Chris reflected on his short life in this world. The darkness that surrounded him absolute, the final space before death. He felt...anger, he should feel anger. But every time he focused on it the feeling drained away until he was left feeling empty and lonely. But he wanted to feel like something more than just a lonely boy, trying to survive one day to the next. For god's sake he had been unconscious for 90% of the last couple of months as far as he could tell. In this reflective space he could feel what had been done to him in those months, drained of magic hypnotised and controlled. Pumped for secrets he did not possess, then the memories had been magically represed sealing them from him.
He had thought he would have noticed, but only now that the magic was fading from his dying mind did he see how they had controlled him. Again he felt he should feel anger, desired to feel anger, yet it did not come.
Trying and failing to find his wrath, he would settle for oblivion.
‘Huh maybe i will be reincarnated in another world’
NOOO, what the fuck am i doing. I can't just lie down and die. He would not just take death lying down.
Chis reached out and grasped for his altered magic, it had completely assimilated with the weird...stuff. He was surprised he could still feel it when he could not feel his body. Using only the magic he felt the contours of his damaged body and began to pull it together. He could tell that his body was still degrading. He needed to repair it faster. He pulled more magic and found it coming, he should have gone well past the amount he could acquire from his own pool and all of his items had been taken away. He kept pulling from the seeming endless source of mana and serged his body back together. Once complete it felt whole yet...something was wrong with it.
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The stairs were cold, but she didn't feel it. The dead were resistant to the cold, requiring no bodily functions and having dull senses. She had made her way down from the top of the wall to this jail cell for a very special person. Her name Velona. She had abandoned all honorifics and remade herself, stronger, tuffer and most importantly better at magic. When the body passed the nexus would be broken and mana would be allowed to fill the body, become the body.
Velona looked through the bars and found something unexpected, a boy. He must have been no more than eight. His body was changing in a way she had not expected. She had thought she'd have to lock his soul to his body, to make his mind whole. But the power currently coming from the young child was repairing him, emanating through every pore of his body, pulling it together. As she watched the fragments of his stomach wound began to fold inwards seeming to match up seamlessly with the ripped ends of flesh. In a matter of seconds the wound was closed and the magic began restoring vitality to the body. Weakened muscles from long periods of mana deprivation began to fill int the skin. Bony fingers found flesh once more, and the head began to pulse with activity.
The boy's body took no breath nor did his heart begin to beat again for he had died. The body was no longer supported by the feeble machinery of the body, it lived and breathed with magic, each cell consuming power, an intertwined web of flowing mana that supported a half life.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The boy sat up to reveal a pale face with dark black hair. As she watched magic flowed along the hair cleaning and smoothing it into a shoulder length regal flow. The boy sat there, then lifted his arm, flexing the muscles marveling at the power. He raised the hand and made a fist bringing it down on the stone floor. There was a huge thump and a spray of dust and shrapnel pittered around the room. He grinned, the bruising and scratches healing in less than a second.
The boy rose to his feat, not touching the floor. A huge force of magic was gripping him and lifting him up. Once he was upright he released the magic allowing himself to rest upon his feat.
Velona was standing unsure of what she was witnessing. The purpose of her coming here was to obtain a powerful minion, but this….it was more than she could have asked for. She reached out with her magic and projected an air of friend, ‘I do not want to hurt you.’ She smiled at the boy...or thing whatever it was.
‘And it smiled back. Yes that was it, let your simple mind be dominated by me. Allow yourself to be taken in by me, controled by me.’
“Hah ha ha ha ha..What a lovely welcome” The boy said in a mirthful tone. He met her with his eyes, Velona saw them then for the first time. Blood red like jewels in the pale face. In a slow way as not to panic a wind animal she intensified the mind magic to enslave the creature.
“Well a nice effort but i'm afraid mind magic won't work on me. It requires a living brain to affect. I do not possess such a cumbersome thing.” He let out a sadistic grin at her. She froze, her magic was not working, yet she was the pinnacle of undead. An arch lich, master of the undead. He eyes fixed on that smile….he had huge pointy canines on his upper jaw twice as long as his regular teeth. What was he? She had never seen such a creature before. ‘Should I destroy it or try to enslave it into my forces. Crushing its will would do the trick and make it ever loyal.’
“It is quite impolite to ignore one's betters when they are speaking” The words had just registered in Velonas mind when she felt mana surge and herself be pushed against the wall with bone breaking force. Her bone did not break, magically reinforce as she was, but the pressure was more than enough to completely immobilize her. She prepared to blast the boy away from her, but found a rotating ball of blue white hot fire rotating a mere meter from her before the outstretched palm of the boy.
“Make one move to use your magic and I will blast you apart. I have far more mana than i used to and this spell is far more potent than the original.” he once again smiled showing her the pearly white fangs that adorned his mouth.
Velona now out of options after wisley deciding not to challenge the giant ball of flaming death decided to converse. Even if she tried to reach for magic she could not construct a shield fast enough to save herself.
“Very well beast, what do you desire of me?” She replied with a bitter twist to the voice.The boy smiled, she flinched. An unconscious action and reaction.
“I must find a mage, and kill him” The boy's voice was sonerouse smooth and without flaw, almost mesmerizing, laced with magic it pervaded and thrummed around the room. “Also the first of his line requires new servants and workers does he not.”
Velona knew at that moment that she would not be sent free, it would be her duty to look after her master. She was looking forward to it, to serve him eternally. She would fulfill his every desire, bring the world before him as a gift. Give him everything.
“Y-y-yes My Lord, whatever you desire for your magnificent self i shal obtain it even at the cost of my life, I give you everything!!.” She fell to her knees in reverence, tears filling the corners of her eyes at the beauty of her master.
Had she been more observant she would have seen the natural way magic came from his eyes, pervading her mind, shaping it to the master's will.
The boy took up a commanding tone filled with ceremony and spoke with a fanged grin.
“From now on all who come before me shal address me as Lord Christopher”