NOVEL WEB Chapter 63: Chapter 63
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When Mordo asked me how I had done it, I only said that I had felt it. In fact, I didn't realise how I had done it, and was once again glad that I hadn't spent the ticket much earlier just for fun. Mordo was not dissatisfied with the answer and simply remained silent, but he only threw a single phrase that demanded to follow him. I didn't want to piss the mage off with a bunch of questions, so I went into my thoughts and followed him. I came to my senses only because of the New York temple keeper's shouting at me.
-What are you doing here? - Asked the man with a frown.
-I was accepted as an apprentice and followed Mordo to his new home, but I don't see him here. - Pierce looked around his position thoughtfully.
-You went back to the temple in New York. How did you do that? - The man asked in surprise.
-I was just following Mordo. - Ryan answered honestly.
-In Kamarthaj, but how did you get back to New York? - Raising his voice slightly as he led Pierce back to the portal arch, the man asked.
-I don't know. - With the most honest look possible for his body at the moment looking at the keeper's twitching eye Rain said.
-This time I'm going to hand you straight into Mordo's arms. - Sighing and throwing confused glances at Pierce along the way said the keeper.
After handing me over to Mordo, who was no less surprised by Mordo's story, I was finally taken to my new room. What could I say about the dwelling? A good quality bed with a mattress from the nineties, a reading table made of good quality oak, brownish grey walls and a window... cosy. I was distracted from continuing the contemplation of such diverse plans of the room by books falling on the table. Ten rather large books were stacked on the wooden table. Three of them were about Lycans, as the Ancient One had promised, and the rest about magic. And what was a shame, given the rather large size of each page, there were no pictures at all. This made me very sad and dampened my mood. Books on magic without pictures are a misery, at least one rune circle would have been drawn.
I decided to read the Lycan books first. It was better to understand myself and my kind first than to learn new things. I was able to finish reading three folios in fifteen hours. The enhanced intelligence pumped my memory well, so I went through the books in eleven hours, but the remaining four I just sorted out everything I had learnt and thought about the knowledge I had gained. And I learnt a lot.
Firstly, let's start with the number of alphas in the world. There are only thirteen active alphas. There are still exactly known flocks not wishing to come into contact with humans and living in a remote from civilisation, their exact number is unknown, but at least such flocks about 5-6.
The more active packs have founded the so-called Council of Thirteen. There they almost decide the fate of the Lycan species. Each of them is a very powerful alpha. The books did not specify their exact strength, but the magician who conducted research for a minimum cited the ability to crush boulders with a diameter of 7-10 metres into rubble in a couple of blows. In general, now there are no more questions why the system calls me under-alpha. I am certainly strong, but even when using the maximum strike I can not turn a stone into many pieces with two attacks, but even for its simple destruction I will pay serious injuries. I think the system even took pity on me, since I'm more of an alpha larva.
The only thing that has so far reassured me is my so-called uniqueness. I have almost reached the level of alpha pure, and this is a very rare and almost non-appearing precedent since antiquity. Only two pure alphas have appeared in the last thousand years and they were kind of very cool lycans. A pure one is someone who has acquired the first signs of an alpha without eating a single heart. Becoming an alpha purely on your skills and powers is almost unrealistic, so about 800-900 years ago the Lycans started resorting to an easier option. They began hunting for magical creatures living in this world. Every lycan can become an alpha, but to do so he must be very lucky and his body must undergo a transformation. To do this, the beta must eat the heart of a powerful magical animal within the first three hours of its death. This will give the beta a 3% chance to transform. And the funny thing about this is that besides the 3% you need to get to transform, only 20% of Lycans survive the transformation itself. And that's not to mention the difficulty of hunting down magical creatures. If you want to become a powerful alpha, you have to choose a powerful creature, and such creatures don't fall apart at the first request.
