Ch. 23: The Cost of Overwhelming Power Part 1

Levizla's P.O.V.

I woke up to find myself in a vaguely familiar room, on someone else's bed. I then realized that Lord Selk and Allice are hovering over me like dotting parent worried about their child. I then remembered the reason why I fainted. The reality of Lord Selk's body hosting ten thousand Soul Stone was such an unfathomable occurrence, it threatened to send me fainting onto the bed all over again.

Selk: "Are you alright, Prof. Levizla? Sorry, I didn't expect the information I gave would shock you that much."

Of course I'd be shocked. An Elder wyvern soul stone can power half a regular size city. Hell, a regular wyvern soul stone is used in this kingdom's strongest weapon, the Ultima Cannon. That canon can punch a hole nearly a mile deep in a mountain, and is capable of around twenty shots.

Elder wyverns are about fifty times more powerful than a regular one. I took part in a subjugation mission once where I and about a hundred elite wyvern hunters fought an elder wyvern that was terrorizing a city. It took all of us to take down that one elder wyvern. To be ten thousand times more powerful than a creature that needs over a hundred elite people to subjugate is just insane. And yet, I am face to face with such a person.

Levizla: "It was a true shock for me, but I'm fine now. There is still one thing I can't wrap my head around. How in the world are you able to store all those soul stones in your spine?"

I asked to get a better understanding of Lord Selk's process. Even Allice chimed in, also curious of Lord Selk's magic.

Allice: "Yeah, Dr. Selk. How did you shrink those lemon size soul stones to the size of a bean?"

Selk: "Well, you see, even though solid matters look like they are truly solid, they all have microscopic gaps in between them. The Atom, the thing that makes up everything in the universe have energy that make up these gaps. this energy can be manipulated to shrink or remove those gaps to compress and miniaturize things. Due to my powers, I was able to manipulate the energy in these organic bases soul stones to shrink them to the size of a grain of rice."

I only vaguely understood what Lord Selk said, but it would appear that because of his control over all things flesh, he has the ability to manipulate the energy in the soul stones to shrink their size. I never could have imagine that a spell like that existed. I can only marvel at the possibilities of a magic like that. Just the thought of it makes my body tremble. Allice on the other hand, had a very confused expression on her face as she press both index fingers on her temples.

Allice: "I'm sorry, Dr. Selk, but I'm having a hard time understanding what you just said."

Allice said adorably. Lord Selk however, patted her on the head and consoled her.

Selk: "It's alright, Allice. This kind of magic is easier to understand once you actually tried doing it rather than being explained. I'm sure you'll do great when I start teaching you how to do it."

Allice smiled widely as Lord Selk patted her head. Her large ears twitching non-stop from joy. Then, Lord Selk turned at my direction to address me directly.

Selk: "So, you mentioned you'd like to know the secrets of life creation magic?"

Levizla: "Y-yes, Lord Selk. Nothing else in this world matters but the knowledge of life creation."

I answered Lord Selk whole heartedly.

Selk: "May I ask why you're so determined to learn such magic?"

Lord Selk asked.

Levizla: "I... I-it would be the greatest magical discovery in the history of the world. I would be honored to be by your side once you announce that you discovered it."

I shakily replied to Lord Selk. I knew he was going to ask this question, and I had already prepared the lie I was going to tell him. And yet, when I looked into his eyes, my conviction waivered, as if I wanted to tell my true intent on learning this power. However, I cannot let him know of the reality of my circumstances.

Selk: "... Huh? Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but I'm never going to release that magic to the public."

Lord Selk's reply left me dumbfounded. He has discovered the greatest magical find in the history of the world, and he doesn't want the world to know of it? What even is this madness?

Levizla: "W-w-w-w-why not, Lord Selk? Th-th-this is the greatest thing to ever happen to anyone. You'd be revered as the greatest mage of all times. Please, Lord Selk... Your magic... Please share it to the world. .. Please share your magic with me."

I stammered as I panicked from the news that I may never learn the secrets of life creation magic. My tears beginning to stream down my cheeks from this realization.

Selk: "What? Who said I'm not going to teach you my flesh magic? All I said was I'm not going to make life creation magic public. You learning flesh magic has nothing to do with that."

