“You stay put.“. I ordered the wraith in front of me with a surreal voice.

I spread my bony wings apart, revealing the bloody membrane inbetween, crouched down and flexed my legs and with an sudden outburst of energy I charged straight through the battlefield. The hunger I tried to contain roared from within me. It resonated with my soul and piqued my internal thirst for blood and carnage!

In a matter of seconds I landed in front of the two red wolves. Their crimson aura was as brilliant as the aurora and concealed a burning desire to kill.

I smiled wryly. It was the first time I felt real bloodlust; it made me remember of good old times. Though the wolves reacted different to my devilish smile. They bared their fangs and charged fire essence around their bodies.

From the might they were currently displaying their level should be upper Earth realm Masters. Not super powerful but powerful enough to take on a handful Scalefalcons. (Tiny dragons, more like scaley birds. I say tiny but probably around 6 feet wide.)

Both of them took out a white jagged dagger. Its surface was smooth but the edges looked increadibly hazardous. I could feel my senses tingling whenever I looked at the two daggers.

The wolves did not spare any time and immediately dashed forward. One raised his free hand to summon a storm of fire. The other wolf ran side by side with the fire vortex and gave it its own input of fire essence. In a span of seconds my field of view was painted red. A world of flames was burning the ground and setting the air ablaze.

The incredible heat was even sensible by my dull undead body.

I summoned my own version of this flame wall.

My still open wings shuddered slightly and with every movement a wave of black flakes was released.

The flakes formed a thick fog and whenever a flake touched the ground it started to crack and dry out. This was a form of progress. My black flakes feasted on the remaining time of any object it came in touch with. Even the air became colder and stale as its energy and momentum was quickly absorbed by my black smog.

After a fraction of a second my flakes have already enrichened themselves with the stolen time. The hazy black was now a lush darkness.

When the two powers collided huge masses of energy spew outwards. I could hear the shattering of bones and burning of flesh in the distance.

I should have held the advantage as fire is a volatile element and quickly releases its energy but that was overkill for my blackflakes. They slowly overcharged as more and more fire was absorbed; parts of the dark wall started to turn crimson red – like heated iron –.

Overestimation never ends well and I had to learn it the hard way.

The bright red wall broke through my black fog and came crashing down on me. The tidal wave of fire charred my bones and wings. The crackling drowned any other noise from the surroundings, only my own pained screams were audible.

At first I thought these were screams of pain. But I was wrong. Deep in the corner of my mind I found enjoyment in this pain. It was so refreshing, it told me I was back! I was alive! I never felt any better in my former life.

When my mind realised this twisted logic my pained screams turned into a deep laughter. I found joy in the face of peril.

After seconds of bathing in the flames a red fur covered fist greeted my face. I felt the bones of my jaw breaking as the fist made contact, sending me flying a few meters before I finally came smashing down on a rock.

I cried in pain once again but not because of my harsh landing but because of my torn wings. The deep scratches radiated a faint white light that flared the pain even more.

One of the wolves hit me while the other did its work on my wings. 'Huh... first stealing mobility and then going in for the kill? Not bad.' I nodded aprovingly towards the wolves, though they took it as some kind of insult and charged forward once again.

With my wings being torn I could neither flee nor effectively use my abysal fog. I was forced into a melee.

My fragile bones cracked as I wrested my body out of the crevice that my landing created.

I gave the pair a murderous look but their dash was kept unhindered, not even a slight flinch.

'I really got weak.' I mumbled inside of my mind. It was uderstandable somehow. My power was taken away from me and I was left to rot in a special dimension. Even with my original body here I would only reach the upper levels of the heaven realm. It was truly a saddening fact.

I shock my head. 'Unnecessary thoughts'. I mused to myself.

The wolves were getting closer with each second, flame essence at the ready. Jets of white and silver shone in their hands, aiming at my exposed body.

The beams hurt. They hurt so much but it was nothing I couldn't endure.

It was the first time that the wolves showed an expression of surprise. They wondered how I as an undead could withstand their holy relics. At least a reaction should have been shown, but alas I reacted not at all, maybe a slight jerk – at most –.

My deformed hands clenched into fists. Dark mist seeped out between my skeletal hands, forming black gloves from my hand up.

The wolves appeared before me, two flashes of silver and a gale of amber accompanied them.

If I weren't in this situation I would have found the displayed picture pretty beautiful, a mixture of elegance and vehemence.

I raised my armored arms up in the air, blocking an incoming strike from above. The other wolf attack from below, hoping I won't be able to block his attack in time.

He misjudged.

My wings flicked the wolf over me away so that I had enough time to take care of the wolf under me.

The knife was aimed at my open spine. 'It will bisect me in one hit'. I thought.

Raising my leg I gave the wolf a precise kick to the right shoulder. His trajectory was altered by my kick. He now exposed his flank to me.

The moment I wanted to strike down a pillar of fire knocked me back. 'Aha! I see!'. The wolves were pretty clever. They delayed the fire essence from attacking; I would have noticed the two floating orbs of fire but they distracted me with their opennings and now I had to pay the price.

My already worn body was mowed down by the flame pillar, knocking the air out of my – non existing – 'lungs'.

