Awoo, awoo...
That heart-rending, freakish wail came from ahead, much clearer than before. It drifted from deep within the cemetery, on and off, now there, now gone, making it even eerier.
Luckily, Damian's nerves were thick to begin with; walking through a cemetery at night posed no problem. As someone who had grasped the seventh sense, ghosts and monsters to him were just another form of energy.
A single telekinetic blast was enough to shatter them.
It's just that this cry was downright weird and wretched...
What a load of crap!
I'm someone who made a fortune in a cemetery, and I'm actually getting the creeps?
Grumbling to himself, Damian stopped in his tracks.
The sound came from straight ahead. He saw no beasts or birds around, only specks of glimmering light drifting about. He didn't even see any crows.
It seemed the crows had all steered clear of the cemetery.
Will-o'-the-wisps?
At night, cemeteries would float with odd little lights.
In that superstition-soaked era, people took will-o'-the-wisps as symbols of human souls.
In fact, they were phosphine released as human and animal corpses decomposed in graves, which can spontaneously ignite on contact with air—that is, phosphorus fires. The white flame tinged blue-green sometimes seen outdoors at night is just phosphor fire.
It's just that he hadn't seen will-o'-the-wisps in a long while.
Why were so many drifting out of the graves today?
Reaching the source of the sound, Damian narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at the two graves where the Specters were buried.
The two Specters he himself had taken down lay beneath.
If he remembered right, they were supposed to corpse-change?
By the looks of it, the time had about come.
Suddenly, caw-caw-caw sounded from the sky. A large crow circled above, sounding the alarm.
From its size and call, it was No. 1!
Damian had just come up to the two Specters' graves for a look.
Caw!
All of a sudden, No. 1 let out a furious cry, beating its wings and clawing at the air as it swept across the sky, sounding an alarm at the grave by his feet.
Then he noticed the tombstone seemed to have changed.
Another change?
By wan moonlight, the glowing inscription on the tombstone stood out even more than before, the text rendered crystal clear before his eyes.
[Corpse: Gugado]
[Rank: Earthly Violence Star Cyclops Specter]
[Yield: None]
[Extractable Abilities: None]
[Corpse-Change: Completed]
[Grave Grade: Black Iron]
.
[Corpse: Gordon]
[Rank: Heavenly Prison Star Minotaur Specter]
[Yield: None]
[Extractable Abilities: None]
[Corpse-Change: Completed]
[Grave Grade: Black Iron]
"Corpse-change completed?"
I didn't get anything.
Awoo!
As he was pondering, that weird, mournful howl came again.
This time it was very close, actually coming from under his feet.
What the hell?
Damian started to back away, only to find something had grabbed his pant leg.
He looked down. Something like a forked tree branch in the soil had hooked his pant leg, and when he looked closer, the "branch" seemed to move.
He gave his cuff a hard tug and barely managed to pull his leg free.
Looking closely, Damian's eyes went wide.
That wasn't a branch at all—it was a grotesque, oversized hand thrust up out of the grave soil...
F*ck!
Did the grave really blow open?
Awoo, awoo, awoo...
The piercing cry sounded again, right at hand. The earth trembled; it was as if an enraged monster was buried beneath the grave.
Crash!
The grave mound suddenly burst apart, black soil spraying into Damian's face.
That big hand and arm thrust out of the dirt completely, along with a huge head and part of a torso.
"The Specter corpses I buried really did corpse-change?"
Damian held his breath and looked at the Specter clawing its way up from the soil.
He saw a man in a Surplice with a hideous face struggling up out of the grave, sending dirt flying.
Looking closely, it was the Heavenly Prison Star Gordon. The Surplice he had riddled with over a dozen holes was fully restored, especially the chest piece that Andariss had pierced clean through—it too had healed.
His face was twisted, the shark-like maw lined with razor teeth especially conspicuous. Those dead-fish eyes glowed oily green in the dark, never leaving Damian.
Holy crap!
He could've sworn he'd buried a human corpse.
How did an old-style zombie crawl out of the grave?
Weren't these Specters' souls supposed to belong to Hades, Lord of the Underworld?
Why did they turn into this?
"Hey, what the hell species are you?"
Damian tried asking the other.
But Heavenly Prison Star Gordon only lurched forward on his stiff body, took a step, and let out a harsh, rasping roar from that toothy mouth, spitting a single word: "Master..."
Before he could finish, the soil of the neighboring grave exploded as well,
and the Earthly Violence Star Cyclops Specter Gugado burst out of the ground.
His Surplice too was as good as new, and he came at him baring fangs and claws, his face equally contorted, eyes glowing green and packed with fangs.
Watching the two zombie-like figures close in, Damian was speechless.
They really had corpse-changed!
These Specters really were like some undead race.
Heavenly Prison Star Gordon and Earthly Violence Star Gugado came closer, step by shambling step.
"Since you've died once already, what's one more time?"
Damian raised his fist: "Plasma..."
Just as he was about to strike, the two zombie Specters in front of him suddenly thumped to their knees: "Master, please don't kill us!"
"Master, we know we were wrong."
"We are your humble servants."
"Huh? You two can talk?"
Damian arched a brow: "And you're calling me Master?"
Did they have self-awareness?
He didn't rush to act and tried asking: "Hey, do you two know who you are?"
"I do, I'm Heavenly Prison Star Gordon."
"I'm Earthly Violence Star Gugado."
They answered one after the other.
"Then who am I?"
Damian asked again.
"You are the lord of all things, our Master, a great being..."
The two spoke almost in unison, even their tone the same.
"Hey, shouldn't your master be Hades?"
Damian couldn't help asking.
He could feel their reverence.
"Hades?"
The two Specters shook their heads, almost in unison: "You are our Master. Your orders are absolute, Master."
"Hades is the past."
"If Master gives the order, we'll take Hades's head."
Damian was taken aback.
You dare kill Hades, King of the Underworld?
To his ears, that was outright heresy.
Hey, that's your daddy, your boss, your god.
Had this cemetery really turned two dead Specters into turncoats?
This shouldn't be called corpse-change—it should be called mutiny!
Damian simply tried giving an order: "Attack each other. Kill the other one!"
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Mutter"]
[Every 100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]