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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Who'd have thought being a vampire slayer was so fuckin' easy? Stakes and garlic, waste of time, chuck some feathers from the item store at it!"''|'''[[The Spoony One]]''', on ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s use of this trope.}}
A game mechanic where undead enemies can be quickly defeated with [[Healing Potion|health items]] or by casting healing/revival magic. From a gameplay standpoint, this simply allows healing skills to do double duty as [[Turn Undead]], and makes the party's dedicated healer not-so-useless when your party is asked to explore that ancient crypt at night. Logically, it's often explained or assumed that the source of healing magic (usually nature or the divine) is anathema to the undead. This particular example is one of the worst cases of [[Guide Dang It]], since it's [[Captain Obvious|unintuitive to cast a healing spell on an enemy]] if players are [[Genre Blind|unfamiliar with this trope]].
For overlooked techniques that are genuinely useless ''except'' for one very specific situation, see [[Not Completely Worthless]]. Compare [[Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration]] for ways the undead can heal without, err, dying? Subtrope of [[Holy Hand Grenade]], where Holy magic is explicitly used to kill and maim enemies, living or not. Also a subtrope of [[Outside the Box Tactic]], which covers any weakness an enemy might have that is not immediately apparent.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* During the final battle in ''[[Flame of Recca]]'', [[Big Bad|Mori Kouran]], hoping to gain immortality by absorbing [[Healing Factor|Yanagi]], is instead destroyed when {{spoiler|Yanagi, turned into one of Recca's flames, uses her healing powers to "heal" the bodies absorbed by Mori by sending them into the afterlife, leaving Mori to wither and die}}.
* In the cat arc in ''[[Inuyasha]]'', Sesshomaru defeats a monster that had sucked up the souls of four other demons using his Tenseiga sword, which cannot harm a living being, and [[Healing Shiv|revives the dead.]] The trapped souls return to their bodies, rendering the [[Big Bad]]'s butt infinitely more kickable.
** Tenseiga revives the dead by ''slaying the spirits that come to gather the dead person's soul''. As it happens, this little quirk means that Tenseiga ''can'' cut ghosts and other [[Made of Air]] entities, and is in fact [[Situational Sword|the only weapon that can do so]].
==
* In ''[[Knightfall]]'', Shondra Kinsolving had the ability to heal using [[Healing Hands]], but when combined with her stepbrother, she and he could kill anyone from afar by healing them ''too much'', putting the victim's glands and nervous system on fatal overdrive.
== Folklore ==
* Many household items and materials that have a known healing effect are often associated to be used against evil spirits or creatures. For example, silver is a known germicide (it's toxic to germs like many heavy metals but not toxic enough to kill humans, at least not accidentally) and has been used instead of antibiotics throughout history. Werewolves are hurt by silver, as well as vampires and possibly other evil creatures.
** For that matter, garlic. Good for humans. BAD for vampires.
** [[Dead Horse Trope|Oddly enough this is the one weakness of vampires that has been subverted at almost every occasion in newer literature.]] In fact, it's the most used subversion to show [[Our Vampires Are Different]].
* According to some accounts, the [[Eldritch Abomination|nuckelavee]] (a skinless, plague-bearing centaur...or, "a very large head on two small arms") was hurt by contact with fresh water.
* Vampires and evil spirits were believed to be incapable of crossing running water. It's probably based on the ancients noticing that drinking from stagnant water, which was often loaded with dangerous microbes, caused illness, while running water was considered safe for drinking.
== Literature ==
* ''Night on Mispec Moor'' by [[Larry Niven]]. An alien plant reproduces by infecting newly killed corpses and rallying their bodies for one last lurch. On a battlefield an off-worlder is cornered by these plausible zombies. He's in deep trouble until, in desperation, he tries spritzing one with his [[Applied Phlebotinum|pan-spectrum cure spray]]. [[Better Than It Sounds]].
