Elsewhere in Ooo, Finn, Jake, and Marceline were currently off on an adventure of their own, finding themselves trekking through a dense swamp. Wanting to make sure that they were still headed in the right direction, Marceline decided to check the map which had received earlier, along with an anonymous letter that had prompted this adventure of theirs in the first place.

"Where exactly are we going again?" asked Marceline.

"To find the Lost Treasure of Count Gull-ib-le." said Finn, badly mispronouncing the name. "According to that map and letter we got in the mail yesterday, it's hidden somewhere in these swamps."

"Let me see it." said Marceline, taking the letter and map from Finn to read it.

Dear Finn and Jake,

I have recently discovered the location of a hidden treasure known as the Lost Treasure of Count Gullible. It is currently hidden in a cave somewhere within the swamp lands of Ooo, but the cave itself is very dangerous and filled with all manner of traps and hazards, so I'll need the assistance of two experienced adventurers such as yourselves in order to reach it. If you choose to help me in this quest of mine, I'll share some of the treasure with you. On the back of this letter is a map I have drawn to the location of the treasure cave, which I have marked with an X. I will await your arrival at the entrance of the cave, and once we meet up we will proceed inside to find the treasure. I know how much you two love adventures, so I'm certain that you will find this experience both fun and rewarding.

P.S. There will be lots of red stuff in the cave as well, so you may want to bring your vampire friend along with you. The more the merrier.

"Gull-ib-le sure is a weird name." said Finn, mispronouncing the name again. "Maybe it's French?"

"I don't know Finn, this seems pretty sketch." said Marceline, examining the terrible handwriting and then turning it over to examine the crude map which had been drawn using crayons. "It sounds way too good to be true, like one of those spam emails you would sometimes get about a prince trapped in some foreign country who needs money and promises to pay you back if you lend him some."

"Seems legit to me." said Jake, taking the letter and map and examining it for himself.

"Even if it does turn out to be fake, what have we got to lose?" asked Finn. "It'll at least be a fun distraction from our daily lives."

"Alright, suit yourselves." said Marceline, shrugging. "I'm just in it for all the red stuff that's being promised."

Putting the letter and map away, Finn, Jake, and Marceline continued their treacherous hike through the swamp lands, entering into a thick forest of mangrove trees.

Princess Bubblegum and Sweet P now stood several feet apart from each other, their heights matching as they kept their gazes fixed on one another and prepared to do battle.

"So then, shall we?" said the Lich, reaching into Sweet P's pocket and pulling out a glass phial filled with a strange green liquid. "With this potion I've created, I'll finally be able to separate myself from useless this vessel."

"Banana Guards, to my aid!" said Bubblegum, calling out to some nearby Banana Guards.

"Yes Princess?" said the Banana Guards, running to the assistance of their ruler. "What is it?"

"Sweet P has been possessed by the Lich." said Bubblegum. "I need your help to restrain him."

"We'll do our best Princess." said the Banana Guards, surrounding Sweet P on all sides and pointing their spears at him.

"You are too late." said the Lich, holding up the phial. "The wheels of fate have already begun to turn, and you cannot stop them."

The Lich used Sweet P's teeth to pull the cork off from the phial and drank the noxious green potion inside, after which a bizarre and horrifying transformation took place. The Lich's green essence began to spew out from Sweet P's mouth, followed by two ghostly arms reaching out from deep inside him and climbing their way out of his gut, until the Lich's wraith-like spirit had fully emerged from Sweet P's mouth. As if this was not bad enough, the Lich's spirit then set its sights on one of the Banana Guards, entering and possessing it through its mouth. After possessing the Banana Guard, he had it bite another Banana Guard, possessing them as well and fusing their bodies together.

One by one the Lich did this to all the other surrounding Banana Guards as they desperately tried to fight him off, but in the end they all became possessed and fused together into one giant yellow mass. The yellow mass then compressed itself down into a humanoid shape as horn sprouted from its head, taking on a form which somewhat resembled the Farmworld Lich. The comet-shaped mark on Sweet P's torso was now gone, having disappeared after the Lich had left his body, and upon regaining consciousness and seeing this new monstrosity Sweet P became frightened and ran off screaming, leaving Bubblegum behind to face the Lich on her own. Having just watched this take place, Bubblegum hesitated for a moment and could feel herself shaking with fear, suddenly unsure of her ability to fight the Lich. Making the first move, the Lich released a cloud of his death breath into the surrounding area, forcing Bubblegum to run for cover as the entire playground decayed away in an instant.

