Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1196: The One Left Standing (10)

"CREATURE..." Skullius declared softly as his outline became visible and whole from the flames. The brightness of the flames no longer hid away his fate. In fact, they seemed to magnify it; they spelled to the world that he was far from done.

Replicus watched as something darker than black took leisurely steps away from fire amidst the chaos, screams and thumping of racing feet all around.

He narrowed his eyes.

Skullius no longer looked the same. It wasn't a matter of gestures or expressions anymore that made it clear that he wasn't the same sane Skullius. Just the look of him truly made him seem like someone deserving of the title of 'Immoral'.

An armour so dark it might have been carved out of the unknown sat over his body. From the look of its fringes, it was likely a mix of leather and plate armour, but it was difficult to tell because it hardly looked three dimensional. No details showed from it - no lustre or substance. All that could be said about it was that it was rather broad - broader than Skullius was, at least - and it featured three great tassets hanging from its middle, one to the right, another to the left - where the Bashful Abomination and Demion's Dance were - the last at the back.

Strangely, these tassets and the menacing mask that sat over the face of the helmet over Skullius' figure, were the only objects that seemed three dimensional. They held a shiny crimson hue and the intricate details of their texture could be made out. For the mask, this was even more true.

It was carved after the face of a ferocious, ugly fiend with deep, circular holes for eyes that spat black fumes, a sharp, long nose and an eternal grimace represented by great yellow teeth forever gnashed together as though in agony.

The only thing that remained of Skullius' Luman appearance was the light auburn hair sticking on top of the mask. It was swept back by the whipping of the wind.

This was CREATURE, a sub-skill of [Benevolent Melanoid Prince]. It could only be formed by gathering darkness from a vast range - shadows, colour and all would be drained from their sources, and converted into strength for the Prince. Skullius had used the mana from the Stolen Angel to activate the sub-skill as his own core had been seized by the array Replicus had hijacked.

A few commonfolk had given up on running away ever since Skullius had arrived. They had been watching. Some had paid dearly for this, being blinded by the flash of light from [Rune of Immolation].

More of the Mages from the city had arrived, but they didn't dare get too close. One of them looked like a high-ranking mage - an Arch-Mage - but he didn't think his title gave him the ability to assert his authority here.

Skullius saw the Mages as he finally exited the range of the blast and stopped. The fuming holes in his mask turned to the group and he snorted.

A sudden, subtle flash of darkness later, the Mages crumpled into fine, dry pieces that joined the wind before they could swallow a last breath.

Replicus frowned at this.

Skullius didn't miss his reaction.

"I knew it," he said from behind the mask, sounding as though he were far away. "You lied, didn't you? I was almost convinced you were indeed only aiming to strike against Somanda because you would feel vindicated, satisfying a deep-set need for vengeance when you steal back what was stolen from you. I had believed that YOU, the mighty Replicus, apparently, had killed Divinity. But no. It was all a lie. A FAKE ideal to hide the truth. I see it now. You have changed in the worst way possible. You have absorbed... weakness. You have been enticed by it. And you wish to claim the rest of it from Somanda."

Another inexplicable flash of darkness later, the entire town was reduced to nothing but dust. All its inhabitants had been slaughtered, minced so quickly and so finely that it looked as though they had been... uncreated.

And indeed, it bothered Replicus. He couldn't keep a straight face when feeling the presence of two million people die by 'his' hands. Not anymore. Not after he had called out Actuass and Suzamete out for allowing such brands of atrocity to happen!

Skullius laughed.

"Funny how regression works, masquerading as evolution. You had no problem killing those goblins back in the Tremur Forest. Or the Dire wolves. You even slaughtered humans before and took pleasure in it! Now, it's odd, is it? Sickening even? Don't make me laugh!" he mocked. There was twisted joy in his voice.

In the next moment, the two were transported back to the tower. The Hybrid Luman, no, the Melanoid Prince was hard to perceive with the background of utter darkness.

A few moments of silence prevailed.

The scowl on Replicus' face was deep. It made his visage look like stone.

He couldn't quite defend himself against 'himself' with this one.

Indeed, he didn't find killing people as easy as before. But that wasn't because of some divine revelation that all life was sacred.

It was because killing senselessly as Skullius had done, made him feel no different from Actuass.

The masked necromancer had claimed that all the people he killed had been nothing more than pieces only valuable to his goal; they all served to help him get his mother's attention.

But why.... Why did this bother Replicus so much? Why did the mass loss of life feel wrong and detestable to him now?

Well, didn't such a disregard for lives, leisurely tossing and toying with them match very well... with the profile of the same Arch-Lich who had imprisoned his soul?

Did Somanda not raid worlds and enslave millions of people as undead, making them work in mines or soldiers?

He did. As Skullius had once been an undead minion, he knew, that fate was no different from extinction. It was worse.

Perhaps it was the fact that Replicus had recognised that life wasn't as insignificant as larger- than-life characters would have him believe that changed him.

This change had been made apparent by Allora's death.

Death hurt.

It left scars, not on the deceased, but on those who loved them.

Replicus had felt it when Allora passed. He still held that scar.

Who was Replicus to take away lives and inflict such hurt large scale for NO reason at all?

He was neither Divine or even beyond, however contrary to that notion his power would have

enticed him to believe, but...

Skullius snapped his fingers.

The tower burst apart, leaving them exposed on the blackened, smoking ground of the

Tremur Forest.

It was no longer needed.

At once, the two were warped towards another relevant battleground.

This time, it wasn't on the map of Aigas, but some pocket within that had just opened to introduce its creatures to the wider world.

Skullius and Replicus appeared in a vast Cluster.

Their appearance caused quite a stir among the hundreds of thousands of odd, flame-haired fishmen adorned in wet, scaly hides. They all held considerable strength, and their Cluster General, who towered over them all at eleven meters in height, in his hand a great trident, exuded a mighty presence which wafted from a pale golden mana core in his body.

He had commanded his kin to race towards Replicus and Skullius who had appeared on a great rock protruding from their damp, water world when Skullius said to Replicus:

"I don't know what breed of Divinity you have met and killed, you damned fake, but I'll show you the one I know the one I am."

Darkness and light blasted from him and surged into the skies to once again form the gigantic form of the PHANTASMIC RETAINER, the Spirit of Blind Drowning, Noboboyama - a great black monstrosity with innumerable arms clasping together from its long, thin body, its top end so high above it couldn't be seen.

...!!!

Replicus clicked his tongue at its appearance. As he had shown before, he was prepared to deal with it courtesy of Serenity - however, this time...

Skullius didn't imbue within the PHANTASMIC RETAINER 'Melding Stitches' or 'Delight's Pursuit' as he had done in Opungale. No. He only charged with one other Seed of the Fruit of World Myths which had been too complex for him to use back when he fought the Ode. The instant it was activated, Replicus felt the freakish output of power blast from it, and it was as though he was facing Caxellac's Mors Serene Grace again!

If he hadn't used Spatial Lightning to relocate himself at once, Replicus was sure he would

have died!

As he floated somewhere high in the sky, he couldn't have missed the great, black blotch that had appeared east of Feinheath.

There, not only had an entire Cluster and its inhabitants been eradicated, the Rules that kept the world intact had been severed completely, and couldn't mend themselves.

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