I became a legion lich

93 Exiled

“Save your speeches for someone who cares about them.” That was all Trevor said, before he beat Kastil all over his body. He knew that avatars wouldn’t be destroyed just by having their heads destroyed, so it was a necessary measure.

...Although he admits the main reason was to vent.

Trevor used the mana vision to confirm that the energy had fully dissipated and kastil’s signature had disappeared, before finally relaxing. He immediately dropped to his knees on the floor, feeling his core almost empty. The magic stones in the armor were also nearly empty, their translucent glow nowhere to be seen.

“Shit.” Trevor quickly removed the breastplate of his armor and ripped the linen shirt he wore underneath, revealing his bare chest. On the right side of its body, a green branch replaced one of its ribs. Trevor removed his own belt and bit into it, before grabbing the branch with both hands and pulling.

“...!” A silent scream escaped his lips as he plucked the branch deeply rooted in his body. blood gushed like a fountain as he fell to the ground and writhed in pain. Ele removed the gauntlet from his left hand, revealing a ring with a purple crystal and a translucent magic stone.

With a thought, the mana in the magic stone flowed into the purple crystal and a purple glow appeared in his hand, before a glass bottle appeared. He quickly opened it and poured it into the wound, his expression softening as the pain lessened.

“Huff...huff. I’m too old to do these things.” Trevor lay on the bloodstained floor, too tired to care about appearances. The fight with Kastil was simple and easy, but the burden on his old body was enormous.

And responsible for that was the bloody branch in his hand, a branch from the sprout of Yggdrasil. When the young kastil recklessly created the sea of trees, he was forced to support the entire forest alone, but the sprout itself suffered from it.

Its leaves withered and its branches fell off, its bark becoming dry and brittle. Kastil felt a deep shame of his state and used light magic to create an illusion of a strong healthy sprout, while ordering everyone who knew of his state to keep silent about it.

.....

As they were in a period of war, with constant invasions by the demihumans trying to reclaim their lands, everyone agreed that it was necessary to maintain a strong appearance to keep morale high. But the dukes’ families knew Kastil’s personality and saw that sprout’s moment of weakness as an opportunity.

Taking advantage of the moments when Kastil’s focus was on the front lines, they gathered dead twigs or leaves, the kind he wouldn’t feel if removed, and studied them for weaknesses in the sprout.

They would be executed if they were caught studying the sprout, but all the dukes’ families had bases outside the sea of trees as an outpost to counter the invaders, so they used them to conduct their experiments.

This branch was the result of experiments carried out by the Elven family. They managed to turn the twig into a kind of parasite by mixing it with parasitic ebony, but it would need a host and a constant flow of mana to keep it under control and prevent it from killing the host.

As long as it was fueled with mana, the twig would change the host’s energy signature to the same signature as the sprout and its parasite trait would drain all the mana contained in Kastil’s spells, but it was considered a failed product.

With all the sprout’s power, all their avatar had to do was slap it to turn the twig’s host to pulp, so they just kept the twig’s secret in the minds of Elven house chiefs.

Trevor also thought of the branch as a failed product, until on one of his expeditions he got his hands on teleportation crystals. It was then that he had the idea of separating the spirit from the sprout, but he had no reason to put such a plan into practice.

The sprout was still needed to keep the sea of trees and the sea of trees was needed to keep the country safe. Kastil was a necessary evil for the good of the people, but what he did to Selena was unforgivable.

Trevor mobilized all the subordinates he trusted, the ones he trained to be loyal to him and not Kastil, and initiated the rescue of Selena. He also arranged for the families of his subordinates to be moved out of the sea of trees.

At the same time, he came into contact with former soldiers and mages who held a grudge against the sprout, those who had lost people they loved in one of Kastil’s rages or for some stupid reason, and turned them into the suicide soldiers who attacked the sprout.

He spent the months during Selena’s pregnancy teaching them about teleportation crystals and how to use them. It was a massive operation that would shake the entire Evergreen realm, but Trevor couldn’t care less. His daughter was more important than anything.

As he breathed heavily, a hooded shadow revealed itself seemingly out of nowhere right beside him. The hooded person carried the sleeping little baby in her arms, using ice magic to make the temperature around the baby pleasant despite the scorching heat of the desert they were in.

“Did you win? Or did you just survive?” The hooded shadow asked with the voice of an old lady.

“Yes, but I didn’t hit him as much as I wanted to. The energy in him was less than I expected and he disintegrated before I could give him a piece of my mind.” Trevor said still lying on the floor, enjoying the shadow the hooded figure was casting.

“That’s good. I would have killed you myself if I’d let that bastard get away without a scratch. Or should I say as expected from the fists of destruction.” The lady spoke sarcastically, recalling Trevor’s shameful nickname when he was younger.

The lady removed her hood and revealed her face, a mischievous smile plastered on her face. She was an elderly high elf, clearly distinguished from a common elf by her unusually long ears. Ordinary elves had ears only a little longer than a human’s, after all.

“I would have killed myself myself if that happened. Also, don’t remember my shameful past, you know how stupid I was back then. Now if you’re done laughing, help me up. My old bones aren’t what they used to be, and I’m exhausted.” Trevor growled at her, half joking, half serious. The lady just waved her hands, conjuring up a gale that lifted Trevor from the ground before turning and walking away from the battlefield.

“How many managed to escape?” Trevor asked after a few minutes of walking in silence.

“Approximately 15,000 made it. They are still arriving as we speak, so the numbers should increase.” His wife replied.

“What about the suicide soldiers?” Trevor asked, wanting to make sure none of them continued the attack after the rescue ended and they threw their lives away in vain.

“They came to talk to me just before we started the attack. They thanked us for the chance to get revenge and that they no longer had any desire to live without the people they lost. The only reason they didn’t commit suicide was that their dead family members wouldn’t wanting that and that the chance to take revenge on Kastil and rescue a part of the citizens was the perfect excuse to leave this world.”

“...I understand.” Was all Trevor said.

They walked the rest of the way, well, his wife walked while he was just being carried, until they saw in the distance a makeshift camp with thousands of elves. The soldiers saluted them as soon as they arrived, but the mood among the families was grim. They were not told about Kastil’s true personality so from their point of view, they were forced to leave all the life they had built behind them for no apparent reason.

Trevor was carried into their midst, before he gathered all the high elves around him and explained Kastil’s true personality and why they needed to flee the sea of trees. At first, people rejected his words like the ramblings of a mad old man, but with his relatives affirming his words, they had no choice but to accept.

But that came with another problem. What should they do now? Unprotected by the sea of trees and completely exiled, it was only a matter of time before the resources they brought with them ran out and they died of starvation or dehydration in the desert heat.

“Don’t worry, we can survive even in these arid lands. There are people who live here and they are more than willing to receive us.” Trevor said to calm the panic that almost ensued among the population.

Before anyone could say anything, the wind carried the sound of a horn. The people were alarmed and the soldiers drew their weapons, but Trevor yelled for them to stop. In the distance, a small army appeared.

They were an army composed of heavily armed orcs, mounted on crystal-horned rhinos. They marched until they reached the front of the camp, before splitting up and making way for their leader to pass. He was mounted on a rhino twice the size of the others, standing out among the rest.

He dismounted from his mount before entering the camp, people quickly making way for him. His tyrannical nearly 3 meters tall body, along with numerous battle scars over his body and protruding lower fangs gave him the aura of a mighty warrior few would have the courage to face.

He wore only ripped leather pants, proudly showing off his muscles. On his back, a two-headed war ax with a red-hot blade almost the same size as he rested, just waiting for the moment when it could spill blood.