Shortly after the Undead Pharaoh died, the situation all over the Savanah Region changed drastically.
The Undead forces didn't crumble or turn into dust, but something about them changed. All Undead within the Sacred Desert seemed to slow down. Their smooth movements across the desert sand transformed into sloppy strides. Their powerful attacks were no more. They were replaced by weakened attacks that lacked accuracy.
"The Undead's martial power halved!" Zeke bellowed, his eyes squinting into tiny slits when he felt that the resistance to Eye of Illusion's illusions decreased drastically. He upped his game and expanded the range of his Legacy Arts to control more Giant Ghoul Serpents before doing the same with Puppeteer. At least, he was trying to do the same.
Zeke quickly noticed that putting the Undead into an illusion was only easier. Controlling their corpses didn't change much. The only thing that changed considerably was that their corpses were still as powerful as before. Only the moving Undead had grown weaker in every possible way.
Lincoln burst across the desert sand with terrifying velocity, overflowing with joy. He emerged before an Anubirat and punched a hole into his abdomen with a single strike.
"Yeap. Even the Guardian Statues are weaker than before," He shouted to the others before releasing a large earthen spike from his palm, crushing the Abnurat's wolf-like head.
Lincoln changed his target and stared at one of the towering Bone Titans. His expression turned serious.
"A weakened Higher Lifeform should be feasible," He murmured, channeling more energy into Stone Giant and Draconic Transformation. A mighty roar reverberated through his lungs and escaped his lips as his body expanded.
Zeke and the others watched as Lincoln's form changed drastically. He transformed into a five-meter-tall bipedal Earth Dragon.
"What the hell," Zeke cursed aloud when the Bone Titan and Lincoln clashed. They crashed heavily into each other and beat each other with brute force rather than techniques.
At least, that was what it looked like at first glance. The Bone Titan drilled his bony fists into Lincoln before headbutting his Earth Dragon form with as much force as possible. Lincoln transformed his head using Stone Giant. He added spikes and horns to his head before the Bone Titan headbutted him.
The result was more than pleasant. The Bone Titan's head smashed heavily into the earthen spikes that scrapped across its skull. It didn't look like much, but there was a tiny line on the Bone Titan's skull. It was a minuscule crack.
The Bone Titan didn't feel any pain, and it didn't think about its injuries either. It was an emotionless creature that died thousands of years ago. Not the slightest speck of a soul was left within it. It merely walked with the remnants of the tremendous power that had been cast upon it to resurrect it.
The Bone Titan tried to grasp Lincoln's shoulders tightly before pulling him apart with brute force, but Lincoln dissolved a portion of his left shoulder before the Bone Titan could do anything to him. He transformed the hardened stone into tiny grains of soil until the Bone Titan's hands passed through his shoulder. After that, Lincoln compressed the grains once again before hardening his shoulder to release a few mighty punches to the Bone Titan's ribcage.
"That bastard. He's actually doing it!" Zeke's eyes widened in shock. He was bewildered and nearly lost control of Eye of Evolution and Puppeteer. Fortunately, he regained his composure fast enough to maintain in charge of a bunch of Giant Ghoul Serpent and their corpses.
He focused on the task ahead again and decided to continue to control the Giant Ghoul Serpents to push forward and bulldoze the weakened Undead forces. Since he couldn't deal much damage to beings at a much higher rank than him with his Soultraits, Zeke had to pull back and kill the masses of enemies. Instead.
On the other hand, Kaleb could defeat the strongest enemies on the battlefield now that they've grown weaker. However, instead of blindly charging ahead, he fought calmly and focused on managing his stamina and energy reserves.
He might have a 7-Star Soultrait alongside a newly acquired 4-Star Soultrait, but he couldn't waste his precious energy and Soul Power to kill Undead Summons with an overkill. Elemental Summon was definitely worth the energy it consumed slowly and steadily, but even the weakest icicle of Frozen Nova was too much to kill a single Undead Summon.
Therefore, Kaleb decided to lower his energy consumption with the Legendary Ice Staff he'd obtained from his father a while ago to maintain the Elemental Summon as long as possible while simultaneously fighting as the Elemental Summon's aid. The Glacier Golem was a perfect vanguard. It charged ahead and squashed the weakest forces while slowing the stronger Undead forces to give Kaleb the opportunity to kill them with one precise attack.
The other Awakened were also high in spirits. Now that the Undead were much weaker than they employed to be, everyone's confidence skyrocketed. They were more comfortable with charging ahead to kill a few Undead. After all, every slayn Undead would reward them handsomely. Not only would the Academies and Universities reward Merits, but they would also gain energy influxes and the loot generated by the Will. The Undead forces were still considered monsters by the Will, after all!
After being pushed back for so long in the Sacred Desert, everyone was high in spirit now that the tables had turned. They unleashed their Soultraits and martial arts to kill as many enemies as possible. Of course, the battle didn't end easily. There were still decently strong Undead spread throughout the Sacred Desert, and the Undead's number didn't suddenly deteriorate either.
Tens of millions of Undead were still spread throughout the Sacred Desert. Killing all of them would take weeks, maybe even months. Of course, nobody complained about that. The Undead were walking treasure troves now that they were weaker than ever!
A grand total of six hours after the Undead Pharaoh died, an interesting guest appeared in the Sacred Desert. Killian Zeus appeared from his Runic Gate to reach out with his helping hand.
The moment he arrived in the Sacred Desert, he expected to be thrown into a fierce battle, but he found himself surrounded by corpses and destroyed Undead cores.
"Am I too late? Father uttered the Sacred Desert was on the verge of destruction, but that doesn't look like it. If anyone, the Undead are the ones who're getting destroyed. That's weird. Father's information network isn't that slow."
Killian titled his head. His family had given him a high-ranked teleportation token to rescue the desperate Lords in the Sacred Desert. He was supposed to be their savior in desperate times. From the looks of it, someone else had already taken that job.
Now that Killian had thought about it, it was a little bit embarrassing. He flushed a little but was glad nobody was there to see him arrive late.
'Good thing Father never tried to do a PR stunt with my 'selfless rescue.' In the first place, why is everyone in Olympus so focused on acting like they're heroes? They waited way too long to give me that damn teleportation token. I just wanted to help-.....'
His thoughts were interrupted as the sound of combat reached his ear.
"Since I'm too lateI might as well make use of it."
It was time for Killian Zeus to test a bunch of stuff, including the upgraded version of his Legacy Arts. After all, he had two Soultraits to combine.
Lightning shrouded Killian Zeus as he bolted toward the combat sounds. He morphed into a purple flash and joined the battle against the remaining Undead. It was not like the Sacred Desert was missing any Undead.
There were still close to 100,000,000 Undead left roaming the Sacred Desert. They might be frailer than they employed to be, but that didn't mean their numerical advantage disappeared.
Killian Zeus didn't know that the Undead were frailer than before, but he was aware of their numerical advantage.
That was what thrilled him the most. He hoped his battles would push him to the verge of death and force him to break his limits. That was the reason he came to the Sacred Desert. His Father and the other members of Olympus didn't matter. Surpassing his limits and growing stronger was what actually mattered!
Otherwise, how was he supposed to defeat a monster like Michael Fang once he ascended to a Higher Lifeform?!