《Warrior of Light》 Prologue: Let there be Light Prologue: Let there be Light ----------------------------------------- The power rips through him, tearing great rents in his skin. He feels his blood boil in his veins and knows that this will be his end. He will not go quietly. Not now, not after all his sacrifices, after all the sleepless nights spent writhing in agony as he shaped his body to the Light. Not with his loved ones waiting just beyond the veil; so close he can feel their fingers brush through his hair and hear their soothing whispers. He closes his eyes, burning tears snaking down his cheeks. ¡®It doesn¡¯t hurt like I thought it would. Just numbness and tingles. Guess I paid upfront for it.¡¯ The Light is coming from everywhere now, every crack and hole in his battered body spewing enough power to sustain a city for a day; and it just keeps coming. His eyes open again, and he locks eyes with a Hole in the World. It recoils from the burning pillars of Light coming from his eyes and lets out a scream that shakes the earth beneath them. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He floats, just a little higher, and brings his limbs together; three pairs of wings cradling his burning form, and the luminescence increases rapidly. His core cracks. Then shatters. The sound of breaking glass echoes first in his mind, then in reality; drawing another wail from the Hole. The world ends with the resounding chime of shards of glass, and an expanding sphere of Light that subsumes surrounding matter, turning the very rock into pure Light. He feels none of it; just a creeping warmth that he sinks readily into, and the sensation of arms cradling his form. Maybe not the End he wanted, but one he would accept. ¡®Peace at last¡­peace at last.¡¯ ----------------------------------------- His eyes open, not to his smiling family, but to an unfamiliar ceiling. Chapter 1: Jumpstart
Warrior of Light mrsquishr? Chapter 1: Jumpstart --------------------------------- This was, unfortunately for him, not an entirely unfamiliar scenario; and he feels a great wave of dread wash over his prone form. The familiar burn of Light in his veins is distressingly absent, and his movements are lethargic as he struggles to raise even his head. ''Where¡­'' his thought cut off as he spots the baby mobile hanging a few feet above his face. ''No...'' ''No, no, no, not again!'' Panic overtakes him, and he lets out a cry. Quickly, a door opens and a worried looking woman peers down at his wriggling form. She scoops him up, and coos gently to him, rocking him in her arms. "Hey, it''s okay honey, mommy''s here." Slowly, his breath calms, and his cries fade away. Smiling up at the unfamiliar face, the dots start to connect in his mind, and he recognizes who she must be. ''Mommy? But then¡­'' The woman, who must be his new mother, lets out a sigh and tuts fondly at him. "You gave me a little scare, what do you need?" When no response comes, she just rocks him back and forth a bit more, and then sets him in his crib. Laying there, hearing the door click shut behind her, the pieces start to fall together in his mind. ''It really happened again. I''m somewhere new, and as a newborn this time.'' ''Fuck.'' --------------------------------- It took a few days to really come to terms with his new situation. At least as a baby he had all the time in the world to think, so he had a basic plan hammered out by the end of his first week. His new parents spoke a language familiar to him, though one he hadn''t heard for a lifetime. One never quite forgets their mother tongue, and so he was able to understand most of what they spoke about. Mainly names, times, places, and events. He was looking for anything he could use to ascertain the current situation of the world but had not overheard anything particularly noteworthy, except for three names. His, his father''s, and his mother''s. They had named him Lucian, after his father, and his mother was named Alice. Lucian had started to refer to himself by the new name, trying to get used to it. Besides trying to eavesdrop in his parent''s conversations, he had one other focus that absorbed most of his time. His connection to the Light. His core was, as expected, nowhere to be seen; and that might have been for the best. If his core was still inside him, even just a shard, he would probable just explode from the power. This small body of his was unaccustomed to enduring the Light''s burning energy and wouldn''t be able to handle more than a fraction of his previous might. One thing he did still have, and in spades at that, was knowledge. It was what he had used to jump ahead in his previous world and would be even more potent of an edge in this one. Before he could put any of this to use, though, he had to make sure he could still call upon the Light. He would have to start small, and make sure he was completely alone. The Light was anything but subtle outside of the body, and it would not be smart to draw his parent''s suspicion. