Well, here we are. After several rewrites, I finally finished the first chapter of this. Feedback is important for improvement, so please let me know what you think. Please try to keep it constructive though.

If I make any mistakes, please point them out so I can fix them.

I hope you enjoy!

"Hey, what is all this? Wh-what? You've got to be kidding."

Aqua stared down in shock at the circle beneath her started glowing.

"No, no, no! Come on, um…"

Aqua pressed against the barrier of the teleportation circle.

"This is not right! Taking a goddess with you is against the rules! It must be illegal! This has to be illegal!"

Aqua banged her fists on the barrier as the angel in front of her stayed silent.

"Wait! Wait!"

The angel continued to ignore Aqua and smiled happily.

"Please have a safe trip, Mistress Aqua. Should you successfully defeat the Demon King, I will send someone to pick you up."

Aqua screamed as the circle kept growing brighter.

"I may have the ability to heal since I'm a goddess, but I have no fighting ability to speak of! I'll be massacred!"

Aqua started floating in the air.

"Hey, wait!"

Aqua heard dark laughter and turned to see Kazuma floating as well in his circle.

"How does it feel to be dragged away with the guy you treated like a total idiot?"

Kazuma continued laughing as he looked up with a dark smile.

"You're coming with me and there's nothing you can do about it."

Kazuma held his hand up in a creepy gesture and kept laughing.

"I'll tap your power to live the good life, and I'll tap it all day, every day!"

Aqua screamed in fear and curled up in on herself.

"Please don't make me go with a creep like him! Please!"

Kazuma kept maniacally laughing as the two kept floating into the air.

The angel below them spread her wings.

"I wish you luck and I pray that of the many candidates that have been sent, you shall be the hero that defeats the Demon King. If you can save that world from his evil, the gods will grant you any wish your heart desires."

Kazuma looked downwards in shock.

"Whoa, seriously!"

Aqua screamed down at her subordinate.

"Hey hold on a second, I'm supposed to say that!"

The angel smiled as the two neared the end of their ascent.

"Now then, begin your journey!"

The goddess and the NEET screamed, one in happiness and the other in fear, as they finally flew into the portal.

The angel waited a moment for the portal above her to close before she finally stopped her angelic act and collapsed with a groan.

Finally, they had an excuse to get rid of Aqua for a while. Next to none of the gods like that annoying, idiotic bitch. Now they could have some fucking peace and quiet.

Maybe it was a bit cruel to force her into helping some creepy teen finally destroy the current Demon King, but at this point, she doubted that she was the only one who would celebrate Aqua's departure.

She paused for a moment and looked up at the place where her superior and the creepy teen had just disappeared.

This whole debacle did make her wonder if they could finally be rid of the accursed Demon King. They had been sending adventurer after adventurer for years after him, but only one had succeeded in that quest…(1)

The angel grimaced at the thought.

Maybe giving one of the best skills they could grant to someone as unstable as him had been a mistake. From what she knew, even the locals knew the tale of what happened.

The tale of an arrogant solo adventurer who set off on a quest to kill the Demon King.

The tale of the adventurer who became the Demon King.

The angel hoped against hope that the next person to kill the Demon King wouldn't be as much of a jackass.

Which brought up the issue of the person Aqua had been sent with. Kamuza? Katuma? Something like that.

To put it simply, the guy seemed like even more of a creep than the man who had killed the previous Demon King. The fact that a teen like him was being given a power as great as Aqua in his hands was…...worrying, to say the least.

As much as she hated that fucking bitch, she was incredibly powerful. If that creep turned out to be just like the fucker from before, then the Demon King issue would be far worse.

It was one thing for a minor goddess like Wolbach to join the Demon King and become his servant. It was another thing entirely for a goddess as powerful as Aqua to become a servant to a Demon King.

The angel shivered at the thought.

She would just have to hope that the problem wouldn't get worse than it already had at this point.

Unbeknownst to her, the portal that she had just sent the two beings through had malfunctioned and became tainted by dark magic. Whether it was a mistake made by the angel, a spell created by the Demon King, or some force beyond even the gods; few would ever know. All that mattered were the consequences of these actions.

The consequences for Aqua were next to non-existent due to her divine nature as a goddess.

The consequences for Kazuma, on the other hand, were…...horrific to say the least.

Kazuma looked around excitedly at his surroundings.

