Bro, I'm not an Undead!-Chapter 1439 : When I Return...

Skullius could only sigh. He could have sworn he had received at least a million threats in his lifetime. Some of them had been true and consequential, to be sure, but he begged to differ with the Blood-Risen Emperor's current one.

While he couldn't access his War Body fast enough if the Authority were to attack, he wouldn't die so abruptly - so easily. Not in his current state.

If he could bring just his nigh-inexhaustible reserves of Null Life Essence to the wider reality, he wouldn't even worry about the Primeval Deities anymore.

'If I could do that… I could definitely break free from the Common Reality Leagues entirely…' he thought.

But in truth, Skullius wasn't feeling too confrontational at the moment. He didn't think any tension so potent that it would lead to the destruction of the Null Verse would erupt either. He was sure Thorrn wasn't so conceited that he would actually try to kill him.

If there was anything Skullius had learned from Caxellac, it was that the Authorities were as multi-dimensional as any ascended being. What you saw, usually wasn't what you got. The BoneTender had certainly learned that lesson the hard way.

"Look," he said with a sigh. "Even if you contest the idea of me taking Caxellac's place, I doubt you have any say in the matter at all. Your Territory is the North, isn't it? The only ones who have the right to contend against me taking ownership of the East, Caxellac's territory, are his kin. They have a kind of a monarchy, right? Technically, I qualify to claim Caxellac's Dominion since I'm the one who killed him."

Thorrn lost some of his passion.

He must have been baffled by the fact that Skullius knew more than he imagined about the rights of the Authorities and their Territories… and also the fact that it was Skullius who killed Caxellac.

Indeed, Caxellac must have been at least half a million times weaker outside the wider reality - he had broken one of Serenity's Principles, after all - but Thorrn still found it hard to believe that he lost to the creature before him.

Skullius knew that would come as a shock. He had had enough of admitting how powerful Caxellac actually was or should have been in his own head. He grimaced every time he thought about it.

"Cheap," said Thorrn. "But it seems true. I sense parts of the Warmoth and Caxellac's soul in you. What have you done with it, I wonder? Ah… I see. You actually used it to bolster yourself in some wretched way. Crafty. As expected of a Nullmancer," The Authority drifted closer to Skullius and circled around him. "Somehow it fits. That fool Caxellac was obsessed with the Colossus Warmoth, always crying about how he missed his chance to interact with the legend. He must have been itching to spar with you if you had traces of that old calamity. He indulged you too much."

"He did," Skullius admitted. "But I still killed him just as he unleashed his Mors Serene Grace on me."

This… took Thorrn aback.

"You're lying," he said, his voice suddenly rigid. "Even with limited Null Life Essence reserves, the likes of you couldn't have survived such an expression of Null Life... unless you have already mastered your own."

It was Serenity's turn to let out a chuckle of amusement.

"That would have been more believable, wouldn't it?" she said to Thorrn. "But Caxellac was defeated by an attack that barely touched the bounds of Divinity. His faith and obsession in the Warmoth was justified in the end."

She didn't elaborate, opting to agitate Thorrn further.

Only she and Skullius knew why the former survived Caxellac's ultimate attack, Mors Serene Grace, Erudite.

It was because of the intense regeneration ability afforded by the Ju`wtte.

While unsatisfied, Thorrn didn't press for a better answer nor did he continue calling the explanation he had been given a lie.

"Then I suppose I underestimated you. But it was only fitting," he said to Skullius. "Yet, why do you give me the impression that you don't, in fact, want to claim Caxellac's Dominion despite all your blabbering?"

"Because I don't. I don't belong here… yet. And I have matters to deal with outside the Null Verse. I was just paying my home a visit. I will return someday, and when I do, let's hope you won't contend with me when I take a position I please," Skullius said.

Serenity, immensely pleased with the Hybrid Warmoth's declaration, pulled him and everyone else except Unnio Lak up. It was time to leave.

Thorrn laughed.

"You might just be a good replacement for Caxellac," he said before Skullius warped away with the rest. "At the very least, you just might create the right kind of chaos here. Stimulating chaos."

"He will," Serenity said to him as a final word.

Thorrn scoffed and in a blink, the bloated space shrank and he vanished.

Unnio Lak gave a wave as he returned to his padoga. It might have been any other day here in the Spellwelt Cluster for him. Skullius heard him muttering something about wishing there wouldn't be any more visitors in another century.

'Damned hermit.'

Soon, the group was heading for the Empyrean Bosom.

When the vast space of the Null Verse was disappearing from sight, Skullius felt his immense powers washing away. By the time they all appeared in that sophisticated space where they had to tumble every now and then, he felt a quarter of a million times weaker, frail even.

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'In the end, the only thing I used all that power for was to stand off against an Authority and exchange words. Should I have fought him, just to make use of that Null Life Essence?' Skullius wondered. It wasn't logical, he knew, but still…

He felt a difference in his Null Life Essence, however; a massive difference. But while exploring it, Sila interrupted him.

"If I was still a mere soul roaming through your body, I probably would have wet myself from all that. Reality is much wider than I thought. Rayn, I could handle, heck even Fulgardt I can handle, but that endless space and all its inexplicable horrors…" he said, shivering.

"You have no shame," Skullius said to Sila. "Serenity is right here."

It was a joke, but no one laughed.

"Those horrors are what make the Null Verse what it is. They certainly beat out those Void unintentionally spawns within her body," Serenity said.

"I have no doubt about that," Skullius said. "Anyway, was Thorrn right? Did you really mask our presence when we arrived in the Null Verse? I mean, I understand why, but…"

"Yes, I did, but it's hard to hide from an Authority while you are in their territory. I had hoped I could keep up the secrecy, but well… The Authorities are always testing their mettle. I knew they would try it with you. But you handled yourself well."

Skullius shrugged.

"I'm almost numb to surprises and freakish powers by now," he said.

And indeed, Skullius was.

But he didn't expect the triple stack of surprises that was waiting for him back in Aigas. The first – ominously enough – would finally shape the ideals that he had been agonizing over since arguing with Kintar and Elita.