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Chapter 1211: The One Left Standing (25)
Chapter 1211: The One Left Standing (25)
Chapter 1211: The One Left Standing (25)
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Skullius had recognised that tricks weren't going to work on Replicus anymore.
He had activated Seramoro, Oblivion's Edge to increase his chances of winning, but in all honesty, the Seed barely changed a thing.
Seramoro was a power that heightened the user's ability to manipulate [Evil Darkness] and [Just Light] tremendously, almost as though enlightening them. It also granted them immense physical strength, but all its supplements to the user came with a caveat: madness. Seramoro was a creature of destruction with barely any reason to it, but in that madness was the enlightenment and strength. Fulgardt had had trouble controlling it back in the day, but eventually figured out how to quell the monster's rage, and turn its primal unruliness into a controlled weapon.
Skullius, as an echo of Fulgardt, was doing the same. The WILLS guided him.
But of course, the Hybrid Luman had no intention of relying on this power for victory.
No.
Ever since he was dunked into this world of darkness, he had rejoiced.
All the benefits of [Benevolent Melanoid Prince] would thrive here!
The first thing he had done was to activate [Dipped in Black]. The skill collected natural darkness and converted it into physical strength for the user. While it had a limit, the darkness Skullius amassed raised his physical prowess by several leagues, though still, it wasn't anywhere close to what Jiggorrhax and Replicus were capable of. Each of the two outscaled the Melanoid Prince.
But triumph in a fistfight wasn't what Skullius was hoping for.
The boost to his physical properties was simply a means to ensure that he could use the expertise he had been gathering efficiently.
Indeed, expertise.
It might have escaped the notice of Replicus, and even Skullius himself at some point, that the Soul Spawn he had released to all the timelines were still drawing the memories and powers of millions of victims, feeding them all to the Hybrid Luman.
All this knowledge was useful to a sober, unfettered Skullius.
While Jiggorrhax attacked Replicus, instead of trying to cast his Territory again, Skullius decided to sharpen his skills with the overflow of knowledge he was receiving and figure out a way to kill the Warmoth without resorting to his final moves.
After all, GROWTH had been Skullius' motivation when he initially believed that he was controlling the pace of the battle. So far, he had earned much from fighting Replicus. Why stop now when he was offered the luxury of time and an ally?
Was this the right mindset?
Should he really take this path in this fight, where he attempted to win by merit in the end instead of frantically resorting to his last cards?
Could he maintain such a thought?
Hadn't he been shaken by the prospect of losing just moments ago? Hadn't he been panicking? Was it right to relax now?
'Shut it!' Skullius' scowled and told himself. His hand twitched. 'What does this matter? I have the better of him now. That's what matters!'
Around him, a fierce, cutting air hissed.
His field of disembodied slashes had been taken away by Replicus' Reversion earlier, but he didn't need it anymore.
Nitros and [Evil Darkness] roiled around him and both turned inconceivably sharp. The memories of thousands of skilled Swordsman from Families and Houses from four thousand years ago raced into him, spilling their secrets, their insights, their experience.
'I see...' Replicus thought as his mind opened. His confidence grew.
Yes, yes, just like this...
[You are HYPED!]
[You are HYPED!]
['Infinite Sword God' gains new insights!]
['Infinite Sword God' gains new insights!]
['Infinite Sword God' is evolving!]
...And then Skullius' senses spread through his two swords and interacted with the world differently than before.
Suddenly, he sensed things that had no business appealing to any kind of sensory trait possessed by living things below the Divine.
He sensed Replicus' movements before he made them.
He sensed Replicus' vision.
He sensed threads of existence connected to Null Life to Serenity.
A wide grin spread from his lips.
Yes, if things were like this, he could win.
If everything continued this way, he would kill the fake.
...
BOOOOOM!
The great rock reinforced by Divine energy struck Replicus point-blank. It wasn't nearly strong enough to hurt him, but as he had surmised, it was a conduit for a more lethal attack. It burst into a rune that engulfed him in white flame, and Replicus felt himself get... more vulnerable somehow.
Something about his durability had been compromised slightly.
'I knew it! Jiggorrhax is using Rules through the rocks! But I know from battling Jerthrax that
he can't cast unusually powerful effects directly onto me through Rules unless I am leagues weaker than him,' he thought.
He once again tried to move, but his arms and legs remained planted on the ground. The very shadows of his next motions were sliced apart.
"Haha! You've long forgotten, right? Have a taste of it again," he heard behind him, and then the whistle of a sword rung in the darkness.
All of a sudden, Replicus' vision was cut. He was rendered blind!
...!!!
'He cut my vision?' Replicus thought, but he didn't turn frantic.
Skullius was grinning with glee, convinced that the Warmoth was merely donning a strong front. He must have been panicking like he had been before and trying to hide it!
'Show me that fear!'