There were people everywhere dressed in outfits straight out of a Dungeons and Dragons book! They were covered with swords, armor, and various other weapons he didn't recognize!

This was so cool! He could've never imagined something so cool happening after his death! It was just like all those light novels he read! Goodbye boring life as a depressed shut-in and hello amazing life as a powerful adventurer!

And if what that angel said before was true, life would become even better after he killed the Demon King!

Kazuma grew giddy at the thought.

There was so much he could ask for! Just off the top of his head, he could wish for money, infinite power, or even a harem!

He would've been salivating if his mouth didn't seem so dry all of the sudden.

He felt determination to have some fun and enjoy this life fill him and he turned to the bitch of a goddess next to him.

"Alright you bitch, let's do this!"

Oddly the goddess was very quiet as she stared at him. Her brow was furrowed in confusion as she looked at his face.

Did he have something on his face or something?

Kazuma reached and scrubbed his sleeve against his mouth. Strangely, he felt it rub against his teeth instead.

Wait, what?

Kazuma tried to close his mouth, but to his surprise, his lips didn't move at all.

In fact, he couldn't feel his lips at all…

He looked towards the goddess who now seemed to have a look of fury on her face.

Kazuma felt even more perplexed than before.

He hadn't even done anything so far, what could she be mad about?

The bitch of a goddess opened her mouth and drew in a deep breath.

"LICH!"

Kazuma took a second to process the words and quickly felt horror fill.

A lich? As in the near all-powerful undead creatures well known throughout several fantasy games and novels? How could one of them already be in the starting area?

Kazuma looked around in a panic. To his surprise though, everyone around him wasn't desperately trying to find the undead monstrosity that was supposedly lurking about. Instead, they were all trembling in fear as they stared at him.

Suddenly, he noticed the bitch of a goddess throwing a golden-glowing punch at him out of the corner of his eye. Kazuma quickly leaped back and just barely avoided being hit.

He felt anger fill him.

What the fuck was that for?! He knew that she was probably mad that he forced her here, but that was no reason to try and punch him.

He turned and ran up to a nearby man in a massive amount of armor with a huge sword on his back.

"Help! This crazy bitch is attacking me!"

He glanced back to see the goddess still trying to run after him. Her face sent a chill down his spine, clearly speaking of all the pain and horror she would inflict on him.

Damn, she seemed even angrier than before. He hadn't even done anything yet!

He turned back to the man he had asked for help, only to see that he was swinging his sword at him.

You had to be fucking kidding!

As it swung towards his head, Kazuma groaned. He was about to die again! Seriously, he had only been in this life for a grand total of five minutes! He hated his fucking luck.

He accepted his fate as the sword swung towards his neck and slammed into it….before bouncing right off.

Kazuma stood there for a moment.

…...what?

It took Kazuma a moment to realize that the weapon had in fact not killed him and had instead done absolutely nothing. Even weirder, he hadn't even felt any pain from that hard swing against his neck.

Not bothering to question his luck, Kazuma ran past the confused man and sprinted as fast as he could from the angrily screeching goddess he could still hear behind him.

He screamed in fear as he ran as fast as he could away, but no one jumped to his aid. In fact, from what he could see of the crowds, they just stood there frozen in shock at the sight of him.

Kazuma was starting to feel like something was wrong. Everyone he had met so far had been either scared of him or had tried to kill him. Either this world had very fucked up customs, or something had happened to him.

Kazuma dodged into a nearby alley to try and shake the goddess still on his tail.

"GET BACK HERE YOU FILTHY UNDEAD! I HAVEN'T PURIFIED YOU YET!"

What the fuck was she talking about?! He was pretty clearly human!

Kazuma nearly fell over as he made a sharp turn right as he exited the alley.

As he continued running down the street, a nearby man quickly pulled out a glowing dagger and aimed at him.

Kazuma choose to ignore the man so he could continue running at full speed.

Earlier, that man had swung a sword at his neck and it had simply bounced off for some reason. Following that line logic, a hit from a far smaller dagger should do nothing

Unfortunately for Kazuma, he found out just how wrong his assumption was when he felt a massive amount of pain shoot up in his side when the dagger slammed right through it.

Kazuma held back a scream as he continued running at top speed away from the goddess behind him.

Note to self, assumptions were the mother of all fuck-ups.

