Life can be Such an Abomination

From what Michael could remember of Dalton the Wise, it was not going to be an easy fight. A battle between Mages was never easy, let alone a death battle between Sages. Dalton was considered to be one of the greatest Sage of this era, but Michael – Eric Cromwell – was stated to have far more innate potential than the man.

Eric Cromwell was beloved by Magic after all.

Perhaps it was jealousy that drove Dalton into betraying one of his brightest students. Or perhaps the man was promised some sort of momentary gains. It certainly was not for fame and prestige as Dalton already had enough of either to destabilize a Kingdom on his words alone.

Regardless of whatever the cause, with the support of the Spellcaster Source, Michael was certain that he would be victorious.

The only thing left was coming face to face with Dalton.

Unfortunately, reaching the Sage Tower was not as easy as Michael had initially thought, let alone for him to enter the tower and confront Dalton at the top.

This was in part due to Michael's current ghastly appearance, for he was an undead skeleton wearing rags. He had not bother to summon a better set of clothes, as there was really no reason to. It was not like the weather and climate could affect him.

Michael felt absolutely nothing as an undead. Certainly not the icy winds howling through his hollowed bones. Nor the bloodstained earth beneath his feet.

Even if Michael could manage to perfectly hide his undead appearance through the use of magic such as transfiguration or illusionary magic, there were plenty of mages within the city that could see right through his subterfuge and discern his true nature.

More so if those mages were anywhere within sight.

It was quite impossible to keep a good distance from the wandering mages within the city, considering that there was an Arcane Academy here. One of the most prominent on the entire continent. Without the impending doom looming over the entire world, there was at least 10,000 mages within the city.

Less now as most had left to defend their Kingdoms and homelands. They did not return.

Aside from mages, there were all sort of blessed relics and ornaments scattered throughout the Holy City, not to mention the absurd number of statues in the likeness of the patron Gods and Goddesses.

Standing within the ranges of those sacred statues or bathing in the glows of the relics and ornaments had beneficial effects for the living. Not so much for the undead.

As a matter of fact, the effect would be detrimental, and the holy damage taken by an undead would be similar to a person getting severely poisoned.

Of course, all of this could be negated if Michael had enough power to switch his avatar. Switching his avatar would effectively switch his race along with all of his racial traits. From that alone, switching his avatar was not merely for the sake of his appearance.

Michael would no longer be considered one of the undead if he did so, and that was a problem in itself due to the current situation.

None of the undead gave him any mind at the moment because he was an undead himself. In addition, he could rule over their will due to his sheer magical might. If he was no longer an undead, they would attack him on sight, just like Window had attacked him previously within his world.

Michael rather not create artificial obstacles for him to overcome, as he already had enough obstacles to tangle with at the moment.

With his magical might and energy reserve, Michael could command all the undead within the city and the surrounding area without much effort, but he could not keep the undead from tearing into fleshes and devouring the living indefinitely.

There were actually more undead here than the place that Michael had created Window. Many folds over, and while he could create another unique undead like Window to reduce their number to a more manageable level, he refrained from doing so.

Michael did not want to repeat the same mistake as before when there were better options available, and honestly, due to the sheer number of undead, the defenders would eventually be overwhelmed.

Not immediately overwhelmed thanked to the outer walls and fortifications, which did not completely surround the city. Therefore, a lot of establishments and people are living outside the city walls, falling easy prey to the swarming undead.

And soon, everyone outside the city walls would be dead. Those within the city walls would eventually meet the same fate, but it is difficult to breech the outer wall of the Holy City with just numbers alone.

In contrast, the inner walls of the city, however, were far easier.

The Holy City Celestia was original just a temple, but as time passed, it grew and expanded, eventually becoming a sprawling city. As such, the city was divided into many uneven sections, fully enclosed and manned by all sort of groups. There were very little communications between these groups, and that would be their downfall.

Of course, the undead horde must breech the outer wall first in order to attack the inner walls. Michael did not need to do so. With the barrier protecting the city destroyed, he could actually teleport directly into the city. Just not directly to the Sage Tower due its own magic barrier and countless shielding and wards.

Michael was in no hurry to do that, however, and even if he wanted to, he would not do so himself. It was better to just teleport some strong undead into the city instead. Even if the defenders could react quickly enough, they would not be able to stop Michael from repeating the same tactic.

And with each death, the fall of the city crept ever closer while the undead only grew stronger.

Speaking of which, Michael wondered how to claim the souls of the dead. Those were killed by undead and turned into undead did not typically have a soul. And since the number of souls in his possession did not change, the souls of the dead must still linger about or head for the afterlife.

Michael could not see soul, unfortunately, but with the knowledge that soul did exist along with some logical reasonings on his part, he knew that they were there. That did not allow him to claim the souls, however.

He recalled how he had gained the souls of those teenagers. It was because they were either killed by Window or died within his world. Perhaps it was both. He could test both very easily.

Since this was a golden opportunity to gain more souls, Michael had decided to take a moment to do so, as Dalton was not actually going anywhere soon.

Michael channeled his power and reached out to the nearby undead, taking control of their will. With a single though, the undead came together and merge, forming a singular being.

The resulting creature was not as powerful as Window, but it was fairly power, considering the amount of miasma radiating from its body.

"Master…!" the creature growled at Michael, indicating it was capable of some speeches. The fact that it addressed him as such also showed that it had some intelligence. Furthermore, it was submissive to his will.

"You shall be called Abomination," Michael named his creation. "Go. Bring me survivors. You may kill those who resists."

The Abomination growls loudly before charging away, smashing through a dozen undead without even batting an eye. As it did so, Michael channeled more of his power, and more undead merged together to form more Abomination.

Since they were his creation, it was much easier to control them than other undead. He gave them all the same orders, as more minions were better.

And from the statistic window, it appeared that as long as the kills was done by his creation, he would gain the soul of the victims. He now had 12 greater mortal souls and increasing.

Now, the only thing left was to test the other method.