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As Frank had fused his soul with the Divine Soul Fragment of Hades contained within the S-Grade Item he acquired, the black crystal ball slowly turned into black dust dissipating behind Frank, who had now opened his Inventory, taking out four corpses of three beastmen he had killed, former members of the Thieves Guild. ​​

Their names, which Frank had found out by appraising the corpses, were the Black Cat-kin Styx, Dog-kin Wofur, Rat-kin Rashk, and Wild Cat-kin Boferou, all of them had achieved the minimum of Rank 1 Middle Stage, but now that their Mana Cores were gone, they were mere corpses with a bit of a remnant Mana within, which slowly began to dissipate out of the corpses as they started to rot.

"Will the Undead made by these corpses be of any good quality? They lack a Mana Core, and we can't recover it because I just absorbed them…" said Frank.

"Mana Core? Oh, right, the origin of the power of the animal people of this world, right? Don't worry, Undead don't need that crap! You simply need a good pair of souls and… Hm. Hey, why don't we try something else? Have you thought about Undead Combination?" asked Hades.

"What? No, of course not. I am not a Necromancer freak like you. Seriously, I would expect more from a former god…" said Frank.

"Y-You damn brat! …But I guess I deserve your hate after what I did to you… Well, to compensate, let me teach you a bit of Death magic, and the wonderfulness of its concept and powers!" said Hades, as he began to explain to Frank in detail, what Death Attribute Magic was.

"I am all hears, skull face," said Frank with a mildly annoyed expression.

"My name is Hades! Hades! Call me by my name, you filthy successor!" roared Hades.

"Will you explain me or what?" asked Frank.

"Tsk! Alright, hear me out, brat. Death Attribute Magic is the concept of manipulating one of the primordial concepts that encompass all worlds, even yours, this one, mine, all of them have something in common! Living beings die! That is a fact that cannot be denied! Even I can die, and technically, I am dead, and I've fused with you, so we have technically become one, while the old Hades was just cut into pieces, dead!" said Hades.

"But you're clearly speaking to me," said Frank.

"Yeah, yeah! It is as if you had a second mind within your soul," said Hades.

"Oh? Can I destroy you so I am not annoyed anymore by you?" asked Frank, his eyes suddenly turning crimson red!

"N-No, you can't! Don't ever think about doing that! If you ever try to actually destroy my mind, you will end up destroying your own soul!" said Hades.

"More like a helper, you act more like a curse… You give me power but I am cursed to hear you for the rest of eternity," said Frank.

"W-Well… Anyways! Death Attribute Magic is amazing! And very rare as well! Although most worlds have Mana, not all of them have wielders of Death Magic! Usually, the most common attributes are fire, water, earth, and wind, right? Then, there is Light and Darkness and whatever… Sometimes there is Life Magic… but Death? Where could Death Magic be in this world? It does not exist! No one can wield it!" said Hades.

"You're right… From what I have heard from Gwendolyn, there are no Necromancers or Death Mages in this world…" said Frank.

"See?! This is why it is so unique! Even in my former world, there were no wielders aside from the Gods themselves… To control the power of death is to have experienced death once, while also impregnating your very soul with death itself, something that no mortal can practice, if they die, they die! They won't come back, you know? But thanks to me, you fulfilled all conditions. Dying, coming back from the dead, and having your soul covered in death mana…" said Hades.

"Thanks for the explanation, Skullface..." said Frank.

"Tch… You damn brat, now I gotta hear your insults 24/7! I am suffering as well, you're not the only one in such a situation!" said Hades.

"Continue your explanation already," said Frank.

"Tch! Okay, okay! Now that you have forcefully evolved into an Undead Progenitor, your power and closeness with death are superb! You have now been enlightened by Death, and can wield the phenomena that Death can bring to all things as Spells, and well, have several abilities that make you detect things related to death," said Hades.

"About that, I already had Dark Magic and Devil Magic, which merged with Death Magic, creating the very edgy-sounding 'Dark Death Devil Magic' Skill… Is this related with you?" asked Frank.

