60 Liberating the Forbidden Coast

While the undead ghoul crab was crushing and consuming the attacking zombies, he reviewed the system options for creating a Shade. Looking over what was possible, he saw that the system had recommended what it thought was the optimal choice.

One of the wolves they'd encountered and killed, had a naturally occurring affinity for the shadow element. With the highest compatibility, it would be the best candidate to survive the harsh process needed to create a Shade.

Confirming the selection, he brought out the wolf corpse. Directing a large cloud, worth four hundred dimensional points, directly over the body. Unlike the creation of the ghoul, where the energy seeped inside, this time it seemed to melt the body, fusing together with it.

Soon, a black ink-like puddle was all that remained. Slowly forming back into a canine shape, it now resembled a strange living shadow. It was blurry and vague, giving off the feeling of gazing into the night sky. Occasionally, a few stars seemed to twinkle, as the creature's body swayed and rippled gently.

If the aura from the zombies made people feel uncomfortable, and the ghoul's aura made your skin crawl, the feeling that the shade gave was simply a cold feeling. It was an unsettling cold, that seemed to pierce directly to the heart. With the creation of the shade complete, he ordered it to assist the ghoul.

From what he understood, the shade could devour the life essence of creatures, leaving the corpse for the ghoul to consume. Otherwise, the life essence was wasted when the ghoul killed something. Looking forward to seeing what would happen, everyone looked over, as the strange looking shade galloped over to the battle.

Sensing reinforcements the ghoul went back to clipping off the legs, leaving the zombies alive so the shade could finish them off. Approaching the downed zombies, everyone saw the shade start biting the zombies. Moving directly through the zombies, it bit into them, rendering them lifeless once more.

Swinging on the shade, the zombies didn't realize that it was completely useless. Their arms went right through the shade, as it lacked a corporeal body. Every time it bit out at a zombie, it devoured the life essence reanimating them. Since it was a spirit, it could float directly through them, and being a wolf allowed it to charge through the group quickly.

Behind the shade, the ghoul took a slow stride, swallowing up the now lifeless zombie bodies. Like a street sweeper, it cleaned up the entire area, swallowing the bloody sand and bodies together. To his delight, Zanir discovered that the terrain the ghoul consumed, was absorbed by the system. One day, he might be able to just send ghouls out devouring entire landscapes for him.

Mopping up all of the zombies outside, the flood of zombies pouring out of the cave slowed down to a mere trickle. He wasn't sure if the lich sensed he was absorbing the zombies, or if it was just running low on energy. Either way, he wanted to press forward, since his new undead were still growing.

Double checking that there weren't more ambushes waiting, he sent the shade inside to lure out more zombies. Since it was immune to their attacks, it was the perfect candidate. Sure enough, when he sent the shade into the cave, several more packs of zombies came out. They were also joined by a few ghouls this time.

Seeing the higher level undead worried him at first, but he was quickly relieved when the system scanned the attacking undead. Realizing that these ghouls were freshly created, he knew that the lich must be getting desperate. Otherwise, he'd've tried to preserve the ghouls, until they could grow stronger.

Ordering his men to retreat, he had the shade weaken the ghouls, as they led them away from the area. While the zombies weren't worth much, each ghoul he could capture would be able to grow stronger on its own. Halfway to the required distance, he saw that the ghouls actually tried to turn back to the cave.

There was no way he'd let them get away, however, so he ordered his ghoul to cut them off. Speeding over, the Emerald crab ghoul, pounced on the ghouls created using regular humans. Having already evolved once, the crab ghoul quickly sliced the feet off of its rival ghouls' legs. Crushing their feeble resistance, it dragged them over, one by one.

Absorbing them into the system, he got four more human ghouls. With the lich's elite troops now on his side, he was ready to head down there and complete the mission. Binding them to his side, he had the system reattach the feet to their bodies. Looking at his elite undead, he now had half a dozen special units, in addition to a growing crowd of regular zombies.

This was the perfect way to battle undead opponents. Using their own tactics against them, he was able to prevent the injury and death that might occur, if he was to try and battle the undead using living troops. Moving back onto the beach, they prepared for a final assault into the cave itself. Approaching the entrance, they saw a hooded figure walking out.

