Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1195: The One Left Standing (9)

Chapter 1195: The One Left Standing (9)

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[Benevolent Melanoid Prince (Super) | Lv.5]

The user is deigned a dark inheritor of 'Evil Darkness', and all its conceptual affiliates, gracelessly equipped against all false light, ambling Divine scripts, and the vicious storms of bold, complex enemies adequately. The Prince stands his ground eternally, in the cold embrace of black.

<Passive Effects>

-The user's body is rendered completely immune to attacks of all natures as long as they - the user - are embraced by the darkness; a darkness-empowered shadow can partly provide this benefit while a more stable construct of darkness will give its full benefit.

-By chanting "DHYIESMYK BLACK" and a moniker tied to the object of interest, the user can store and expel anything within a large storage space that passively empowers all stored items with the user's powers.

-The user gains a magnificent understanding of 'tame' darkness, and the knowledge attained is best utilised with the use of 'CREATURE'. Evil Darkness expelled by the user will be used to cut down on the costs of all skills as a replacement for mana.

<Active>

[Sub-skill: Immoral Possessor]

Any living organism in the range of the user, should it carry even the slightest traces of 'evil', can and will be possessed by the consciousness of the Prince. All the autonomous functions, memories of the target as well as their abilities will be surrendered to the Prince immediately. While some targets might be able to resist, it is hard to completely shrug away the power of the Prince, and up to 1,000 targets can be controlled at a time.

[Sub-skill: Dipped in Black]

All the Prince's attacks will be drowned in a deep darkness that accelerates the efficiency and power of all magical attacks by a minimum of 5,000% for six minutes. Further amplifications depend on the input from CREATURE.

[Sub-skill: CREATURE]

All the darkness - 'tame' or otherwise - in the maximum range of the skill will be converted into fuel to add onto 'Dipped in Black's' maximum augment, all physical attributes, and the hard shell that will adorn the Prince for battle.

The might of [Benevolent Melanoid Prince] had proved indispensable so far and Skullius was deeply pleased by it.

It was a product of the merging of the skills [Evil Darkness Meshing], [Evil Darkness Creation], [Immoral Authority], [Boundless Evil], [Absolute Zero] and [Perfect Night Domain].

In Skullius' eyes, [Benevolent Melanoid Prince] had greater worth than [Greatest Antiphon of Malignance], which was why he had chosen to use it while the Stolen Angel utilised its light counterpart.

The nuance to this was as Replicus had surmised; using the same skill between himself and the Stolen Angel, for Skullius, led to the skill suffering in output for one of them, which was why he wasn't spamming all his abilities between himself and the mobile Attegoth at the same time.

Skullius gave a condescending look to Replicus. Several hundred civilians shared his enthusiasm and mirth as they did the same, gazing at the Warmoth's Progeny through the gaps in the many hands of the partly formed PHANTASMIC RETAINER, Spirit of Blind Drowning, Noboboyama.

And indeed it was the Spirit of Blind Drowning, imbued with one of the Seeds of the Fruit of the World Myths: Melding Stitches.

Skullius continued to be lathered in the darkness that was around him, a wide, triumphant grin on his face.

"You were really just a fake in the end, huh? Even when forewarned you didn't really do all that well," he sneered at Replicus and raised the Bashful Abomination. "Oh well, I did grow a bit, as I hoped, even though I yearned for much more."

He didn't waste another second, applying the secret he had been applying all this time to give his attacks inexplicable attack power and aiming to decapitate the immobilised Warmoth's Progeny.

SHIIIII-

But...

"And I was the one taking you too lightly?"

Something unprecedented had just happened, leaving Skullius starstruck. Two things, in fact. For one, the Warmoth's Progeny who had been stitched to the fabric of space, bound tight, had suddenly vanished from Skullius' view.

But the most shocking thing happened a split fraction of a second later.

Behind a bewildered Skullius, who had yet to see Melding Stitches fail to render an enemy immobile, a dark grey flash exploded and expanded like a great wave of distorted fire, ripping the expansive shadow below him - along with the hands of his PHANTASMIC RETAINER - like paper!

Then, before he could turn, Skullius found himself feeling physical pain for the very first time in his flesh form!

He couldn't have narrated what had happened just now, even if given a time out, a chair to sit on, and a cup of tea!

A great ringing echoed in his ears and his flesh throbbed, stung and pulsed agonisingly!

"ARRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!"

Skullius shrieked in pain.

Ever since he had acquired the power to fool humans and beasts alike with a flesh form, he had never known his cosmetic flesh to hurt, but today, it had. He had inflicted pain upon himself for the first time!

