Skobex's Return

Chapter 3

He had been inside the library for what seemed like hours. Even though it was only small, he found a couple of books that contained some information that could be of use.

"The Lich can only be brought back by a sorcerer." One of the books read. After skimming through it he found that only the powers of sorcery can lock him back away, banishing him once again from this town.

There was little information about who had defeated him in the first place. The only thing he found mentioned that two people had conquered Skobex together, one of which was a sorcerer. The other a great swordsman, which just so happened to be descended from one of the greatest knights of Cinderash.

'Great.' Christopher mumbled softly to himself.

He decided to have one last look around the library for anymore books that were helpful. He was hoping that there would be some books about sorcery and how to use it. Possibly even the spell used to banish Skobex one hundred and fifty years ago. There wasn't any.

'Excuse me,' He asked the lady sitting at a small wooden desk, startling her. 'I apologise for starling you. I was wondering if you had any books about sorcery.'

She stared at him. 'They were all destroyed over a century ago.' She widened her eyes. 'Are you responsible for this?'

'No.' He lied, 'I wanted to find out how they did this in order to find who did it.'

She kept staring at him, deciding whether to believe his story or not. 'I'm not sure why you would want to do that, but either way, no books exist. All of them were destroyed after the Lich's first reign ended.'

He thanked her for her help and quickly left before he could make her any more suspicious.

He didn't realise how long he had been in the library, before being greeted with a dark sky and stars. Christopher had his thoughts running at full speed during his journey back, not planning on stopping any time soon to give his mind a break. What if he couldn't find a way to get rid of Skobex? What if he remained here, never to see his family again? What if something happened to him whilst solving this problem? What would happen to Cinderash? He couldn't let anything happen. He had to find a solution.

He felt a chill in the air around him. He wanted to just brush it off but he felt as though he was being watched. Possibly even followed. He picked up the pace but something materialised in front of him. Christopher stumbled backwards and tripped over his feet. After quickly getting to his feet he immediately changed direction only to have the shadowy figure appeared in front of him again. He looked around him and realised that purple smoke had surrounded him in a circle formation.

He could have attempted to run through it but he wasn't sure if the smoke would affect him. He instinctively motioned for his knife but remembered that he had left everything back at the house. He silently cursed.

'We meet again, young sorcerer.' The shadowy figure said.

'You're the Lich, aren't you?' Christopher asked.

'Who else would I be?' The Lich questioned. 'Besides my power is growing rapidly, and I never properly thanked you.' He paused. 'You would make a great vessel for my spirit and powers.'

The smoke wall surrounding Christopher seemed to increase in size. They continued to grow until they met at a point at the top, trapping Christopher with the Lich inside the dome.

The Lich reached out his smoke hand and placed it on just in front of Christopher's chest. The smoke in his hand as well as the dome seemed to darken until it was almost pitch black.