52. The Tragendy of Raph part III

It took several hours for Raph to wake up. His body ached, and it felt as if every bone in his body was broken. At the same time, his mana channels hurt excessively, and it felt as though his mana channels were leaky.

'My head hurts...,' was the only thought that flashed through Raph's head.

He tried to move his arm, but he only heard the rustling of silver chains that forced him to his knees. His arms were chained to the walls as they had been when he first woke up, and his runes glowed beautifully in the faint rays of sunlight streaming through the cathedral glass.

Slowly Raph opened his eyes to gaze at the hall, which was still as dusty and dirty as before. The priest knelt still before him.

'Strange. I thought I would lose complete control of my body because of the runes. Why haven't I yet...' but before Raph could finish his train of thought, he was interrupted by a voice.

"We are ready to move on to the second phase with the experiment," said the priest in a white robe as he pulled out a small bottle.

"You may be ready, but I am not," Raph replied coldly.

"I'm sorry, but your readiness is of little interest to us," the priest replied as he stood up and continued talking. "I only pay respect to the body of my future lord and not its mortal soul that still houses the body."

Raph just sighed, and the priest controlled the liquid in the container with magic. Raph felt too weak to use any spells and was forced to witness the controlled liquid flowing through all the runes carved into his body, making their glow more vivid.

The priest placed several dusty closed containers decorated with runic symbols similar to those, on Raph's body. These runes seemed to have faded, however, and Raph could roughly read the words: "Blood," "Heart," and "Soul" on the three containers.

"Now we can proceed with the next step," the priest hummed as he placed the container titled "Blood" in front of him.

He slowly began to sing in a foreign language, and every few seconds, another person present joined in. However, everyone was singing something different, and the voices were getting louder and louder, echoing back from the cathedral.

During their chanting, a few runes on Raph's body and the container titled "Blood" began to light up. With each passing second, more and more runes came to life, and in the end, the container was heard to pop open with a great noise.

The priest just smiled and did not stop his chanting. Instead, he moved his arms and hands in rhythm, and the blood slowly left the container.

A black tentacle arm slowly flew towards Raph and slowly caressed his forehead, as well as his shoulder. "What in God's name is happening here," Raph stammered as blood slowly dripped down from his forehead.

"Luz, Gab... please save me," Raph pleaded as his fear was written all over his face.

The black tentacle arm of blood slowly drilled into his shoulder, and the alien blood merged with his.

Raph began to gasp. He would have liked to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth. Instead, beads of sweat dripped down his forehead as he gasped. His iris slowly changed to a neon yellow color while the white in his eyes turned black.

His vision slowly faded, and his head only ached. It felt like it was about to burst. "Luz, Gab, please help me..." he pleaded while blood instead of tears poured from his eyes.

Those present, however, ignored his pleas, and it wasn't long before the runes on Raph's chest lit up and the container titled "Heart," opened.

This time the priest slowly took out the heart and just kept smiling. In his hand was a black heart that was still throbbing. The priest walked closer to Raph and gently moved his index and middle finger vertically across Raph's chess. A second later, Raph's chest opened slit-like. From the wound, blood began to drip down.

"It hurts... It hurts... It hurts..." Raph began to screech as he tugged on the silver chains.

While the rustling of the silver chains resounded, the priest forced his two hands with the heart, into Raph's chest.

He had only one goal and that was to connect the new heart to Raph's mana and blood circulation system. Raph's body should have a double heart. The heart of a mortal and of a non-mortal. In Raph's body already flowed the blood of a non-mortal.

Raph's screaming only got louder, and slowly, the cathedral itself began to shake, but no one stopped singing. On the contrary, after a short time, their singing exceeded Raph's screeching.

Raph's veins were throbbing, but one could see black blood pumping through his body. In the meantime, Raph had completely lost his mind and resembled a monster who only wanted to be released from his shackles.

The cathedral continued to shake, and crumbs began to fall from the ceiling, but slowly the runes of the third container began to glow.

The priest trembled with excitement and reached for the third container. After most runes on the container glowing, he slowly pressed it against Raph's head.

Cracks began to form all over the cathedral floor and ceiling, but everyone ignored them. The container opened, and something transparent shot into Raph's head in a flash.

The chanting slowly became quieter and quieter, but Raph was seen falling unconscious to his knees. Blood began to flow through all his orifices as the chanting continued. A puddle of blood was already forming underneath him, and only after a few seconds did he open his eyes and roar.

His roar was so loud that all the glasses shattered, and the cathedral collapsed completely, but that didn't stop him. He pulled more and more on his chains, and you could hear the loud noise of breaking chains.

"So beautiful, so beautiful. He has awoken... our Lord will redeem us all," the priest uttered on his knees, weeping tears of joy. Others present shrieked instead as they were slowly buried under debris, but not the priest. He continued to kneel before his highness, who slowly stood up.

Raph was buried under rubble, but he slowly stood up and breathed deeply. An ancient deep voice laughed before one could hear him saying, "It's been a thousand years since I last walked on this world..." as he slowly approached the priest. Each of his steps made the ground tremble, and the priest only whispered: "My Lord...".

But the monster in Raph only snapped, and the heads of all the living ones burst like melons.

"Strange... His soul has not yet shattered into a thousand pieces. Regardless I may not have fully recovered yet, however, he is too weak to gain control of his body.

"I could have sworn that this place used to be the capital. Why is there only forest here?" he muttered while walking through the forest.

Not even a few minutes later, a troop of mages stood in the air above him. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" asked a booming voice.

Raph, on the other hand, merely glared at the troupe with his neon yellow eyes for a moment and smiled.

"Me, I'm a nobody. But shouldn't the younger generation introduce themselves? Or have you lost all respect for your ancestors?" asked Raph back while raising his hand and slowly pulling his hand down.

Gravity changed, and the mages in the air crashed to the ground. They all looked with horror at the 14-year-old Raph. The latter just smiled and slowly increased the pressure more and more.

"Who are you..." stuttered the leader of the troupe fearfully.

"One of your ancestors," Raph only replied, and you could only hear the bones of them slowly breaking as their shrill screeches echoed through the forest.

"Now only his siblings are missing. I want to make sure no one finds out about my resurrection," Raph muttered as he took some of their equipment with him before leaving.

Behind him, a group of ravens landed and began to poke at the dead with their sharp beaks.