Chapter 1284: Disappointment (1)
Chapter 1284: Disappointment (1)
It happened quickly.
One of the Cavern, a particularly ugly and tall one with large, gorilla-ish arms and a spiked tail, stormed towards Skullius with insane speed. It almost seemed as though he had simply spawned close to the Hybrid Warmoth, but of course...
The [Entropy's Harmonising Nimbus] was jealous and overprotective. Once the Cavern was within ten meters of Skullius, it came to an abrupt halt, much to its own surprise.
Dozens of stitches made of merigold Ju`wtte had fastened it to the fabric of space on Aigas, and it was completely immobilised!
The Cavern didn't even get a chance to struggle because its dark body was suddenly coated in a heavy sheet of purple-gold ice. Whitish vapour rose the shiny, sleek sculpture that remained - entrapped Cavern.
The cloud Skullius was adorned with restricted anything Skullius saw as unfriendly from reaching close to him with the Ju`wtte empowered Melding Stitches, [Maximum Frost] and [Frigid Time]. The latter two were Skullius' new Exotic Parlous Natures.
'Hmmm... It's not dead,' Skullius noted.
The frozen Cavern had yet to kick the bucket.
Another Cavern, clearly wary of getting close now because of the fate of its companion, took to the skies and brandished its black-gold spear. Skullius watched it closely. He judged that it was about to use its innate ability as he didn't sense any Amras in use.
And indeed the creature did.
With a vicious, downward swing of its spear, the Cavern sent forth what looked like a visible, tangible slash made up entirely out of miniature versions of itself, swarming and colliding!
The slash moved at a speed comparable to light, but what it was capable of, Skullius' would not get to know.
Hundreds of miniature stitches stopped the slash in its tracks and then it froze completely.
The Cavern to sent out the attack was alarmed. Skullius was disappointed.
'He actually expected that attack to do something?' he thought.
With a silent command, he made the [Entropy's Harmonising Nimbus] respond. The lead grey cloud suddenly turned luminous as volts upon volts of Ju`wtte wriggled like demented worms within it. It charged and charged, and then abruptly, the cloud emitted blinding orange light, turning its master into a bright flare!
The entire ravine was then baptised in the glaring light, yet as that happened, a bolt of Ju`wtte nearly as thick as the Warmoth's Spine, silently streaked out of the nimbus and connected to its foe in the skies who belated realised that he was screwed.
The devastation that followed left the noise that should have come from it behind.
Before the glare that had been cast about could fade, the entire ravine, the peaks, river and all, became dust, as did the greenery in the surroundings within five kilometers. Their soft remains rose and whirled in the air like a ghostly twister.
And then the deafening booms, the grating crashes and the faint splashes and sizzles of water evaporating from the impact ensued.
This was the result of the merigold Ju`wtte, which had already been powerful enough to effortlessly harm a being like Jiggorrhax, empowered by 1,500% because of the [Entropy's Harmonising Nimbus].
The recipient of the attack was left as a fading, crumbling dark mass that fell from the sky pitifully, so pitifully in fact that Skullius himself frowned.
'Is this it? Is this really what even the weakest Divines amount to?' he thought, severely disappointed.
The remaining Cavern did not move in for the attack. They were wary, but not quite afraid. This gave Skullius hope.
Yes. There must surely be more to these guys then!
...!
From the charred corpse falling from the sky, a soul so firm and well-defined that it looked no different to the body it just left - when it was in prime condition, that is - stormed to the ground and landed by the largest Cavern.
The great creature did not take its eyes off Skullius. It plunged its flaming saber into the ground and laid its now free hand over the head of the soul of the other Cavern.
"Hmm?"
Skullius felt Amras get channelled from the great Cavern and then, to his surprise, the soul standing next to it started to grow bulging balloons of flesh that shrank and formed a whole new body for it!
The Hybrid Warmoth grinned.
Now that was interesting.
'That's a Parlous Nature,' he thought excitedly.
Exotic Parlous Nature were outlandish phenomena beyond the confines of what a world could contain. One could think of them as more bizarre, frightening concepts and essences that couldn't be contained by even the richest of worlds, most powerful Rules and by extension other forms of Amras.
The genuine Divine energy Heralds in Aigas used for instance, and the genuine Divine energy Skullius himself had wielded through the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow, was Exora Amras, just in a form that didn't qualify for the Common Reality Leagues. It was similar to the Pseudo Immortal Physique Skullius had made for his subordinates.
