The Lich Doctor

The Lich doctor’s expression shifted into a slight frown on concentration. Despite her power and experience, her current patient was a difficult one. A spirit of fire, drowned. “How far we have fallen” she thought to herself with a small smile, “next I shall have Lamias with sprained tails”.

Gathering and drying the ashes out had been a long, tedious process but thankfully, it was one accomplished by the various zombies and skeletons at her command. The ashes were placed in the center of the runes and sigils that would bring back the Ignis from the Void. She closed her eyes and began to gather her mana.
She began her incantation, and the ashes began to pulse with a dull blue light as they drew mana from her well. Slowly, they began to spread out into a vaguely humanoid shape.

Her canto rose in volume, and as she invoked the words the glowing ashes slowly merged and a body began to form. A slow process. But what is time to the dead?

At last the host body was complete. Many would have stopped here, but merely raising the dead was not her purpose.
The Lich focused her mind, sending bursts of power through the body, strengthening and widening the channels. This Ignis had been weak in life, leading to her defeat. But defeat in the Waifu Games was no excuse to die. With a small gesture the Lich sent a surge of power through the body, her mana manifesting in tendrils that plunged into the Void, catching the Ignis’ flickering spirit and dragging it back through.

There was a sharp crack of air being super-heated as the Ignis’ body reignited. The newly Awoken Ignis screamed silently, eyes and mouth wide, back arched, limbs taunt as un-life flowed into her veins. There was no pain. The Lich doctor had learned long ago how to shut off these receptors.

Slowly the Ignis began to relax and sat up. As she stretched, her now blue flames flickered. She caught sight of the Lich and gave a small smile.

“Your orders, master?”
“Go. Learn the limits of your new body.”
“Yes, master”
The Lich briefly noted with satisfaction that she still retained some personality. Only amateurs raised girls that were completely reliant on their husbands to elicit emotional responses.

Gloating was a waste of time however and, now engrossed in her tome, she barely noticed the Ignis leave. She had noticed another unique pattern in the Ignis' mana flow and had formed a map which she was now comparing to previous ones.
New was good. New was potential. Potential lead to growth. Isolating the why and how of defeated competitors had certainly been enlightening, but the real breakthrough had come with the Wurm. Her spectacular endurance and repeated entry into the Waifu Games had allowed constant modification, which finally yielded a winning combination.

The Lich further refined her notes. Adding and removing threads to this new map, she had now created the most efficient one yet. Was it enough? There was only one real way to tell. She sighed and hugged her tome, eyes closed, her mind weary from her work.
One day, soon, her magna opus would be completed, and she would have the recipe to become the Ultimate Waifu. One that combined raw power with arcane might. One that could never loose. One that could finally put an end to these ‘games’.

For now, though, she needed rest. Almost as an afterthought she willed her minions in. They found their master floating peacefully in place, still hugging the tome to her chest, apparently asleep.