What the hell?! So that massive sword from before couldn't even hurt him, but that tiny dagger could?! What kind of shitty balancing did this world have?!

He glanced up to try and plan his path, only to realize that a carriage carrying various unfamiliar varieties of fruits was blocking his path.

Kazuma groaned.

Dear god, did the universe hate him today or something?

There was no way he could dodge out of the way in time while keeping his full speed, and judging on the fast-approaching grunts of that bitchy goddess, he needed all the speed he could.

Praying to any deity that happened to be listening, Kazuma ran at full speed and did his best to execute a slide similar to those he saw in some of his favorite video games.

To his complete and utter surprise, his stupid plan worked and he narrowly slid right under the carriage. Barely breaking stride in the slightest, Kazuma quickly got up and continued running as fast as he could.

Behind him, he heard the sound of the goddess crashing into the wagon and screaming out in rage.

Kazuma smirked.

Maybe his luck wasn't so bad after all.

Immediately after that thought passed through his head, he felt heat rapidly approaching from his right side. Kazuma quickly leaped to the left and narrowly avoided a giant fireball that flew right past him. The fireball continued on its path and slammed into a nearby building, utterly annihilating its front entrance.

Kazuma stared in disbelief at the utter destruction in front of him.

Oh come on!

Kazuma rolled out of the way of another fireball attack and scrambled as quickly as he could into a nearby alleyway. He desperately looked around for a hiding place and quickly dove into a pile of nearby garbage, making sure to bury himself as deep as he could in it.

Just as he full covered himself in garbage, a random lady in a stereotypical sorceress outfit ran into the alley and looked around frantically.

Kazuma stayed as quiet as he could as the lady ran past him, seemingly assuming that he ran to the next street.

He stared at her backside as she ran by him.

Damn, she kind of had a nice ass.

As soon as he was sure that the lady was fully gone, he relaxed into the garbage and got into a more comfortable position.

Kazuma instinctively let out a breath out of habit…...except no air came out.

Kazuma's eyes widened.

In fact, he didn't feel like he was breathing at all.

Kazuma's mind raced as he tried to come up with a rational explanation for what was happening.

He just ran for several minutes straight without end. He should be tired and struggling to catch his breath!

Now that he thought about it, he didn't feel tired either. He hadn't been tired at all during the entirety of his run for that matter. He was a horrible runner! He rarely ever got out of the house and never had the stamina to walk around for too long! How did he get through that so easily without getting tired?

All of this was without even factoring in the fact that literally everybody in this town was either trying to kill him or was completely scared of him. It couldn't be just the fact that he was a stranger, because that goddess bitch had been ignored entirely in favor of attacking him.

Then there was that lich that bitch had screamed about. While he was running, he hadn't seen anything resembling one and everyone ignored the possible threat to attack him. Surely a Lich was more important than some Japanese teenager. Why would anyone go after him in this situation?

Kazuma froze as a possible answer dawned him

Nobody would go after him in favor of a Lich unless he was the very Lich they were going after.

Kazuma's mind raced through the various strange phenomenon that had happened to him since he came to this world.

He didn't feel tired because a dead body doesn't need sleep. He didn't need to breathe because a dead body doesn't need air. He wasn't able to feel his lips at all, because they were something that decayed as soon as someone died.

This was all without even factoring in the weapons he had been struck with. In most games, non-magical weapons didn't affect liches. That sword had been massive, but it had no glow or anything, indicating that it was likely non-magical. Alternatively, the dagger that struck was glowing with some energy he didn't recognize. It made perfect sense that it was imbued with some kind of magic which would've allowed it to hurt a lich.

Finally, there was the fear people had shown towards him from the very start. Liches were extremely feared in most fictional settings. If one dropped out of nowhere in the middle of a town, it would make sense for people to panic.

Kazuma looked down at his hands for the first time hesitantly, hoping against hope that his assumption was wrong.

To his horror, however, the hands he looked at were nothing but bone.

Kazuma quickly felt his face and found that he didn't feel a single speck of skin or muscle anywhere.

Kazuma's metaphorical heart sank.

Holy shit, he was a lich.

Kazuma's mind started racing.

What the fuck?! What the fuck?! What the fuck?! How- When- Why-

Kazuma started trembling in fear.