"Eh!?" Was the sound that came out of my mouth as I reacted to what Lord Selk said.

Levizla: "B-but... If you don't want to make your knowledge known to the public, why would you teach me any of them? Th-that sounds very contradictory."

I questioned Lord Selk's logic.

Selk: "Look, my brand of life creation magic is off limits to others, but I can teach you magic methods related to life creation magic so you can make your own brand of it. What you wish to do with that knowledge is up to you."

Levizla: "A-are you sure, Lord Selk? Are you not hesitant that I would take credit from your knowledge?"

I said, surprise at myself for almost trying to talk Lord Selk out of teaching me his secrets.

Selk: "The only thing I want from you guys is the promise that you listen to my story first, and learn from the mistakes I made years ago, when I was still using life creation magic as my main offensive and defensive magic."

Lord Selk then sat Allice and I down as he told us a story

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From here, we will be focusing on the eleven year old Selk as he headed off in advance of his fellow Champions in a journey to strengthen himself and find a way to stop the foretold catastrophic event of a multiversal demonic invasion. Current timeline will resume after this mini arc.

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Selk's P.O.V.

I can't believe I finally got out of my house. Eleven years of training in the realm of dreams with Lord Gore has prepared me for this moment. It took a lot to convince my very clingy parents that I was one of the heroes of legend, and to let me embark on a journey to unlock my powers, but they finally relented when the messengers from the church of Zhitarine came and implore them to let me go.

As healing magicians who worship Goddess Zhitarine, they had no choice but to obey once the messengers showed them the private message from the cardinal of light that proves my prophetic fate. And with a heavy heart, they had to let me go. Truth be told, my resolve almost waivered when I saw my mother, father, and all our servants and apprentice medical magicians crying as they saw me off, but I had to take this journey.

Only my mother and father were told that I was one of the heroes. The rest of them were just told that I have to do special training to enhance my flesh magic. A band of light magicians were escorting me to what they said was the church of light just a few miles outside of our city via horse drawn carriage. There were eight escorts all together. Two of them were inside the carriage with me while two were driving the carriage and the rest are on horse back.

To think that these fanatical idiots would try and play me for a fool. I already knew there wasn't any churches in this area. Though it's true that I never left our city for all these years, I was able to see far beyond our city's vicinity because of my powers. My family has a collection of monster body parts that they use for either research or presentational lectures. Body parts that I had access to and was able to add to my magical repertoire. I was able to construct a bird like creature that would let me survey from the skies. And from my surveillance, I didn't see any church in this area. There was Just a small remote village some four miles from here.

I can only guess that they are either from the demon faction trying to get rid of heroes before they can become a threat, or some fanatical cult members that hates Lord Gore. Lord Gore did mention that there are those who killed his followers because they were seen as inferior mages of an inferior God.

We stopped at a remote and wooded location, some thirty miles away from the city we left behind. Just then, the two escorts that were in the carriage with me pulled out the knives hidden in their robes and proceeded to attack me. Unfortunately for them I have already strengthen my young body to the point that I'm pretty much as strong as an ogre that can crush boulders with a few punches.

As I heard the other six surround the carriage, I quickly disarmed my two escorts, grabbed them both by the collar, and threw the two would be attackers at the carriage's door. The both of them had surprised and dumbfounded looks on their faces as they crashed through the carriage door, breaking it and leaving a hole where the door used to be.

The other assailants were caught off guard by the way their two comrades crashed through the carriage door, that they failed to notice that I already stepped out of it.

Attacker No. one: "W-what have you done to them?"

One of the attackers asked as he drew his sword and pointed it at me.

Selk: "Okay, I don't really have much time to waste, so I'm just going to ask once, who do you work for?"

Attacker No. one: "W-we don't need to answer to a dirty brat like you with such an inferior magic."

Yep, fanatic cult members. These guys really hate it when the Goddess Zhitarine is being either outshined or up staged in any way by Lord Gore. I can kind of see where they are coming from. After all, if a lowly flesh mage becomes a hero of legend it would mean that society was wrong to label flesh mages as inferior and may even see a decrease in worshipers since flesh magic can be a more effective way of healing than light magic if done correctly.

