Despite being heralded as legendary heroes by the masses of this world, these five boys and girls were still just teenagers who had no idea what they actually gotten themselves into. This was actually more or less a game to them, and they had never thought about the real possibility of death.
Or worse.
Much, much worse.
Being dead was relatively simple and clean. Dying was far more complicated. There were countless of spells out there that prevent the merciful release of death, not to mention spells that torture the soul until it becomes unrecognizable.
As a matter of fact, that was how some demons were created. They were humans before being torture to the point of unrecognizable. Unlike Balthazar, who was born into demonic lineage, those that were tortured into the lineage were truly vile and despicable.
Luckily, except for Michael, there were no spellcasters, undead or otherwise, amongst the numberless undead horde. If there were, these teenagers would never truly be the same again, simply for being a hero and slaying so many undead.
It took Michael all of his mental power to stop the undead horde from tearing apart Anna and her four unconscious friends, not to mention stopping himself from doing exactly that. The urge was there, and it was growing.
Like a ravenous hunger that could be quenched, Michael wished nothing more than taking a bit out of that delicious tendering flesh. The smells of fear added enticing flavor, making him practically drooled out blood.
Michael had to let go of Anna before he did something that he might regret later even though he felt absolutely nothing for the living other than the unquenchable desire to bite into their flesh. That desire wasn't so strong before during the fight, however.
"Please. I want to go home. Please. Please." Anna begged and begged. She was too terrified out of her wit to give Michael anything but her endless cries and tears. She would not stop begging to go home, wherever her home was.
It could be Earth, but he wasn't certain. He did recall the old heroes, the ones from previous wars with the demons, they were from Earth, but not all from the same Earth. Were there multiple Earths? That was weird.
"Maybe I will have more luck with one of the others," Michael told himself and eyed the other heroes, who the undead had brought to him in a pile. They stashed the girl, Emma first and all the guys on top of her. She would definitely sore when she snapped out of the curse.
Being the most powerful undead around, Michael could order the other undead what to do even if he was not their masters. Unfortunately, he could not give them a standing order such as standing guard or no eating his captives.
This might be due to their mindlessness.
Despite that, the undead still made a terrific army. They were absolutely relentless and fearless. With every kill, their number grew and grew. It was without limit.
A single undead could snowball into an apocalypse if no one took it down quickly enough. Since these undead were actually magical in nature, decapitation did very little to slow them down. In fact, it might made them more dangerous due to more moving parts.
The only ways to stop the were complete destruction of the flesh.
Speaking of flesh, Michael decided to test out a spell. A polymerization-type spell, which forced all the undead within range to merge and transform into a more powerful undead. It was also considered an undead-evolution spell, as it was one of the methods of creating a more deadly undead.
The amount of flesh required was staggering, however. Good thing there were plenty of zombies and other type of monsters around. Moreover, exerting his will on one undead was much easier than doing so on hundreds of thousands of them.
Since it was a tier 10 spell, the highest within the mortal plane, Michael required to use an incantation array. Forming the magic array was quick. Channeling magical energy into the array took a lot longer, and within a couple of minutes, the incantation array was ready to be activated.
Michael paid attention to Anna, who was still out of it. She had curled herself up and muttered pretty much the same as before.
He shook his head and then activated the magical array.
An enormous vortex formed and begun sucking in all the undead within sight, including Michael, who immediately casted a spell to ground himself. He would not be joining the polymerization, as it would likely kill him.
His controlled zombie, however, was sucked into the vortex, ending his dominance over it. Since it had served its purpose, he did not mind. Strangely enough, the ravenous hunger had not subsided despite being a skeleton in rag now.
Could skeleton eat and drink? Well, logic told him it could not, but with magic involved, logic might as well take the backseat. In any case, he assumed it was just a lingering after effect of being a zombie.
Once a sufficient number of undead was consumed, the vortex quickly collapsed into a single pulsating singularity. A humanoid shape formed from the singularity as the area darkened.
And the moment it opened its eyes, everything seemed to stop.
The amount of evil and malice radiating from the new being caused Michael to tense up. He had never felt such emptiness before. Good thing that its magical aura was nowhere near his or there would be a problem.
"Was it you, who had created me?" the humanoid being spoke up. Its voice was deep and very chaotic, as if there were more than one person talking at the same time.
In response, Michael only raised his hand. There was no need to answer such a stupid question, as he was the only one standing. "I am called Microsoft, and you shall be known as Window."
Due to the presence of magic, giving out his real name was incredibly foolish. Having a real name and a face to go with the name allowed anyone to curse and hex him from basically anywhere.
It was better to use an alias. Less problems in the future, assuming that he would be here for a while.
The being grinned and dropped down to one knee. "I, Window, is at your command, Great Microsoft."
Michael smiled at that and returned his attention to Anna and the others. He would need to take them to a secluded place and acquire the answers that he needed. Where was the question.
If this was Earth, he would know where, but sadly, this was another world. A world in despair, as their heroes were defeated. They could always summon another group of heroes, but the end result would be the same.
Michael realized that there was one place that he could take his captives to, and it would be safe from prying eyes and ears. He had never tried taking others along wit him when he entered and exited from his world, but there was no reason that he could not.
"Window. Hide yourself. I will be gone for a while," Michael ordered and grabbed Anna and the others before his surrounding changed.
Gloomy dark sky shifted into a bright blue color filled with numerous clouds. The devastated landscape was replaced with lushly greens and a multitude of colors.
Michael dropped Anna onto the ground and let go of the others before switching his avatar. Since this was his world, he could switch his avatar without expending any mana point (MP).
It was then he realized something. There might be a loophole in the system.