'I... I didn't imagine it back then! There is something strange about... Argh! I can't heal from the effects quickly enough without effecting the output of [Greatest Antiphon of Malignance]!' Skullius thought, panicking.

Back when Replicus attacked him with that dark lightning at the very start, he hadn't considered the attack all that much, but now he was forced to.

That dark mana...

It hurt like hell!

As his body, twisted and craned at odd angels, bits of it burning and fragmenting as he crossed the skies, travelling past the edge of Feinheath and towards the sea, skullius was given great warning about even more danger incoming.

The air screamed around him and he grit his teeth and forced himself to expand his senses.

A lengthy spine was snaking his way, cast upon him by a far away enemy and...

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

On contact, Skullius was immediately walloped by condensed Ju`wtte which formed great bulbous orbs that exploded thunderously!

At once, the Crush damage crushed his bones and roasted his flesh almost entirely. This wasn't even to mention the fact that Skullius' body was slashed in half by the vertebrae blades

on the spine as well.

Replicus' Inverted-Mana-infused punch had sent Skullius flying sky high where he couldn't create a shadow to render himself immune to attacks. The follow-up blows were free to rip

him apart!

A second later, Skullius, heavily battered, found himself back in the tower. The KUTHMUK finally caught up with him as he had no longer been in a suitable battleground. (He had flown away faster than its capacity to find and teleport him.) For a moment, he was relieved, but when the Warmoth's Progeny also emerged in the tower, his body still wreathed in the dark grey, his blank eyes - well, the one that was still present on his half-burnt face - bulged.

With a thought, Skullius had the Stolen Angel appear in front of him, cross its arms and impose all its WEIGHT onto itself to maximise its durability, but its defences were far too lacking to handle the monstrous punch that came.

The Stolen Angel was ripped apart like frail fabric and Skullius found that even while buried in the stable black tower, he was no longer safe. The Inverted Mana made it so that his wounds healed slower, and strangely, coming into contact with it lessened the benefits derived from his dark powers. The remains of his figure exploded out of the tower from one end and were immediately warped to another suitable battleground!

His minced body, which had barely begun to regenerate its lower half by employing [Greatest Antiphon of Malignance]'s healing factor, caused a stir in yet another one of Emeradis' cities where, strangely, a full military force of Mages was already on standby!

"ALLESTO!" the hundreds of powerful, bald Mages cried as they extended their palms towards Skullius.

At once, a large array brimming with intense, purple quality mana appeared around the Hybrid Luman and began binding him with tight rings around his neck, what remained of his torso and even his mana core!

It then shook and started to condense, a terrible, violent surging force building from the centre of the formation, evoking a rupturing upward wave that began to disintegrate Skullius!

The Hybrid Luman looked murderous.

His blank eyes glared with an otherworldly demented intensity at the enemies and he couldn't

believe it.

Fools of THIS calibre believed they were worthy of killing him?!

Darkness swelled in Skullius' mouth like vomit and he spat it out with a voice:

"ISHATTER FOR ME!!"

At once, all the Mages seemed to turn from flesh and bone to human-like crystal statues. Not

even a moment later, they burst into pieces, effected by [Evil Veneration]!

...But Replicus had arrived.

As the array the Mages had made started to dissipate, he hijacked it using [Sorcery of Essence], and bound it to Skullius' mana core, ensuring that he couldn't simply teleport away

without paying deeply for it.

Then, while gazing deeply into Skullius' shocked eyes, he uttered:

"[Rune of Immolation]."

At the call of its name, a giant, ugly rune superimposed itself upon the array the Mages had

made and then...

A brilliance the likes of which had never been seen on Aigas since the Ashing of Time cast away all visibility. Then a hellish heat poured out of nowhere, smothered the Hybrid Luman and attempted to spill over to the rest of the world, punishing it in conflagrance.

But because of the Blessing Replicus was using, the torrent of golden fire crackled and

exploded only around Skullius even as its brilliance threatened all life in the realm.

And thus, it burned and burned.

Replicus would have celebrated or better yet, piled on his attacks, but he had known ever since

the start of the battle that things weren't going to be so simple. Logic wasn't going to dictate

much of this battle, and things would increasingly become complicated. Because of this, Replicus would have to use the weapons at his disposal a little more

cunningly than he did when facing Caxellac.

As the light of the flame from the [Rune of Immolation] died down, Replicus saw it, even as

The failed to comprehend it.

Darkness gushed like ink from all across the continent and headed towards the spot where great golden flames were rising, crackling, yet to reveal the fate of their target.

Of course, it was all but clear that the enemy had resisted defeat. He had rejected it, rather,

from the very start.

He had hidden his soul away for that very reason, after all.

[Author's Note]

Just a lil reminder that you can refer to old skills and equipment in the Master Index chapter.