Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Without much to do, Lucan and Silent followed Heaven's Kiss and Spicypumpkin through the city.

"This place had the best chance of containing the journal." Heaven said.

They stood before a building that was in relatively good condition compared to the others. She opened the door and walked in.

They were in a massive library. Shelves stretched from floor to ceiling, reaching over twenty feet high. Hundreds of bookshelves lined the walls while tables were spread out in the center of the room.

"Let's split up." Spicy said. "We don't want to be here all day."

Lucan sent out both his familiar and started to scan through the books.

"See, aren't you glad that we came?" Heaven asked, trying to get Lucan to admit fault for once.

He was about to agree when something caught his eye. He could see a faint trance of ethereal mana on the top shelf further back. He sent Adrestia to inspect it.

She tossed several books to the ground and squeezed behind the ones that remained, Shifting around behind the books the miniature drake poked her head back out and took flight with a leather bound journal held in her talons.

She dropped the book into Lucan's hands.

"Good girl." He said while rubbing her head and then taking out a dab of honey for her.

"Squeak, squeak."

"I didn't forget about you." He said to Little Brown before giving him a dab of honey as well.

Then Lucan did the impossible and chose not to rub it in Heaven's face.

[Step 2 complete]

[Step 3: Receive the planeshifter's blessing.]

[Alternate step 3: Find and kill a planeshifter and absorb their mana core.]

Having Mentas's eye really saved him a lot of time, if they actually had to search the whole library it might have taken days. Even then they wouldn't have found it unless they pulled every book from the shelves and looked behind them.

Lucan took a seat at the table and began to flip through the pages.

The warlock was surprised to find the Ghost King had never been to this sanctuary, someone else must have placed the book there. For what reason, he did not know.

The Ghost King was a native of the ethereal realm. Born into a nomadic tribe of Planeshifters that roamed the realms. The tribe he was born into were similar to pirates. They sailed on ships through the currents of the ethereal realm, preying on the other natives and those who became stranded.

Lucan read about his life from when he was a child till he left his tribe and then created his own kingdom. He learned a lot about planeshifters and the ethereal realm.

The ethereal realm isn't considered a full realm, but not because it is small. It is the place between realms. The existence that allows realms to be separate from each other. While some realms overlapped with each other and allowed natural passage from one to another, the ethereal realm bordered every realm. Without it, every realm would overlap on top of each other. The places that you could walk from one realm to another were the places where the ethereal realm had collapse.

Plane shifters are one of the many natural inhabitants of said realm. With ethereal energy infused into their very bodies they were able to venture from one realm to another, but without returning to the ethereal realm every so often they would lose their natural abilities. Some could see into the other planes of existence, while others could open up passages. They had a number of different abilities but no planeshifter was sure why each had access to only a few. They were distributed in a seemingly random way.

After the Ghost King left his tribe and followed the yellow river that flowed through the realm. He eventually settled down at an area where the ethereal energy around the nine hells was particularly weak. Devils and ghost often wandered into the ethereal realm. He slayed the devils, sending them back to hell, but his natural ability encouraged the ghosts to serve him.

The Ghost King was able to allow the ghost to feed off of the ethereal energy in the air to grow stronger and solidify their forms. They no longer had to worry about dissipating. However, the effects of his actions caused an area in the ethereal plane to collapse. On one side was the nine hells and the other the material plane.

Devils stormed into the mortal world where they claimed countless lives. But for the Ghost King, he didn't see this as bad. The resentful spirits of the dead began to form ghost, giving him even more subordinates to rule over. The ghosts came in swarms since they had an easier time entering the ethereal realm compared to those with solid bodies.

The planeshifter tribes gathered together to overthrow him, not for the sake of the material plane but because every time an area of the ethereal plane collapsed, it was gone forever, and the appetite of his ghosts was never ending. Their home may no longer exist one day if he was allowed to carry on.

Unable to kill him, they did the next best thing. The tribal leaders, with the blessing of their guardians, sealed away his abilities and cast him out of the ethereal realm. With no way to return, he was forced to wander the material plane.

