I became a legion lich

98 The end of flashback

“Give me that, you failure!” Kastil screamed, after forcibly healing his own eyes. It was the first time he had addressed Treevor since he appeared, but his voice held only rage.

“Activate the crystal, Treevor!” Trevor yelled, conjuring barriers of light to try to stop Kastil, but it was in vain. The blades of light sliced through their barriers like a hot knife through butter, before a barrier of darkness and pure mana blocked their path.

“Do it at once!” Selena screamed, finally snapping Treevor out of his stupor. Panicking, Treevor fed the crystal both core energy and amber energy. He didn’t have any destination in mind, so he just hoped to go as far as he could. The purple sphere grew around him, encompassing Selena and Trevor, but Kastil didn’t let them escape easily.

“No, you won’t run away!” Kastil yelled, casting the Light Handcuffs spell. The bullets of light that missed their target and hit the ground changed shape and turned into handcuffs of light that trapped Selena and Trevor’s legs, dragging them towards Kastil.

“Shit!” Selena screamed as she was dragged out of the purple sphere and shoved her arms into the sand to try to resist, but that was a mistake. The purple orb teleported, severing Selena’s arms and splattering blood all over Treevor’s body.

“Ahhhh!” Treevor screamed in panic and dropped to his butt on the floor, watching the blood spread through his body, as well as the two tanned arms falling into his lap. He immediately started to crawl back pathetically, the strange surroundings around him scaring him even more.

He was on a savannah, tall dry grass longer than a full-grown man blocking his view. Treevor started to look around fearfully, not knowing what to do, when he heard the rustling sound of tall grass around him.

Treevor looked back, only for a saber-toothed tiger to leap at him with outstretched talons and knock him to the ground. Treevor had the misfortune of being teleported next to a monster.

The claws pierced his arms, causing Treevor excruciating pain. Sticky saliva dripped onto Treevor’s face as he screamed in terror, making the saber-toothed tiger grin cruelly.

.....

Saber-toothed tigers were vicious monsters that loved to play with their prey, especially if they looked like helpless cubs. He removed the claws from Treevor’s arms, spouting a fountain of blood before slapping his body and sending Treevor flying like a rag doll.

“Arghh...!” Treevor gave a short cry, trying desperately to heal. Light spread across his wounds and stopped the bleeding, but the saber-toothed tiger jumped at him again.

He slammed his paw into Treevor’s chest, pressing all his weight onto him and preventing him from running away. The saber-toothed tiger sank its fangs into Treevor’s left arm and ripped it off in a chomping bite right in front of his face, causing Treevor to scream in pain. The light coursing through his body began to heal him, but the excruciating pain nearly made Treevor pass out.

Before Treevor could even finish screaming, the saber-toothed tiger ripped its plant arm and chewed noisily, before freezing. His face contorted as he spat his arm on the ground and vomited loudly, tasting the horrible plant.

He slapped into Trevor’s body again before running away, all his appetite gone. He still picked up the severed arms off the ground as a consolation prize.

“Ah... ah... ah!” Treevor was lying on the ground without his arms as he sobbed, his face smeared with tears and snot. He passed out in pain on the spot, what was left of his side of the plant continually absorbing the natural light. and the magic of the environment and transforming it into nutrients, while stopping the internal and external bleeding of your human side and regenerating your plant side.

********

Treevor woke up 10 hours later in the middle of the night, with what was left of his left arm throbbing with pain. He was lying in a pool of his own blood, his left arm missing from the elbow down. Treevor tried to get up, but fell back into a coughing fit.

The saber-toothed tiger had pressed its weight until it broke some of its ribs. Treevor continued coughing on the floor, casting a spell of light to ease his pain so he could think clearly.

He started to heal his fractured ribs, taking only a few minutes for him to get up. Treevor touched the stump of his missing arm, feeling a pang of pain. He looked around not knowing what to do. The image of the saber-toothed tiger ripping through her limbs was still fresh in her mind, as was her mother’s panicked face as she was dragged out of the purple sphere.

Tears began to flow from her left eye, but Treevor wiped them away and entered the woods, running away from the place. This location was probably saber-toothed tiger territory and he just hasn’t been killed yet because other tigers must have smelled another tiger on him.

