Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1215: The One Left Standing (29)

To use his 'trick', Skullius had to sabotage the need for a skill in his arsenal to use mana for its activation, and then isolate it from a mana channel with two separate sword techniques.

These actions were the prerequisite required to initiate a complex mechanism he had created, where fifty Creeds were used up every ten seconds he was engaged in combat to keep the likelihood of his 'trick' working for him high.

At present, about a quarter of an hour had passed since Replicus and Skullius had begun fighting, and the latter had sacrificed about 4,500 Creeds so far. It was a truly costly technique.

Replicus seeing how this trick worked through the Rule he made to make aware his eyes to any of Skullius' tricks, had truly been a god-send fortune.

It was through seeing how Skullius made his cheat work, that he made his own against Skullius' Territory. It operated on a... very vaguely similar functionality though.

Instead of trying to remove the cost for all his skills, Replicus used the channels leading towards these skills to channel Null Life Essence towards said skills, instead of mana (as he couldn't move mana within the Territory).

Once the Null Life Essence reached the skill, filling the brand that represented it in his body, Replicus used one of the Blessings he had created when fighting Caxellac, to convert the Null Life Essence into mana!

Since Territories merely froze one's mana, making it so that it couldn't be mobilised towards skills, this worked like a charm! Once the Null Life Essence became mana within the brand for a skill, the skill's effect would be activated.

Naturally, all the skills within weapons that intruded upon a Territory were also forced to cease function, which meant that the skill [Divine Blessing Creation] within the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow was halted as well. However, this didn't extend to the Blessings that were made already and stored within the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow. They could be activated with a thought, as they required no cost!

This was how Skullius had been able to use [Maximum Neutral] again, but unfortunately, it was quickly rendered useless.

He had been slashed apart cleanly... and the attacks didn't stop!

Before he knew it, Replicus had been slashed into six thousand pieces, but gritting his teeth, he forced himself to stay intact with [Maximum Neutral], and moved his arms to clash the Ju'wtta together to swiftly heal.

But...

"Oh no, you don't!" one of the many CREATURES around him mocked with glee and... Replicus found that his arms refused to move.

His movements had been cut!

'Not this again!' he thought in horror and his phantoms hurried to activate a skill that didn't require him to make any movements.

However...

"Not that either!"

And just when [Unrelenting Ju`wtte Viper] was about to activate... its activation was cut! Replicus was shocked.

To think even such a thing could be cut!

This was cheating!

In addition to dramatically improving the quality of his sword skill, Skullius must have improved his ability to sense fine mana details as well! This was likely because of his Soul Spawn feeding him knowledge from many renowned sources through time!

Skullius was cutting off all of Replicus' channels to resisting a swift death! He was succeeding with flying colours!

The Warmoth was barely maintaining his slashed body with [Neutral Maximum], but then... "BENDI!"

"BREAK FOR ME|!"

"FOLD YOURSELF!"

"IMPLODE!"

[Evil Veneration] was activated, and it strained him once again, his body quaking violently. As it did, another core was lost: the sixth one!

Replicus was so frustrated, and frankly, so frightened by the incoming loss that he screamed out of instinct:

"BRUNT DIVIDE!"

The darkness trembled and many, bare, confused human faces were suddenly made clear in the darkness.

WHAT?

The faces of many people who had been saved, nesting in the Bryne Estate were revealed, freed from the clutch of Aphotic Catacomb of the Daemon through the Divine Blessing, Brunt Divide!

They were no longer CREATURES or Stolen Angels. The Blessing had torn the darkness from them.

For a single second, Replicus obtained some reprieve from the unrelenting attacks.

But only for a second.

The victims reverted to their victimised states. They bore Demion's Dances and Bashful Abominations and attacked the Warmoth again, even more aggressively, starting with Replicus' voice!

It was cut in the next instant!

But Replicus couldn't afford to care. The momentary reprieve he got allowed him to reacquire his bearings. He struck the Ju`wtta together and healed successfully. The loss of six of his mana cores had hit him hard though. Thankfully, he retained those connected to concepts he deemed very useful at the moment: Integral Time and Maximum Catalyst.

Replicus zoomed forth and used Ju`wtte as a foothold, leaping into the 'sky'. A moment later, his motions were cut and he froze, but he renounced defeat.

His phantoms were working so hard that he might have needed to pay them. As he couldn't activate skills without them getting cancelled, Replicus manifested an arm of Null Life

Essence from which he forced Ju`wtte to trace through.

