A powerful gust of wind dashed over a bed of faenias as a formless creature absorbed all of their mana and dumped it into another bed of flowers in the distance.
Another wave rippled through the air. His pursuer was once again searching for him.
Halting his movements, the creature stood still and dispersed part of himself in order to feel like one of the faenia flower beds. When the mana returned normal, he reabsorbed himself together and resumed his escape.
Dashing left and right, changing the position of pockets of mana, leaving fake leads, no matter what he did, it didn't seem to work. The wave of magic and the presence of his pursuer were getting closer and closer to him.
And then, as he passed near a tree, he heard a chant. Following the sound, a small flash of light appeared behind a tree near him and the tree fell on him. Or at least, through him.
"I never saw one, but I believe that you're not a slime."
Holding the tree down was a large robed skeleton infused with magic.
"Are you a ghost? Who are you?"
"I am Julius Carolinus, commander of the 3rd infantry battallion of Valian's Spear of retaliation." [Julius]
----------------------------------------
In front of Dar'ith was what could be described as a translucent azure flame the size of a man with countless faces rising from it. Around the point where a normal head would be situated was the face of a man in his forties.
Unlike the other suffering faces, this one had a serious look on him and was carefully scrutinizing the skeleton.
"What about you, state your name. Are you from our forces or... are you a real." [Julius]
The creature's last word made Dar'ith jolt.
"What?"
"I'm asking if you're valian or sancran." [Julius]
This time the last word didn't have the mystical echo it had before, and because of this, the word lost its meaning. This did not change the fact that it was a magic word.
"Neither."
The man's eyes narrowed and some parts of the flame began forming the outline of a body.
"Are you one of those bastards?" [Julius]
"Who are you talking about?"
A ghostly figure of a man was now fully formed and to his side, a sword was now taking form.
"You know who." [Julius]
"No, I don't. Who are you referring to?"
"Do you not remember?" [Julius]
"Nothing prior to my awakening."
The creation of the spectral sword stopped, but Julius' stare did not lose its intensity.
"If you truly do not remember then it's fine. I'm just going to ask you to go away. I'm claiming the souls around here, go search somewhere else." [Julius]
"Claiming the souls?"
"You know what I mean, I know that that is the reason you were hunting me. And it's probably the reason why you're so large." [Julius]
"I think I understand what you're saying but that is not the reason why I was, and I'm still, hunting you."
"Then what's the reason." [Julius]
"First, I was asked to hunt the beast causing the slaughter in the forest, and secondly, I wanted to study said creature."
"I am no beast." [Julius]
"This only changes the study subject."
The sound of steps and the whistle of a blade interrupted the discussion, as a translucent sword slashed the location the skeleton was in, just a few moments earlier.
"Don't think I'm just another undead creature, monster, I am still a commander of Valian's Spear of retaliation. I will not die here." [Julius]
"You don't need to, I learn more when the subject is alive."
Dar'ith clenched its fist and swung it at the ghost. A surprised expression appeared on Julius' face as the fist unexpectedly planted itself on his face, forcing him to stagger a few steps backwards.
Formless monsters and creatures such as ghosts, spirits or slimes are usually impervious to physical damage as there is no form to be damaged. The only way to hurt them is to either use a specific attack or weapon, or to hit a weak poin in their bodies.
In Julius' case, he could only be hurt by magic and magic weapons. Unfortunately for him, Dar'ith's body wasn't physical, but made up of solidified pure mana.
With an impossibly fast dash, Julius closed the distance between them and used the momentum to thrust with his sword. The attack was incredibly predictable and as such, Dar'ith effortlessly dodged it and prepared its counter attack.
Another punch fell on the ghost, but this time the blow was deflected by another ghostly figure holding a shield that grew out of Julius' back, leaving the skeleton open for retaliation.
The shield bearer disappeared just as fast as he appeared, shifting the focus back to Julius once again slashing with his sword.
The weapon connected to Dar'ith's neck. The force of the impact dazed it, but the sword didn't manage to cut nor enter the bone.
Without leaving it the chance to recover, one of the faces floating in Julius' body took human form and thrusted with a spear. The spear hit its mark but only left a small unnoticeable dent on the bone before bouncing off. As the attack was still going on, Julius' sword once again slashed, resulting in the same result.
