Bedlam the Lich.

The moon sat perched atop two thin clouds. Its light shone on an ancient castle littered with holes and cracks in the foundation. Its once fierce and dominating series of towers reduced to a single withered pillar, barely holding its own weight up. A figure zoomed ahead in the night sky, its leathery wings appearing as a giant bat soaring into the single pillar of the castle. The beast let out a short sigh that bounced across the tower's stone walls. 

He descended a staircase leading to the lower levels of the castle.

He surveyed the vast array of trinkets and magical charms he's collected over the years. A scepter belonging to a long-dead warlord. The gargantuan claw of an extinct beast. A book written in an unknown language with stained tattered pages that hint at a long and rich history.

"Hello Bedlam," a calm robotic voice chimed from the center of the room. Bedlam folded his wings to his side and approached. The voice came from a small genie lamp with an elegant purple and gold design. A sparkling huff of air poured gently from the opening of the lamp as the voice spoke.

"Hello spirit," the lich said in a sly voice that was complimented by a sophisticated tone.

"My name is Xfipple" it spoke, its voice as robotic and emotionless as ever.

"I will address you as I see fit," Bedlam said not wanting to attempt to repeat the name just spoken to him. 

"You'd be wise to be kind to a being that could kill you," It retorted. 

"Said the spirit eternally trapped in a harmless little lamp," the lich said walking over to the lamp and leaning over it with a demeaning grin. The lamp gave no response for a few moments before a thunderous plume of suffocating smoke rocketed out of the opening of the lamp. Bedlam lurched back waving his arms wildly around. In the turmoil, he felt his claw connect with and send a glass sphere from its stand crashing down to the ground. 

After hearing the sound of glass shattering Bedlam decided he'd had enough and raised a finger to the air. The blinding smoke swirled around, forming into a ball and gradually growing smaller and smaller. Before long it was reduced to an insignificant pebble of smoke. Bedlam looked at it and flicked his finger toward one of the openings in the walls where the windows used to be. The sphere of smoke leaped outside and dispersed itself before fading into the air. 

"I would've thought a creature of your intellect would be immune to petty tricks like that," it said.

"Silence, I think you broke something," Bedlam barked back.

"Oh no," it said in the same cold emotionless voice. Bedlam eyed the lamp, trying to sense if it was being sarcastic, or if it was even capable of sarcasm. He turned his eyes back over to the broken glass on the floor, then to the gold stand that propped it up. His eyes widened as he realized what charm he had broken.

"Damn," He whispered clenching his clawed fist in frustration. 

"What broke?" The spirit asked. Bedlam looked over to the lamp, contemplating his next words knowing he was now vulnerable. 

"It was just a magic binding keeping certain people under certain obligations, you know deals with the devil and all that," he said with a short awkward laugh. Thankfully for Bedlam, the spirit seemed about as good at detecting emotion as it was at expressing it.

"Oh ok," it said. Bedlam sighed and formed his arms into a broom and dustpan sweeping the broken glass up. He went to go throw the shards out the same opening he'd thrown the smoke out previously. He stopped in his tracks as he saw the orange flames of torches weaving through the woods leading to his castle. The echoes of the men singing a rhyme about burning witches made their intentions clear.

"And now there's this," He hissed, unknowingly transforming his hands back to their original state and shutting his fists crushing the glass inside. He opened his bloodied fist letting out another annoyed grunt. Turning away back to the staircase preparing to descend further. He looked back out to the crowd to see two wizards brought to fight him on a magical level. "Oh, well perhaps this could be fun," He said licking his lips in anticipation.

"Where are you going?" the spirit asked. 

"I need to deal with those Cretans," he answered, picking small shards of glass out of the palm of his hand. As he reached the last step he could already hear the men attempting to break down the gate leading to the courtyard. The cold night air bombarded his skin and fur and feathers, sending a sharp chill up his exposed spine. He waved his hand to the door and it opened itself allowing the men inside. 

They crashed over on top of each other in an attempt to rush in. As they streamed in they circled the lich. Now he could see some of them were wearing knight's armor and some wearing the clothes of peasants. A man with long flowing blond hair and shining dark armor. 

"Bedlam the sorcerer," he began.

"Lich," Bedlam interrupted. The man gave Bedlam a raised eyebrow. "Bedlam the lich," He demanded.

"Bedlam the lich," the man said begrudgingly. "You are to come with us to your trial at the behest of the Dynast himself,"

"The Dynast himself now? Before it was just regents and dukes calling for my head, I suppose I've notched up a few pegs on your list of enemies," Bedlam pointed out.

"Make no mistake it is not an honor beast," The man snarled back. The lich's eyes lost all sense of patience as his armored scorpion-esque tail rattled and shook as it grew high into the air before quickly swiping down at the man's neck completely decapitating him.

"Bedlam the lich," he said sternly as the headless body fell to its knees. The rest of the battle was nothing more than a quick dismantling of the men as he made short work of the knights and peasants alike. The lich stopped himself before killing the final two soldiers brought against him. He examined their clothes, the armored chest of a knight but with the violet robes of a druid.

