I became a legion lich

79 Goodbye

Athos was a layman when it came to souls and only had abstract knowledge like what the church taught, but maybe it would be a good idea to research souls when he got the chance, maybe it would help him understand more about himself. He was about to do some more experiments when Sevenus interrupted him.

“My lord...I found him.” Sevenus said, carefully carrying a cloth-covered corpse in his arms. With those words, all thoughts and theories fled Athos’ mind as he looked at the covered corpse.

Sevenus placed the body gently on the ground and removed the cloth from his face, revealing it to Athos. It was Khali. His body was dirty and badly bruised, his signature blue robe nowhere to be seen, but it was definitely him. Athos felt his hands tremble for the first time since becoming a skeleton, as he lightly gripped Khali’s hand.

“Did you manage to rebuild any part of the underground base?” Athos asked, his voice a little touched by sadness. He grabbed a bag of personal items that one of the skeleton mages had prepared for him and slung it over his shoulder, before picking up Khali’s body.

“I rebuilt...only one room...my lord.” Sevenus replied.

“That’s enough. Take me there.” Athos spoke.

Sevenus nodded before turning and leaving. He walked down an alley and opened a trapdoor before descending, quickly followed by Athos. The Slimes reacted to his presence, but a pulse of darkness destroyed them all. There was an earth tunnel just below the trapdoor, leading to Athos’ base and former home. They entered the base’s kitchen, where Athos discovered Khali’s complete inability to cook.

“Don’t let anyone down here.” Athos said without looking at Sevenus.

Sevenus bowed to Athos’ back and left. He was dying of curiosity about what Athos would do with the body, but he didn’t dare ask. Athos had never shown any feelings other than hatred and rancor, seeing the sadness in his orbits was something surprising.

.....

Left alone inside the dark kitchen, Athos covered the floor with the cloth used to cover Khali’s body and laid him down gently. He felt his ribs tighten at the sight of Khali’s face, but he didn’t let himself down. He removed the dirty clothes Khali was wearing and opened the bag prepared by the mages’ skeletons.

From inside the bag, he took a canteen of water and a clean cloth, before dipping it in and starting to clean the dirt from Khali’s body. He gently cleaned the area around the wounds, while using dark magic to restore the body to perfect condition. Athos even consumed his own skin to avoid consuming Khali’s body.

Athos didn’t say a word during the entire process, racking his brains to find the right words. When he finished, Khali’s body was immaculate, as if he’d just been sleeping. He reached into his bag again, pulled out a blue shirt and cotton pants and leather shoes, and dressed Khali’s body. His skin was pale and cool to the touch, but Athos didn’t mind that.

“Although it’s not my style, blue is your favorite color, isn’t it?” Athos gave a wry smile as he spoke to the body. Athos sat on the floor beside the corpse and began to speak whatever was on his mind.

“You know, as I walked down here carrying your body, I tried to think about what I would do now, what I would say to you, and how to say a proper goodbye, but nothing came to mind. I thought about saying a flashy goodbye, releasing blasts of magic across the sky or lining up skeletons for a ceremony, but I gave up on that idea. These people despise me and I despise them too, and I wouldn’t forgive myself if our parting was filled with negative feelings.

So I’ve decided to bury you here, where the two of us have lived alone for the past five years. I know you like flashy things, so I hope you’ll forgive me.” Athos apologized as he chuckled, before his face twisted into a grimace of sadness. “I miss you teacher.”

“You were the only person in the entire world who cared about me, who stood by me when everyone else hunted me like an animal, who was a father to me when I lost mine. You tried in every way to give me back the warmth of a family, not out of interest, but because you wanted me to be happy.

You pretended you wanted to use me, but you never reported my talent for order so you could let me go and live my life as soon as possible. You tried to be my family and mend me, make me human once more, but I was already broken beyond repair.” Athos said, drops of condensed darkness falling from his sockets like tears.

“I was too weak to deal with the death of my parents and it gnawed at me inside. I chose to hold on to hate because I didn’t have the strength to deal with the pain. And now, look at me. I’m a dead man. and empty inside and out.” Athos looked down at his bony hands as he spoke.

As if reacting to his thoughts, the gray skin around his hands turned black again and retracted into his body, revealing his bones.

“But in the end, the person I hate the most is myself, because I’m to blame for all my pain.” Athos paused, his jaw quivering in fear of uttering the next words. He was trying to reveal a secret he kept to himself, something even he refused to think about. It was as if there was something stuck in his throat and he needed sheer willpower to get it out.

“Do you mind keeping a secret from me? Taking the secret to the grave?” Athos said as a joke, trying and failing to calm his own mind.

“The day before the ‘accident’, I spent all night creating explosive dust in my father’s lab. He had never let me do it alone or carry something so dangerous with me, but I was confident in my ability and decided to do it myself.

I successfully created the explosive powder and kept it in leather bags in one of the closets. Ever since I was little I always tried first and asked permission later, so I figured it would be fine as long as I apologized later.

When the next day arrived, I woke up too late because of exhaustion and hurriedly dressed before going down to breakfast. I was so excited that day that I ended up wearing the breastplate backwards.” Athos smiled at the memory.

“My dad finished eating first and went to the lab like he always did, but I didn’t want him to fight me for creating explosive dust without his supervision, so I pretended to spill juice on him by accident to get him to change clothes and ran to the lab and I caught all the explosive dust.” Athos said, his tone starting cheerful and growing darker as he spoke.

“But my mom was even more excited than I was for my first adventure and came into the lab to get me. I hurriedly hid the explosive powder in my bag, but I had done too much and couldn’t take everything with me or she would notice my bag. full and find out the truth, so I left a part behind hidden among the potion ingredients.” At that moment, Athos clenched his fist so tightly and the skin on his hands tore and healed continuously.

“My father didn’t have any orders for potions that day and stocks of alchemical items were good, so there was no reason for him to deal with anything dangerous or explosive.” The black tears continued to fall as Athos spoke. “Maybe he discovered the explosive powder and tried to check what it was, or maybe some experiment went wrong and the bag got damaged and exploded, but whatever the case, it was my fault my father died. I was the one who killed him!”

Athos could almost see Khali’s corpse being replaced by his father’s, looking at him with resentment and hatred, blaming him for his death.

“My mother was captured and tortured like a criminal because of me! I had to live like a rat because of me! And you died because of me too! If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have delayed your departure from this city and could have escaped that motherfucking mage slayer!” Athos punched the wall hard, creating a cobweb-shaped crack in the wall and a crack in the fist.

“I hate myself and I hate this world for taking everything from me because of a single wrong choice. I know you wanted me to be happy, but that’s impossible now. I’ve become a monster that can’t stop killing and even If I could, I wouldn’t.” Athos knelt in front of Khali and cupped his cheek with his right hand.

“I pray that Eishin’s church is wrong and reincarnation doesn’t exist, so you don’t have to witness what I’m going to do to this world.” Athos finished saying goodbye and left the cave without looking back.