Another ghost attacked from his body, followed by another attack from another one, and another one, and another one, resulting in an onslaught of blows that left no room for respite. All of these attacks left little to no damage to the undead.
Seeing as bladed weapons didn't work, a new person formed, wielding a mace. The man swung it at the skeleton's leg, this time leaving a visible crack on its femur.
That was when he noticed the imploding magic circle right beside his face.
What he thought were grunts of pain, were actually magic words that slowly and subtly created a magic formation just outside of his vision. The shield bearer quickly formed between him and the formation, but he was too late and a spear made of crystalline ice went through the apparition and grazed his cheek.
The shield bearer disappeared into a small burst of flames, that returned to the body, and intense pain ran through Julius body as he suffered the feeling of a soul breaking apart.
As the ghost agonized over his pain, Dar'ith was writing notes on its diary.
"Weapons created by the subject act and feel like normal weapons, no special attributes.
The subject possess multiple souls, total counted until now: 16.
The souls seems to be suffering or in pain, reason unknown.
Souls can take form and act just like the main one.
Subject does not understand magic words.
Subject can feel pain."
Stopping its quill, Dar'ith looked back at Julius.
"Is the soul I attacked still within you or has it disappeared?"
"Don't fuck with me!" [Julius]
Two archers grew out of Julius' body and shot their arrows before disappearing. Dodging one of them and slapping away the second one, the skeleton closed its diary and put it back into its robe.
The ghost once again closed the distance between them and slashed. Dar'ith held out its hand in order to parry the blow, but the sword stopped and suddently changed direction.
While watching the sword, a heavy impact hit the skeleton in the leg, forcing it on its knees. As Dar'ith recollected itself, its skull was met with a blow from a spectral cross guard as Julius was now half-swording his weapon.
Throwing itself away to make distance, the skeleton began casting a spell. Following after it was a mace from one of Julius' many souls. Defending itself, the blow revealed to be another feint as a hammer hit the undead from the side, stopping its chant.
Reeling to the side, Dar'ith chanted something else. Julius prepared for a downward swing on its skull and in response, Dar'ith prepared to defend. The ghost's stance changed, it was another feint but this time the skeleton was prepared.
Without breaking its chant, a wall of pure mana solidified in front of it, stopping an unseen attack from below.
"I split, tens, hundreds, thousands. Seek, follow, break."
A magic circle broke and dozens of small spheres of pure mana formed from its remains. As the magic bullets confirmed their target, they shot one after the other toward the enemy.
Losing his form, the ghost dashed and flew erratically in order to avoid the rapid firing shots. His tracks were quickly stopped by another mana wall erected just in front of him, forcing him into colliding with it and halting his momentum.
Julius summoned his shield bearer and managed to shield himself just in time. Countless lights flickered out of existence as the magic barrage destroyed itself onto the spectral shield.
One last light blinked out but this one wasn't from behind the shield. Under his feet, the residues of a magic circle were slowly fading and a spike shot out. Indescribable pain rushed to his head as the spell ripped off part of his back.
Willing himself to focus, he noticed a transparent hand of mana flying toward him, with the intent of grabbing him. Still half paralyzed from the pain, Julius was unable to dodge the hand.
So he didn't.
Learning from the way the skeleton manipulated the mana, Julius did the same and created a wall of mana in front of him.
The two invisible forces collided resulting in a muffled sound and surprise from Dar'ith. Being made of pure mana like Dar'ith, Julius was able to manipulate it the same way the skeleton did.
The undead ducked under a transparent fist, much like the ones it made, and chanted its next spells. Most of its experiments and observations were done, the next experiment would be something it had been working on for a while.
A spell of haste empowered the skeleton and a second circle released another volley of magic bullets. Kicking the ground, Dar'ith dashed at Julius, and Julius did the same.
Dodging through the shots, the two monsters engaged into a frightening battle.
One side brute forcing its way with barrage of magic and punches, parrying what it could and withstanding what it couldn't. Meanwhile the other side was making use of all his skills: parrying and dodging almost all of the blows and feinting, misdirecting and targeting specific limbs to open the enemy guard for a more powerful blow.
As the fight grew fiercer, the forest began feeling the burdens of the battle: dying trees, ruined flora, earth getting ruined by magic and the occasional animal falling into collateral damage.
