197 The Other Half

He opened his eyes and found himself lying down on cold, cracked stone. He slowly sat up, wincing at the throbbing pain in its head. 'What the hell?' he thought. His eyes went wide at the state of his feet. 'Why do I have flesh?' He poked at his leg. His hand bounced off the warm flesh. 'It's not an illusion?' He scrunched his eyebrows together and poked his leg again. This time there was a little pain, confirming that his leg had living flesh around his body. 'What's going on?' He waved his hands but nothing happened. 'I'm out of mana? How many decades has it been since that has happened? What foe did I fight? No, no single being could put me in this state. It must have been an organization. Maybe those War Monks finally took action again.' Tired of guessing of what happened, he turned his attention to the present situation. He was in a cavern made of cracked black stone, commonly found in the areas around Draken Capital and Bidzarl. As he moved around, blood dripped from his new body, but his new body didn't have a single wound on it. 'Either someone healed me or my opponent must have self-destructed and I was somehow turned into a human as a result. While those situations are highly unlikely, those are the most likely explanations.' He felt odd all over. He had felt pain before but this was different, a new mix of resistance and lingering aches.

"Hello?" he asked, finding its voice to be hoarse and high-pitched. He guessed he had been transformed into a human teenager. He waited for a response that never arrived. Again he called out, waited, and nothing happened. He shambled about the area. Strangely enough, he was able to move his new body with complete coordination. After exiting the room, a pain assaulted his head so intense that he fell to his knees and a scream escaped his dry throat. A few seconds later and the pain was gone.

When he let go of the sides of his head, he noticed a spatial ring on his finger. He searched through its contents and found a water sac. After downing every drop of water, he got back to his feet and resumed his walk down the chamber. He had to pull out a light crystal because his eyes had lost the ability to see in pitch-black.

Memories flashed by of his birth, his childhood, the Virility mansion, the front lines, and finally being combined with the other half. He halted, a fit of coughing rocking though his thin body. The world turned black and white. 'That's right.' He sat down, wincing at the cold floor, crossed his fleshy legs, and shut his eyes. When he opened them again, in front of him was a whitish orb: his soul. A large crack traveled down the top. He could just barely see inside the orb, where the other half had trapped himself. The other half kept wincing and screaming, stuck in a loop of unending agony.

The passageway eventually opened into a large cavern. He climbed through the holes leading back up to the temporary shelter that the group had found. Two of the three people waiting for him in the shelter, he remembered. The third person however, a girl wrapped in blankets like a baby, he didn't remember.

The first to notice his return was the Virility brat, who stood up: "Where have you been?" The boy drew closer, his eyes widening at the blood covering his body.

The inheritor of the hero's power stood up and stopped the brat: "Thomas." The inheritor's eyes were red with dark bags under them. "Just let him be. Just act like everything is ok." The inheritor gave a smile, which confused the Lich.

'Why would one smile under this circumstance. He saw me, didn't he? Shouldn't he be afraid?' He glanced at the hand on the brat's shoulder. It was shaking. 'Is he faking it? Did he talk?' He activated his mana only to remember that the other half had taken it. 'Mana is all my lifeblood, something I have never been out of. Why did you feel the need to take it?'

"I just went to try some things," the Lich said. "Do not worry." He slapped Thomas's shoulder with all of its strength, a typical human greeting. "Now let us wake up." He woke the girl by pushing against her blanket-covered legs. She opened her eyes and took one look at him before punching him in the face. He fell back, wondering what terrible fate he would subject this girl to when his mana returned.

"Don't do that again." She said as she pushed the blankets off of her, exposing her mangled legs. He then realized that she was a freak, a deformity. At the same time, the orb deep in its mind shook, and the being trapped inside managed to reach a hand up. The Lich hurriedly closed his eys and shoved the other half back inside. A cold sweat traveled down his cheek when he opened his eyes in reality.

The deformed girl sat up. Life essence formed around her legs, piecing them back together.

'Is that magic?' the Lich thought. 'No, there should be many things I don't understand. All I need to do is wait for the other half to finish the trial whether he fails, reverting us both back to our original state, or he succeeds.' He got up and bowed. "I apologize."

The deformed girl raised an eyebrow. "What in the name of the goddess happened while I was asleep?" The brat and the inheritor both shrugged.

"Elero, let's just begin the daily hunt," the inheritor said. "Maybe Doevm found something that messed with his mind." He let out a nervous laugh. "I think we're nearing the end of the tunnels. I just want to finish this up and leave."

