Then all of the crows spoke in one voice, saying, "Come, my beloved. Come, the warriors of death. Rise and bring death to the world from the darkness beyond."
As the cacophony of voices thundered from the sky, the darkness on the surface of the ground began to ripple. The blanket of darkness on the surface of everything was rippling like the surface of a lake. And then a hand of bone broke through the surface of the lake of darkness.
It wasn’t just one hand of bone that appeared. Many skeletal hands soon appeared from beneath the lake of darkness. Those skeletal hands then pulled up the bodies beneath the lake to the surface.
After appearing, it was revealed that the skeletal hands belonged to skeletal bodies. There were millions of such skeletal bodies that appeared from the lake of darkness.
All of the skeletons had a dark flame burning in their eyes. They ranged in sizes and shapes, and it was clear that most of them were not from humans. But the most impressive of them was the giant skeleton.
This giant skeleton stood as tall as a mountain. It was also dragging along a large axe that was taller than a five-story building.
Each step it took caused the whole city to shake. Houses were crushed beneath its skeletal feet as easily as crushing bugs. It truly moved like a walking mountain of bones.
The city had begun to panic en masse now that skeletons were popping out from every surface. No surface was safe. Skeletons were coming out from the walls, the roof, and the ground. So the bird people decided to leave the city.
The bird people were running out of the city as if the city were on fire. They had completely lost the will to fight and defend their city, so it would be very easy to kill them now. But the skeletons ignored all of them.
Now that the rank 5 death cultivator knew that killing more people would quickly convince the world to become a pawn of the Myriad Phenomenon Sect, he had made up his mind to get rid of the Myriad Phenomenon Sect before returning to engaging in his favorite pastime, which is killing people.
So all of the skeletons marched out of the city and went in the direction of the Myriad Phenomenon Sect. As they went, the crows in the sky descended from the cloud and merged into the skeletons.
Each time a crow entered a skeleton, the fire of darkness in the skeleton’s eyes would glow darker, and a black shroud would cover the entire body of the skeleton. Then the skeleton would become stronger and faster.
Soon, every crow had merged with a skeleton. This left one crow still standing before the bird man that Loki had hijacked.
The crow said to Loki, "I knew those bastards were nearby, and I knew that they were up to no good. But I didn’t think that what they were up to was so consequential."
"If not for you, I would have missed such a grave danger. So I should reward you. You should come over with your true body to receive your reward. I will give you whatever you ask for."
In response, Loki chuckled.
This made the crow bristle in annoyance and say, "What’s with the chuckles? Do you think I am lying to you?"
The bird man nodded and said, "Not only do I think that you’re lying to me, but I also think that what you really want to do is to kill me."
The crow shrugged in a human-like manner as it said, "Well, I tried."
Then it said, "It is a pity that I am not good at curses. Or I would curse you to death right now."
The bird man said, "It is a pity that I don’t know where your real body is, or I would reveal your position to the enemy, so that they can kill you for me."
His words made the crow cackle and guffaw loudly.
Then it declared with pride, "I am Morphius. I am Death. No one can kill death. Therefore, no one can kill me."
After it was done boasting, it lunged at the bird man. The bird man was startled and stepped back in fright. But its attempt to put some distance between them failed.
The crow was too fast for the bird man to evade. It crashed into the face of the bird man and sank into the bird man’s head like a stone falling into water.
The crow disappeared, and the bird man fell to the ground dead. A few seconds later, the bird man rose from the ground with eyes that had lost their whites.
Loki didn’t see this because he had lost contact with the mind of the bird man. He had lost contact because the mind of the bird man had been shattered into pieces.
As for the bird that he sent to the city, he had made the bird escape as soon as he noticed something wrong. So the bird had left immediately after the bird man was killed.
The bird trailed after the army of black-robed skeletons in the direction of the array of the Myriad Phenomenon Sect. Along the way, Loki thought back to why the death cultivator had wanted to kill him.
After thinking about it for a while, he could only shake his head and say, "What a crazy fellow."
"I warned her of danger, but she tried to kill me. No wonder there was no one from our sect working with her. She probably killed everyone she met. She is just crazy."
"Then again, I am not surprised. After all, what can I expect from a death cultivator? Those guys have long stopped being normal after playing with corpses and spirits and curses for so long."
Then he looked into the distance, where the manifestation of a black crow was standing high in the sky.