Ohe mess was ed up and the fes were going at full speed again, the Lio longer felt afraid. Intellectually, Tenebroum khat it was still weaker than it had been, and the defe currently had were minimal pared to what it had marshaled before. It was no longer in mortal peril, though. There was no crusader army on the march toward it, and other than the Moon Goddess and Malkezeen, there were hat could harm it without giving the Lich ample warning.

  Now, the endless desotion that surrou owerful as any army. The area all around its domain was empty. What would an invading army eat or drink now that the upper half of the Oroza had been poisoned and the lower half had been turo salt water?

  The pnts and everees had died for dozens of miles around Bckwater and its poison river. Things were desote even as far away as Fallravea. There was only just enough wilted foliage left to see the damage left behind by Malzekeen’s rampage as the beast carved a trail through anything that might bar its way as it went to the northeast.

  It traveled almost in a straight line, and in the dire that line led, it might have goo sack Rahkin or to sniff out something in the ruins of Siddrimar or Abenend, but the Lich did not care. For the time being, as long as its dire was away, that was all that mattered. Well, that and the fact that it was growing. The footprints that its bckbirds had sighted amidst the wreckage that the ghastly chimera left in its wake were growing ever rger. Though it was a wolf, for the most part, it had always been more of a lion in size. Now, though, the thing roag the size of a warhorse based on its stride.

  Part of the Lich sorely wished that it could strip the thing down to its boo use it for parts, but given the risk of ination, that would be impossible. Even now, the gold that had made up its inal focus was locked in an iron-bound ched tucked away in a locked room with anything else that might be inated, just to avoid another brush with that monster. However, if it could find a way to reverse that link. If it could drain power from Malkazeen rather than be drained by it, then perhaps…

  The Lich pushed that thought down in annoyance. Such a task might work, but it henomenally dangerous, and now was not the right time to be tempting fate.

  Now that its mind was a chorus of nearly a hundred smaller cores, those small side trips would frequently assail it. It wasn’t that it cked focus; it was that it was capable of fog on so many different things that parts of it could get sidetracked on a hought before it dumped the information into the Skoetiikos and moved on to more important topics. Tenebroum was ed that su arra could hamper it in the heat of battle, but for now, that was a safely theoretical problem. After all, if properly eled, it might yet be an advantage and—

  The Lich shut down that thought as well. While it was focused on optimizing everything it could, such s were not its most urgent issue. Os own form erfected, it would rally its minions and y waste to anyone who stood against it, even that miserable hound.

  That was easier to say than to do, though. It was ohing to make pronous and pns, but given how much work o be do was a massive uaking.

  Its soul web had to be rewired, and many glyphs and sigils had to be carved or ected in different ways. No matter how many drudges it had, thanks to salvaging the fallen and putting its dead acolytes to work, it was never enough. Eventually, even its long-dormant huard ressed into service just for want of more hands. That ropriate, it supposed, since, in its way, Tenebroum was molting. For so long, it had been bound by its own skin, but now it could shed it, being something new and more dangerous, no matter how painful that process might be.

  Fortunately, its quests up to this point had prepared it well for it. Even if there was enough gold and silver, though, it never felt like it. Whole kingdoms' worth of age were beied down and reformed into are objects that it could use to splice together its pns. Even the vast treasure trove that was Siddrim’s bones would only go so far. Still, day by day, the transformation took pce. Eventually, the Lich was not ay that dwelled within its ir. It was its ir. It was stone as much as shadow.

  That ge was hammered home when it started the long overdue process of splig the steam an into the dozens of phycteries that held pieces of its soul. For its entire existehe Lich had been forced to speak and cast spells through intermediaries, but now it would do so with its own steam-powered voice at a volume that would shake the very earth.

  Normally, it was the fragility of the human brain and their vocal cords that limited the power of their spells, along with their puny intellect, but with this new arra… the Lich’s mind balked at the things that it should be capable of now if only it had the energy to fuel such titanic works.