He went to speak but was quickly cut off as they both collected their magical strengths and fired a barrage of spiraling magenta flames into the lich's body. He stood still expecting the flames to have no effect as they had so many times before. The embers seared his flesh and exposed bone, he reeled back with anguish crashing his palms to the ground and sending out a shockwave that sent the inferno hurdling back toward the magicians who both leaped out of the way.

"He's vulnerable," One of them said, astonished.

"Ha! What a joke, a mortal lich, what did your protection charm break?" The other snickered. Bedlam scoffed in anger and clenched his fist tighter feeling the little shards of glass left cut their way deeper into his flesh. He went to strike at the magician's heart with his tail before the wizard unleashed another purple blaze out in front of him causing the lich to pull its tail back.

He sprang into the air landing on one of the castle walls and looking down at the magicians contemplating his next plan of attack. He brought over a charm with vibrant blue smoke, bringing it over with the powers of a psychic and crushing the glass next to his ear. The smoke filled his ear and he could now hear their conversation despite the distance.

"He's vulnerable, you know what that means, don't you," one asked the other.

"Of course, not only is his body capable of being harmed, but so is his," the other responded the blue smog dissipating completely before the lich could hear the final word. One of them brought out a small black leather book, and the other a large triangular knife made of a strange black metal. He then pulled out a charm filled with deep blue smoke and threw it against the ground smashing it into tiny shards. The blue fog zipped to Bedlam quickly grabbing him and bringing him down to the same level as the wizards. The one closest used the dagger to slice open the lich's arm and collect some of the blood before tossing it back to the one holding the book.

The enraged Bedlam dug his tail into the man's shoulder twisting it inside causing the man to screech out in pain until dropping to the floor. He looked over to the other wizard allowing small droplets of blood to drip onto the paper. The words lit up in a harrowing scarlet shine. A deep red glow flowed from the book into the magician. Bedlam moved to try and stop whatever was taking place but he found himself being slowed as he felt a invisible force take his strength from him.

Once the smoke had cleared Bedlam fluttered his eyes open and closed to see the same man standing there with the body of a lich. The scorpion tail the exposed sinew and bone, the leathery bat wings.

"Well, you've become an ugly version of myself, congratulations," Bedlam said, the druid looked back with a snarl and prepared to attack. The defenseless Bedlam defended himself in the only way he could think of, he pinched out one of the last remaining shards of glass in his hand and threw it as hard as he could at the new lich. He bounced off of the wizard's dark furry arms and landed on the ground.

Within moments Bedlam was hurdling through the air and finally found himself landing on the floor of his tower.

"Hello again, the battle doesn't seem to be going too well for you," The cold voice spoke out. He looked over at it and saw the lamp his only hope left. As the new lich slammed into the already fragile foundation of the tower to see Bedlam throw the lamp against the floor breaking it. The same sparkling smoke burst out from the lamp and slowly formed into the spirit's true form. Spirit was barely a word that encapsulated the breadth of the creature. It floated in the air high above the castle the size of its body dwarfing the castle tenfold.

Its lower body was completely absent leaving only its upper to hover high in the sky. Its skin was pearly white and its face was made up of three swirling black spheres circling constantly around it. Its fingers gradually shrank the further they went eventually ending in small spindly points. It reached down its fingers to the wizard picking him up with light blue smoke.

"I am Xfipple, destroyer of annoying people," It's voice thunderous and booming but still monotone as ever.

"Good luck with him, it took everything I had to beat him the first time around and I actually knew what I was doing," Bedlam said slyly. He hushed his tone a snaking blue tendrils of smoke wrapped around him carrying him up along with the druid.

"What the hell are you planning?" Bedlam shouted.

"I told you I'd kill you," It spoke its voice sounding like the roaring fury of a god.

"Ok," the lich said with a slightly annoyed tone. He brought up his hand and casually waved away the blue smoke. The voice howled with uncertainty.

"I don't remember letting you go," it asked with genuine confusion.

"You didn't I've just had enough," Bedlam spoke his own voice now echoing across the valley drowning out the spirits. The spirit began to shrink slowly back into the lamp that was quickly piecing itself together. Bedlam clenched his hand into a fist and Xfipple finally sank all the way back into the tiny lamp. "As for you," He said looking over to the false lich.

"What, I don't understand, the book should've transferred all your power to me," he said. Bedlam burst out laughing at this.

"Please, don't kid yourself, you really think some old book can take the power of an all-powerful being," he exclaimed a new vigor previously hidden under the surface now coming out, showing itself off in his voice. "I just willingly handed over a small fraction of my strength to spice things up a bit," with that lich promptly decapitated the poor wizard.

"So you never actually lost control?" the voice of the spirit asked.

"Of course not! I'm Bedlam the Lich, not Bedlam the mage, and by the way, I don't appreciate your attempt on my life," he responded clenching his fist in frustration. A shard of glass dug deeper into his palm. "Dammit," he shouted in pain and annoyance.

"You'd think you would have learned by now," the spirit said. Bedlam eyed the lamp with contempt.

"Silence," he said giving out a small chuckle at his own expense.