeed still on the wall, keeping watch over the surrounding area, and none of them seemed particularly concerned about the children being outside.

Damien was slightly unwilling, but he later gave in. "Alright, you guys can stay, but you’re coming with me when I’m done experimenting."

Their eyes instantly brightened. They all had Dormant abilities, but they didn’t really know how to use them, and for those that did, they had never received any proper training. They were seldom allowed to use their abilities either, mostly because nobody wanted children experimenting with powers they couldn’t properly control and accidentally causing damage to other people.

Which was why they were always curious and excited when they saw a display, especially one from a Round Table member. Damien was far more interesting to them than most of the other Awakened because he rarely acted like someone they were supposed to be afraid of, and his undead made almost everything he did look strange.

Damien didn’t let their anticipation lessen. He ordered the lich forward, and he even felt generous enough to toss it the Vestige, Tome of Avarice.

The undead lich hugged it tightly, its skeletal arms wrapping around the ancient tome as though it had just been handed something more valuable than its own life. Damien stared at it for a moment before turning toward the children.

The lich, meanwhile, seemed even more determined to help Damien show off.

It raised the Vestige up and opened its mouth. No sound came out, but the runes on its body and the Vestige lit up simultaneously, their purple glow becoming brighter against the darkening surroundings.

The dark clouds got even darker, spreading across the sky until they seemed to cover the entire area. A strong wind accompanied by howling shook the surroundings, pushing against the ruined structures and sending dust and loose debris skittering across the ground. The children who had been so excited moments ago became quieter as they looked around, their attention fixed on the sky.

Jackson, who was atop the wall, wore a solemn expression. The other men weren’t that different. Most of them were so stunned they almost drew their blades and prepared to fight. They had spent enough time in the ruins to understand that strange things usually meant danger, and none of them had expected the sky itself to suddenly change.

Damien’s grin grew wider as the storm finally reached its full saturation. He watched the clouds with growing interest, waiting to see what the undead lich would do next. Then cold droplets began to fall.

The sight was more horrific than Damien initially thought it would be.

It had never rained in the Ruins of Humanity, at least not while they were here, so most of them remained paralysed. They simply stood where they were, staring upward as the droplets landed on their skin and clothing. Some touched their faces and instinctively wiped the water away, staring at their wet hands as though they couldn’t quite understand what they were seeing.

The rain gradually got heavier and spread all around, even within the city itself. It soaked the ancient stone, ran down the walls, and gathered in the uneven streets. One by one, people walked out of their homes and stared blankly at the sky.

Nobody seemed to know what to say.

For people who had spent so long surrounded by cold and frost, the sight of water falling naturally from the sky was almost impossible to comprehend. It wasn’t an attack. There was no monster descending from the clouds, no sudden explosion, and no enemy waiting behind the storm.

It was simply rain.

Seris left her home while holding a bucket of reddish water and some bandages. She had probably just finished tending to someone’s injuries, but when she saw the rain falling from the sky, she froze just like everyone else.

Her eyes widened as another drop landed on her face.

Then, the next moment, she suddenly laughed ecstatically and jumped into the rain.

"It’s raining. I can’t believe it’s raining... Yuri, it’s raining!"

Seris stretched her arms out as the rain soaked her clothes, laughing as though she had forgotten everything else around her. Yuri was still standing beneath the shade, looking just as stunned as everyone else, until Seris grabbed her and dragged her out into the rain.

"Come on!"

Seris’s joy was infectious. Yuri initially looked caught off guard, but she soon stopped resisting and stood beneath the rain with her.

It didn’t take long before others followed.

One person stepped outside, then another. Soon, more than half of the people were out in the rain with Seris, some laughing, some simply standing beneath the falling water, and others raising their faces toward the sky as though they were afraid the rain might suddenly disappear.

The dead city that had been silent for so long suddenly felt alive once again.

Andrea caught a droplet in her hand and licked it. It was ordinary water. If it was dangerous, her ability would have activated.

"What’s going on?"

Claire manifested next to her and said with a faint smile, "It’s Damien. He’s using sorcery to conjure up the storm."

Within a secluded half-destroyed building, a figure wearing a pristine black suit opened his eyes. The sudden rain had reached even his hiding place, and when he felt a droplet fall on him, he smiled coldly.

There was no malice behind the expression, nor any particular reason for it. Vincent simply had a naturally cold and deadly presence, and even something as harmless as rain could bring that faint smile to his face.

"Damien, it seems you’ve gotten even stronger".

He once more closed his eyes and allowed his consciousness to fall deep into his soul.

The world around him disappeared.

Within his soul, his body manifested before a dark, shadowy figure. The figure stood silently before him, black crow-like wings protruding from its back. Its blood-red eyes stared at Vincent from within the darkness, while its animal-like legs were clearly visible beneath the rest of its body.

Everything else was covered by its shade, leaving Vincent unable to see what the creature truly looked like.

Vincent stared at it calmly.

There was no fear in his expression. Whatever this thing was, he had already been dealing with it for long enough that its appearance no longer surprised him.

"Now then, where were we?"

Vincent’s faint smile returned as he looked directly at the shadowy figure.

"Death."