Reincarnated As A Lion In Another World

As each undead slammed into the ³of the tree, they exploded, letting out a large amount of death essence into the tree, the tree began to change.

The barks began to shrink and turn from a healthy brown to a dark grey. The moisture seemed to be gradually sucked out of it.

This change traveled from the base down to the roots and up to the branches. The leaves withered, dried, and died, before falling slowly to the ground.

So many leaves fell from the tree as vibrant green representations of life, but by the time they touched the ground, they were feeble and cracked with the slightest pressure.

The tree was dead, but it didn't crumble to the ground, which would have destroyed all the nests that the vultures had taken time to build. Rather, the tree seemed to gain some structural toughness that made it more comfortable for Marcus to be close to.

An undead tree. Its branches had gotten pointy and jagged after becoming leafless. The roots become more coiled and intertwined underground, making it harder for any force to uproot this tree.

Marcus flew straight at the tree, basking in the new aura that the tree was giving. It felt comfortable, like he had been in the sun for too long and had finally entered an air-conditioned house.

His feet softly tapped one of the branches, his talons gripping the dried and hard pale grey wooden body. He folded his wings, hunched his back, and stared blankly into the distance.

"If you wish to follow my lead, you may return to your nests. If not, start moving," Marcus announced to the vultures still flying in the sky.

They had not dared to land, feeling the malicious aura Marcus was emitting. He had killed four elders as if he were slaughtering chickens, what more could he do?

The Vulture Tree had been completely transformed, soothing Marcus's taste for dark or grey colors.

Hearing Marcus's words, almost all the vultures flew back to their nests. Only fifteen had chosen to stay back in the sky, flying with dissatisfied expressions.

They had been followers of the elders and did not approve of what had just happened

Not to mention, they had been training to take over from the Elders once they stepped down from their leadership position.

This hostile takeover from Marcus was unplanned and robbed them of their chances to taste the power of the leadership positions.

The egos had been stroked and they had a lot of expectations for themselves. It won't be easy to let go. The other vultures already knew of their ambitions and class trajectory, how could they possibly stay?

Their reputation, their pride. How could they possibly lower their heads to Marcus after training all their lives to take the position he had just snatched from them?

Since Marcus had given them a way out, they would take it. It was better to leave than pledge loyalty to this weirdo of a vulture.

The fifteen of them flapped their wings while shooting covert dissatisfied expressions at Marcus.

As they were about to fly away, Marcus focused his gaze on them.

"Ah, so you are the ones who would like to see me fall. I can't let you live!" Marcus seemed to be high on the remaining Conquering Essence still flowing in his system.

The vultures were stunned. Hadn't Marcus just said that they should leave if they didn't want to follow him? Was he lying?

They did not have the chance to answer as a dark light blade slashed out toward them. The blade was over a hundred meters wide, covering a large area, and moved surprisingly fast.

In the blink of an eye, it had traveled from Marcus's outstretched wing and arrived in front of the fifteen vultures.

The cut was clean. All of them continued flapping their wings for a millisecond, unaware that they were dead.

Red blood splashed into the air and thirty body parts fell to the ground. Each of them had been cleanly divided into two.

Marcus had intentionally entered back on his words. He was sending a message to the remaining vultures, his future followers, that there was a cost to turning their backs on him.

This was a ruler's logic, if not for Conquering Essence, Marcus would not have thought in his direction and would have indeed let them go.

Any acts of cruelty had to be done on a scale and all at once. Now was the best time to dirty his hands and show them just how ruthless he can be. This would raise uncertainty in their hearts anytime they thought of betraying him.

Marcus was subtly performing mass conditioning with just Conquering Essence as a drive behind his logic and actions. It was incredible, most ordinary beings could not fathom such a thought pattern.

Of course, what happened today would be burned in all their minds but it wouldn't be enough. More treacherous vultures would rise in the future, and Marcus would be very creative in making an example out of them.

Black smoke surrounded Marcus's large perched form as his body began to change. His wings restructured themselves and his feathers began to shrink into his skin. His beak folded in, merging with his face to form a fleshy nose and mouth.

A couple of seconds later and Marcus had transformed into his humanoid form. His naked body was completely pale and lacked any shade of healthy-looking skin.

He was tall, standing close to seven feet tall. His back was slightly hunched with a longer-than-average neck that leaned forward. He had a hooked nose and sickly black lips that complemented his whole deathly visage.

He looked like a dead person.

His body was thin with skin sticking close to the bones. The part of his body that had the most flesh was his abdomen.

He still retained some of the traits of his true form, like the hole where ears were supposed to be, the structure of his face which was bird-like, his pitch black eyes with white rings inside them.

He was completely bald, but there were some small black feathers on his elbows, knees, and the back of his waist.

Marcus stood on the branch, turning his head left to right and observing every vulture that was on the tree.

"There will be some new changes from here on out," Marcus said, his telepathic voice reaching the minds of all the vultures.

The vultures were still shaken by Marcus's ruthlessness before being brought back by his words.

"From now on, I'm the supreme leader, and no one is my equal.

I'm faster, stronger, smarter, I'm better, I deserve to be your leader, it's my right.

Look at you all, ordinary. You all should be thanking your stars that I exist. If not for me, where would you all be?

I helped you find the carcasses, and I provided the undead delicacies. I should kill every one of you, for treating me like some kind of machine, ungrateful swines…"

Reaching his point, Marcus narrowed his eyes as he seriously contemplated killing them. For someone like him who was affiliated with the Law of Death, watching living creatures die was very satisfying for him.

He couldn't describe it well but there was always this bliss he had when he sensed other creatures dying. Whether it was a peaceful death, or a painful one, death was death, and it made him feel good.

The amount of satisfaction and ecstasy he would get from killing all these vultures here would be incredible and he would probably be intoxicated for a long time.

The vultures closer to Marcus shivered in fright, they could feel that desire for death from Marcus's gaze.

However, Marcus sighed, pushing the thought to the back of his head.

"But you're all forgiven, that's that. I'll be giving you all a chance to prove yourselves to me.

Moving onward, our society shall become more structured and more sensible. I want everyone to get stronger, no more weaklings.

This is survival of the fittest, all weaklings shall be expelled if they don't meet a certain criteria or don't have potential.

Our goal is to grow our race and advance…"

Marcus started with casual talk but slowly stated a heartfelt speech about uplifting his vulture race and making them stand on a pedestal that put them above other birds.

He didn't talk about dominating or conquering, the Conquering Essence was fading away at his which was a good thing. He was able to think of what would benefit his vulture race based on their preferences and instincts.

They were not like the lions who loved the idea of going from one world to the other, conquering all that fell within their gaze. They were more attuned with a softer, more passive style of life.

They were affiliated with death, as seen from their Primordial. So Marcus decided that that was what they would focus on from now on.

Death.

The vultures shall be the new representatives of death under his leadership.