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. --------------------------------- It was midnight, several days later, when he had finally decided on the method to forge his connection. For hours he stared out at the full moon in the window and, though just a pale reflection of sunlight, it would still do to jumpstart his core formation. He controlled his breathing and began to draw on the faint shafts of moonlight that fell onto his face. Closing his eyes to better focus, he could smell the flowery scent of the moon, masking the faintest spicy burn of sunlight. Gathering his willpower, he slowly gathered it, shaping the light into a small needle, then guiding it over his chest until it hovered above his slowly beating heart. Without showing even a hint of pain, his concentration did not waver as the needle slowly slid through his chest, slipping between his ribs and coming to rest against his heart. Slowly, carefully, he guided it in the smallest of circles and traced out an unbroken line onto the surface of his organ. Allowing the needle to fade away once he had carved the circle, a small drop of blood beaded onto his chest before being absorbed by his blanket. The hard part was done, and now all that was left was to channel just a tiny bit of sunlight into the groove. Steeling himself for the pain, he took one last deep breath, and centered his focus on the circle. He could see it through his closed eyelids, the light slowly getting brighter, and then his heart stuttered in its rhythm and fire entered his veins. The prick of the needle was incomparable to the agony of burning from the inside, but it was a pain that he had borne many times before. Scrunching his face, and clenching his fists, he let out no more than a slight grunt. Sweat began dripping from his form, and he could feel the ambient temperature start to raise through the haze of pain. He had wrest control of the rampaging Light, and use it, before he turned into a ball of fire. Drawing the heat back into himself the temperature dropped back to normal before continuing to plummet, and frost began to creep across his window. Focusing inside of himself, he pushed the Light along in his veins, and forced it to cycle back around to his heart. Every beat pushed it further along until, after what felt like a small eternity, the first cycle was completed. With a gasp of relief, he let himself fall limp on the bed, and felt the next cycle start to follow that trail that he had burned into his flesh. The small circle on his heart was glowing now, filling with Light as it circulated it through his body, and he knew that it would one day turn into his core. For now, he was content. His connection was reestablished without too much difficulty, and he hadn''t spontaneously combusted while trying. ''I wasn''t sure this small body could take the Light, and such a small amount almost overwhelmed me.'' He knew he had a long way to go until he was back at his peak but, for now at least, he was satisfied with his progress. With that, Lucien closed his eyes, and drifted into unconsciousness, exhausted beyond even thought. Chapter 2: Pillars of the Future Warrior of Light mrsquishr Chapter 2: Pillars of the Future -------------------------------------------- Being awoken far too early by his frantic mother, Lucien blearily opened his eyes and gazed up at her. She seemed concerned and was checking him over. Shifting his gaze to the side of his crib he saw his blanket draped over the railing, still damp with sweat and displaying a conspicuous blood stain in the middle. ¡®Shit, I guess that chest wound bled more than I thought it would.¡¯ He looked back up at his mother as her movements slowed, evidently finding no trace of injury on him. She wouldn¡¯t, one of the most basic uses of the Light was to heal, and even the miniscule amount he had running through him at this stage would close up the wound from the needle in a couple of minutes. That didn¡¯t take care of the sweat soaked blanket though, ¡®maybe she thought I was running a fever?¡¯ She placed the back of her hand against his forehead, confirming this theory though, again she wouldn¡¯t find anything out of the ordinary. If anything, he ran colder than normal, passively taking in some of the ambient heat to fuel himself. Despite finding no obvious issues, Lucien had still managed to earn himself a trip to an Urgent Care with his stunt, his parents obviously concerned about his health. Once again nothing was found and so, with a seemingly perfectly healthy baby boy, Lucien and his parents returned home to little fanfare. -------------------------------------------- Over the next few months Lucien continued to monitor his cycle, correcting any flaws that developed with it, and planning the next steps in his growth. He couldn¡¯t move too fast, he was still only a few months old, but he wanted to ensure his body was properly prepared for future channeling. He had a unique opportunity in being able to temper his body with Light at such a young age, body still malleable enough to adjust without too much issue. If he could lay a solid foundation for future stages, then he would rapidly be able to regain his lost strength. Hopefully this time he wouldn¡¯t have to resort to forcibly advancing through stages as, with the benefit of hindsight, he could see that while he gained boosts in raw power output, his techniques and skills had lagged dangerously far behind. After establishing his first cycle, Lucien¡¯s secondary goal was to ensure that his mind palace was still intact, and that he still had access to some of the techniques that he had discovered in the ruins of his old world. While unable to use any of them when he had discovered them, Lucien had made sure to study them in great depth to try and gleam some manner of enlightenment towards their underlying principles. Now, still at the beginning of his journey, he had the chance to browse through these powerful skills and create the foundation of his future advancement. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Because of his decision to continue channeling the Light, many of the techniques were not immediately useful to him, as they focused on other sources of power. A few of the remaining skills showed great promise, and Lucien thought that he could borrow some of the principles of the others to create something tailor made for him. -------------------------------------------- In the end, Lucien decided to utilize one concept as the driving force behind his progression. Previously he had focused on raw overwhelming power output, and it had taken him far. It was also something that was far too useful to totally abandon. This time, he held one value above everything else. Survivability. The Light provided unending methods of offence from scorching beams, to throwing glowing spears, but where it really excelled was in the defensive side. Having already used the healing aspects of Light to mend his chest wound its potency would only grow with time, and his understanding of the body. Beyond the healing, Lucien intended to use the more mutagenic properties of Light to mold his body into a fortress that could withstand anything. This would allow him to channel huge amounts of Light, as he had in the past, without the danger of overheating that had shadowed his every move. By the time The End had grown near, in his old body, his passive Light generation was enough to cause him great pain as it tore his body apart; and uncontrollably spewed power from his eyes, such that they didn¡¯t really exist in the physical sense. He sought to avoid that fate on this go-around, and so would have to experiment with his physical development. One thing that was vital for him to reacquire as soon as possible were his wings as they acted as giant filters to absorb energy and would help to vent any excess in case of an emergency. He would have to find some way of disguising them this time, as he did not want to draw attention to himself until he was strong enough to do something about it. -------------------------------------------- Lucien¡¯s first modification was to his eyes, probably because of the trauma of feeling them boil out of his skull the last time. ¡®Yes, probably best to avoid pulling that one out in front of my parents.¡¯ He chuckled to himself, while staring at his eyes in a mirror. They were brown this time, though not for long, and he wanted to move slowly during these early stages. ¡®Carefully¡¯ he murmured, gathering his willpower, and started to draw on the growing reservoir of Light that sat spinning in his heart. Until he could figure out the whole wings situation, he was stuck absorbing ambient heat through his skin, a horribly slow and inefficient method when he had to do it subtly. This would work as a stopgap until then and would allow for an emergency weapon in case he had to defend himself. Guiding the Light into his left eye first, he watched in the mirror his pupil slowly expanded, consuming iris and most of the sclerae before contracting rapidly to slightly larger than its previous size. This was accompanied by a sharp burning in his eye, and bloody tears streamed down the side of his face. Quickly focusing on his right eye, he repeated the procedure, pushing through the sharp pain that flared up on both sides of his head. Finally finished, he gazed upon his handywork, and tried to draw in Light. Lucien¡¯s pupils quickly expanded to cover most of his eyes, and the lights in the room dimmed slightly. Staring into the two voids that sat in his face, he quickly guided this new flow of energy into his cycle, splicing it into the already flowing stream. The new surge of power flooded his veins, and he could feel them burn as they tried to adapt to the new throughput. He knew it would take days, if not weeks, until the burn went away, and he had adapted to the amount of Light he could access. He would need to improve his reservoir too and bring it closer to the core that used to possess. For the time being, he relaxed his pull on the energy, and his pupils slowly contracted to a normal size, cutting the absorption down and easing a bit of the burn. He¡¯d be able to run the passive intake all day without garnering suspicion and could increase the rate at night to maintain a constant intake. He did have one more thing to test, his little hidden weapon. Lucien had to admit, he was always a fan of the old comics, and Superman¡¯s heat vision had been something that he had recreated with the Light before. This was a smaller scale version of that, and he focused his eyes on a small coin he had found while crawling around the house for exercise. Drawing a pulse of Light from his reservoir, a flash of Light linked him with the coin momentarily before it faded and revealed a perfect hole in the coin, as well as in the wall behind it. His eyes burned from the test, and Lucien knew he couldn¡¯t how the beam for any long durations. ¡®I¡¯ll save it for emergencies I guess.¡¯ Glancing back towards the mirror, Lucien paused as he noticed the blood coating his face for the first time. ¡®Well, fuck. Got to get washed up before someone sees me.¡¯ He made for the bathroom as fast as his little hands and feet could take him. Chapter 3: The Heart of the Matter Warrior of Light mrsquishr Chapter 3: The Heart of the Matter ------------------------------------------------- For Lucien the next few years were filled with a monotonous grind of tempering his body and maintaining his image of normalcy. After changing his eyes with the Light, he knew that his body would have to develop to sustain the greater flow of Light that further improvements would need, and so bided his time quietly. By the time his fourth birthday rolled around, Lucien could feel that he was finally ready make more adjustments, his body sufficiently tempered by the Light cycling through him. He had spent his time drawing as much energy into his system as he could and had taken to sitting by the window while staring directly at the sun. His reservoir had swelled, and Lucien could feel it straining faintly in his chest. In the dark of night, he could now spot a faint luminescence emanating from