What the fuck was he anymore? Was he considered dead or alive? How did Liches even work in this world? When did he transform? Why was this happening to him?

Kazuma curled up even further underneath the pile of trash.

What the actual fuck?!

Aqua groaned as she sat alone in the guild hall.

Today couldn't get any worse! Within a few hours, she had been cast out by heaven to help a teenage NEET kill the demon king, abandoned by said NEET, and on top of all that; a lich had escaped her grasp.

Aqua ground her teeth as she sat at her table.

Undead like liches were affronts to gods and goddesses like her! They broke every rule mortals were supposed to follow and lived eternally in this plane! All of them need to be exterminated! The fact that these people hadn't already killed that blot on existence was appalling.

Aqua snorts arrogantly.

Somehow, all of these idiots had failed to apprehend or eliminate the insult to her existence. When she got back to where she belonged, she was going to make sure that every one of them would be reincarnated into the body of a pig!

Aqua glanced down at the gold coins in her hand.

The only solace of this miserable day was that she found a bunch of gold coins scattered around the place after she crashed into that fruit cart. It was strange that so much gold was scattered all over the place, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Aqua glanced at her surroundings and realized that she was still alone. She groaned as she lamented her lack of progress.

She had been waiting here for hours! Why had nobody asked to join her party yet?! Seriously, she was a goddess! How was that not incredibly appealing to potential teammates?!

Aqua slammed her head on the table.

She wouldn't have to be looking for more teammates if that stupid NEET hadn't abandoned her. He was the one who brought her to this stupid world in the first place! He should've been on the ground begging for forgiveness as soon as they arrived!

Instead, she had been abandoned! Because of that, she had ended up needing to sit in this guild hall for hours to hopefully gain some teammates! When she found out where that stupid NEET went, she was going to castrate that bastard for leaving her all alone!

As Aqua looked at her empty surroundings, an explanation popped into her head on why it was taking so long.

Perhaps the reason why no one had joined her yet was because the request she had posted was obscured. Surely if one of these peasants saw a goddess asking for assistance, they would leap to join her as soon as possible.

Aqua eagerly ran up to check the quest board.

As she looked it up and down, she realized something.

Her poster was no longer on the board.

Aqua glanced around frantically to see where it could've gone and saw the guild receptionist walking away with it in hand.

Aqua scrambled over to her and grabbed the woman by the shoulder.

"What do you think you're doing with my request?!"

The guild lady turned around with a polite smile on her face.

"Oh! Is this your child's drawing? I yelled to see if this mess belonged to anyone, but no one responded."

Aqua yanked the poster out of her hand angrily.

"NO, IT'S MY GODDAMN REQUEST FOR PEOPLE TO JOIN MY PARTY! WHY THE FUCK WOULD IT BE A CHILD'S DRAWING?!"

The guild lady shrank back in fear at the deranged woman in front of her.

"W-well, uh, the h-handwriting was so illegible and it was so badly d-drawn that I thought that only a c-child could make it. The g-guild only allows actual quests and r-requests to be posted, so I assumed that s-someone child put it up there and moved to t-take it down."

Aqua ignored the receptionist's quivering voice.

"WELL, YOUR ASSUMPTION WAS WRONG!"

Aqua marched over to the quest board, slammed her party request in the middle, and made sure that it was in clear view of everyone around her.

Aqua stomped over to her seat and sat down.

How dare that bitch judge her masterpiece?! Clearly she had no taste! The next adventurer to come along would surely see her request and accept it!

With that thought, Aqua sat down and continued to wait for an adventurer who would join her team.

…...and waited.

…...and waited.

…...and waited a bit more.

Aqua forced herself awake as she felt herself begin to drift off.

You know what, maybe some beer would help her pass the time.

Kazuma ran at a casual pace aimlessly along the paved road.

Escaping the town had been surprisingly easy. After lying in the garbage for a few hours, he had taken advantage of the cover of night to escape. It had been relatively simple with so few people out, and within a few minutes, he was dashing as far away from that hellhole as possible. Honestly, he probably could've escaped earlier if he had wanted to, but his mental breakdown had distracted him for a quite a while.

Kazuma glanced at his surroundings to make sure no one was following or approaching him.

After he had realized that he was a lich, he had spent a lot of time freaking out and overthinking what had happened to him. He was so shocked and disoriented, that he probably would've been quite easy to kill if someone had found him. After some thinking, however, he came to a realization that brought him out of his stupor.

