The light spread from the crystal on his chest throughout his body, lighting his vein with the rhythmical pulse of a beating heart. The white glow invaded his eyes, twisting his features into a more controlled expression while his voice became chipper and calm, no longer sounding like a tantrumming child.
"Gods, if I love humans. So pure, so honest with themselves, so stupid. I should have given up on greater undead centuries ago. They are so annoying with their pondering each and every step before even taking it.
"Their long lives make them too cautious, whereas humans are like butterflies. Their existence is so short and they are so eager to get everything they want that taking over is almost too easy.
"Almost." The thing wearing Acala said.
"Agreed. Controlling vampires is hard. They keep resisting me even after this long. Their thralls, instead, are just sweet little lambs." The undead speaking was the same one Acala had been hitting until a second ago.
She looked like a middle-aged woman in her fifties who while alive had clearly enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh too much, to the point that undeath had yet to get rid of all the lines on her face and the fat from her body.
Yet the voice coming out of her mouth was identical to Acala’s.
"Talking to myself is pleasant, but inefficient. Let’s start the Reunion." The thing wearing Acala said.
The perfect prism in the Ranger’s chest collected the thoughts and experiences from its lesser versions and then charged them back to their full power, making them shine as bright as the original.
’This Verhen guy is more annoying than I thought. He easily disposed of six of my spawns. Sure, half of them were vampires still resisting my control and all of them were at half the charge due to building that damn machine, but still.
’The good news is that I’ve got an idea of what he’s capable of. I can use such knowledge to outnumber and outmatch him. It’s the perfect option to get away with it and achieve the kind of wealth I need.
’The bad news is that the machine is an utter fiasco. The moment my spawns died I lost all of their memories and abilities. I still have a long way to go before becoming perfect.’
The cursed object known as Bright Day, the Horseman of Dawn, started to plan ahead how to exploit Lith’s presence to receive a huge reward without arousing any suspicion. To accomplish her true goal, she needed an enormous amount of gold.
She had already tried to obtain it by theft, but that kind of riches was heavily protected, making them very hard to procure and impossible to spend without getting caught.
While plotting her next move, she lulled what remained of Acala’s broken personality with promises of wealth, power, and respect. He was her inferior half and the answer to all of her prayers.
By making him a hero, the Griffon Kingdom would give Bright Day everything she wanted on a silver platter and thank her for that. Rising and controlling undead was her specialty after all, and the undead invasion was the perfect opportunity to make her puppy known as the Courts’ Bane.
’If only those undead fools from the Dawn Court knew that they took their name from me. Now I’m going to take everything from them.’ She giggled.
***
After escaping certain death, the hybrid creature who had attacked Lith fell asleep the moment he allowed himself to relax. Light magic had completely restored his body and his two cores recovered fast thanks to their synergy.
He shapeshifted in his human form, to relieve his body from the burden of the transformation and further improve his recovery speed.
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