5 Incarnating

Looking down at the huge carcass of the demon wolf he had just slayed, a sense of accomplishment arose within Alexis, he had done what all the other villagers were too afraid to do and now he would come home as a hero.

He finally could get everything he had ever wanted. He would be honored as a hero in the village after he revealed that he had slain the demon wolf that had plagued their village. On top of this, he would also gain incredible power through the gemstone he currently held in his hand.

If he had known that the gemstone held such power he would have taken it much sooner and not allowed for such power to be wasted. All this time he and the rest of the village had worshipped it as a link between them and their deity without realizing that whoever held it would get the powers of the deity. 

From this day on he would be known as Alexis the ruler of the weather and the hunt.

But as he looked down at the gemstone that he held in his hand, he noticed something strange, it had grown lighter with it almost looking translucent now instead of its former translucent blue.

It did not take long for Alexis to conclude that the color most likely symbolized how much longer he could use it, and with its current color, he could most likely only use it once more before it became a shiny rock once again.

Realizing this, a sense of dread arose within Alexis as the thought of never again having this exhilarating power at his fingertips arose within his mind.

Alexis quickly began to brainstorm ideas on how to return it to its former state, he began thinking about everything he knew about it. Why was it placed in the middle of the hunting field? And why was it only after a wounded hunter touched it he was able to use this power?

They had used it in rituals many times before, but they had never seen it reveal any powers, so why was it that he and the other hunter could suddenly use it to create miracles?

Suddenly a look of realization arose on Alexis's face as he thought of something that could potentially recharge the gemstone and allow him to use the powers freely.

He realized that when it was placed in the hunting field it was regularly splashed with blood and that the gemstone activated when the hunter's blood splashed all over it, so blood was most likely the key to recharge and use the powers of the gemstone.

Ready to test his theory Alexis made his way to the corpse of the hunter who had admirably sacrificed himself to help him kill the demon wolf only a few moments before.

Alexis then slowly crouched down and placed the gemstone on top of the hole that went straight through his chest.

Within seconds the gemstone began reacting with the blood inside of the hunter's body. The gemstone began to vibrate violently and gained a red hue before another magical scene appeared before Alexis's eyes.

All the blood inside the hunter's body began to spray out of any hole it could find, creating a horrific scene straight out of a horror movie. Even the blood on the ground around the hunter also began to rise, creating a large cloud of blood around the corpse and the gemstone.

Suddenly a whirlpool-like effect appeared around the gemstone as the red cloud of blood began moving towards it, being swallowed up by the gemstone little by little.

The process made the gemstone turn blood red and lose its translucent effect, making it look more like a clot of blood rather than a gemstone.

When it had finally absorbed the entirety of the blood cloud, it suddenly began expelling a crimson mist, making the gemstone regain its original color only a bit darker this time, indicating that Alexis's method worked.

This cloud of red mist remained in the air for a few seconds before it began reacting with its surroundings. The entire cloud of crimson mist began creating large veins mid-air, reaching over several meters as if it was searching for something, pulsing while doing so.

Within only seconds one of these veins had managed to reach Alexis who stood there shocked frozen by everything that was happening around him.

Having made contact with Alexis's body, the crimson mist began moving towards him at a slow and steady pace, climbing on the vein that had touched him.

Alexis wanted to move away from whatever this crimson mist was, but it seemed to have some paralyzing effect causing his body to refuse to listen to him, forcing him to stand still and watch as it slowly approached.

The crimson mist began to crawl all over him, covering him like a screen of dried blood, before it seeped in through all the orifices in his face. The entire process took only a few minutes for the entirety of the red mist to enter his body.

When all the mist had entered him, Alexis finally was free to move again and he immediately fell to the ground while breathing heavily. The crimson mist had not caused any major visual differences with Alexis, but if one looked closer one would see that his muscles were more compact, and he was constantly excluding a faint aura of death.

After standing up again Alexis let out a loud laughter as he tensed his muscles, feeling his new-found power course through his veins.

