All Wolf could see was the ceiling of the tunnel as the lights continued to flicker. Something huge was dragging him by his leg as a thick black miasma continued to penetrate into his mana-field.

Without the ability to even summon a trace of mana he could only silently endure the sickening feeling. The black-mana smelt like rotting potatoes as it bored into his mana-field.

Slowly the black-mana began to seep into his skin as it spread out to cover his entire body.

Shit. Wolf thought in panic as it covered his entire face preventing him from breathing.

At first the black-mana just sat there as Wolf held his breath, but then it finally began to sink in through his mouth, eyes and nose. Wolf tried to struggle as it crept down his throat and left a faint burning feeling.

Soon the black-mana infiltrated his bloodstream and wrapped itself around his heart like a glove before merging with his blood and bones. For the first time since his heart had transformed Wolf felt completely cut off from its energies and his body felt like a normal human being.

After being dragged for a long time a large hand hauled him up into the air. Black ropes appeared out of nothingness and bound his hands as he was hung from a large hook on a wall.

He dangled there as a hulking shape moved passed him and out of the corner of his eye he saw No1 and No2 being placed on large hooks and strung up against the wall.

“Yes……yes this is quite nice.” The being laughed.

A small amount of strength had finally returned to Wolf and he raised his head and then instantly regretted it.

The creature in front of him looked horrific. Its eyes were red and sunken deep within its face and its flesh looked like it had been sewn together like a jigsaw puzzle. It was at least five time the size of a normal zombie and exuded and towering strength.

“Hehehe with 60 of you at least one will convert.” The zombie laughed. At these words Wolf managed to turn his head to the right and his eyes widened in shock. All the way along the wall humans hung on hooks coated in a black-mana. There eyes were glazed over as if dead and yet there bodies occasionally twisted as if in pain.

“Great being. We offer you the old man as a sacrifice. We request to be your slaves. Let us live and serve you.” No1’s voice croaked out.

“Supreme one ignore this fat calf’s words. This old man is stringy and weak, while these two are muscular and plump. Do you eat human flesh? I used to be a chef and can prepare it for you quite nicely.” Wolf said.

“Oh your all still awake?” the zombie said with a grin that showed its black gums. “Very nice. All three of you are strong candidates for the transition.”

“Transition?” No2 asked.

“Yes the grand transition. Only lower level zombies are born from the nests. The rest we get elsewhere!” It said as it inspected the three of them. “Hmmmm your all only level 2. Must have just come up the beanstalk! Been a long time since I have such fresh meat kluk kluck.”

“I used to be like you once. At least that is what they tell me. After the transition you lose all your human memories. Its a great trick you see? The zombie kings worked out that humans could be converted into zombie lords.”

“HAHAHAHA…..a great trick.” It said as it roared with laughter and black-mana dripped out of its mouth.

Then suddenly its face grew ferocious as it shot forward like a dart and squeezed Wolf’s face with its hand.

“You know who taught us that trick?” It whispered as its tongue lolled out and licked the side of Wolf’s face.

Wolf grunted in pain as the black-mana from its tongue corroded his flesh like acid.

“I…..don’t know.” Wolf whispered.

“Hehehe….it was you!” the zombie laughed as it backed off.

He's mad as a cut snake.Wolf thought in despair. It was clear this zombie had lost the fucking plot.

The zombie looked at them in anticipation. When the three of them showed no shock at his words it looked at them in disappointment.

“Of course you have probably forgotten haven’t you. That is the problem with humans they all forget.” The zombie summoned his mana and a vicious black-mana hook knife appeared in his hand as he ran his fingers down the edge.

“Great one we have forgotten please enlighten us.” No2 begged.

“Well alright then. But only because you asked.”

“Old and new, old and new. I lost my old memories but I gained new ones you see? We were not always like this with this disgusting form. We once flew through the stars.” It said wistfully as its voice filled with a deep longing.

“Every species in the universe is born from an origin concept. A universal law. Our origin concept was [Resurrection] and we were the Phoenix race. You know what Resurrection is? It is the space between life and death as one folds into the other. Born to die, die to be born, both but neither, the balance of the cycle of creation.”

“And so it was until human came. You captured our Phoenix Emperor and refined him. Converted a living being into pure energy and sucked it into your heart chamber as a slave for all eternity. Thousands of us were refined by your kind as the balance of the energy of our species shifted.”

