Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 176: Ghosts

Zac’s eyes widened as he saw what faced him. The best way to describe it was that he was looking at a ghost. It was clearly an undead denizen teeming with miasma, but it was mostly translucent. It didn’t really have any facial features, apart from its eyes shining in white and azure.

It looked upon Zac like it was gazing at an oddity, apparently not even considering the possibility of having found itself in danger.

“You’ve strayed quite some ways from safety, human,” the specter said. “I will let you live if you can provide any hints of what caused the miasmic disturbance in this area.”

Zac blankly stared at the apparition for a second, not sure what to do. While the thing talked the talk, his intuition told him that the undead in front of him was not of the same power as the Corpse Lord he fought earlier. For a second he thought it might be one of the liches Ogras had mentioned, but he quickly discounted that possibility. The air around it wasn’t even slightly distorted from power, and his danger sense didn’t flare up.

Unhappy with the lack of response the undead looked ready to follow up with something else, but a glance at the wound on Zac’s side stopped the wraith in its tracks.

“What is that on your body?”

Zac’s mind worked a mile a minute as he quickly put on his robe again. It looked like his experience had caused a huge disturbance in the area, causing even the sentient undead to scout it out. Perhaps it wasn’t even alone, with some of the real leaders close-by.

He was still not yet ready to start an all-out brawl with the undead forces. His wound was finally better, but he still hadn’t explored the changes to his body. He didn’t want to overload the odd Core in him and go off like fireworks from destabilizing it. The core contained enough miasma to create over a hundred thousand zombies, who knew what could happen if it was unleashed.

“Oh, you are one of Lord Mhal’s experiments…” the wraith said, but it shuddered as it looked at Zac’s body, seemingly seeing straight through him. “But what is that core…. Wait, that axe… You’re-“.

The undead didn’t get further than that though, as Zac flashed right next to it with [Loamwalker] with his axe already mid-swing. With a growl the edge went straight through the head of the wraith with a swoosh, but Zac didn’t feel any elation.

His brows furrowed when he saw that the undead was completely fine, and Zac understood why the undead was so laid back. The thing was completely incorporeal, and a normal attack wouldn’t cut it. Without missing a beat he imbued the edge with the Dao of Heaviness and swung once again before the ghost even had time to react to the first swing.

He hoped that the effect would be like when he fought the ghost wolves during the first wave. His normal hits didn’t work, but when he empowered the strike with the Dao he had no problem killing them. However, the empowered swing didn’t fare any better, harmlessly passing through the undead.

Zac already knew that some undead were notoriously hard to kill, often requiring specific classes or skills to get the job done. Unfortunately he had no skill of that kind. Initially he’d hoped that his repository would contain one, but there were only so many skills in there.

“To think you left your island to come here. Great Lord Voshri was very intrigued when you defeated Mhal,” the wraith laughed as it started to flitter away though the woods. “I am guessing you’re the cause for the disturbance as well. The benefits you will bring me.”

Zac knew he couldn’t let this thing get away, as it would cause untold trouble. Not only did it immediately figure out who he was, but it also seemed to possess some sort of ocular skill. It clearly managed to see the core inside his body. Even worse, Zac’s brows rose in alarm as the ghost started to shine with a stronger and stronger azure light, starting to look like an unholy beacon.

Out of options Zac only had one idea. He’d used the Dao of Trees to combat the miasma for a week now, and perhaps it would be effective in combat as well. The problem was that he never had been able to push the Dao of Trees into his axe, forcing him to only use it for defense.

Zac once again used his movement skill to get next to the fleeing specter, and ignoring his tired mind unleashed a large Dao-field around him. This time he didn’t create a whirl, but just expanded a sphere of influence that focused on the ghost.

The Dao field quickly drifted out, covering a diameter of over twenty meters around him, a huge difference compared to the Dao field he could create with his Dao of Heaviness. Clearly the field was effective as the wraith faltered as it tried to fly away, and even it light dimmed noticeably.

Zac was immediately upon the undead again, once again swinging his axe. He was ready to try to force the Dao of Trees inside the weapon, but it was surprisingly effortless to integrate the Dao into his axe as it once again ripped toward the head of the wraith.

This time the specter tried dodging, but it was to no avail as it was bogged down by the High-grade Dao-field. Desperate its eyes lit up light two ghostly lanterns, and a shield from miasma was erected in front of it. However, it was clear that it was just some sort of scout, its defense largely relying on being incorporeal. Its actual prowess was nowhere close to Zac’s.

The shield couldn’t even muster a defense against [Verun’s Bite] that was teeming with green energy. The ghost didn’t get decapitated but rather destroyed as the axe blasted through shining with its green glimmer.

The green light was the Dao of Trees, and it almost looked like it was extremely potent acid as it started to eat the specter, who started to shriek as it tried to get it off. However, in just seconds most of the undead was gone, leaving only a husk.

“From death comes life…” Zac muttered as he looked at the ghost melting away in no time.

