05-Silvio Morell(5)

"He's dead, just like that!? I thought he was supposed to be some infamous undead but he wasn't even that strong! We just wasted our coin hiring these guys we could've done this alone!"

Marika was fuming at having traded away her tools for helpers that weren't even really needed. Mag's team hadn't even been able to lift a finger to help. While she thought Silvio's contribution was negligible when compared to her spells. The mercenary team was quite embarrassed, they were famous for hunting undead but the fight had happened so quickly they weren't even able to scratch it.

Ignoring her sister's complaints Larissa put on a serious face. Despite the vampire's demise, Silvio wasn't feeling any better, he was weirded out by the battle. The two looked at each other knowing something was wrong. Ignoring the still complaining Marika the two crept over and observed the vampire's legs. With the battle going on before they hadn't been able to get a good look at the vampire's features. Although they couldn't really see his features now that he's a pile of mush. The terrible state of his legs could give them an idea of how he was doing.

Larissa cast a simple wind blade that cut up the remnant pants. What was under the pants merely looked like a pair of sticks painted white. Larissa was quite befuddled at the seemingly crippled stick legs.

"We got lucky Miss, that vampires been starving. Although I don't know why for whatever reason it seems this vampire hasn't been able to consume any blood for at least the past several months." Silvio quickly resolved her confusion

Overhearing their conversation Marika gasped in surprise and stared at the two legs. Despite being cursed and starved the vampire had still been able to go toe to toe against a high-class ice golem. Although they had been victorious the golem's various injuries were a testament to the vampire's might. Marika shivered at the thought of what would've happened had the monster been at full strength.

Even when figuring out the cause of the vampire's weakness Silvio still felt a foreboding feeling.

'The problem lies in why this vampire was starving. Even with a tenth of his strength, he'd still be top dog in this forest, why didn't he hunt. What stopped him? '

The answer to Silvio's question was soon answered as "it" appeared in the cave expanse. An indescribable evil will echoed out forcing the team to their knees. The pressure it gave off was so great that all their bodies were beginning to sink into the floor. Even the tough ice golem simply collapsed in on its self when faced with such pressure. The humans could not see it but they could feel its gaze looking down at them as if they were a bunch of bugs. A mass of writhing shadows stood above them and spoke with a voice so jarring their ears began to bleed.

"Hmm, what a shame I guess my little vampire experiment failed. Guess I was wrong, but at least the little pest brought me something good."

The mass of shadows grabbed Silvio by the neck and inspected him like a lab rat. The moment he was grabbed the divine power in Silvio's body seemingly began to writhe and flash as if it were terrified.

"KeKeKeke" the mass of shadows laughed at the divine power's fear.

"A powerful soul imbued with divine power. Wonderful you'll serve as great material."

With a snap of its fingers, everybody but Silvio exploded into blood mist. Under the shadow's control, the blood flowed to form a magic circle. Out of thin air, it pulled out an elegant black laced amulet with a blood-red jade sitting in the middle. Silvio felt agonizing pain as he was forced to watch as a shadowy hand slowly forced the amulet into his heart. The shadows took pleasure in his despair and even purposely slowed down to prolong his pain. Once the amulet reached his heart a blood-red light flashed and filled the room. With a snap from the shadow monster, the magic circles began to whir and spin.

Soon under the magic circle's influence, it felt like thousands of ants were biting and scratching at his skin. At his heart, a red light flooded out towards his brain and his chest where his soul resided. Wherever the red light spread Silvio's body began to distort and twist slowly growing bigger as if he were a balloon. The pain from having his body forcefully mutated caused a bloodcurdling scream to come out of him. His mind became chaotic, losing track of time his sanity was slowly slipping away. Even with his powerful soul, Silvio couldn't endure such torment.

Luckily his pain would be cut short as a crack appeared on his chest. Through the cracks, blood red and silver light flooded out. Like a piece of shattered glass more and more cracks began to appear on his body. The clash between Silvio's divine power and the red light was too much for his body to handle. The clash continued until all that was left for him to do was implode. A blood-red and silver light entwined each other as a massive explosion took place in the cave.

Once the light receded, on the floor all that was left of Silvio's body were just bits and pieces of flesh. The mass of shadow's clicked its tongue in annoyance. A few tendrils of shadows sifted and poked through the mess of flesh. Like a scholar, it inspected every inch like it was looking at an interesting painting rather than a human being. 10 minutes later the tendrils receded and the shadowy monster stood in deep thought.

'Hmm, my calculations were a bit off. Idona's divine power was stronger than I thought. The pest's soul was strong enough to endure the clash. But the blood force took too long to assimilate the divine power leading to the body's destruction. The amulet collapsed with the body taking the kid's soul as well. The kid's soul was pretty strong I'd be hard press to find another specimen like him. A shame, but there is much to learn from this. Maybe if I transfigure the body first..' the shadowy monster was in deep thought as it teleported away.

Unbeknownst to the shadow, another being had been watching its experiment as well. By the vampire's remains, a gray and thick book appeared out of thin air. An elegant black laced amulet with a red jade appeared from within the book's pages. Unlike before a small wisp of blue light sat in the jade. The wisp was like a flickering flame looking as if a single blow of wind could snuff it out. Despite nobody being in the cave, a magnetic voice spoke out.

[Host Criteria has been met]

[Silvio Morell will now be recognized as the 11th host of ******]

[Emergency Protocols activated]

[Searching databases for a method to host's revival]

[Database calculation completed]

[Necromancy 19.87% chance of survival, Shamanism 6.55% chance of survival, Divine arts 1.57% chance of survival]

Before the book could act Silvio's soul began to sputter and wither as if it was about to go out.

[DANGER TO HOST DETECTED]

[Forceful activation of sacrificial soul rite]

[Undead candidate selection]

[Wraith 5.53%, Cursed Tool 10.5%, Cursed Spirit 14.6%, Lich 20.5%]

[Host incapacitated forceful selection of option named "Lich"]

Soon a black mist seeped out from the book covering the amulet. Streaks of a blue soulfire began to appear from the amulet absorbing the black mist. After an unknown period of time a wave of mana and death aura bursted out from the amulet. The mist faded away to show a blood red amulet with a small blue soulflame inside.

Thus marking the end of Silvio Morell the human.

It was now time for him to live a new life, A lich's life.