He really didn't feel that different.

At first everything had been shocking, but honestly he just really didn't feel too different. Mentally, he was still Satou Kazuma, and physically everything felt surprisingly close to how he was as a human. The only real major differences were the weird sensations of lacking skin, muscles, organs, and a…...little friend. The differences were certainly off-putting, but he had gotten over them rather quickly.

Or maybe this whole situation just hadn't sunk in yet. That was certainly a possibility.

The point was that, at least at this current point in time, he was completely fine with this. There was the possibility that he would have another breakdown when he learned the ramifications for being a lich, but he would cross the bridge when he came to it.

With his two most pressing issues dealt with for the moment, that only left him with one problem.

Kazuma paused mentally and looked down at his skeletal hand.

Make that two problems.

The more pressing issue at the moment, however, was quite simple.

What was he supposed to do now?

He was in a world that he knew nothing about without anyone to guide him through it, he couldn't ask anyone for help due to fear of retaliation because of his undead nature, and, most importantly, he had no idea what he wanted to do next.

Being an adventurer was completely out of the picture due to his current status as an undead. Defeating the Demon King was probably impossible at his given level and without the support of others. He was too weak as far as he knew to do any substantial amount of fighting, making mercenary work impossible. Finally, and most importantly, he had no idea where any other liches could be or if they would even help him. For all he knew, other liches would kill him on sight. It certainly would fit right in with the rulers of undeath he had seen in video games.

As Kazuma mulled over his options, he glanced more and more at his surroundings out of agitation.

How could he think when he had no idea if he was safe or not? He needed a place to stay for a while, or at least until he could decide what to do next. Someplace remote where few people would visit like a cave, an abandoned building, or even a-

Kazuma noticed something out of the corner of his eye and slowed to a stop.

On a nearby hill sat a rather poorly kept cemetery. The place looked almost completely abandoned from where he was standing, or at least very poorly kept. It was clear that people very rarely came there at all.

Huh, that was convenient.

Kazuma immediately sprinted away from the road towards the cemetery. Luckily, he didn't feel the least bit tired and was able to reach it quickly at top speed.

He may not be completely used to this being a lich, but this infinite stamina thing was amazing.

Kazuma slowed to stop on the outskirts of the graveyard to survey it.

It definitely looked like no one was here from what he could see. It also didn't seem nearly as dirty and unsanitary as he expected it to look either. He would need to be careful about where he sat though. He didn't want to get sic-

Kazuma paused.

On second thought, he probably had nothing to worry about when it came to getting sick.

Overall, the only thing slightly off-putting was a low murmur he could just barely hear. It was there, but he could just faintly hear what sounded like moaning and groaning.

Kazuma shrugged.

It wasn't like it mattered though. Whatever the sound was coming from was clearly far away. He could always just run if it got any louder.

Kazuma hopped over the fence and walked around the cemetery for a while before he found a half decent looking tree to lay against.

Not even wasting a second, Kazuma sat down and practically fell backwards against the tree.

This would make a decent place to spend the next couple hours in. He would mull over his options, pick the best one, and continue on his journey as soon as he was done.

As Kazuma thought over the possible paths he could take, his mind drifted back to the weirdness of his status as an undead.

So, what exactly was an undead? Was he alive, dead, or somewhere in-between? He obviously needed to have died to revive back as an undead, but how exactly did that work? In fact, how did he become undead in the first place?

Suddenly a realization from his thought process hit him.

Wait a minute. If he had technically dead again, then did that mean what he thought it meant?

Kazuma had a feeling that he would be crying if he could.

He had died a virgin twice in the span of only one day!

Kazuma silently screamed in despair at the notion, more distraught at this minor, inconsequential thought than the rest of the mind-shattering realizations he had just had less than a few hours ago.

Suddenly a noise interrupted his thoughts of despair causing him to snap back to attention.

Kazuma quickly ducked behind a nearby gravestone and did his best to remain quiet.

What was that?

Wiz stayed relatively quiet as she walked towards the cemetery to release the souls from their eternal unrest and send them to heaven.

She came here every once in a while to quiet the poor restless souls that the priests refused to help. In her opinion at least, it was her duty to send the restless souls onto their eternal peace. The suffering that came with being able to move on must be immense and refusing to aid them would be cruel.

