Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1356: Lying In Wait



Indeed, Skullius had taken Elita's Realm rank Prime sword for his own after convincing her it was necessary for the plan he had. It had not been easy convincing her to part with it,

especially since they had been embroiled in a conflict before the great Doom Knight came. But in the end, the former Paladin Champion had surrendered her weapon.

The Doom Knight was furious, Skullius knew.

Even in the dark, timeless void Araeyn had created, it saw him as its armour fell apart, revealing its true form beneath.

There was no escaping the creature's wrath, Skullius knew. He could only prepare for a dreadful counter.

The first thing he did, was to stow away Broodweiler. He wouldn't get a chance to use it again. Its part to play in his hands was already done.

Because the guidance field would not show any information about the Doom Knight to Skullius, he had had to improvise.

Fighting a Deity-level opponent who was wearing a nigh-invincible armour (at least to Divines like him) and was possibly in possession of a dreadfully powerful Immortal Physique was a sure sign that the battle was unwinnable. Thus, Skullius' plan had been to chip away at the Deity's layers of defences while it was still toying with them.

Broodweiler had been one of the bets Skullius had thought of, but there was a caveat.

Treasure weren't all about which one was higher in rank. Prime Treasures opposed Wicked ones with their Absolute Properties and the opposite was true. In such circumstances, the Treasure which struck first with its Absolute Property, won. But unfortunately, since Skullius didn't know what kind of Treasure the armour the Doom Knight was wearing was, he had to rely on trial and error.

While the Doom Knight was preoccupied with the Penetrators (and before the Mortal Sourcing Destiny Rune was used), Skullius had attacked the creature with his Tainted Lycan's Siphoning Claw, a Realm rank Wicked Treasure that caused large, poisoned claws to sprout violently from inside the target.

When the claw didn't work, Skullius immediately knew that the Doom Knight's armour was also a Wicked Treasure, but of a higher rank.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

And that was why, with Araeyn's help and with the Penetrator's distraction, he had struck the armour with Broodweiler's Absolute Prime Property.

The blade was lethal to Divine phenomena, but no different to a Legendary grade weapon when matched against any mortal material, living or otherwise.

Keeping it hidden was essential until its next use, lest it be destroyed by the Doom Knight. But while this was achieved, Skullius felt there was a great chance he would get destroyed.

The Doom Knight... no, the Deity's eyes were two red, flaring suns. Untold fury and streams of what might have been blood slid down from them to its fair face - large, but indeed fair. A modest stubble of golden-brown hairs that glowed made the bottom end while voluminous curly, messy variants made the top.

The Deity was rather lean. Its torso was bare, advertising the grim scars, scabs and singes to its divine body while its waist was covered by a layer of kilt made of some kind of animal hide.

The contrast with and without armour was staggering for Deity, but even more vexing than that...

<HOW DARE YOU BREAK MASTER SOUMEI'S GIFT TO ME?!!> the Deity screamed, and its voice shook the realm. Blood sprayed more fiercely from its flame-lit eyes, hot and way too voluminous to have all fit in its body.

Skullius was alarmed.

He was in the Deity's grasp before he even realised it, being squeezed into oblivion. He almost popped like a balloon. He was consistently at the point of bursting even with [Sagacious Antiphon of Dawnlight] constantly trying to heal him.

Worse yet, Doom Factor 2 chose this exact moment to strike, triggered once again by the overwhelming pressure of Undeath, but Beyrmir came to his master's rescue again.

"Gah!" Skullius felt like he had woken up from a nightmare. Things were teetering on success and grim failure.

'I should surrender it,' he thought and a large key he had hardly used appeared in his hand only to disappear in a flash.

The Penetrators made a valiant effort to strike with all they had and Araeyn even attempted to force the Deity to release Skullius, but it didn't work.

The enemy, however emotional, was still lucid, as it turned out.

<DO YOU THINK I MARKED THAT WORLD FOR NAUGHT BUT MY MASTER'S GLORY?!> the Deity growled, and glared in Araeyn's direction, even though he was packed behind many layers of space, hidden. The question was aimed at him. The Apostle received a large key and streaked away from the glare.

...!!!

At almost the exact same moment, realisation dawned on Skullius too late, not that he could have done anything about it.

The Deity wasn't stupid.

He had marked Aigas for more than a simple duty of servitude to his master, it seemed!

...

Skullius' ears had heard enough loud crashes and CRACKS too much for the average living being. He had even begun to think no noise could ever surprise him anymore, but the contorting of a Null Remnant as a Deity suddenly forced itself through while rushing to a place it had marked... was something beyond the word 'noise.'

The sound twisted Skullius' skin and curled his limbs. The Miscarried Levin Compound Islands vanished as the Deity charged, as though cast into some dark waste bin behind them. The grating noise temporarily took away Skullius' ability to think.

When he did regain it, he found himself and the Deity in a boundless wad of thick darkness littered with an assortment of giant objects glowing in different colours.

There were anchors, there were shields, there were anvils, there were swords, there were ships, there were cards and many, many other things. They all hummed, their hues intensifying by the second.

Skullius, bleeding and battered but mending, found hope.

Even though he didn't need to, he shrieked anyway.

"NOW!!!!"

But, of course, Kenno had already been prepared.

Indeed, Skullius and the Deity were back in the latter's marked territory, Aigas, but Kenno's Territory was also in Aigas. They had returned to exactly the point they left from.

Kenno had sacrificed a large number of Creeds, just as Skullius had told him, for what came

next.

The Retainers his master had left in his Territory, reinforced with Amras and not mana, had a

purpose.

When Skullius had filled Kenno's Territory with darkness earlier, it was all to amplify the effect of a Seed he had imbued in the Noboboyama called the Womb.

The Womb kept any non-living construct of modest size from falling apart as long as it wasn't split into more than a hundred pieces. The Seed, of course, responded best to constructs made of [Evil Darkness] or [Just Light]. This was why Kenno's Territory had not fallen apart when it was slashed by the Deity. It had been melded with [Evil Darkness]. This, along with the use of a massive number of Creeds, allowed Kenno full control of every element in the Territory temporarily, even his master's Phantasmic Retainers.

The Gajjkav, its draconian maw open, bulked and devoured the Doom Knight and Skullius almost immediately after they appeared.

Kenno's vomited blood. The speed required to pull everything off seamlessly was only achieved because of his sacrifice of Creeds and a little bit of luck. A normal mortal wouldn't

have managed it.

But as strained as his body was, he didn't allow himself the luxury of collapsing.

The next step needed doing.

His Territory unravelled right then, leaving only him and the Phantasmic Retainers.

The rest for now - was left for the three individuals bolting towards the Gajjkav with near

desperate intensity.