Bro, I'm not an Undead!-Chapter 1654: Beyonders (4)

’That bastard!’

Skullius could hardly believe that he’d been screwed over like that. The armour was gone? Why had Future Skullius taken it? What was he supposed to do now? How would he bring this abomination behind him to heel?

Something above the Sovereign shuddered right then. While he was planted like a root down here, his enemies were evolving with his property.

Fulgardt had just seized a scroll. It willingly unraveled for him, likely because of the fresh traces of Ju`wtte around him. The information written on it spilled into him, and he digested it greedily. It was so easy, so swift because on top of the Litte within the Second Layer of the Hatcher, Fulgardt was using his [Just Light] to accelerate his body even more. Not to mention, his Mastered Void Gate Aspect, Reach was constantly... reaching.

He was also learning how to better use the basic properties of his elements – [Just Light] and [Evil Darkness]. With each step of progress he made, his body was put under a treacherous burden, but some of that had already been offset by the spoils from Listafelle’s death – AKH Units; Fulgardt had ascended on his path with Divinity, which made him stronger as a Divine.

’Fascinating. Fascinating, indeed!’ he thought, grinning. He spotted Boron and Quintess snatching scrolls for themselves.

The scrolls didn’t unravel as they did for him, but still, the frightful energies bounding around them did something for the Deities.

Fulgardt narrowed his eyes at Boron. ’What’s his deal? He made some kind of Barter earlier. Something’s changed.’

As it so happened, Susu’k had this concern as well. He had tried warning Skullius about it earlier.

"Forget about the armour, master. You need to worry about that man – the Deity with the halberd," he told Skullius, who had turned to inspect Tycha’s bowl-shaped head, which was full of some substance that felt rather familiar.

’What?’

"He turned the faith of those mortals you placed here for safety. The instant he appeared, they became akin to his creations – devotees that view him as their god. It was an instant process. They are now contributing to his strength."

Skullius scowled. ’Is that right?’

He knew that Deities grew from creating worlds and feeding off of the living beings they made inhabit said worlds in some way, but could a couple million humans, beasts, and Sif really make a Deity that much stronger?

Susu’k answered that question immediately.

"It’s not just that, master. I feel some thick, unseen wad of his presence attempting to stretch fast and far – very far – out of the Bosom. I estimate its reach is impossibly vast. That man must have been using whatever this is before you brought him here. His strength – as a basic Deific organism – has already surpassed what the Warmoth achieved in his prime."

Skullius ground his teeth. That was... absurd.

Even with what he knew about beings in the Null Verse, like Caxellac – that they consciously shied away from Deific power because of the ’responsibilities’ it brought – it was still a fearsome thing that Boron had eclipsed the Warmoth in some facet of his strength.

’What does this mean then? Everyone I sent here is more or less devoted only to Suzamete, Quintess, and Listafelle. Did Boron create some mechanism that turns mortals from their Deities?’ Skullius thought. ’No. Apparently, he doesn’t even need to be near them.’

A frightening thought. How Boron could have achieved this was beyond Skullius. It felt like a reach to even assume so. But then again, Boron had been subject to the Acceleration. Why wouldn’t he be able to pull off impossible feats like Fulgardt when under the same inspiring conditions?

Just what were the limits of Deific power?

ZHUUUUM!

They were currently being defined above Skullius.

<Fulgardt...>

Quintess’ voice was rife with grief and fury.

But Fulgardt was laughing. "You don’t sound as high and mighty as before. Hypocrite! How can you call yourself a god when you can barely keep your emotions in check!"

Even as he mocked the Deity, however, the Immoral was wary.

Quintess’ Zu’sse had suddenly vanished. The inspiration from the scroll he’d grabbed was spurring him into a different combat style.

’Oh...’ Fulgardt realized then that Zu’sse couldn’t be used in tandem with Andori or Exotic Parlous Natures. Zu’sse was the condensation of Amras into a form where it could neither be seen nor felt conventionally. It became incompatible with other tools within the Common Reality Leagues. But now, Quintess had desublimated it.

...And this was how and why he suddenly began spamming Andori without giving his Amras well a chance to rest.

<Flyer!> he cried. It was a new version of an Andori he already possessed. His Amras shuddered out of him, forged the shape of a particularly ugly vulture with a wingspan that eclipsed the whole width of the Empyrean Hatcher.

When and how Quintess released the Flyer, Fulgardt didn’t know. Before he could fathom it, some part of Flyer’s immense wingspan had cut through him, serrated like the sharpest blade in Reality. It was a hefty blow that reached even Fulgardt’s soul. The damage sent his Broader Existence quivering.

...But two more attacks were already upon him as Quintess himself surged towards his location.

There was the Twitters, which, unlike the name, was hardly cute. Seven tiny Amras birds with long, curved beaks rushed to Fulgardt’s open belly and sank them into his flesh.

It was a certain kill move in his condition, Fulgardt knew.

<Does death feel like a trifle now?> Quintess cried. Fowler, a four-winged owl, went ahead of him, only just behind the Twitters. It was a lethal combination, but...

"Silence!" was Fulgardt’s retort. It wasn’t an empty command. "No more of your sobbing!"

He too had drawn secrets from a scroll. Silence was one of them. Fulgardt didn’t know what type of power it was, but he used it anyway.

Suddenly, everything was quiet. No sounds came from Quintess as he spoke, or from his rapid streak towards Fulgardt.

There was nothing but quiet.

In that silence, Fulgardt kicked off the incoming Fowler and sent himself spinning towards another scroll, which unraveled for him. He silently exhaled an exhausted breath, however. The Twitters were absorbing the vitality of his soul.

In a few moments, his soul would grow so weak that it wouldn’t be able to keep the balance required with the body to sustain his Broader Existence’s safety. And as it so happened, there was no healing the open cavity on him quickly enough to prevent this.

...But the new scroll had a solution.

Silently, Fulgardt left a series of convincing after-images as he zoomed away from Quintess’ line of sight. Space broke between each successive afterimage, unable to handle what he was doing with his feet.

Fulgardt harnessed microbursts of sound so powerful that they propelled him at speeds even Deities couldn’t keep up with. He released them from his feet and allowed them to race through his body in order to break apart the Twitters.

It worked, but at the same time, Fulgardt’s body wasn’t strong enough to handle the tremulous vibrations. By the time he stopped, he was in tatters, like a flesh rag barely held together by strings of darkness and light.

...Yet he was grinning.

There was no greater pleasure than this.

There was no greater pleasure than humbling false gods and obtaining a deeper understanding of yourself at the same time.

As it happened, though, it wasn’t just Fulgardt enjoying himself.

He never did hear it, but Boron cried:

<That’s the way, indeed! Let’s enjoy this while we can!>

...And then he marked the Second Layer of the Empyrean Hatcher as his own.