* Averted in the ''Xanth'' series, where water from a healing spring can patch up damage dealt to undead creatures - fairly useful to the (good guy) Zombie Master, since his zombies don't heal naturally. It can't return them to true life, though, only return them to an intact corpse state.
* The Hunter from the ''[[Coldfire Trilogy]]'' is a strange example. As a consequence of the [[Deal with the Devil]] that made him immortal, his very being is so twisted that healing magic would have no effect on him. Worse, if he tried to use it ''himself'' it would kill him. A rare case of the zombie being killed if he tried to cast Revive. When Damian learns this he muses on the irony of being punished for an act of compassion.
* ''Rappaccini's Daughter'' by Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the older examples of this. The daughter of a botanist, Beatrice Rappaccini grows up in a poisonous garden and, as a result, becomes poisonous herself. A man falls in love with her from afar and, in desperation, gives her an antidote so they can try to live together. Guess what happens...
* In [[The Black Mountains]] by [[Fred Saberhagen]], Som the Dead, a local viceroy of a vicious empire, has made himself immortal and invulnerable by becoming a living dead. Any attacks against him wound the attacker. He is finally destroyed when, mistaking him for someone horribly wounded and gangrenous, Draffut throws a measure of concentrated liquid life force at him.
* In the ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'' novel "Gods Above", the crew eventually realize the way to stop The Beings (the kin of Apollo from "Who Mourns for Adonais?") is to not only show no fear, but actually ''have'' no fear, as fear and worship are the two things The Beings feed on (and they've already [[Techno Babble|Technobabbled]] up a solution for the worship thing).
== Live-Action TV ==
* In an episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' where an unstoppable weapon is being used by the villainess to rip the souls out of everyone's body, Picard realizes that it feeds off anger and calms down, causing the weapon to stop working.
** The [[Star Trek: The Original Series|original series]] episode Day of the Dove had a similar plot.
* In ''[[Noob (TV series)|Noob]]'', the main group's healer accidentally heals enemys on a regular basis, which is quite annoying for his guildmates... except when they happen to be dealing with undead enemys.
* Ricky Fitness saves his fellow [[The Aquabats Super Show|Aquabats]] from grimy sludge monsters with his [[Improvised Weapon|anti-bacterial hand gel]]. They later subvert the trope against a fairly clean "lint and cleaning chemicals" monster by using Crash McLarson's lucky socks.
== Tabletop Games ==
* Originated in the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' tabletop roleplaying system, from which a great many of the mechanics of fantasy RPGs, and the tropes based on them, arose.
** This is explained within the rules by stating that undead creatures are powered by negative energy, while healing spells work by channeling positive energy when the two types meet, they cancel each other out, harming the undead. Likewise Inflict Wound spells use negative energy to harm the living, and thus heal undead creatures.
** Most Necromancy spells, which use negative energy, only heal Undead foes. An exception is "Undeath to Death", one of the very few instant-kill spells that can affect them.
** The actual ''return from the dead'' spells, however, require material components worth thousands of GP (that are consumed by the casting) take several minutes (a minute being ten combat rounds) to cast, and explicitly state they do not work on undead creatures, at least not if the undead creature hasn't been re-killed already (in which case it turns the undead creature back into who it was when it was alive).
*** In second edition and before, however, it did work on undead creatures, either destroying them or turning them into living creatures depending on exactly what rule you looked at. The description of the mummy in first edition stated specifically that a resurrection spell turns it into a normal fighter.
*** While Raise Dead acted as Slay Living for undead. (Yeah, it makes sense) But then, 2nd. ed. had the entire concept of "reversible" spells...
*** According 3.5, undead are in fact turned back to normal by the spell ''true resurrection'', which makes for some very interesting RP opportunities and new chars.
**** Although, in some versions it is explicitly stated that one can only be revived if they ''want to be revived''. (Thus, you can't resurrect someone over and over in order to torture them.) Some modules point out that some intelligent undead are aware of this and very explicitly do not want to be revived, thus it does not work.
