This Lich Requests More Remuneration

Chapter 80 - 80 80 Chairman of the Alchemist Council

?Chapter 80: Chapter 80: Chairman of the Alchemist Council Chapter 80: Chapter 80: Chairman of the Alchemist Council “What? The girl was kidnapped?!”

Hearing this news, Diper and Gustavo Flint, the only remaining members of the Council, were going insane.

Although they had guessed that the ritual of becoming a god wouldn’t go smoothly, this was ridiculously off course. Not only had the Lich escaped, but that crucial girl had escaped as well, and a massive number of Undead were rampaging through the city, nearly flooding the entire Alchemy City.

Diper was furious and wanted to curse Gustavo Flint as a waste, since these were all his responsibilities.

But Diper also knew that arguing now would not solve any problems, so he suppressed his anger and said to Gustavo Flint, “We must first deal with these Undead. We must get that girl back. If they kill her, the plan will have completely failed.”

Gustavo Flint furrowed his brow and asked, “How did he know that the girl was related to the ritual?”

Up to now, Gustavo Flint couldn’t figure out how Amberser seemed to know everything as if he had previewed every detail of the ritual and struck at the most crucial points.

There couldn’t be a leak, since hardly anyone knew the full picture. The only ones who really had all the details were the remaining three members of the Alchemist Council.

One was Diper, one was himself, and the last one…

Gustavo Flint turned to look towards the Magic Array, just in time to see Gold Coin yawning lazily as he woke up from the Magic Array.

He woke up so quickly, even though the drug’s effects should have lasted much longer.

After a yawn, Gold Coin casually cleaned his ears, throwing off all signs of sleepiness, then looked around and realized he had been sent to the sacrificial spot. Gold Coin didn’t show any signs of panic; instead, he casually said through the Magic Array to Gustavo Flint, “Flint, Diper, what’s wrong with you two? You both look terrible. Is there a problem with the plan?”

The question stabbed both men like a knife in the side. The plan, whether it could still continue, really was uncertain—if not, they too should be prepared to flee.

In a somber tone, Diper asked, “Gold Coin, did you lead those Undead to the city?”

Hearing this, Gold Coin replied in surprise, “What does that have to do with me? Do I know those Undead?”

“Then explain to me why the Undead Queen from Gloomyland appeared in Alchemy City, and even stayed hidden in the city, waiting to attack just when our plan commenced? This Undead Queen has no grievance against us, and our ritual would do her no harm, so it’s of no benefit to her to be against us!

“Tell me, if it wasn’t for a deal with someone else, why would she do this? Even leaving Gloomyland to personally come to the surface world! The only explanation is that you didn’t want to sacrifice yourself, so you deliberately brought in this Undead Queen, trying to sabotage the ritual!”

Diper’s series of accusations made Gold Coin laugh out loud.

“Hahaha, it turns out that even the high and mighty Legendary ones throw tantrums like children. I don’t want to waste my breath explaining such boring questions; then I would be just a child like you.

“Diper, if you are suspicious, start the ritual now and sacrifice me. See if I become desperate or struggle; then everything will be clear.”

Gold Coin’s words were so light-hearted, as if discussing someone else’s life and death, that they actually made Diper waver. It seemed it really wasn’t him.

Gustavo Flint also spoke up, “When we first discussed the sacrifice, Gold Coin volunteered to be sacrificed. It doesn’t seem like he would have second thoughts. Perhaps there was some oversight, which allowed that Lich to guess our plan. I’m afraid that the Undead had also been prepared for a long time to take action at such a critical moment, making us always one step behind. Now is not the time to discuss who leaked the information, but rather how to regain the initiative.”

Diper said with a deeply furrowed brow, “It’s easy to kill someone, but much harder to rescue them.”

Flesh is weak; a simple spell could annihilate it.

If this Druid girl isn’t sacrificed at the right time and place, then there’s no point.

Therefore, she must be saved alive, and that is precisely where the trouble lies.

Who would have the confidence to rescue a living person from under the hands of an Undead Queen?

As both men were at a loss, Gold Coin spoke again, “Now that we have come to the last moment, stop thinking about solving it by yourselves. The greatest reliance of Alchemy City has never been us. Whether it’s the second seat, the sixth seat, the hundred-and-eightieth seat, in fact, they are just apprentices helping out the chairman.”

At Gold Coin’s words, both could not help but look up at the chairman suspended in midair.

He still maintained the posture of suffering and an ecstatic expression, but his consciousness seemed to have long since left the body.

Diper said, “The chairman has completely integrated with the ritual Magic Array, and he cannot leave now.”

Gold Coin shook his head and said, “You underestimate the chairman. He knows about all the troubles that are happening now; he just doesn’t want to deal with it because we haven’t asked. Right, chairman?”

Gold Coin had just finished speaking when a semi-transparent energy drifted out from the chairman’s naked body, like a soul departing.

But this soul, compared to the hunched-over physical form, was very different. The chairman’s soul was a tall, dignified old man, with a faint halo radiating from his body, exuding supreme holiness.

This was the true Chairman of the Alchemist Council, the true Legendary Alchemist, Garey Woz.

“Chairman!”

