The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 144 (Patreon)

Chapter 144 – Teaching

Once the newborn ghouls were fed and set to training so that they could learn to use their mana in this new form, I used another spell to clean the room. This was a hotel, after all, and it would not do to leave what looked like a murder scene behind. Fortunately, I knew how to clean blood from walls and carpets with magic, so there weren’t any problems on that front.

“And let that be a lesson to the three of you, but especially you, Naya. Mindless undead will fall under their creator’s control immediately, but there is a risk to creating free-willed, intelligent undead. Newly raised undead are always hungry, and they instinctively look to the closest concentration of whatever their preferred food source is. Which is likely you.”

“Just to be clear,” Koyama asked, “they aren’t under your control?”

“No, not in the way you are thinking. However, undead can sense the relative strength of other undead. The bestial part of their brains knows that my powers eclipse theirs so completely that to compare the two would be like comparing a grain of sand to the Earth itself. That forced them to listen, at least long enough for their human minds to wake up from the animation process. Now that they’ve fed, they’ll be able to control themselves, without someone like me to restrain them.”

“Well, that’s fortunate. I know you said they wouldn’t be under your direct control, but, after seeing how they immediately responded to your commands, my superiors would be incredibly upset with me if I didn’t make sure. So, what now, your Majesty?”

“Now? We will wait until nightfall, and then teleport to the temple that was just finished in Cairo. I have to dispel the warding so that the temple can be properly consecrated, after all. Murena is the Goddess of Death and the Hunt, so a ritual consecrating a temple or shrine in her honor is typically performed at night.”

Ya frowned slightly. “Why night, specifically, Mistress? Most hunters in a more medieval setting, like the other world sounds to be, would leave in the morning, so that they could bring their catch in at night. So, wouldn’t it make more sense to have a ritual in the morning, wishing for a fruitful hunt?”

“I can see why you would think that, but one way that hunters honor Murena is to give thanks at her shrine as they return from a successful hunt. And night is also the time that many cultures associate with Death. After all, it is the dark and unknown, and people are more inclined to sleep at night. Meanwhile, dawn is typically when rites to the gods of Life tend to be held, because it is a ‘rebirth’. But, I’ll admit that I am only a little familiar with the rituals of Murena’s faith, and less with the rites of the other gods of Onerth.”

“Because you still pray to the kami, Mistress?” Naya asked.

“That, and I was not exactly fond of the gods of Onerth allowing that world to just abduct people from other worlds to solve their problems, and then cast them aside when they were inconvenient. Murena is the only one who objected to the use of Grand Summonings, and the only one who reached out to help me. I believe I said, once before, that the pact made between me and her was that I would rid the world of Onerth of the Hero Summoning ritual and the slave collars which bound people’s wills, in return for the power and knowledge she granted me. That led me to be more sympathetic to her than any of the other gods, but it was more of a friendly business transaction, rather than worship.”

“I see,” Koyama said. “If you will excuse me, I ought to make a few calls back home. Reporting in on our volunteers’ new status, you understand.”

“Of course, Koyama-san. It is still hours until nightfall, and I’ll be spending most of my time with the new ghouls, as they adjust to their new instincts. They still have their minds, but the urge to hunt and feed is new, and will take a bit to adjust to. Go ahead and call in, and then I suggest all of you mortals get some sleep. After the dedication of the temple, I’ll be heading directly to the seal’s entrance.”

“As you wish, Mistress,” Naya nodded, before all three stepped out of the room.

I turned my attention back to the two ghouls. Both were sitting in seiza, backs straight and their eyes closed as they focused on the mana flowing through them. As I stepped around in front of them, I focused closer, and nodded, with satisfaction. Fuyuko’s cancer had been burned away already by the Death mana which transformed her. Apart from not being alive, she was the picture of health. But then, I’d never had any doubts about what undeath would do to her ailment.

Watanabe’s affliction, on the other hand, had been something of a wild card. After all, the other world was only vaguely aware of conditions like Parkinson’s. Any ailments like it were typically the result of curses, or heinous magical damage, since cultivating one’s mana would help fortify the body against such degeneration, and block the disease’s progress. Curses and damage could be healed by magic, but I did not know how the Death mana would interact with the ‘misfiring’ nerves.

Seeing the way that his mana flowed, I could tell that the damage to the nervous system was still there. The degeneration had not been wiped clean, as Fuyuko’s cancer had been. However, I could also see that, with every ‘misfire’, the affected nerves were ‘killed’ by the Death mana within him, before his undead flesh used that same mana to repair them. But, once repaired, they looked to be functioning normally!

“Watanabe, Fuyuko, listen to me.”

Both ghouls stopped their practice immediately, and their heads turned up to face me. Watanabe was the first to speak, and I could hear the beginnings of power in his voice. Not yet to the level of my own, but a ‘normal’ human would definitely feel the strangeness in that voice, and fear it.

“Yes, your Majesty?” He blinked, and then said, “This is my voice? Why does it sound so strange?”

