Adam traveled for around a week's worth of time. During that time, his mind would occasionally wonder back to home, keeping his desire to escape from the plane of death fresh and strong. For the rest of the time, Adam experimented with his control over the ghouls. As he got more familiar with it, he found all the noises he heard from the death essence that connected him to the ghouls quite annoying. He started playing with the threads of death essence, which he could intuitively control, to try and arrange the sounds into some kind of harmony. It was almost like he was plucking strings on an instrument and composing a song! It wasn't great by any means, but it made the noise more bearable. What Adam didn't notice was the change this gave to the ghouls. Adam had not been able to observe ghouls for an overly long time so he did not notice the subtle changes that occurred. The ghouls started growling a little less, moved a little more in order, and would appear to be a bit more intelligent than other ghouls!

At the end of the week's worth of travel, Adam finally noticed a small stream of death essence appear on the spirit compass. It was similar to the time when he found the single ghoul commander with around seventy ghouls in his horde. Adam hoped that this would lead him to a horde of similar strength and he could test his own strength against theirs. Adam hesitated a little about what to do, though. There was no way he could sneak his ghouls up for a surprise attack and he really couldn't see his enemies from afar to tell what their strength was. The only thing Adam could really do was to march his ghouls up and attack, regardless of the situation! Adam thought this was very foolhardy, but he had confidence in what he believed the strength of his opponent was.

Adam lead his horde of ghouls onward for a few days before they finally found the opposing ghoul horde. Rather, it was them who found him! Adam had first heard the noises of another horde a small distance away, after which he hid himself among the ghouls of his horde. Before too long they finally entered his elemental sight. They were stronger than Adam anticipated by having two ghoul commanders with a horde around one-hundred-and-fifty members strong! The opposing commanders could not pick Adam out among the other ghouls, so they shouted out: “Have you come to surrender to us? Even if you have not, we will be taking your ghouls!”

Adam was unsure of how commanders normally fought. What he was hoping for was that the commanders fought alongside their hordes. In the ensuing battle, it would be hard for commanders to pick each other out with their eye sight. For Adam, however, he would find it a simple matter with his elemental sight. Hopefully, Adam could sneak up on them when the commanders were busy fighting and make a sneak attack on them. Adam hoped to gain the advantage in this way. Considering that these commanders would not let him go regardless of his decision, Adam simply commanded his horde to attack! The two commanders showed slightly sour faces when this happened. Even a small battle could drastically wound their forces with the small horde they were in control of. Even if Adam's side was smaller, they could still inflict heavy casualties before the two commanders could kill Adam and wrest control of his ghouls away. As the two hordes met and started to fight, Adam found himself disappointed. Like himself, the other commanders were not presently fighting on the front lines of their little battle. Instead, they were barking out orders at their ghouls from behind, while trying to spot Adam in order to easily kill him. The opposing commanders were surprised about the relative strength of Adam's horde, though. Even though Adam's ghouls were overwhelmed, they were putting up a good fight that was better than normal ghouls. Still, with the overwhelming forces Adam's horde was facing, Adam was forced to duck in and out of the front lines to fight and help his horde out. Every time he went to the front to kill a couple ghouls, the commanders would try to quickly come and deal with him. Every time, though, Adam escaped before they arrived. Even with all of this, Adam's horde was on the losing side and would be wiped out in a short span of time! Adam had to do something before he lost!

Adam quickly came up with an idea he hoped would work. He planned to try and link his threads of death essence with the opposing ghouls! His plan was not so much to control them, but to disrupt the opposing commanders control. Adam concentrated his elemental sight out to try and find the threads that connected the opposing commanders and their ghouls. If there was a spot where the threads were weaker, that was where he was going to attack! As Adam carefully looked though, he couldn't see a single thread connecting the commanders and their ghouls! “Can I only sense the threads that connect me to my own ghouls?... or perhaps... do they use a different method to control their ghouls?”

Adam decided to just send some threads out and see what would happen. There were some similarities between the technique Adam used to pull someone's soul out and the threads he used to control the ghouls. Both created threads to touch another soul, but that was where the similarities ended. The technique used to kill concentrated a vast quantity of death essence to flow through Adam's body and form a strong thread. He would then direct the thread with his own soul to wrap around the target's true soul and yank it out. The method used to control the ghouls was more about casting the death essence in Adam's body out to touch the aura of the ghoul's soul with thin threads to form a connection. Adam would then control the threads with his soul to command the ghouls.

Adam cast out a few threads onto some opposing ghouls. While Adam did not feel the ghouls resisting the threads, the connection with the opposing ghouls was very weak compared to Adam's own. “It must be the way the commanders control their ghouls that is preventing a strong connection...”

