From the very beginning, Anbaixiu had never intended to dance to the City of Alchemy's tune.
Knowing full well they meant him harm, how could he walk willingly into their trap? Stashing backup phylacteries was merely one layer of insurance; even his lich body was not something he would casually throw away.
So the moment he tricked Gustavo Fring into leaving, he struck without hesitation.
Fireball—the spell with the greatest destructive output that most spellcasters could ever master—boasted rapid casting, immense power, a wide blast radius, low mana cost, and a high success rate.
The Cult of Three Fireballs, widely renowned across the continent, held that casting three massive fireballs within six seconds without bloodline gifts, potions, or magical equipment was the bare minimum standard for initiation.
Though that threshold might sound modest, a barrage of three consecutive fireballs was enough to wipe out most creatures in the world. Unprepared, even a legend would be grievously wounded.
Anbaixiu conjured three fireballs in rapid succession, turning the cavernous teleportation chamber into an inferno. The three alchemists and the golem puppets standing guard on either flank were blasted to smithereens.
Only one lucky fellow, apparently bearing defensive magical gear, managed to raise a shield just as the fireballs detonated, barely surviving the blast.
Yet that only bought him a crueler fate, as Anbaixiu drew a rapid-fire magitech rifle and emptied the magazine into him.
The magical shield shattered instantly. Bullets tore into his body, burrowing into flesh and bone before sprouting into a massive coral of bone. Mangled shreds of flesh hung from the skeletal branches—gory and horrific, yet possessing a bizarre, uncanny beauty.
"The bone-colonizing virus really is something else. I truly have to hand it to you alchemy maniacs."
Anbaixiu stowed the magitech rifle and cast Levitate, drifting out of the raging sea of fire.
He had already extracted what he needed from the documents and had pieced together how this Wish ritual worked.
His earlier hypothesis had been slightly mistaken. These alchemists had not bungled their wish, nor had they been insufficiently specific or clear. The real reason behind all this trouble was that they had not even begun to make their wish.
The entire ritual magic was still stranded in the preparation phase, far from ready to grant anything.
To put it simply, they lacked sufficient sacrifices.
Two key components were missing, and one of them was Anbaixiu. The sacrifice of a legend could provide the final push of energy required to jump-start the Wishing Machine. Gustavo Fring's assignment had surely been to lure Anbaixiu into the ritual array and trick him into becoming the sacrifice.
Gustavo simply had not foreseen that Anbaixiu would slip away at the very moment of teleportation, followed immediately by retaliation.
"Greed, sheer greed. It isn't as though your City of Alchemy lacks legends, yet you insist on sending outsiders to their deaths rather than sacrifice yourselves for your ideals. Had any of you jumped in yourselves, you might well have succeeded. You deserve to fail."
Anbaixiu mused aloud as he steadily summoned skeletal servants.
The dead alchemists provided ready corpses, and in no time, several aberrant skeletons fell in around him.
Kha'Zix Type VI, ultra-evolved edition.
Not only had the silhouette been refined further to resemble a praying mantis, but it had also been augmented with short-duration invisibility.
Surrounded by these aberrant skeletons, Anbaixiu carved a bloody path out through the Council Tower.
He was not trying to escape. On the contrary, Anbaixiu was heading for the sewers as well.
Fortune favored the bold. This Wish ritual was on the verge of completion; it only needed one final spark to start. When that moment came, who said who would be the one making the wish?
However, before descending into the sewers, he had to secure the ritual's second missing piece.
Once he had that, whether the ritual succeeded or not would be entirely up to Anbaixiu.
A surprise assault by a legendary lich threw the alchemists into utter chaos.
Breaking out of the teleportation chamber, Anbaixiu fought his way downward, instantly dispatching every alchemist he encountered. No matter how many golem puppets blocked the way, within the narrow corridors they were helpless against Anbaixiu and a pack of invisible skeletons.
Just as he was about to burst clear of the tower, a colossal golem puppet standing nearly three meters tall suddenly blocked his path.
A red-robed alchemist sat perched upon the golem's shoulder, his tone dripping with disdain. "I knew Fring was useless, but I never imagined he would be so pathetic that he couldn't even trick you into the sewers. Tell me, when did you first realize something was wrong?"
John Dippel, Second Seat of the Alchemists' Council—the very man who had torn Gustavo Fring to shreds during the earlier secret council meeting.
Anbaixiu did not know who he was, but offered a faint smile as if preparing to speak.
In the next instant, a series of small explosions flared across the giant golem.
Mantis-like skeletons flickered in and out of sight across the golem puppet's chassis, poised to swarm Dippel. Anbaixiu wasted no time either; a Fireball had already formed in his hands, hurtling straight toward the man.