"No fear, no fear." said Bubblegum, trying to calm herself and strengthen her resolve as she hid behind a tree. "I am the ruler of the Candy Kingdom and the candy elemental, surrounded by my natural element. I have the advantage here."

"Ah, this is more like it." said the Lich, examining his new form. "A body that is my own to control and do with as I will."

"Now that you've left Sweet P and you're back to being hideous again, I won't have to feel bad about destroying you." said Bubblegum, readying her candy elemental powers. "It's a good thing Finn isn't here to see this, because I won't show you any mercy."

Bubblegum fired off a stream of jellybeans from her hands at the Lich, and as she did her body slowly began to fuse and meld with the ground, her humanoid form becoming amorphous and blob-like until it had absorbed the surrounding candy landscape. The ground beneath the Lich began to shake as a gigantic version of Bubblegum rose out from it and towered over the entire city, taking on a form quite similar to the one she had when she had previously lost control of her candy elemental powers. This new transformation of hers was imperfect however, as it had several buildings and even some candy people sticking out from it, many of them terrified and confused. The giant Bubblegum then spread her arms out and began raining globs of pink gum down on the Lich.

"What strange new power is this?" asked the Lich, acting fast and using his death breath to decay the globs of gum before they could engulf and overwhelm him.

"I have become one with the Candy Kingdom." said the giant Bubblegum, her voice booming loudly throughout the city. "The city and its candy people are a part of my body now."

"So to fight a monster you've become one yourself?" said the Lich. "You're no different than me now!"

"I'm nothing like you." said the giant Bubblegum. "I create life, but you exist only to destroy it."

"The elementals are beings of order, and I am a being of chaos." said the Lich. "Our opposing natures make us natural enemies."

The Lich resumed his attack, this time using some of the other magical powers at his disposal. He chanted a magic spell and green flames appeared in his hands, which he then fired at the giant Bubblegum, hitting her body in several places and melting it. Bubblegum was unfazed by this, her injuries quickly healing as she absorbed more candy from the surrounding city to repair the damage. The Lich even managed to sever one of her arms, but after falling to the ground it simply crawled its way back to her and reattached itself to her massive body, making it as though the injury had never even happened. As their battle continued, the remaining candy people who were still in the city began fleeing as fast as possible, frightened by the monstrous new form of their ruler and not wanting to get caught up in the crossfire.

"Run away!" yelled Starchy, as he fled with the rest of the candy people. "The princess has turned into a monster!"

"Look, your people are afraid of you." said the Lich, laughing. "You've finally shown them your true ugly self as you devour your own kingdom."

"Then let them call me a monster." said Bubblegum. "I can always repair the damage afterwards and make as many new candy people as I need. It's nothing compared to the devastation you brought here all those centuries ago."

All over Bubblegum's gigantic body, many smaller gum-like creatures now began to sprout, detaching themselves and forming into life sized copies of the princess.

"Go forth my children." said Bubblegum, commanding her army of Bubblegum clones. "Destroy the Lich."

The horde of Bubblegum clones all turned in unison and set their sights on the Lich, and realizing that there would be too many for him to handle all at once he fled in search of higher ground. The Lich tried to make his way towards the Candy Kingdom castle, but before he could go inside the Bubblegum clones caught up and swarmed him, forming a massive pile on top of him and attempting to crush him in an embrace of death. Forcing his way through, the Lich used his death breath to destroy some of the Bubblegum clones and create a hole in the pile just long enough for him to escape their grip, after which he made a mad dash for the castle and began climbing the stairs to the upper levels, the Bubblegum clones still hot on his trail. The massive wave of Bubblegum clones came flooding into the castle all at once, breaking the entrance way and causing part of the castle to come tumbling down.