behind his ribs, and the first order of business would be to improve the simple circle containing the burning Light. Lucien chose the night after his fourth birthday to enact his plan, and waited until he was certain everyone else in the house was asleep. Standing from his bed, he walked to his door and crammed his blanket between the cracks in the doorframe, as well as ensuring his curtains completely covered his window. He didn¡¯t know how flashy this was going to be, but it would suck if someone saw the glow and came to investigate. He could not be interrupted during the procedure. Laying down in the middle of the room, Lucien slowly sank into a meditative trance. As his breath slowed, so too followed his heartbeat, and he began gathering his willpower. Slowly drawing Light from his reservoir, and gathering it above his chest, Lucien placed a balled-up shirt into his mouth to stop from biting his tongue. This would not be so simple as the small circle he had carved previously, and the pain would likewise be incomparable to the earlier procedure. The increase in power would mean that a surge of Light would scour his veins, building into a new cycle that would far outstrip his current one. Slowly Lucien gathered the Light into a line, compressing it until it resembled a small scalpel blade. Starting at his solar plexus, he carefully cut up towards his collarbone, then brough the blade back down to the start of the cut. Turning the knife, he traced along his ribs until he reached his side, then pulling it away and splitting it into multiple pieces. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Peeling back the skin and muscle covering his small ribcage, the heat from the blade ensured that the blood had no time to escape his cauterized veins. Once the correct spot was revealed, Lucien kept the skin pinned with one of his hands and reformed the shards of Light into two serrated discs. Staring at them, they began to spin quickly, then began to sever the ribs covering his heart, revealing the burning circle of Light to the open air. He had no worry of infection with the Light coursing through him, as no disease would be able to survive the blazing heat. Pulling the ribs back, Lucien recombined the two discs of Light into one mass and brought it down over the circle on his weakly beating heart. Carefully, small streams split off and began to flow first into, then away from the circle, burning trails across his flesh. Wrapping around the back of his heart, tracing out complex whirls and patterns on the surface of the organ. This would create a cage around his heart, trapping the Light and allowing for the eventual conversion of his heart into his core once enough power had gathered. As the Light finished its task Lucien quickly reabsorbed it into his system and placed the ribs back over his heart, before laying the flesh of his chest back over them. Channeling a burst of Light into it, the seams glowed white and small amounts of smoke wafted up from them as they were sealed. Lucien relaxed with a sigh and lay on the floor panting for several more minutes. Eventually though, he knew he could put it off no longer, and slammed his eyes shut. Focusing on the light cycling through his veins he began to draw it back into his heart, quickly filling it almost to bursting. Once he had every drop of power that he had painstakingly absorbed over the last 4 years of effort pulsing in his chest, he pushed through the agonizing burn and began to guide it over the complex scrip now covering his heart. The light in the circle began to seep out into the fresh channels slowly, but then quickly gathered speed and blazed across the surface. Once the channels were filled Lucien felt his heart weakly beat, before it expanded and contracted hard, letting out a thud that shook his whole body. With this beat, Light surged back into his veins, and he redoubled his focus on guiding it through this new cycle. Lucien could tell immediately that the large veins and arteries he had used previously could no longer contain the flow of power now coursing through him, and so directed it to seep into the surrounding smaller veins and capillaries. He felt all his muscles contract suddenly, in one giant cramp fueled by the new flow of Light, and it was all he could to not scream in pain. He felt his body burn from the inside, old muscle and flesh flaking away before being regrown just as quickly. Frantically guiding the Light along the last bit of the cycle, Lucien felt it reenter his heart and start the cycle again with the next powerful beat of his reinforced heart, bringing another wave of agony coursing through him. This continued, wave after wave of Light burning the mortality from his flesh and remaking as something better, and it was several minutes before he was able to break through the haze that had fallen over him. Spitting the shirt out of his mouth, Lucien rolled onto his stomach before slowly pushing himself onto all fours. Smiling grimly, he was reminded of the last time he had changed himself and began to crawl towards his bed. Dragging himself on top of his sheets, after several minutes of deliberate effort, he lay his head on his pillow and tried to slow his breathing. Gradually the gasps of air faded, and he drifted into an uneasy rest. Chapter 4: Well, that Escalated Quickly Warrior of Light ? mrsquishr ? Chapter 4: Well, that Escalated Quickly --------------------------------------------- Lucien had expected changes after his advancement but acknowledged that he may have overlooked one specific outcome. With the Light now saturating his muscles and skin, constantly burning away his mortality, he looked just a little too good. Lucien had gotten what he wanted from