Before Emil and Ray was the corpse of a deer. A fox was enjoying its body as a meal, but ran away as he had approached it. There were large claw marks across its side, and its belly had been cut open. The deer’s entrails were loosely scattered along the ground, while the rest of its insides had been partially eaten.

But he was more concerned with the cloud of death that hung above its corpse. He had been following the scent of barbequed steak, and it had brought him here. It was the same smell as the last deer corpse. Perhaps the deaths of different animals actually had unique smells?

He placed a hand inside of it, and relieved this animal’s death. It was attacked by a pack of wolves while traveling with its herd. However, the deer already had an injured leg, and lagged behind its group as they ran away. This of course led to it being picked off as easy prey. When it eventually got pulled down by the predators, they spared no time in eating it alive. Emil relived the pain it felt as their claws and teeth cut into its body, before it died.

The first deer he had found weeks ago had also been killed in a similar manner. He wondered if perhaps it was even the same pack of wolves. Emil didn’t know how large of a territory a wolf pack often hunted in, however. As such, he couldn’t say for sure if that was the case, or if it was just a different pack.

“ But it’s interesting, how I still feel its pain as I view the world from its eyes. And yet, I also don’t at the same time?” Emil began to say aloud as he pulled his hand back. He attempted to properly express what he was feeling.

“What’s the right wording? I can feel it while in the vision, and acknowledge how terrible that pain is. But even compared to the death visions I viewed before, I feel more… indifferent. Yeah, I think that’s the right word, indifferent. Like even though I directly share in what it experienced, it feels more like I’m just viewing it from a detached perspective. Hmm.”

Emil wondered if perhaps this was another result of his turn to being an Undead Human. In fact, he was sure it was. Something similar had already happened when he had earlier transitioned into being Half-Undead. At that point, he had also acknowledged a difference in his ability to truly empathize with the pain he shared in the visions. But now he could judge that he had grown only more cold and aloof to it. After all, he had just shared in the experience of being torn apart and eaten alive, and yet it had no real impact on him once the vision ended.

This was likely part of what Alterum had said when they made their contract. Of how, with enough time, he would become distant from humanity. That eventually, Emil would forget what it was like to be human and be unable to relate with his kind.

But in regard to keeping his humanity in check, there was one thing that could be considered as a kind of silver lining. He could still feel his own suffering, and respond to pain by screaming when his legs were destroyed. Though it hadn’t taken long for the pain to dull, and for him to regain his cool and calm composure. But anytime his Soul Durability was damaged, he could at least rely on that as a reminder of that aspect of being human. However, that in of itself be considered counter-intuitive, in its own way. Since allowing it to decrease would put him closer to death.

Emil reached his hand back out to the cloud of death. He was about to absorb it into himself so he could regain some of his Mana. However, before he started that process, the Necromancer paused. He considered if that would actually be the best use for the death energy before him.

He looked down at himself, where his legs used to be. Rather than convert this energy into Mana, perhaps he could instead utilize its power another way. The tendrils that had been destroyed alongside his limbs had been made from concentrated death. So if Death Magic was channeled, he should be able to reform them. Emil decided that it was at least worth a try.

Emil closed his eyes. His vision went dark as he did so, which was something that he mentally noted. He was still missing an eye, and felt no movement from the remaining one’s eyelid. Yet he was currently unable to see, just like any other human with their eyes closed. His theory was that tightly wound fibers of death inside him were what actually dictated his bodily functions.

After all, his brain and nervous system would be just as dead as the rest of his body. He had already known from his undead creations that undeath came with faculties that far surpassed a normal human’s. It was what allowed his mind and body to react as quickly as he did to the ice elemental’s attacks. He supposed that his control of these tendrils was from the soul core inside himself. So through his soul, he was able to ‘close his eyes’ by voluntarily switching off the tendrils that were responsible for his vision.

Emil opened his eyes again, and looked at himself again. He frowned at the ruined clothes, torn up from the battle. He decided to just go ahead and take off the ruined clothing. It was a bit difficult to do while still remaining on his undead elk’s back. But he did it and tossed them inside his bag. The Undead Human then began to stare at his now naked torso.

A bottom rib was visible from where the chunk of frozen flesh had fallen off. As he stared at the exposed bone, he had a thought. When Emil had transformed into an undead, he had noted a constant clicking noise and sensation inside his chest. It wasn’t too loud and thus easy to ignore, but it was still always present. That was still a part of his new body that he remained curious about. He glanced over at the cloud of death energy that still hung in front of him, and decided that it could wait another minute or two.

“Eh screw it, why not,” he muttered as he began to rummage through his supply bag. He had an idea, and impulsively decided to follow immediately through with it. From it, he pulled out a knife. Emil laid back into Ray’s antlers, and began to cut open his chest with the blade.

Though it was less like cutting squishy meat, and more akin to hacking and shaving off bits of ice. It took him a little while, but he was eventually able to open up a section above the source of the clicks. He reoriented his positioning on the elk’s back, and peered into his chest.