This did not stop them however, as they crawled out from underneath the stones and started to climb up the walls of the castle to reach the Lich. From the highest tower the Lich could see a flood of pink closing in on him from below, and as he tried to back away he ended up stepping between the gazes of two large creatures, who at first he assumed to be statues. One was a pink cat-like creature, while the other was white bird-like creature, and both awoke from their trance to look down at the Lich who now stood between them. As they turned their attention towards him, their faces had an angry look to them, the Lich's presence having just broken their mental concentration. Putting their animosity aside for the moment, the two creatures began attacking the Lich together with their powers, intent on punishing him for interrupting their psychic duel.

"What are these abominations?" asked the Lich, trying to block out their attempts to invade his mind with their psychic powers.

"My candy elemental powers are not the only weapon at my disposal." said Bubblegum. "Science is on my side too. Goliad and Stormo, you must protect the Candy Kingdom from the Lich!"

Goliad and Stormo stopped the Lich as he attempted to jump off the edge of the tower and escape, both of them biting down hard into his body and digging their claws into his back. As this was going on, the Bubblegum clones finally reached the top of the tower and started to swarm the Lich once more, further trapping him and leaving him with no other means of escape.

"These creations of yours won't be enough to stop me!" said the Lich, struggling to break free as the Bubblegum clones drowned him in their pink gum.

"Goliad and Stormo, it pains me to do this, but I command you to self-destruct!" said Bubblegum. "Give your lives for the Candy Kingdom by taking the Lich down with you!"

"You would go so far as to sacrifice them to defeat me?" asked the Lich.

"Any price is worth it if it means destroying you." said Bubblegum.

Heeding her command, Goliad and Stormo began to glow as the energy built up within their bodies, and a few moments later a massive explosion erupted and engulfed the castle in a blinding flash of light. After the dust had cleared, the upper levels of the castle were now entirely gone, leaving only the giant tree sticking out from the top. The explosion had seemingly vaporized the Lich, along with Goliad, Stormo, and all of the Bubblegum clones she had created, and after taking the time to look around Bubblegum found no trace of the Lich and concluded that he was dead.

"Looks like that did it." said Bubblegum, congratulating herself and breathing a sigh of relief. "Hopefully he's gone for good now."

"You're still the same foolish and naive girl as before." said the Lich, his voice echoing within Bubblegum's mind. "Did you really think it would be that easy?"

"It can't be!" said Bubblegum, surprised to hear the Lich's voice. "That should have completely destroyed you!"

"You may have destroyed my physical form, but not my soul." said the Lich.

"Where are you hiding Lich?" said Bubblegum, unable to find where his voice was coming from. "Show yourself!"

"Have you forgotten?" said the Lich. "Focus your attention inward."

Bubblegum focused her attention inward, feeling the Lich's presence emanating from somewhere within her, eventually discovering the source to be a sharp metallic needle-like object embedded deep inside her body.

"How did that get there?" asked Bubblegum, wondering where the strange metal object had come from.

"Don't you remember?" said the Lich, his voice coming from the needle-like object. "You lost the moment you set foot into my lair, or more specifically when that fool Ice King dropped you into my Well of Power."

Bubblegum tried long and hard to remember the events from the day she had fallen into the Lich's Well of Power. It was all still hazy to her, and the only thing she could remember after crawling out of the Well of Power with her half melted body was how painful it was. As she tried to crawl away, she then recalled catching a brief glimpse of the Lich's ghostly essence coming out from his Well of Power, and as it did she felt something sharp prick her before she lost consciousness. Little did she know, the Lich's ghostly essence had carried with it the strange needle-like object that was now lodged deep inside her body, it having been there ever since.

"Even after you freed yourself from my possession, a part of me still remained inside you." said the Lich. "I should thank you for keeping it safe for me all this time, but I'll be taking my phylactery back now."

"So this is your phylactery?" said Bubblegum, realizing what the object was. "The object that houses your human soul and binds it to the mortal world. If I destroy it you'll lose your immortality, then you can finally be killed for good."

"Can you do it though?" asked the Lich, taunting her. "You recognize this object, don't you? I know of the special connection you once had with soul that resides in it. Destroying it would also mean destroying..."

"I know that." said Bubblegum, a hint of sadness in her voice. "That's all in the past now. I won't hesitate this time."

