The more Kayn examined the area below him and thought about his odds of succeeding, the more he considered skipping this target and giving Yelena a piece of his mind when he saw her again. This lich, Sevrin, would definitely pose more of a threat to his life than any other battle he faced before.
With the four powerful undead that followed him around like ducklings and his own powerful presence, Sevrin was not someone to be trifled with. Nor would Kayn be able to approach this fight as he had the previous fights. He needed a strategy.
What he did to Varion's army wouldn't work as these undead didn't have blood flowing through their bodies to use against them. The undead that had blood were typically referred to as Cursed races instead, such as vampires, and there were no Cursed races among the army below.
The only one that Kayn could sense fluids running through was the gigantic mass of stitched together flesh. In fact, it was even oozing nasty green liquid from boiling pustules on its arms and face. However, Kayn wasn't sure if he could use that against the monstrosity below him or not.
His best option was the try and lure the five stronger beings away from the army and their formations before engaging them or to somehow kill off the army before destroying the formations and engaging in battle. Either way it seemed like a daunting task that wasn't possible alone, at least for the current him.
Kayn was confident in fighting Sevrin alone, but he wasn't prideful enough or stupid enough to try and take on this entire army alone, especially when they were prepared for attacks.
Knowing that his chances were slim to none at this point even if he bombarded the area with attacks and used every card up his sleeve, he decided to retreat and move on to the next target. It was regretful, but liches were not targets that he could attack and kill willy nilly.
He was fortunate enough that Barabato attacked him alone as he was known to travel around without his army. However, the enemy forces with his army would know that Barabato had perished as the army would have de-animated with his death.
Surely investigations would soon begin in these outskirt areas of the Mancean Empire, so Kayn needed to kill as many targets here as possible before moving on to the easier targets within the capital city.
From the intelligence Kayn had, it seemed that the stronger 6th stage individuals would move around with their own forces within the Mancean Empire while the weaker were used to weaken the defensive dome around the palace day after day on a specific rotation. As for Mitas and the Carnet Emperor, their whereabouts were unknown.
Kayn sighed as he didn't want to leave this lich alive, but he had no choice but to retreat for now. As he began flying away, his body instinctively dodged to the side before evading once again as a massive meat hook passed by his position before being pulled back, trying to catch him on the drawback.
"Where do you think you're going?" A sultry voice sounded from behind him and he quickly turned around with a wave of flames emerging from one hand with a typhoon spell launched from the other just after it to enhance the effects of the flamethrower.
Then a high-pitched scream resounded in Kayn's ears. The Banshee Wail was so loud that his ears began to bleed, and his thinking process was temporarily disrupted, even with his powerful soul and mind.
In that short instance of having his body stunned, the meat hook passed by his body, hooking him through the gut and dragging him down to the earth where he was met with the sharp edge of a massive greatsword.
The stun didn't last long, and he was able to put up defensive spells before being hit by the sword, but that didn't stop the impact from sending him flying while still being attached to the chain of the meat hook.
Kayn was pulled in for another attack by the sword wielder, only this time when he was launched away, he gathered mana around his hand and sliced at the chain connected to the meat hook. He was sent flying into the army of undead, blasting many into pieces as his body blew through them.
As his movement stopped, he stood up and glared at the five undead standing half a kilometer away. The undead army didn't move and the five only stared right back at him with smiles adorning their grotesque faces.
Kayn removed the meat hook from his stomach and placed his hand to the area, injecting it with several healing spells, forming his flesh and organs almost instantly. He remained hunched over though to give the appearance that he was still injured as he wanted to see what these five would do.
It was then that the one he knew to the be lich Sevrin spoke, "You know, it's rude to spy on someone without saying hello."
"How did you know I was there?" Kayn asked as he was genuinely curious. He had all of his concealment spells active and with the Garments of the Shadow Phoenix set passives active, he shouldn't have been able to be spotted.
"I guess I can tell you since you'll be joining my forces soon. I'm quite sensitive to living things and your aura radiates so much life that you were like a sun shining brightly in the sky to my eyes."
'Guess that's one more thing for me to work on. Damn Yelena, not warning me about these things.'
Kayn chastised not only himself but also Yelena, who was actually innocent in this regard since she didn't know about this aspect of Sevrin either. Her lifeforce was hidden due to her illusions, so she didn't know he could see it typically.
Before Kayn knew it, he was surrounded on all sides by the undead with thousands of abominations to his sides and behind him and five monsters in front of him. He was also now inside the sealing formation, which would usually stop teleportation, but that wouldn't apply to anything using the void.