As Frank dropped those words, Hades was left in a daze.

"…Eh?" he asked.

"What? Oh, so it wasn't part of your will? I guess my System refined these three types of magic into a single one… It is better in my opinion, and it still holds all the spells I had about those magic skills previously…" said Frank, as he possessed this magic, most of the content of the spells it had were already known to him, it was as if he had been always a wielder of such powers, and through the Mana Control Skill, this manipulation of spells became even more masterful.

What could have taken years for any sorcerer to master took him a few minutes, or hours, at most.

Frank then raised his hand as he generated a blue flame.

"This is Demon Fire, right? It has a similar color to you… This is a Death Attribute Spell, right? From what I can see, this is a spell that creates a flame of the underworld, which instead of being like conventional fire, is as cold as ice, and it constantly absorbs heat from its surroundings, making everything even colder… However, unlike Ice Magic, I can manipulate it more freely just like the formless fire, and I can even inflict deep ice burns… Right?" Asked Frank, his voice and presence had changed since he evolved, he was no longer and human and the emotional impact that dying left into his head somehow had made him more direct.

"Y-Yes… That's right… Well done, brat… Y-You just learned it all instantly! What?! Is this the almighty power of your System?! The one created by the power of an entire world! An entire Origin Core… Unbelievable…" said Hades.

"Now, let's see… you said that I had to find some souls for the undead raising? Oh right, you wanted me to combine them into a strong Undead instead," said Frank.

"That's right, Undead combination can be done as long as you construct the correct magic circle in the ground and gather enough materials, but your Mana is good enough, you should be able to use it to compensate for the materials and- W-What are you doing?!" asked Hades, as he saw Frank move the four corpses into the same place, piled together.

Frank glanced at his surroundings as he felt the power of Death surround him.

"The suffering I went through to get this power is something I would not go through again… But now, it truly feels like something of my own…" he thought, closing his eyes as he expanded his senses through the Hades Soul Skill and his Body Aura combined into a single aura of death.

Flash!

Suddenly, the normal environment changed, as if a curtain of slight darkness showed up the beings that Frank should not be able to see with the naked eye… countless spirits flying around, the spirits of the beings who had died in the forest.

"H-Hey! Are you listening to me?!" asked Hades.

"I don't need your teachings, I got some info from you, that's all I needed. Hm? Oh, how convenient, you four, come here," said Frank, talking to the dead spirits of the four beastmen he killed, which were actually all floating around him since he killed them, cursing him and more, although he could not see nor perceive them before his new powers awakened when Hades fused with his soul.

"You… You damn braaaaaaat!"

"I'm going to roast you alive, you fucking kid!"

"Gyaaaaahhh! The poison! The poison hurts!"

"You damn brat, you're not getting away with this! I'm going to kill you!"

"Aw, come on, don't be like that, my little bandit friends, we are all allies now, aren't we?" said Frank, with a cynical smile, as his aura expanded around the four dead spirits, with his Death Charm Skill effect beginning to affect them.

The dead spirits, resembling ethereal versions of the beastmen, floated around Frank, cursing him furiously… but they slowly began to calm down, feeling strange.

"Nnnghh… Please…"

"Grrraaahh… You feel nice? Weird,"

"You… You… You are not so bad…"

"What… What is this strange feeling? Who exactly are you?"

The Dead spirit of Buforou, the leader of the bandit group asked Frank what he was exactly.

"I am your new Master, obey me," said Frank, his crimson eyes flashing eerily as a look of obsession grew into the ugly faces of the Dead Spirits.

"Aaahh! Such devil splendor!"

"The King has come! The King!"

"King-sama, I kneel!"

"Please, tell us… to do something for you! Anything! Let us do something!"

Like insane believers of a new god, the four Dead Spirits obsessively asked Frank what were his wishes.

"Become one, alongside your former bodies… Undead Transformation, Undead Combination," said Frank, as a large stream of dark-colored mana covered the dead spirits, which flew towards their former bodies.

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