Transmigrated as a Ghost

Marcus barely had time to brace himself as what looked like a giant wall of shadows crashed into him.

He wedged the handle of his scythe in between the gargantuan attack and kept it from slamming into him.

The light his weapon was emanating started to dim, but he poured more power into and activated Embodiment of Eclipse.

This kept him from being immediately overwhelmed, but the force of the blow still started to push him back.

Several iron magic spells manifested behind him to act as braces, but even the giant hundred meter Cataclysm Iron Sword he had conjured only slowed him down a bit as it tore through the earth he had jabbed it into.

Quickly, Marcus layered several enchantment spells on himself. Massively and rapidly increasing his power.

However, it was not until after traveling a few hundred meters past the first wall of the Draayer Empire's defensive formation. Which he had smashed right through, that he finally stopped the attack and deflected it away from himself.

"Arghhhhh!"

With a yell of exertion, Marcus swung his scythe and batted the wall of shadows away from himself.

It still had not lost all of its power though and kept going until it impacted against one of the walls of the chamber.

That was not enough to stop it at first either, until the attack finally lost momentum after carving through several kilometers of dense rock.

Turning his attention back the way he had been blasted back, Marcus saw that shadows had cut through both he floor and the ceiling several hundreds of meters deep.

In some places he could even see openings into tunnels that were situated both above and below the chamber that they were in. Though most of them were far too small for most creatures to get through.

'I didn't think that he would make his presence known while the Draayer Empress was still unaccounted for. Maybe he thought trying to sneak attack me while I was distracted was more important than concealing his location.'

Marcus knew that the powerful attack he had just endured must have come from the Umbrashnuls' King.

The rest of their strongest fighters were already accounted for, and he was the only one among them that should have been capable of producing such a devastating strike.

Before Marcus could jump back into the battle though, Relia appeared next to him from out of the shadows.

She might not have had the intrinsic connection to the element as the Umbrashnuls, but her shadow magic was still quite high level.

"I had meant to give you this information before things got out of hand, but the empress has engaged in battle. She is singlehandedly pushing back the westernmost front right now and carving her way through the Umbrashnuls right now." Relia said.

This certainly served as the missing piece of the puzzle.

With her known to be fighting far away, the Umbrashnul King no longer had any reason to hold back. Although it seemed that instead of going to meet his nemesis in battle, he had chosen to deal with Marcus and his companions instead.

They were the ones capable of killing his top subordinates, so it was more important to deal with them and let the Draayer Empress rampage to her heart's content.

She might have been able to defeat and capture the Umbrashnul soldiers, but she lacked any means of finishing them off.

So long as the war was won, any imprisoned Umbrashnuls could be released at a later time.

'Would they really have been losing so badly anywhere that the empress needed to get involved herself?' Marcus thought, feeling suspicious.

The current situation felt like more one of design than a coincidence.

When he, Roxene, and Quillon had just engaged the top Umbrashnul fighters, why would the empress reveal herself to be far away and unable to help?

Honestly, he had been hoping that she would be nearby to help once the enemy king had shown himself.

Marcus figured that there were only so many of his top subordinates that he was willing to lose before he would intervene.

"Thanks for the update, I guess." Marcus replied, his tone of voice coming out harsher than he had anticipated.

Still, he did not dare dawdle any longer.

Quillon was already fighting the second strongest Umbrashnul, and if the ones that had been targeting Marcus turned their attention on him, he would be in some real trouble.

So, after shunting his misgivings about the vampire empress' actions into the back of his mind, Marcus turned into a beam of light and reappeared in the midst of the three top Umbrashnuls he had been fighting.

They seemed surprised to see him appear so suddenly, and in a beam of light that had slightly seared them.

"There's no pointing in hiding any longer! I already know that you're there now! Just come out and fight already!" Marcus yelled into what looked like empty space.

It did not stay that way for long though.

What appeared to be a pervasive darkness began to recede, and shadows coalesced into a single form.

Marcus had already been told what the Umbrashnul King would look like, but seeing the man in person really took him aback.

Standing before him was someone that looked almost exactly like himself. Unlike the rest of the Umbrashnuls, the king had no base form. At least so far as Marcus had heard.

His shape was fluid and he often met those he faced in battle as some sort of dark mirror.

Marcus had read a report about this, but it still was not any less unnerving.

It was unknown if this power came from a racial ability or unique skill, but it did more than just allow the king to take on people's forms.

There was definitely another competent to the power, Marcus could feel it.

'This isn't even close to the worst of the skills he has, but its one of the reasons I was chosen to face this man. He's not the only shape changer around here.'

Immediately, Marcus' body shifted and he was soon in his form as Irene.

The transition was seamless and occurred in the blink of an eye.

Only half a second passed before the shadows around the Umbrashnul King twisted and swirled around until he matched Marcus' new form.

That did not last long though, as Marcus shifted again, this time purposefully shaping his body into the appearance of an actor from earth he could not remember the name of.

He did this over and over again, never staying in the same shape for long and forcing the Umbrashnul King to follow suit.

Whatever ability he had that let him match another person's form was automatic rather than controllable.

Fortunately, the other Umbrashnuls did not make a move in their king's presence without his orders.

So, they just stood there watching the weird show as Marcus and their king rapidly transformed over and over again.

"Enough!"

Suddenly the ever shifting shadows stopped halfway through adopting the same shape that Marcus had taken.

This was the first time he had heard the Umbrashnul King speak, but the single word that he had uttered was laced with power and authority.

Swiftly the shadows unraveled and the man took on a body that was completely different from anything Marcus had appeared as.

He did not know if this was the Umbrashnul King's true form, but at least the transformation war seemed to be over.

Now Marcus was facing a man who had long raven hair, a chiseled and regal face, and glowing black orbs for eyes.

Floating above his head was a shadowy crown that looked like it was made of dark flames, while a billowing cloak of shadows spread out across his back.

It would take anyone only a single glance to know that this man was a ruler. And a powerful fighter as well.

The Umbrashnul King was not as strong as Gronex, but he definitely matched up to some of the most powerful people Marcus had ever met.

With only a single look, he knew that he was in for a difficult fight.

"What are you? There is no possibility that you are an evolved form of a human as your status says." The Umbrashnul King asked. Or more demanded judging by his tone.

"Are you going to give up and surrender if I answer you?"

The man just snorted in response. Clearly, he thought Marcus was a fool to even have asked.

"Then I'm afraid you'll just have to figure out what I am on your own. Also, stop trying to manipulate my mind. It's not going to work, but it is annoying. Like someone's scratching on the outside of my skull and trying to dig their way in."

This garnered a reaction, as the Umbrashnul King narrowed his eyes and glowered at Marcus.

"Very well, your existence while interesting, matters very little in the wake of this war. Vashtalive, Folcalor, Guald, assist me in killing this thing. We will destroy the Draayer's assassins and win this war."

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