Bro, I'm not an Undead!-Chapter 1542: You Know Nothing, Brat

Fulgardt remembered the Apostle Beyrmir indeed. While his WILLS were bonded with Skullius’ body, he had garnered a potent hatred for the former dragon because he (Beyrmir) was almost solely responsible for his loss during that earlier fight.

It was Beyrmir who had traversed outside of Aigas to fetch the soul Festos had hidden away. That had been the crux of Replicus’ strategy for victory, after all: to return the soul into Festos’ body and force it into submission through the Stark Constellation.

Fulgardt hadn’t known much about Beyrmir’s abilities, but now, after being on the receiving end of them multiple times, he understood them.

The Apostle had the ability to create weapons with abilities tied to extremely high temperatures. After flying through the gate of darkness, this ability had been empowered. All the weapons the Apostle could create were even effective against Divines.

However, they shouldn’t have been effective against someone of Fulgardt’s calibre. Fulgardt himself had judged their lacking potency when the fire from that bladeless hilt had struck against him, but when the scissors had come, he had figured out exactly how Skullius intended to harm him with such trivial attacks.

Fundamental Barter. Of course it was!

The Nullmancer was using Fundamental Barter on each weapon he received to empower it exponentially five-fold. Fulgardt judged that Skullius used the same restrictions on each of them: that he (Fulgardt) was the only target for the effects, and that the weapon could only be used once, which was why Skullius didn’t use a single weapon multiple times.

The powers of each weapon were significantly improved, which was a great trade-off. Some of them even caused absurd, unreasonable phenomena that weren’t at all natural in worlds like Aigas. They were lethal indeed.

Crafty and inventive as this move by Skullius was, though, Fulgardt didn’t find it especially impressive. If anything, it made him wonder...

’How much do you know about Fundamental Barter, brat?’

The two Insurgent Magni shattered the ice from both sides using vicious attacks. They were practically clawing at it so they could meet, one of them invisible, the other...

"Gate!" Skullius cried and a large gate appeared in his path, similar to the ones Beyrmir and Weaver had gone through. When he whizzed through it, he came out the other side, faint as a ghost, and with more wisps of darkness bellowing from him like black fire. The original colours on him - skin and hair - turned dull, and his features became distorted. He was as obscure and frightening as the darkness.

When the invisible Fulgardt finally reached him, the exploding ice acting as ice evidence of his position, he paired his freakish momentum with a front kick against Skullius’ chest.

That... didn’t work. freēnovelkiss.com

As though he was attacking smoke, his leg went right through the Hybrid.

Skullius donned a distorted smile that rose to reach his temples and punished the Immoral for his folly.

He didn’t know where to strike, but he struck anyway; it was a full fist with no decorum or technique, but it was effective all the same. Fulgardt went flying, shredding through the ice.

’He’s grown intangible,’ the Immoral noted, a lick of interest rising in him. When he crashed into the base of a mountain, Skullius followed him with yet another blow that did not care for where it landed. This time, the Immoral dodged. ’How does this Andori work exactly?’

He snuck away from Skullius, who no longer had any means to tell where he was.

...Until a shower of tiny fiery sparks started falling from the darkness-deficient sky. Beyrmir was releasing little sparks of flame from the nebulous space behind each one of his scales. Billions fell on Edagon like rain, bouncing off everything in sight... including Fulgardt.

The Immoral outline was immediately highlighted.

...And Skullius hurried to punish him for it. He zoomed like some berserk demon against the Immoral, his sudden dash tearing a hole through the continent. He feigned a body blow before throwing a quick hook punch at Fulgardt.

But the Immoral gave a cold laugh and shot stepped to close the distance between himself and Skullius, kicked off his knee and struck him hard with his left elbow across the face. Even though everything that made Skullius at this point was intangible, immaterial even, he felt the cruel jolt of pain.

"Did you think darkness couldn’t be punched, brat?" cried Fulgardt and he hir Skullius with a roundhouse kick to the face that sent him sailing into the sky.

But as he streaked off like a cannonball, Skullius unleashed thousands of [False Ticklers] with a flick of his foot, cutting away at everything in sight. Edagon was butchered into oblivion only to return once more.

Fulgardt shed away his obscurity then, and his whole was revealed, lively and jovial.

He struck a stance where his upper torso leaned forward, his legs spread apart and his arms stretched forward as though to grapple with the air. From his feet, a massive ring of golden-white light rolled out, encompassing the whole of Edagon and more. It dyed out most of the continent’s details, but aside from that...

’What is this?’ Skullius thought as he warped back close to where he’d been sent flying from. He barely paused before warping behind the Immoral and commanding Weaver and Beyrmir to get in close and exploit all of Fulgardt’s blind spots and missteps the instant he forced them to appear.

Thus, Beyrmir’s massive figure diminished and he stormed down from the sky embodying a human-sized mercurial figure with melting wings below the flush presence of darkness around him.

Weaver waved his staff and many runes began dancing around him as he approached.

Skullius grabbed something else that came flying towards him from the sky, a dagger with rings of fire whirling around its hilt. He had struck, quick as viper at Fulgardt’s neck while his other hands were either opening to receive more weapons or advancing to land blows on the Immoral’s body when...

...!!!

The fiercely hot dagger had carved through Skullius’ mouth, slicing skin, flesh and teeth in the next instant. He had done it to himself.

He had also apparently twisted his own lower right arm and stabbed himself with the trident he had received and was planning to drive into Fulgardt’s thigh.

Most egregious of all, however, was how he’d somehow gotten himself frozen by one of Weaver’s runes instead of Fulgardt.

The Immoral delighted in his confusion. His face was highlighted from below by the glow of the ring of [Just Light] he had created.

"You know nothing about light and darkness, brat," the Immoral said, a nasty grin on his face. "Watch and learn."

---

[Author’s Note]

Point of clarity. The reason Fulgardt and Skullius don’t just warp away from incoming blows every single time is because to actually do so in a way that doesn’t immediately alert the other would require using something other than a mortal ability - skills and essences.

For instance, if Skullius used Spatial Lightning to try and warp away, Fulgardt would know and he would be on him immediately. (He’s experienced with mana and other mortal essences, after all.) Warping skills and essences below are generally less efficient and too slow for the calibre of their battle anyway.

Using anything powered by Amras is quicker and easier to mask since Amras isn’t something you can gain proficiency through an Andori. Your mastery with Amras control only grows when your Ascension Status increases.

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