the refinement with his physical abilities far outstripping anything any toddler should possess, as well as being able to sustain channeling Light for much longer. He was no longer entirely human, and it showed. His skin was soft, and almost glowed under sunlight, and his hair had become silky smooth. If he was grown women would have been falling over themselves to get close to him, but as he was it just made him irresistibly adorable. ''This is my life now,'' he mused as his mother''s friend cooed over him. It was not the first time he had become the center of attention, and he expected it to be far from the last. He was expected to start kindergarten at the local school at the end of the summer, and him mother had begun taking him to see her friends that had children close to his age. She also might have wanted to show him off, but he wouldn''t hold it against her. After managing to wriggle away from the grabby women, leaving them to their tea and conversations, he wandered through the open backdoor and into the backyard of their house. It backed up to a large forest, and Lucien liked to sun himself on the grass. --------------------------------------------- Settling into his usual spot, and closing his eyes to take a short rest, he was startled back awake almost immediately by a rustling beyond the fence. Sitting up, and wandering over to peer through the slats, he saw a curious sight. It was a man and a woman creeping through the underbrush, and they were outfitted very strangely. The man was wearing something close to modern tactical gear but had a sword at his side. The woman was equipped with a bandolier of some sort, and it was filled strange containers. As he continued to observe the strange couple, he noticed that the man was leaning against the woman''s shoulder, and that one of his legs didn''t appear to be bending quite correctly. Suddenly the woman jerked her head around to look behind them and cursed, before pulling one of the containers off her chest and throwing it towards the tree line. There was movement in the trees, and something blurred into view next to where the woman''s throw landed. When it hit the ground there was a muffled pop, and an oddly colored gas spewed out around the capsule. When it touched the thing''s foot, it jerked away and let out a low hiss. "Nowhere to run now little mortals," came a raspy voice from the creature, "give up and I''ll make it quick for you." It truly was an odd-looking thing, almost a man but hunched and twisted. Its eyes shone a dull red, face a dull grey. Lucien watched as the flesh of the foot that had come into contact with the woman''s gas bubbled, before quickly regenerating. "Fuck off!" the woman responded, "we won''t give you the satisfaction." The man she was supporting collapsed, falling to the forest floor, and pulling her partially down with him. Lucien could hear his labored breathing from the fence, and the woman tugged frantically on his arm. "Come on Rob, get up!" she pleaded as she glanced back up to the creature, a low chuckle now coming from between its grimy lips. "Just go Lucy, I''m dead weight," came Rob''s reply, and Lucy snapped back "No! I can''t leave you behind, we can beat this thing together." Rob just shook his head "Lucy, that thing is far more powerful than we were led to believe. Definitely not a fledgling, I think it''s the sire" he finished ominously. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. --------------------------------------------- This whole scene was rather confusing for Lucien to witness and created many questions in his mind. For now, though, he had seen enough, and pulled himself over the fence revealing his presence to the odd group. "Hello there, would you two like any help?" The only response he received was blank stares, before Lucy''s actions took on a new urgency. "Run kid, get back to the house!" she pleaded, but the creature cut in and leered at him. "Well, well, well. What have we here?" The thing licked its lips with a tongue entirely too long and sinuous. "Maybe a little snack after I finish off these two troublemakers?" Now that he had a clear view of the creature, Lucien was certain something was familiar about it. He narrowed his eyes, and his pupils expanded as he glared at it. "The Dark?" he questioned, "just a small fragment though, what are you?" The creature looked a bit taken aback by the question, or maybe it was the voids that had consumed his eyes. "Little boy, you know not what you speak of. There are no fragments within me, I am an avatar of pure darkness! I am a Vampire, and I will drain your body of blood before devouring the husk." Lucien blinked, this creature a Vampire? But this thing had no more power than a lower blood fiend, nothing in comparison to the true Vampires. The man, Rob, let out a wet cough and broke Lucien from his train of thought. ''Right, in the middle of something. Wonder about wild claims from dirty forest creatures later.'' Lucien locked eyes with the claimed Vampire and pulled just a small whisp of Light from his heart. For such a weak servant of the Dark, this much would do. A pulse of power flowed into his eyes, and with a sharp crack, the creature''s head detonated spraying gore over the trees behind it. Refocusing on the shocked couple on the ground ahead of him, Lucien picked his way around the brush until he was standing beside the man and was able to see the extent of his injuries. A large gash had been opened on the man''s leg, and he had a tourniquet applied on his thigh. His chest seemed oddly dented, and Rob coughed out a mouthful of blood as he watched. ''Internal bleeding definitely, and a cut on the leg.'' "Brace yourself," Lucien ordered as he placed his hand on