Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1744: Harnessing Every Trace (1)

Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1744: Harnessing Every Trace (1)

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The Mobile Maverick Library was a subspace that moved along with Apexis (and by extension, Skullius) no matter where he was. According to the description by the Voice of Worlds, it was what the Warmoth used as a basis to create his three exclusive domains – the Empyrean Bosom, the Warmoth's Treasury, and the Pestilent Vault. Its nuances were deeper than what the Warmoth was able to create, though, which meant that it was more secure.

Because of that assurance of security, Skullius felt comfortable storing away all the information he extracted from enemies and allies in the form of books. In addition to Fulgardt's and Boron's, he had also extracted the information from all of his subordinates – the Stark Troops, the Stars, and the others. That was why there were already dozens of books in his library, each with a distinct cover.

Skullius pulled seven books and had them fly around him.

"Let's see here…" he said, and one of them opened up, the pages flipping rapidly. "Kintar." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The Stars had experienced the greatest depth of change among all of Skullius' subordinates and allies. The Hybrid already knew the broad strokes of what they had had to do to survive the masked man, but now that he had a bit of extra time, he could study exactly what they did. There was more than one benefit to that.

"This doesn't surprise me one bit," Skullius said, grinning. "I knew giving her that mana manipulation skill would level her up, but she went and blew my expectations out of the water. She created a new type of mana core aaaaand discovered how to use it to generate Divine energy – Genuine Divine energy. Given her prodigious talent with Magecraft, it's not too surprising that she went on to use that Divine energy to create Rules."

All the information was written in Kintar's style of speech, like an inner monologue narrating the events during her fight with Rias, but when Skullius immersed himself in reading through it, he could see flashes of the actual events from the pages.

"A Rule to make her nearly impossible to defeat in close-quarters combat, huh? What a vindictive sockethole. She really wanted to get physical with Rias." Skullius laughed. He read through the pages rapidly, only stopping when he reached the pith of Kintar's growth. "Another Rule – one that allowed her to understand how exactly the Deities of Aigas crafted humans. Hmm. All living things on Aigas are composed of Divine energy… so she broke her body down into that Divine energy and reconstructed herself, stripping herself of the limitations that bound her to Aigas' power system. Scary."

…And thus, Kintar was now a Realm Source Mage without being a Realm Source Mage. She could perform magic as though it were part of her biology and she stood above Aigas' power system; which allowed her to disable said power system in others, as she'd done to Nigerra.

Skullius' eyes twinkled.

"Interesting…" He closed Kintar's book and placed it back on the neat shelf within the Library. He took a moment to think. "This somewhat falls in line with what I want for all of them – reconstructing them entirely so that they don't have to fall under any camp of power – Common Reality Leagues or Existential Parallels."

But there were two problems: the means and… restrictions.

Skullius had a feeling that the instant the Primeval Deities, Void, and Emmae caught a whiff of what he was doing, they would step in. He wasn't afraid of them, though. Not at all. In fact, at present, he was sure he could hold his own against them, but…

"I'll cross that bridge when I get there," Skullius said. "For now, I need to fully flesh out exactly how I create something that is not bound to conventional Divinity while also being far beyond mortal limits."

He opened Pherdanta's book, twisting his lips.

"Fundamental Barter, huh? Unconscious Fundamental Barter at that." He clicked his tongue.

He didn't like how his subordinates were already tied to the Primeval Deity responsible for Barter, but then again, Skullius himself was too.

[Instant Embodiment of Perfection] was an Andori, but its ultimate result, the War Body, employed Fundamental Barter along with many other components far removed from conventional Divinity: billions of units of Null EXP; the body and soul of the previous Null Devil King; the cumulative and multiplicative power of his merging with a clone of himself; the combined ingenuity of his phantoms and Serenity, and no doubt, VOW's meddling.

That was why the War Body was absurdly strong…and also absurdly restricted.

'I guess there's no stopping Barter from influencing this at the very least. I just need to ensure that the Primeval Deity responsible won't mess up my plans.'

He continued reading. His eyes shone as did.

"All her abilities are summed up into one, huh? [Infinite Sword God, Sardonic Latitude], an ability that combines her slashing techniques and her Territory, making them exponentially more lethal." Skullius stroked his chin. "[Great Vein], a basic slash that resembles what my possessed self was using against me that time. [Great Sempiternal Vein]… Oh."

He saw the instant when this particular technique had been empowered by Fundamental Barter a second time. It was when Pherdanta was slashing Boron's halberd in an attempt to destroy it before it fell into the Deity's hands.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.1569.)

Skullius frowned. "That's dangerous. So that's why that halberd already had cracks on it before I destroyed it. A volley of slashes that can damage a Void rank Treasure… But it takes a toll on her. It saps a lot of stamina. The technique itself is hard to stifle once invoked. The slashes keep raining on the enemy greedily, even if the user doesn't want them to."

No doubt, this was Pherdanta's greatest asset, aside from perhaps her empowered Territory, Cogent Stark Order. By all means, it was far sturdier and more complex than a Territory. It resembled a world more than anything else. Within it, it was easier for Pherdanta to cut down even Divine opponents.

"And she can revive anyone who has been within the Territory before, though probably not consistently."

Other than these, and the Serpent's Grace, another facet of Pherdanta's technique that allowed her to predict her enemies' attacks based on their Amras, was [Universal Error].

"A slash that cuts immaterial targets. Hmmm." It was another technique that was impacted separately by Fundamental Barter.

"Interesting."

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