As the roof of leaves gave in, light shone on the scene depicting a picture out of a children's book. The painting of a hero in shining armor fighting with his companions against a demon lord.
Awe inspiring and breath taking, complemented by the sound of magic flying and weapons whistling in an attempt to end the other's life.
"I've been working on a way to extract mana from objects. Mainly to help with the use of mana costly spells."
The skeleton explained after parrying an attack and preparing to counter.
"Experimenting with animals and vegetation yielded good results, but the process is too slow to be used in battle."
A morning star cracked its arm and, falling for the next feint, the skeleton's skull was met with Julius' knee. To which the skeleton responded by grabbing the man and slamming him into a wall of mana before barraging him with fists.
"I believe the cause to be their physical hosts."
Shifting his stance, Dar'ith charged its left fist. Using this small window before the next hit, one of the flowing souls in his body took the form of a shield bearer, ready to take the hit.
But instead of the sound of a blunt object hitting the shield, Julius' vision saw the blade of a sword cutting through the shield like it was nothing more than air.
Dar'ith used its right hand to grab its magic sword filled with light mana to slash away the enemy's defenses. As the shield faded away, the skeleton held out its left hand and grabbed the shield bearer.
"But you don't have a physical host."
A ripple in the mana traveled from Dar'ith's arm to the soul it gripped.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!" [Julius]
A blood curdling scream of pure agony escaped the suffering mouths of all the souls in Julius' body, a scream so loud to deafen anyone unlucky enough to hear it and so horrifying to be able to traumatize even the most seasoned warrior.
Three seconds that felt like hours forced the ghost to go through what felt like his flesh, his soul, being tore away bit by bit, slowly and carefully.
His mind was screaming, his vision was blank, his hearing was whistling, all of his senses overwritten by the incessant and overbearing agony.
For the first time since his death he felt his self fading away, losing his mind and feeling the madness of pain driving him insane.
Then, it finally stopped.
With a last flash of light, Dar'ith separated the soul from its collective and observed it.
It was a translucent, azure flame the size of a human head with a face floating on its surface.
"As expected, quicker than the other results and incredibly fascinating."
Poking the soul and moving it around, the skeleton observed its reactions. Before holding it out of the shadow into the light of the sun.
The face screamed but no sound was heard. The mana composing the soul began to vibrate, to boil, and an azure steam like smoke began flowing out of the soul.
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As time passed, larger and larger parts started to fade, detach, break. Until the last speck faded away.
"Souls are not immune to the light. Good to know."
Danger.
Immediately jumping to the side, Dar'ith avoided an enormous mass of mana that destroyed the place it was standing in just a few moments earlier.
The ghost appeared larger than before, but this time it didn't have a form: men, women, soldiers, and generally human looking creature kept forming and disappearing all around and all over the main body, now not resembling Julius any longer.
Dozens, almost hundreds of limbs moving everywhere, holding weapons or grabbing anything they touched. The suffering faces were now more noticeable and some of them now had a different expression.
It wasn't just pain anymore: there were expressions of anger, sadness and terror. And all of their eyes, no matter where the face was situated, were fixed on the skeleton, unblinking, staring it down.
"He's one of them! Nooooooo, not again! Please spare me please spare me please spare me
Monster! Monster! I'll kill you, I'll kill you! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
Diediediediediediedie Noonononononononono
He's here to take me! Here to take us! I won't die! I don't want to die!" [Souls]
Screaming, shouting, moaning and despairing, the jumbling mass of souls slowly shambled toward the undead.
Falling on itself, walking with as many feet as it could, pushing itself with any limb that touched the ground, the myriad of whispering and yelling voices synchronized their thoughts.
" He'll kill us! He'll kill us all! I'm going to die! We'll die! Run! We need to run! Nonononononono Kill it! Kill those bastards! I'll be killed! I'll be killed! I don't want to die! I don't want to be killed! Kill I want to live! Die I don't want this! Kill Die We need to kiil him! Kill Die Kill He'll kill us Kill Die Kill Kill Kill Quickly! Kill kill Die kill We need! Kill Die kill kill kill Die Kill Die Kill kill DieDie KillKillKillDieKill DieKillDieKillDieDieKill Kill Die Kill KillKillKillKill DieKillDieKillDieDieKill DieKillDieKillDieDieKill KillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKill KillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillDieKillKillKill KillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKill KillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKill KillKillKillKillDieDieKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKil lKillKillDieKillKillKillKillKillKillKil lKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillDieKillKill KillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKill KillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKill" [Souls]
The time for experiments was over, Dar'ith gripped its magic sword, entered into a stance and prepared for the fight.
