Bro, I'm not an Undead!-Chapter 1540: Catch These Hands... Again! (1)

Fulgardt watched patiently as the trio transformed, but not because he was supremely confident that he’d be able to deal with Skullius and his Apostles no matter what they did.

No.

The Immoral studied how Skullius applied [Evil Darkness] here.

He was true to his word. Like he said earlier, he spared Skullius because the idea of creating a successor, another Insurgent Magnus had never crossed his mind. Skullius had simply proven to be a specimen capable of attempting to reach his heights while wielding the darkness and light. Well, perhaps it wasn’t even Skullius’ utilisation of the Insurgent Magnus powers that attracted Fulgardt, but instead how they influenced him as an individual. On some level, Skullius was Fulgardt and Fulgardt was Skullius.

It was a fundamental truth.

Surely, there was something to be learned from their complex connection.

Fulgardt narrowed his eyes.

Yes, there was much he could learn indeed.

The scene unfolding before him reminded him of... himself.

The memories Fulgardt extracted from the WILLS showed him what happened to his future self – how he was punished for trying to escape AKHASHA’s system by way of a contract with another Primeval Deity. Back then, he’d been loyal to everything within the Common Reality Leagues.

Was Skullius the same?

Beyrmir came out the other end of the gargantuan gate, monstrous. He no longer looked like the Mercurian Long Snout Legend. The mercury over his body seemed to be wreathed in blazing blotched black flames. His entire frame was way thinner, his four wings longer, but somehow porous, as though his form wasn’t entirely real.

His eyes remained the same, however. They looked down on Fulgardt with their unique gleam, the eight-point-star-shaped pupils within each, promising madness.

Similarly, Eternity’s Weaver was changed by his gate.

He grew gangly, his figure losing all semblance of goblinhood. With black firing from him as well, he looked more like the grim reaper with a giant staff and a stylish gentlemanly hat floating over his head. His eyes had become large points of white radiance with no details, making him look even more haunting.

But he wasn’t as haunting as his master, of course.

Skullius’ change was a little modest.

Often, when Physiques reacted to similar Andori or Natures, they caused uncanny benefits for the user. Skullius had seen such benefits rather recently.

After acquiring the Immortal Realm Physique, Expanded Shadow Fiend’s Leather, it had paired very well with his darkness powers and given him a kind of armour during his battle with the Doom Knight. Needless to say, that had been very significant against the high attack power of the subdued Deity.

What Skullius acquired in this case was different, however.

As [Evil Darkness] bathed him, what emerged on his body wasn’t some kind of armour. He grew thinner, much like his Apostles, and a little taller, with darkness firing like flames around him, but he retained the bulk of his colours – his honey-coloured hair and his coin grey skin.

Earrings hung from his ears, shaped like the Stark Constellation, and a large, black scarf that worked part-time as a small cape appeared around his neck. The night turned brighter in the face of the present Skullius as though giving reverence to his power over the darkness.

On this half of Aigas, it started to look like dawn.

Fulgardt furrowed his brows.

’He’s defining darkness in his own way. I see. The Andori does the heavy lifting for him. He himself is yet to understand [Evil Darkness] to the point of interpreting and shaping it with his own hands,’ he noted before grinning at Skullius.

"Do you really think you can beat me by using my powers through an Andori?" he said.

"I guess we are about to find out," said Skullius, and he got into a fighting stance again.

...But before Fulgardt could establish his own lethal stance, he sensed a shuttle of Null Life exploding from Weaver and then...

WAAAAA!

Half of Edagon had become a colossal, spiked glacier that towered into the skies, issuing bursts of cold steam. Rings of runes and arrays danced within it, all pointing towards Fulgardt, who was stunned deep within. For that one instant, he was truly immobilised.

Before that instant was even half gone, Skullius was upon him, phasing through the ice to reach him. A dark projection of Fulgardt swiftly rose from his body to guard against Skullius’ attack for his sake, but that didn’t deter nor cause Skullius to veer off his original plan for this moment.

It was a fist he intended to land on Fulgardt, and he managed it.

Ju`wtte filled his hand and as he punched the Projection... it blew apart, along with Fulgardt’s armour and shoulder and neck and jaw. The ice exploded only half a fraction of an instant later. Aigas scrambled from the force.

Fulgardt went flying, but Beyrmir was there to receive him. Condensing himself into a smaller form, he zoomed towards the Immoral while honing the properties of another one of his Classes: the Tempered Skull Hegemon; it was a Class that enhanced the physical properties of its host.

Fulgardt, frowning, had yet to even consider healing when a fist thrice as large as his body slammed into him.

A vicious, debilitating wave ran through his flesh. His cloak of darkness couldn’t stop Beyrmir’s power either. He was changed, after all.

As he stormed down, his body trembling, a white rune suddenly locked onto his chest.

Fulgardt didn’t know it, but it was MYTH level Rune imbued with Null Life Essence, its purpose to halt the target forcefully. Naturally, said target bore the brunt of the consequences for suddenly resisting their momentum, which was why Fulgardt was a split moment late in realising the next attack that came for him.

He had only just figured that the rune was Weaver’s work when Skullius flashed in and struck him with a lariat while speeding at more than a hundred times the speed of light!

Fulgardt slammed into the ground.

It was terrifying how much the one Ascendant Andori Skullius was using had completely turned the tide of the battle. The results were so frightening that deep within Suzamete’s domain, the Deitess’ face grew strained.

She was expending energy to keep Aigas whole, more than she had initially thought would be necessary for this part of the battle.

Compared to what was to come, this was nothing, but all the same, the strain on her was immense.

Edagon came just short of disintegrating when Fulgardt slammed into it, but he quickly did a kip-up and found his footing. His eyes traced his enemies, sharp focus within them.

Skullius noticed. He made Beyrmir return to the skies.

The Apostle soared and grew gargantuan again. Unfortunately, he couldn’t use his Spirit Walker Class while transformed by the darkness; a heavy and frankly, unexpected trade-off.

His scales began opening wide one after the other, and seven hundred objects began falling towards Skullius, all of them wrapped in darkness blazing like fire.

"How about round 2, Fulgardt? Come on," the Hybrid Warmoth said as he caught two of the gifts Beyrmir had sent him. "I have a good feeling about a clash of blows this time around."

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