I became a legion lich

226 Treevor development

Athos was right when he thought that spirits were capable of forcibly breaking through layers using accumulated energy, but it was information that not even the spirits themselves knew.

It was widely held information that spirits could accumulate energy over time and there was no known limit to the amount they could store, but only because no spirit had ever accumulated enough energy to do so.

Energy accumulate at an extremely slow rate and normal spirits could store dozens of times more energy than the mana core, so most normally form new layers before reach this limit.

Many used the accumulated energy to fight or create a suitable environment around it like a forest, so it was nearly impossible to accumulate enough energy to break through the force. Even if they encounter growth bottlenecks, it would take centuries to build up the necessary energy.

Yggdrasil spirits had an even higher energy limit and even though Treevor was not a pure spirit, his limit was above that of a normal spirit. It should have been impossible for him to break through the force, but the world pillage ability made it possible for Treevor.

Athos didn’t pay much attention to Treevor after confirming that he was safe and was advancing forward, calling a skeleton that had already passed the fifth layer just to make sure he was safe.

“He is safe, master. Advancing to the sixth layer is different from the previous layers and the process is much longer and more painful. Mister Treevor has two cores and both are progressing at the same time, so the pain is even worse.” The skeleton that answered his call was Malti.

“The fifth layer is the first wall of progression any warrior or mage faces and the easiest to break through, but many are stuck there for a long time.” Malti informed him as soon as he checked Treevor’s condition and confirmed that there was no danger.

“Even so, I still need a strong skeleton to hold him back and keep him from getting hurt. Unlike his ethereal mana core, his amber eye is physical and he could get hurt if he keeps thrashing like that.” Athos refused to release Treevor until the progress was finished.

.....

“Are you worried about him?” Malti tilted his head and asked doubtfully, wondering at his master’s sudden show of concern.

“Of course I’m worried! Treevor is a unique creature with the powers of a spirit and no limitations. He also has unique racial abilities and the lineage of Yggdrasil, the world tree! Where in the world would you find such a rare being?!” Athos was offended by Malti’s question.

‘Oh. Treevor is like a rare animal.’ Malti noticed, feeling a little sorry for Treevor.

************

Nearly half an hour passed before the process was over and the pain subsided enough for Treevor to do more than scream in pain and try to struggle.

The sixth layer had successfully formed and Athos followed the whole process with the vision of death, but noticed an abnormality. The new layer formed around the nucleus, instead of being internal like the first ones.

Athos questioned Malti if this was normal and she stated that it was, leaving him wondering what that meant.

“What happened to me? I feel like I’ve been run over by a dragon.” Treevor muttered still lying on the ground, scratching his temples with a headache.

“Congratulations. You discovered a new power and broke through to the sixth layer.” Athos clapped his hands congratulating him while briefly explaining what happened.

“What the fuck are you saying?” Treevor cursed unconsciously, Athos’ words making no sense to him. Then his brain processed Athos’ words and his jaw dropped to the floor.

He stood up abruptly, all the signs of pain he was showing a second ago disappearing like a mirage as he looked down at his body with death vision.

Treevor confirmed that his core had reached the sixth layer while relocating the mandible into place.

“How...how is that possible? I’ve been stuck in this damn progression barrier for over 20 years and suddenly I break through?” Treevor muttered in disbelief, repeatedly checking his core to make sure he wasn’t mistaken.

“I already explained, didn’t I? You discovered a new ability and broke through to the sixth layer.” Athos repeated the same thing.

“Okay, you’re useless. Malti, did you see what happened to me?” Treevor gave up trying to get coherent answers from Athos and turned to Malti who was nearby.

Malti explained in detail what happened, causing Treevor’s jaw to drop for the second time in a matter of seconds.

“Is that really possible? No, it must be true. It’s impossible for you to lie to me and I can see that my core has really improved and the amber energy is more concentrated.” Treevor accepted what had happened to him quickly, much to Athos’ surprise.

“You calmed down faster than expected. I thought you’d be panicking for a while.” Athos muttered to the side.

“I’ve resigned myself to the fact that as long as you’re around, crazy things will keep happening. If I think about it too much, I’ll go crazy.” Treevor spoke in a wry tone, momentarily forgetting that he had already lost his mind as well.

“I’m glad you recovered, because there’s still work to be done.” Athos pointed with his thumb behind him, where the trees that were the real bodies of the spirits were.

Skeletons were busy digging up the half-human bodies that had died buried alive and were trying to move the trees closer to Treevor. The trees were heavy, weighing over a ton each, but it was nothing for physically powerful monsters.

The spirits were slowly withering, but that was to be expected. Spirits could not move from the place where they were born and any attempt would be deadly for them.

Until their bodies were buried and connected with the earth once more, they would bleed to death.

“I understood.” Treevor sighed and returned to the corrupted willow, spreading its roots out to regain the world pillage ability. Luckily for him, there was no cooldown for using the skill, as it was originally a skill that constantly granted life to the earth, instead of stealing it.

‘They don’t have much energy left, but all energy is welcome, especially now that I know I can evolve by accumulating energy.’ Treevor thought as he drained what was left of the energy accumulated by the spirits and stopped before he started draining the tree itself.

“Okay, master. Now all that’s left is to kill them and test if you can transform spirits too.” Treevor spoke and his vines began to whip the trees, releasing blades of black aura to cut them.

Their real bodies were robust and ordinary iron weapons would not be able to harm them. Treevor continued chopping up the trees like a lumberjack until he confirmed with the death vision that everyone was dead.

He cast the mass rise of the undead on the dead trees, expending twice as much life force on all of them and successfully transforming them all. There wasn’t much difference in transforming a spirit or a human, just the amount of mana in the required spell was several times higher.

The spirit trees were either acacia or palm trees and they all blackened to ebony black. Their trunks twisted in a spiral like screws, their leaves darkening to a sickly green.

Treevor also used darkness to heal them back to perfect form, but they still continued to slowly wither just as they had when they were alive.

“Let’s bury them for now. Turning undead hasn’t changed their weaknesses and they will still die if they don’t connect with the earth.” Treevor spoke as soon as he confirmed the successful transformation of the spirits.

He used earth magic to dig twelve holes and the undead buried the corrupted trees, the spirits immediately began to recover.

“Why aren’t they coming out? Maybe they’re trapped inside their bodies like you were?” Athos cocked his head in confusion, using the death vision to check the condition of the spirits. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong and his black cores in the seventh layer were perfect, so no he didn’t understand what the problem was.

“That’s to be expected. Their spirits were destroyed and that kind of damage takes time to heal. Turning undead did nothing to heal them, quite the contrary, it may have delayed the spirits’ recovery even further.” Treevor explained, using his mystical senses to see into the souls of the spirits.

In his eyes, the spirits’ souls were covered in wounds and shattered, just as he left them when he destroyed the avatars. The black chains did not wrap around the souls as usual, but dug deep into the wounds, spreading their darkness into the deepest parts of the souls.

Treevor didn’t know why the currents were acting differently this time or what difference it would make, so he just explained what he saw to the others.

“I think the answer is simpler than you think.” Athos muttered after Treevor finished explaining, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

“Explain and do it right this time. You summarize too much when you explain something.” Treevor demanded in annoyance.