After fifty years of wandering he had wanted to repent. Visiting a shrine to one of the planeshifter guardians he tried to make amends but was rejected. And for good reason, he was not sorry for the destruction he caused to their home, he was sorry that he was defeated.

With anger and hate still burning in his heart he erected a tomb and locked himself in. The darkness overcame him after years in solitary confinement and he took his own life. But that was not the end of his soul. He placed his last hope on his unrelenting desire for vengeance against those who cast him out.

When he died a vengeful spirit rose from his body as he took the form of a ghost.

That was where the journal ended.

Lucan was excited. The story was entertaining and informative, he had read it aloud since Silent sat next to him. What excited him the most was that he had picked up several clues as to the location of the Ghost King's tomb and the location of the shrine where he went to ask for forgiveness.

The shrine was probably the best place to receive the planeshifter's blessing while the tomb may provide him with a better chance at killing a planeshifter. He wasn't entirely sure which path he wanted to take.

"Looks like we are one step closer." Silent said.

"We have already wasted enough time with you. Let's get out of here." Heaven said.

The four took out return scrolls and activated them. Silent and Lucan parted from Heaven and Spicy, appearing in Shadowsweep.

"I need to go see Raze, do you want to come."

"If it's alright I need to go arrange a few things with Bud." Silent said

"Sure, I will come find you when I am done." He said, giving her a kiss on the cheek before they stepped into the teleporter and flicker off in different directions.

Lucan went straight for the palace and luckily Raze was available to meet him.

"Well done kid, you became a Baron earlier than I thought you would. I will send an army to your fortress and castle for you to command. Now that you are a Baron, I hope you can expand your influence and bring me more experience." Raze said with a giddy smile.

"You seem to be in a good mood today." Lucan commented.

"Yes, yes, of course, my favorite daughter brought me something very interesting last night. Ah, here she is now."

The young miss from the auction walked into the room and was surprised to see Lucan. To not cause her trouble, he didn't bring up what she owed him.

"I never expected you to have a daughter." Lucan said.

"Yes, when it came to her mother, I could hardly resist myself. She the most beautiful naga's I ever laid eyes on." The Supreme Leader said as he looked back on his past memories.

Lucan was surprised to hear the young miss's mother was a snake woman, but it was Raze after all. Would a normal woman be able to keep the old man company without getting annoyed to death? Probably not.

"Lilith, come here. Let me introduce you. This is my sixth Hand, Baron Lucan Quilldrake. He is a good one, so keep your eye on him. He could be the husband that eventually gets you under control."

Lilith let out a snort but didn't refute her father.

"I already have a woman; I am not the kind of guy to step out on her." Lucan said, stopping the conversation before it could turn into something he would regret.

"Don't you travelers know the word polygamy, who says you have to step out."

Lucan shook his head. "That's not for me, I am happy and don't want to be stabbed to death."

Lilith laughed while remembering Silent's reaction when she offered to spend a night with Lucan.

"Your loss." She said, not bothered by the matter.

The warlock did his best to change the subject of the conversation. "I have meet with the Queen of Shadows and Duke Hellfire. We have set a date to move against the others. I though you should know so you can line up your next set of targets to scam, I mean Hands."

"Good, good, let me know when the date arrives."

"I will."

"If there is nothing else, I will be getting back to my research." Raze departed leaving only Lilith and Lucan.

She took a step towards him and her lower body transformed into that of a snake. Her tail reached out and softly wrapped around his leg as if she was stroking him, while she slithered closer, gently reaching out and resting a finger on his chest.

"Are you sure you don't want to enjoy a night of passion. I can help you leave all your worries behind." She whispered seductively.

"Uh, no, I am very happy, I should be going." He said, almost tripping while running out of the palace as fast as he could.

After Lucan stepped out of the teleporter her realized he had been tricked. "That daman woman ran me off instead of giving me the research she owes me. Both of them are just a bunch of crooked scammers." He cursed.