Zeke fought a throbbing headache as he weaved through rows of enemies, using his Eye of Illusion in its strongest form.
He used the Eye of Illusion to control some weak-willed Undead, which was easier than expected since none of the Undead possessed a strong will. Even the Guardian Statues were not strong-willed, so they were also easy to control.
All Zeke Lavita had to do was to create illusions on one Anubirat and a Giant Ghoul Serpent. Their minds were influenced and altered to make them think that the Undead around them were their enemies. It was not that hard to change their perspective of the Undead. All Undead transformed into living creatures in their minds, whereas the living turned into Undead. That way, the Anubirats, and the Giant Ghoul Serpent stopped attacking Zeke and the other Descendants.
Their focus switched to attacking the Undead.
Being able to do something like that was not the result of a Soul Technique. Of course, a Soul Technique could amplify the effect and affect more Undead, but Zeke didn’t go that far yet. It could cause more harm if he were to experiment with some Soul Technique in an attempt to control more powerful Undead.
The technique he used to control the Undead was part of a Legacy Arts’ altered version, which could only be used by two of his ancestors, one of whom created it.
It didn’t require eye contact. Instead, Legacy Arts’ main focus was to trap the targets into an illusion that would slightly alter their perception. Zeke wouldn’t have to use much energy to maintain the illusion by making only minor changes to the targets’ perception. The only struggle was maintaining his concentration while fighting against the other Undead.
The Anubirat under his control was not afraid of scratches and bites. He mowed through the Undead, which surrounded him with ease. His sabers flashed through the air and cut in all directions, beheading some Undead while severing others in two parts without much resistance.
Interestingly enough, none of the Undead attacked the Anubirat. Zeke had been certain that the Undead would change their target to the Anubirat soon, but the Undead were too focused on the Descendants to register that one of their allies betrayed them.
Zeke was surprised, but he figured the Undead were not intelligent enough to perceive that the Giant Ghoul Serpent and the Anubirat were their enemies.
‘Maybe they can only sense the living and move mindlessly through the Sacred Desert for months because they’re not sentient and cannot think? They’re like mindless walking corpses. It’s just that some of them look better and move like they’re alive.
Zeke frowned deeply. It was great that the Undead didn’t attack the Anubirats and the Giant Ghoul Serpent, which bulldozed through the rows of Undead Summons, but it made him wonder why everyone struggled to kill the Undead. Why was the Sacred Desert in danger if the Undead weren’t even intelligent? Was their numerical advantage truly the only issue?
Dozens of soul-devouring Death Vultures dived to the ground, ready to tear Zeke’s body apart. The Anubirat appeared before Zeke and brandished his weapons to cut some of the undead avians apart. The other Death Vultures screeched as if surprised about the sudden appearance of the towering Guardian Statue and flapped their rotten wings to ascend once again.
Zeke noticed a slight change in the Warbeasts’ behavior once they came in contact with the Giant Ghoul Serpent and the Anubirat. They attacked the Giant Ghoul Serpent and Anubirat more often in an attempt to tear their bodies apart.
‘Where did the sudden change come from?’ Zeke cursed in his mind. He’d been happy that the Undead ignored the beings he controlled and was about to steamroll through their rows, killing everyone and everything, when the atmosphere all over the battlefield changed again.
Zeke wasn’t given more than 15 minutes to feel like he’d found the perfect tactic to eliminate the Undead forces. The Skeleton Knight riding it delivered a deadly strike to the Giant Ghoul Serpent’s head. The Giant Ghoul Serpent didn’t die because the Skeleton Knight missed its core, but the change in the situation was apparent.
The Giant Ghoul Serpent squashed several Undead Summons under its weight as it smashed hard to the ground. A moment later, it executed a death roll on the searing-hot sand, shooting it in all directions. Zeke couldn’t see much as the tiny sandstorm blocked his view, but he heard the cracking noises. It was initially silent but grew in intensity as the sound of breaking bones overlapped.
Zeke backed away and decided to lift his control of the Giant Ghoul Serpent. He couldn’t see what was happening in the tiny sandstorm, but it got harder to control the Giant Ghoul Serpent out of nowhere. One of the Undead had scratched its core, nearly eliminating the Giant Ghoul Serpent. After that, Zeke nearly lost control. That was a little bit annoying, but it was nothing to cry about.
Zeke left the Giant Ghoul Serpent to die in the tiny sandstorm before sending the Anubirat against the other Guardian Statues. The Anubirats clashed, only for Lincoln to appear beside single of them, his body expanded and coated in earth. He used his Stone Giant Soultrait to initiate a full-body transformation. His body expanded, and several layers of compressed earth enveloped him like tight body armor.
His strength doubled, whereas his dexterity and agility suffered considerably. However, Lincoln didn’t see a problem with that. Physical strength was all he needed to crush the Undead. He punched the enemy Anubirats, slowly crushing their stone bodies. One hit wasn’t enough to kill them, but a clean execution of several mighty punches to the same spot was perfect. It was all Lincoln needed – besides the support of Zeke’s Anubirats – to kill the other Guardian Statues.
High physical strength, deadly accuracy, and a good distraction.
Once the Anubirats near Lincoln died, he diverted his focus to killing the Giant Ghoul Serpents. They might not be the strongest Undead forces since several Undead Awakened had been at the Peak of Tier-3 before they died, but their massive size and weight caused the most disturbance to the Descendants and the surviving forces of the three Lords.
Lincoln chose to work with the Anubirats under his childhood friend’s control. It didn’t feel good to be next to a walking killing machine made of stone or a similarly-looking material, but Lincoln could tell that the Anubirat was powerful once controlled properly.
Working with the Anubirat helped Lincoln kill the majority of Undead in the immediate proximity. Unfortunately, a Kleshabit emerged from a small hill, only to shoot Zeke’s Anubirat right away.
Lincoln, Zeke, and Kaleb continued fighting. Zeke controlled other Undead to wreak havoc, whereas Lincoln continued smashing the Undead around him.
On the other hand, Kaleb fought close combat while simultaneously releasing deadly missiles to eliminate all Kleshabits before they could cause any more substantial damage.
The other Descendants were also doing fine, but the situation on the battlefield changed multiple times.
At some point, it felt like the Undead forces were given orders.
The orders weren’t that particular or good in any way, but they greatly affected the grand scheme of the battlefield. After all, the Undead forces transferred from blindly attacking the nearest source of life to aiming specific enemies.