The undead remained motionless and calm, while the Church mages were surprised. Dezen quickly told what happened to the nearest Church member in the fortress, who was aware of the hunt, and then took over the human undead, to examine that corpse.
The first thing Dezen did, was checking if it was really dead. Then, he started collecting the corpse, with help of the 2 Church mages.
Since they were surprised that skinwalker died, amd a little doubtful, mages and Dezen started talking about this.
- Were the spells you used purely catching, or were they also offensive.
- Offensive. But not something that should kill it.
The second mage added.
- Maybe it has some strange limit of damage it can take before dying, instead of getting most of its body destroyed?
- Maybe.
- It can have many bodies at once, right? So, there could be something like main body, controlling the other ones, that got killed.
- Or it was not a living creature from the begging, but some puppet of a mage, or whatever that came with that Replacement and can use magic.
Dezen immersed in his thoughts, after hearing that 2 theories, thinking what could be possible.
- There are more possibilities, like... It was some spell. Replacement comes from other worlds, so they surely have magics and spellls that are unheard for us. Or maybe it decided to suicide, to not get imprisoned.
- That is possible too.
- Your magic can create things you call undead, so maybe you could do it for that creature, and try to get some informations? We are hidden by the Church spells, so no one will know.
Turning his gaze toward the grey mass he collected. It looked like a ball floating in the air, and in a second or 2, it got covered with green fire. The fire disappeared after a while, but nothing happened.
- I cannot turn it into undead. That means it is still alive, or it is some material that was dead from the beginning, like metal or glass.
- Are you sure you cannot do it, because it is from another world?
- Not really. I once turned into undead creature from another world. It was flawed, I have to admit, but still it was turned into undead.
- We should go back to the fortress and discuss it with the others.
***
Back at the fortress they reported what happened, and waited for the further orders. Dezen didn't have to stay, but he wanted to help as much as he could with understanding that creature, and finding ways to detect it and kill.
The mages were dismissed, to fulfil their normal duties, and Dezen was invited to the examination of the corpse, as a guest researcher.
He accepted the invite, and was taken to a room, where he could start. While he was working, 5 other mages came and did the same. At the end, when all of them learnes as much as they could, they started the discussion.
Since Dezen was the first to start examining, he was also the first to talk.
- Before I had some doubts, but now I am sure that it is a living creature. My inability to turn it into undead means it is still alive, somewhere. To understand bodies of animals and plants more, I once created necromancy spell that will tell me, which cell does what. It is not too advanced and detailed, but I found out that the skinwalker can "resurrect" organic matter it is wearing. Besides preventing his vessel from rotting, I assume it is the way it learned our language, and other things like hiw to walk using human body.
Dezen stopped, giving other chance to say something.
- I am not sure about this. If it was like that, the skinwalker should also get some knowledge, like the name of the Aren. We have catched creatures from other Replacements, and some of them have "racial talents". It is not magic, at least not what we understand as magic, but works like one.
- I understand. Thank you for informing me. From what I observed during the fight, skinwalker is not tearing through the flesh, to make space for himself, but squeezes himself in the space that is already existing inside of the bodies. I am sure you will find a way to use that information. I have nothing more important to add. - Dezen went silent and let the others speak.
Is someone even reading these chapters?
Other mages first described properties of the grey mass that they found out, and their ideas how to detect the skinwalker. For instance, one mage had an idea how to create substance, that for humans would be harmless, and for the skinwalker toxic. Another one, was interested in substances the skinwalker creates to ressurect and nurture cell, wanting to make body magic spell detecting them in bodies.
***
Dezen was paid with part of the skinwalker's corpse, for hunting and examining it. Thus, he was doing researches and tests on it with his undead, trying to get from it as much as he could.
Knowledge that he obtained, Dezen mostly used to slowly create his own skinwalker. Although he couldn't create being, that has multiple bodies, he could make it easily change its shape, and enter other creatures, to attack them from inside.
Dezen also managed to use knowledge of how skinwalker's cells are built, to improve cells of his undead.
After these 2 successes, Dezen focused on an idea he had for a few weeks.
Dezen didn't want to rely only on killing creatures to get undead, he also wanted to create some by himself. Of course, it wasn't an easy task, and Dezen had to start from something simple.
His choice was something he called "noraza". It wasn't exactly a new undead, but rather a type. Dezen wanted to fill its blood vessels with varius toxins, poisons and viruses, so whenever they get injured, the attacker would also suffer.
To achieve it, he wanted to use plague magic. Thus, using his work points, he created assignment in the Church of Alen, and waited until someone finished it.