Then he made his way over to the carcass of the huge white wolf before tearing out one of its fangs, planning to keep it as a trophy and proof when he got back to the village of a successful hunt.

He then looked at the other corpses of his fellow hunters and debated whether or not to do the same with them as he had done with the dried-up corpse in the back, but decided against it as the villagers would ask questions if there were nine dried-up corpses.

Alexis would be able to answer why he came back alone, after all, it is normal with casualties during hunts, especially so when hunting a demon, and he was the most skilled hunter out of all of them, causing it to make sense it was him that came back alive.

The gemstone was also easy to explain and they simply did not find it. No one currently alive had seen the gemstone and the demon wolf could have hidden it wherever.

So he moved the body outside and threw it into a nearby ravine before making his way back to the village.

___

A few hours after Alexis had left, in Lucien's cave.

One could smell the heavy scent of blood throughout the entire cave.

Multiple liters of blood had dried up on the ground of the cave, creating a scene straight out of a true crime podcast.

The largest pool of dried blood was under a huge wolf carcass that had a huge hole in its head.

Suddenly something peculiar began happening to the large corpse. Streams of milky white gas began seeping out of the wolf's pores as long white strands.

Mixed with the milky white gas was some kind of translucent golden threads that followed it around. Inside these translucent golden threads seemed to be shadows of different animals, there were multiple stands of boar, deer, rabbits, a few other species, and a single wolf.

The milky white gas and the golden threads began gathering a few meters above the carcass of the huge wolf, with the gas in the middle and the golden threads orbiting around the gas.

Having settled at the top of the carcass the gas and golden threads began vibrating slightly, as if it was beckoning something to come to it.

As if in response to the movements of the gas and the golden threads, more golden threads began seeping out of the nearby corpses that gathered about a meter above their respective corpse.

Each of the corpses had one of these threads leaving them, only the dried-up corpse in the back of the cave did not have a golden thread above it. These threads that had just left the hunters seemed to have miniature versions of humans within them.

After a few moments, the golden threads above the corpses began moving towards the milky white gas above the large wolf carcass, joining the other golden threads.

When all the threads had gathered above the wolf the vibration stopped. At the same time, the new golden threads began releasing a green gas from within themselves, that joined the gas in the middle before slowly turning milky white like the rest of the gas.

This caused the gas in the middle to grow in volume slightly before the new golden threads joined the old ones, causing the gas to condense and go back to its former size, this time a bit thicker.

The new condensed gas and golden threads remained there for a few moments, suspended in the air, before it shot out of the cave, at speeds that were close to the speed of sound.

It traveled almost across the entire forest before it began to slow down until it came to a complete halt.

In front of the milky white gas now stood a huge male lion. The lion was more than three meters long and close to a meter and a half in height, truly the rightful king of the forest.

Seeing the strange cloud of milky white gas and golden threads in front of him, the lion was frightened and began to run away.

As if anticipating this the milky white gas immediately crashed into the face of the lion and went in through all the orifices in his face. The gas and golden threads went deep within its body and began dispersing.

Within seconds the lion fell to the ground and began convulsing before it suddenly stopped and began slowly transforming.

The lion's fur turned lighter and lighter until it turned completely milky white and at the same time its body began growing in every direction until it reached more than 1.5 times the size of a normal lion, almost five meters in length and more than two meters in height.

___

It had all felt like only a second for Lucien, from the moment he stared death in the eyes and saw the bullet of water shoot towards him until he woke up in the middle of nowhere.

He was aware that he was not in the same body that he had spent the last month in, but strangely that did not seem weird to him at all, like he had spent all of his life on this body.

After managing to orient himself, Lucien began feeling a burning anger rise from inside of him. Why did they kill him? Why did they have to go into his home and murder him? He had made a point of never doing anything to them, so why did they have to do all that?

Lucien slowly stood up and felt a bit weaker than he had been as a wolf as if somebody had ripped his strength out of him. At the same time, he felt his head become a bit more muddled again.

But the anger managed to dull all other sensations as he used his new mouth to roar as loud as he could, so loud that the entire forest could hear and know of the catastrophe that was coming.