Bro, I'm not an Undead!

GRRRRRMMM!

The Ground of Communion shook heavily as the powers that had been fighting here, despite the huge disparity between them, had tested its integrity quite a bit.

This wasn’t built to be battleground per se, especially when this Temple served as a home for the Order of the Trodden Rose. After the passing of the twelve, it now served as an execution ground, as with the staggering amount of bias as well as the clearly depicted favour of a feminine host to inherit the legacy of the Order, leniency was to be expected on female entrants while for the male ones…

One could guess.

The challenge they had to face was clear.

Skullius, after making his snarky comment, let the flood of mana released from Bassbion’s figure push him away, his body flying from the guardian as it crashed onto the ground!

The Discount Human quickly rose as he felt [HYPED] die down. He also cancelled [Jaggered Merger], the Elimparidis Stone Staff appearing in his hands once more with a little over a 70 points of mana remaining.

Skullius didn’t focus on this however, as he gazed up high at where the torrent conjured by a mad guardian kept streaming forth.

‘Fuuuu… I ran out again,’ Skullius thought as he felt within his core, but with a smile on his face.

If the status quo from the beginning of the battle had been maintained, he would be relaxing right now as he had actually won according to the stipulated rules.

In fact, he had gone above and beyond, as him blasting Bassbion across the Ground of Communion was the third clean hit, with his last punch on her helmet covered face counting as the fourth blow.

Unfortunately, he was sure even when he landed the third blow on Bassbion that she was really pissed off and expecting her to stay true to the earlier rules was probably a stretch.

Before considering all this though, one would probably be more inclined to wonder, how on Aigas Skullius was able to win!

The speed.

The power.

All that ridiculous power that matched this Spirit.

Where the hell did it come from?!

Well, Skullius had utilised the makeshift properties of the mana he was developing in his Refinery.

Distorted Gravity!

In all truth, he barely had knowledge about this high level concept and the way he mimicked its flow was flawed to say the least, but… his efforts had been rewarded!

The feel of Distorted Gravity was at his fingertips, at least with how best he had interpreted it.

The flow of it grew more familiar the more he had tasted its might on the stout mountain and now, upon unleashing it for the first time, he had discovered that as long as long as there was a surface that he could use, he could draw himself towards it at ridiculous velocities!

Weight constituted attraction and repulsion effects towards a selected solid surface, and that was all he had been doing all this time!

Containing the unique mana in his body caused an attraction towards a selected surface while pushing out the mana created a repulsion effect!

Seeing that he had been in pinch, the Discount Human had decided to bank all his hopes on what he could achieve with the 4% finished Refinery, funnelling pure mana into it and emptying some of his mana channels to give it room to work its magic!

The result was an uncontrollable pull that had dragged him in what he had thought was a random direction at first after he distributed the unique mana in his body, his entirety speeding so fast towards said direction that he wouldn’t have been able to hit Bassbion that time if weren’t for [HYPED]!

After the first hit, Skullius grew more confident, giving some of his focus towards continually building the crown-shaped Refinery around his Centre, the process of which was way faster with the blood rushing skill, as he had surmised earlier.

If he weren’t fighting a dangerous guardian at the same time, he would have even advanced further!

Fortunately, Demion’s Dance had acted as his supplementary means of attack while he waited for mana to pool from his Centre, allowing him to have a reserve that he then channelled into his Refinery to obtain the current result, though it quickly dried up as there was only so much he could do with a such a small Refinery.

At the current moment, Skullius had [Elevated Mana Manipulation] active as he didn’t want his work to go to waste with the constant expulsion of mana from his Centre.

“YOU!” the voice of Bassbion boomed, gushing out with the support of her mana which matched her current emotion as it washed over Skullius like a hurricane!

Bassbion, who had her helmet blown off, her delicate Spirit features that were no different from a human’s, asides from being eerily pale and partially see-through, dug her armoured hands into the wall as she pulled herself out!