Diper and Gustavo Flint called out in unison, but the old man’s soul merely waved his hand regretfully.

Garey Woz showed no emotional change toward the two colleagues he had known for many years; he simply said flatly, “I know everything. Let me handle it.”

Having said that, without caring what they thought, Garey Woz transformed into a shadow and flew through the thick ceiling toward the ground.

Compared to the chaos and unease of the sewers, Amberser appeared incredibly at ease.

He only needed to follow by the Withered Rose’s side, there was nothing else he had to do.

What defines a legend is a mighty being that can only be dealt with by another legend. Amberser followed Withered Rose forward and experienced this feeling of being invincible.

Unlike him, a mere sham, Withered Rose was a true master of Necromancy Spells. Along their journey, not a single Death Knight was lost; on the contrary, they were joined by a host of staggering Zombies and hundreds of Magipuppet Automatons.

The most frightening aspect of the Undead laying siege is that their numbers swell with combat, becoming a snowball that no one can withstand once it starts rolling.

The biggest mistake Alchemy City made was not managing to drive Withered Rose out of the city, rendering their massive and intricate defense system mostly useless.

The Undead had already entered the city; breaching it was a matter of when, not if.

But Amberser didn’t come for the sake of besieging the city—he was there to snatch the final fruit of the Wishing Ritual.

So Amberser didn’t waste any time playing street battles with those Governing Officers and Magipuppet Automatons. He took over one of the seven towers in Alchemy City, let Withered Rose set up defenses, and then hid inside the tower with the Druid Girl.

This was a tower created by the God of Alchemy, a Divine Artifact designed to nail a bunch of lunatics to the pillar of shame; it was nearly indestructible. To come in and grab someone, one would need to fight through it layer by layer.

The tower was already abandoned, and Amberser arrived on the highest floor with Naomi without any obstruction.

As soon as he set her down, Naomi woke from her slumber.

Amberser awkwardly said, “Tsk, my magic weakened, I didn’t keep track of the time.”

The strength of a Spell is related to the magic power; Amberser’s strength had greatly weakened since his rebirth, and even the effectiveness of the Sleep Spell had deteriorated significantly.

Naomi, just awakened, panic-strickenly backed into a corner, rapidly transformed into a Black Panther, and snarled at Amberser with bared teeth.

“Don’t snap at me, I’m your savior,” Amberser said.

Naomi angrily said, “You! You killed my people!”

“Correction, it was a group that wanted to sacrifice you. But since you’re already awake, I’ll let your own people explain it to you,” he replied.

Amberser snapped his fingers, and the now-zombified Van Jones walked expressionlessly in front of Naomi.

Naomi backed away warily, but she found herself against a wall with nowhere else to retreat, so she could only choke back sobs and shout, “Uncle Jones, please wake up!”

Van Jones stood still, then said in a cold tone, “Naomi Watts, you must die!”

Naomi incredulously asked, “What did you say?!” But quickly, she turned her head to Amberser and angrily said, “It’s you controlling Uncle Jones, I won’t believe it!”

Amberser indifferently said, “Believe it or not, it doesn’t matter. Just treat it as a story and don’t mess things up for me right now.”

After saying this, Amberser searched the room, found a stack of parchment, and started sketching on it.

Naomi didn’t understand what Amberser was doing, but the zombified Van Jones could only follow Amberser’s orders.

“Naomi Watts, you must die. You are the blood relative of Garey Woz, Chairman of the Alchemist Council. Your sacrifice is tied to a secret ritual in Alchemy City. If the ritual succeeds, Alchemy City will vanish completely, and this land will become the territory of our Shadow Druids.”

“Shadow Druids?! No, that’s impossible!”

Shadow Druids belong to an extremely extreme society, entirely different from other Druid sects that advocate peaceful coexistence between humans and nature. They believe that any mortal existence destroys nature.

Balance is an illusion, where mortals tread, nature suffers.

Unity is a lie, mortals only wish to tame beasts and scorch the wilderness.

We are the thunder, we are the storm, to obliterate the ignorant mortals and to make way for new life in a purified world!

That’s the oath of the Shadow Druids: to annihilate mortals and return the world to nature, while the Shadow Druids will also return to the embrace of nature in the last moments.

While sketching his drafts, Amberser took the time to mock: “The same old racism shtick, religious fanatics, academic lunatics, and now eco-nuts… even more twisted than us Undead.”

“No, this can’t be true! I was a foundling picked up by you. If I really was some child of the Alchemy City Chairman, why would I have been abandoned?”

Naomi’s voice was filled with despair. She couldn’t accept this truth—did that mean all the care and love she’d received since she was young were a facade? Were her foster parents, siblings, and memories with her clan all fake? Were they raising her just to kill her?

Naomi trembled all over, wishing to pounce on Van Jones to rip out his throat to stop him from speaking further.

But before she could attack, an aged voice suddenly reached her ears.

“Child, what he’s said is all true because I was the one who ordered you to be abandoned,” came the voice.

As the voice died down, a semi-transparent figure passed through the impregnable tower’s outer wall and entered the room.

The Chairman of the Alchemist Council, Garey Woz, had arrived.