Darkness.
Ulric opened his eyes.
There was no ground beneath him, no sound, just an endless void around him in every direction.
The boiling sensation that ran through his blood was gone.
"...What? Was it all a dream?"
His voice fell into the darkness and vanished.
For a moment, he lay'd there in silence.
"You still misunderstand the power inside you."
The words echoed in the empty void.
Ulric stared directly at the green glowing orbs the Lich had for eyes.
He clenched his teeth, immediately standing up.
"Then, tell me what it is!"
The Lich tilted its head to the side, as if it were confused.
"I already have."
Ulric slowly walked towards him, anger took over as his fist clenched.
Swinging his fist at the towering Lich.
His fist completely went through his skeletal face as if he wasn't even there.
"You're trying to talk to me in some stupid ass riddles while I'm dying outside in the real world."
The Lich's answer came instantly.
"You are failing."
Ulric snapped at those words.
"Your stupid power burned into my wrist!" he yelled. "You dragged me into this! The least you can do is properly explain it to me!"
The Lich stared at him for a moment.
"You use my power as if it were magic."
Ulric frowned at those words, clearly dissatisfied.
"I'm in a world where magic could be the difference between life and death," he said. "What else would your power be if not magic?"
"Even though you misunderstand, you are not at a complete loss. You have already started to flow the power through your body."
Around them, the once dark and empty void flickered.
Images appeared around them.
Of Ulric in a meditating monk pose, learning to flow the power through him.
It looked as if a security camera was capturing his every move from all the different angles.
"Then why am I still losing?"
"You try to shape it," The Lich continued calmly. "Arrows, Daggers, waves that send your enemy flying back."
Multiple images appeared around them, Ulric using his Verfallzauber Arrow, his blast of Zerfallswelle sending demons flying back, and his Verfallsding clashing with Kaelvars blood blades.
"Death is not a weapon you can shape...Death does not obey."
"Do not forget you are the Vessel...The Veseel of Extinction."
"You are not the one using the power...You are the one being used by it."
The images around them disappeared, so did the empty void.
It was as if they were in a different entire reality from their own.
A forest in the distance was withered away into dust.
The grass collapsed into ash.
Mountains and landscapes crumbled into nothing.
In the middle of it all...was him.
Ulric stepped back instinctively, his heart pounding in his chest.
The Lich's voice remained calm, as if this was a daily occurrence for him.
"Even though you claim to have accepted your faith...you resist."
"I...I have accepted it-"
The Lich quickly interrupted him.
"You have to accept the fact that you are no longer alive."
The words echoed in Ulrics head.
Images appeared again in the darkness around them.
"Life creates."
A single stem slowly turning into a massive forest filled with trees.
A couple of singular wooden houses.
Newborn children being held by their mother.
"Life grows."
The images shifted to something darker.
The trees slowly growing old and rotting.
The singular wooden homes turning into massive cities, slowly crumbling.
The newborn children slowly growing up.
In an instant, the darkness swallowed the images.
"All things with life have an end."
Silence consumed the void as neither of them spoke for a moment.
Then the Lich finally spoke.
"That is what you are."
The weight of those words settled deep into Ulrics bones.
That is what he was.
He was the end of all living things.
And he needed to accept that.
Ulrics eyes, once filled with anger and confusion, turned to something colder.
The Lich's gaze grew sharper.
"You have already opened the door," Lich said. "Now let it take over."
At those words, Ulric felt something awaken beneath his skin.
"Accept your destiny," Lich said
Ulric looked up.
His eyes turned completely black, except for two green glowing orbs he had for eyes.
He stared directly into the eyes of the Lich.
"Even now your enemy stands above your body," Lich said
The void trembled at those words.
"So tell me, Ulric."
"Will you die here as a man...or will you finally accept what you are?"
The empty void shattered like glass.
Kaelvar crouched over Ulric body, blood blade still pierced through his chest.
For a moment, nothing happened.
He just stared at the limp body.
The next instant, green energy erupted from the wound where his blood blade was still piercing his chest.
Ulrics hands moved at the speed of light.
His ten fingernails dug deep into Kaelvars face.
Kaelvar was left shocked as Ulric slowly lifted his head up.
"...What-?"
Something seemed off about his movement.
The ground beneath Ulric cracked.
His body slowly rose, blood blade still in his chest, and both he and Kaelvar rose together until they were nearly eye level.
A sharp sound split the air.
A curved horn erupted from the left side of Ulrics head, forcing its way out with the sound of bone tearing through flesh.
Ulrics face began to change in real time.
His jaw stretched open wide, it stretched open wider than what should be possible.
His eyes turned completely black with a green glow only visible in both eyes.
Ulric brought Kaelvars face closer to his own deformed face.
A blood-curdling shriek escaped his mouth, something no human could possibly produce.
His body, covered in green veins, glowed even brighter than before.
Kaelvar hadn't noticed it immediately, but his own crimson red veins started glowing.
He felt it in an instant.
Something was being drained out of him
Kaelvar's body stiffened in horror as the blood magic sustaining him began draining through Ulrics hands.
His once long black hair quickly turned grey.
His greyish pale skin quickly began to form wrinkles all over.
His life force was being drained away.
Kaelvar stood frozen staring directly at the monster infront of him, for the first time he felt something he's never felt before.
Fear.
"...What...are...you?"
Ulric didn't answer.
He just stared as the once golden eyes dimmed.
The demon he held had now completely turned to dust.
Ending his life.
.....
End of Chapter 10