Skeletal, the lone figure approached slowly. The staff that it held, gave away it's position, as the lich responsible for what was happening. Knowing that they were usually avid spellcasters, he wanted to see how his new troops would handle the situation.

Approaching the lich, the ghouls and shade spread out, surrounding him. Sensing that they were undead, he felt the lich try to wrest control of them. Unfortunately, they were bound by the system, so it's efforts were futile.

While it took a split second, trying to possess them, the elite undead moved in swiftly. Moving in first, the ghouls attacked the lich's body directly, causing little damage. As it was about to cast a spell, the shade moved in, attacking the lich and preventing the spell from being cast.

Unable to directly damage the lich's tough body, the four human ghouls threw up vile stomach acid, which seemed to soften and weaken the bones themselves. As the lich was starting to smoke and melt, the crab ghoul was finally able to clamp through the weakened bones.

Having detected that it would soon be defeated, the lich tried leaving its body. Being immortal, there were plenty of times it cast off its physical body, knowing full well that it could recuperate in its Phylactery.

Cackling evilly, the spirit of the lich left it's body, in the form of a dark cloud of grey smoke. Passing through the ghouls, he kept laughing, until the shade jumped on top of him. Pinning him directly to the ground, he startled the lich, who was caught totally by surprise.

Growling, the shade opened its jaws, closing them to the point where it was just barely biting into the lich's spirit. Around the area where its eyes would be, two large stars were twinkling. Zanir could sense that it was waiting for his order, ready to kill the lich without a moment's hesitation.

Approaching the restrained lich, Zanir saw that its eyes lit up, twin crimson globes stared back at him furiously. Knowing that it was a moment away from being devoured, it could only glare. Addressing the lich, he was direct with his proposal.

"Serve me!"

Laughter rang out, as the lich couldn't take him seriously. After calming down, he spoke for the first time. His voice was empty and hollow sounding, as it seemed to echo.

"How can you expect me to serve the living?"

It was obvious that the lich didn't realize who he was dealing with. Having created the two undead earlier, he was now familiar with condensing his dimensional points into a cloud. Bringing out a few points of the energy, he could sense an immediate reaction from the lich.

"What is this energy? It's so pure! I thought that, by surviving death itself, I'd reached enlightenment. I see now, how insignificant I truly am."

Settling himself, the lich stopped resisting him. Floating over, the dimensional energy mixed together with the lich. The originally dark cloud, became much lighter, before swirling back into Zanir together. He was already expecting the system prompt that came up.

[Lich soul detected, bind to available Phylactery (Undying Heart)?]

It seemed like the first lich had used his soul to repair the Phylactery, with the remaining allowing the system to upgrade the magic subroutine. Seeing that he had the option to create, what would be an effectively immortal commander, he chose to bind the lich to the Undying Heart.

Bringing out the Undying Heart, the lich could sense it immediately. Flying over directly to it, the cloud went right in. Beating rapidly, the heart started to bleed, as it flew back into the spatial world. Seeing that the beach was clearing up, he brought his men into the world to follow, leaving a few zombies to guard any treasure in the cave.

Teleporting into the spatial world, everyone was astonished by the Undying Heart. Even in here, where strange and unusual things happen every day, people stopped and stared. It wasn't every day that you saw a flying heart, covered in blood, that was slowly forming into a human shape.

Hovering in the air, the blood around the heart slowly formed a skeleton, then moved on to making muscles, finally forming into a complete human. Opening his eyes, the middle-aged man stared around wildly, revealing bloodshot red eyeballs.

Blinking a few times, his eyes returned to normal. Waving his hand casually, he had no reaction, as his chest opened up, letting the Undying Heart fly out. Soaring up and away, it landed in the Druid's cove, the only restricted area in the spatial world. Protected by sentient vines, the Phylactery would undoubtedly remain safe.

Realizing that he was naked, the man coughed nervously, as a dark cloud wrapped around him, forming into a black robe. Looking around at everyone, he noticed Zanir, approaching him. Taking a bow, he introduced himself.

"I'm Marcus, the lich from earlier. I'm at your service, master."