Adam tested what he could make the ghouls do. The first thing he tried to do; make them stop attacking. The moment Adam sent this command through the threads, he felt some sort of resistance and the threads snapped and faded away. Adam obviously could not simply command the ghouls to stop. He was hoping they would at least become confused for even just a brief moment, but not even that happened. And tried a couple different commands over and over, but none of them worked! He couldn't get the ghouls to move to the side, hop on one foot, cough, he couldn't get them to do a single thing for him! While his experiments did not take long to do, Adam's horde was continuously dwindling. Adam finally decided he would have to do something he had hoped not to; use the soul technique to kill one of the commanders. Adam easily located one of the commanders with his elemental sight and preformed the technique on him. The commander didn't even notice a thing as he died. As the commander fell where he stood, chaos instantly ensued!

All of the ghouls that the commander was in control of were suddenly let free. Many of them stopped attacking and started running away from the battle. This let a huge burden off of Adam's ghouls, who were now not as overwhelmed. Right as the commander died, Adam cast a bunch of threads out onto the ghouls. He didn't do this to actually control them, but instead gave a simple instruction; ignore me! Adam wanted to move through the crowd of ghouls and hopefully get close enough to the last commander to kill him. Adam really hoped that he did not have to use the soul technique again. As Adam moved through the crowd of ghouls, he noted the success of this command. Most of the ghouls did in fact ignore him, those that did notice him were unable to do anything before Adam moved through the rest of the crowd. Adam also noticed that a few of the threads he had thrown out actually connected to a few of the remaining commander's ghouls. These ghouls also reacted the same as the others; mostly ignoring Adam! Adam started to get excited as he threw more threads out: “Maybe this will actually work!”

Adam swiftly approached the remaining commander under the cover of oblivious ghouls. The enemy commander had become flustered as he tried to regain control of the situation. Neither he, nor the other commander expected to die to Adam. As the commander was busy giving out orders, Adam quickly appeared behind him and swung out with his sword. The commander heard the whistle of the sword slicing through the air and immediately dodged! Terrified, he pointed at Adam as he shouted at his ghouls: “What are you doing, attack him!”

The threads Adam had connected to the ghouls were instantly snapped as the ghouls received their command. They would no longer ignore Adam! While the commander was giving his order, he paused for just a moment. Adam closed in more to him as he struck out with his sword again. With some apparent panic, the commander quickly brought his blade up and barely deflected Adam's attack. In the meantime, the ghouls started to rapidly approach Adam. “I can't let them surround me, there is no way to escape their sight now. I have to kill the commander fast!”

Adam propelled himself toward the commander while trying his best to create the wind formation to speed himself up. With the lack of wind essence in the plane of death, its effects wouldn't be too great but Adam wanted every advantage he could get. If push came to shove, he would have to use the soul technique again, but Adam desperately desired to not use it. Adam swung his sword out at the commander for a final time, if he could not kill the commander with this swing he would have to use the soul technique. The commander had just recovered from deflecting Adam's previous blow and felt confident in holding Adam up until the ghouls came to his aide. The commander didn't know why Adam wasn't wearing anything, but it would make Adam susceptible to the ghoul's attacks! As Adam's sword approached the commander for the final time, he brought his sword up in a defense that was better than his panicked deflection earlier. Just as Adam's sword neared the commander's it suddenly sped up and Adam changed the way he was swinging his sword! Adam's sword was moving faster than it had at any point so far in the battle as it was powered by the miniature wind formation. The commander did not have any time to react as Adam's sword swiftly connected with his neck, easily passing through! The commander's head fell to the ground as more disorderly chaos spread through the now leaderless ghouls. Adam then hastily retreated to the relative safety of his own horde.

After a quick break, Adam began to take control of the situation. Using the threads of death essence, he commanded his horde to contain the free ghouls as he slowly spread more threads out to take control of these ghouls. He thought about the reason why the command to ignore him worked versus the other commands. “Maybe, it is because all my previous commands would interfere with them attacking the other ghouls. Ignoring just me did not interfere with their attacks so they accepted that order from me. When the commander ordered them to specifically attack me, they could no longer ignore me as the commander had more control over them.”

Over the course of around three hours, Adam subjugated or killed the remaining ghouls. Adam had actually hit the limit of ghouls he could confidently control when he got to around one hundred of them. This made up for all the ghouls he had lost in the battle and then some. There were over thirty ghouls left over that Adam killed to free their souls. After everything was finished, Adam took a good long break.

