The words ignited the Troops. The eagerness already eating away at them from the inside because of how they had fared in the ordeal they had to help thwart on Aigas fed into their resolve, informing what choices they made. Some of them adopted a healthier form of greed and grabbed more Treasures, while others, noticing how Skullius looked at them, revised their initial choices.

Pherdanta gave a smile as she watched Gerriey scramble along with the rest. That desperation… It was healthy, she knew.

"Master," she suddenly said, and Skullius turned to her, "why didn't you offer us Treasures too?"

The Hybrid Warmoth had known the question would come. He also knew that Pherdanta didn't really need an answer. Smiling, he gave it anyway.

"That would be an insult to you, wouldn't it?"

Pherdanta nodded with a soft chuckle. That meant a lot to her. Her and the other Stars' recent growth would probably be derailed if they started resorting to using other artefacts for combat, no matter how powerful they were.

…But then, Pherdanta wondered: what exactly did Skullius mean when he said that the Treasures were only a temporary measure? What else did he have in store?

"Alright then," said the Null Devil King. "I'll leave you to it, Commander. Ah, I assume you evacuated the recruits from the Box, right?"

"Yes. I moved them to Amanas."

"Perfect. I'll be retreating into the Box for a while. I'm sure you can handle yourselves for a while, right?" As Pherdanta gave a sharp nod, Skullius turned to Elita.

"You can count on us," said the Void User with a nod. "You do what you need to."

Soon after making one last thorough scan of the Troops, Skullius left the hall and streaked to the partition dividing it from the great welding platforms. He activated the hexagonal seal planted on the floor and slipped into the Timemould Mirror Box.

The space, boundless and pristine, could be used to generate an infinite series of conscious replicas, animate or otherwise. On top of that, as its name suggested, it could be used to compress time, something Skullius had only recently learned was because the Warmoth was capable of wielding Conste, an aspect of the |Greater Cosmic Law| that governed Consternals and times.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.1186.)

"Now," said Skullius. "Two days should be optimal. I can't go beyond that, just in case everyone needs me."

When Skullius had left Aigas, the timer on Doom Factor 2 said that he had seven days before he was slated to go insane. In the great void, this number didn't really have any meaning, even though Skullius could define it by Reality's standards.

'I've isolated some aspect of Doom Factor 2 into SoSei. Even if it's triggered, those side effects will manifest inside that artefact instead of me,' he thought. 'It's no longer a roulette, though, since Fulgardt is no longer attached to it, but still, that's fine. I'll slow down the counter by compressing two days worth of time into one. I should get some work done in that time.'

The Timemould Mirror Box allowed the user to compress up to a year's worth of time into a day, but the downside was that, in exchange, they needed to spend a certain additional amount of time in the Box. The only time adjustment exempt from this rule was compressing two days worth of time into one, which was why Skullius had chosen it. He wouldn't have wanted to be sealed in the Box for an additional amount of time while they were traversing the great void.

Swiping his hand over his head, Skullius revealed Tycha, which he'd hidden as usual with [Evil Darkness].

The Divine Apostle now had an official name, a simple one. Apexis.

In Boron's native tongue, this meant Pinnacle of Nature, or Summit of the Unknown. Skullius thought it was fitting, given Tycha's powers, not to mention his appearance – the multiple arms pointing in different directions and the bowl-shaped head floating over its torso, which was supposed to house the Apostle's Focused Null Life Ota.

Speaking of that…

"Apexis, your regeneration of Focused Null Life Ota is ridiculously slow. What's the difference between the Focused Null Life Ota you produce and the original kind?" Skullius asked.

…And indeed, Tycha could speak. Before Skullius had tamed him, the Apostle had tried to convince Skullius to relinquish control of his own body and allow it to take him over using its Focused Null Life Ota.

"I apologize, my Liege," said the Apostle in a soft but loud voice. "I operate optimally only when attached to someone formidable – someone of your stature. Without your input, I can only reproduce a negligible morsel of Ota per day."

"We've established that. Go on," said Skullius irritably.

"As to your question, the kind of Ota I operate on is exactly 1,200 times more refined than the natural kind. It is flexible enough to be used as a fuel, and not just for reinforcement."

"Alright. How do I go about helping you make more?"

Skullius had expended Apexis' reserves when he fired a Railing at Boron, which required 7 units of Ota. Now, the Apostle only had 2 units left, not nearly enough to use for anything significant.

"There are three ways, my Liege," said Apexis. "The first is probably the simplest. Conversion. I can convert your immense reserves of Null Life Essence to Focused Null Life Ota tailored to my needs."

Skullius mulled it over. It made sense. With Weaver's help, he'd condensed and refined Null Life Essence into the original kind of Focused Null Life Ota, so what Apexis proposed should have been possible. And unlike that time, Skullius had infinitely more Null Life Essence now because of his status as an Authority of the Null Verse – a 5 billion percent buff to his reserves.

He had two hundred and twenty-nine quadrillion, four hundred trillion units of Null Life Essence!

"How much would you be able to generate if you converted all my reserves?" Skullius asked the Apostle.

"I'm afraid not much, my Liege," said Apexis with an apologetic tone.

Skullius was baffled. He folded his arms. "How much?"

"0.229 units."

The Hybrid sighed.

A part of him wanted to say he was being ripped off, but he knew that this probably made sense.

One of the Null Life species that made up Apexis was the Supreme Qualifier Amamm, a creature with the ability to grant its user multiple cheat advantages, including the ability to manipulate Null Life Essence on a level equal to that of a Nulliergrapher. This effectively meant the user could generate Focused Null Life Ota on their own.

However, Null Verse Authorities of the past grew to regard the Amamm as inconsequential, despite what it provided, but they still valued the Cabbaline Chalice of Exceedance and Exodus, another one of the creatures making up Apexis. This particular species allowed them to banish entire realms they didn't want in their territories, and that was without even accounting for the other abilities it gave. They valued that immensely.

Apexis required its own refined Focused Null Life Ota to fuel abilities like that – the kind Authorities would kill for. That alone justified the price.

"Fine. What are the other ways?" Skullius said.

"As for those, both are rooted in collecting what I would like to call Primordial Mass?"