Chapter 142: Difference

When Louis Ferdinand promised to find a way to deliver the corpses, he meant teleporting them directly into the subterranean chamber.

?Spatial fluctuations rippled through the underground room. One moment, the metallic floor was bare; the next, piles of Arachnid corpses appeared across every available meter of space, their lifeless bodies stacked in remarkably neat clusters.

?Cassian couldn’t help but find the delivery method amusing.

’?Now that I think about it, teleportation is probably the most efficient way to transport corpses. No transport vessels, no wasted time, and zero risk of cargo damage along the way.’

?A peculiar thought crossed his mind.

?If Louis hadn’t become the Overseer of the Astral Dominion, he could have made an absolute fortune running an intergalactic courier service.

?Cassian imagined an elderly Louis standing behind a customer service counter, accepting delivery requests before instantly teleporting packages across the cosmos.

Given his authority and spatial mastery, he could probably establish an enterprise that would drive conventional transportation companies out of business overnight.

?The more he considered it, the more reasonable the idea seemed.

’?I should pitch it to him when he retires. We could even go into partnership.’

?After all, Cassian now possessed a remarkably similar ability.

?His newly acquired [Gate] skill allowed him to teleport to any location within the Astral Dominion without needing prior coordinates.

For destinations beyond its borders, he merely needed to mark the location once before traveling there.

?He hadn’t tested whether he could use the skill to transport other people or bulk cargo yet, but he was confident he would eventually master it.

?With [Infinite Mana] supporting him, the operational cost of maintaining such a courier network wouldn’t even be a consideration.

?Cassian dismissed the stray thought and turned his full focus to the newly delivered remains.

?There were 728 Arachnid corpses in total.

?He wasn’t particularly surprised by the count. The Arachnids had been running a covert shadow operation within the Astral Dominion, meaning their deployed numbers were naturally limited compared to a civilization openly mobilizing its military forces.

?Besides, Cassian suspected Louis had deliberately retained a portion of the corpses for his own purposes.

?The Overseer wasn’t merely an administrator, he was responsible for the security of the entire Astral Dominion.

Given that the Arachnid Civilization had proven its willingness to use planetary weapons from the shadows, keeping some alien specimens for autopsy, research, or political leverage was a sensible precaution.

?Cassian didn’t dwell on it.

?High-level politics had never particularly interested him.

?If someone became his enemy, he preferred to settle the matter cleanly with an [Aura Slash] rather than spend weeks debating diplomatic ramifications.

?It was an unconventional mindset for a Lord, considering that conquest, diplomacy, and political maneuvering were considered core pillars of ruling.

However, Cassian had never cared much for conforming to other people’s expectations.

?Besides, he had far more pressing matters at hand.

?Combined with the 373 corpses Nyxara had gathered earlier, his grand total reached exactly 1,101 Arachnid bodies.

?That was more than enough.

?Cassian stepped forward, his blue eyes sweeping over the mountain of lifeless alien bodies.

?"Let’s get started."

?He activated [Undead Summoning].

?Cerulean magic circles expanded across the floor, their intricate geometric patterns illuminating the dim chamber.

Dark mana surged from their centers in violent waves, enveloping the piles of corpses in a brilliant blue radiance.

?One after another, the dead bodies began to rise.

?Shattered limbs mended seamlessly. Missing chitin plates reformed. Dark carapaces regained their glossy sheen, while the creatures’ multi-eyed faces flickered open with cold, unnatural light.

?Within moments, the subterranean complex was filled to capacity with newly resurrected Arachnids.

?Every single one of them dropped to one knee before Cassian.

?Their physical forms had been restored to pristine condition, but their former strength as Evolvers was completely gone.

The power they had accumulated in life was erased, replaced by an absolute spiritual allegiance binding them to their new master.

?Cassian surveyed his newly raised legion with quiet satisfaction.

?If Louis had been present to witness this scene, he undoubtedly would have been stunned.

?The very enemies he had just spent hours purging across the planet had been resurrected with almost insulting ease.

Terrorists that had threatened the stability of the Astral Dominion were now kneeling submissively before a Lord who had awakened less than two days ago.

?Fortunately for Cassian, Louis had chosen not to pry into his business.

?The Overseer respected his privacy, trusting him enough not to monitor his actions unnecessarily.

?Cassian, of course, had no idea just how much faith Louis had placed in him.

?The aged Overseer saw something extraordinary in the young man, a world-shaping potential that could one day alter the fate of the entire Astral Dominion.

To Louis, Cassian represented far more than a gifted new Lord. He represented hope.

?None of that crossed Cassian’s mind, however.

?He had zero interest in guessing what others thought of him.

?Right now, he was purely focused on the strategic potential kneeling before him.

?[Fusion].

?The moment he triggered his Divine Blessing, the system interface expanded rapidly.

?He had gathered the raw materials.

?He had the numbers.

?And with over a thousand high-tier corpses at his disposal, he finally held enough mass to achieve the exact result he desired.

?Without another second’s hesitation, Cassian initiated the fusion.

The fusion process lasted several minutes.

?Cerulean magic circles overlapped across the subterranean chamber as the Arachnid summons dissolved into flowing streams of dark mana.

Their physical vessels collapsed inward, merging into one another before reforming into sleek new structures.

The synthesis repeated in compounding cycles until the system finally registered the final results.

?Cassian examined the incoming notifications with a satisfied smile.

?Eight new summons.

?Considering he had started with 1,102 alien corpses, the arachnid leader included, the yield was exceptionally high.

More importantly, the fusion had delivered precisely what he desired: an elite detachment of Arachnids with vastly elevated potential.

?One summon retained D-Grade potential, serving as the solitary leftover from the fusion.

Cassian decided to store it for future synthesis. Once he acquired another Special undead troop, he could fuse the remaining Arachnid with it and observe the resulting mutation.

?The other seven summons were considerably more intriguing.

?Their potential grades spanned from C-Grade to SSS-Grade, with a single summon occupying each rank, except for B-Grade, which held two.

There was exactly one summon with S-Grade potential, one with SS-Grade, and one possessing the coveted SSS-Grade potential.

?Cassian surveyed the lineup, his satisfaction deepening.

’?Not bad at all.’

?He had secured a versatile array of specialized units for his legion, and the SSS-Grade summon alone made the entire mass sacrifice well worth the effort.

?His gaze shifted to the highest-ranking Arachnid in the front row.

?Cassian had deliberately incorporated the First Order Elite Evolver’s corpse as the primary core component for this final fusion.

?’Let’s see what you’ve become.’

?He opened the creature’s detailed status panel.

?Yet, right before his eyes could scan the attributes, a sudden realization surfaced in his mind.

?There was something fundamentally different about these resurrected Arachnids compared to the undead he had brought forth from the Lord’s Domain.