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As Adam relaxed, his thoughts ran through the previous battle. There were many things he learned to help him continue on. He had a distinct advantage of confusing enemy ghouls and being able to instantly kill a commander from afar. Adam was certain he could make a small name for himself and gain a rank. The only thing that remained was whether or not there was a general who would open a portal to let him go home... Adam reminisced about going home for a good long while before he brought his mind back. Adam examined his body as he began to remember the disadvantages he had. Adam had no armor, or even clothes to speak of. He was horribly lacking in the area of protecting his body from attacks. Just a few ghouls getting in a good strike was all that was needed to bring him down. The soul technique also took its own toll in both death essence corruption and draining his spirit. The extra death essence brought by the soul technique was unruly and hard to control. Adam couldn't use this death essence with the threads controlling the ghouls to alleviate the pressure it brought. Using the technique every once in a while might be fine, but it would be a very bad idea to constantly use it. Adam looked over at the dead commanders. He didn't like the idea of looting corpses or even wearing that black commander armor... but he would have to in order to protect his life. Adam wasn't sure it was going to work, but he hoped that he could direct the death essence that would attack his body from the armor out into the threads that controlled his horde. Just maybe, Adam could negate enough of the death essence so that he could comfortably wear the armor.

Adam got up and walked over to one of the dead commanders to examine his armor. The black armor appeared to be made of some type of hide that was cured and spiritually enhanced to make it nearly as hard as metal! The armor covered most of the body except for what was above the neck. Underneath all the armor, the commanders wore a set of black under armor that was extremely flexible, though was a little weaker than normal cured leather armor when it comes to protection. You could only see this under armor in between the few gaps formed at the joints of the outer armor. Everything together, it was an extremely well made set of armor that would protect its user. The one thing Adam didn't bother to understand was why the commanders didn't use helmets. He was extremely thankful for this, as it made it easier to kill the commanders, but it was still odd.

After examining the armor, Adam took off one of the outer pieces and held it. He instantly felt a strong flow of death essence try to attack his body through his hands. Adam used the thread technique to try and force the death essence out of his body. It worked to some mild success, but Adam knew that there was no way he would be able to wear the entire armor set. He could only hope that if he managed to increase the size of his horde, it would be easier to deal with the armor if he had more threads to push the death essence along. Now that the outer armor was exposing more of the under armor, Adam finally noticed that it was made of a similar material as the belt he wore. Perhaps the under armor would be more mild in death essence, like the belt, and easier for Adam to wear! Adam quickly started the uncomfortable process of undressing the dead commander. Adam didn't like the feeling as he took off the outer armor pieces and it was even worse when it came to the under armor. Still, Adam was kind of used to this. Occasionally Adam would have to help the Silver Saviors create a mass burial for bandits that they had subjugated. They didn't always do this but there were more than a few occasions where Adam helped move the dead bodies of bandits. He had never looted their bodies, but at least it made it so Adam was more familiar with dealing with the body.

Finally, the task was done. Adam had the under armor in hand, but he did not immediately put it on. It stank and Adam was really wishing for even dirty water to at least partially wash the armor. As it was, he let the armor air out for a few hours before vigorously scrubbing it with ashen sand. It might not have actually cleaned it, but it at least gave Adam the feeling of washing it clean. Adam then put the under armor on. It was not a precise fit, but it was pretty close. The under armor covered everything except for what was above Adam's neck, his hands, and his feet. The death essence from the under armor was indeed more mild than the outer armor, but now that it covered most of his body there was no way Adam would be able to put on any of the outer pieces. That would be way too much death essence to deal with at this point. Adam also noticed that the way the threads that connected to ghouls had slightly changed. Before, the threads would come out from any part of his body, but now it was only coming out from places where his skin was not covered by the under armor. It was as though the armor was somehow blocking the death essence and the threads could only come out from his feet, hands, and head. Adam realized that his might be the reason why commanders did not wear helmets. Whatever method they used to control ghouls might have the same restriction from the armor. Perhaps, if the commanders did cover their head, they would no longer be able to control ghouls.

Adam looked at all of the outer armor pieces laying on the ground. There was no way he could carry them but it would be nice if he could. If there came a time when he could comfortably use them as well, he wouldn't have to hunt for them. He also couldn't make the ghouls carry them since they were not intelligent enough to hold onto anything. Then a thought came to Adam. If any other ghoul could hear his thought, they would be horrified to the extreme! Adam thought: “Well, if they can't hold the armor pieces, why can't they wear them?”

