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Chapter 1197: The One Left Standing (11)
Chapter 1197: The One Left Standing (11)
Chapter 1197: The One Left Standing (11)
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Ashema had felt the express need to rise even higher into the sky.
The battle was growing more and more intense, and he wasn't sure he would be left out of the piling collateral damage catalogue if he kept flirting with the expanding range of the conflict between the two versions of the same individual.
Be that as it may, however, the Carven was thrilled.
"They are monstrous!" he cried with a grin and a swig of the blood from his gourd.
Indeed. He couldn't believe how powerful Skullius and Replicus were, but for the former, it couldn't be overstated just how much of his (Ashema) hand played into it.
"I'm glad to see you are thoroughly abusing the knowledge you got from me. HAHAHAHA!" the Carven laughed maniacally.
Indeed. If not for that fair trick, this might not have been a battle at all.
***
Replicus saw the Noboboyama drift from the black void and fly over Feinheath quite speedily and gracefully.
He was however teleported away at once, appearing in a town that he assumed to be in Pelian. A moment later, the figure of the CREATURE appeared a few strides away from him, and the shadow of the Spirit of Blind Drowning smothered them both in darkness.
Replicus didn't know the effect Skullius had just used a few seconds ago with the Noboboyama. Serenity hadn't told him about it - likely because she didn't know it - but he was sure it was momentarily bolstered by the unreasonable trick Skullius used to grant his attacks immense output beyond their rank. Only then had it gained the power to decimate hundreds of thousands of powerful Cluster beasts, rip apart a Cluster, and chew through Aigas' Rules.
Replicus' eyes shone.
'I still can't find where his soul is. It's not in his body. It's not in the Stolen Angel and...' he spared a moment to use his emboldened soul senses on the PHANTASMIC RETAINER above, '...it's not in that either.'
Replicus was at an extreme disadvantage in this battle. However serious he could get, he couldn't fight to obliterate Skullius. If he did, he would be killing himself. He had gone into this battle with that knowledge.
If it was simply a matter of killing Skullius, he would have accomplished that goal in less than a minute, but alas...
His plan had been to use Inverted Mana to deal high degrees of damage and subdue Skullius. Naturally, he had hidden this card for a while as it used up a massive amount of his mana with each use much more than Maximum Catalyst, in fact - but now, he needed it. The Hybrid Luman was really hard to harm without it.
Inverted Mana could crush all mana constructs, including skills because it was far more potent. It was especially powerful when he inverted the mana from his two gold cores, which allowed him to even overpower the effects from Skullius' Super skills temporarily.
Unfortunately, Inverted Mana alone wasn't going to work.
Replicus' most favourable winning condition laid with making sure Skullius' body and soul were in one place.
Nomatter how much physical damage he dealt, there would be no point otherwise as he could be sure Skullius could find a way to remain intact even as just a soul.
"Don't look so distraught. Come," Skullius said as he grabbed the hilt to Demion's Dance. There was utter glee in his voice.
The Noboboyama above trembled.
Replicus knew at once. It was about to unleash another devastating attack.
However...
BOOOOOOM!
Aigas shook as the Noboboyama was walloped into dark oblivion by a strange, invisible force. It burst like a balloon!
...!!!
Skullius was stunned.
This came as a great surprise.
What in the world had just happened?!
Replicus wore a small smile.
Skullius couldn't have known, but a massive, long-snouted mercury dragon had been drifting silently in the skies since the battle started, waiting for the exact moment the Noboboyama would be erected. A quick swipe of its tail had been enough to dismantle it!
Of course, Replicus capitalised on the element of surprise. His Apostle, Beyrmir would remain invisible - with the use of one of his Classes, Spirit Walker - keeping the Hybrid Luman guessing.
"Nomatter," Skullius said chillingly, recovering at once, and he streaked towards Replicus with speed that bewildered the Warmoth's Progeny.
He had appeared as a black, messy smear on space even to the Replicus' eyes which were used to seeing atrociously speedy enemies!
'What?!'
Before Replicus could even process it, two of the arms on his right side had been chopped into pieces by a quick, tricky dark line!
The figure of Skullius turned into yet another messy, elongated smear, and in the next nano instance, a sharp yet heavy force blasted Replicus in his chest!
BOOOOM!
An ungodly weight came with the attack; it was so mighty that it shredded the entire settlement the two had been battling in.
Replicus flew off with pulsing pain livid in his torso.
That strength...
He couldn't have known but the boost gained by Skullius when he used CREATURE was that significant, so much so that Replicus' automated Ju`wtte was too slow to defend him! Replicus had yet to land when a dark shadow snaked on the ground from where he had come from and caught up, spitting out the CREATURE an instant later. Skullius was alarmingly quick, and his punch bashing into Replicus' chin reflected the steady, inconceivable physical prowess he had gained by absorbing the darkness across Feinheath!
Replicus felt his skin and skull fracture dangerously. His hand had darted before him to grab the CREATURE, but his fingers slid through Skullius' black figure as though it were simply air.
