Bro, I'm not an Undead!-Chapter 1660: Authority, Honour, Judgement (3)

The Sovereign’s Judgement, Garmma Mail was also a fourth-dimensional enigma, a suit of armour that also fit the description of a secondary body worn by Skullius. Fulgardt hadn’t seen it, but the Sovereign had had to climb into its fold when its back opened up like some mechanical maw.

A beautiful thing it was, a mix of scarlet and gold throbbing over most of its parts – all gleaming like the sun. From the four bright white slots on the helm for Skullius’ eyes, four black protrusions slid outward to form four dark wings – two on either side of the helm. Above them, two great golden horns rose and curled to the back of the helm.

The four gauntlets on the armour were a deep black, eerie and repulsive, as were the greaves and boots. Large black pores lined the center of the chest, the back, the shoulders, and parts of the greaves, spurts of agitated Enlightened Ju’wtte spilling from them.

Remarkable as all this was, the Garmma Mail left room for the large spine around Skullius’ waist. It complemented the thing perfectly, giving the Sovereign, the Herald, rather, a distinguished, malevolent look.

...But it wasn’t just the aesthetics.

The Garmma Mail exuded a pressure that, like Zu’sse, forced the user’s opponents to feel a cold sensation – a manifestation of dread and powerlessness that turned bravery to staunch, wimpy sobriety. The effect was multiplied because the Kharnio-Glyss and Storm Baker were also in Skullius’ possession.

Even Tycha shuddered. Something changed about his demeanor. Skullius noticed but was not at all surprised. After all, together, the three Great Revelations...

[You have retrieved all three Revelations! You now have full access to fourth-dimensional qualities!] 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Fulgardt couldn’t find a balance between his hatred, fear, and admiration for Skullius at that moment. He didn’t remember looking at something or someone and having such a polarizing opinion of them. What in the world was he even fighting?

’I thought I’d figured him out...’ he said to himself.

BOOOM!

Demesne of Maximum Fatality shattered gracelessly. With its master gone, it couldn’t sustain itself or the captive within it. Quintess was still fresh on fury. He must have been too far gone. He took one look at Skullius, maximized his output of Zu’sse, and stormed towards him.

Skullius noted his approach. He’d been forewarned. Furthermore...

[The enemy is collapsing mentally from grief at a tremendous rate. Their stability as a Deific force is faltering...]

The Sovereign hadn’t needed the Miniature Wartime Guidance System to perceive this weakness.

’A pity...’ he said, glanced at a stunned Fulgardt... and then he was gone.

The Kharnio-Glyss sent shuttles of Ju`wtte through both gauntlets he wielded it with. The ferocious blow it had absorbed from Quintess before was transmuted into raw speed charges for the Garmma Mail!

Ju`wtte burst from the pores on the armour, allowing Skullius to travel faster than even the most accomplished Deity could perceive. In far less than a blink, he was high above Quintess and Fulgardt. They didn’t spot him until a second later, when he’d made the decision to hide the Kharnio-Glyss and Storm Baker. Now all four of his hands were free, and he directed all his attention to Quintess.

"I’m giving you one shot. Hit me with all your grief," he said to the Deity.

Fulgardt was confused. Quintess was too angry to think, but he did as Skullius said anyway.

He was already spewing all his grief at the Sovereign. He was pushing everything at him. Everything. Striding across the open space, he turned into a rising blur that wrought many afterimages, printing himself across time temporarily. His Zu’sse reached the summit, destabilizing the workings of the Second Layer of the Hatcher. He pulled back his arm. It could have imploded from all the power he infused into it. It was everything, Skullius knew.

...And he could sympathize.

He’d never had any particular score to settle with Quintess. In the current battle, they simply had conflicting interests, but even then, Skullius hadn’t explicitly desired to kill him. He had not anticipated Quintess to grieve so deeply for Listafelle either. She must have meant a lot to him.

That fact... resonated with Skullius.

The responsibility of a Divine, the responsibility of the strong, was to take on sacrifices and the burden of those sacrifices, as Elita had said. But Skullius realized...

’I can also choose to take on the burdens of grief from others, and not just from mortals.’

Yes. That sounded about right. He had the power to take it now, didn’t he?

Yes, that would be his truth.

...And that was why he met Quintess’ grief with unparalleled might.

He cocked back two of his arms and stormed down to meet the Deity after jets of Ju`wtte fired from the pores on the back of the Garmma Mail.

The suit of armour’s exclusive ability was to abuse the power of Benighted Ju`wtte to its limit. That was why its gauntlets were black, already livid with it. While adorning the Garmma Mail, Skullius could access an infinitely deep, infinitely varied damage output, as long as he used his gauntlets to deliver it!

Quintess’ fist rose like a flash of light, and his fell like two black streaks.

But the blows never met.

Ten meters of distance remained between the two. A black star emerged there, crackling with Benighted Ju`wtte, contending with the blanket of Zu’sse coming from Quintess.

BZZZZZT!

The world was dyed in darkness, and sound was stolen from its folds for a picosecond that seemed to last for an eternity. The Bosom, the Treasury and the Vault shuddered, along with every living, sentient thing within them. Each and every one of them felt the clash of Divine powers and was instantly forced unconscious.

...But then so was Quintess.

The raw might from Skullius’ fists hit him so hard that his mind shut down in order to protect him from the hurt that followed.

He had lost the exchange before it even started.

’Rest now,’ Skullius thought.

...And then Quintess vanished from his sight like a poor transition. He quite literally warped across the distance between himself and the floor of the Second Layer (which could hardly be discerned at all). When he reached it, he breached it so quickly that it didn’t register the damage for a full second. By the time he hit the floor of the First Layer, Quintess’ body was gone, and half of his soul was a mess, burning, smoking, and stunned by tendrils of Ju`wtte.

The rest of the cascading damage following that didn’t concern Skullius. Judging by Susu’k’s silence, he imagined it could be fixed.

He took a breath and looked at his gauntlets. They were completely unharmed, and he felt like he could go a couple more rounds of fights on the same level as the clash just now. The phantoms were laughing and cheering amongst themselves, beaming at the fruit of their work.

Caxellac’s body, soul, billions of units of Null EXP, and Serenity’s insights had made this possible.

"Now, who’s next?" said Skullius, and he looked down at a flabbergasted Skullius and Boron.