The Corruption- First Draft

Chapter 13

An'thaehl soared through the skies, sore as all Hell, but at least he knew he'd live knowing he wasn't bitten. It took him longer than usual to find his way back to the embassy, but he managed to make it before the afternoon hit. He rushed inside the embassy, huffing as he held his bruised chest.
"Kyazf! He's been possessed- again," he stammered out to the surprise of everyone.
"I fucking told you all this would happen!" Cassius blurted out, shooting up from his seat. "No you just had to let Hyalbtz corrupt himself into a godly monster. Do we even have a plan? No, we don't," he grumbled, angrily sipping his tea and slamming it down back on the plate.
"Would you calm yourself?" Akae exclaimed, sitting up straight. "Cracking like an old bowstring won't get us anywhere."
"You have no idea what we're up against. One lich has enough power to rival an angel. But four liches sharing one body like Eilis says? We may as well be fighting the Dark Lord himself! I've fought against them before, they're not easy to take down. Never mind the undead army they like to collect. What's worse is that we lost the element of surprise. We were riding on that as our only hope, and we lost it because you simpletons wanted to get information. Now what?"
"Well," Eilis cleared his throat. "It's possible that Hyalbtz will try to send his army to attack us here. In most cycles an attack happens here before the final confrontation. So let's get to him first before they realise we left."
"Great, so now the embassy itself is in danger? I have over a thousand residents living here. Just great. Do you have any ideas on his weaknesses?" Cassius blurted out.
"I don't," he murmured, shifting his eyes around.
Cassius glared at him. "Eilis, you've always been horrible at lying. Tell me what you know, now," he growled, his third eye closing in preparation.
"I'm being serious! I don't-" he paused as Cassius' third eye glowed a mesmerising bright blue. Eilis' breath caught in his throat as he stared at it.
Morinthir stood now. "Lord Benoist, don't! He said-"
"Sit," Cassius commanded, pointing at the spot she was previously sitting at. Morinthir said nothing as she sat, jaw clenched tight.
Tassira eyed the two of them suspiciously. "Stand up, you're better than that," he muttered.
Morinthir bit her lip. "No, I'm fine sitting."
He faced Cassius. "Did you do something to her?"
"Now's not the time to go pointing fingers," Cassius murmured, rolling his eyes. "Let me do my thing in peace, Eilis is holding back vital information!"
"No, I know you brainwashed her or something!"
"So what? That's kind of my thing. Now, Eilis-" he tried to say before being cut off.
Tassira stood between Eilis and Cassius, careful to not look into his eye. Eilis gasped as the tattoos sneaking up suddenly disappeared. He swayed. "You need to knock it off. Your constant use of hypnosis is disgusting."
"Excuse me? Who are you to tell me what to do in my own domain? You are a guest! You need to be taught some manners," he said dangerously, suddenly grabbing Tassira by his head. He forced him to look into his third eye.
Garbone widened her eyes as he did so, standing up now. "Grandpops, stop! Please!" She said, suddenly grabbing him by his arm. He tried to pull his arm away, but he wasn't strong enough.
Cassius hissed, shoving her down, though Akae caught her before her butt slammed against the floor. Tassira stood silently, pupils dilated as the tattoos bearing Cassius' insignia rested on his face.
After making sure Garbone was alright, Akae approached Cassius and covered his third eye. "Enough. Hypnotising regular citizens against their will is illegal, Lord Benoist. You know that."
Cassius sighed angrily as he grumbled, blinking his third eye to deactivate his power and shoved his arm away. "Fine, fine, whatever. Just don't try and stop me from using it on my own butler. That is legal."
"It might be legal, but now's not the time for it. You're causing unneeded stress when we should be coming up with a plan to take down the lich."
"That's what I'm trying to help with! Eilis knows a lot about this because of his time loop thing, and he refuses to say anything."
"Did you ever stop to think that maybe Lady Merthicz doesn't want him involved? He's an angel butler, he's supposed to serve you tea, not get involved with murder mysteries."
"If you don't want him involved so bad then you come up with something. How are we going to handle an invasion from a multi-possessed lich?"
"Well, I doubt he'd be coming himself. You already have the place fortified from your last scare of the lich coming. I can summon guards to protect this place while we go confront the lich directly. He may have Kyazf with him but it's two people against us 8- 7, without Eilis."
"Eilis, I'll need you for this. Is there no way you can get involved?"
"Well, I suppose I come to protect you all. I may not be physically strong but I do have my magic powers. Lady Merthicz has given her approval for defence. But defence only."
Cassius exhaled. "Fine, I can work with that," he murmured, thinking.
"What do you know about taking down liches, Lord Benoist?" Morinthir asked.
"They're virtually indestructible unless you can find their phylactery. Their mortality is tied to an-"
"We know, it holds souls," Tassira murmured.
Cassius squinted at him before continuing; "They also tend to be more powerful the more they feast on other people's souls. Since people become demons when turning into liches they're very weak to silver and sacred items. Older liches often lose the ability to think rationally, so they tend to be easier to trick and strike. But I doubt we'll have that to our advantage when Hyalbtz just transformed, unless he's consumed a lot of souls."
"We have to find an object? How do we even figure out if it's the right one to destroy? Where would we even begin to find it?"
"I can detect phylacteries, but I need to be near it. Finding where it is, is the tricky part. But knowing Hyalbtz it's likely he's dumb enough to keep it on him. As smart as he is, he's way too paranoid for his own good."
"So we have some kind of plan then. Only question is, how do we keep ourselves from becoming possessed?"
"His method of possession is imbuing his will into his body parts that detach from his body. You'll want to fight at a distance and pray that you're fast enough to dodge his flesh flying at you," Eilis said, rubbing his own arm.
"I have an arsenal of silver weapons we can use. Anyone here trained in using long range weapons, aside for Sir La'et?"
"I am," Morinthir said.
Cassius nodded. "Good, at least we'll have two fighters then. The two of you will team up. Garbone I know you can wield an axe, I'll use you to block any flying flesh. Plus with the melisovou crystal attached to your axe it'll give us an advantage. I'm going to need you to confront him first, crystal exposed."
"Why not wait until he's distracted to unleash the crystal?" She asked.
"Hyalbtz knows you fight with that axe primarily. He used to watch your training all the time."
"A-alright. Should I like, say something when I'm about to reveal the crystal? Like a phrase or something so you guys aren't caught in it?"
"Just say 'now', boy. An'thaehl, Havre, and Tassira, what can you do?"
"I'm not a fighter, Lord Benoist. I can heal anyone who's injured, though," Havre suggested, to which he nodded.
"The both of us are good at sneaking around, but I can use my fire breath as a weapon," An'thaehl said.
"Hm. Then I'll have you teach Garbone how to sneak. No doubt it's going to be dark in that estate so Garbone will need to get close to Hyalbtz for the crystal to be effective. An'thaehl I want you to destroy the phylactery after I identify it. Are you religious at all?"
"I'm very devoted to Lord Jusniet."
"Then make sure you say a prayer before using your fire on the phylactery, that'll boost the strength of your attack."
An'thaehl nodded.
"So it's settled, then," Morinthir said. "We have a plan."