Academic gathering with a lich

"Lyle?" Nia’s tentacles wiped across Lyle’s cheek, her inner voice conveying her concern.

"I’m fine, Nia." Suppressing the urge to vomit that rose to his throat, Lyle shook his head and pressed it against Nia’s tentacles.

Watching a life ebb away in such a twisted, morbid form was an insult to any healer. He was still Arnold, the despicable man who regarded life as trivial.

"If Lyle doesn’t like it, we can run away! Nia can make Lyle super fast!"

Watching the deep, black blood and flesh below him slowly solidify, Lyle took a deep breath.

"We have to learn, Nia, to become stronger, to have the power to rule over others."

Nia’s restless tentacles stilled for a moment as she pressed tightly against Lyle’s head, eager to hear his thoughts.

"Does it make you happy to rule over others?"

"I don’t know, Nia, I don’t know what it feels like to be in control because I’ve never done it. But we can start by imagining it."

"Nia is an Evil God, you know? One day I will make Lyle’s wishes come true!"

Lyle touched his own head, stroking Nia as if she were a mucous membrane.

"Then we all need to work hard now."

Arnold’s teachings continued, the spells for flesh transformation and the methods of magic manipulation were different from the Spirit Summoning Studies he had encountered before. Strictly speaking, this was no longer Spirit Summoning Studies. Being alive, Lyle keenly understood this. This wasn’t about remolding the dead; it was twisting life, a desecration of its original form. The Liches, devoid of life, apparently didn’t share this sense of sin, and although they lacked Lyle’s biological knowledge, their innate talent still allowed them to learn this spell.

"Professor Arnold, where are our test subjects? The creatures we are to practice our spells on?" A Lich student, having mastered new abilities, was eager to start.

Arnold looked at everyone, his mask’s smile merging with the one behind it. He turned sideways and pointed behind him at the reservoir.

"In the water, gentlemen, your subjects are beneath the surface. You may use any living creature for your experiments, anything you see."

Lyle knew what was under the water. It was a school of fish in a marine environment, an underwater adventure he had shared with the Merfolk that allowed him to see those creatures in the dark waters.

"Instructor Arnold, but aren’t those below just normal schools of fish and Sea Beasts? To have us novices directly handle these living creatures, is that really alright?"

"What you are doing is not some destructive action against a species. Gentlemen, evolution comes with natural selection, and you are part of that uncertain element. Using some worthless groups of fish to create more Spirit Summoning Studies geniuses like Doctor Plague, in my view, is well worth it. After all, this is merely another form of speciation through evolution."

The Lich Academy accepted Arnold’s advice, like a group of infants wielding axes stepping onto the execution ground; they walked beneath the water’s surface and began their experiments.

"Doctor Plague, please commence your experiment. I am very much looking forward to your results." Arnold said to Lyle, who still lingered at the shore, in what seemed a benign reminder.

Lyle dived underwater.

The waters below were dark and silent, the moment he left the air, it was as though someone had turned off the lights, leaving only a thin layer of light at the surface.

He had to dive deeper. There were few creatures at the surface, even the patrolling sharks that once ravaged the shallows had vanished.

Lyle sensed the presence of his Lich classmates; their Soul Fires also shone underwater. Perhaps I should dismantle a few of the students’ skulls for illumination. That might reduce the losses among the fish.

This wasn’t something that could just be done.

Sinking to where light could no longer be found, some Liches had already made contact with the fish. They captured the fish with a proficiency that resembled Water Ghosts; perhaps a few trips to the surface to clear up wouldn’t be completely futile.

They held the fish in their palms, the slimy secretions and scales failing to let the fish escape their grasp.

With each spell cast, the creatures began to change form. Some grew extra bones, others’ scales turned into spikes like a hedgehog’s, some bones softened, resembling octopuses, and some... turned into writhing masses of flesh.

But most of them shattered, their blood and flesh bursting, blowing bubbles in the water, those red-stained bubbles floating up as if carrying the sounds of life’s lament when they burst upon touching the air.

"Who are we going to catch, Lyle?" Nia’s tentacles popped out from her damp sleeves, extending and flapping in the water, making Lyle resemble a giant squid.

Lyle watched the panicking schools of fish fleeing around him, perhaps sensing something in the depths. They would keep their distance from those clad in robes made of bones.

Maybe it was Nia’s disguise, but a small fish with blue-green stripes actually fled towards Lyle and was caught by the tentacles.

Lyle looked at the fish and finally made up his mind. He opened his arms, and the crimson spell slowly closed in on the little fish.

"Everyone else is doing this, so, I can do it too..." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The ones to come into contact with the crimson spell were Nia’s black tentacles. The beautiful, tough tentacles turned into a mist of blood in the spell, and the freed little fish swam back to the deep sea.

"Nia, are you okay? Does it hurt?" Seeing the severed layers on Nia’s tentacles caused by his own actions, Lyle felt uneasy.

"It doesn’t hurt, it will heal quickly!" Before Nia’s words ended, the flesh and blood on her tentacle were already knitting back together, as if Lyle had never done anything.

"Nia can be Lyle’s subject for experiments, because Nia is alive too! Nia will self-heal, it’s super amazing! Lyle, the big dummy, can’t hurt Nia!" The end of that tentacle transformed into the shape of a fish, as vivid and detailed in form and scales as a real fish.

"Do what you want, don’t do what you don’t want to. Lyle, Nia will help you."

Black tentacles expanded from Lyle’s body, weaving into a nest in the water. A giant glob of flesh reached out with tentacles to capture the school of fish, and after some time, released them back.

With Nia as a subject for his spells, Lyle’s understanding of flesh transformation became incredibly keen, and his knowledge grew rapidly.

"Like this... one can weave bones; like this... insect carapaces; like this... gelatinous tentacles..."

Lost in his compulsive experimenting, Lyle learned new abilities.

A sea snake coiled in his hands, its wild, surging eyes glaring fiercely at him, with its fangs now enveloped by flesh.

This snake was originally a sardine.

Biological transformation, blood and bone transmutation... Lyle had learned many creations and had summarized a set of effective rules.

"Perhaps I could write these learning experiences down in notes to share with others, that might reduce the losses."

Lyle, thinking this way, suddenly turned to gaze at his own body.

"I still don’t know how to, modify the human body..."

Understanding Lyle’s intent, Nia stretched out her tentacles to catch Lyle, wanting to construct a human body model.

Oddly, some tentacles even stretched past Lyle, reaching beyond the Black Nest.

"Strange. Could there be other humans or humanoid creatures here?"

The tentacles eventually slithered into the droplet-covered coral bush, endlessly probing downwards, forming an underwater forest before Lyle. The Black Nest was deciphering, sprouting new tentacles to catch whatever was in the coral bush.

Lyle felt it.

A giant white mask, like a huge bivalve, arms resembling massive withered branches buried in the riverbed, tentacles hidden in the gaps of the coral reef. Right beneath him.

A giant lay dormant here.

Fear rushed in.

Accompanied by the mocking smile on that white mask.