** When cast on an Eye of Gruumsh (a one-eyed, mad orc fighter), Remove Blindness/Deafness (to restore his other eye) disables his abilities.
** Averted in 4th Edition, wherein healing effects work the same on everybody, and the old "positive energy/negative energy" has been changed to "radiant damage/necrotic damage" . Undead are resistant to necrotic damage and vulnerable to radiant damage, but enough necrotic damage will still destroy undead, and radiant damage hurts the living too.
*** Positive energy was dangerous in 3rd Edition. Staying too long on the Positive Energy Plane eventually causes living creatures to ''explode''.
** In the ''Endless Quest'' series published by TSR (a sort of [[Recycled in Space|Choose Your Own Adventure IN D&D!]] series), one ending for ''Lair of the Lich'' is to cast Raise Dead on said lich, turning him into a powerless old man. This doesn't work in the game at all of course, but hey, it was funny.
** One of the odder monsters of the old-school D&D games was the Nilbog, a goblin that could not be killed with regular attacks and spells, as such attacks would heal him rather than hurt him. The only way to kill him was to use healing spells.
* ''[[Exalted]]'' has a [[Functional Magic|Charm]] (Order-Affirming Blow) that undoes Shaping effects. Guess what? [[The Fair Folk]] use shaping effects to create their bodies. [[One-Hit Kill]].
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' does this a few times, only it's usually enchantment removal that kills zombies. (But since enchantment removal and damage prevention are both green and white abilities...) [[Animate Dead]] (likely the [[Trope Namer]]) lets you do it to one of your creatures in your graveyard. [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202483 Lich] reduces your life total to zero, turns lifegain into cards, and life loss into sacrificing permanents. If you can't sacrifice one, you lose. Also, if it's removed from play, you lose. [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29952 Nefarious Lich] is identical, except that it has exiling cards in your graveyard. Finally, we have [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=8875 Transcendence], which has that damage heals you but ultimately kills you, and all that healing causes you to lose the game. [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=218058 Phyrexian Unlife], while not ''exactly'' this trope, fits for those ten last life points it adds. (Though life loss doesn't affect you.)
* ''[[Le Donjon De Naheulbeuk]]'' invert the tropes with the [[Eldritch Abomination|transnaturals]] monsters Gorgauths and Dalmorgs, that show incredible sensitivity to magical attacks, while heal spells enhance all their stats tenfold. it is even lampsahded in the description.
{{quote|I wonder what moron decided one day to throw a heal spell on a Dalmorg so we know the effect of such a move.}}
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery]]'': Casting various healing spells, including Bless, on undead damages them. Throwing potions of cure corruption also dramatically weakens the [[Eldritch Abomination|chaos beings]].
* In ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldur's Gate 2]]'', a quest involves defeating a monster that is completely invulnerable, but will die when even the weakest healing spell is used on it. Thankfully, this isn't hard to find out, and the game helpfully puts a somewhat-hidden healing scroll in the same room.
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* Legend's videogame adaptation of the [[Margaret Weis|Weis]]/Hickman original property ''[[Death Gate]]'' features a doppleganger of the player who precisely mirrors his motions (thus blocking his path). The solution is to use the game's rune-based magic system to cast the otherwise ill-advised "Self-Immolation" spell, but to construct it ''backwards''.
* From ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'' onward, there is the Reverse Damage geo effect, which can invoke this trope (and since there are several stages later on that use Reverse Damage, your healer turns into a death god/goddess.)
** ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'' introduces an evility that makes healing spells cause damage at the expense of reducing the character's stats, allowing a healer to do this whenever they like, though not quite as effectively.
* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series allows this a lot.
** This mechanic has been in the series since ''[[Final Fantasy II]]''. ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' instead had the more [[Turn Undead]]-style Dia line of spells.
** In ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', Scarmiglione and his zombie minions are hurt and killed by using healing spells and items. Revive spell and items won't kill them outright, but will score huge amounts of damage. To be honest, because the counters to healing items are so deadly for your party, it's better to just use fire spells and items. At least then you'll stay in one piece.
