I became a legion lich

Chapter 5: Chapter

In the middle of the night, the savage house was awakened by a child’s cries of pain. Robert and Agatha woke up startled and ran to their son’s room.

But what they saw when they arrived was different from what they imagined. There weren’t any bandits attacking him or anything like that that could threaten him. Athos lay on the bed as a whirlwind of world mana swirled around him.

“Hey Robert, what’s going on??” Agatha asked in panic as she tried to get closer to her son, but the mana that surrounded him made it impossible for her to get close.

“Shit! This shouldn’t happen! Not like this!” Robert on the other hand tried to remain calm and quickly understood what was going on.

“Hey, can you tell me what the fuck is going on here!? What’s going on with my son and how do I stop it?” Agatha grabbed her husband by the collar and demanded that he answer.

“That’s not going to be possible. We can’t stop it from happening.” Robert said still stunned by the amount of energy that had built up in the room.

“What do you mean you can’t stop it? He’s clearly suffering! If you know what it is, do something!” She was already crying, not knowing what to do.

.....

“There’s nothing we can do. He’s just forming his own mana core after all...” Robert whispered to himself, but because of the close proximity of the two Agatha was able to hear.

“Hey, what do you mean forming the core? It shouldn’t be like this, much less so early! I only formed my core when I was 11, I just had a fever and my body glowed a little.” Agatha recalled her own experience with the formation of the nucleus and did not understand why the formation of Athos was so violent.

“That’s because you only formed a common core. Athos is special. Remember the potions Athos takes to keep himself stable?” Robert asked.

“Yes, I remember, but what does that have to do with it?”

“They are called mana control potions. They help regulate the mana in one’s body and are mostly used by young mages who still can’t quite control their spells.” Robert took her shoulders and calmly explained.

“Wait, that’s impossible! There’s no way Athos can have his mana deregulated, because he doesn’t have mana to begin with! His core is just forming now.” The more she listened, the more confused she became. She was so bewildered that she only noticed Robert leading her out of the room when he closed the door behind them.

“That would be true if it weren’t for his rare condition. He was born with an unusual body capable of attracting the world’s mana even before it formed a core. That’s why Athos needed mana control potions to circulate and filter world mana and not allow it to form a nucleus prematurely.” Robert paused in the explanation to allow her to take in everything he said.

“How can you keep it hidden from me all this time? I always thought he just had a weak body and the potion was just a medicine to help and now you come to me with this one??” Panic and helplessness quickly turned to anger at her husband for lying to her.

“Because I know that if you knew of Athos’ condition, you would think of him as some kind of prodigy and try to get him to train mana control, possibly forming his core prematurely and killing him in the process!” Robert spoke brusquely hurting her deeply. But at the moment he couldn’t care less about it. He was also scared and helpless, feeling unable to help his son when he needed it.

He fell to his knees on the floor, feeling the world spin around him.” I failed him. I should have known something was wrong when he started using potions less and less, but I was so happy with his improvement that i ignored it something so obvious.” He said through tears.

Seeing her husband’s state and how much anguish he must have felt keeping that weight to himself, her anger seemed meaningless to her. She slapped herself across the face to compose herself and help him to his feet.

“Let’s not stay here crying. Is there anything we can do for him?”

“No. There’s nothing we can do about it now. Even the mana control potion would be useless now and we can’t approach him without getting caught in the mana whirlpool.” At this point Robert looked down at the floor, but Agatha spoke before he could moan.

“No, you’re wrong about that. There is something we can do for him.” She said resolutely “We can be there for him.”

She opened the door and got as close as she could before screaming. “ATHOS! THIS IS YOUR MOTHER! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT, SON! I’M HERE WITH YOU! I SWEAR THAT IF YOU GIVE UP, I WILL HIT YOU SO MUCH THAT EVEN MY GRANDCHILDS WILL HAVE THE BRAND!”

Robert was speechless. How could she make jokes at a time like this? Not, she was the one capable of doing something like that.

“My God, what a stupid thing to say. But it’s just like her it’s.” Robert spoke cynically, but soon realized he had stopped crying. The world was no longer spinning and he found the strength to get up again.

“ATHOS! YOUR FATHER IS HERE TOO! YOUR FAMILY IS HERE! HAVE STRENGTH SON!” He started screaming too, to show his son that he was not alone.

*****

Athos had never felt so much pain in his life. Every time his core tried to form, mana would build up in his chest, only to be overwhelmed by the excess energy and scattered randomly throughout his body.

Every time this happened Athos screamed in pain, feeling as if boiling oil flowed through his body. The world’s energy was expelled from the body only to be reabsorbed in a seemingly endless cycle.

Athos even tried to drink the mana control potion he kept close by for emergencies, but he didn’t have the strength to do so. Unfortunately, even if he took the potion in his current state he wouldn’t be able to stabilize. The potion was only able to control mana flow to a level that the body deems “normal”. Now with the body actively drawing in the world’s energy, there was little to no effect from the potion.

Amidst all this pain, Athos’ mind was starting to fade. He was still fragile-minded and unaccustomed to pain, this whole sudden ordeal was too much for him.

When Athos was about to faint, he could hear his mother’s voice in the distance. At first it was just a background noise, but as time passed and his father joined the chorus, slowly but surely, Athos began to regain consciousness.

He didn’t have the strength to open his eyes, but it helped him. The lack of one of the five senses helped him discover a newly acquired sixth: the mana sense.

He could feel how his core was unsteadily trying to assume a spherical shape, but the excess energy caused him to warp and expel the energy back. He noticed that every time his body spasmed or moved for some reason, the energy in his body moved accordingly.

Athos couldn’t move, nor did he have any experience in manipulating energy, so he did the only thing he could still do: breathe.

When the energy was expelled from the core, he took a deep breath, puffing out his chest and absorbing even more energy. When the energy reached the extremities of his body he exhaled, releasing all the excess at once. The sudden burst of mana surprised both parents and threw them against the wall, but it served its purpose.

The mana blast left Athos’ body with nothing to absorb for a few seconds, but it was enough. Athos opened his eyes suddenly and exerting all the strength he could muster took the potion he kept under the bed and drank it.

With no energy to absorb and under the effects of the mana control potion, his core quickly stabilized, before the world energy returned.