The wolf that was thrown away dashed along side my trajectory, bombarding me in cuts, kicks and punches filled with fire essence.

Thick smoke was already fuming out of my carbonized body.

The only part of me that was in a good state were my gauntlet covered arms.

Without an end in sight I was victim under a viscious onslaught of hits. I could feel my body losening its connection to my soul. 'Not again! I won't lose this one!'. I screamed in my mind.

I began to will parts of my soul into my body; strengthening my abilities in the procecss. It would put an enormous strain in the aftermath but it would be better than dying.

Like a giant dam that was finally openned a huge amount of power flooded out of my soul into my body.

The changes were instantaneous.

My black scale covered bones radiated a rich purple glow as well as my eyes and wings. My wings grew additional appendages and my thin fingers grew into large scyte like claws. The scales covering my spine transformed into large spikes and two crescent-shaped horns sprouted out of my skalp.

BOOM! BOOOOM! CRACKLE! BOOOOM!

A cloud, black as the night, was hovering above my head. It shoot thousands of purple lightning towards the ground. They came crashing down like bombshells, pulverizing the ground and terraforming the landscape into an apocalyptic scene.

The static in the air created more of those cataclysmic beams of raw power, the mortal realm was not able to withstand the fractures of my power.

I tried to calm my own power down, willing the realeased energy back into my body.

When the lightning dispersed most of the undeads as well as the wolves were turned into ash. Their remains were quickly caught by the wind, all evidence of the disastrous event were being erased.

'Fuck... That's not what I expected.'. I cursed. Of course I would do, the red wolves were still alive after all, alive and ready to strike me down.

Their fur was burned black and exhaustion was written all over their face, they used their mana to block the devasting lightningstorm. Yes, they were exhausted but had enough power remaining to finish me off.

I took a fighting stance and waited for them to make their first moves.

A dozen of fireballs flew with high speed towards me, some held enough strength to damage me while others were clearly decoys. Instead of blocking I tried to dodge as good as I could. Though two fireballs grazed past me, sending me flying in a spinning motion.

'I am so weak!'. Even the simplest of firespells was enough to make me kiss the ground; how humilating!

I laid on my back with my bones burned grey already, some were even glowing red. I had to endure, the only way to overpower them was to play on time.

Alas the wolves did not thought so.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, raising their daggers up and bringing them slowly together. The jagged sides fit perfectly with each other, it looked like a fierce beast crunching down when the swords touched.

A white radiance spilled over the destroyed bad lands. It was so bright! A huge silhouette of a snow white wolf appeared behind their backs. With its mighty canines showing the wolf pounced at me, a large jade white trail leaving after images of itself.

'Uh oh!'. This was a divine beast! The mighty 'Fimbul'. A monster that reached the mastery of the snow element, though what confronted me was just an image with a bit of residue power in it, it was overkill for me already.

My sight was filled by a gaping wide maw. 'That's how it will end huh...?'. I had no more stuff to fight with, my body was exhausted and my soul was on the brink of collapse. It was the end for me. 'Ohhhh the irony.'. I drily laughed to myself.

But my death never came.

A black shadow stood in front of me, it's devilish scythe heaved high up in the air, displaying its purple black edge in full glory.

The two forces collided, the black scyte and the snow white wolf. I could already tell who will lose... the wraith of course.

Small cracks spread over the blade of darkness, all the way to the hilt. Low grunting noises escaped the wraith's throat.

'I clearly ordered him not to interfere, what is wrong with that guy?!'. The wraith was truly mysterious. It gained sentience and was disregarding my orders. It was impossible to conceive.

'What the hell has happened while I was gone?!'. I was simply stupified. So many things have changed since I last visited the mortal realm, the impossible turned possible.

CRACK! SNAP!

Further thoughts were cut short as the scythe suddenly bursted apart. The wraith was now defenseless. Of course I couldn't let this rare specimen die like that.

I took out the crystalized soul of the shaman and 'gulped' it down in one go. Rather than swallowing it was more of an absorbing.

I could feel magical power filling my body. The membrane between my wings started to get covered in a handful of intricate runes, glowing in an even deeper shade of red.

I pushed the wraith aside and took on the reamining brunt of the 'Filbum' illusion. My body was torn to pieces the moment the wolf connected with my body.

Shards of bones were blown over the wastelands, obsidian black shards; pieces of the night sky.

My wings were tattered and the scales covering my body turned into dust.

Instead of trying to block the power I did the exact opposite. I absorbed the power into me the moment it was weakened enough by my body.

The holy energy hurt at first but with my soul being infused with the foreign energy it instantly turned into mere fuel for my own uses.

It only hurt because I was inhabiting the body of an undead, when it came in contact with my soul it was greedily absorbed and neutralized.

Of course I still took immense damage and I could feel my consciousness slipping away. But not before I saw in the corner of my eyes how the wraith bare handedly beheaded the two wolves.

'I really am proud of that guy!'. My mind was already slipping into the dream lands and I fully embraced it!

'Let's see what tomorrow brings'. With that final thought I embraced the needed sleep, on the blood and bones covered ground...