*** Played straight in the DS version, where the second form will counter every physical or black magic attack using a gas that inflicts silence, slow, poison, and confusion. Effectively, the only way to defeat the boss without burning through all of your items was to spam Cure spells and Hi-Potions on him.
*** It also happens with Lugaborg in the DS version, though not because he's undead. One of his attacks is a "reversal gas" that swaps whether spells and abilities will cause damage or heal it; so, when it's active, healing spells and items inflict damage to their targets, while attacks will heal them instead. If he uses the gas again, though, things will have their normal effect.
** ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' also has the Moogle Eater boss, which is [[That One Boss]] if you try to fight it legitimately, but jobs to a Phoenix Down or the Raise spell.
*** You could also use a Gold Needle (which cures Petrification) to get an instant-kill on Stone enemies.
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*** Also interesting is that the zombie damage system can be applied to player characters. Anyone wearing a Lich Ring is turned undead without the side effects of the Zombie condition, and so will be healed by Death and Poison, and harmed by Cure. Also applies to Gau raging an undead enemy.
*** ''Final Fantasy VI'' also had the spells Rasp and Osmose, which depleted an enemy's magic points (the latter also restored yours by the same amount). Some enemies were noted ([[Guide Dang It|though only at one spot in the entire game]]) to be inherently magical, and unable to maintain their forms if their MP was depleted. You thus had the option of either depleting their hit points or magic points to defeat them; in the case of several that had last-ditch attacks when out of hit points (including [[That One Boss]]), removing their magic was the wiser (or sometimes faster) option.
** A ghost boss in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' could be killed instantly by using an X-potion (restores a living party member to full HP) on it, since it had less than 9999 HP.
*** Casting "Angel Whisper" (ultimate cure-everything-even-death spell) on an undead enemy will result in instant death (no HP loss) + many status ailments.
** Then there's the {{spoiler|Zombie President}} in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' which transforms into a zombie after a few hits. After it transforms, it can be killed by a single Phoenix Down. (The success rate, however, is quite low, so it actually takes a relatively large number of Phoenix Downs to kill him.)
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**** You don't even need to risk a draw failure or worry about a low MAG stat on the drawing character. Equip the ''Recover'' command for guaranteed 9999HP healing. Or 9999HP hurting on Abadon and any other undead creature you may encounter. And you have infinite uses of it. You only need three, though.
*** The Zombie status effect makes player characters subject to this trope, as well as turning their models a strange shade of green. This is its ''only'' effect, so you might wonder why the enemies bother. Right up until the point you get one-shotted with a Curaga.
** In ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' the standard cure reversal works, and Life and Full Life both kill undead monsters instantly, while Phoenix Down causes [[HP to One]] to zombies, allowing even Dagger, whose weapons are the weakest, to finish them off. Oddly enough, though, zombification doesn't wear off upon death, making the game hate you during the Iifa Tree level, where your characters keep getting zombified. You can't revive a zombified party member unless you first remove the zombie status with an
** Evrae Altana in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' takes two or three. Final boss {{spoiler|Yu Yevon}}, while not a zombie, is vulnerable to zombification (unlike most boss monsters); coupled with his habit of casting a very powerful cure spell during any turn in which his life is not at maximum, this makes it fairly easy to trick him into killing ''himself''.
*** One boss uses this exact tactic ''against'' your party, using a Zombie attack on one of your party members followed by Life (which kills Zombies). This can easily be used to your advantage, though: Occasionally he will aim for a party member he did ''not'' Zombify, causing nothing to happen. He might even hit a '''dead''' party member, reviving him with full HP. A later [[Sequential Boss]] also resorts to Zombie effects in her second form {{spoiler|which you ''must'' "suffer" before defeating her, because the first action of her third form is a global death effect which only Zombied party members will survive.}}
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*** Aside from Cure, all of your White Magic takes an offensive bent when used on enemies. Life becomes an insta-kill spell, Heal hits the targeted enemy with every status affliction it would normally cure, and Exit [[Phantom Zone|boots them out of reality entirely.]]