There were still some complaints but either it or the inheritor managed to convince them otherwise. 'Maybe he's not so useless,' the Lich thought. After finishing a light breakfast, the group walked down the caves. He figured he should follow them so he did. He pulled his spear from his spatial ring because he figured he should at least act the part.

'If that girl hits me again, he might just take control and kill her, justified or not.' As they walked along, he delved deeper into his thoughts and tried to play out hypothetical situations to explain his sudden ignorance, but he came up with nothing. He wasn't a human after all. Only lies came from humans. Because he didn't like to waste time, he pulled out his notebook on life essence techniques and flipped through the pages. He finished the first page and he was hooked; soon getting lost in its contents. So lost in fact, that he almost didn't feel the hands shaking his shoulders. He shook his head and shut the book. The group members all had blood dripping off their weapons while his was still dry.

"Doevm," the deformed girl growled. "Get your fucking head out of that book before I lose the minute sliver of patience I have left for your crap." She reached forward to snatch the book away but the inheritor caught her hand. The deformed girl turned to the inheritor with a murderous glint in her eyes. "You're defending him? You better have a damned good explanation."

"Frey, what's happening?" The Virility brat asked. "There is no way out of this. What is with Doevm?" They both approached the inheritor, who kept glancing at the Lich, so he figured he should help the poor, moronic human.

"I'm fine guys," the Lich said. "just imagine I am not here." Both the brat and the deformed girl stared at him in a mix of shock and disbelief. The deformed girl kept stuttering for a while, her jaw on the ground. "Just trust me."

"Oh ok we just need to trust you," the deformed girl responded in a tone unlike her usual voice. She turned around and took several deep breaths before turning right back to the Lich: "Nope, not this time. I need to knock you on your ass and make you spit it out. Thomas hold him down." 

Frey jumped in between them and him: "Hold on let's just talk about this."

The deformed girl's eyes seem to bore straight through him: "Get out of our way. We're serious."

'The inheritor seems to be a loyal one, when he's pressured enough,' he thought. 'Good thing I have him, but it's a little too late.' His hands shot to his head, the throbbing pain reaching an all-time high.

Through the crack in their shared soul, a hand rose, then another. Ever so slowly, the being that had trapped itself inside, crawled out. The other half was still screaming in utter agony but he kept moving forward. Blood dripped from his every pore.

The Lich felt his mind numb as the other half took back control. Mana which he had sealed away, released. His soulmana surfaced. In reality, no one saw Doevm's body change. Their attention was too focused on the solid stone walls, which ripped open. "Just imagine I'm not here. Everything is fine and nothing is out of the ordinary, nor has it been this entire day!" The other half squeezed out those words before he crawled back in that little isolated space of torment. The Lich regained control and the headache strengthened.

"Why are we standing here?" The deformed girl raised an eyebrow and looked at the brat. "Why do I feel so angry?" She stared at the Lich, nor realizing he was standing right in front of her. The inheritor's jaw dropped.

"Keep going," the Lich said. "Hurry up. I can't keep him back much longer."

The group went through a few more chambers. They killed everything in their path. The Lich tried to keep itself busy by conducting life essence experiments, but whenever he would practice, his headache worsened. His body shook, although he had no idea why. He ran whenever something tried to attack him for, he did not know how to fight without mana. A human would always kill it. At least they were good for something. After much blood and sweat, the group reached the end. By the end however, that did not mean that they had reached the end of the caves. It meant his companions could not continue, specifically the deformed girl and the brat. They sat down, breathing hard and gulping down all of their water.

"I think that's enough for today," the deformed girl said as she quickly disassembled her braces and the life essence around them vanished.

"I can go a few more," the brat said. "I just need a few more minutes to make some spears, although my arm is hurting. I want to spar later so let's just call it done for the day."

"Agreed," the deformed girl said. "We should just go back and rest."

"No!" the inheritor yelled. "Let's keep going. If anything happens, I'll take care of it. I can go a lot further than you guys. Thomas. You should stay in the back and guard Elero while I clear rooms." He let out a chuckle, although the Lich wasn't sure why laughing was appropriate in this situation, nor was he sure why the inheritor was smiling.

"That dream I had," the inheritor continued, looking right at the Lich. "It wasn't a dream, was it?" the Lich shook his head. "Then, what are you doing to us? How long has this been going on?" the inheritor glanced back to find that neither the brat nor the deformed girl seemed to be hearing him.

"I'll tell you later."