Nelzahar gathered a large amount of civilians, using magic to hypnotize them. A magician and a normal person were incomparable existences, even the weakest mage could win against a whole group of normal people if they knew what to do.
The normal people's minds and bodies were weak and susceptible to be manipulated by Nelzahar's magic. He gathered them and started his plan.
He stopped their hypnotism in order to have maximal pain and suffering. Pain and suffering were strong emotions which could be easily created.
These emotions were felt with the consciousness and could be used to power magic and manipulate laws. Consciousness once again was the strongest thing when used properly.
Nelzahar gathered their suffering and using it could create more suffering. He used their blood to build a circle which would teleport him away to a person outside of the Hou sect.
He then killed the civilians and unleashed their power, using it to power the circle and escaping. He fully utilised the people, draining them of all that was useful and leaving only mounds of flesh.
Once Nelzahar had escaped he found he was teleported next to a sleeping person. A man in a sleeping back, it was night already, the magic had taken time to work and he had been in the astral world.
The teleporting worked by converting into laws and travelling through the astral world to the corresponding area in the material world.
Nelzahar took a branch of the ground and started to form it into a blade, he grafted laws of sharpness and durability onto it. It would only last a short while, with his miniscule mana levels but he could fix that quickly.
He used the wooden sword and cut a magic circle into the ground around the sleeping man. Once he finished it, he chopped of the man's arm.
The man jolted awake from searing hot pain, his wrist was chopped off. He looked up to see a young man with vacant eyes staring at him... smiling.
He tried to reach for his sword but realised he could not move. It was like he was being pulled by chains, he could not move his arms or legs.
Nelzahar grasped the man's head and said to him,
"Don't disappoint me."
Nelzahar started to torture the man using various different methods, making sure to take the most suffering he can. The magic circle he had made would take in the suffering and use it to temper Nelzahar's mana circles.
This was one of the methods of dark magicians, using strong emotions of suffering to add circles to their mana heart. This was a quick way to level up their strength with no disregard for human life.
Nelzahar extracted as much suffering as he could, when he felt it slow, he killed the man. He had thoroughly broken him, he couldn't produce enough suffering.
"You did disappoint... Well I won't let your body go to waste!"
Nelzahar now had a small 2nd circle forming. It was a quasi 2nd circle, he could use stronger magic more easily. While he could use resonance it was dangerous. If he got too absorbed, he could accidently become assimilated and die. Not to mention that in resonance the world was against him, if he let his guard down he would die anyway.
Taking the man's body, Nelzahar cut it open and took out the organs. Then he modified the circle on the floor, then he crawled in.
He stepped into he man's warm corpse, wearing it like a suit and sat up. He then exited his soul in the astral world. While he wouldn't use resonance to do stronger attacks, it was a natural occurrence for Junior, and in extension Nelzahar.
Now he had to use normal magic while defending against the resonance, sometimes using it for his purposes.
As Nelzahar was doing magic, in the material world the winds started to pick up. A storm formed and lighting clouds were forming. Animals were being drawn towards Nelzahar.
He knew he had little time and got to doing the magic, he needed to assimilate the man's corpse with his body. Strengthening his physical body was simple as taking others strength for his own.
Nelzahar manipulate various laws, stitching them together. In the material world the ground was shaking at rocks were cutting Nelzahar's body. At the same time it was healing, the alive body of Junior merged with the man's corpse, coming together and forming a new body.
It had 4 arms and pale mottled skin. As soon as it finished, Nelzahar rolled to the side. As he did, lighting struck exactly where he was.
He looked up and the storm started to release, the winds slowly dying down.
"That was close....too close. Resonance is a blessing and a curse indeed. I can use magic awake, I can use strong magic...but the world rejects me. It seems me as a threat and laws start to move and attack me. If I wasn't fast enough that lightning could have killed me. Tribulations are far too scary, I should limit real magic. I should focus on magic circles and enchantments."
Nelzahar lamented at his situation, he was back but in a more dangerous scenario than ever. He was weak and in a foreign land. Who knew whether there were more like the Hou he had ran from.
Nelzahar started walking out into the forest, taking the man's clothes and equipment. He ripped apart the tops, forming holes for his extra arms.
As he walked through the forest he encountered different animals, a few having special abilities. Nelzahar was now as strong as two men but that wasn't enough.
To fight the special wolves he needed to rely only on himself. He could not use magic without resonance as those with abilities were harder to directly manipulate.
He needed to manipulate himself and the environment to create an advantageous fight, only then would he charge forth. Monsters could not provide him much suffering, he would however want their corpses. He did not mind how he looked, he will take all their corpses and become a true monster!