** This trope is the basis for one of the main game-breakers of ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' where you can spawn and then repeatedly kill Dustia, an undead rare monster far beyond your combat level, right at the start of the game. This allows a player to level up Vaan to level 40+ in a absurdly short stint and in turn raises all of your eventual allies levels through [[Leaked Experience]].
** And in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' the Ranger class gains the "Mirror Item" skill, which changes it from
*** Also played straight in the same game on one [[Sidequest]] where a requester wants a Potion and Hi-Potion to heal up, but winds up hurting herself drinking the Potion because she is a zombie. Luso stops her from drinking the Hi-Potion, which would have been extremely fatal. Keep taking care of her, she gets better (and dual wielding).
* In Bungie's ''[[Myth]]'' series, healing any undead unit will kill it.
** A glitch/feature allows you to use this against the final boss of the first game, breaking the otherwise awesomely challenging ending with a one-hit-kill. The second game averts the trope with all undead boss and mini-boss
* In ''[[Nethack]]'', the Finger of Death spell, one of the most powerful spells in the game, resulting in an instant kill if the target is not an undead or any monster that can resist the spell, only serves to ''heal'' Death, who is one the Riders (three of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse appeared; specifically, Famine, Pestilence, and Death; {{spoiler|it is assumed that the player is War}}), while Pestilence, another Rider, can be healed by potions of sickness and damaged by potions of healing, because [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]].
* Played straight in the MMORPG ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'', where the Resurrection spell and items that give the same effect have a chance to instantly kill any non-boss creature with the undead element, even other players (assuming they wear armour that gives them the undead element). Healing spells of every sort also damage undead enemies (and allies), the exception being the Alchemist's Potion pitcher skill.
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*** Most infuriatingly, Death Knights are not themselves Undead; they're just as alive as the Paladins they face (and, by implication, used to be). Why couldn't they just have allowed living PCs to learn the damn spell?
** In the Warcraft tabletop RPG, it is stated in the rules that using resurrection spells on undead creatures won't work, or if the undead has been "killed", return it back to unlife. This is apparently because resurrection spells return the being's soul to their body, and the undead still have their soul, it's just bound to the undead body (making undeath their "natural" state). Light-based healing should still damage the undead since they're powered by the antithesis of the Light.
** [[Word of God]] says that undead who keep their own will can use and be healed by the light, it just hurts like hell.
{{quote|"Wielding the Light is a matter of having willpower or faith in one's own ability to do it. That's why there are evil paladins. For the undead, this requires such a great deal of willpower that it is exceedingly rare, especially since it is self-destructive. When undead channel the Light, it feels (to them) as if their entire bodies are being consumed in righteous fire. Forsaken healed by the Light (whether the healer is Forsaken or not) are effectively cauterized by the effect: sure, the wound is healed, but the healing effect is cripplingly painful."}}
** Also in [[WoW]]: one of the Paladin's spells, Holy Shock, has an effect along these lines. If targeted on a friendly, it'll heal them; if targeted on an enemy (including but by no means limited to undead), it'll do damage. Priests have Penance (single target) and Holy Nova (area of effect), which do the same. Some veteran priests use a targeting macro on their Smite and Flash Heal spells so that the same key press will cast the correct spell depending on the target. This makes the same button press kill enemies and heal allies.
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* In the 3rd ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' game, you will occasionally run into a large group of Zombie enemies lead by a "ZombieDr". Wail on his team for a bit, and the good Doctor will use the game's most powerful full-party healing spell....at which point this trope turns it into one of the most hilarious things to ever happen in a random encounter in RPG history.
** In the first dungeon right after {{spoiler|the time skip}}, you encounter a Zombie Dragon boss who loves mass status effects and is incredibly annoying. Level-grind Garr to 26 beforehand and cast Kyrie, hilarity ensues.