But it could not last long, of course, Lycans did not exterminate magical creatures on an industrial scale, but still because of them their population has shaken up and this did not please the highest wizard of the time. Merlin made a deal with the thirteen clans that had made contact and concessions. The clans would stop hunting the magical creatures of our world, and in return they would receive artefacts capable of sending ten of their strongest pack members to other worlds every six months. At first, the clan members were not particularly favourable to receiving time limits on hunting and the restrictions imposed on them by the treaty. But after the appearance of the first alphas, who underwent a transformation at the expense of creatures from other worlds, demonstrating strength and talents superior to their kin several times, all dissenters immediately shut up.
The book also told about ways to increase the chance of passing the transformation. This method was eating the heart of a pure alpha who had just begun to develop his powers. This, by the way, had also had a profound effect on the appearance of only two pure alphas in the last thousand years. Firstly, a pure lycan when becoming an alpha is several times stronger than those who have undergone transformation. Secondly, such an alpha lives 500-600 years instead of 300 for a normal alpha and 150 for a beta. And thirdly, it's the alpha's will. Every alpha can give orders to his betas. They just can't disobey because of their instincts. But a pure alpha who has lived about 200-300 years will be able to develop his will so that his orders will be obeyed even by other alphas who have undergone transformation.
From the description of the powers and skills of the transformed I realised that I don't really want to fight any of them. If the pure alpha after the full disclosure of his essence simply becomes stronger, faster, more resilient and his regeneration reaches the highest level. The transformed after transformation into the form of Lycan has a completely different appearance. Their appearance and powers depend entirely on who they have been transformed by. So elemental control, body rearrangement, teleportation, and a bunch of other random abilities in completely different combinations are available to each of the alphas of the Council of Thirteen.
I also learnt about the blood pact. It's a pact made between the hunters and the council. The hunters reasoned that even if they all came together, they could not win against so many packs. So according to the treaty, the alphas of the Thirteen would not interfere with the hunting of wild or overly aggressive Lycans, and in return the hunters would not attack their bets first. Also later in the treaty was a clause about the alphas' children. Having a child of an alpha is an extremely difficult task, because the child is born with the first traits of an alpha with a drop of father's/mother's powers. Therefore, for concessions and some favours in the direction of children of alphas from the side of hunters they are well sponsored and help in finding wild lycans. The pissed off heirs to the alpha's seat quite often make a lot of mistakes. At least with hunting and killing people, but because of the pact the hunters can't do anything to them and have to call in the pack members to settle the problem. That's why that hunter in DC was so scared when he realised I was the alpha. He thought I was the offspring of someone on the council, and they not only attacked me first, but tried to kill me repeatedly. And for something like that, by contract they become game for all the betas from the thirteen clans, and their own bosses just won't give the guys any help. You could call it an extremely twisted version of a death sentence.
The rest of the books mostly described the life and living of packs, wild and civilised. So after running through the information with my eyes and putting aside useful information I started studying books on magic.
***
-Totally unpredictable. - Said the Ancient One, placing Agomotto's eye back on the pedestal.
While Pierce went through the labyrinth, the Ancient performed several rituals to test Raina. The results were too ambiguous. He was completely immune to mental spells and could barely feel their effects. His aura also had some sort of connection to a very powerful energy source outside the earth. This channel could not be seen at all, it was as if it was sealed. Pierce was definitely using its energy to create flames, but there was no connection to Hell, which also raised questions about the source of his fire. So the Ancient decided to go to the extreme and view all the forks of the future with the time stone.
Using her eye, she was able to see many forks of the future, but there was no fork connected to Pierce. That's what she had originally thought, but after a closer look she realised that there was a time line with Ryan Pierce, but she couldn't see the future. It was as if it hadn't been written yet. In the centuries of her life, the Ancient had seen people who could change their own destiny or steal another's, but this was the first time she'd ever seen anyone who didn't have a written future. It was both a gift and a curse. When Raine Pierce, who had no destiny, delved deeply enough into the magical realities of this world his personality would attract the attention of too many powerful creatures. And she can only imagine what he will then have to experience.
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