When A Mage Revolts

This sort of transformation clearly went beyond what they expected.

Not only did the spirit gained control of the bird’s carcass, it also imbued it with a certain spell casting ability. And after it regained freedom, its target was rather obvious — the mage who trapped it for a long period of time.

In that instant, Benjamin conjured a wall of ice, shielding himself from it. The disgusting bird smashed against the ice wall head on, following the intense dark elemental energy oscillations, it did not recoil immediately, little by little it breached the ice wall.

However, it was only just that.

The ice wall bought just enough time, Benjamin continued to cast spells, stream after stream of water was conjured, converging toward the disgusting bird, in a blink of an eye a durable pressurized bubble was formed.

The disgusting bird was trapped within it, as it was about to shoot dark elemental bolts, the magic nullifying bubble severed its connections with the outer elemental energies. It struggled within the bubble, in the end, it couldn’t break free of its imprisonment.

"Phew... what the heck is this?"

The surrounding mages recovered from their stunned state, the scene which unfolded before them was under control, sighs of relief were heaved across the room.

Benjamin then nodded.

It took him great lengths of effort to obtain this level of power, if he can’t even handle a transmuted spirit, what of fighting against the Church?

He observed the disgusting bird within the bubble delicately.

"What is this situation exactly?" He asked in his mind, "Quickly examine the current state of the bird’s body. Did the spirit fused as one with it? Why did this happen?"

"I can’t exactly do anything and everything you know…" The System replied begrudgingly, but in a moment later, it still shared its results, "According to my analyses, this bird was already deceased, the spirit seemed to have shifted from parasite to host. The bird’s physical body accumulated large amounts of dark elemental energies, went through the process of becoming a magical beast, and now it is a half revenant, half magical beast existence."

"Can it process thoughts of its own? What level of intelligence it possessed?"

"You ask me this, yet who shall I ask in turn?"

Benjamin couldn’t help but shake his head, he then turned his attention back to reality.

The situation at hand was rather complicated, at first he only wanted to release the spirit, to have it as a fine live specimen for research purposes. Little did he know, after residing in the bird’s physical body for so long, the spirit was unwilling to come out.

As for this newborn thing, it was dangerous to say the least, difficult to control, Benjamin hadn’t even prepared a proper enclosure to contain it.

In this moment however, the elder at the side wore a gleeful expression, gazed at the ever struggling disgusting bird in the bubble, said, "Can you extract some blood from it?"

"... I’ll try."

In order to handle this constantly struggling bastard, Benjamin stretched out his hand, and conjured a blood extraction tube and needle from ice. He inserted the needle into the bubble, forcefully poked through the disgusting bird’s body, then extracted as much as he could, yet nothing was extracted.

Pop! Immediately after that, the needle snapped and lodged itself in the disgusting bird’s body.

"This little thing… had no more blood flowing in it." Benjamin stared blankly, then came to his senses and said, "Before its demise, the spirit sucked out all of its blood."

At that moment, the elder furrowed his brows in disappointment.

"Then can you completely detain it? Just knock it unconscious, don’t let it move around no more."

"That doesn’t seem plausible..."

Benjamin attempted to convert the water bubble into a water sphere, shaped it into a water prison, then spun the disgusting bird from hundreds of times like a washing machine would. Even so, it still struggled about, as if any physical damage it received didn’t affect it at all.

From the looks of things however, these researchers with average combat capabilities would have a tough time dealing with it as well.

How troublesome...

As he looked at the resilient bird, Benjamin thought of tearing it into several limbs, just so he could see if it would still move on its own.

"Best if you don’t." The System then advised him, "Based on its body’s condition, if you were to mutilate it, the spirit within it may die as well."

"Then do you have any ways to force it out?"

"No idea, why don’t you think of something."

"..."

Benjamin scratched his head, suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind.

Why did the spirit wait until now to go berserk?

It’s all due to its prolonged lifespan through magic, the bird couldn’t truly die, the spirit was constantly locked away by the bird’s will. Now that the bird died, it can then truly take over its host.

Perhaps... what we knew as lifeforce, was what spirits fear the most?

As he thought about this, Benjamin stretched out his hand, and drew Elemental Order - Heal. This time however, when the immense healing power drizzled onto the disgusting bird’s body, it suddenly writhed in pain, letting out an intense shriek.

In that instant, Benjamin’s eyes gleamed.

It’s impossible to bring life from death through magic, yet the drizzle which carried strong auras of lifeforce, had awakened many unpleasant memories of the spirit — trapped in this physical form, constantly pressured down by the bird’s present lifeforce...

The other mages at the side witnessed what was happening, they couldn’t help but be intrigued by the sight of it. Some even followed in casting spells, using various similar waters of life healing magic, directing them toward the disgusting bird.

The more powerful the effects of these magical healing, the more the bird wretched in pain.

Suddenly, Benjamin shouted aloud, "Morris, do you have any other spiritual energy dampening glass containers? Make haste in installing it now!"

Morris was briefly stunned, regained his senses, took out a prepared glass container, dragged his wheelchair across, then swiftly replaced the old one.

The disgusting bird was thrown into the glass container through everyone’s healing magic.

In the end, following its body’s trembling, the disgusting bird abruptly stopped thrashing about, and fell in the container. Soon after, a transparent spirit slowly ascended from its withered shell.

It effortlessly drifted within the glass container, yet it could never drift its way out of the spiritual energy isolation barrier.

Benjamin heaved a sigh of relief, the surrounding mages widened their eyes in unison.

"This is… a spirit."

Who would’ve thought, after experiencing a string of incidents, they finally achieved their initial objective. The spirit did not fuse with the bird carcass as one, but under a complex environment, it triggered other abilities which temporarily handed it control of its host body.

Now however, it reverted back to its original form from the barrage of healing magic.

"Hand the bird carcass to me, it would serve as a meaningful specimen for our research," the elder returned his gaze, and said suddenly.

Benjamin nodded.

For the convenience of research and feeding, a small opening was installed on the glass container. With the spirit now reverted to its original form, its methods to sense its surroundings were left with putting other lifeforms into a delusional trance — it had no eyes nor ears, with no way to see the opening or closing of the small hole.

As such, Benjamin flipped up the small opening, took out the bird carcass through the use of water vapor, then closed the lid. In the process, the spirit acted like a mindless fly ramming at random, nothing can be discovered from this.

"Take your time in researching it."

He tossed the bird carcass to the elder, the elder nonchalantly took it into his hand, turned around, and hurried back to his own laboratory to conduct research.

The remaining people however, redirected their gazes toward the spirit drifting about in the glass container.