"You already had your chance to destroy it all those years ago, but you were too sentimental." said the Lich. "That mistake will cost you dearly. Now that you've destroyed my body, I'll be needing a new one to replace it. How about I make one from yours?"

"You'll what?" said Bubblegum, not sure if she head him right.

Bubblegum could feel the candy biomass in her giant gum body slowly beginning to gather around the Lich's phylactery, clumping together to form a new body for the Lich while slowly sapping the life away from hers. Disgusted by the fact that the Lich was now growing inside her like a parasite, she desperately tried to claw him out and eject him from her body.

"It's useless to resist." said the Lich. "You will die here, and I will emerge stronger than ever before. Not only will this new body of mine possess all the natural qualities and abilities of yours, but all of your vast knowledge will belong to me as well."

"Get out of my head Lich!" said Bubblegum, feeling the Lich's presence starting to invade her mind and peer into her memories.

"You can't hide anything from me." said the Lich. "I can see everything. All the lies you've told and secrets you've kept, even from your dear Marceline. Are you ashamed of them? Are you afraid of what those precious friends of yours would think if they ever saw the real you? Perhaps I should tell Finn and see what he thinks?"

"You stay away from him!" said Bubblegum. "I won't let you hurt him the same way you hurt..."

"Ah, now I see." said the Lich, taunting her. "He reminds you of "him", doesn't he? It's the reason why you keep that boy tethered to your side, never letting him get too far away, but never letting him get too close either. You're afraid of history repeating itself. That's why you always pushed him away whenever he tried to show you his love. You know as well as I do that his heart is too pure and righteous for someone like you to ever deserve."

"I'll never understand how there's a part of you that was once human." said Bubblegum, the Lich's words finally crushing her.

"I can promise you this, when I find that boy I will break him." said the Lich. "I will break his spirit so wholly and so completely that he will never smile again. All he will know is crushing despair, until it consumes him whole... then he'll be mine."

As the Lich's new body reached completion, his needle-like phylactery reunited with its master and positioned itself within his right arm, where it was then covered by candy flesh.

"Enjoy your final moments." said the Lich, seeing that his new body was now complete. "Your death will be my rebirth into this world."

The Lich held up his arm, and as he did the needle-like phylactery buried inside it shot out and extended itself like a lance, the Lich using it to slice Bubblegum's body apart from the inside out and causing her an excruciating amount of pain.

"Is this what childbirth feels like!" said Bubblegum, screaming in agony. "It hurts so much!"

As the Lich tore his way through the candy insides of her giant body, Bubblegum could feel herself starting to swell up and inflate like a balloon, the force of the Lich's evil decaying essence pushing outwards from within her.

"Accept your fate." said the Lich. "This world has remained stagnant for far too long, stuck following the same order where nothing ever changes. It's time to break that order."

Realizing that her end was finally here, all Bubblegum could do was think of her friends and how her death would affect them.

"Finn, Jake, Marceline... I'm sorry." said Bubblegum, her eyes filled with tears. "I couldn't stop him. Now you're all going to suffer because of my mistake. I..."

Before she could finish, Bubblegum's giant body exploded, creating a massive shock wave that sent pieces of gum and candy raining down all over the city. When the shower had ended the entire city was covered in pink goo, most of which burned with the Lich's green flames. Among the devastation was a lone glob of pink gum, from which an arm emerged, and then another, and then the creature they belonged to. Out from this glob of pink gum emerged the naked form of the Lich's newly created body, that of a muscular and fully grown man. Because it had been created from Bubblegum's own candy biomass, this new body of his had the same pink skin tone as hers, and on the right side of his torso was same comet-shaped birthmark that had previously been on Sweet P's torso. Perhaps the most striking feature of it had though was its long flowing blood-red hair.

"Interesting, I've never had a body quite like this before." said the Lich, taking a moment to appreciate his new body. "It will serve me well as I carry out my plans."

Looking down, the Lich saw that Princess Bubblegum's crown now lay at his feet, having fallen to the ground after she exploded.

"In the early days of your kingdom, your people would explode whenever they become frightened." said the Lich, picking up her crown and then proceeding to toss it aside like a piece of discarded junk. "How fitting it is that the same fate befalls their ruler in the end as well."