* As ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' uses the [[Dungeons
** In the premium module ''Pirates of the Sword Coast,'' your character becomes undead. After that point healing spells and potions hurt you, and you must instead chug potions of harm to restore your HP. (Mercifully, if you decide to export your undead character into a different module, they'll retain all the undead immunities but can be healed with normal curative magic.)
* [[Pokémon]] Diamond & Pearl introduced Black Sludge, an item that harms its holder. That is, unless held by a Poison type, which is healed instead.
* In the game ''[[Magicka]]'', most spells cast using the Life element heal the living and deal damage to zombies. Which explains the ability to place [[Healing Shiv|healing mines]]. [[Foe-Tossing Charge|Not a good]] [[Ring Out|spell to use]] [[Stop Helping Me!|for standard healing, though]]
* In ''[[Xenogears]]'', a particularly notorious enemy not only gets healed by offensive spells, but also by ''basic physical attacks''. The ensuing rage and confusion is usually enough to stop most players from discovering that using even the weaker heals on it drops it pretty
* ''[[Minecraft]]'' has several kinds of potions with beneficial or harmful effects. For every type, you can use it on yourself, or turn it into a splash potion to throw at friends or enemies. Zombies and skeletons are healed by potions of Poison or Instant Harm, but can be damaged with potions of Regeneration and Instant Health.
* Surprisingly (and somewhat frustratingly) averted in multipart browser RPG [[MARDEK]], which has a Zombie status effect (which turns your party members into zombies who attack you) and an item, Holy Water, that cures it. Using Holy Water on a pre-existing zombie does nothing.
** Healing spells, however, do decent damage to undead.
*** In one of the more oddly hilarious yet annoying cases of this, Vehrn, an overbearingly religious paladin of YALORT, gets an skill in Chapter 3 called Lay Hands. It heals, and can cure curses and zombification. The catch? ''It deals light damage to a zombified party member Vehrn cures with it.''
* In ''[[Lufia 2 Rise of the Sinistrals]]'', any healing magic harms undead creatures. This makes the battle against the [[Ghost Ship]] much easier, as you'll likely have the most powerful healing spells by this point.
* [[Skyrim]] has a variation of this trope; [[Turn Undead]] spells are treated as part of the restoration school alongside healing magic, and characters who master the restoration school can choose to take the necromage perk, making all their spells more effective against the undead. Amusingly, characters who turn themselves into vampires and take necromage will find that both their offensive spells are more useful against undead, and buff effects they use on themselves will be more effective.
* ''[[Monster Girl Quest Paradox]]'': Zombie race characters and anything with the Zombie status are damaged by healing, but healed by poison and instant death.
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'', white magic (which usually has restorative and invigorating effects) is not only ''very'' effective against undead and necromancers, but potentially lethal to [[Deal with the Devil|infernomancers]]. This is apparently not an inherent feature of the magic itself, but rather because demons (and, by extension, their mortal servants) are vulnerable to ''faith,'' and white magic has a strong association with holiness among Callanians. {{spoiler|For the orcs, who assign little spiritual significance to light or darkness but hold ice to be sacred, ice-based magic is just as effective against demonic foes as white magic is for Callanians.}}
* ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' made a World Of Warcraft related comic about a group of Horde characters gathered around their fallen Undead friend, who was asking politely to be rezzed; the others ponder whether or not casting revival on a zombie would be a good thing or if it would finish him off.
* In ''[[8-Bit Theater]]'' {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Chaos]] had just about torn his way into the dimension in order to turn it into his own hellish playground. The depowered protagonists were helpless and as Chaos went [[One-Winged Angel]] it appeared all was doomed... until four healing characters showed up and purified Chaos with White Magic}}.
{{quote|'''White Mage:''' And then we zapped enough white magic to bring down a vile god of chaotic energy.
'''Priest:''' Which he was.
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[[Category:Videogame Effects and Spells]]
[[Category:Undead Index]]
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