Bararak was a fearsome figure and although he wasn’t as famous as other hegemony figures of the North Continent, courtesy of his unparalleled stealth abilities, he was just as powerful and his strength was only continuing to grow. After all, there weren’t many people on the continent who could defend against his unique abilities.

However, although the threat of a Ghost King who could devour souls as he wished was incredibly high, Eridel paid little mind to it when faced with other matters concerning the North Continent.

A solution for the constantly spawning Resentful Spirits had already been devised and eventually, they would all become one of his many strengths instead of the festering blight that they were. He had far bigger problems on hand and one of them was mere seconds away from discovering something that would irreconcilably destroy his plans if he let it happen.

This person was none other than the Wraith King, the Demon King, who after being chased into the the Slime Abominations lair by the Original Undead had somehow suddenly returned a few years later as an Original Undead himself, with power so incontestable that he became the very thing that all the Originals had been fighting each other to become:

The indisputable leader of the 32 Originals and the sole ruler of all Undead! 32 because 4 of them had died!

The Wraith King had undoubtedly experienced a great turn around and his power had explosively grown, he had even become an Original Undead himself with a mutagenic Undeath Essence that had fused with the extremely corruptive Demonic Energy, making him much stronger than the other Original Undead even if they had the exact same Cultivation levels as him, but this clearly pointed towards a connection with the Slime Abomination itself.

As a matter of fact, the reason that the Wraith King had so quickly become the Lord of all Undead wasn’t just because he had slaughtered 4 other Originals. Although that had certainly helped, there was more to it. The true reason that the other Original Undead had finally given up resistance and submitted to the Wraith King after his domineering display was because of one thing… And that was the aura of the being who had made them what they were. The aura of their Ancestor who should have been sealed, radiating off of the Wraith King in billowing waves that caused them to instinctively shiver with primordial fear.

Clearly, the Slime Abomination was inhabiting the Wraith King. Perhaps not literally but it was definitely in control of everything that the Wraith King did. And as Eridel watched, the Wraith King, or rather the Slime Abomination in the form of the Wraith King, lifted up its ghostly head like a snake that had detected prey and gazed towards a particular direction with a terribly eerie focus.

The Slime Abomination… had found the home of the Humans.

And if nothing happened, the final remaining Humans on the North Continent would end up extinct like their peers in the South Continent and Eridel’s plans for them would be reduced to dust.

But…

‘How could I possibly let that happen?’ Eridel thought to himself as he began to form his avatar in a certain location.

…

[North Continent, Southern Sector, Unknown Forest]

In a quiet Forest that was seemingly absent of any cognizant lifeforms or even other Undead, the ‘Wraith King’ stood, or rather floated next to a Tree in ‘his’ true form. The way he looked at it was as if it held all the secrets to the universe and even his Spirit Sense which could no doubt expand across many miles, was now only 50 metres large, sacrificing visibility over a large amount of space for extremely honed focus on a small area.

As a result of this, he was able to realise that this unassuming Tree, no, the entire space around him… was not as it seemed! It was an illusion!

Thanks to the many beings that he (the Slime Abomination) had assimilated when he was free, he had an abundant amount of knowledge about many things and illusions were one of them. Furthermore, thanks to a few strange Beasts like the Sky Bounding Bunnies and the Violet Baleful Oxes, he even had a few illusion abilities himself.

And as such, when he came to this Forest looking for the humans that he had been interested in for a while, he realised that everything that he was seeing was fake. It was all an illusion and it seemed to be stemming from this very Tree.

The ‘Wraith Kings’ Spirit Sense shrunk from 50 metres to 5 metres, completely enveloping the entire Tree with even greater intensity and threatening to reveal all of its secrets.

But just as the Slime Abomination felt like it had discovered something, a blinding light suddenly burst into existence with ferocious and majestic might. The light emitted an aura so boundless that for the first time since the Abomination became what it was now, it felt the threat of death. This was extremely terrifying, after all, with its wealth of life-saving abilities and its own aberrant constitution, death had become a concept that was as irrelevant as the blue sky. Nothing could kill it!

But now, what was the situation? This clear and unadulterated feeling of looming doom. He had to flee! The Slime Abomination didn’t even take into consideration that he wasn’t even here in his own body and immediately tried to flee, the Wraith King’s ethereal cloak that was previously flowing calmly now fluttering wildly in a sign of clear agitation.

“Now, now~... No need for that, I just arrived! Come, come, let us chat.”