As the Lich walked away, he was suddenly overcome by an intense feeling of nausea and began to vomit. What came out was a small puddle of pink goo, most likely an unneeded leftover of Bubblegum's candy biomass that his new body had expelled.

"Strange, it seems there was something else growing inside her body too..." said the Lich, feeling better as he got up.

The Lich made his way towards the ruined candy castle, not noticing that the pink goo he had just vomited out had now begun to move on its own, sprouting a mouth and eyes as it formed into a tiny blob-like creature and disappeared into a crack in the ground.

If this were an actual season of Adventure Time, you could consider these first two chapters to be like the season premiere, which is usually two episodes that air together at the beginning of each season. From the interaction and dialogue between Princess Bubblegum and the Lich in this chapter, it is quite obvious that the two of them have some sort of past history together, which will be explored later on in the story when the time comes. In the original version of this chapter, Sweet P had actually died when the Lich had him drink that potion, and it caused his body to become monstrous and grotesque. Since Sweet P was shown to be alive in the future in the Adventure Time finale, I changed this aspect of the story to where the Lich simply uses the potion as a means of freeing his spirit from Sweet P's body, and plus I kind of feel bad about killing off someone so sweet and innocent.

Speaking of deaths, when looking back at the season eight episode Orb where Finn had that dream that all of Princess Bubblegum's teeth fell out, you could kind of see that as retroactive foreshadowing to her death in this chapter. In many cultures from around the world, there is a common superstition that dreaming about teeth falling out, either yours or someone else's, is an omen of death. If it hurts when the teeth fall out in the dream, it means that someone close to you will die, but if they do not hurt when they fall out it means the person who will die will not be someone close to you. This would not be the first time that Adventure Time has incorporated cultural beliefs about dreams into its plot. In many Native American cultures, the owl is often seen as a messenger of death, and in the season three episode The New Frontier Jake has a dream about Cosmic Owl which he believes is a prophecy of his death.

Okay, so I should probably explain what exactly a phylactery is, since some of you might be wondering how the Lich was able to survive being destroyed and then regenerate himself from Princess Bubblegum's body. To put it simply, a phylactery is a magical object that an undead sorcerer or wizard, such as a lich, uses to house their soul after separating it from their body. By creating a phylactery, the soul of the lich becomes anchored to the mortal world, thereby granting them a form of immortality. As long as their phylactery remains intact the lich will never truly die and is able to keep coming back and creating new bodies for themselves if their previous body gets destroyed. The only way to defeat a lich for good is to destroy their phylactery, which will cause them to lose their immortality and allow you to kill them for good. Because it is their one weakness, a lich will often go to great lengths to hide and protect their phylactery to ensure that this will not happen.

With this in mind, it is highly likely that the Lich from Adventure Time could also have a phylactery hidden away somewhere that contains his real soul. Since it has not been found and destroyed yet, this could be the reason why the Lich is able to keep coming back and possessing new bodies. In the case of this story, the Lich's phylactery was a magical needle hidden inside his Well of Power, and when Princess Bubblegum fell into it and crawled out in the season two episode Mortal Folly, the Lich saw this as the perfect opportunity to move it to a new hiding place, and he put it inside her body as his ghostly essence possessed her. Even though Princess Bubblegum was eventually freed from her possession by the Lich, his phylactery remained within her body, until now when the Lich finally retrieved it and used her candy biomass to create a new body for himself.

I know what some of you may be thinking and yes, a phylactery is basically like a horcrux from Harry Potter, although the rules surrounding them are a bit different. The main difference is that a horcrux involves splitting off pieces of your soul, while a phylactery involves removing your entire soul from your body. The idea of the horcrux was actually inspired by the phylactery, and has appeared in several stories in the fantasy genre before Harry Potter. As for the Lich's phylactery itself, it has the power to magically grow or shrink at will, allowing him to expand and retract it into either a sword or a lance whenever he summons it from his arm. It is basically like the Lich's own version of Finn's Grass Sword, possessing similar abilities and housing a soul inside it too, his own. From this point on whenever the Lich uses his needle-like phylactery as a weapon, I will refer to it as the Needle Sword.