He pointed it at the crowd of enemies and drew a large, rectangular shape with the Ju`wtte which then hurtled towards the enemies at striking speed.

This... the CREATURES couldn't cut.

This was genuine Ju`wtte; merigold Ju`wtte.

The shape passed through all the CREATURES in sight and...

WHOOOOSHHH!

267 victims were suddenly returned to normal. The darkness coating them became a copious volume of dark ink that slipped off them like rain and fell into the abyss below!

The real Skullius hidden in the darkness scowled.

Again with that odd skill?

What even was it?!

He couldn't have known, but the properties of Ju`wtte were many and varied. With the right application, Replicus could apply genuine Ju`wtte to change the conceptual value of any object: be it from Nitros to simple light, or scales to rocks, or blood to wine!

This was what Replicus had done before.

It was a true phenomenal power, but unfortunately, it didn't work well with crowds. And to make matters worse, with his Null Life Essence arm, Replicus wasn't able to move quickly enough to rid the darkness from many other victims and perhaps dismantle the Territory

entirely!

But even if he could, Skullius only had to restore the effects of CREATURE and Slow Ghost Divine Sword Art to the liberated victims; he could also possibly cast his Territory again if it

was dismantled.

'Damn it! I'll just be going in circles with this!' Replicus lamented. Once again, he was ripped into thousands of pieces and he lost another mana core despite his attempts at shielding from the glowing gem and deflecting the incoming slashes with both of his Transcendent Grade

weapons.

This in itself was a feat and a half. To match thousands of opponents somewhat and stall being hacked off to nothingness...

Skullius was a little impressed himself, but he had other thoughts beyond this.

'He's being pressed hard. And these are only the Primary functions of my Territory,' he

thought.

And indeed they were.

Within Aphotic Catacomb of the Daemon, there were three Primary functions.

The first was as Skullius had explained before. All living things impressed upon the Imaginary

GeoScape of the Territory from the outside would be used as ghosts with the sub-skill CREATURE to empower them.

The second enabled Skullius to use his trick through all these CREATURES he created simultaneously, by increasing the cost of his Creeds tenfold: five hundred Creeds every ten

seconds.

The third latched onto the second. It allowed him to use the [Heart of Revelation] at high output perpetually, but only up to the level of a Supreme Skill and not beyond, like Skullius was able to do with his slashing powers, for instance.

But as delightful as it was that Replicus was struggling with merely this much, Skullius was a little concerned about something.

'I have no doubt that he has a Territory. He has to have one. Why isn't he using it then? Is he

simply not confident in it? No, even so, he would have saved himself much trouble by erecting his own when I did mine. My Territory wouldn't be able to contend with his in a simultaneous clash if his has a physical power-type Primary function. Does this mean he doesn't have such an advantage?' Skullius agonised.

He just couldn't understand why Replicus was willing to suffer like this.

In any case, it was probably because he had some hidden card he was yet to use, perhaps one

tied to his Territory.

'In that case, I won't delay. My Secondary attack function is already charged. I'll unleash it and end this before he uses whatever trick he is saving!'

And right then, Replicus activated his Secondary attack function.

The Noboboyama PHANTASMIC RETAINERS bordering the Territory were suddenly engulfed

with fierce lights around their outlines.

Replicus noticed the rising power from them right when a chunk of his face fell off, sliced

through perfectly.

'This is bad! I will lose at this rate!' he thought and one of his arms went flying. 'Where are

you dammit?! How long are you going to keep me waiting?!'

It was a desperate call. Desperate indeed.

...But perhaps it wasn't just Skullius who was a little lucky.

For right then, the darkness overhead was breached!

A great, long mercurian snout bombed the ceiling of the Territory and pushed itself in!

Beyrmir had invaded!

Replicus' expression brightened and he wore a most relieved grin.

'FINALLY!' he cried inwardly.

Skullius looked up in surprise and frowned.

'What's this? This thing is still alive? I thought I killed it,' he thought dismissively. 'Well, I'll

just kill it more thoroughly this ti—'

But his thoughts lagged.

His dismissive, relaxed temperament withered as cold fear slithered into him. After all, it

finally hit the Hybrid Luman that the draconic Apostle didn't invade the Territory in a simple show of brutish loyalty to its master.

The Mercurian Legend was making a delivery.

Between its jaws, between its sharp teeth was a great chain of darkness, the end of which was

tethered to a cage of darkness and light.

Within this cage, was a broken soul attached to many seals and arrays...

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