  Still, not every endeavor was successful, and even those that were were not always quick. With every ge it made, another optimization was discovered, and another bit of work o be dohere was always more work to be done.

  One minute, a whole se of the fine, and the, it colpsed us ow. Soon, those thick gold wires were wound around and through the spines of a thousand unfortunate souls as its foul works of magid artifice spread from the core of the byrinth to the spokes of the ring that surrou.

  Tenebroum was only when it artway through this tinuing process of rept ah that it realized how different it had bee. The oldest tunnels on the first three floors were built at random to be as fusing as possible. They resembled the heart of a termite mound more than anything that had been built by the hands of man. In more ret years, the rooms that had been added were created with the needs of industry in mind.

  Things were linked in a way that optimized logistid allowed for the addition of eys for the fes aion for the humans ohe living had e to the depths in the wake of its assion. Even though they were gone now, their shrines and cathedrals remaihose were the true heart of the Liow. It was the uemple that those braided spines wove their way to.

  That and the dark well it was digging even now that would sink through all 6 floors, eg the temple to the throne room and pleting the giant magical circuit that would finally ect everything. This new figuration hysically much more vulnerable than the old one had been. Oneone gairy it could proceed straight to the heart of things without much opposition. That no longer mattered, though, sihere was nothing at the heart for them to strike at.

  Tenebroum was no longer one dead mage, covered in gold and filled with darkness. It was so much more than that now. It was more like the terrible vision it had experienced so long ago while it was dev Siddrim’s soul. It was a vast and terrible tree of bone den heavily with rotted golden fruit. Even now, its roots were burrowing ever deeper into the earth to feast on the shadows there.

  It had to. Tenebroum’s other sources of power had dwindled greatly at this point.

  Its acolyte and their prayers were gohe Oroza was so deadehat it drew almost nothing from those poisonous waters now. There were still some prayers ing from the vilges its armies had spared in the western provinces between stantinal and Rahkin, along with the ever-dutiful worship of the lizard man from their thriving vilge high in the mountains. Other than that, though, Tenebroum relied on a seemingly endless amount of reserves that had been built up over years of sughter and bloodshed.

  As it racked its collective minds for other options, it realized there was still one source of blood ah left: the goblins. Those vermin all beloo it on some level now. Feions, they had fought in its name. Reag out, even to the Red Hills, proved to be a challenge for the Lich, but with some effort that night, it succeeded.

  This time, it did not try to champion one group over another. It was not looking te them into a single army. It simply wanted bloodshed, which was much easier to aplish. That wish echoed out like a drop of water in a still pond and ihe whion in an instant.

  To a casual observer, that wasn’t much different than any ht, for the greenskins warred with each other stantly, but this was different. This was not battle, nor were they raids for things goblins actually needed, like flesh aory. This was a berserk sughter, and it warmed the darkness more than anything had sihat terrible night that Malkezeen had been reborn.

  This will be enough, the Lich told itself as it drank in all the blood and the suffering. This will be enough for what I o do .

  This was not something it could do every night, of course. As goblins died by the score, it realized it would take weeks or months for their o rise high enough for another harvest. Until then, it could always rely on its other, smaller fonts of power, though.

  Those wouldn’t run out any time soon, but they weren’t enough. Not for what it needed, or for what it nning. When all of Tenebroum’s modifications were doo its giant stony body, it would be able to el truly impossible forces. It would be able to jure storms that would make the maelstrom that a now-dead archmage had oried to drown it with look like nothing but a spring squall.

  It would need power to do that, though, which meant murder on an industrial scale or other, stranger methods. Still, for now, it drained every st erg of power it could from smaller projects that were not is use. O had harvested everything it could from the dying region. There was only one pce it could think of gathering more power from, and that was from the heavens above. As the Tenebroum gazed skyward, looking at the throbbing darkhat y just beyond the web of stars, it cursed itself for being an idiot. It should have tapped such a limitless reservoir long ago.

  The fact that it didn’t was inexcusable. Never mind that it could never have held so much overflowing power before. Now it could, and soon it would drink its fill.