Fredrick Easter

The ghosts charged forward like a surging high tide.

Manic screams and wails shook Magnus to the bone.

Restiel was swiftly summoned, sending an immense wave of pure Divine Energy into the ghost horde.

AAAAAAAA!

The screams of a hundred ghosts nearly made Magnus' ears bleed. But there was bound to be even more screams.

Rejuvenated by the return of Divine Energy for each undead he killed, Restiel grew stronger.

He wielded his scythe and began plowing the field, cutting through the 2-star ghosts like he was harvesting wheat. The ghosts evaporated to his scythe's touch. The same scythe that was crafted out of Divine Energy.

It was their bane.

On the other side, Magnus attempted to fight his way through the ghost horde to reach a gemstone pocket. He needed the safety of the stones to survive.

His gravity was useless, and his only solace was the fact that Soul Devourer had adapted to consume ghosts.

Any 2-star ghost that approached him could be devoured in just one second.

Magnus' purple-tinged eyes and white hair gleamed against the bluish soul fires of the ghost horde. His features glowed in the dark while he was in his ghost form.

HYAAAAA!

The wails of dozens of Banshees rang in Restiel's and Magnus's ears. It shot a wave of nausea straight through their brain. Discomfort plagued their thoughts for a moment as they were stunned in place.

Tssssss!

The ghosts wildly approached at that moment, hugging Restiel, wanting to devour him.

But with the angel's natural aura of divinity, they only burned in his presence. They weren't strong enough to ignore his aura.

Thus, they melted as they made contact.

A similar event was going on for Magnus.

Whichever ghost made it close enough would be sucked into his body to be devoured and turned into Spirit Energy.

Thus, Magnus' energy reserves were in a constant state of overflow. His growth was becoming visible to the naked eye.

His ghostly body mended itself as he stole Undead Energy from the ghosts that he devoured.

He was being aided by a new energy source, similar to how Restiel grew with the influx of Divine Energy.

Thus, despite the overwhelming odds, Magnus and Restiel were capable of surviving.

But that was because the 3-star and 4-star beings had yet to act.

Hihihihihihi!

Ominous laughter sounded out from among the screams and wails.

A phantom had crept up to Restiel and plunged a hand into his heart. Its shadowed visage was dense yet transparent. A mere humanoid blob of black goop.

"Ah..!" Restiel gasped as his movements slowed for a moment.

He sent out a blast of Divine Energy, forcing the phantom to flee for a moment in disgust.

But the damage was done.

Both Magnus and Restiel heaved a heavy sigh.

Something in Magnus's soul disappeared. He did not know what, but it had been stolen. Devoured.

He felt weaker now as if a limb or an organ had stopped working.

"This is bad…" Magnus bit his lip.

He continued to devour and devour, using the residual soul pieces naturally present within the ghosts to mend his own soul.

Restiel too continued to fight. He swung his scythe left and right, dancing with the playful phantom that wanted to mess with him before killing him.

But the ghosts were endless.

Wraiths were lingering on the edges of both Magnus's and Restiel's range of motion. They seemed to be deliberating something as they hissed at each other.

Ghosts died in the dozens. In the hundreds. But if even a 6-star threat could not kill them all, nothing Magnus and Restiel could do could thin the tide.

And yet, they still continued fighting.

Inching their way towards a zone of safety.

They were close. Just a few metres away. If they held on for a little longer, they would make it.

The ghosts continued to scream, rattling their eardrums and simply causing chaos.

And just as Magnus was thinking that he had yet to see any ghost dragon come and attack him, a roar shook the air above him.

Magnus looked up. A crooked smile on his face. Terror mixed with his addiction to thrills and created a conflicting emotion.

"If I am going to die here, then so be it!" Magnus roared as he commanded Restiel to face the 4-star dragon head-on. Magnus closely followed after the angel. He bore the burning sensation he felt while he was near him and set his hungry gaze at the dragon.

To eat or be eaten.

The rule of the jungle, and Magnus's weakness.

He had learned the Soul Devourer Art, yet at this moment, the thing that could grant him a true death was having his own soul devoured.

ROAAAAAAR!

Magnus' face paled more than it already had. But he still grit his teeth.

Ghastly jaws that normally signified instant death rapidly approached.

And Restiel was going to face it without caring for his life.

Divine Energy bloomed. An image of a blooming flower crafted out of pure white light shone in the darkness of the cavern. It overpowered the soul lights of the thousands of ghosts and caused the wraiths to reel back in pain.

The banshees, phantoms, and ghosts all paused as they felt a searing sensation assault them.

SWAAAAAH!

A huge arched blade of light extended from Restiel's own scythe and collided with the ghost dragon's maws.

Undead Energy and Divine Energy clashed. Two extremes fought one another and cancelled each other out.

But Restiel was bound to lose this bout.

His scythe of divine light shattered. His aura dimmed.

The ghost dragon continued forward and rushed straight through him, devouring a huge chunk of Magnus' soul.