It looked like he had gotten himself an amazing weapon against the undead. It was extremely effective on the ghost, and Zac guessed that it would work wonders against the other undead as well. A great worry was that the incursion would be led by a Lich, but with his new type of attack he wasn’t as worried anymore.

However, he couldn’t relax just yet, as the miasma around the perishing ghost suddenly shuddered. Zac quickly backed away, just in time to avoid a huge azure fire shooting up at the sky, quickly consuming the last of the undead. It appeared that the thing ignited its last energy to either take him with it into true death, or give out its location.

Zac was far more worried about the second option, as it would mean the ghost wasn’t alone. He had a strong feeling that the ruckus he’d caused yesterday wasn’t small, and this thing was likely only one of many. Not wasting any time he immediately set out to the east, planning to get back on track.

However, he only ran for a few minutes before he was dismayed to find himself essentially surrounded by undead. No matter which direction he looked he could spot a ghost scout. Since it was just a matter of time before he was found out he simply decided to make a break for it and pushed his speed to the limit as he ran through the woods.

As he suspected a few bright beams exploded in the sky not long after, likely markers released by scouts. Zac’s location was completely exposed and he could only pray that he didn’t run into the main army. Zac ignored the ghosts and kept pushing forward, aiming to get as far away as possible from the core zone.

Before he blacked out yesterday he’d already been quite close to the center of the undead incursion, and judging from the density of miasma in the area he’d gone further inside during his mad dash. He couldn’t be held up here, since stronger and stronger reinforcements would come if he was bogged down.

He felt like a trapped animal as he ran through the gloomy forest with his eyes darting left and right, waiting for anything to pop out between the trees. He was proven right in almost no time, as he suddenly found himself in a clearing with over a thousand undead in waiting.

He wanted slap himself when he realized he’d been tricked. Finding himself facing a waiting army was no accident. The ghosts around him shining their lights were herding him. He’d subconsciously tied to run in the direction where there were fewer lights in the way, steering clear of the directions thick with ghosts, afraid the enemy would be there.

Worse yet, this undead army was something else entirely compared to the native zombies, as they all looked sentient and well equipped. And in the front of the army stood a familiar figure, and seeing him Zac couldn’t help a groan escaping.

“It’s you, after all! No wonder my wounds were aching!” the Corpse Lord roared with fury as miasma in the area started to gather around him.

The undead general was clearly back on his feet looking intact, though Zac was surprised to see that the arm he’d crushed with [Nature’s Punishment] looked completely different from before. It was to the point that Zac suspected that it was actually replaced with another arm somehow, as it not only was larger compared to this other arm, it even looked to belong to some other type of humanoid.

However, the Corpse Lord didn’t feel weaker compared to before. On the contrary, it felt like he’d even gained a power-up, and the new arm pulsated with power. Perhaps the arm once had belonged to a E-Grade individual, as the power emanations reminded him of those of the fiend wolf and hive-queen.

The Corpse Lord was backed up by quite a few other undead, but Zac felt that there was no other undead at the same level as the leader itself, which was the only good news so far. Hopefully he was the only general that had came to the area to check things out, or at least the others were some distance away.

Time was of the essence, so Zac wordlessly sent out five large fractal edges toward the army, imbuing them with the Dao of Heaviness. However, the Corpse Lord only snorted as a vast aura of power emanated from him.

“Shields!” the general roared, prompting huge azure barriers to be erected along the army.

As for himself, the Lord simply jumped forward and punched the fractal heading in his direction. The collision created a huge impact creating a small crater in the ground, but it was clear which force was stronger. The new larger arm of the Corpse Lord didn’t even get a scratch as the fractal dissipated into a few wild swirls of Cosmic Energy.

“Your tricks will not work again human. I do not know how you survived my Seed of Desolation, but I will slowly figure it out as I pick you apart,” the Corpse Lord said with a growl, its eyes still blazing with fury.

Zac was starting to suspect that the reaction of the general, who apparently was named Mhal, was due to more than just having lost the battle two weeks ago. The undead looked like he wanted to eat him whole. Perhaps the punishment for failing the mission was quite extreme.

Since the incursions had long stabilized they should have an open channel of communications with the main forces back on their own worlds. Who knew, perhaps the Corpse Lord’s whole faction got implicated due to the failure. From how Ogras explained how it worked it seemed like a distinct possibility.

Zac knew that even if some other powerhouses were close, they would be attracted by a large battle. He would need to finish this up quickly and then flee at top speed, so he decided on a gambit. The undead army wasn’t just waiting on him though, and a flurry of attacks flew his way as their leader simply was content to observe for the moment.

Cosmic energy gathered at the fractal on Zacs arm with extreme speed as he ran to keep a constant distance from the opposing side. Soon the fractal was filled, and he pushed forward with his arm once again, making reality crack.

The huge arm from the other dimension started reaching for the Corpse Lord, who didn’t seem surprised at its appearance. In fact, he seemed gleeful, fully expecting the attack.

“Did you think the same attack would work twice?” the undead sneered as torrential amounts of corruption rose from three huge kettles carried by gigantic corpse golems.