Superior Monsters (II)

Magnus tried to breathe but found it increasingly harder to do so.

"Am I dying already?" He thought to himself, "Human bodies are just so... Frail."

He muttered as he summoned the Half-Night Tome into his hands. When his life flashed past his eyes at that moment, he recalled a characteristic he had gained. His transformation was likely to be much more complete thanks to the Soul Devourer Art.

It was the characteristic of Undeath.

Instantly, his countenance changed as he held the bejewelled tome in his hands.

His cyan eyes were dyed purple and his complexion turned ghastly. His hair withered into dead white hair that lacked any and all vibrance.

Magnus flickered into ethereality.

A pang of hunger suddenly hit him.

A desire to consume.

And it was directed at his enemies below.

Magnus thus drifted downwards, still affected by his own gravitational techniques. Arrows aplenty flew through his body, with only some sticking into his limbs and flesh that failed to transform completely.

But at least, the dangerous throwing knives that Magnus could not sense nor dodge were nothing to his ethereality.

Restiel had already climbed higher into the sky, as he invoked,

"I am the warrior of the Heavens,

The seeker of light,

The judge and jury,

And the image of perfection.

Bow before my grace and glory."

The Divine Energy that he had been amassing these past days suddenly cascaded out of his small, angelic body. Restiel was like a highland spring where a waterfall is born straight out of nowhere.

Divine Energy flowed, enveloping the area in a layer of light.

Magnus, too, dissipated into light after temporarily saving himself from a slow death.

Swaaaaaaaaaah!

As Restiel truly likened himself to a six-winged archangel, he allowed his attack to wreak havoc.

"Light of Purification,"

He once again muttered as Magnus adored the display from within the Hivemind.

He had successfully pulled the majority of skeletons to him from fighting absentmindedly. Now, they had all clumped up and even formed a mountain to save Cryte from his gravity immobilisation.

It was the perfect instance for an all-consuming AOE ability.

Magnus watched as huge swathes of skeletons hiding in the darkness were reduced to ashes. The many inferior skeletons dissolved into nothingness, while the stronger ones that ranked around early 2-stars had melted bones.

Their armour of bones and weapons of sinews all lost their functionality at that moment, as something that fully counters them brought havoc.

As the light eventually died down, Magnus reappeared.

He instantly headed towards Cryte with his ethereality still active. The golden gravity sphere in his palm shot out like a baseball as he threw it out with his gravity.

Whoosh!

It knocked hard onto a melted portion of Cryte's body and pulled her with it. Cryte then found herself flying in the sky with no way to return.

She exerted force and was temporarily able to escape the magnet-like pull of the sphere. But in the end, she would always circle back.

Like how no strong being incapable of flight can escape the pull of the earth below it.

Her purification was now inevitable at this point.

Shiiiing!

A scythe was brandished and thrown. It cut through in the gaps between her armour, sending a rupturing force of Spirit Energy to go crazy within her body.

A stone spear slashed at her iron armour and tore it apart.

Her Undead Heart was instantly exposed, and a ghostly hand went to reach for it.

"No!" Cryte yelled out as she flailed in an attempt to protect her existence.

She still had goals to achieve. She still had something to look forward to despite her undeath.

But, an "I'm sorry," was all she heard as her bony hands passed straight through the young man's body before her.

"A ghost...?" She muttered as she felt something grip her heart.

Magnus flickered into his flesh at that moment as he pulled.

And Cryte saw this.

Her violent movements grew, but the damage done by Divine Energy was making its way across her bony body.

Magnus felt his arm get shattered, and his leg get broken due to the powerful thrashing that Cryte was doing.

Nonetheless, he pulled with all his strength and Spirit Energy.

"HAA!"

Rrriip!

If energy could tear, it truly tore at that moment.

Magnus heard it in his ears and it sent a chill down his spine.

He watched as the fires within Cryte's eyes instantly died out.

"I'm sorry," He subconsciously muttered once again.

That Skeleton General seemed too human for his own liking.

Perhaps because it used to be human too, long ago.

Magnus then took a bite out of the heart like it was the most natural thing in the world. His body instantly began to heal, and his aura grew darker.

It sent sirens to go blazing in Restiel's mind, and Magnus took notice of it.

"Now that is half concerning, but sensical," He muttered.

It only made sense for Restiel's natural instincts as an angel to react to a growing undead existence. If it didn't, he wouldn't be the Archangel of Divine Judgement.

"This means that I would have to be careful of the real Restiel in the future..."

Magnus worried about his days at Archaeon University if he does pass.

That and,

"There's also the Emerald Twilight..."

Magnus sighed in refreshment. He was excited for those days to come and bring him thrills like today.

Seeing that he was done there, Magnus swiftly took Cryte's skull with him and fled through the air. Javelin had already been unsummoned.

It was time to exchange his gains for the day for some coin.

.

.

.

