An idea flashed in Michael's head. It was a little bit crazy, he would admit, but he couldn't help but think of the possibilities it entailed.
Looking at the skeleton's sentient eyes made it seem as if he was looking at a real human. At least, the semblance of one.
This skeleton was once a normal living being with its own wants and desires, not only that, but it was able to fulfill its dreams by becoming a proud general for the First Human Emperor.
The fact that its mere skeleton, armed with nothing but 'muscle memory', could cut through tons of solid stone brick walls like pudding was an indication of its once tremendous strength.
Michael could only wonder how strong he was when he was alive.
And now, he was seeing a semblance of it with the skeleton. Michael could see it in its bluish-green eyes of lights.
ChatJK3, let me take over for a second.
[...]
His personal AI assistant didn't respond to his words, but let him have the full burden of control over the Dark and Poison mana emanating from the skeleton's body.
Michael felt the entirety of the mana in the air, all millions of it. He felt connected to each one, feeling as if he had become a gaseous being enveloping all the fuzzy balls of mana floating everywhere.
He was supposed to crash the Dark mana into his own Light mana, and his Lightning mana to the Poison mana, completely destroying the structure of power that made the skeleton's revival possible. He was supposed to kill the undead.
But, Michael had a thought.
What if he didn't?
What if he powered it up instead of taking it down?
Now, Michael knew that the full power of the 9-star skeleton was nothing more than a mindless beast that swung its invisible sword at anyone it could encounter.
But, what if it didn't? What if it had the sentience it had when it was alive?
This possibility only came to light when Michael saw when he was about to end the skeleton's undeath.
When it was only a 1-star undead, the powerful yet corrupting power of the necrotic energy had dissipated enough for it to regain its sentience, just for a little bit.
This gave Michael a theory. Dark and Poison mana, although powerful enough to raise the dead and animate it, turned those infected by it into a creature of pure destruction and chaos. After all, those two mana were the 'blackest' of all elements, embodying death and degradation.
And what was the difference between a living being and a dead one?
From what he could see, it was only the mana present in their bodies that changed.
A living being, as it dies, replaces the Light mana in its body with Dark mana.
But somehow, Dark and Poison mana can make something 'alive' without the use of Light mana.
But, what if he added Light mana into necrotic energy?
What if he added Light mana into the mixture of Dark and Poison mana?
Michael raised his hand and drew from his own cores,
a single mote of Light mana.
This fuzzy ball of light slowly made its way toward the skeleton, towards a single strand of bluish-green light that revolved around the skeleton's skull.
With Michael's Supreme Skill, he was able to see the true reality of mana.
He commanded the Light mana to enter into the dual orbit of the Dark and Poison mana.
He pushed it further, allowing it to orbit into the necrotic energy. And as it entered into the rotation, the Dark mana suddenly shot away from its original course and gravitated towards the Light mana, with the two attracting each other like magnets.
This resulted in a collision, with the Light mana destroying the Dark mana and vice versa. This left the Poison mana aimlessly wandering about.
With his first attempt a failure, Michael raised his hand and took out a thousand more individual Light mana from his cores.
This time, he began to experiment with the combination of the three.
A thousand Light mana individually entered a pairing of Dark and Poison mana. Then, Michael instructed it to push itself into their orbit in a thousand different ways, hoping that it would reach a different result.
But, the same thing would happen. The Light mana and Dark mana would eventually cancel each other out.
Michael didn't give up and sent out a million more Light mana from his body.
ChatJK3 saw what he was doing and started refining his methodology into something like a science experiment, testing different variables and constants simultaneously.
Michael didn't know how much time passed before he found the right track.
By separating the Dark and Poison mana from their orbit first, he could add the Light mana into the mix away from the Dark mana.
As he found out earlier, Light and Poison mana complemented each other well, making a strong bond that increased each other's magical properties.
Michael then added the Dark mana into the mix. This time, the bond between the Light and Poison mana was enough of a deterrent to prevent the Dark mana crashing into the Light mana to cancel each other out!
He had successfully added Light mana into Necrotic energy.
But…a new problem arose. The Light mana became too overbearing and started to purify the very structure of the skeleton.
Michael could see it starting to eat away at the bones, turning them into white ashes.
Necrotic energy still needed a large mix of Dark energy.
The only solution Michael thought of was to add the Lightning mana into the Dark mana. After all, the two mana had a complementary bond just like Light and Poison.
Michael was sure that this could resolve the purification issue with the skeleton.
However…he also knew from experience that the combination of all four mana: Dark, Poison, Light, and Lightning, would set off a mini-bomb just like the Apex Jaguar.
This was a problem that bugged him before he started to realize that the solution was staring right at him in the face.
Wasn't he also a combination of all elements?
Unity mana was the combination of all eight known elements.
And when Michael tried to add Unity mana into a Mithril Artifact, he found that the combination of it was extremely volatile and explosive.
So, then why wasn't he explosive? Why hasn't any of the Rebornians he awakened exploded into bits by the moment of their evolution?
The answer must be because a living being was different from a non-living being.
And this skeleton, although nothing but bones, was 'alive' in a sense. Which meant that it could probably take the combination of Unity mana without it exploding into a million pieces.
The answer then was simple.
He should awaken this undead monster.
Michael raised his hand and activated his other Supreme Skill: Gift Bestowal.
ChatJK3 took control of every Dark and Poison mana in the tomb making up the necrotic energy of the skeleton. Then, it started to gather them in one place, intending to create a whole being for the Supreme Skill to latch onto.
Michael looked at the skeleton in its bluish green eyes of light, and the skeleton looked back at him, waiting.
He only said one word.
"Awaken."