Transmigrated as a Ghost

As Marcus, Mrazivý, Roxene, Blitz, and Inten got closer to the Font of Death, they could feel a powerful presence that was at the center of the Desolate Desert.

Whatever it was, clearly it was not trying to hide itself, or perhaps it simply was not able to.

The odd thing though was that it did not feel like an undead creature. It was emitting an incredibly powerful aura, but it was not like the energy coming off the Font of Death. Whatever was at the center of the Desolate Desert was very much still alive despite being in a place that was hostile to the living.

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After hearing this Marcus was able to liken the feeling to when he first saw Gwyneira assume her full dragon form. That was the kind of entity that was at the center of the Font of Death. Thought the question was, why? It made little sense for such a powerful beast to be in such a place. No matter ow strong of a being they were, so long as they were alive, the Font of Death would wear them down. This was a place that the living could not inhabit without being corrupted and turned into the dead.

Still, even with their being a possibly hostile and extremely dangerous foe waiting for them at the Font of Death, they continued. As a group they had already anticipated that they would most likely run into some sort of ruler of the Desolate Desert that was tremendously powerful. They had come too far to stop before knowing what was going on.

However, after they crested the top of a large hill of black sand that surrounded the Font of Death, they did not see any hordes of undead or some powerful monster like a lich, but a huge bird.

Before them was a giant vermillion bird that had flames dancing around its body. With one look it was clear that this was a phoenix.

Yet, it was chained up and mostly submerged in the pool of black liquid that was close to sludge that sat in the middle of the black sand hill. 

Without a doubt the phoenix had been forced into the Font of Death and its bright red feathers and flames looked like they had been bleached, having turned impossibly pale.

“What the hell is going on here?” Mrazivý said, shocked by the sight before them.

At the very least they now knew what had happened to the guardian beast that protected Aezam, it had come to the Font of Death and been captured. The phoenix was clearly fighting back against the Font of Death, but ultimately, it was slowly losing.

“Mraz, can you ready its status?” Marcus asked.

His own appraisal skill had been blocked and he needed to rely on her dragon eyes as he so often did.

Coming out of her daze Mrazivý nodded her head and her eyes flashed golden for a moment, before she winced and closed her eyes.

She then crumbled to her knees and held her mouth with her hands like she was holding back the urge to vomit. 

“Mraz!” Marcus shouted with concern.

This was the first time he had ever seen such a reaction after she used her dragon eyes. But whatever had happened was certainly not good.

Marcus immediately reached out towards her and intended to activate his spirit healing specter power, but instead of the normal white light it was mixed with black and had turned grey.

Being this close to the Font of Death was influencing him as well, and he had also activated his life drain specter power. As much as he wanted to heal Mrazivý, it seemed that the negative instincts being brought out by the Font of Death were drawing out a darker nature that Marcus normally kept locked away.

‘No!’

Jerking back, Marcus managed to prevent himself from draining Mrazivý’s life force and hit himself hard with his fists charged with his spiritual energy to get back to his senses.

Of course, he had not held back when he hit himself with his spiritual energy and Marcus nearly regretted what he had done. It actually hurt him a lot. 

Nevertheless, he was able to refocus his mind and clam down a bit thanks to the pain he had inflicted on himself.

‘I am not just a ghost. I am an unbound ghost and the great spirit of light and darkness. I am here to absorb this Font of Death’s power. I cannot let it influence me.’ Marcus thought, pushing out the negative influence that was creeping into him.

Once he had regained his senses, Marcus saw that his companions were looking at him with worry. In the time he had been struggling within himself, Mrazivý had gotten back up. Though she still looked a bit sick.

  “Are you okay?” She asked him.

“Yeah, I lost a bit of control for a second, but I am fine now. And I should be the one asking how you are doing. What happened when you looked at that phoenix’s status?”

Frowning, Mrazivý looked unnerved just to remember the experience, but she stayed strong and told Marcus what she had found out.

She had managed to look at the phoenix’s full status for a moment, before the power of the Font of Death that was corruption it lashed out at her.

Whenever she used her dragon eyes it made a connection with the target, and while normally it should not have been something that was noticeable or able to receive feedback, the Font of Death was far from normal and followed the path back to her.

Mrazivý swiftly broke the connection when she felt herself in danger but being exposed to the Font of Death had left her sickened for a moment.

“All I am able to clearly remember is her name, level, and the status conditions plaguing her. She is called Zaila, her level is eighty-four, and she has been afflicted with paralysis from the chains binding her, and undeath corruption from the Font of Death. If she is left this way, eventually she is going to be turned into an undead monster.” Mrazivý said, her expression grave.

“Then we need to get her out of here. Luckily, her problems are considered status conditions. So I should be able to fix them easily.” Marcus said.

Holding his hand out, he conjured up the silver light of his Supreme Skill, Ultimate Refresh and began moving closer to get in range of Zaila.

Except, Marcus felt his danger sense skill go off rapidly before he was within twenty meters which was the effective range of Ultimate Refresh.

Just a moment before a blast of mana smashed into him, he leapt back and watched where he had been standing go up in a large explosion.

‘They even infused it with spiritual energy. They must have some way to know I am not human.’ Marcus thought, glaring in the direction the attack had come from.