Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1359: ALL Hands (2)



The Immortal Realm Physique, Expanded Shadow Fiend's Leather was one of the gifts Skullius had been given by the Primeval Deity JOISEN ANTERRAS in exchange of one usage of his Exotic Parlous Nature, Second Divine Sinew.

He hadn't yet chosen to use it because he was unfamiliar with the nuances of having more than one Immortal Physique, but now, he had no choice but to use it. It was one whole rank above his current one, and its benefits proved to be much greater than Skullius could have ever imagined.

Expanded Shadow Fiend's Leather resonated with his [King of Severing Twilight], further bolstering Skullius' defences, but of course, that was not the entirety of the product of the resonance. Skullius did not explore that immediately. Instead, he put all his focus on...

"[False Tickler]," he declared, and 100 units of Amras were depleted at once to fuel this variant of the [Ruining Cutter]. A single visible slash, coated in puce and turquoise moving at a hundred times the speed of light reached the Doom Knight while cutting space like a silken cloth.

SHIK!

A cut the length of an average human's arm appeared on its chest... and began to bleed. ...!!!

And there it was, the limit of the threshold of the Doom Knight's Immortal Physique.

Skullius grinned from behind the armour of darkness, though, his smile was ugly; as his distorted soul was ugly.

'Good.'

But a hundred [False Ticklers] were already rapid firing from him towards the Doom Knight.

The enslaved Deity grumbled. To think the pests now had attacks that could harm it.

<INSOLENT.>

It was gone from the trajectory of the slashes in the next nano-second. Branches of its greenish lightning stormed towards Skullius and Uyuniya as a counterattack again, bold and dangerous.

The latter barely seemed affected because of her Void Clot. The elemental tendrils didn't reach her before and they didn't start now!

'A cheat,' Skullius would have thought.

But he too wasn't affected by the odd Exotic Parlous Nature either!

"[Nonstandard Splicers]," Skullius had declared, only for show. The new invisible slashes - twenty-five in total - had been launched almost at the same time as the [False Ticklers]!

...!!!

With meticulous control, the slashes cut things that couldn't be cut with a normal sword strike.

Some of the branches of lightning reached the Hybrid Warmoth and clashed against his armour, but the rest were severed at the very thing that gave them motion. Their ability to travel... was cut. Their user suffered the same fate.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The Deity suddenly found itself paralysed.

It had taken fifteen slashes - aimed at the Doom Knight specifically - but Skullius had managed to cut its movements all the same, and thus it couldn't move, even if it was just for half a microsecond.

But that slim time frame was enough for the Gajjkav to appear behind the Doom Knight and devour it again.

...And then the 100 [False Ticklers] Skullius had let loose before, curved and hurtled towards the Gajjkav, striking it eagerly!

And but of course, the Seed of the Fruit of World Myths, Exorbitance, which facilitated the 20 exponential damage to the target within the Gajjkav, was active!

...!!!

Four of the [False Ticklers] had struck the Gajjkav when Skullius looked up.

He cursed.

The Doom Knight had escaped at the last second, flashing through some kind of warping ability into the sky from the Phantasmic Retainer!

But it hadn't escaped unscathed. Four gaping gashes from which blood poured out marked its torso severely. They were incredibly deep, but they were also healing quickly.

'He must have reinforced himself with Amras too, otherwise, he should have suffered more damage than that!' Skullius thought.

And indeed. The 20 exponential was a deadly ability. Unfortunately, the vessel for Exorbitance was not inescapable.

<WHAT MANNER OF HUMILIATION...!> the Doom Knight roared, cocking up a storm. Indeed, it was furious. Strands of Undeath energy stitched together its flesh, but that alone could not assuage its rage.

Uyuniya's Void Clot range expanded and drew in Skullius into the darkness. He slowly drifted within the void towards the woman. A part of him thought:

'My clone travelled through this void. Could he find his way back through it too? If he's still alive?'

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Uyuniya seemed to give him an appraisal. His armour, prompted by the Expanded Shadow Fiend's Leather might have left an impression on her.

Skullius used this chance to fully recover his flesh under the armour and while he was at it, he used [Sagacious Antiphon of Dawnlight] on Uyuniya, restoring all her limbs, all of which he was responsible for severing.

She flexed them and scoffed. She was satisfied, but she hid it. Skullius extended a network of mana to her head.

"The least you can do is say 'thank you'," he said to her.

"Kiss my royal ass," was her unprincess-like reply. Skullius knew a princess who would have said the opposite in this scenario.

'Worth a try.'

It was an odd feeling, being in the Void Clot. Odd, but not unpleasant. In fact, Skullius felt both [King of Severing Twilight: AfterDark] and [Expanded Shadow Fiend's Leather] brimming with some kind of excitement because of being in the deep dark.

'Right. I did surmise before that Fulgardt had some connection to the great void because of [Evil Darkness]. I wonder if I was actually right,' Skullius thought.

Unfortunately, he was neither as excited as his Andori and Immortal Physique nor as experienced as Fulgardt. Being in the Void Clot actually unnerved him. He was sure it irked

Void.

If not for Serenity's assurance that he was safe from another of Void's attacks, he might have fled from the Void Clot.

All while thinking and saying all these things, Skullius' senses had not left the Doom Knight.

It healed quickly while also stabbing them with a hateful glare. It seemed to be analysing this

defense of theirs.

"How safe are we from all his attacks?" he asked Uyuniya.

"If it gets serious with its output of Amras, any of its Realm rank Exotic Parlous Natures and Ascendant tier Andori will reach us without fail," she replied and looked at him. "You better have a way to whittle at it faster than it can shred us to pieces."

"Oh, I do," Skullius said. "Are you a dual-wielder?"

"Yes. Why?"

Right then, Skullius' nimbus billowed, and a Treasure creeped out of it. It was a golden gauntlet that looked as though it was made of countless little parts. It was the Malefic Gold Hand - one of the gifts Skullius had gotten from his contract with JOISEN ANTERRAS. Skullius let out six streams of [Just Light] and [Evil Darkness] and began to touch them one by

one using the gauntlet.

One by one, they began to change into Realm rank swords, pretty, dotted with stars and with halos for cross guards!

He wielded four on his own and gave the rest to Uyuniya who looked at them with intrigue.

Skullius would have asked her why she wasn't using her own sword anymore - the Incubating Masterpiece - but gave up on that. She must have had her reasons, and she was unlikely to

tell.

A skin of Exora Mead peeked from Skullius' nimbus and he took it and began to drink, replenishing his rapidly depleting Amras.

Only the Deities knew how much he needed to restore his energy reserves.

However, before he was done replenishing, the enemy had charged and done the exact same thing Uyuniya said would render her Void Clot useless.

[Author's Note]

The Malefic Gold Hand is a Realm rank Wicked Treasure that allows the user to craft other Realm rank Treasures from anything they touch with the gauntlet. The Treasures only last for a minute. The properties of the Realm rank Treasures will be determined by the special symbolism the object used holds.

For instance, when Skullius used this gauntlet on the statue of Listafelle, he crafted a sword that could use water offensively with each slash, since Listafelle is the seas of Aigas.