His heart wasn’t there. Or to be more accurate, it wasn’t there in its expected form. What should have been a normal, human heart was instead an amalgamation of tissue and bone. One that was shaped like an octahedron, and covered in a layer of death energy. Each of its faces were separated by a distinct line of bone.

Each face steadily twisted one at a time, and produced the click noise he had heard. Around the entire thing, there were veins. Inside them, he could see that there was a grey substance. This liquid seemed to be pushed around the veins in timing with the twist of each face.

It made him recall the grey liquid that had been inside the fake heart of his last golem experiment, A-3. He remembered assuming that had been the result of the golem’s body processing the memory orb inside it. The Necromancer quickly began to believe that his undead body may very well have done something similar. But to what end, however, he wasn’t quite sure yet.

“Woah.” That was all Emil could say as he continued to stare. He felt that this wasn’t all, that there was even more to this strange object inside him. He began to focus further on it. As he did, its functionality started to become clear to him.

The death energy that coated the octahedron was not without purpose. He could sense that it extended out, backward. It wasn’t visible to him, but he could feel that there was a tendril of death that ran straight down the middle of his torso. It was almost like a second spine, and it was this that the object’s death energy was tied to. Emil only continued to deepen his concentration, and looked even further inward.

There was a flow of energy, it was subtle, but it was there. It seemed to originate from this amalgamated heart of his, and into the central tendril of death. From there, it evenly spread in every direction to the other tendrils across his body. It reminded him of a normal flow of blood, but unlike that, it did not travel back to its starting point. This energy simply remained at its endpoint.

Another thing he noticed was that this flow of energy seemed to be constant. However, its production didn’t seem to come from anything. It did not cost any Mana to produce, nor did he feel that it had drained him in any other way. He didn’t want to immediately believe that it simply came from nothing, but he had no evidence that pointed toward an alternative.

“I think I get it now,” Emil remarked as he broke away from his focused state. “People and golems are generally considered as their bodies being divided as being two main parts, right? The mind and the heart. Sure there are the lungs and such that also keep you alive, but most say those two things are the most important. Same thing as how golems are made with their fake heart a fuel source as the two most vital components.”

Yet it didn’t fully add up. He was neither a living human nor a golem, but an undead. He had made several while he was experimenting with Undead Creation in the two weeks he had spent alone. At that time, strings of Mana and death energy were all that was needed. Ray was the most recent example of that standard variant of his undead creations.

But at the same time, Theo’s larger body had also been powered by an undead fake heart. And now inside of him was something very similar to that golem’s fake heart. Though just made from flesh and bone and also seemingly on another level in terms of quality. He wondered if it actually was some kind of prerequisite for more complex undead.

However, there was also the mayor to consider. Before he had been destroyed, Emil was sure that his dead heart had remained the same. But he had contained a physical manifestation of his soul as well as a memory orb. So perhaps that was enough to count as a substitute?

The layers and contradictions to all of this confused him. But he couldn’t help but also grin with excitement. There was clearly still so much more for him to learn and discover about creating undead. And he couldn’t wait until he was able to uncover each mystery that waited before him.

“But at the same time, I can say that this is the second most part of my body aside from my soul. And… I just opened it up to be exposed to the world. Good job Emil, really smart idea there. Genius move, even,” he scolded himself as he realized the implications that resulted from his impulsive decision.

He could cast Flesh Manipulation to cover the hole in his chest. However, that would cost Mana he could ill afford to spend at that moment. With a heavy sigh, Emil repositioned himself to once again face his attention back toward the cloud of death energy. Mindful of his balance, he lifted both arms to plunge his hands inside the dark gloom.

Emil took control of its power, and began to manipulate it. But rather than condense it down into a memory orb, he directed it. He focused the cloud of death down towards his hip, and concentrated. He wanted to reform the dark tendrils that had been destroyed during the battle, and reconnect them to the main one. The Necromancer channeled his abilities over Death Magic, and tightly wound the miasma into a pair of firm appendages.

-60 Mana

It took nearly all of his remaining Mana Level, but he was able to partially succeed. He didn’t have enough Mana to fully complete the spell, so he was forced to change it partway in. Rather than recreate both tendrils and reconnect them, Emil was only able to finish the left one fully. The right leg’s was only partially created down to where his knee would have been. The Necromancer let out a breath as he finished.

The next smell had been there in the background of his senses. But as Emil drained his Mana down to nothing and stopped concentrating on the spell, the scent of baked bread instantly became heightened. A wave of hunger went through him as his mouth began to salivate uncontrollably. Emil wiped his hand across his mouth, but felt no actual drool there.

The hungry man glanced over to his undead creations. He suddenly became highly aware of the death energy that powered them, and had to refrain from licking his lips. Through sheer willpower, Emil did his best to push down the ravenous craving he felt. He grabbed onto Ray’s antlers and urged the elk to go towards the source of the next delectably amazing scent. Emil held on tightly, and commanded that the mount go as fast as it could.