Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1364: His First Barter



A coat of darkness was around Aurolio. A Void Clot. It was blinking furiously, ready to fizzle out and leave him defenceless, but it had held for long enough to keep him alive.

Thrill and deathly terror were Aurolio's only two companions right now.

The reason he was alive wasn't because he had reacted faster than Skullius or Uyuniya or Elita.

No.

It was mix of luck... and perhaps Direction.

Aurolio had been too underpowered to attack the Doom Knight in any way while within Kenno's Territory. While everyone was busy attacking the creature, he had been looming in the depths of the darkness, watching (as much as he could with his mortal eyes) and trying to incorporate all that he had learned from Elita and Uyuniya in Void using.

Because time was short, he hadn't thought he'd have enough time to invoke the Fundamental Barter as Elita had taught him AND use the product on the Doom Knight, and thus, he had devoted all his focus to trying to learn the Void Clot.

It was the simplest to learn, he had imagined, given that he already knew about the critical detonation point.

And thus, he had tried evoking it. Once, he failed. Thrice, he failed. And then on his sixth try, he managed to coat himself with the advanced application of Voided Death Essence. He thought the speed of the activation marked him as a genius.

Once the Void Clot was up, it had been as if he was in Void's embrace. He felt strength and durability like none he'd ever experienced before!

...But then a force so great it could have collapsed a world had smashed into him.

It was the Fated Reef being formed.

Even while his Void Clot was active, Aurolio had lost the majority of his flesh and all he had to his name was raw, red, bleeding chunks of flesh loosely attached to bone. None of his clothing had survived, but that was trivial when considering even his junk had been fried off.

Things could have been much worse.

The only thing that remained on him was half his Bare Guise, but even that was discoloured and fuming. His one eyeball left functioning looked at the scene ahead while his dashed mouth released hisses of breath.

'DAAAAAAAMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIT!'

It hurt like the son of a devil.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

But Aurolio was alive, standing in a world where green lightning was an endless living colony constantly burning and slapping everything within. He was smashed into by one and barely managed to keep his stance. His Void Clot was dwindling, but it was still half effective.

'They're all down!' Aurolio thought to himself, looking at Skullius and the rest. Most of their heads had been crushed or shattered, so they weren't conscious. The damage kept piling on too. 'Fuck!'

What to do?

This was where the plan was supposed to end. This was to be the full stop that ended the fight, but...

Aurolio looked ahead.

The Doom Knight was stunned and he could see the outline of its Broader Existence. But he didn't understand what he could do with that. That had been Skullius' purpose - his duty to attend to.

But what could he do?

Right then, the charred, bloody Voided Deathform noticed the thick branch of lightning slowly contorting and rising from the ground behind the Doom Knight.

It took no genius to see how its growth made the other smaller branches of lightning racing around even more driven, and violent. As soon as it grew to its utmost, Aurolio was sure he would be done for. He wouldn't be able to handle the snaking lightning bolts then.

So, what to do?

Could he do anything to do affect that leading head branch of green lightning?

Perhaps?

'If that Undead thing stays asleep,' Aurolio thought, and then he stumbled. 'To do anything significant, I need...'

He needed to invoke the Fundamental Barter on his Mastered Void Gate aspect.

Aurolio interpreted the void as strength, strength that could be used in an endless series of ways. He used each of these series interchangeably in battle and as many times as he wanted. Apparently, according to Elita, that was why his Mastered Void Gate powers didn't even begin to match up with hers and Uyuniya's.

Aurolio had to impose limits.

'Well, might as well try before I get blasted to a thousand fucks...' Aurolio thought. Elita had told him how to invoke the Fundamental Barter. It wasn't anything complex or methodical at all, given how some anomalies actually used it without knowing. Aurolio was even sure Skullius had used it too maybe once or twice, mistaking it for Creeds or Rules. The Voided Deathform glared at the growing lightning branch with his fried, bleeding eye. 'I need to put a limit on the amount of times I can use my Mastered Void Gate powers AND how many or what kind of target it affects for me to get the benefit of increased power and efficiency - an exponential boost of 5. Haha... Let's see...' he thought and nearly stumbled when another bolt of lightning vaporised his leg, which was barely covered by his dwindling Void Clot.

'Each aspect of the way I define strength with my Mastered Void Gate, can only be used once every 24 hours,' Aurolio decided. 'Urgh... and I can only use any of them on singular Divine targets each.'

Once he set his thoughts on this, Aurolio expected there to be some Divine light marking the application of the Fundamental Barter but no such thing happened.

He cursed.

'Well, if there's no celebration for it...'

He pointed his hand forward, or what remained of it.

He would rather not approach the lightning branch himself, so he decided to apply one of his favourite applications of his Mastered Void Gate aspect. He remembered using it against Skullius back then. It had confused the Amalgam to heck and back.

Aurolio defined strength in numbers. He was able to manifest clones of himself that travelled in alternate spatial pockets, unseen by his target. They hit way harder than him.

These clones hadn't done anything against Jerthrax back then, but now...

As soon as Aurolio decided it, he felt something spill from him. It was a clone, invisible even

to his sight, but...

...!!!

'OH, MY....' He gaped.

The clone had its mission, but Aurolio didn't see how it performed that mission. It moved way faster than he could comprehend and...

PWAAAA!

It shattered the great, lightning bolt faster than he could see in a single strike!

The lightning branch fell... and so did the claim of the entire Exotic Parlous Nature within this

region.

All the chaos ended almost immediately, leaving the area clear, if only swarmed by the

crimson of the Doom Knight's earlier marking!

Aurolio plopped to the ground as a swift shockwave spilled outward.

'It...worked...' he thought and the faintest of laughs left his non-existent lips. He felt his clone vanish. He wouldn't have access to it again for twenty-four hours. 'Fair...'

He rolled on the ground, taking deep breaths.

With the constant blasts of lightning gone, Skullius began to heal, as did Kenno and Araeyn.

Aurolio saw the signs.

It was a relief indeed. Phew.

But before any of the heavy-hitters woke up, a ball of green appeared above Araeyn and widened like a maw.

An entity spilled out of it. He was handsome, his body looking as though it was made of

compact vines.

"The task still needs doing, I guess," he said after looking around, and briskly, he hurried towards Doom Knight while brandishing a large, green key.