Merlin flipped through several of his books and records on the undead, liches, zombies, ghouls, and yet he only found records of mindless being such as zombies and ghouls, and powerful magi who sacrificed their skin, their humanity to become liches, boosting their mana and spell resistance.
To retain ones mind even after that...impressive. To awaken with all his flesh, all his mind still intact, even at the expense of his memory, it is indisputably a bargain.
But there was one problem, he still retained life, even passing out after having his heart cut open, and his pain wasn't nullified. Merlin had never seen this kind of magic before, one that retains some life after death.
The little bits of knowledge scattered around in these books was only insurance to Merlin, he wanted to make sure that his work was truly original. But, there would never be a replication to his project, for indeed, Merlin realized as well, that no one else, could escape through the grasps of death so easily.
In fact, it was too easy to sense it on the boy.
"What's the matter?"
"Mister Merlin, I can't seem to sleep."
"Take a walk around the halls, but don't touch anything, don't leave the estate, don't attract attention. Understood?"
"Yes, Mister."
Fushi took the liberty to roam the halls of the area, it was dark, very dark, the walls had no windows, being built brick by brick, the grey walls seemed to be testament to the architectural value of the ones who built it. It was astounding to see such a place, the Fushi, with no memories of the previous years, thought it might've been the most stunning thing he ever saw.
"Oh..."
He started to feel drowsy after walking around, and promptly headed back to his bedroom. His room was poorly lit, the dim room seemed to have scratches on the walls, the entire thing looked like someone intended to stay in here forever. So Fushi closed his eyes, and he was asleep.
"Wake up."
The sun grazed his eyes just barley, but when Fushi opened his eyes, he realized it was just a candle, this place didn't have sunlight to come through, it was somewhere where the sun couldn't reach.
Fushi got out of bed, following Merlin out of the room, and into a place with no other objects of interest besides a table with a sinister look, bland in design it may be, it made up with color, the dried blood of many 'patients' were here.
Merlin took a scalpel from the box.
"Are you ready to study, Fushi?"
"Mister M-Merlin?"
Fushi's lips quivered, his legs were shaking, falling down from fear, collapsing onto his legs.
"Don't worry, I'm only doing this for you."
Merlin grabbed Fushi's hand, gripping it tight so that he couldn't escape, and placing him upon a stone table, the notches of leather bound Fushi's hands to it, making him unable to move.
"Mister Merlin, please stop! I-!"
Merlin pushes his finger towards Fushi's lips.
"Ah, ah, ah, hush now...mm...yes, that's much better, focus on the lesson."
Merlin cut into Fushi's skin, the knife tracing across his ribs. Fushi let out a scream, making himself into a sniveling mess.
"Fushi."
Merlin attempted to speak, but Fushi's screams seemed to 'speak' over him. Merlin forced Fushi's mouth shut with his hands, choking the boy until he ran out of vigor.
But the boy still let out tiny sobs, his eyes were depraved. Merlin took out a needle, along with threads, a beautiful thread, crimson white, and while Fushi was subconscious, he pierced the needle into his lips, the crimson red, binding them together.
"Wake up."
The light from the candles pierced into Fushi's eyes, and so did my scalpel. I cut carefully, avoiding any places that could be used as a catalyst. And it was beautiful, because we could observe, and there would be no screams. Yes, take a good look, little boy, I know not of your name, but I know of your eyes. Fearful, unknowing, and far too naive. I liked the eyes I found you with, dead, unnerving, yet restless, that is my definition of beauty.
"See, this here..."
I scraped off muscle that was attached to the rib.
"Is your lung."
To reveal a fine pair of pink lungs. If you take that part out, you can see something even better. Beating uncontrollably, as subjected to great pain, was the heart. Seeing the tears welling up in his eyes, it might bring one to mine as well, but soon, I will have created a masterpiece.
"Swordplay, Knives? Or do you have a weapon of other disposition that you are more willing to use?"
Fushi was silent.
"It was only to increase your pain tolerance, it's not as you were going to die."
"I-it felt like I was going to."
"I've already undone the stitches, no need to cry."
Yet Fushi still cried.
"Hey...!"
Merlin had no experience with children, or any other sort of human really. He just assumed that he could go around doing whatever he thought most efficient, not thinking of other around him, after all, who did he have to care about? Certainly not that deadbeat father of his, he'd much rather carry on the legacy, the honor of his grandfather, who was a great magi.