********

Treevor’s life was hell after that. All the monsters were brutal and several times more powerful than he was, forcing Treevor to flee for his life in various situations. He was able to survive by hunting weak monsters that relied on large numbers to survive.

Treevor didn’t know advanced healing spells, so he was forced to slowly regenerate his lost arm. He used his knowledge of runesmith to craft equipment using the wood of magical trees, but it was of little use against the truly powerful monsters of the desert.

Treevor also tried to return to the old camp, but all he found was a herd of tyrannical elephants and the wreckage of the camp.

Years passed until Treevor reached the age of 20, the age at which elf bodies stopped aging. Treevor was sleeping in an artificial cave, when he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night, only to find that his physical body was still lying on the ground. His amber eye was empty, all energy moved to the avatar.

He immediately returned to his own body and woke up startled. He realized he could create an avatar just like a normal spirit.

It gave him a great idea. Treevor spent a few days looking for a suitable magic tree, until he found a terrestrial acacia.

It took him a few more days to enchant the entire surface of the tree. Treevor vividly remembered Kastil’s words and like him, Treevor used a small part of his own plant body on the tree, allowing him to own her.

The tree immediately began to crackle, as it changed shape and took on the appearance of its armor. His body would remain motionless as long as his spirit was separated, but it was simple for Treevor to carve a space inside the tree and leave his body protected.

Unfortunately, it required a lot of energy just to move and even more to activate any enchantments. The amber energy he possessed was finite, so he decided to use the armor only for emergencies.

After that, Treevor changed from a weakling who needed to hunt the weakest in order to survive, to an apex predator. When activated, the plant armor would slaughter any monster that got in its way, while deactivated, it absorbed vast amounts of energy that Treevor absorbed in the amber eye.

Decades passed as he repeated the cycle of endless battles.

At some point, Treevor got tired of just surviving. He decided to travel and leave the desert. He traveled southeast, always keeping his distance from the sea of trees. His wish was to find other elves who had managed to escape the sea of trees.

He knew he’d get a certain level of rejection at first because of his looks, but that was still better than living alone forever. Treevor had tried to communicate with other demihuman clans, but they attacked him as soon as they saw him, deeming him a monster.

After traveling for months, what awaited him weren’t elven refugee settlements, demihuman tribes, or monster nests. A land even drier than the sands of the desert, but gray in color like volcanic ash. Black, twisted trees he’d never seen before, spreading a mist that numbed the senses of anyone who entered. Putrid monsters and zombies of various species of monsters and demihumans.

An undead realm existed in the southeastern part of the continent, where it was originally a desert.

Treevor wasn’t crazy enough to enter these dead lands, but it was too late when he decided to flee. A woman’s high-pitched scream came from somewhere within the fog and thousands of undead furiously attacked him. They all had the same strength as when they were alive. Alone. they posed no danger, but an entire army of them would be deadly.

The faster undead caught up with him first and blocked his path long enough for the rest of the army to arrive. Treevor fought desperately, using each enchantment to the fullest, but the numbers still outweighed him. The tree he was on was ripped to shreds and the amber gem was cracked, causing Treevor excruciating pain.

As a last resort, Treevor used the teleportation crystal he had kept guarded since Kastil’s attack and fled. He spent the next few years accumulating energy and regenerating his amber eye.

In the meantime, the undead realm has expanded across the desert. The demihuman tribes tried to fight, but only became food for the undead.

The place where Treevor made his base was in the south of the continent, far from the undead realm, but it was only a matter of time before they reached it. Treevor decided it was better to run now while he still had a chance, than to wait for the undead threat to approach.

He moved in the opposite direction, in the Northwest, human territory. With the exception of the southwest which was savannah and still part of the demihuman empire, the entire west to the north was human territory.

It took more than two years to reach the borders with the country of Mirkor, needing to take constant breaks to rest because the amber eye was recovering. Treevor settled in a forest shortly after crossing the border.

By sheer luck, Treevor found a glowing Willow and decided it would be the best thing to use. Treevor’s greatest affinity has always been light, but most magical trees in the desert have an affinity for earth. He used what little energy he had left to forge the tree’s enchantments, before hibernating in its roots to recover and possess it with its avatar.

His body received all the nourishment it needed from the tree and just like that, time passed without him noticing.

**********