“Life and death don’t forget! But as we perished we became more death than life and the balance of our origin concept shifted. You left what was rest of us on a desolate world and we changed. We died but couldn’t quite resurrect anymore. So we slowly changed into this form you see before you. A form we modelled after you.”

“And as you left us death so shall we return it to you!” the zombie screamed as it rushed forward and plunged its knife into Wolf’s chest.

“Unnnnghhh.” Wolf grunted as the blade effortlessly pierced through his body and flooded it with a strange thin line of red-mana. Quickly the zombie stabbed No1 and No2 in quick succession.

“Hehehe can you feel it? The red-mana of resurrection?” The zombie giggled as it did a little dance.

“99% of our being is the black-mana of death and 1% if the red-mana of life. But that 1% can do some amazing things. Though the success rate is not high we have found that those humans with high potential bathed in black-mana and a hint of red-mana can be reborn as zombie lords.”

“There are 60 of you here. I hope to get at least one new brother! And every new human that emerges from the beanstalk to this node will find a place on my hooks.” the zombie cackled as it looked at all the humans hanging form the wall.

“Well……I have to go take over the next beanstalk node nearby. I will be back soon my little ones.” The zombie said as it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

What kind of fucking speed was that? Wolf thought as he struggled on the hook. As soon as the red-mana had been injected into his body it was like a transformation began to occur in the black-mana. Wolf felt his blood starting to boil as his flesh slowly began to start to rot.

As the red-mana began to fully dissolve into the black-mana in his blood he lost his external awareness as he went blind and deaf. It was like his mind was sealed into an internal hell as he felt his body slowly being converted into a rotting corpse.

For the first hour Wolf fought with all his might as he tried to resist the corrosion. But slowly even his will became eroded as the pain grew greater and greater.

After awhile Wolf simply gave up and let the process take its course. Since coming into the beanstalk his predatory side had risen deep inside him. Perhaps it had been ignited by the influence of the [12 Chamber-Heart]. But Wolf was a complex person and during his fall from power he had learned how to surrender. As he stopped fighting the pain disappeared and was replaced by a strange sickly feeling.

Some would call Wolf's actions simply giving up, but it was not the same thing. It was simply living in a single moment of time, no past, no future just a single moment. If you lived in that one moment then the future could not crush you and the past could not kill you. You were invincible and outside of time and place.

This was the mentality that arose in Wolf.

I don’t want to die fighting. I’d rather die peacefully.

As his body began to shut down his mind felt freer than ever. He couldn’t touch his mana, but he could feel his contaminated mana-field as he danced his mind along it.

It was then that he first noticed it. A glint, like the reflection of light on a mirror. He tried to see the glint again but it was gone.

As he relaxed he saw it again.

There! He finally found it and concentrated his focus on this one single point. As his mana-sense focused on the glint a whole new world began to emerge as he saw tiny almost invisible lines of something connect from his mana-field into his body.

They looked like some kind of energy pathways. Thinking back to old earth beliefs if the mana-field was similar to the concept of an aura then these energy lines were like the idea of meridians or a channel network.

They all seemed to be glowing healthily except for the thickest line of them all. This line ran from the tip of his tongue down into his body. Following the line down his throat he found that it ended at his appendix.

Right above the insertion point in the appendix was a large knot.

Strange. Wolf thought as he saw the knotted energy line. Doctors all said the appendix was a useless organ and no one could figure out what purpose it really served.

If it’s useless then why is there this massive energy line running right through the middle of my body into my appendix?

Gently Wolf nudged the knot with his mana-sense and noticed he disturbed the flow of black-mana slightly. Getting excited he whipped his mana-sense into a frenzy as he made it swirl around the knot pushing the black-mana into a vortex. Though he could not manipulate it directly he could influence the way it was passing through his body.

As he got the right angle the felt the knot begin to become untied until finally the kink his energy line was gone.

ZZZZZzzzzzz

An electrical shockwave exploded through Wolf’s body as the line came alive and the energy lines in his body roared to life. Black-mana surged down his main energy line and slammed painfully into his appendix.

As the black-mana surged the sliver of red-mana began to move at a very slow rate as it collected up on his tongue and then began to slowly slide down his throat.

Slowly after several minutes it made its way into his appendix.

BOOM!

Emotions his him as power surged and the red-mana and the black-mana became balanced for a moment in time.

Oh god. Wolf cried as he could feel it. This was not the corrupted transition the zombie had spoken of. It was something else far more ancient and pure.

It was the true [Resurrection].