Next up on the list was a 4-line Zombie. A zombie with a Blessing that had four lines. Magnus headed for it after a day of rest and healing. Restiel had been wounded, after all.

Magnus thus went out once again in the dead of night.

[[ 4-line Zombie ]]

[[ Blessing and Curse: Unknown (4-line)/Unknown (4-line) ]]

[[ Physical Attributes: 3.0-stars ]]

[[ Spirit Attributes: 3.0-stars ]]

[[ 4-line Zombies like to hunt alone. They still contain sentiments of their superiority back when they lived, thus prefer a lonesome life. Unlike Skeleton Generals and Ghoul Gangsters, nothing you do to other zombies will attract 4-line Zombies. They only react to sound. ]]

[[ 4-line Zombies have weaknesses based on their Blessings and Curses. Sometimes, all it takes is one right attack to activate their Curse. On that note, all their Blessings have negative attributes given their transformation. ]]

[[ 4-line Zombies are strong mainly due to their balanced statistics and their ability to regenerate their wounds after consuming another living being. ]]

He made sure to memorise these details as he floated in the air and drifted towards zombie territory.

When he arrived, Magnus yelled.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The groans of the zombies instantly filled his ears as Magnus summoned Restiel and went about slaying as many as they could.

Restiel needed to restock on Divine Energy ever since last night, so this was the chance to do so.

Magnus also sent Javelin out with the Powder of Undeath to go on a search. A search for their target: the loner 4-line Zombies.

Time passed as Restiel went around swinging his scythe and cutting through the many negative-status-inflicting Blessings there were. His light purified and kept him pure. Nothing could catch him as he acted like a wolf amongst sheep.

Among the undead in Hummolus, the zombies were definitely Restiel's favourite target to kill. They were so easy to beat and basically were of no threat at all.

Meanwhile, Javelin had already found a target. He was stalking the 4-line Zombie from just a couple of paces away, trying his best not to lose the monster due to the thick fog in the area.

When Magnus deemed the farming sufficient, he and Restiel made a beeline towards the 4-line Zombie and they began their assault.

"Raaaaarghhhh,"

The 4-line Zombie seemed to instantly recognize their presence.

Magnus sent his golden gravity sphere out and created a powerful whirlpool out of gravity that sucked the 4-line Zombie in.

The zombie began sliding as it resisted the immense pull of gravity. A black gas seemed to be flowing out of it, joining the gravity whirlpool that Magnus created.

'It is some kind of toxic miasma,' Magnus guessed.

He sent Restiel out to begin the attack.

Divine Energy flashed here and there as the zombie resisted with only its physical abilities.

Magnus then moved his gravity sphere higher into the air.

He hoped that the 4-line Zombie would be rendered immobile with this move.

"Graaaargh!!"

The zombie tried to groan something as it was helplessly lifted off of its feet. Restiel then met it in mid-air and struck. A small pillar of light blossomed and burned the zombie's skin.

But as usual, it wasn't dead.

Just as Magnus was about to think of a way to truly kill the zombie, however, something happened.

Crack!

Magnus heard a jarring sound come from the zombie.

'Something inside it... snapped?' Magnus wasn't sure.

He decided not to mind it and just have Restiel strike again.

Just then,

Crack! Crack!

The higher the 4-line Zombie rose in the air, the louder these cracks were.

It baffled Magnus as he recalled the handbook's contents.

"Could this be its Curse?" Magnus thought to himself as he watched the zombie suddenly become bloated.

The world stopped.

The air became silent.

Magnus could hear his heart beating in his chest in that sudden lull.

"Oh..."

Magnus' mouth opened up.

"Oh no—"

—BOOOOOOOOM!

An immense wave of dark miasma suddenly burst out like a supernova of darkness. Magnus was launched into the sky, flung over a kilometre away and still counting.

The explosion was huge and Magnus blanked out. He practically lost consciousness at that moment, as nothing but the ringing of his ear was all he could hear.

"I need to stop...!" Magnus desperately wrestled for control as he blinked in and out of consciousness. The forces acting on his body were too great and he could feel several broken bones. He could barely breathe right.

His organs were surely in a horrid state at that moment.

"My tome—" Magnus struggled to even summon the Half-Life Tome to turn himself into an incomplete ghost.

Poof!

The tome appeared in his hands and his countenance changed into that of something inhuman.

"Haaa," Magnus caught his 'breath' despite seemingly having none.

The pain had dissipated for the moment, but Magnus knew that the moment he turned back, he would be in for a world of it.

Magnus cursed as he noticed the state of Restiel.

The angel was basically a body of holes. He was at his last breath. Dark miasma overpowered his Divine Energy.

"Thankfully Javelin and Klaris were in hiding," Magnus heaved a sigh of relief.

Especially when he noticed that Klaris was still doing fine. If he disappeared, there was no way to retrieve new mirrored bodies.

All of Magnus' plans would fall apart if he lost that man.