Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1198: The One Left Standing (12)



The Reacher Academy of Higher Magical Virtues.

Replicus had a feeble familiarity with the Academy, unlike Skullius, who, after they split, went on to learn about how to combine skills into greater forms using Aura, through one of the Arch-Mages there. Regardless, however, even Replicus knew the kind of monstrous Energy Formers that the Academy held. He had lived in Genhuis City before, after all. Their reputation preceded them.

The shared micro-daze between the two ended almost as soon as it had begun.

One of the six ghosts of the CREATURE dashed away and sent darkness and light surging into the sky in a matter of cryptically divided micro-moments.

Much quicker than when Skullius had done it before, the Noboboyama was summoned once again, and the Hybrid Luman immediately applied the yet unknown Seed of the Fruit of World Myths to launch another frightening attack through the PHANTASMIC RETAINER!

Replicus shook.

It was coming again?!

Though Beyrmir was already acting to destroy the PHANTASMIC RETAINER before it could unleash the Melanoid Prince's will, he wouldn't make it before the tattered remains of

Genhuis City and the well-protected Reacher Academy were reduced to nothing but Rule-less darkness!

In the next instant, it began.

Replicus' new vision saw it.

Great, dark malevolent slashes - which appeared pristine white in his eyes - blasted out from all around the Noboboyama, attacking everything within a small country's radius!

The Seed applied to the PHANTASMIC RETAINER currently, was the third, 'Limitless Paradox'.

This Seed was one of the best examples of why the 9 Seeds of the Fruit of Worlds were best utilised through the PHANTASMIC RETAINERS. The Limitless Paradox allowed its user to apply a simple function infinitely within one full second. A function could be a simple skill or mundane physical action - anything at all that fit the criteria of a basic command - and it would be executed over the maximum range of its conduit.

Naturally, performing any action infinitely within a second was quite... nonsensical, but that was the point of the Seed. Within a second - given a powerful enough function - it was practically guaranteed that the end result, was victory.

Like the other Seeds, Limitless Paradox didn't require mana to cast, but it was especially draining. Skullius' body would rupture if he attempted to use this Seed on his own, but with the Spirit of Blind Drowning as a conduit...

Replicus' felt the immense danger.

Skullius' ordinary slashes had become incredibly lethal because of [Dipped in Black] and CREATURE. If they were bolstered by his freakish output on top of that...

'No, that's not it,' Replicus thought as his phantoms helped him see.

He finally saw through the 'trick' Skullius was employing!

However, he didn't have time to mull casually over revelations.

His mana was yet to replenish. He could use one of his Blessings to convert Null Life Essence into mana, but his destroyed cores weren't reformed yet. Even if they were, the slashes coming now were ripping apart space and dismantling the Rules that made it possible for teleportation to be performed along its axes!

'Am I really going to need to rely on that already...?' Replicus asked himself as the first series of slashes, while dismantling Rules and ripping Genhuis City and the space it was carved on, crashed into him.

Yet...

...!!!

There was a resounding bang across the world and everything seemed to stop.

Replicus was stunned.

Skullius was astonished.

What the...!

The dark slashes littering the world were all suddenly frozen in place!

Both Replicus and Skullius had sensed quite an impressive detonation of mana - however skilfully hidden - right before the odd occurrence.

It came, to no surprise, from the Reacher Academy, which was surprisingly untouched by the slashes.

Three figures in thick robes were standing at the entrance into the Academy, and one of them, blazing with a dark purple quality mana around him, had his hand outstretched mustering every bit of his focus into a rare Patch of Magecraft.

The Binding Patch!

Skullius recognised this Mage instantly!

It was Arch-Mage Ryte!

He was the Arch-Mage who had helped him learn how to merge skills and answered his question on whether or not it was possible to make a mana core adapt to every kind of essence

and technique!

(A/N: Refer to Ch.571).

The Patch he was using was a form of Ascended Magic - Magecraft of an immensely high calibre that substituted mana in its casting, for the essence related to the type of magic.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.752.)

The Binding Patch, at least in Arch-Mage Ryte's possession, used time to stop its victims. Back when the Null Badubs attacked Genhuis City with the advent of the false Null Devil King, he had employed a spell called Shocked Time to stop them in their tracks.

Now, he was using a different spell, indeed fuelling it with, of course, TIME itself to stop the slashes!

Skullius grinned. His eyes met with Ryte's.

The old Mage looked disconcerted for a plethora of reasons, one of them being that he too recognised Skullius and couldn't imagine why he was at the centre of the chaos rocking Feinheath at the moment.

The other more obvious concern of his, was that the spell he was using, Clapped Time, was supposed to have ensnared Replicus and Skullius, but it hadn't.

For the latter, this wasn't the case because he immediately augmented the slashes that automatically enveloped his body with his freakish 'trick', and had them attack the incoming

concept relentlessly!

Indeed. He was slashing against time! (Because these slashes were given the command to attack time itself, unlike the ones activated through the Noboboyama, they persisted.)

For Replicus, he was unaffected by Clapped Time because...

[High Level concept detected. 'Integral Time'. To learn the lesser essentials, an investment of 5,812,000 Null Life Essence is required]

The [Unbridled Wisdom of the Ascended Nullmancer] robes, which Replicus had on, immediately caught on to the concept!

It was the same that Eaniss had picked from the Reverse Clusters on the voyage to Edagon, and unlike before, Replicus now had enough Null Life Essence to earn it instantly - which his phantoms had done for him before he could even think about it!

[You have gained an affinity with 'Integral Time'!]

At once, Replicus was shielded from the effect of Clapped Time.

One of Skullius' ghosts immediately rushed towards the Mages, its eyes on Arch-Mage Ryte.

'I knew this geezer was in a different league! Almost reminds me of that—'

But he was cut off.

Another one of the Mages, an elderly woman with sharp green eyes, had whipped into action.

A ferocious pressure blasted from her body, and it was as though the space around her had become rock solid. Her extended hand pointed far into the distance with two fingers, and far

beyond her...

CRACK!

The world cracked like the interior of a brittle clay plot.

The sky shattered, pieces of it falling into a dark, starry abyss that kept growing like a gaping maw. This widening abyss featured in its centre, a mass of bellowing fire, quite like a dwarf star, emitting heat so atrocious that it bent the stable space all around it!

Even though the great crack had seemed distant a micro-moment before, it was soon upon Genhuis City. A mighty suction drew on all the targets around except the Mages and the Academy, drawing them to be scorched into oblivion.

The stationary slashes were pulled towards it.

The Spirit of Blind Drowning was drawn to it. Replicus and Skullius were no exceptions, but the former seemed to derive a great degree of amusement from the harrowing ordeal. He couldn't slash his way out of this one (not because of a lack of power), and oddly, it seemed as though the whole area he was in was arrested by some kind of rigid force that disallowed any kind of spatial movement. Skullius wagered it was the handiwork of the third Arch-Mage of the lot interrupting his battle with Replicus.

'No matter,' Skullius thought.

Since he was going to leave this world wretched world anyway...

Darkness filled his mouth and he called:

"Aigas, make purchase for me!]"

...!!!

[Evil Veneration] was invoked and it answered the call.

The concepts being applied on Skullius in this moment suddenly evaded him, Aigas

screaming as it peeled open around him, creating a pocket of normalcy where Integral Time and the pull of the dark, spatial crack didn't reach the CREATURE. It didn't last for long, but in the time it came to be, the Stolen Angel appeared before Skullius, its orange eyes keenly

glaring at the new enemies.

Skullius grinned.

"You're finally ready, aren't you?" he said to the mobile Attegoth, and it nodded, its eyes

gleaming.