No commander would ever let their ghouls wear commander armor. It demeaned their position as a commander and would also cause problems with their control over the ghouls. Adam discovered this as he tried to put the armor on a ghoul. One piece was fine, but as he tried to put more pieces onto the ghoul, the control his thread of death essence gave him became weaker and weaker, it was similar to how the armor Adam wore restricted how he used the threads of death essence. It seemed that the concentrated death essence in the armor interfered with control over the ghoul. Still, Adam was able to put a single piece of armor on a handful of ghouls. Adam noticed something interesting when he did so. All the other ghouls in his horde appeared a little intimidated by the ghouls that had pieces of armor on them. Thinking this might potentially be useful in a fight, Adam took the outer armor pieces off the second commander and put those on ghouls as well. After that, Adam decided it was time to leave. He pulled out the spirit compass and once again directed himself in a direction he hoped he would find a general and proceed forward.

Adam lost count of how many time he had slept as he continued traveling onward. Adam encountered various sizes of enemy hordes as he made his way to his destination. He never pushed himself to take on more than he could handle. He started out fighting small hordes with just one or two commanders all the way to fighting larger hordes with five commanders! It didn't matter that his horde was smaller than the enemies, Adam could easily slip in to their horde and kill the commanders in their perceived safety! Adam was more careful with his attacks than before and made sure to make his strikes make as little noise as possible. That, coupled with his soul technique if he ever got into a hard spot, made it so that Adam really did not have much trouble at all fighting other hordes. As death essence slowly but surely continued to corrupt his body, he was able to control more ghouls and create a more powerful horde. Adam was not too worried about the slow corruption of death essence, as he had many ghouls and the wind formation to offset it. It would take many years before he reached the point of no return and he planned to leave the death plane before then. Once he was back in the world of men, Adam believed he would be able to push all the death essence in his body out.

Adam's horde now reached two hundred and fifty members and it allowed him to wear a couple pieces of outer armor in addition to his under armor. With all the commanders Adam had killed, many of his ghouls also wore a piece of armor and helped to intimidate enemy hordes. Adam was simply unstoppable! During this time, Adam felt like he had accomplished a lot. Even though it was just killing ghouls, he saw each and every one of their souls fly free. It helped him withstand the oppressing atmosphere of being surrounded by nothing more than sand and ghouls. Thoughts of returning home constantly surfaced in Adam's mind and he was always pushing himself forward to get there faster.

Adam was happy that the spirit that would cause him to black out hadn't showed up at all during this time. Adam hoped he had ditched the thing somewhere and it wouldn't find him again. If there was any benefit to Adam having come to the plane of death, it was that his control over his soul had grown. He couldn't make any spirit formations from scratch, but he could now much more clearly understand the wind formation and easily form it. He could only create the miniature version of it, but it was more than enough to help him kill a commander with a fast strike. Adam's elemental sight also improved. He could now spread his sight out to six hundred meters in a single direction! Though at that distance, the width of his sight was only half a meter. To get a good view of anything at that distance, Adam would have to sweep his sight around like a radar and piece everything together himself. Whatever he was able to see was also not incredibly detailed.

On two separate occasions in his travels, Adam had noticed weird anomalies appear on the spirit compass. Both times, Adam became excited and quickly moved his horde in its direction. He was certain these were rifts that could take him home! Unfortunately, the anomalies disappeared before Adam could even get close. On one particular day, Adam discovered a rather strong anomaly! Adam excitedly pushed his ghouls in the direction of the anomaly. “I have never seen it this strong before, it must be close! Only...”

The spirit compass also showed a rather large horde in that direction as well. Adam had noticed it earlier but hadn't bothered to make a large detour from it, though he didn't want to encounter it either. Most likely, this horde was also making its way to the rift as well. It took a whole day for Adam to finally reach the rift. As Adam was closing in, he could also hear the clamor of many ghouls from ahead. Adam cast his elemental sight out as far as he could reach and was quite surprised. The enemy horde was wholly ignoring Adam as they surrounded the rift. It was reasonable to ignore Adam since their horde had over a thousand ghouls and ten commanders! Adam wasn't sure how long they had been there and was left with a difficult decision. The rift that could take him home was surrounded by this huge horde. Did Adam dare to lead his horde forward to try and reach the rift or retreat to hopefully find another rift?

[proofread by: Ayumu]

[AN: sorry for the late update and yea im back! In case you didn't catch it, the updates to the chapters I did was to change the fire at fort Erich from normal red to black as well. In addition I tried to put more hope in for Adam to escape from the plane of death. As for this chapter, the time jump I put in there I felt was a tad awkward but still got its job done. If there are any suggestions on top of it, my ears are open. Thanks.]