The moment the Trial Domain classified the hundred undead as participants, their essence forms were dragged from their bodies one after another.

Above the capital, a strange sight appeared. A hundred translucent figures emerged from the physical bodies of the undead. Some were wolves. Some were insects. Some were humanoid undead. Others possessed bizarre forms entirely their own.

Inside the domain, the Emperor's eyes widened. "What?"

A hundred new participants had suddenly appeared inside the domain. The newcomers were insignificant individually. Compared to him and Beginning, they were little more than ants, yet their sudden arrival immediately disrupted the flow of battle.

The Emperor's gaze shifted toward Michael outside the domain. Then realization appeared. "You…"

His expression darkened.

Meanwhile, the moment the hundred undead appeared, Beginning immediately acted.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A devastating punch forced the Emperor backward. The attack was not particularly powerful, at least not powerful enough to seriously injure him. But that had never been the objective.

Taking advantage of the opening created, Beginning retreated toward the hundred undead who were already rushing toward him.

The Emperor's expression changed. "No!"

At that moment he finally understood what was happening. Unfortunately, he was too late.

The hundred undead possessed no intention of fighting. The giant opened his mouth wide.

Unlike the Emperor, who had to overpower his prey and tear away chunks of essence through combat, Beginning faced no resistance. The undead willingly entered. The entire process was instantaneous. One after another, their essence forms dissolved into streams of energy before disappearing into Beginning.

The Sea of Darkness shook violently. The surrounding darkness surged like an endless storm.

The Emperor's face became increasingly ugly. "Stop!"

He exploded forward. Unfortunately, he was too far away. Everything happened too quickly.

The giant's aura exploded. A terrifying shockwave swept through the Sea of Darkness. Beginning's previously weakened essence body immediately stabilized. The portions torn away by the Emperor rapidly recovered. His fading aura surged upward once more.

Not enough to completely surpass the Emperor. But more than enough that the Emperor could no longer do anything decisive to him in a short period of time.

The Emperor's expression became distorted. The advantage he had painstakingly accumulated throughout the battle instantly disappeared. Beginning was still weaker, yet the difference was no longer significant. More importantly, the Emperor could no longer rapidly snowball his advantage. The giant now possessed enough strength that every exchange would become dangerous again.

"Damn you!"

The Emperor roared. His draconic body erupted forward.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The two colossal figures collided once more.

Far outside the domain, Michael released a slow breath. The gamble had worked.

Beginning was still losing. But now the Emperor could no longer devour him to death within a short period of time. The battle had been dragged back into uncertainty.

Michael pulled his attention away from the battle overhead. His eyes swept across the ruined capital.

Aside from the collapsed buildings and broken streets, what caught his attention was something he had noticed since coming out of the void. The remains of the empire's forces that had refused to surrender before being cut down by Spartan.

It was unknown whether some with the intention to surrender had died before they could act, but that detail did not matter now.

Among the corpses, many had been torn apart beyond recognition. Yet among the dead were still hundreds of relatively intact bodies. Three hundred at least, perhaps more. Of those, just over two hundred remained largely complete.

Michael's mana spread outward. A vast invisible force descended over the battlefield.

The nearest spectators immediately noticed. "Huh?" "What is he doing now?"

The surviving imperial experts suddenly felt a very bad premonition. Under their gaze, more than two hundred corpses slowly rose into the air. The sight was horrifying.

Soon the bodies had gathered around Michael. The scene looked bizarre. The young necromancer stood calmly at the center. Around him floated hundreds of corpses. Behind him stood Lily, the Demonic Supernatural, and countless undead. Above him, the Sea of Darkness continued churning.

The image was so terrifying that many citizens subconsciously lowered their heads. The surviving imperial experts felt their faces turn pale.

Michael paid no attention to the empire's subjects below. Summoning the Damaged Coffin of the Forgotten, he placed all the corpses inside the coffin space.

Was it easier to sacrifice his undead or to sacrifice the empire's subjects?

To Michael, even without being close to those hundred undead, sacrificing them had been difficult. But he had done it anyway, and for clear reasons.

Before being dragged into the void, he had told the people below that if they surrendered they would live.

Though young and lacking experience compared to his opponents, Michael was not a saint. Many times, he knew how to gauge what was beneficial to him.

If none of the surviving experts had surrendered and were still actively fighting his undead when he came out of the void just to find Beginning in a death battle with the Emperor, using them instead of his undead would have been the obvious choice without a second thought.

However, if he used them even after they had surrendered, every action he had taken and not taken for moral reasons before would become proof of hypocrisy.

After all, if he had no problem sacrificing people who were technically only opponents due to differences they themselves were not directly involved in, then he should have no problem feeding anyone to undead like Lily to accelerate their growth, or even devouring a few humans himself with his talent to gain Evolution Points.

Of course, Michael was still not a saint.

If it were not for the fact that two hundred Rank 3 materials could be immediately converted into another hundred Rank 3 undead, effectively maxing out his contract slots again, and if he had actually been close to the hundred undead he had sacrificed, his choice might have looked very different. At that point, morals might not have entered his thinking at all.

Fortunately, the loss here was also one that could not quite be called a loss.

The surviving experts, unaware of any of this, did not realize how narrowly they had escaped death.

*

A/N: A lot of readers disagreed with Michael's choice of action here. Someone even called him a cat. This chapter was written to show his thought process more clearly. Please read the rest in author's note and thank you for the continued support!