Selk: "So, let me guess. You're planning to kill me, and to prevent any scrutiny falling on you guys, your going to say that you were attacked by some group. And since I'm just a trashy flesh mage, I was too weak to defend myself. Is that right?"

Attacker No. two: "Well, well! You're not too dim for such a useless flesh mage brat."

Okay, this one's going to get an extra dose of ass kicking. Though, since the two assailants I threw has already gotten back up, even with superhuman strength, I doubt I could take all of them down on my own. Which is a good thing I'm not on my own.

I held my right hand in front of me and constructed four magic circles, and within a second, a goblin warrior armed with bone clubs and wearing light leather armor were created in each of them. Now, goblins are not really the same in this world as they are in the fictional works of my old world. In this one they are a society of bipedal humans that reproduce Asexually.

Goblins are a warrior species that love combat even though they are smaller than the other races, with average height being between four to five feet tall. They may not be the most intelligent race in this world, but they do have a very admirable since of honor which is why they are my favorite life magic creatures to construct when it comes to battle scenarios as I train with lord Gore.

Attacker No. Three: "G-goblins? B-but how? D-did he use spaceal magic?"

Attacker No. one: "Y-you! What did you do?"

Selk: "That's the thing about prejudicial people like you. If you bothered to learn anything about flesh mages, you'd know that I just constructed these goblins with my magic."

I told these would be assailants the truth about how the goblins' origins, much to their disbelief.

Attacker No. two: "Lies! A weak brat like you can't possi... Wha!"

Yeah, that guy's really starting to tick me off, so I ordered my goblins to attack the escorts directly. The four goblins engaged the seven escorts while I went after the guy that kept insulting me. He swung his sword towards my head. I constructed a shield to blocked his attack and then punched him a couple of times to teach him a lesson.

Once I was satisfied that he has been thoroughly beaten, I stopped my assault and left him a bloody mess, knocked out on the forest floor. Almost all my goblins have K.O.'d their two on one fights except for the one that was only fighting one man. Looking at their fight now, however, I can tell why that is.

It looks like this guy is a pretty good fighter. With his sword skills, the last escort is able to parry my goblin's attack with his sword while my goblin can barely avoid the escort's strikes. Too bad though, this previous eight VS five fight in his favor has now turned into a five VS one massacre against him.

Just when I was about to have my goblins subdue the last man, a boy just about as old as me in my current body came running out from the woods with wounds all over his body. The boy panted heavily as he dropped to all fours, seemingly exhausted from running a long distance.

The remaining escort must have seen the boy as a good hostage, because he smiled wickedly as he ran towards the boy's direction. Before either of us could reach the boy, however, the bush behind said boy started to rustle

The escort didn't even have time to react before a very large Dire Wolf emerge from the rustling bushes and bit on the escort's neck. The large creature then shucked the man like a rag doll, effectively killing him. Once the man stopped moving within it's jaws, the Dire Wolf loosen it's gripping bite and set it's eyes on the tired boy.

The boy and the monstrous animal locked eyes, a big no no since eye contact is viewed as a sign of challenge by the non-domesticated canine family. I didn't hesitate and placed myself along with my goblins between the boy and the large Dire Wolf.

I ordered the goblins telepathically to keep the wolf at bay while I prepare for a killing strike. With impeccable team work and great skill with their weapons, my team of goblins managed to surround the Dire wolf and box it in so that I can deliver the finishing blow.

I then constructed a spear made of large deep sea fish bones, and with my super strength, I threw the spear directly at the Dire Wolf. My weapon landed in the creature's chest and pierced its heart, effectively killing it. Once I was sure the thing is dead, I touched the Dire Wolf to add it to my flesh magic archive.

Selk: "Hey there. Don't worry, my friends and I wont hurt you. Can you tell me your name and what exactly is happening here?"

I asked the trembling boy as I stretched my hand out to him.

Boy: "M-my name is Brix. P-please, my village is being attacked by a pack of Grey Dire Wolves. Please, save us."

The boy named Brix replied as tears streamed down his cheeks.