In an instant, the large moaning mass of ghosts appeared in front of the skeleton, slashing, bashing and unleashing a barrage of disorganized attacks.
Right now, what seemed like all of the souls inside Julis took form, or at least tried to, just to have a chance at killing the undead.
Hitting their target, the ground and each other, every swing and slash was heavy and painful. But the finesse and the skill from before were gone, replaced with nothing more than brute force and the objective of breaking the one before them.
Any weapon that touched Dar'ith's magic sword dissolved thanks to the light mana circulating in it, but the attacks were too numerous to defend from all of them.
"Your reign crumbles, your hold on reality weakens and under my domain, your powers fade"
Enduring attacks and protecting its jaw from damage, Dar'ith managed to voice a chant and activate [Light Sanctum].
Gritting its teeth through the boiling pain from the magic, a light dome expanded from its position. All the immediate attackers and their weapons screamed in pain before fading away but then the dome was stopped.
The apparitions behind the first ones held their hands out and pushed on the light wall, stopping its advance instead of entering it. Meanwhile some other souls began hitting the spell with weapons, fists and anything that didn't pass through it.
Cracks appeared all over the dome and Dar'ith retreated while it was still intact.
Shit! He can do that as well!
The dome shattered and the ghost fell on itself, giving the skeleton enough time to make distance and start chanting.
Not even two words in and the jumbling mass of souls expanded. From it, countless archers rose up and shot their arrows.
Too many to dodge, Dar'th braced itself, hoping that its bones would deflect most of the damage.
"We're here!" [???]
A shadow stepped in front of the skeleton: he was one of the town guards from Laria.
Wearing leather armor with iron parts on the joints, he held out a leather shield with his left hand and tightly gripped a spear with his right.
Many other people came out from the bushes all around them: they were all hunters and guards of the village, and leading them was Gherman in hunter's attire and armed to the teeth.
The arrows flew, whistling through the air, making way for the shield.
The guardsman spit blood as the spectral arrows dug deep into his flesh, causing great damage and puncturing inner organs.
The arrows had passed through the shield and armor as if they didn't exist, and the man took the whole attack with his body.
But that was enough of a distraction.
Before the man fell to the ground, Dar'ith concluded two spells.
Two magic circles appeared under the monster, one of them imploded while the other shot to the sky, leaving behind a trail of mist. Seeing this, the souls tried to fly away.
But motioning down with its hand, the skeleton created a hand of mana that slammed the enemy down, halting any attempt at dodging.
From the ground grew countless spears made of stone that stabbed into the monster and multiplied inside of it, causing a deafening scream of pain.
The trail of mist began then lighting up and electricity ran through it, creating a thunder falling onto the being. With a loud exploding sound, the lightning was blocked by a wall of mana as Julius' face rose from the myriad of other ghosts.
Shit, he can still think.
Three more men stepped in front of the skeleton and the guard's corpse.
"Dar'ith, we came to help, what is that thing?" [Gherman]
"The ghost of a man called Julius Carolinus and dozens of other souls."
"Julius!?" [Gherman]
"Do you know him?"
"He was my subordinate twenty years ago." [Gherman]
"Is h-"
"Speak later, dodge!" [Gherman]
The mass of souls dashed at the group, seeing this, the group dispersed and dodged the charge. The ghostly jumble smashed itself onto the corpse, and after noticing the absense of any of its targets in the vicinity, the monster began attacking the cadaver.
Weapons and hands passing through clothes and equipment, ripping off flesh from the inside. Blood shooting out from gaps in the armor and any free orifice.
A gruesome and sensless scene for anyone watching, the defiling of a dead. But Dar'ith noticed.
While many limbs were ripping and tearing, many others were holding onto something: an invisible sheet coming from the torn flesh. They were holding onto a soul. And as the last hit struck, an azure, translucent flame was pulled out and slowly brought into the collective.
