Transmigrated as a Ghost

An immense amount of mana collected within both of Marcus' hands. While he had been playing dead, he had carefully been preparing to launch a preemptive attack against his latest batch of enemies.

From out of his right hand an enormous wave of light shot forth as he cast his tier six light magic spell quasar blast.

Then from his left hand several large rotating rings of electricity appeared and began firing off hundreds of lightning strikes courtesy of the tier six lightning magic spell bolt gatling.

Sato and his party, not having been paying any attention to what they thought was a headless corpse, were completely caught off guard.

The beam of light fully engulfed them in an instant and a constant barrage of lightning spread out around the blast to intercept anyone that escaped the powerful light magic attack.

Within just a couple of seconds, Adonis burst out of the quasar blast spell, his towering amethros shield in front of him and using his body to protect both Sato and Lisa.

The three of them were an experienced party of adventurers and worked seamlessly together to escape Marcus' sneak attack once they had regained their bearings.

None of them were particularly injured but that was to be expected. Each of them was an adamantine rank adventurer over level eighty. The demons accompanying them though, did not fare nearly as well.

Two of them were killed almost immediately by Marcus' quasar blast spell and another one was taken out by his bolt gatling spell.

Finally, his scythe that had been moving autonomously appeared next to the remaining demons and viciously attacked them.

Another demon swiftly fell tot his assault, and the last one just barely managed to make it to Sato's party alive where they protected it from further attack.

"I was hoping to get all of your escorts in one go, but I suppose that four out of five is not too bad." Marcus' seemingly severed head said from the ground.

Naturally this unnatural development caught Sato's, Lisa's, and Adonis' attention. Sato had prioritized going for a quick kill on Marcus and used his strongest move from afar to behead him. This was the technique he had earned his nickname One-Stroke Kill from, and this was the first time it had ever failed against an opponent lower level than him.

Seeing that his little trick had befuddled his enemies and that they were in too much a daze to continue their attack right away, Marcus pulled himself together.

His body jumped back up and his head appeared to fly back over to it and reattach itself. Though truthfully his head had never been cut off in the first place.

Thanks to his ghostly abilities and his Master of Soul and Body unique skill he had managed to make it look like his head had been separated from the rest of him.

He had sensed Sato's attack a moment before it reached him and turned a portion of his neck intangible and invisible.

The strike, not having any spiritual energy imbued into it, passed through Marcus without causing the slightest injury and he had simply extended his neck like a rubber band to make it appear that he had been beheaded.

It was a bit difficult for him to do mentally since he had to warp his form in a way he had never done before, but it had worked out well and he was easily able to eliminate four threats.

"How are you still alive?! I know I cut your head off!"

There was fear and confusion on Sato's face as he practically shouted at Marcus for answers. He could not understand what had just occurred. It was so unexpected that it had shaken him more than he realized.

Shrugging nonchalantly Marcus replied, saying, "Why would I tell you? There is no merit in telling an enemy what powers I have at my disposal. Unless you want to divulge to me how you managed to attack me with your sword from so far away?"

He and Alyna were still outnumbered and outmatched, but Marcus showed overwhelming confidence and was certainly winning the mental battle.

Sato started grinding his teeth in frustration and looked hesitant about what to do next, until Lisa put her hand on his shoulder and whispered something into his ear to calm him down.

Resolve returning to his eyes, he grabbed the hilt of his sword and glared at Marcus. His first strike may have failed, but that only meant that he needed to keep attacking until he had killed their target.

"You all still seem to be missing something. Why do you think I'm not shaken by your sudden attack and collusion with demons? It's because I knew all along what you were up to. I had been hoping I was wrong though."

Marcus' words once again alarmed Sato and his party members and weakened their conviction.

Their assault was supposed to be swift and unexpected. Except what had actually occurred was far from what should have happened. Instead, they were the ones on the backfoot, having lost four of the five demons that had been entrusted to them to bolster their forces.

"It's as if we're the ones that have walked into a trap." Sato mumbled, realization in his eyes.

"Exactly." Marcus responded assuredly. "We've known for over three weeks now what you and your associates have been planning. I'm just surprised that you've thrown yourself in with demons. You're not going to get what you want by allying with them."

"So far you haven't truly harmed me or my companions. If you and your party stop now and cut ties with them, I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. We are both originally from Earth and I don't really want to fight you if I don't have to."

Marcus sincerely did not want to continue hostilities with Sato. It did not sit right with him killing another transmigration. Nevertheless, if Sato continued to threaten him or any of his friends, he would not hesitate.

"You must be supremely naive to think that we can patch things up now. You're an obstacle in my way to changing this world. There is nothing I won't do to achieve my goal." Sato said, an almost deranged determination in his expression.

"Even if you did notice our plan, that doesn't change the fact that the two of you aren't a match for the three of us. If you offer no more resistance, Marcus, we will kill you painlessly and allow you adjutant to leave unharmed. She was not on our list of targets for elimination." Lisa said, speaking up for the first time.

She was calm and collected and was truthful in what she just said.

"This is a tempting offer, but I think that I will have to pass. Anyway, did you think that I wouldn't have more backup prepared? You all were lured into our trap, not the other way around."

As if on cue with his words, several rifts in space opened up throughout the area.

From out of the one closest to Marcus, a barrage of arrows flew towards Sato's party and forced them on the defensive.

A moment later, the archer and her party leapt out of the tear in space that was right next to Marcus.

"Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to assist us today, Fianna."

"It's no problem, we owed you one. Plus, we can't ignore adventurers that side with demons and cultists." The Arachne leader of the adamantine rank party Intrepid said as she glared at Sato, Lisa, and Adonis.