"What should we do?" Cassie asked, glancing back: "I can feel something behind us!"
"It’s a mindless Ghoul, don’t worry, this is my button, here, Cassie, you and Engma use it." Unfastening a button from his waist, Malin fastened it onto Cassie’s belt, then signaled to them to make sure it was secure.
Ghouls had already appeared in the distant corridor.
Malin put on his gloves, grabbed the rope, and with a swift pull, he brought the youngster down to the ground.
Ophie and Lorrin had turned into treemen, fully armed and standing at the entrance of the corridor.
Bippo stood behind them, the small creature’s hand glowing with the light of runes.
As Malin pulled the rope, he wondered if what he was doing was worth it.
It should be worth it, he thought. Although these four bastards were enemies, their actions along the way, whether it was the last-minute guilty conscience, Cassie looking back time and time again during the escape, Lorrin supporting Cohen, who had twisted his ankle, or Engma giving up his button for Cassie, showed that they weren’t thoroughly bad fellows.
With the final pull, Malin saw they had reached the top floor, then he turned around to look at the other end of the corridor.
There stood a middle-aged man, his smile somewhat insincere yet partly sincere.
Had he seen him somewhere before?
Malin thought it over and sniffed the air, reeking of decay, and finally remembered—this guy looked like the Lich at the entrance of the Church of the War God in Silent Hill!
"It’s you!" Malin opened his mouth, "How come you’re here again?"
"Uh, it seems I don’t need to introduce myself, hello, I am... uh, I prefer not to say my real name, but you can call me Ails, we’ve met before, right? But this time, I didn’t come to harvest, I signed a work contract with an old fellow of your race, I’m here to help him kill a Lich."
"Is that Lich who came up your target?" Malin asked.
"Exactly, exactly, you didn’t pick up this guy’s head." The Lich said, carefully taking out half a skull and gently tossing it over.
Lorrin caught the head, threw it backwards, and Malin caught the half skull: "You don’t need it to prove anything?"
"No need, that guy knows whether I’m lying just by looking at my face, and I value my life too much to risk being killed over a lie."
With the Lich saying this, Malin was somewhat convinced—the three things that Liches enjoy most are harvesting souls, outliving their teammates, and watching their fellow practitioners die: "But why are you bold enough to appear before me again, since you know who I am, you should understand, it would take me less than two seconds to kill you now."
"Had I wanted to kill you while you were busy with the rope just now, it wouldn’t have taken me two seconds, right," the Lich replied with a smile.
Malin chuckled and nodded: "That makes sense, I’ll give you that, so let’s part ways here."
"Yes, that’s what I thought too, I came this time also to have a word with you, in the future, I think following your old peer will be promising. Although I am a Lich, no deity has said a Lich must live , I think following him I’ll be well fed, so... I’m also getting familiar with you, in case you have any inconvenient tasks that you could entrust to me, what do you think?"
"...Alright," Malin nodded.
As long as this one could talk sensibly, Malin didn’t mind making his acquaintance.
If he ever became nonsensical, then he’d just hammer him dead and be done with it.