With his mind racing through several possibilities, he landed on the one with the best chance of survival and quickly crossed his arms in front of his chest like he was defending from an attack. Only rather than defending from an attack, he tapped his two vambraces together and flooded them with void elemental mana.
Usually, the teleport active skill from the vambraces used dark elemental mana, but he had long learned that using deviant forms of the dark element would provide unique reactions with the skill.
He only knew of the shadow and void deviant forms so far, and he hadn't tried to use it with the void element yet, but if what happened with the shadow element was any indication, this should get him to safety.
Before their very eyes, Kayn was engulfed in a curtain of darkness so umbral that it was off-putting to look at it. The black curtain cleared away as quickly as it appeared, and Kayn was nowhere to be found.
Mo the wendigo launched forward and began sniffing around the area so that he could track the intruder down by his scent, but there was no leftover odor remaining for him to get a read on where that person went.
Even Sevrin was surprised by this outcome. He had personally set up the sealing formation, so no type of teleportation should be possible, not to mention he had never seen a dark element so pitch-black before. Not to mention, he couldn't sense any life within his range now, meaning that the spy had gone beyond his substantial range.
Teleportation of that strength usually required several minutes of casting and preparation. The fact that this person could do it within a couple seconds was astonishing. So astonishing in fact, that Sevrin's desire to have them as an experimental subject outweighed his orders to stay in place.
Not wanting to let his new research material escape, he immediately dispatched his army in all directions with his commanders each taking a cardinal direction. As for himself, he would patrol around alone and inspect any lifeforces he detected.
However, he changed his mind at the last minute and kept Jova with him as protection, sending more of his mindless 5th stage forces in the direction the draugr was going to take. His phylactery was safe and secure, but it was truly a pain in the ass to reform his body, so it was better to have a commander with him who could compliment his fighting style.
With the orders given out, the undead began to spread out for the first time in months, eliminating any and all life they came across in the unexplored wilderness.
...
The intruder in question appeared out of a curtain of darkness several hundred kilometers away, with parts of his body degraded and the majority of his armor completely destroyed. The only things untouched were the Void Loop, his draconic aura suppression ring, the Hood of Infinite Emptiness, and the ear clip. He was practically naked with only scraps left hanging from his body.
Blood immediately started to flow from Kayn's body as he fell to his knees, inhaling deep breaths to try and steady himself. He was expecting some backlash for using the void element in its pure form, but nothing to this extreme.
'It seems that my body is still nowhere capable enough to withstand the void element by itself. Even after Chaos adjusted and unlocked the void potential within me, I'm still too weak to use it like that.'
Kayn stood up straight as he began flooding his body with light and water elemental mana in order to heal himself while also cleaning himself off after his new skin grew over the damaged areas. He also pulled out a set of clothing from his Void Loop and wore it after removing what little was left of the Garments.
"Thank the heavens that unless they're completely destroyed, the Garments will restore themselves, otherwise Charlotte would definitely kill me." Not that she could kill him, but he wasn't willing to test it out.
Kayn carefully placed the scraps of the Garments inside of their original box and placed it back into his Void Loop to let them rehabilitate. Kayn didn't have any other armor, so he was wearing simple clothing from Earth. A large black hoodie with a white image of an anime girl's face making a strange expression, black jogger pants, and some sneakers. This outfit was topped off with the Hood of Eternal Emptiness, giving Kayn an odd appearance.
He had only done patchwork to himself and needed time to recuperate fully, but first he needed to escape. He thought about pulling out the Wanderer's Villa and activating all of its formations, but he had never tested it against 6th stage experts and wasn't about to do so while he wasn't in any shape to defend it in case it was found.
Not wanting to risk being spotted while flying, Kayn started running with his each and every step aided by wind mana and his muscles infused with lightning elemental mana. After several hours of running, he found a suitable place to stop and restore his body and mana.
He didn't pull out the Wanderer's Villa though as he was concerned that the spike in mana in the area or the fact that it would pull mana in towards it would lead any pursuers he may have straight to him. Instead, he used the earth element to dig out a large cavern which he jumped into before replacing the moved earth.
Once inside, he activated several different arrays to conceal himself from different types of tracking. The only one who could probably find him was Sevrin himself as Kayn wasn't sure how to mask his life force yet. He only hoped that he would have enough time to recuperate and make his escape before he was found.