BOOOM!
Another shattering blow landed on Replicus' temple and he zipped off rapidly as the air
clapped loudly.
'Damn it! What, is he a match for me in physicals now?' Replicus thought furiously.
He couldn't have known, but the accumulated darkness in Skullius had raised the bar of augmentation from his sub-skill [Dipped in Black], from 5,000% to 789,760% - bringing his attributes, magical and physical to astonishing heights!
On top of physical power, the WEIGHT attribute of Skullius' mana had risen from 2 million tonnes to just over 300 million tonnes, surpassing that of the Stolen Angel, hence why his
attacks were more frightening now!
The Melanoid Prince's attacks would be bathed in darkness, representing the augments he received, which was why the slash that streaked towards Replicus at that moment appeared as a thin, black line aimed at his neck!
Replicus saw it coming and was halfway towards activating [Neutral Maximum] when...
Another slash, more lethal and ungodly than the one he was preparing for, slashed against his
lower torso!
The Warmoth's Progeny wasn't split in half but...
...!!!!
To Replicus' horror, the purple-gold light which had been wrapping around him dwindled
and faded.
It was only fair, after all, all his mana cores had been slashed!
A wave of intense pain crushed Replicus' senses!
The destruction of a core was fatal, as every core was linked to the soul. But thankfully,
Replicus didn't possess a 'real' soul. He only had an insignificant copy, and beyond that, one
of his cores still remained: the Null Core!
Because of this, he wasn't out of the fight just yet!
'Sockethole!'
It was as Replicus had surmised before - Skullius was growing!
He looked beyond and saw not one CREATURE, but six of them! The Melanoid Prince was abusing his Infinite Sword God powers as well, applying the Slow Ghost Divine Sword Art to create apparitions that shared the might of CREATURE. That was
how he had managed to sent two powerful slashed at the same time!
The CREATURES exploded with glee as they attacked.
Replicus scowled.
'I suppose you aren't underestimating me anymore,' he thought. Even with his mana gone, he wasn't out of options - however regrettable that his gold cores had been reduced to something thinner than air. One of his phantoms immediately began recreating them with [Sorcery of Essence].
Meanwhile, Replicus used more of the Blessings he had prepared beforehand to fight against
Skullius.
One that limited the amount of damage the Hybrid Luman could land on him. It capped at
35%.
Another that increased the Hybrid Luman's vulnerability to his own attacks. It capped at lessening Skullius' defences by 28%, which was a bummer, but Blessings had their limits, especially at a stage as grand as this.
Because all these Blessings had been created during the two months Replicus had been in the Timemould Mirror Box, he still had the full 50 million units of Divine energy stored in the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow free for use.
For these, he made a decisive choice to expend them all at once by creating a RULE.
"Grant me the power to see my enemies' hidden secrets."
At once, the RULE was made. Limiting its scope - Replicus hoped - would empower its effectiveness. His eyes turned from their usual yellow radiance to a seductive midnight blue. The Progeny's view of the world was altered at once though nothing much changed in his
immediate sights.
The six ghosts as well as the original CREATURE were upon him right after the Blessing was
created.
This time around, Replicus saw the original CREATURE among them. While the rest were
black with bits of crimson, the original Skullius was highlighted wholly in pristine white.
'This should make things a bit easier.'
Reinforcing his body with Null Life Essence, Replicus swung both the Fallen Reincarnator's
Shadow and the Warmoth's Spine to clash against the swords of the enemies at speeds that transcended lights by a large margin.
The oversized spine bore the weight and might of the sword attacks with ease while the spear had to be applied with flexible, spins and swipes to handle the slashes.
As Replicus' right arms were yet to be restored (and he couldn't use [Ju`wtta Resounding Restoration]) he had to fight with only the left set, but he managed still, quite to Skullius'
surprise.
One of his ghosts drew back and used the Beyond-Scale Critical Divine Sword Art to launch an
ungodly slash from afar, using the cover of unending attacks from the others to mask it as best it could, but Replicus' eyes saw through the scheme.
He saw the released attack as a sharp, messy line of pristine white that avoided harming the
ghosts as it hurtled towards him.
Replicus entered the Ju`wtte Blizzard Corridor to evade it, but of course, his other enemies
were quick and keen. They found him the instant he became visible again. Some attacked with
the Beyond Scale Critical Divine Sword Art to ignore the distance, while the others surged to meet him in close quarters.
Feinheath knew a great many crashes and booms as the battle raged on all across its
boundaries!
Replicus couldn't dodge every attack, but he performed quite well. The fact that some of the attacks enhanced by [Dipped in Black], which now had the capacity to hurt him normally, barely dealt any serious damage helped a lot. The Blessing to reduce the damage afflicted by
Skullius was well worth it.
The KUTHMUK caught up to the speedy fighters and warped them to another place. This time,
both combatants recognised it at once.
It was a certain Academy for Energy Formers in Genhuis City which had remained standing tall
and proud despite the Carvens' expansive attack on Pelian.
It was the Reacher Academy!