Wiz came to a stop as she came to the cemetery's entrance.

She paused and listened to the cries of the wandering souls.

What poor innocent people. They didn't deserve to be forced to stay in this world forever like this due to greedy priests not honoring proper burial rights for the poor. It wouldn't matter soon enough though. After all, their unrest would soon be over.

As Wiz walked into the cemetery, she felt more acutely aware of each and every soul around her. There were so many, even more than the last time she had been here.

Wiz clenched her fist.

It angered her that so many people were forced to stay in this world unwillingly due to those priests. She would never take a human life, but she wouldn't exactly care too much if something were to happen to those greedy jerks.

Denying these people the right to move on was horrific. She could only imagine how angry she would've been if this punishment had been inflicted on Rosary and Brad.

Wiz stopped in her tracks at the thought of her former companions.

It had been a really long time since he had last thought of her friends. It seemed like a lifetime ago that they passed on into their heavenly rest. It filled her with a sense of nostalgia about her old adventuring days.

Back then, she had felt truly invincible with them by her side. The three of them defeated enemy after enemy without a second thought. Nothing could stand in the way of the Ice Witch and her invincible companions!

Until they met a person more powerful than anything she could've ever dreamed of.

Vanir was far more powerful than anything she had ever seen before. He evaded, survived, and downright mocked her team's numerous attempts to defeat him. It had been like a game to him, and for the first time, she was truly unable to do anything to hurt her foe.

Everything from her most powerful offensive spells to her Cursed Crystal Prison was useless before the archdevil. Even the powerful prison she bought from the Crimson Demon Clan had failed to make any progress, only achieving her more frustration when she realized that Vanir was invincible in it.

….though to be fair she probably should've thought that plan through a bit more.

In her dejection over failing to defeat Vanir, she had made the grave mistake of going after another Demon King General to soothe her wounded ego. She had encouraged her reluctant friends that Vanir was nothing but a fluke and that they would destroy their next obstacle.

She had been truly foolish.

Though they wounded Beldia greatly, he fled like a coward when the going got tough and cursed the three of them to die within the month.

Her companions had told her that it wasn't her fault. They told her that they had been the ones to agree to the plan in the first place.

She couldn't accept that.

So she set off to confront the one being strong enough to break the curse on them.

She had fought with all her might in vain to show Vanir just how powerful her soul was, hoping against hope that he would accept it in trade for saving her companions.

In the end though, Vanir refused her offer, utterly crushing her hopes.

That was until he offered her the power to force Beldia to break it himself. All the archdevil asked for in exchange was her help in making a dungeon.

She agreed and in exchange, he taught her a forbidden technique.

He taught her how to become a lich.

Utilizing the new power, she had stormed the Demon King's Castle, defeated 2 of his finest generals, beatdown Beldia, and then forced him to break the curse on her friends.

Of course, she couldn't just walk away after that. The Demon King cornered her with ease, but surprisingly he did not kill her. Instead, he offered her the chance to become one of the generals maintaining his barrier. Seeing no other way out of the situation, she agreed.

After receiving some help with Vanir in disguising herself, she was able to go back home and meet her friends again.

It didn't take long for them to figure out that she was a lich, but they had been surprisingly fine with it. Relief had filled her when they accepted what she now was.

After that, she retired from adventuring and opened a shop in the exact place where they first met.

As for the rest of what happened, it was history.

Her companions grew old and passed on peacefully after having a child, she met up with Vanir and the other Demon King Generals on several occasions, and she started a Magic shop in Axel. She had been through many trials and tribulations, but they had ultimately shaped her into the person she was today.

Her only regrets were the things she missed out on by becoming a lich. Growing old with her friends, having children, becoming even more famous as an adventurer, and the multitude of other things she missed out on. Those missed opportunities were all unfortunate, but she doubted that she would do it any different if given the chance.

With her trip down memory lane finished, Wiz zoned back into reality and moved forward to start her ritual.

The second she moved forward, however, she almost immediately froze when she heard the sound of someone moving nearby.

After shaking herself out of her stupor, Wiz quickly turned in the direction of the noise and quickly noticed a hint of clothing peeping out from behind a tombstone.

Wiz started trembling in fear.

Shit! She had been followed! This person would leak her identity to the town and soon everyone wou-

Wiz quickly squashed the panic brewing in her and stopped her shivering.

