Chapter 1078: The Logic-Defying Clash Across Null Remnants! (19)
Chapter 1078: The Logic-Defying Clash Across Null Remnants! (19)
Chapter 1078: The Logic-Defying Clash Across Null Remnants! (19)
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The Null Devil King had been a little slow in reacting, not because the beam that streaked toward him was any faster than he could handle, but because the masked man sent an impeccably timed kick to his head that knocked him off balance, delaying his mobilisation of a proper defence.
When the shocking beam came, the Null Lifeform once again caused his Null Life Essence to surge and had it spin around him viciously, similar to how a hamster wheel would!
Unlike before, the effect of this application on the powerful streak of heat was quite vivid. The dark flame bounced off the spinning Null Life Essence and sprayed in many different directions, leaving the Null Devil King completely unharmed!
It did, however, sent him flying into the distance from the force, a side-effect of him just barely reacting in time.
Vohnvolt was awed as he witnessed this.
However, what offered a morbid sense of fascination to him wasn't the dark flame or how the Null Devil King had responded.
It was the fact that the Herald was under the control of the masked man now!
Ordained Reverent Machination was an attack based on Actuass' Undeath concept, Reverent Soul.
This was an application of Undeath that the masked man rarely used. As of now, he had only used it on two occasions.
Once against the Paladin Champion Revia, in Evic, and the last time, when he harvested the souls of the millions of witnesses and contenders at the end of the Premium Age Royale.
Reverent Soul was an ability that forcibly made all its targets' souls bear reverence towards anything that represented Undeath. However, the masked man bore a heavy, physical burden if there were too many targets, as though weights were added to his body each time he tempered with a soul in this manner.
Ordained Reverent Machination, activated through Deathward Maw, was an extension of Reverent Soul which allowed the necromancer to finely overwrite and input a target soul's information with specific details. The stronger the soul, the longer it took, and it should have taken him longer or flat not worked on the Herald, but because he strengthened his Territory with a Rule, in addition to weakening the dragon's soul with a whip beforehand, it all worked
out.
'So, that's what he was aiming for?' Vohnvolt thought, confused. Somehow, this didn't seem right.
Was this really what the masked man was aiming for all along?
Jerthrax thrashed about, and then flapped his wings. He shot forth towards the Null Devil King with as much grandeur and heft as before, and the masked man retreated from the ensuing clash.
While the monsters who had been clashing for four days before this current battle even begun butted heads, he set his sights on the amalgam.
Vohnvolt didn't miss the attention.
'I see. He's going to let the dragon fight that body stealing bastard while the Secondary assault charges. That way, he can reserve more of his strength and then eliminate us all in one fell swoop,' he thought.
The amalgam laughed at himself.
This wasn't good.
If he at least had more options to work with, he would have been confident, but...
'Twenty-four seconds,' he thought. This at least, was reassuring.
The Transcendent Eobald-Minobu advanced towards him while the masked man came for him as well.
He teasingly swung his whip
"Pretty nice Territory you have here," the amalgam said to the masked man.
The necromancer didn't answer.
Vohnvolt chuckled.
"I guess this is part where you try to touch my soul?"
"Keep talking," the masked man said and before Vohnvolt knew it, the dark whip had already sniped its way towards his chest!
At the same time, a blaring force came from his opposite side; from the Transcendent who ignored the presence of the goblin and the fly.
Both attacks were tremendous, each exerting so much force on the amalgam's body that his [Neutral Maximum] just couldn't handle it!
'URRRRRRRGHHHHHHH!' the amalgam roared in pain as he felt the initially jab of the masked man's whip on his soul.
However...
Because so many versions of himself were whirling around his head, the amalgam could still think quickly and act!
In fractions of an instant, he had the goblin substitute itself in his place before the damage he could receive turned fatal!
It happened as he desired. A shattering explosion sounded from where the amalgam had
been.
His [Nullmancer's Royal Raiment Acclimation] whipped out as he landed on a relatively safer patch of ground (tongue?). However, the stinging pain he felt was tremendous. It was akin to a searing, stabbing itch that he couldn't scratch or ease.
But pain was good. It announced that he was still alive.
Better yet, the amalgam realised that he actually learned something from this pain.
WHOOOP!
Barely a microsecond after he had successfully managed to escape, the amalgam felt the whip storm towards him again.
Damn!
While inside the Territory, the masked man was even more monstrous physically!
The amalgam didn't stand a chance.
...But that didn't mean he would just die like that.
Once again, his phantoms urging him, he expanded Null Life Essence as quickly as he could and had it form a large, glass-like frame around him, as the Null Devil King had 'taught' him!
BOOOOM!
The Transcendent, who had also been coming for him, knocked against it, and so did the whip, but once again, the amalgam felt a small sting in his soul, as though the soul of the masked man protruding beyond the whip's blade was just shy of stabbing fully through him.
Right then...
[You have successfully learned 'Reflective Null Cage']
...!!!
A newly earned skill?
Any other time, the amalgam would have been happy to see this, but unfortunately, it was only a temporary solution. After all, he felt the erect Null Life Essence cage crack as the Transcendent kept pushing against it. This cage had been able to tank a sword strike from
Jerthrax but now...
To add fuel to the fire, the masked man, who hadn't moved from his spot from before burst towards Vohnvolt, his body exploding with Undeath!
If he charged through, he would be able to break the amalgam's [Reflective Null Cage]!
But Vohnvolt had already considered that. That was why, before the masked man set to rush
towards him, he had started running in his direction from within the breaking cage!
He felt his soul get pinched one more time when he bolted forth, and the stinging pain
registered again.
'Again...' the amalgam narrowed his eyes.
What he felt just now... for a second time, beyond just the pain...
His soul trembled and scrunched up with each hit it. And now...
[You have successfully learned 'Soul Resistance']
[You have successfully learned 'Soul Sense']
That was right!
Scraping against the masked man's soul attack and surviving twice, allowed the amalgam to
be able to feel the boundary of his soul through the pulsing pain and consciously strengthen
it!
Indeed, the amalgam had received a lot of soul injuries before. Some through Divining, some from a Spirit Warden. As matters relating to the soul were much harder to perceive than those of the body, it wasn't easy to learn about the soul in the same way you could a normal
application of mana.
However, what finally allowed the amalgam to obtain a power relating to the soul on his own... was the combination of the [Nullmancer's Royal Raiment of Acclimation], [Epiphany], and Red Rage's [Blessing of Serenity]!
Vohnvolt met the masked man in the middle. He had drawn back his whip and instead, as the
amalgam expected, he shattered through the cage easily simply by ramming into it with his coat of Undeath Essence.
Vohnvolt, on witnessing his viciously speedy figure, raised two of his arms; his bony, Undead arms and clasped them onto two of his dark hands!
'Here goes nothing,' he thought.
[Author's Note]
(Refer to Ch.106)
[Blessing of Serenity]
A blessed package given to the first named Apostle of the Nullmancer. It is a congratulatory
and supplementary package that serves to support the Nullmancer to boost the long range preference of this class holder. The blessing is manifested through the Apostle of the
Nullmancer.
It comprises of two gifts given to the summoned Apostle.
-
[Basic Murder Arts | Lv.3]
<Passive>
The summoned Apostle becomes very adept at killing all creatures, living or dead instinctively either through quick and merciful or slow and cruel means. Knowledge on how to
kill any organisms is granted and refined with an increase in the level.
[Prodigy] An aspect of the Blessing of Serenity that allows the summoned Apostle to quickly learn
skills, movements or concepts it has seen and experienced at 250% the normal speed.