I became a legion lich

238 Ascension plans

Sometimes Canan or EIrin would slip into an unconscious state to allow the other some privacy and needed to catch up on what happened while they were sleeping.

‘Not yet. I tried to contact him in every way, but Eishin refused them all. I don’t know what he’s planning, I just hope he doesn’t try to do something himself or reveal many of the hidden cards he’s been preparing for the future war. I hate to admit it, but the information we have on Nytrer is limited to what we get from the few undead we captured or the outdated knowledge of the time we lived there.’ Kanan replied.

‘Illum and Kalesi are definitely gathering more and more strength as we speak and we both know that we are weaker than them, the only reason we are still alive is that a battle between all of us would destroy the world that is still recovering.’ Canan kept talking despondently and Eirin tried to cheer him up.

‘I know and we are also doing everything possible to strengthen ourselves and humanity as a whole, so don’t get discouraged and let’s keep moving forward with our heads held high.’ Eirin spoke to cheer him up, and Canan undid the light lenses and turned to resume construction on his lunar lab.

‘This place is also an important weapon for the future, so let’s do our best.’ Canan spoke with renewed humor and worked at an even faster pace than before.

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In the city of El Dorado, almost five kilometers underground.

There was an underground chamber nearly 500 meters long and 100 meters high, its walls, ceiling, and floor made entirely of stone and giant roots. The roots radiated a strong white light, the light element shining on its surface and perfectly illuminating the underground chamber.

A spirit made of light amber energy was chained by white chains in the middle of the chamber, trapped in an egg-shaped cocoon with a white liquid filling its interior. Moans of suffering sometimes involuntarily escaped the spirit’s mouth, its pain echoing through the empty chamber.

.....

The spirit’s body was covered in cracks and it felt like it could break at any moment, but the white chains held its body together and prevented it from collapsing.

An angel was standing in front of the cocoon, coldly watching the spirit. Its body had no features and it was impossible to distinguish whether it was male or female. The angel wore a white and gold toga, but the biggest feature that set him apart from the other angels were his wings.

Unlike ordinary angels who had only two wings or the four-winged cherubim, he was a six-winged seraph, one of the seven archangels of Eishin. They were the most elite among the angels, most of them were descendants of Eishin or the greatest champions that appeared in the history of mankind.

Most of the seraphim were the leaders of the angelic armies, but some had different and equally important jobs, such as guarding this underground chamber.

There was no entrance to the underground chamber, its walls and ceiling almost completely sealed off, just a few holes the size of a drop of water.

Suddenly, the angel looked away from the injured spirit and looked up at the ceiling, before kneeling down on the floor. Small beams of light passed through the holes in the ceiling the size of a drop of water, slowly transforming into the shape of a man.

“It’s an honor to see you again, master. What brings you here?” The seraph spoke from his kneeling position.

“I’m just here to check the progress of your work, Samael.” Eishin spoke while looking with disgust at the suffering spirit. His body told him to step forward and deliver the final blow to the dying spirit, but his reason stopped him.

“As ordered, I accelerated the conversion of world energy into holy world energy, but this caused the yggdrasil spirit great pain. The shock might end up doing even more damage to its already injured spirit, although the currents of holy mana do not allow it to he collapses, no matter how much he suffers.” The seraph replied as he looked at the spirit moaning in anguish, but Eishin didn’t care.

“The state of the spirit doesn’t matter. The only reason it’s still alive is that it still has some use to me, otherwise I would have killed it already.” Eishin spoke with disgust. The yggdrasil spirit was one of the eldest sons of Illum and an old enemy of Eishin, who was killed thousands of years ago, or so the people alive at the time believed.

The truth was, he had destroyed most of the yggdrasil tree and left only deeper roots intact, allowing the spirit to remain alive for a while longer. The spirit’s core had been damaged and the spirit would have slowly died that way, but Eishin used holy magic and its unique properties to keep it alive and imprisoned it underground, keeping it on the brink of death for millennia.

Holy mana also slowly seeped into the spirit’s core and purified it, slowly transforming it into a holy spirit. His racial abilities were also changed because of the transformation and Eishin made use of this change.

He used the spirit of yggdrasil to increase the amount of light element in the world energy around his empire, converting it into holy world energy.

“However master, I must warn you once again of the dangers of further accelerating the conversion of world energy into holy energy. We have kept the conversion of world energy to a minimum to give people time to adapt and keep the side effects of excess of light element under control.” Samael spoke with concern for humanity and for the first time Eishin took his eyes off the spirit and turned to him.

But there was no warmth or concern in his gaze, just coldness.

“It doesn’t matter. For millennia we’ve been preparing the citizens of the Carian empire for this, slowly increasing the amount of light in the world’s energy and everything around it. Whether it’s in the air they breathe, the land they walk on, the water they drink, in the food they eat and even the elemental affinity of people’s bodies.” Eishin spoke, revealing the truth behind the “blessing” he shared with the Caria empire.

“All citizens of the empire have an affinity for light thanks to holy Yggdrasil, so if we speed up now the problems shouldn’t be too big. Even if you’re right and I’m wrong, some losses are a risk we have to take if we want to guarantee the our rightful place on top of the world.” Eishin’s gaze wandered from Samael to the air behind him, looking to an imaginary future where the human species ascended to something greater and took their rightful place at the top of this world.

“Don’t forget that our ultimate goal is the ascension of the human species as a whole, so a few sacrifices along the way can’t stop us. Got it?” Eishin turned his gaze to Samael, who could only lower his head and nod.

“I would also like to keep the sacred energy conversion slower and lower the risks, but the demihumans recovering their ancient bloodlines has changed the situation. We need enough power to face them and those who try to stop us. The Ascension of our species is essential to this.” Eishin touched Samael’s shoulder as he continued his fanatical speech.

Samael could only sigh bitterly as he waited for his master’s speech to end. Eishin always got that way when he spoke of humanity and its long-held desire to evolve beyond its current limits, forcing any unfortunate angels nearby to listen to his words.

It took nearly half an hour before Eishin calmed down and stopped his rant.

“I’ve already spent too much time here. I’m leaving now, but keep me updated of any changes in spirit. This bastard is key to our plan and don’t let anything bad happen to him.” Eishin spoke last as he took his leave, turning into tiny beams of light and coming out through small holes in the ceiling.

Left alone, Samael went back to watching the spirit in silence, but his mind continued to remember his last conversation with Eishin. The fanatical gleam in his eye when talking about humanity rising, the hatred not disguised by just the brief mention of giants, the coldness in treating those he was sworn to protect as sacrifices for the greater good, and the recklessness in ignoring his warnings and the side effects that accelerate the conversion of sacred energy could bring.

‘No, I shouldn’t doubt my master like that. Thousands of people die every day and ascension will allow even more to be saved. So why is my heart so restless?’ Samael thought as he placed his hand on his chest.

His body was made entirely of light and there shouldn’t have been anything there, but he still remembered the feeling of a beating heart. Samael swallowed that disquieting feeling, repeating to himself that it was for the good of humanity, but there was no way to distract himself in an underground chamber and soon thoughts of doubt returned to his mind.

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