Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1368: Get Back (3)



It made Skullius feel sick.

Even Sila was stumped. He hadn't thought he'd awaken to such a revelation.

When he had sacrificed his soul for Skullius' back then, he hadn't at all been sure it would work. He knew souls could feed off each other as fuels, but he hadn't thought about the greater effects beyond just saving Skullius' life. The Hybrid Luman's soul was an oddity amongst souls.

To think Fulgardt took inspiration from that.

'Even if he managed to make Rias a Beyond the Veil Stager, how did he bring him to the very peak of that Stage? It only has five levels, but there must be five horrifying Tasks to get through. Rias couldn't have completed them all,' Skullius thought. But then his eyes brightened. This answer to this, he discovered for himself. 'Ah, right. How could I forget?' It was simple.

Fulgardt had been able to temper with Skullius' Tasks back then. It was no surprise that he could do the same with Rias'. Perhaps he changed them from difficult, tedious ones to simple, quick ones that could be completed in minutes or less.

Skullius had to sigh to let out his frustrations.

The Immoral scratched his chin while gazing down at him.

"And again, I urge you to see it, Skullius. Direction is in my favour," he said. His teeth looked particularly shiny. "Unlike the consensual thing you and Sila had going on, I had to find a Beyond the Veil Stager to sacrifice for my little partner. It might have been challenging if we were limited to the present Aigas, but as it so happened..." He pointed up at the drapes of time - Aigas' pasts. "There were a few Beyond the Veil Stagers in my time. It was no issue committing them to the cause. Through coercion, of course."

Skullius had already gathered that, but it was still astounding. He barely weathered through more of Fulgardt's gloating.

"Do you see it yet? Even when you won against your alter, infused with my essence, you still lost. Everything you did only paved a way for me to reach my goals even when I did not know it. That's what favour looks like! You're looking at it, in ME!"

The Hybrid Warmoth scoffed.

"Must be nice," he said, his face hard. "Why did you snatch the Doom Knight from me?"

Fulgardt slapped his knee.

"Now that's a wonderful question!" he said and he dropped from the antler branch to the ground. He stood directly in front of the deer's mouth, its teeth as his background. They looked shockingly like those of a human. "Well, my little partner is a bit of a genius, you see. There are three conditions to breaching the barrier into Divinity. Mortal Breaking, Mortal Binding and Ember Tasting. The first was the easiest to accomplish, of course, and the second would not have been hard if you hadn't interfered in Maqi, but in a way, I'm glad you did."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"You wouldn't know, given that you had my help in quickly brushing through Mortal Binding and Ember Tasting, but these conditions require a lot of time. Most mortals have never tasted what a Blessing is like - and not in use. Learning its composition and how it functions is essential to Ember Tasting. So is experiencing a sense of immortality by spreading your essence over hundreds and thousands of vessels. I planned to take my time, but then my little necromancer proposed an idea."

Skullius couldn't imagine what this idea could be. However, it did not surprise him that Rias, who had Actuass' memories and powers could think up something he couldn't.

"To quicken the process to Divinity, we opted to use... Undead elements," Fulgardt said confidently. "Undead vessels for Mortal Binding and Undead Blessings for Ember Tasting."

...!!!

Even Elita was staggered by this. She would have explained it to Uyuniya, who wasn't privy to what everyone was saying if she had the chance.

Right then, great red Undead flames leaked from between the teeth of the massive deer, and a familiar presence burst out in a tremendous wave.

Skullius recognised it at once but...

'Already?'

Rias was already becoming a Divine?!

It hadn't even been five minutes since he went inside the deer!

Skullius tried to rationalise how this made sense.

The people he had seen inside the mouth of the deer were likely experts who had been turned into undead minions, and according to Fulgardt... Rias was to transfer his essence - Undeath energy, as his choice - through them for Mortal Binding. But then for Ember Tasting...

'That brat somehow forced the Doom Knight to create Blessings using its Undeath energy and place them into the undead vessels? No. There's no way Rias could do that, even with his mastery of the soul... right? Could it be Fulgardt then?' Skullius agonised.

In any case, Blessings crafted using Undeath energy were seemingly easier for Rias to use in order to complete the Ember Tasting requirement, since he was already well-versed in it.

But Skullius was still shocked. He didn't even know Undeath could be used to create Blessings. Could Null Life Essence and Voided Death Essence do the same? Skullius suddenly remembered the [Blessing of Serenity] which had been gifted to Red Rage, his first Apostle.

Serenity who had been content simply watching how Skullius would react to this situation, answered this question.

"It's not as simple as he makes it seem, Skullius. He's only trying to rattle you. I admit, if this is really the method they are using, then it's quite impressive, but it only works because Undeath is the least complicated and least removed from the normal powers in the Common Reality Leagues out of the three Existential Parallels. That's why any necromancer can turn any normal corpse into an Undead minion and even gift it Undead powers." "Things are different for Null Life and Voided Death Essence. With your powers, I'm sure you know that whenever you create an Apostle, more than just the original corpse is used to form the new entity. That's because non-Null Lifeforms can't handle Null Life. The same is true with Voided Death."

Skullius didn't give any remark, but he was glad Serenity had shared this information with him. That didn't mean he felt better though.

The pressure coming from the deer only grew more intense. Skullius couldn't imagine what kind of terrifying power the duo of Fulgardt and Rias would be. He would have stopped Rias if he could, but without his Amras, fighting Fulgardt was impossible, even with the help of his allies. Most of them were completely exhausted.

The only option he had was perhaps to use Cold Oblivion, but it diffused too quickly when not pointed at a single target. Skullius could end up killing everyone on Aigas.

"You've won, Fulgardt," he admitted and sat down, much to Elita and Uyuniya's surprise. "What now? You have everything you want, and you can set off on your adventure to find more people like you, as you claimed earlier, right?"

Fulgardt smiled.

"I wouldn't say EVERYTHING," he said. "There's more than one reason I'm keeping you

alive."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"I didn't miss it, you know? I sensed it when the great void churned and tried to kill you. I also sensed a powerful signature of Null Life Essence guard you."

Skullius frowned. It wasn't too surprising, but...

"You can sense Null Life Essence?" he asked Fulgardt.

"Why, of course I can. Every Divine can. Null Life Essence, Voided Death, Undeath... these powers have an unspoken ranking in the Common Reality Leagues; they are special cases. They grow depending on the user. And, since they were created with Divine strength - though at extreme levels - Divines can sense them. Consider that a free bit of knowledge." Skullius immediately thought to the difference between Uyuniya and Elita's Voided Death, and then the difference between his own Null Life Essence and the staggering quality of Serenity's, when she had been using Sila's body as a vessel.

But this was hardly important right now. What he needed to ask was...

"What does Void trying to kill me have to do with your interests? I promise you, it has nothing to do with the Insurgent Magnus powers."

"I imagined not," Fulgardt said and then he turned and walked over to the clamped teeth of Rias' deer. "But you see - and you might have already caught on - I have an...arrangement with Void. It's a small one, but she is not above contacting lesser beings. It's always nice to befriend Existential Parallels. I'm sure I fell out of Serenity's graces as Festos, but Void, well... It might now be in her best interest to have me as a special ally, since you are her enemy."

Skullius' face sank.

Fulgardt laughed.

"I'm sure Void will find value in an ally as... intimate with you as I am. Rather than waste time chasing Primeval Deities for benefits, this is plentifully more profitable, don't you think?" he

said.

[Author's Note]

I know it's all a bit wordy, but bear with it for a little while.