Bro, I'm not an Undead!

952  Graceful Monolith (2)

In a seemingly boundless Aurora that had maintained a state of stability more profound than any other settlement in Opungale, even when the threat of the gong and the man-napping had been at large, Queen Embrell had on an ashen face as she was given astounding news by a panting scout.

"What?" she said with her eyes bulging.

The scout, looking worse for wear, and with his face as though it had met that of a ghost, seemed to throw measured decorum out the window and answer with blatant terror.

"They... they were killed. All of them. They didn't even fight back..." he damn near shrieked.

Darwel who stood by her mother's side paled.

This scout didn't mean the 15,000 who had been stationed by the shore to receive the enemy.

No.

He was speaking of Benyn and the 100,000 who had just left to meet the Maqian army and possibly reinforce the 15,000 waiting by the shore. By Benyn's instruction, he, along with ten others, had been tasked with splitting from the charge and watching from different directions in case the enemy decided to split off to cause more chaos. Their numbers were known, and so was their strength, thus, it wasn't strange to assume that the Maqian force was confident enough to multi-task even with heavy numbers of opposition against them.

That assumption had turned out to be too true.

After swiftly dealing with Benyn and the others, the scout had seen the treacherous man-beasts from Maqi split up, heading in unusually specific directions; and one of them was this Aurora.

"They couldn't do anything. It was over in the blink of an eye. They... they are coming! They split into groups! One of them could be arriving here at any moment!" the scout was practically screaming as he then fell to his knees.

The Queen's face turned fierce.

Benyn...

Even if he was slain, along with the entire force she sent ahead... what it is that this scout had seen, or felt to cause him to fall into such despair?

"Mother... Your Majesty..." Darwel called to Queen Embrell who glanced back at her.

"I expected this much, my dear. Don't be afraid. That's why I wasn't convinced with your father's plan to try and talk it out with these brutes. Speaking of him, he should be preparing what we need..." she said comfortingly.

Darwel wasn't sure she believed her mother's words. What she had faith in instead, was her mother's strength. Sooner or later, she knew the Queen would step in personally. It was a norm in Opungale.

Her concern lay with Festos at the moment. If the enemies had split up, was it not possible that they would soon besiege the Wonderfall Torrents, which was closer to the shore than where she was currently was? Darwel had no doubt that Sevill and Festos had gone there.

WAAA!

The audible travel of golden light suddenly ruptured her line of thought, calling for her attention and that of anyone at all with a working pair of ears.

An eager glow contended against the dimness of night, climbing close to three kilometres into the sky as a texture-less pillar of golden white, its girth about as large as a small town.

"What is... that?" Queen Embrell questioned, puzzled. She was dazzled. The light was too beautiful, so much so that she didn't even consider that it might be a product of the enemy's machinations.

A lens flare arched behind the pillar, emphasising its grandeur, which entranced everyone in the Aurora, including the disciplined army waiting to be dispatched towards the hostiles. For a moment, they all lost their strained composure and gaped at the mound of light which suddenly adopted a different appearance, odd details smoothing over the solid golden white face.

Thick, stacked bones bathed in radiant golden-white made up the broad base of the construct, light cracks over them just barely revealing that they weren't random logs. They were absurdly large, thickest at the bottom, turning slightly slender as they rose, and becoming marred with lengthy, sparkling wings that grew increasingly large the higher the thing went.

When the wings became massive, turning into great, elongated beams of light that flapped slightly, they were then proceeded by an inflated canopy that spotted tens of thousands of huge skulls that glinted of a graceful bluish-white jade, all with blinding sockets and gaping mouths that emitted an eerie hiss that was heard all throughout Opungale.

Darwel was the only one to wear a big smile when she saw the great construct.

The direction it sprang up from... it had to be...

"Mother, you don't need to worry about that," she said quickly.

***

Skullius felt everything get set promptly and without warning, he suddenly flashed past Maxim and appeared over the mansion, looking at the new Preeminent Attegoth with Crude Vision.

"It's beautiful..." he said.

Skullius' blessing, received from the Deity Luserus, [Graceful Monolith of the Eminent], was rather simple.

It allowed the Hybrid Luman to split off parts of himself, whether physical or otherwise and attach ['Greatest Mana Manipulation' has been activated]

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them, rather, preserve them, in a separate entity of his choosing. Said separate entity had to be something that already existed, though its nature didn't matter.

The entity Skullius chose would be turned into a Seed and be perfected for the merge with the elements Skullius chose, to work with them perfectly, removing weakness and breaking their limits. When it matured, it would be as though the parts of himself Skullius added were naturally a part of the result... and in the best of cases, the Hybrid Luman would have a second self, equipped with bits of himself.

This best-case scenario was currently what Skullius was enjoying. The entity he chose to bond to, was the Preeminent Attegoth.

Skullius had stripped himself of all his skills and attached them to the Preeminent Attegoth, turning into his Grace Monolith.

The Preeminent Attegoth was a construct of [Just Light] that executed Skullius' whims, whether complex or simple, as long as its mark – a half skull – was branded on it.

[Graceful Monolith of the Eminent] had even gone so far as to greedily swallow the blessed, sacred structure that was the Luminants' shrine and added it to the Seed that the Attegoth was imbedded into, and thus, now the Attegoth had traces of the shrine!

"A nice bonus. Hopefully you don't mind watching me from there, Luserus..." Skullius said mockingly.

All this said, he was just getting started.

The next course of action was...

['Greatest Mana Manipulation' has been activated]

['Greatest Mana Attraction' has been activated]

Skullius had not said a word, or made a conscious effort with his body.

The Preeminent Attegoth had done it all. The skills imprinted into its great body ignited, only needing his mana to activate.

However, even that was about to be a burden that Skullius didn't bother with, because...

VWOOOOON!

All throughout Opungale, the staggering range of the Graceful Monolith, mana was pulled towards the Preeminent Attegoth with furious suction... and it didn't resist because Skullius, the Luminant, urged it all to head for the towering golden construct in the distance while pointing towards it.

Pure mana.

Mana lingering from the dead.

Mana lingering from the living.

Mana from white cores.

Mana from blue cores.

Mana from Sif purple cores.

The entire continent trembled for a few seconds, and clarity was subdued as the gusts of mana which became like vicious winds in their traversal to what was calling them.

Soon, they were all contained within the Preeminent Attegoth which immediately, without Skullius even suggesting it, began to create its own mana core!

One that was tinged purple...