"It still hurt!"
"All right! I'm sorry! We won't use those kinds of tactics to learn again."
To Fushi, there had been confusion, then fear, and then endless pain. He had blacked out multiple times, and in order to stay alive, Merlin found that his mana pool was also required to regenerate, a drawback from retaining his humanity. But as such, he had paid no attention to Merlin's 'lesson.'
"Now, I need you to choose, and only one, because I can only preform this once."
Fushi tried holding and testing every weapon Merlin had at hand, he had no experience with any of the weapons, but somehow, it seemed like the art of using a spear was ingrained into him.
Fushi didn't know why, how could he?
"Since you seem to have talent with the spear, choose one of the others."
"Then the sword, it's longer than a dagger."
Merlin took a book from the shelf, one that had never been read, Fushi could tell, the moment Merlin opened the book, a nostalgic scent came to Fushi, and he knew it was brand new. It just had that smell, and an inky smell as well.
"Midnxoms."
An orb of green light appeared on Merlin's finger, strange texts encircling it. He pressed his finger upon Fushi's forehead.
"Axoms."
The swirl of texts seemed to enter without pause, the horrid one, the gentle one, the almighty one, they were all one god. The loving brother, the dead prince, and the living one, were all one man. Fushi never understood, perhaps he will never know who the loving brother was, but the image of the dead prince, laying there in the snow. He knew it was him, though he did not know of the images origins, he felt anger, that whomever did this needed to pay, who had tortured him so, and left his body to be eaten by crows.
But there was something else, an old art, one that didn't rely on mana only, but required even more focus and understanding than the normal spells. To move something with ones mind, to move anything. He saw an old man, one in a foreign land, scribbling away in his books, sitting in a tower, his eyes gleamed purple, the symbol of one with outstanding mana.
He was old, very old, Fushi saw him live out his years, in that tower never talking to anyone, only eating and drinking when he needed to, and passing out to fall asleep, his eyes burned, as if he was haunted by something that prevented him from experiencing peace.
Then, after what seemed like lifetimes in the tower, the man stood up, and went outside.
"Fly."
Pure mana flowed out into the shape of feathers, making his body as light as one. He rose into the sky, and unleashed a sprawl of ancient text, his life's work. And one by one, he broke them all, seals that dotted his existence, bit by bit, he broke them all, each time he spoke the strange words, the texts seemed to ripple and burn away into ashes.
Then when the last one came, his eyes that were once purple, had turned grey. He had no energy. He could barley maintain his fly spell. He brought out a flower, one that only grew in the winter, but the mana inside the flower was so concentrated, it seemed like thousands were in its place. He had stored leftover mana in the flower, causing it to have intricate mana dancing in its petals. He absorbed the mana, restoring his eyes to barely the blue stage, and he broke the seal. The last seal, exploded into nothingness, and the man smiled. His eyes turned red, and he thrust his hand below him, while in the sky, he used up all the mana within his veins, essentially killing himself.
And he shifted the tectonic plates.
Fushi was shaken from his vision.
"What did it grant you? I did it with swords in mind."
"There...there was a man, his eyes, they were purple!"
"Purple eyes? There hasn't been a man with purple eyes for a thousand years! You were granted a vision from so long ago? Tell me, what happened!"
Merlin had a slight hint of fanaticism in his eyes.
"He used those same ancient runes you had on your finger, he broke seals, and then his eyes were red."
"Red eyes...then...but red has never been a color of mana...what else?"
"He moved the earth, he shifted the tectonic plates with mana alone."
"That's impossible, no such being can hold so much mana, and even if they did, they would need to exhaust it before their mana veins were fried."
"He did it right after he got them."
"He killed himself and caused a disaster, right after attaining such power...why?"
"I didn't see anything else, it was just that, he was in a tower for hundreds of years at a time."
"I can't make any sense of this...no matter, remember that vision, and try analyze it, for now...you'll need a name, Matthew, David? After the traitorous magi? Lucas, after the world's current greatest Archmage?"
Fushi thought back to the first time he was greeted with consciousness in this place, when he was about to reach the stairs, but one leg gave out, and he was left limping.
"Claude, I think I like that name."