'Let's take note of that,' Skullius thought, looking at the lingering pulsations of the flesh the Cavern just now had received. The nimbus seemed to groan in acknowledgement.
Right then, the frozen body of the Cavern ten meters away from Skullius shook lightly. From its back, a well-defined soul was expelled that flew high into the sky.
Skullius turned to it with intrigue.
This Cavern didn't rush towards the giant one to get a new body. At least that wasn't the priority for it.
"Oh..."
Skullius felt Amras surge through the soul of this Cavern as it then pointed forth both of its hands at him.
'It has an Andori!' the Hybrid Warmoth thought. Since the largest Cavern he appraised didn't have one, he had assumed they all didn't.
The unique thing about Andori was that since they weren't etched onto the body, but within one's Broader Existence, both the body and soul could use them separately.
The world around Skullius suddenly turned into a dense, kaleidoscopic plane!
Every cubic inch of space outside of the range of Skullius' nimbus spun and became indistinguishable from the other. Skullius couldn't even determine whether he was still on
the ground.
However...
'Is that it?' Skullius was utterly disappointed. 'What kind of stupid Andori is this?'n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
He imagined that this was a ploy to confuse his senses and sneak him. When applied against a mortal, the effects of this Andori likely couldn't be dispersed even with Rule level concepts or Transcendent grade treasures. But against a formidable Divine level opponent...
The pair of eyes above Skullius' blind pair opened, and blessed the world with a golden green blast of beautiful light. The spinning world around the Hybrid Warmoth humbled itself and vanished from sight, leaving only darkness riddled with the strands of Rules!
It was only then that Skullius noticed the approach of three other Cavern. As he had suspected, they had aimed to sneak him while he was disoriented.
But for now, he didn't pay them any mind.
His focus went towards the Cavern in soul form high in sky, dumbfounded by the fact that its
Andori had been overwhelmed so easily.
But that was only natural.
Andori were ranked from Grand, Sage, Ascendant to Cosmic; the Andori the Cavern had used was only at the First Grand Tier while Skullius' was in the First Sage Tier. There was a huge
gap.
But, in order to match the energy, Skullius did not waste the power of the [Legion Eyes] on the soul of this Cavern.
No.
One of his hands peeked from the cloudy textures of his nimbus and pointed at the Cavern in
the now dark sky.
His Amras, richer and more powerful than that of any of the Cavern here, was mobilised, and Skullius used a Second Grand Tier Andori to attack.
[Elusive Meta Carver]!
It started with one, unseen swiping slash, like a crazy whipping blow that struck the Cavern
from shoulder to side. A thin, but very deep cut was left on the creature. But then two more came one the other way across the chest, and the last across the face. The slashes landed with a crackle akin to that of thunder, merciless. The sheer force of the last slash sent the Cavern's soul flying down like a comet.
It was ripped, and torn into two pieces from the face.
At that moment, Skullius had prepared to deal with the incoming foes when...
[You have killed Fifth Circle Cavern, Tinhumesh. 80 Null Life Essence awarded]
[Would you like to invoke AKHASHA?]
[Author's Note]
[Entropy's Harmonising Nimbus | Fourth Sage Tier]
A mystical cloud, ever-present and closely tied to its master's fondest wishes and ficklest
emotion;
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-Functions-
+Will meet any and all enemy attacks, corporeal or otherwise, that come within ten meters of
its master's radius, with precise, world-catching Melding Stitches, 'Maximum Frost' and
'Frigid Time'
+Passively enhances its master's Ju`wtte efficiency by 1,500%
+Passively enhances its master's attacks by 750%
+Will reject 25% damage from Andori up to a tier higher than its own
+Observes with its master's eyes the nature of an opponent's attributes, feed the collected
information to its master, and fashion for them a 'Foe Biter' that will easily penetrate all said
opponents' defences (if completed)
+Passively, with its master's eyes analyses the nature of any complex systems and natures to
create an affinity with them; a given cost to be paid in Null Life Essence can speed up the
learning process.
+Will react to its master's emotions with all available Exotic Parlous Natures
+Exerts its master's will on matters pertaining to gifting and stealing powers
+Exerts its master's will on matters pertaining to forging Apostles
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Exora Amras Requirement: 30 units for activation