the man''s shoulder and guided a pulse of Light towards the injuries. "This is going to hurt a lot." A brief glow shone through the holes in Rob''s pants and shirt, and smoke drifted into the air. The smell of burning pork filled the small clearing. Rob clenched his teeth as tears streamed down his face, and a low groan forced its way from his throat. "Stop, you''re hurting him!" Lucy cried, reaching for him, and Lucien shover her hand away from his shoulder before fixing her with a withering glare. "I''m trying to heal him, unless you want him to bleed out on the ground here?" He then released Rob, and the man slumped onto the ground, breath coming in harsh pants. Stepping back from the two, he looked between them and the headless body still laying a few feet away from them. "Tell you what. If you get rid of that thing''s body I''ll call us even for the save." "Yes, thank you!" came Rob''s raspy voice from the ground, and he coughed several more times before looking up at his savior and falling silent. "Are you an Angel?" Lucien could feel a headache coming on, he''d just wanted to have a lazy day in the sun, and now this man was looking at him like he''d been sent from heaven to save the world. "You know what? Yeah, I''m an Angel. And if you tell anyone what happened here you will face divine retribution." Rob and Lucy now had a mixture of fear and awe plastered on their faces and they nodded silently. Turning back to his house, Lucien left the clearing behind him and hopped back into his yard. He was a little sleepy now, and wanted to catch up on that nap he was so rudely awoken from. Interlude: Whispers Travel Far in the Dark Warrior of Light mrsquishr Interlude: Whispers Travel Far in the Dark ---------------------------------------------------------- For Lucien the brief encounter in the woods was nothing noteworthy, jaded as he was by his past. For Rob and Lucy, however, it marked a significant change in their lives. They had been sent to the area with a small team to hunt down reports of bodies turning up drained of blood, the hallmarks of an inexperienced fledgling vampire. What they stumbled into was a trap laid by something much more powerful than they were prepared to face. The first of their crew had fallen before they realized anything was amiss, leaving just three off-balance hunters to huddle back-to-back in an attempt to spot their attacker. It hadn¡¯t helped, and the next blow cleaved through their fellow before being stopped by Rob¡¯s plate. That didn¡¯t remove the energy behind the blow, and his ribs were crushed inwards. He was spun away from Lucy from the force saving him from most of the final slash, though it left a large gash in his leg. By then, Lucy had gotten her bearings, and she threw down a smokescreen to hamstring their unseen attacker. With the brief respite gained from the blinding cloud, she managed to tighten a tourniquet around her partner¡¯s leg and hauled him to his feet. Dropping another potion to help cover their tracks, they stumbled deeper into the trees to escape. Lucy knew that it wouldn¡¯t work for long, and she could already hear trees crashing down as the creature attempted to knock them down through the smoke. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. After only a minute of running, they entered a small clearing close to a house. A rustling in the trees drew her attention, and she paled as she saw it step out from the tree line. Tearing one of her special mixtures from her chest, she hurled it towards the sound and was momentarily relieved when she saw the cloud envelop the thing¡¯s foot. This elation was quickly squashed when the thing just laughed and started taunting them. The monologuing was interrupted, however, by a most unusual sight. A little boy, with an otherworldly air about his features, hopped over a fence and addressed the group. Lucy didn¡¯t even hear the words he said, fear for his safety quickly consuming her. This fear was quickly replaced by confusion as the boy¡¯s eyes bloomed into dark voids. The confusion only grew as she watched the air start to warp around him, almost like a heatwave. She saw the veins in his neck and face pulse with strange light and saw a glimmer of that same light flicker in the middle of the holes in his face. Before she could think about that, she was left seeing spots as something flashed through the clearing, and her a crack rang out behind her as the vampire¡¯s head exploded. ---------------------------------------------------------- In the days and weeks after this encounter, Lucy and Rob remained tight lipped about what had happened in those woods. They would begin to relax as time passed though, and the incident passed into memory. It was Rob who shared the details first, in the back of some dirty bar while comparing past injuries with old friends. The holes that had been seared shut on his chest, from where his ribs had broken the skin, won him that dick waving contest. They also led to the story on that afternoon spreading rapidly among the tight-nit hunter community. In a matter of weeks, everyone who was somebody knew that there was an angel in the woods of New England. And of course, as soon as the knowledge became public, someone tried to cash in on the rumored bounty on the supposedly divine creature¡¯s head. This was immediately followed by a different group that viewed the angel as a gift from God, and therefore as sacred, breaking into the warehouse the angel hunters resided in, and butchering them to the man. There would be a reprisal by friends and benefactors of the slaughtered group that would decimate the crusading company. Another attack followed in turn. And another. And another after that. A war had erupted in the