It seemed a pincer attack destined to finish Dippel off, but the golem puppet suddenly shuddered, deploying a translucent force field that not only sent the invisible skeletons flying, but stopped the Fireball cold.
Anbaixiu remarked with a hint of regret, "An improved magical shield, mounted directly onto a golem puppet. Decent craftsmanship."
Dippel seemed deeply offended that Anbaixiu had attacked without even offering a formal greeting. "Ill-mannered lich! Can't you even speak like a civilized being?"
Anbaixiu shrugged. "You accustomed to saying grace before meals? Sorry, not my habit."
Dippel grasped the insult instantly, his eyes widening in fury.
As the Second Seat of the Alchemists' Council, it had been many years since anyone dared treat him with such disrespect.
"I will turn your bones into specimens!"
Dippel furiously slapped the golem puppet beneath him. The massive metal automaton raised the cannon barrel mounted on its arm toward Anbaixiu.
Anbaixiu had no time for further banter as several shells burst from the barrel, screaming straight toward him.
These were no cheap knockoffs like the ones Anbaixiu produced; every single shell was crammed with alchemical reagents, detonating with destructive power rivaling or exceeding a Fireball.
This was a heavy-artillery golem puppet—a toy Anbaixiu had once wanted to acquire for himself—and the machine before him appeared to be a supercharged upgrade.
Anbaixiu was forced to use Misty Step to blink away. The shells slammed into the spot where he had stood an instant earlier, erupting violently and blasting a crater into the floor. Having barely avoided the blast, Anbaixiu casually whipped a bolt of lightning back at the golem puppet.
The electric arc was weakened by the shield, but considerable magical energy still crashed into the machine. Sparks showered from its frame, and one of its arms hung limp, clearly damaged.
Unfortunately, before Anbaixiu could savor the hit, Dippel slapped the golem puppet again. The damaged section flared with bursts of golden light, and the machine was restored to pristine condition in an instant.
"Quasi-divine power... and your legendary boon is appliance repair?" Anbaixiu burst out laughing. "Hahaha, you're even weaker than I am!"
"Is that so? Then let me show you the true power of magical constructology!"
At Dippel's command, huge plumes of steam vented from the golem puppet's legs as it charged Anbaixiu at terrifying speed.
Just as Anbaixiu prepared to cast Misty Step again, his body froze solid.
The ring on Dippel's finger blazed with piercing crimson light—Hold Monster had locked onto Anbaixiu.
With evasion impossible, Anbaixiu's brittle skeletal frame stood no chance against the multi-ton automaton's charge. With a sharp crunch, Anbaixiu's body shattered, bones scattering in every direction.
Yet Dippel showed no sign of triumph. The moment he crushed the body, he had not felt the lich's soul fire extinguish.
"Feign Death?! Can the undead even use that?"
Anbaixiu had no intention of answering. With his body shattered, the Hold Monster effect broke. The scattered bones pulled back together, reassembling into their original form.
Dippel moved to repeat the trick, but an odd noise caught his ear. His golem puppet shuddered violently as its engine began to rattle.
Dippel had to invoke his legendary power once more. No matter what broke, so long as it was a golem puppet of his own creation, he could repair it in a flash.
The engine smoothed out. But just as the golem lifted its leg to rejoin the fray, a screw popped from its foot, immediately throwing it off balance.
"What is this?!" Dippel gasped, then realization struck. "Damn it, School of Divination! He's altering my future!"
Wizards of the School of Divination were vanishingly rare across the Nine Kingdoms. Dippel had never imagined their abilities could be this terrifying—turning "might malfunction" directly into "will malfunction."
Screws and springs clattered continuously from the golem puppet as though it were on the verge of collapsing into scrap. Dippel was forced to mend it over and over, locking the two into a war of attrition.
Yet Dippel had no patience to match mana with Anbaixiu. He produced a device resembling a remote control and pressed a switch. From every corridor and archway, hundreds of golem puppets converged on their position.
Dippel sneered smugly at Anbaixiu. "Let's see how many futures you can rewrite."
Anbaixiu sighed inwardly. Fighting a spellcaster on their home turf was truly a fool's errand; the home-field advantage was simply overwhelming.
"Surrender. You've already lost," Dippel threatened.
Anbaixiu remained completely unruffled. Crossing his arms, he looked at Dippel and said, "Are you an idiot? I'm a lich."
A torrent of dark magic erupted from Anbaixiu's frame, sweeping out like a tidal wave across hundreds of meters.
Anbaixiu chose to self-detonate.
Chapter 75