“Because you are no longer human. So, congratulations are in order. You survived your first trial, making it through the conversion to undeath and partaking in your first meal without any diminishment of your faculties or damage to your souls. More than that, I can see from your mana that both of you are in better health than you have been for years, apart from being dead.”

Fuyuko gasped, “You mean, the cancer? I know they said that Death magic could kill it, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

“A sensible approach, when dealing with such a troublesome topic,” I agreed. “However, yes, your cancer has been wiped clean, as though it never was. Watanabe, I can tell you that the disease that caused tremors throughout your body is in decline. Indeed, it is likely that, by the time we perform the unsealing ritual, you will be wholly cured.”

“But I still feel the shakes, sometimes.”

“Yes, that is because your disease is not like the cancer, with a foreign body ravaging you. Instead, your body betrays itself. The nerves have not changed, nor have the pathways, but it is no longer electrical signals that convey information back and forth within you, but mana. Death mana, to be exact. Every misfire causes your Death mana to kill the nerves responsible, and then that same mana restores your undead flesh, back to how it was supposed to be. So, every tremor you feel is the last time that your Parkinson’s will affect the nerve in question. And the more you circulate your mana, the quicker the progress will be.”

A smile crossed the newborn ghoul’s face, which was very creepy, from a human perspective. I didn’t have any problem with it, but that didn’t mean others would be as understanding. Might as well begin their training there.

“As I said, neither of you are human anymore. You already have the presence of predators, and any human who is not used to being around the undead, and thus accustomed to that feeling, will be uneasy, possibly even terrified in your presence, even if you use a glamour to appear like your old selves. Even something mundane like smiling will look sinister and threatening in their eyes, because the humans will know, on an instinctual level, that you are a threat. And I am sure you know how humans tend to respond to nonhuman threats.”

That wiped the grins off their faces, which was good, because this was serious, and something every new undead needed to know. “You need to learn to draw in your aura, suppress it as much as you can. Any progress you make now will make what comes after you take in the seal all the easier. You will need to fight to suppress your power as much as possible, all the time. It is likely that, once you take in the seal, you will be unable to appear ‘normal’, just as I cannot appear normal, even while wearing a human form, without the aid of items. I am simply too powerful by far. Even suppressed, people would sense me as a threat.”

Fuyuko was the first to nod. “How do we go about doing that, your Majesty?”

“Turn your ‘sight’ inward. Watch the mana as it flows through you. So far, you’ve learned to draw in mana, cultivate it, and strengthen yourselves with it. This next part is an advanced technique, but a necessary one, that you do not have the luxury of waiting until you are ready to learn. While your mana flows, focus on not allowing it out of your body, not in its normal state. Think of it as an exhaust system. Just letting the mana flow out of you normally leaves it thick with your Death mana, and is like a very loud car exhaust, drawing attention to you. Some more sensitive types might even have a reaction to the ‘smell’ of your mana exhaust. So, you must filter the emissions and muffle the ‘sound’, to keep from upsetting those around you.

“This will not come naturally to you. That is because it is not natural. It is as far from natural as can be for creatures like us. However, it is essential to our being able to exist within human society. And without human society to ground you, you will quickly become monsters yourselves, requiring someone to keep you in check until you learn the control needed to pretend to be normal.”

“Your Majesty, but what about enchanted items like your ring?”

“A good question, Watanabe-kun. Yes, enchantments can replicate this suppression, as you see with my ring. However, items can be stolen, and enchantments can be broken. You are in the Ground Self-Defense Force. A GPS receiver can easily tell you where you are, and how to get where you need to go. But troops still learn how to use a map and compass, yes? Even using the stars to navigate, in some cases. Why? Because the GPS might break, or the satellite might go down, or it could be used against you somehow, so it is always good to have a backup.

“Now, I am sure you might be wondering, what about doing something more extreme, like putting the enchantment as a tattoo, brand, or even an etching on your bones? If someone takes that from you, then you likely have far larger problems to deal with, right? Well, you’re not wrong, but do you really think if it was that simple, someone like myself would bother with an enchanted ring?”

Watanabe grimaced. “There’s a side effect, isn’t there?”

“Very good. Yes, while the suppression does not hinder your cultivation of mana, or the deepening of your mana wells and the fortification of your bodies, it also suppresses your ability to use mana freely. I am powerful enough that, even in my normal form, I can easily defeat most foes the people of this world could throw my way. However, when I want to use magic freely, or do things with my full power, it is necessary to remove the restrictions, or I handicap myself to an unreasonable degree. So, a suppression that cannot be removed is little more than a curse to keep you from achieving your full potential.”

I saw both of them nodding seriously, and offered a nod. “Good. Now, we only have a limited amount of time before the dedication of the temple, and then I will go to the seal. I doubt that the guardians will be difficult for one such as I to deal with, but it may become a battle requiring a great deal of time to win. So, I will train you as much as I can, both in suppressing your auras, and in the ensuring that you can properly combine your mana for the ritual. Once the rites at the temple have been completed, you should ask the undead there to help with your suppression training. All of them know the usefulness of these skills.

“Now, let us begin.”