shadows between ancient brother and sisterhoods, destroying the tenuous status quo that had existed supernatural underworld for centuries, all while a little boy with a sun burning behind his ribs slept peacefully in his bed. Chapter 5: With these Wings of Mine Warrior of Light mrsquishr Chapter 5: With these Wings of Mine ---------------------------------------------------- Though he had no idea the ramifications of his actions had on the hidden world, Lucien did not rest entirely easy. His encounter with the shard of Dark inside of that creature had reignited his paranoia, and he was now certain that there were forces driving this new world he had been previously unaware of. Not finding any information when he searched on the computer, beyond that a string of morbid killings in his area had mysteriously stopped, only solidified his suspicions. ¡®There¡¯s some kind of hidden world here that I¡¯m not privy to, and I need to be prepared if they come for me.¡¯ He didn¡¯t really trust that Rob and Lucy would keep what had happened a secret, and so needed to be ready for some kind of attack urgently. Also, he needed to prepare himself for his upcoming entry to school, something told him that sitting in a room full of young children was going to be trying on his patience. Something to occupy his attention was sorely needed. He had come up with the beginnings of a technique that could solve both problems but had not found any sense of urgency to complete it until recently. It was something that he had read about in his first life, faded as those memories were now, and had researched further during the lull between battles in his second life. It was a form of Light manipulation that involved the tendency for the Light to thin the barriers between dimensions but involved many moving parts and calculations to be pulled off effectively. He planned to use it to hide his wings away from prying eyes once he formed his first pair, and making the adjustments necessary to avoid cutting them off his back once he shifted them into a higher dimension would take most of the following year. This would give him plenty of time to build up the supply of Light necessary to form his first pair of wings, as well as keeping his mind occupied. In the meantime, his Light fueled physicality, ability to heal from most injuries, and admittedly awesome laser eyes would have to be enough to fight off any attackers. ---------------------------------------------------- Surprisingly, the next months of his life were danger free, and he hadn¡¯t seen or heard anything related to the incident in the woods. Whether it was because the two he had helped had kept him a secret, or because people had better things to do than attack a child in the middle of nowhere, it didn¡¯t change the results. He was left to his own devices for his kindergarten year, and the only danger was to his fraying patience after dealing with young children for months on end. It was exhausting mentally to keep up the illusion of normalcy, and Lucien couldn¡¯t wait until he reached an age where he could skip grades without drawing too much negative attention. ¡®Highschool? What¡¯s that, some place where spirits go to get crushed under the uncaring heel of popular culture and the American education system? Not for this guy, college here I come!¡¯ By the middle of the sixth summer of his new life, Lucien was ready to make the most significant step in his advancement yet. It was also going to be the flashiest, and so he needed to concoct some way of getting privacy for most of the day, as just waiting for his parents to fall asleep was not going to cut it this time. His moment came on a random weekday with his parents announcing that they were going to be leaving town for a few days, and that a family friend would be coming to watch over him and the house. Once his parent¡¯s car had left view of his bedroom window, Lucien put his plan into motion. Wandering down the stairs he quietly walked up behind the woman sitting on the couch, and slowly raised his hands until they were almost touching either side of her head. Concentrating, he gathered his will and drew a measured portion of Light from his heart. Lucien knew he had to be careful here, the brain was a delicate thing, and he could have it dribbling from this innocent woman¡¯s ears if he misjudged how much energy he used. His fears went unfounded though as a pulse of dim light flashed between his hands and her head, and she jerked once before falling limp onto the furniture. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. He let out a sigh of relief when he felt her steady heartbeat and regular breathing. She would stay asleep for most of the day now, giving him time to work without chance of interruption or discovery. Pulling a blanket over her legs, Lucien made his way back up the stairs to the bathroom and began his preparations for the ordeal. ---------------------------------------------------- First, he stripped off all his clothes, and moved all the flammable objects like towels and the bathmat into the hallway. Running the bath as cold as he could make it, he retrieved ice from the freezer downstairs, and added it to the tub. As he slowly sunk into the water facedown, Lucien began to actively channel Light through his boy and into his reservoir. The water would help to keep his body cool for a little while in case the flow got away from him but couldn¡¯t save him if he was unable to quickly wrest back control. He made certain to leave a little Light circulating through his veins, keeping them primed for the influx they were about to receive, and began to draw the Light that had collected in his reservoir into the air above his bare back. Lucien had spent