Immediately afterward, light from the [Heart of Revelation] blasted against Replicus once more and the Stolen Angel descended from above and hammered its four fists into his body!
BOOOM!
--
But this time, Replicus wasn't hit.
BZZZZZZT!
Skullius and the Stolen Angel were stunned.
What looked like a skinny, humanoid figure made entirely out of yellowish-red Ju`wtte had
appeared and blocked the Stolen Angel's blow.
Of course, this entity, was a Strawler!
The Soul-Burdened Warmoth possessed the ability to create them, even outside the Empyrean Bosom and the Warmoth's Treasury, unlike his previous self!
The Strawler immediately grabbed the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow from the paralysed Replicus swung it against the Stolen Angel. The mobile Attegoth was pushed a great distance
away.
"That thing won't save you," Skullius said from the darkness and almost immediately, the Strawler was diced into bits.
Replicus wasn't too surprised. The Strawlers he could create manifested with the inferior kind of Ju`wtte. With Skullius increasing his skill in swordsmanship now, it was only a matter of time before he could cut them down.
However...
Two more Strawlers emerged from Replicus' body, one grabbing the Fallen Reincarnator's
Shadow and swiping at the darkness.
Skullius cut them down swiftly, but the instant he did, he realised that they were a distraction. Replicus wanted to buy himself time to recover from having his movements cut by having the Hybrid Luman turn his attention to the Strawlers.
'But what can you even do? I'll just cut you again,' the Hybrid Luman mocked as he raised Demion's Dance from the darkness. This time, he would cut apart Replicus' cores too!
He watched as Replicus, after having recovered his ability to move, planted his hand on the
rocky ground.
What was he trying to do?
What could he hope to accomplish?
"[Unbound]!" Replicus declared.
...!!!
WHAT?!
Skullius couldn't have expected it.
[Unbound]... could be used on the entire world?
Even Jiggorrhax was surprised, but for different reasons.
The world suddenly became bright and he quickly felt his control over it getting wrestled
away from him.
Though he couldn't perceive it, the world was saturated with Null Life Essence, and contrary
to what Skullius was beginning to speculate, Replicus wasn't actually changing the properties of the entire world. He simply overloaded it with hundreds of millions of units of essence so
that...
CRACK! BOOM!
The rocky world shattered around the four and Aigas' sunlight graced them all again. The four hadn't appeared in Agmold, strangely.
They were above a small clearing in Pelian, a few hundred kilometers away from the capital.
Skullius scowled.
He was just starting to get his momentum back, but now it was ruined!
He was exposed once again. One hit from Replicus could do him in, and now that the Warmoth
was wary of his slashes, he would probably be able to avoid them more often than not!
Skullius turned to Jiggorrhax.
"Use it again! Create another world! He can't use that skill more than once in an hour!" he
cried.
But Jiggorrhax merely growled unpleasantly, his eyes fixed upon Replicus who was flexing his
fingers.
"UNUSUAL. ARE YOU AN ANOMALY?" Jiggorrhax asked with a terrible voice.
Replicus didn't reply. He knew from fighting Jerthrax that answering this question - Deities forbid with a yes - wouldn't grant him any favours. Maintaining the status quo was much better. But it was a double-edged sword. The longer this dragged out, the worse it became for
him, but he had no choice.
Thankfully, Skullius was back to panicking again, and he was aware of his moves. Now all that
was left was...
--
The sight of the massive dragon brought incredible unease.
Unlike before, when its appearance barely lasted a few seconds, this time, all had the chance
to gaze upon it and marvel. Jiggorrhax was so large that he could be seen from afar after all.
Revia, who had slaughtered her nine hundredth Purity Knight in the sacred courtyard looked up, her bloodstained silver hair sticking to her face. Her enemies and allies alike were also momentarily distracted by the sight and the pressure of the Herald.
But the former Paladin Champion's roar forced the conflict to continue. Whatever was becoming of Aigas was no business of hers. She charged to kill more of the
Knights, the arrogant declaration she had heard from the High Priest earlier ringing in her head and fuelling her angry drive to enter the Inner Sanctum! Elsewhere, a young man was standing on the roof to a great mansion, a heavy, familiar presence of Undeath around him. He was looking upward at the image of the dragon printed
in the sky.
Yet his eyes saw more than just the dragon.
He saw the Hybrid Luman and the Soul-Burdened Warmoth.
...Then he saw the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow and felt a twitch within him. Something
about that spear resonated with him.
His eyes burned with fury at once.
What he might have done with this fury, however, no one would ever know, because it was
quickly replaced by confusion.
The great dragon, the four-armed, furry entity, the red-masked demon and the glowing,
winged angel vanished from sight.
Under the influence of Skullius' Creed, they appeared at the last location the random teleportation mechanism would ever take them: the Bryne Family Estate. Immediately, a cold, nasty grin appeared on Skullius' face.