Transmigrated as a Ghost

"Oh! You've already recovered." The man that had crushed the leaders of the expedition squad said as he turned around to see the bright light that had garnered his attention.

Bathed in a diminishing silver light, Marcus had reappeared behind him fully recovered.

After having his head taken off and his physical form destroyed, he had reverted to his ghost form but had been in a catatonic state until just a moment ago.

The instant he had regained any semblance of consciousness he had used his Ultimate Refresh Supreme Skill to restore himself to peak condition, but by the time he had, Miguel, Cassius, and Evette had already been defeated, and Fianna was only moments away from being killed.

"Was it just your natural recovery rate being extremely quick, or did you use one of the special skills of this world?" The man without a tatus asked Marcus curiously.

Even after Marcus made a miraculous recovery he was not particularly bothered. He had already beaten Marcus in one attack and figured that he could do so again with little effort.

However, Marcus ignored the man that had beaten down and killed his friends and allies and instead addressed Fianna.

"Fianna, grab Miguel and Mrazivý and get out of here. I am going to bring this guy down or die trying. At the very least I should be able to buy you enough time to get away." Marcus said, fixing a glare at the enemy that had injured his wife and destroyed his head.

In response, the man simply laughed like he had just heard a good joke.

"Ah, now that is funny. You did not last even a second against me last time. I'm going to finish you both off quickly and then go after the ones that ran away. All any of you have done is waste a bit of my time."

Once he had finished saying his piece, the man vanished into a blur and lunged at Marcus. 

This time though, he was ready and turned into a ball of light that shot away.

Thanks to his timely use of his Lightspeed Movement unique skill, Marcus escaped the man's initial attack and gave himself a bit of breathing room to activate his trump cards that he had been holding back.

"Soul Burst"

"Soul Devour."

Activating his two limit-breaking unique skills, Marcus' abilities skyrocketed as his stats doubled from his Soul Burst, and he ate away at his own soul for a temporary exponential increase in strength.

Of course, he did not neglect to activate his Embodiment of Eclipse and enter his most powerful state. It had been a very long time since he used all of his strongest boosting skills at once, but the resulting power he received was enormous.

Sensing that Marcus had gotten drastically stronger, the mysterious man narrowed his eyes and wore a more serious expression.

Unfortunately, there was one other individual that was shocked by Marcus' sudden transformation and was staring at him dumbstruck.

"Fianna, go!" Marcus roared. She had been standing around and watching instead of collecting Mrazivý and Miguel. 

Thankfully, Marcus' second prompting got her into gear, and she used all eight of her legs to rush towards where Miguel was laying limp and unconscious in a crater.

"Like I'll let you." The man who was intent on wiping out the expedition squad said on his breath.

He then leapt towards Fianna, but Marcus moved with incredible speed to intercept him.

"Behemoth Charge."

Moving like a speeding freight train, Marcus reached the man before he could attack Fianna and unleashed his newest and only attack unique skill on him.

Unable to ignore or shrug off Marcus' attack like he had previously, the man without a status reached out with both of his hands and clasped them against both flat sides of Marcus' scythe.

With a tense expression on his face, he held back Marcus' charge and kept his blade from connecting.

Still the force of the attack pushed the man back and they traveled nearly four kilometers before Marcus' momentum gave out.

Once they had stopped the man pushed Marcus' scythe away and threw a quick kick towards his stomach.

It was a powerful and price blow that would have completely overpowered Marcus before, but in his current state he was able to react.

'Stalwart Full Moon.'

Spinning his scythe around, Marcus created a sphere around himself that was his area of control.

His scythe then moved like it was possessed and blocked the incoming kick.

The force of the blow was immense, and Marcus was blown back by it, but he did not incur practically any damage.

"You've certainly gotten a great deal more powerful, but it is still far from enough to beat me. I can tell that you are destroying your own soul for this power boost, so it won't last long. Once you have reached your limit, it will be easy enough to finish you off. Though now that you're a bit stronger, the energy coming off of you seems a somewhat familiar."

Scowling, the man looked appraisingly at Marcus like he was digging up some long-lost memory.

In only about a second, he seemed to have remembered what it was he wanted, and a look of recognition appeared on his face.

"Ah, that is it. I can feel some of Lu's and Kal's powers in that light and darkness wrapped around you. That must mean you are the one looking after their daughter." The man said with an elated expression. "Although, it does not look like she is with you right now. Truly a shame, she has the potential to be a real threat in the future so it would have been ideal to eliminate her early."

Marcus could not help but be stunned when he heard what the mysterious man had to say. Never had he expected him to know about Roxene, but it also seemed that he had intimate knowledge about her parents.

But as Marcus' focus slipped for just a moment as he processed this information, the man vanished in a blur once again.

"You really shouldn't let you guard down so easily." The man said as he reappeared right next to Marcus.

With astounding speed, he threw a punch towards Marcus' head and planned to defeat him in one hit yet again.

This time though, Marcus was ready.

As the man's fist was just about to connect with him, Marcus' head split into two and the man's punch flew through open air.

A dumbfounded look on his face, the man could not understand what had just occurred. One second Marcus' head was normal and the next it had separated and moved out of the way of his fist.

"Vorpal Fang."

Taking this opportunity, Marcus used one of his strongest attack skills and slashed his scythe across the man's torso.

His blade that was sharp enough to cut through adamantine with ease kicked up sparks as it touched the man's tough skin, but with a bit of effort Marcus carved a shallow cut from the man's shoulder to his waist.

Reflexively, the man jumped back after being wounded and his eyes glanced down to assess the damage.

Overall, the cut was not particularly deep, but the man's silver blood still flowed out of it.

"Seems you're not invincible after all. Your skin is tough, but it should only take me a few dozen more hits to carve you up." Marcus said with a taunting smile as his head reformed.

It had been the first time he had used this trick, but it was something he had always wondered if he was capable of.

When utilizing his Master of Soul and Body unique skill he was able to take on the forms of souls he had devoured along with what he used to look like back on Earth, which was his default form. 

However, for a while now he had wondered if he could control the shape of his soul and body at will. 

In this fight he decided to take a bit of a gamble and found that he could with a bit of focus. 

Using this aspect of the unique skill he could move his weak points out of the way of enemy attacks and avoid them even if they were enhanced with spiritual energy.

"That is a dangerous weapon you have there. To think that it could even sap some of my lifeforce and energy." The mysterious man said, more wary of Marcus' scythe than the strange body manipulation he had just pulled off.

During the strike Marcus had just landed he had not held back on using his life drain specter power, his mana thief skill, and even the second aspect of his Soul Devour unique skill that could eat away at other's souls as well.

Normally he refrained from using most of these powers, but right now he could not afford to hold anything back.

'I can't feel Fianna's presence anymore, so she must have picked up Mrazivý and Miguel and gotten away. That means I no longer need to worry about my latest trick hurting any of my allies.'

Now that it was only Marcus and his enemy in the immediate area, he finally felt comfortable activating the specter power he had obtained after soaking in the Font of Death for one hundred days.

"Deathly Dominion."

From out of Marcus' feet, a thin layer of the same sludge-like black liquid that made up the Font of Death appeared and rapidly spread out over the area.

Before long it had covered everything within several kilometers and created a zone that was entirely under Marcus' control.