Panicking would do nothing in this situation. She needed to think about this logically.

This person technically hadn't seen her do anything yet. She could easily make up a reason for being here and wait for them to leave before continuing.

Wiz walked over to the tombstone the person was hiding behind.

"Excuse me, sir, I couldn't help but notic-"

Wiz froze as she saw a hand barely poke up from behind the rock.

That in itself wasn't odd. Whoever this person was, they were terrible at hiding. It wasn't surprising that parts of them would stick out from their hiding place.

The odd part was that it was the hand of a skeleton.

If this was a mindless skeleton soldier rising from the grave, then she needed to take care of it before it hurt anyone.

Wiz didn't waste a moment in jumping around the tombstone while preparing her magic. She raised her hand and held it out towards the undead.

"ICE BLA-."

The figure yelped in fear and fell back.

"PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! I DON'T WANT TO DIE AGAIN!"

Wiz stopped her magic mid-word and paused. She stared for a moment before letting her hand fall to her side in shock when she realized three things.

The first was that the undead in front of her was clearly not mindless, something extremely rare among their numbers. The number of undead types that could think freely could be counted on one hand.

The second was that the voice that came out of the body was that of a teenager. It was rare for any person to become any of the aforementioned undead, much less a teenager. It was quite surprising to see one so young become an undead.

The third and most shocking realization made her jaw drop.

In every way, the younger-looking undead in front of her was undeniably the same kind as she was.

A lich.

(1) The origin I'm using for the Demon King is a combination of what we've been told in the Megumin side stories (That an adventurer who went off to fight a previous Demon King and became the Demon King) and what little we saw of the Demon King in the Web Novel. As he has not been formally introduced to the main party within the light novels at this time, though considering the most recent volume he'll probably be appearing soon, I've needed to take some liberties with his origin and what he's like. The same will apply to his daughter when she's introduced eventually, due to her only getting a few passing mentions in the Light Novel and not existing in the web novel.

First, I have to say something about the knowledge we have on liches in Konosuba. For a race that is the main feature of one of the most prominent recurring characters in the series, we know very little about it. Due to this lack of knowledge, I've had to interpret parts of how liches work in Konosuba. Almost everything I say about liches that is not said in canon is likely something from another form of fiction's lich or is just a headcanon.

Second matter of business, is this a villain Kazuma story? The answer is a strong no. Kazuma will be working with most of the Demon King generals at one point or another, but none of his actions will be any more villainous than canon Kazuma. He'll be slightly more of a dick, but otherwise, this is far from a villain story.

Thirdly, we have the question of if I'm vilifying Aqua and the rest of Axel since Kazuma will be a foe for them. The answer to that is also no. Just because two people are foes doesn't mean that one is evil. Aqua is hateful of undead, which is completely in character for her, and doesn't recognize Kazuma due to her idiocy, which is also in character for her. As for the rest of Axel, there are two good reasons why they would react negatively for a lich. First off, you have to remember that most of the people within Axel are in the church of Eris, a goddess who hates all undead just as much, if not more so, than Aqua. There's also the fact that an undead as powerful as a Lich dropped out of nowhere in the middle of a town. If something as feared and powerful as a lich appeared out of nowhere, it would make sense for people to be afraid.

Fourthly, we have the question of how strong Kazuma will be in this story. The answer is quite simply that he will be on the same level as canon Kazuma, maybe slightly stronger or weaker, for about 85% of the story. He'll still need to rely on creativity and trickery to win fights, just with different tools from canon.

Finally, we have the topic of if this story will contain shipping… The answer is yes, but it won't be the main focus. I don't have a preference for who I'll pick, so go ahead and give me your opinions in the comments.

First, let me establish who is banned from the ship pool:

Wiz- She is Kazuma's motherly figure and teacher in this story, which kind of bans her from the pool by default.

Iris- I already have different plans for her that would make shipping her with Kazuma awkward and uncomfortable.

Any of the Demon King Generals/the Demon King- I don't feel like I need to explain this one.

Every other ship is fair game.

So just throw an opinion in a review if you have a preference. I'm fine with whatever, so I just want to hear what you guys think.

Regardless of who I ship him with, Kazuma will be his normal perverted self. It's kind of a given when writing him.

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Have a nice day!