"AAAAAAH!"

Magnus couldn't help but let out a scream.

Immense pain washed over him and drowned him in its clutches. It was an indescribable kind of pain that he did not even feel in his body.

It was a pain that bloomed straight from the depths of what made him, him.

He lost memories aplenty as a hole in his soul replaced it. He lost a large sense of his self.

But, despite his screams, Magnus had already prepared himself for this.

"HAHAHAHAHAH!" Manic laughter rang in the cavern after his screams.

Magnus was laughing.

He was laughing in the face of death and despair.

This suffering was all part of his reckless plan.

Thus, as the dragon zoomed oh so close to him, relishing in the soul of the Master of the Hivemind, Magnus acted.

A suppressive aura surged from within him as Soul Devourer circulated madly within his body.

"Let me have a bite as well!" Magnus bellowed as he stretched out his hands and grasped at the ghost dragon.

Two 5-line Curses worth of Spirit Energy was diminished in an instant as Magnus exerted force to devour. His Spirit Energy wrapped around a portion of the ghost dragon and, through Soul Devourer, consumed it.

Magnus instantly felt the hole in his soul get replaced by something else.

A deeper, darker, presence.

Rejuvenation swamped Magnus at this moment as Undead Energy tore its way into his body.

His threat level grew rapidly.

2.5-stars.

2.8-stars.

2.9.

Magnus was rushed to the peak of 2-stars just by having a single, hearty bite.

But the Undead Energy was tearing away at his body. It was corroding his life force and Magnus could feel its tangible threat.

Without any other option, he circulated the Soul Devourer Art and tried to do something with it.

And to his shock, the Soul Devourer Art responded positively.

It seemed even hungrier than before as the Half-Night Tome flashed into existence.

Its pages flipped towards the jet-black pages that were reminiscent of Tyrm's dark night. There was more text now, glowing in an ominous white ink.

[[ Soul Devourer Art ]]

[[ You are he who consumes, body and soul. Devour and allow yourself to draw nutrients from the fundamental particles of their beings. ]]

[[ Personal Trait: Cannibal ]]

[[ You have devoured many of your own kind, humans and ghosts. You have absorbed their essence and therefore Undead Energy has been allowed to taint you. You are now more alive than the living and less dead than the dead, yet also more dead than the living. A paradox. A perfect state for Undeath. ]]

Magnus then realised the difference in his body just then.

Gone were his traits of life. In his ghost form, he was truly an undead.

The ghost horde had miraculously lost their interest in him. And only Restiel was attracting them now, albeit after the ghost dragon had its meal, they weren't too keen any longer.

A quick unsummoning solved the situation as Magnus drifted down. He no longer needed gravity to drift around.

No… it was more like his gravity no longer applied to him. He could float wherever he wished to.

He was truly a ghost now. One that had Undead Energy flowing through it in its entirety.

He felt powerful within the black, smokey light. He also understood a lot more about Undead Energy.

He instinctively knew of a few ins and outs when it came to its utilisation.

He could also devour the entire ghost horde slowly but surely if he wished. He only had to avoid the higher-level ghosts.

But he was currently at 2.9-stars. Any further growth would be meaningless without first going through another Hivemind ritual to let his Blessing grow further.

"Soon…" Magnus smiled to himself.

He could reach 3-stars soon.

He just had to have all six of his Hivemind members set at 2.9-stars.

Nothing more, nothing less.

With that said, Magnus now placed his focus back on the zombie that had caused everything.

With a flick of his wrist, Magnus commanded gravity to pull the zombie with him.

He then drifted away, following a cave system void of ghosts and filled with those special gemstones. But this time, he had to move in his human form: he felt a great rejection act upon him when he was an undead ghost.

This was likely the path that the human had taken to get to the gate.

Ignoring the annoying groans of the 4-star zombie, Magnus thus moved forward for a while.

He kept on going until the Undead Energy in the area disappeared.

And when it did, the zombie's body began to rapidly deteriorate.

"I was right," Magnus muttered to himself, "It's rapidly losing all its functions now that it has left the Zone of Undead. It is not a true zombie, but one artificially created through the devouring of its soul."

Magnus gave it some more thought.

"Perhaps that is also why the Ghost Union Kraken refuses to leave the Zone of Undead. It needs Undead Energy to sustain its abnormality."

Swiftly, Magnus placed a hand on the rapidly weakening zombie.

He then invoked,

"I am the master and maker of the Hivemind,

The mind behind minds,

The one who stands above humanity,

And the one civilizations despise."

Whooooooom!

With the movement of Spirit Energy came the assimilation of a new member of the Hivemind.

The memories of a deteriorating brain rapidly flowed through the Hivemind. Though, it was void of a consciousness. A soul.

Magnus could fashion a personality out of it, but that would be it. It was a step lower than Klaris and Blaze.

Nonetheless, Magnus got the name of the human chaos-maker.

"Fredrick Easter,"