most of his time in school practicing the complex symbols he would have to carve into his skin, and calculating exactly how he would need to arrange them. It was not as simple as forming his wings and then creating the dimensional shift pattern, as that would leave them disconnected from his system permanently once he hid them away. He would have to link the two aspects together during their formation, and this added the complexity that had taken him months to work out. Starting near the base of his neck, where the tips of his shoulder blades would meet if he squeezed them back, the Light began to carve into his flesh. Twin trails traced across his back, each a perfect mirror of the other. Any significant deviation would ruin the final product either failing completely and leaving him with nothing but a strange looking brand covering his skin or causing his whole body to be shifted to a higher dimension and leaving it to be consumed by the Light. He held completely still, ignoring the pain and continuing his work with absolute focus, until he had finished the first set of inscriptions. These looked like a pair of wings, each feather burned into his flesh with machine like precision. These feathers would in turn be filled with complex spirals that would allow them to absorb and filter Light once deployed, this new energy being channeled into his system by the limbs the feathers connected to. Pulling his face out of the water, Lucien took several deep breaths to center himself before he plunged back into the icy tub to continue with the second part of the equation. Each piece of the wings would need to be with each other, to stay together under the stress of the shift to a higher plane, and then linked to him so that they would reform without injuring him or overloading his system. Completing these inscriptions took no longer than a few minutes, but to Lucien it felt like a small eternity. The Light inside of him ensured that he felt no strain after just a couple of minutes without air but was difficult to control his heartrate without breathing. Once its job was completed, he drew the Light back into his reservoir and prepared for the final part of the job. Activating his new appendages. Channeling a large pulse of power Lucien guided it into the veins connecting to the base of the inscriptions on his back, and it began to fill the new channels. A whole year¡¯s worth of energy that had been once again painstakingly gathered by him was once again being spent in mere seconds, and he had to ignore the surge of annoyance at his inefficiency. Inefficient or not it was working, and within moments his back was incandescent with barely contained Light. As the last bit of the script was filled, and Light began to flow back into his veins, Lucien pulsed it in a very distinct pattern. He could feel his supply of Light rapidly draining, and the water around him began to boil with the excess heat he was generating. He had to finish this quickly, or he would burn under the strain, and was relieved as he felt a click in the back of his mind signifying completion and wasted no time in activating the script. With a horrible tearing, tugging sensation, the skin of his back split wide open and brilliant white wings unfurled into the steamy bathroom air. Instantly the almost depleted pool of Light that rested in his chest started to re-fill, and he stood up in the bloody bathtub. Peering over his shoulder he could see the wings extending from the skin like he had been born with them, the Light they pulled in quickly healing the gashed they had caused by bursting through the skin. The flow of power from them was much faster than that from his eyes, and at a higher purity, each of the hundreds of feathers adding onto his ability to draw in energy from his surroundings. There was one last thing to test before he could declare a complete success, and it was arguably just as important as the wings themselves. His back was now free of any sign of symbols he had carved but, as he channeled Light towards where he could feel them, they burned themselves back into sight with a flash of pain. Lucien walked over to the bathroom mirror and sent a pulse of power into the script around the base of the wings. With a flash of light, he watched as they became hazy and indistinct, before fading from view entirely. He could feel them on his back still, but when he turned, they didn¡¯t hit the walls surrounding him confirming that they were hidden completely. There was one downside to this method of disguising his wings though, the stream of light from them had slowed to a mere trickle, and he would have to bring them back into reality before they could operate at their full potential. Despite this he was pleased with his success, and practiced calling and dismissing his wings several times before he washed out the tub and put the bathroom back together. ---------------------------------------------------- Pulling his clothes back on, he made his way downstairs to where he had left the babysitter sleeping and gently channeled a whisp of Light into her, startling her back awake. ¡°Oh, Lucien! I¡¯m sorry, did you need something? I guess I was more tired than I thought if I fell asleep, but I can make you some food if you¡¯re hungry.¡± As he walked behind her toward the kitchen, Lucien felt content. He felt that he could take on the world with the power he could now access, and his body¡¯s advancement would be greatly sped up by the influx of Light. ¡®I think I can take it a little slower for a while now,¡¯ he mused, ¡®live life a little.¡¯ Maybe he could try making a few friends? They would have to be fellow children, but if he was able to find a smart one then it wouldn¡¯t be the worst.