"You bastard!" [Hunter]
A hunter armed with a machete made his way toward the ghost as a new face agonized itself into its body and its presence grew heavier.
The man slashed, resulting in the weapon passing through the being, leaving him open for the wall of weapons thirsting for his soul.
Without wasting another moment, Dar'ith worded a death chant, hoping to quickly end the fight. Unlike what it expected, the rushing hunter avoided all the blow with incredible finesse, gaining only a scratch on his cheek.
Following the man's example, many others drew their weapons and tried hitting the monster, all to no avail. But thankfully they left unhurt just like the monster.
"Your time has ended, come, I shall take you back."
A magic circle faded into black smoke and shot toward the ghost.
The creature was unaware and wasn't trying to dodge. Except for Julius' face that kept staring at the skeleton.
Julius shouted and the creature opened up, leaving a hole in its body in which the black mist passed through, missing its target.
The mass of moaning and screaming souls used this moment to distantiate itself from the smoke that was quickly turning around.
It stopped in front of a tree and ripped it off the ground before throwing it at the rapidly approaching mist.
As the two objects collided, the tree lost all its momentum and rapidly withered until only dust gently fell on the ground.
"Damn it!"
As the skeleton angered over its last failed attack, a twinkling bright red gem approaching the ghost caught its attention. An arrow hit the stone while it was still in mid air, generating an explosion of flames that burned off some of the souls, causing a scream of pain in response.
Gherman snapped the undead out of its momentary daze by stepping in front of it.
"Dar'ith!" [Gherman]
"Gherman, since when did you have those."
"Unused spoils of war, but that doesn't matter right now. How do we kill that?" [Gherman]
"I don't know, magic hurts him but the killed souls always come back later. The only things that remove them completely are light magic and extracting the soul from the collective. Death magic might also work looking the way he dodged earlier, but that is uncertain."
"Great, I don't have many light gems, we can't extract souls and dark gems are banned so I have none. Can I leave this job to you?" [Gherman]
"The main soul is wary of me, I won't be able to hit him."
"Just worry about magic, we'll handle the distraction." [Gherman]
The old man put his hands inside a pouch on his belt and took out a number of mana crystals. Throwing them to his men, Gherman announced the plan.
"Take these and get into position! The tactic is 'Take their sight', the goal is to keep the monster still and distracted. Now go!" [Gherman]
The small squad moved out and began their attack: divided in groups of three or four, one or two of them would move in and act as decoy, the moment the creature got close, the rest of the group would attack with the magic gems.
If the creature ignored the decoys, aware of a trap, it would be hit by gems thrown by the decoys themselves and then attacked again the moment its attention shifted.
Meanwhile Gherman looked out for Julius among all the faces and spectral bodies bound together and took it on himself to annoy him with all his skills. Fading away in smoke bombs and doing inhuman moves, he continued to relentlessly attack and escape Julius and the ones surrounding him.
This kept all the souls' focus on the soldiers leaving Dar'ith alone to its own devices. And so he chanted magic over and over, shooting death magic, swinging its magic sword and shooting light blades. All while running closer and closer to the target.
The fight was raging with explosions, swings, flying blades of nothing and earth shattering. A few men died, their bodies slaughtered and their souls absorbed while the others were tiring and hurting.
The crystals were running out and the damage was insufficent. The blades of light did erase some souls, but the ghost was still evading most of the death spells thrown at it by launching vegetation at them or simply dodging out of the way.
The monster wasn't stopping its momentum while the men were slowly losing pace. With another swing of his sword, Dar'ith released another blade of light, enduring the pain from its burning hands.
The mass of souls dodged this hit and resumed its attack. Except it reeled back into it as an explosion stopped its dodge and forced it to sacrifice more souls to the light.
Irritated by the constant harassment and loss of power, Julius himself crawled toward the hunter responsable for the act, blinded by rage.
The entire collective shifted, almost falling on top of the poor hunter, now following the main soul's instinct, without caring about the others.
A perfect opportunity.
Dar'th dashed, closing the distance just before the ghost got to the man, the skeleton pushed him away and took the hit. The undead didn't die from the impact or the countless weapons falling on it, but many of its bones cracked, ready to give in.
