A hint of serenity – of drowsiness…

Fulgardt ignored it again, much more concerned by the slip of paper he'd seen just now instead.

'What was that?' he thought, balancing his panic and confusion with all the strategies he was sharpening inside his mind.

But he didn't stop to think. Skullius was upon him again.

'No matter!'

The Immoral sprouted two additional arms using darkness and reinforced them with Voided Death Essence. With his original pair, he kept pulling at the Ju`wtte he'd already seized, drawing more and more of it from Skullius and funneling it through his body. With the extra arms, he countered Skullius' charge.

'Whatever you think you have won't matter now!' The Immoral was rejuvenated. Ju'wtte empowered his body, but only for a miniscule instance.

In that instance, he managed to catch Skullius' fierce attack for the first time, gripping the Hybrid's wrist, twisting and warding it away.

…And then his body burst apart from the raw ferocity of the Ju`wtte before another form of him appeared.

'No matter! I will use each instance of my immortality to attack and defend!' thought Fulgardt as he did the same thing again, channeling Ju`wtte through his new body, defending from Skullius' attacks and bursting. 'Fascinating. Using Ju`wtte externally is immensely different from using it for reinforcement. There's a racial prerequisite. A different species of Null Lifeform would be hard-pressed using it, not to mention a Voided Deathform like me.'

But Skullius hardly seemed surprised or shocked by Fulgardt's moves and counters. He swung his arms in wide arcs, closed in, and landed a quick blow before Fulgardt defended. The uppercut launched the Immoral upwards, but he remained determined.

His staunch senses were involuntarily taking in the expectant emotions burrowing from the denizens of the Hall. Those experts couldn't see anything. They didn't know what the outcome would be, but they were livid with joy and prospect.

'You all deserve a more macabre fate for hoping!' Fulgardt thought, expanding his boundary of [Just Light], catching several more of Skullius' blows, and avoiding the rest as he paradoxically danced between life and death. 'I'll rid you all of your immortality, and then you'll become collateral. You'll miss the climax and expire down to the very sins that put you here instead!'

Another hint of serenity pulsed through Fulgardt when he miscalculated a blow from Skullius and got his face busted in. What was that – that feeling of sleepiness that settled in deep within whenever he got caught by the brat's blows?

…!

And what was that page?!

Indeed, he saw it again right then, flitting from his arm and into the air when he swatted away Skullius' kick with a Ju`wtte-empowered palm. Half a page. It flew straight into Skullius, who was becoming increasingly predictable with his attacks.

Was that mockery?

What were these unusual, inexplicable phenomena?

Nothing scared Fulgardt more than the things he couldn't even find an inkling of an explanation for.

'I'll run out of the Ju`wtte I stole from him at this point!' he thought, distancing himself while remaining within the range of his light. 'It's now or never. Don't hesitate!' He told himself. 'Do it and don't look back!' He convinced himself. 'Don't regard any of it – pride, flaws, mistakes, names. Cast them all away and trudge forward!'

He expelled the Ju`wtte inside him and wielded it outside of his body. At the same time, he prompted the Phantasmic Retainer Skullius had brought, with his (Fulgardt's) soul sealed inside. It warped towards Skullius in a raging charge. If it managed to distract the Hybrid for even a breath, that would be enough.

Fulgardt pulled and weaved the Ju`wtte, recalling that sensation from earlier, when he was just fresh off the acceleration of his mind prompted by Litte. Ju`wtte had spatial properties – targeted spatial properties. That was why it was able to carve out a gateway towards the Warmoth's Bosom, the Vault, or the Treasury.

Refining it and condensing it perfectly, just as well as one of the Warmoth's Keys would, Fulgardt began carving out the gateway to the Empyrean Bosom again.

It was monstrous talent and technique.

'And now…!'

He prompted the Phantasmic Retainer that had crashed into Skullius to explode. Abundant volumes of [Just Light] and [Evil Darkness] saturated it and recreated a reaction that had almost ended Aigas just hours ago.

An erroneous fusion of darkness and light that the 'possessed Festos' had detonated earlier erupted.

It wouldn't be enough to kill Skullius – not by a long shot – but it would bury everything. It was rigged to destroy the denizens of the Hall of Fulgardt, the other prisoners, and even Fulgardt's brother, stripping them all of their immortality. It would bury Fulgardt's very roots!

BOOOM!

The explosion came.

…But it wasn't the only thing to happen.

…!

The least daunting among the things that followed was how Fulgardt's ring of light was suddenly forced away. No. Rather, it was as though someone had forced him to release it by wrestling away his control of [Just Light] in an instant.

Fulgardt's face was marred with horror from just this… but it contorted into raw fear when he felt another sudden pinch of drowsiness deep inside him. It was stronger than before. It wasn't his mind that was abruptly yearning to sleep, but his ability to use his Class!

Did such a thing even have a consciousness?! 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The Immoral's Class abilities… fell asleep.

But most horrifying of all, was how the Ju`wtte Fulgardt had been mobilizing to warp into the Bosom, spilled back inside of him, and channeled itself into his nerves, cells, and bones, paralysing him.

'No…'

Fulgardt realized it instantly.

'You were…' He glared at Skullius with a mix of fear and awe. 'You…'

Skullius, meanwhile, had manifested a giant paper page that rushed to wrap the giant explosion of Fulgardt's Phantasmic Retainer, devouring it instantly and turning it into a Rune. As that happened, Skullius swiped over his head with one of his hands, revealing the Divine Apostle he had hidden away when he was fighting Boron.

Fulgardt's eyes trembled.

His Zero Sight Eye hadn't even been able to see through that, even though Fulgardt knew the mechanism by which Skullius had Tycha away – hiding it with darkness.

'Brat…!'

The Hall of Fulgardt repaired itself once more, and all the denizens within it were revived. They watched with rapt attention, disregarding their mending tendons and regenerating bones.

Fulgardt was simply stuck in place, his skin slightly aglow from the Ju'wtte racing through him. His face was making hideous contortions.

Skullius walked up to him, almost expressionless.

"You were playing with me the whole time…" he said with thinly veiled rage and bloodshot eyes.

"You, on the other hand," said Skullius, "really gave me everything – even the exact means to subdue you. As expected of a hypocrite and a sockethole." He gave a soft smile at Fulgardt's growl and scanned the spectators. Some of them were grinning, some laughing, others weeping.

When he faced Fulgardt again, his eyes turned misty. He was reminiscing.

"How did it feel, by the way?" he said. "I haven't employed Serenity damage in a long time."