Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1247: Forging The Strongest... (2)



Skullius was becoming whole.

There was no Replicus, no damned fake, anymore.

Skullius recalled everything that happened since the day he split.

He recalled his trip to the Reacher Academy, where he learned to use Aura to combine skills.

He remembered the incident at the Bryne Estate, when Em-Sul's agents had stolen the Harmonic Ember.

He recalled the meeting with Darwel, the Sif Princess. How she explained bits about his powers, which had forecasted the path to his glorious skill, [Greatest Antiphon of Malignance].

He recalled how he trained with Alaris to become very proficient with the sword, how he hunted Clusters like a madman with Red Rage and eventually acquired god-like sword qualities after battling the giant goblin, Hobbu Gobbu.

He practically tasted the experience. How tantalising it had been to wield such power and how it had become the foundation for his infamous Supreme Skill, [Infinite Sword God: Primal Sword].

Skullius recalled the arrival of the BoneTender; his conversation with Aurolio on the Existential Parallels; the Premium Age Royale; his battle with Rayn; the encounter with Fulgardt in his Reflection of the Soul; his appearance on Opungale; his ultimatum with the Deity Luserus, creator of the Luminants, who had granted him three measly wishes; his meeting with Ashema; his battle against the Ode; the trip to Maqi; the preparations to fight against the fake; and his whole thought process up to the end of battle.

Ah...

This was enlightening. Terrifyingly so.

...But these memories were enhanced a millionfold by a stream of bits of knowledge that had been extracted from the WILLS of Fulgardt!

The WILLS carried pieces of Fulgardt's memories and ideals. They were essentially parts of his consciousness. Each one, depending on what it was called, drew Skullius towards certain memories - certain ideas - making him recollect things that he hadn't personally done or achieved, but felt bound to.

This was why his personality had started to change from the first time he had received the WILLS and gotten worse as time progressed.

But now, it was all just a blessing for the real Skullius, the one who had fully realised himself amidst trials, battles, death and companions beyond the Central Boundary of Aigas!

Now Skullius looked into Fulgardt's mind, and many, many secrets were revealed to him, beginning with something he had just wondered about: How Divinity was reached!

"So, that's why..." Skullius was dumbfounded.

Now, his possessed self's actions made sense. Too much sense!

During the battle, he had assumed that his alter was creating Masterpieces - people brought under his control through [Greatest Antiphon of Malignance] - across the timelines just so he could acquire an abundant number of Creeds, but there had been another meaning behind this action.

In fact...

...!!!

"So, that's why...in the Labyrinth of the Yoke...!" Skullius felt like he could detonate like a bomb.

He couldn't believe it!

What he saw back then, in the Hall of Fulgardt was no simple arrangement without purpose. The individuals who were gathered in that hall, forced to celebrate the end of Fulgardt while condemned by [Just Light] and [Evil Darkness] to immortality, were perfected versions of what Skullius had attempted to do with the Masterpieces earlier!

"To reach Divinity," Skullius said to himself, "the first requirement is to spread your essence across a large number of blessed living beings."

And indeed, Skullius remembered it as clearly as though it had been him who had been sitting across from the Giant Sause more than four millennia ago, tasting the secrets to power beyond that of mortals.

To reach Divinity, three conditions had to be met.

One of them was, an individual had to share a piece of themselves that was truly precious, with beings that were had received a blessing.

Fulgardt had chosen to do this with what was most precious to him: the power he claimed he received from the Wanderer Who Seeds: [Evil Darkness] and [Just Light]!

And...

Skullius' mind, which had been burning ecstatically under the prospect of many, wonderful possibilities shook.

Suddenly, cold fear rushed through him like Absolute Frost.

The Wanderer Who Seeds... was no figment of Fulgardt's imagination!

He - whatever he was - was real!

Skullius had no clear image of this entity, but from Fulgardt's powerful belief stowed within one particular WILL of his, he confirmed it.

The Fruit of World Myths was indeed not something from Aigas, and neither was it a relic taken from the great void.

Skullius wanted so badly to gulp hard, but he couldn't.

The only thing to crash through his crippling train of thought was the guidance field's chimes.

[A comparison of all relevant and related skills has begun]

[Mana-related skills compiled]

[Basic Null Life skills compiled]

[Racial skills - Hybrid Luman series - compiled]

[Racial skills - Null specie series - compiled]

[Class skills - Hybrid Luman series - compiled]

...

...

As the guidance field continued to churn out notification after notification, Skullius gathered

his wits.

'Let's not worry about the Wanderer just yet. I have no more information about him. If

Fulgardt's WILLS kept proliferating, I probably would have gotten more substantial evidence that he is, and with every description Fulgardt ever gave, real. But that's not important right

now,' he thought.

Indeed.

For now, he had to focus on the task at hand.

He should have been celebrating the fact that the first condition to reaching Divinity was already met with his alter's actions - with Fulgardt's actions.

As for the rest of the conditions, well...

[A mutation has been triggered between the compiled, mana-related skills: Super Skill 'Mana All-Father' and Special Skill 'Sorcery of Essence']

Two complex brands representing the two skills in question were suddenly attracted to each other. The Ju`wtte and Levin connecting them to everything else inched forward to make them

touch.

[The mutation process seeks to fuse and compound the skills into an optimal alternativ-]

"Prime! Stop the process now! Use Maximum Catalyst to freeze everything in place!" a phantom suddenly cried out to Skullius.

Skullius was a little startled.

"What?!"

"Just do it!"

Skullius didn't know if he could use his skills in his state - as a mere consciousness - but he

tried anyway.

He commanded the essence of Maximum Catalyst to explode outward and freeze everything

with [Neutral Maximum]!

Thankfully, it worked like a charm.

Even though his individual pieces were split, they responded to him just as quickly and effectively as they did when he was whole.

Before Skullius knew it, every aspect of the fusion process triggered by [Restless Storm Companion] was halted. The skills the guidance field had specified no longer moved to meet

in the middle.

Skullius heard the phantoms cheer.

"Are you going to tell me why you just made me do that?" he asked.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Ah, Prime. We told you. It's not really necessary for you to sweat the small stuff. Let us work

our magic," one answered.

"Yeah. We told you, didn't we? We don't want the result [Restless Storm Companion] is going

to create. We want something better."

"Right on! And with the knowledge we just got, you bet your sweet sockets we're looking at something even grander than we imagined previously. Isn't that right, Serenity?"

"Indeed. I am looking forward to this as well."

Skullius was surprised to hear Serenity answer.

Of course, after everything that was revealed through his memories, he too believed that something phenomenal was going to emerge from within the Empyrean Hatcher today, but what broader vision did his phantoms and Serenity have?

"To ensure the best result, we need to add things to the merging process. I'm especially interested in incorporating the Blessing that Luserus gave us - the one that we used to create the Stolen Angel - [Graceful Monolith of the Eminent]!"

"Let's get started already! Prime, expel everything in your personal storage now!" another

phantom said.

Skullius grumbled and did as he was told.

He had a special storage item he kept on his person at all times. A lot of special artefacts were stowed within it, but as he emptied out everything inside, he immediately got an inkling

about what his crazy phantoms were trying to do.

...!!!

"YOU CRAZY SONS OF SOCKETHOLES!" he shrieked, baffled.

"Look gentlemen. He's catching on," a phantom laughed.

But Skullius had every reason to call his phantoms crazy.

There were three items of interest in his storage that could reasonably be of interest to the

phantoms when paired with the context of the situation.

Caxellac's body.

Caxellac's soul.

...And the Legendary grade artefact, SoSei!