Opening its mouth, the skeleton grabbed Julius' face with as much strength as he could muster.
"Leave."
The man opened his eyes wide and quickly got up, Dar'ith began chanting as a wave traveled from its arm.
Another, more horrifying scream of agony resounded across the forest, freezing the retreating soldiers in their steps.
Dar'ith tried extracting Julius' soul from the mass. But as expected, it wasn't his soul part of the collective, but all the other souls part of him. By trying to move the soul, the skeleton was dragging the whole creature.
Knowing this might happen, Dar'ith concluded his chant.
"This land is dark, nothing, nowhere, never. No light, no sound, no life. Come, embrace the truth."
A three meters wide circle birthed black mist from the ground, enveloping a large area in front of the undead that covered all light and rapidly seeped into the ghost.
Shouts of distress and fear were added to the ones of agony, as some eyes began to lose focus, and many souls disappeared after the mist passed over them.
The fight was finally over.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" [Julius]
Snapping out of the pain, Julius survived the death magic along with a dozen more souls held together by his will.
The mana all around the place began swirling and the apparitions started absorbing it, growing larger and more deformed.
"Your reign crumbles, your hold on reality weakens and under my domain, your powers fade"
Casting another [Light Sanctum], Dar'ith tried to stop him, but even quicker than before, countless hands halted the dome's growth and pounded it with hits.
Using all its voices to cast as many spells as it could, the skeleton barraged the writhing mass of souls in a desperate attempt to stop it from regaining more strength.
It wasn't working, now the jumble of ghost lost all human semblance as all the souls merged together in a deformed demon of limbs, eyes and mouths with seemingly no pattern.
The only remaining human looking thing was Julius' head still gripped by the undead.
Think, think. Death magic doesn't work, pure mana is useless, he doesn't burn, he doesn't freeze, still magic can only protect me so much and he is almost unmovable.
I need a light spell, but [Light Sanctum] doesn't work. All the other light spells are meant for lesser undeads and utility. The offensive ones are locked under Sanctus regulations so they weren't written down.
Think, think.
Something lit up in his mind: there was a phrase repeated all over Sanctus' holy book "Parola", a phrase apparently transcripted from the Holy Lord's words themselves. In altrian it didn't make sense, but that was because it seemed like magic language albeit with strange words.
Dar'ith moved its jaw and words began dancing out, rythmically though unintentionally. During the first words a magic circle appeared and symbols were written. When it arrived to the strange ones, the circle stopped and slowly faded.
In exchange, a chill ran down its spine and all the mana surrounding trembled. Its body started heating up, a pain it knew very well. Having developed a resistance towards light, it knew that the next spell was very powerful.
"I am, and I exist. As the first of all that is now and the first of all that you will be then. I lay my hand against the father."
The creature was now agitated and all the countless limbs pounded on the undead in an attempt to stop the chant as they too, felt the burning sensation signaling danger.
"As you and I are the first and the start, I speak these words just as you speak yours. Your body is broken and your will is weak. Your host shall be ruined to make us alive and you shall be banished from this reality. Your will shall be shattered and used to make you...
The Origin of life"
White, Dar'ith was blinded by pure light as the clouds disappeared from the sky and the sun blazed brighter than ever before.
A pillar of light rose from the ground burning the abominable mass, dismantling it piece by piece into pure mana.
The spell was so terrifyingly powerful that all life gazing upon it couldn't move nor take their eyes away from the burning light.
"No! Why!? Why did this happen!? For what reason did I kill them!? They were my brothers! My comrades! I just wanted to live, to survive! I wanted to live through with them! I... I... I was afraid of the monster... I... I... run..." [Julius]
The last remains of the ghost was dissolved into multiple kinds of mana, erasing all of its traces from the world.
The pillar of light slammed into the ground in a wave of mana that revived dead vegetation and left blooming flowers in its passage.
Julius was now truly dead.
The battle was won.
----------------------------------------
Trembling and wobbling, Dar'ith threw itself on the ground, tired. It watched its non existant hands that dissolved with Julius during the spell.
"These will not regenerate for a few days... Gherman!"
Stepping out of a bush with an awed expression, Gherman answered.
"Yes?" [Gherman]
"People surviving death magic being rare."
"Huh?" [Gherman]
"That's bullshit."