I became a legion lich

174 Fourth layer

The two left the sewers a few minutes later, as they needed to gather the scattered alchemical items in addition to her equipment.

As soon as they exited the sewers, a huge shadow fell over them and they looked up to see Simogo hovering over them. He landed in front of them, before looking at Athos as if expecting to be praised.

“You killed them all without letting any escape?” Athos asked as he walked over and patted his mist-like muzzle.

Simogo nodded in agreement, wagging his tail happily at being petted.

‘It looks like a puppy.’ Athos thought, but kept the comment to himself. He used death vision to check the dragon’s core and saw that both his dragon core and his core were below half in energy, although that amount was still a few times greater than Athos’ total mana.

“I have a new job for you, Simogo. I want you to help me turn the corpses into undead. I’ll teach you the spell for that and you spread it around the fortress. With your power, it should be possible to turn a few thousand into shortly.” Athos spoke while looking at a confused Simogo.

“Don’t worry, you’re naturally attuned to darkness, so it shouldn’t be difficult for you to learn the spell.” Athos said to reassure him and Simogo nodded in obedience, although he didn’t understand how to use different spells.

To Athos’ surprise, Simogo not only learned the spell, he did it in record time, besting all of his skeleton mages with decades of experience.

‘Is it Simogo who is a genius or are all dragons who are so powerful?’ Athos wondered, but there was no way to get the answer, so he dropped the subject.

.....

Simogo began circling the fortress, releasing clouds of darkness mixed with sparks of his life force, lifting dozens of black skeletons at once. Athos accompanied him as he raised as many undead as possible, but it wasn’t even a tenth of what the dragon was doing.

Athos felt the life force building by the hundreds, then by the thousands as Simogo spread through the fortress. Even with Simogo’s help, they still didn’t have enough mana to turn all the corpses into undead, but Athos hoped it would be enough to at least improve their core.

And he really did.

Athos began to feel that he was about to have a breakthrough, and the feeling only got worse with time, so he stopped raising skeletons and focused on the core itself.

He began to condense the mana from his core and form the fourth layer, the process was much simpler than the first few times. The pain was much worse than the first few times, but Athos didn’t care and continued condensing his mana.

In a few minutes of concentration and agonizing pain, Athos managed to form his fourth layer. He felt a surge of power spreading through his body, before he suddenly froze and fell to the ground.

Athos began to spasm and moan incoherently as his skin and muscles twitched like an insect with its head crushed. The empty space within his body began to be filled as the absorbed life force merged with the darkness and recreated all of his internal organs.

Athos fell to the ground because his nerves were being rebuilt and he was unable to control his movements for a few moments, making him squirm uncontrollably for a few moments.

So did his vocal chords and his brain, causing the convulsions and incoherent moans. It was possible to clearly see through his empty eye sockets the gray matter of his brain expanding until it covered the inside of his skull.

His eyes were recreated a second later, but they didn’t look human at all. The part of his eyes that should have been white was completely black, contrasting with his silvery irises. The only normal thing about his eyes was his pupils which were naturally black.

Among all the internal organs forming, the most important were the bone marrow and the heart. Unlike the other bodies, these started working as soon as they were formed.

The medulla began to produce a black liquid that the heart pumped throughout the body. The liquid was not really blood, but concentrated darkness that flowed throughout his body, giving Athos a vitality he thought he had lost.

His gray veins were slowly tinged with black as the darkness flowed through his body, making his dark veins stand out whenever he exerted himself.

As his insides filled up, his body that previously looked withered in places looked perfectly human now.

The external changes to her body were also extensive. His fingernails were dyed black, while his hair began to grow back to the length it had been in life. Athos never cared much about cutting his hair, so his hair was long and past his shoulders.

His hair color was a pristine white, making Athos appear almost monochromatic. The body hair on his body has also grown, creating a wispy beard on his face.

“Damn my head. Having a hangover without drinking is the worst.” Athos spoke when the changes in his body were finally over. He got to his feet with unsteady steps, feeling his mind slowly clear.

“Someone bring me a mirror or something. I want to see what I look like now.” Athos ordered and the surrounding skeletons split up to look for any that survived the destruction.

They came back a few minutes later with a cracked face mirror, the best thing they could get.

“Wow. I really got my body back, although it’s not exactly how I remembered it.” Athos murmured as he looked at all the details of his body, surprising himself with all the changes. He removed the armor and admired all the changes in his body, not the least bit embarrassed to be naked in public.

His white hair was what caught his attention the most. He had never imagined himself with light hair, although it didn’t look bad on him. His current appearance was exotic to say the least, but there was no denying that he was a handsome young man.

He suddenly remembered something and looked down, only to sigh. “Looks like I don’t have a beard yet. This shape is exactly how I looked before I died, so it’s likely I’ll never have one.”

Athos spoke without thinking too much about it, but then gasped in shock. His hair got slightly shorter while a thick beard grew on his face.

It wasn’t a surprise that he could reabsorb parts of his body and while increasing his hair length was a surprise, it wasn’t what Athos was concerned about. The surprise was that his hair decreased without him having to do anything.

They didn’t disappear because of his actions, but because of his desires, and that shocked him.

“I want a mustache.” Athos muttered and immediately touched his face, noticing that a mustache had slowly grown as his hair decreased. It looked like he had a fixed amount of mass and in order to grow one thing he would need to shrink another.

“This is awesome, I’ve always wanted a beard.” Athos absently looked at himself in the mirror, watching his beard grow. He spent the next half hour absentmindedly making small changes to his entire body as he recharged his body’s corrupted mana.

In addition to controlling hair growth, he could slightly change skin color. He couldn’t change the gray color, but he could make it duller instead of shining like silver when his body was fully charge.

Athos also discovered that he was able to alter his appearance even further, turning all the fat on his body into pure muscle or vice versa, although this did not affect his actual strength, only his appearance.

Small changes could also be made to her facial structure, but that part was more difficult. It was difficult to change her face without looking like a freak. Athos hoped that with practice, he could change shape freely.

“It seems that’s the limit of what my body can change. It won’t be very useful in combat, but it’s nice to know that I can change my look whenever I want.” Athos thought when he felt that his body was full of energy and could not bear any more.

‘The amount of energy I can maintain has increased dramatically. It’s almost two-thirds of my core now.’ Athos thought as he measured the amount of energy in his current body and compared it to before.

‘My coming to this fortress was definitely worth it and I’m not leaving until I’ve taken everything I can from this place.’ Athos thought as he called Malti. He ceded control of all the skeletons in the fortress to Malti and made her loyal to him.

“I have some orders for you.” Athos spoke when she was about to kneel.

“Yes Master!” She responded enthusiastically.

“First, I’m going to teach you the spell to turn corpses into undead and I want you to use it on all the corpses here. If you take more than 24 hours they will become useless, so don’t delay.”

“Secondly, I want you to gather all the useful resources in the stronghold and load any carriages and wagons you can find. Priority will be whatever metals and magic resources you have, as well as the mithril plaques that surround the stronghold and alchemical items buried as a defense against demihumans.”

“Once you’re done gathering everything, lead the undead to the platinum fist fortress to the east. I’ll be waiting for you there.” Athos finished giving the orders and turned around, but Malti grabbed his wrist and stopped him from leaving.

“What is it? I’m sure I made myself clear.” He asked irritably, not liking being held at all.