Her eyes were revealed, having a turquoise blue hue, the almond shape of their make, as well as the pointed nose she had turning ugly from her fury!

BWAAA!

She landed on the ground with the force of a meteor, her gaze remaining on Skullius as she firmly held her long sword.

“You think you have won?! You think I’ll allow your insolence to be rewarded after you release your murky filth onto this sacred ground?! You were warned of this and I will not forgive it!” Bassbion growled.

‘It’s just a dark stain. Though I guess the statues are a different story,’ Skullius thought as he sighed inwardly, his mind churning for more ideas.

Yet, he wasn’t afraid.

First, his dark sockets turned to check over Ferex but the Hound was no longer there.

Skullius narrowed his eyes as he then sent a mental message to his Apostle, only to sigh in relief a moment later.

Because of the dangerous battle ongoing, he hadn’t had the luxury of checking on Ferex’s state.

Now he could rest assured. For that concern at least.

With that done, Skullius slipped some mana into his ring and a scroll appeared.

He doubted he could catch Bassbion with it now that all his buffs were gone, with Demion’s Dance out of reach, but he was determined to try his best anyway.

‘Are you watching Sila?’ Skullius thought while unfurling the scroll which was naturally the All-Eater scroll, yet to his question, he received no answer.

Bassbion hastily set to attack at the same moment and…

“Hold yourself… Sister Bassbion!” a voice called from a distance, demanding both Skullius and his opponent’s attention.

The moment the fair Bassbion saw where this voice was coming from, the flaring mana around her died down instantly and she huffed her rage inward, culling it for the time being.

“Yagrina…” Bassbion murmured in a soft voice as she flashed away and appeared at the base of one of the twelve statues, her hands tenderly holding the face of a broken stone figure, much like she had been before she started this battle, but this one had a series of cracks that while not as excessive as the ones on the others, spelled that she had been greatly injured.

“Why have you awakened? I thought I told you to rest and I would take care of everything else.”

The figure of Yagrina, which was also feminine (obviously) but with a slightly plump build along with thick armour over it, coloured white from this state she was in, did not move at all. Not even its lips.

“You and I are all that remains. But with you taking on a burden left for the twelve of us, I couldn’t help but open my eyes to see if anything had changed. Thankfully, I did just in time,” Yagrina’s voice sounded with a mellow hint of sorrow. “You’re losing your honour faster than this Temple is falling apart. Even if you are angry on our master’s behalf, this Ground was meant for blood to be spilled. Such damage was eventually going to deface it. But for you to break your word and even forcefully break your bindings in a fit of rage… it is not indicative of what you represent.”

Bassbion had a lot to say, but she withheld her words. She didn’t feel guilty one bit and a sense of agitation could be detected on her face.

“Besides, we are merely waiting for the host to return. We are guided by hope after all. We should strive to keep it, lest we end up like our masters. The host is supposed to represent the fullness of what the True Rose Mother intended. Keep that in mind before you lose yourself.” Yagrina scolded.

Skullius watched at this dumbly, his figure inching towards his severed hand which held Demion’s Dance and retrieving the weapon.

‘Hey Sila,’ Skullius called to the aged piece of soul in his mind that had grown silent since he had told him to shut the flesh up.

He got no response though and he didn’t continue pursuing the matter.

“You.”

Skullius turned as he heard the voice of Yagrina call to him, even if he didn’t understand it.

“What are you doing?” Bassbion questioned Yagrina with a dissatisfied tone.

“Let him pass. What harm can he do? He earned that much, as vile as he may be. As… strange as he may be…”

Yagrina had witnessed much of the battle and she had to admit that seeing Bassbion being blasted into the wall so suddenly had caught her off guard, along with that last hit.

This little vile filth was either very talented or deviously conniving. She couldn’t tell if he had an awakening right here or if he was hiding his powers before.

Still, it didn’t matter.

No matter his motive, no filth had ever escaped without following the rightful procedure that allowed so.

If he misbehaved, he would be dealt with by the Temple itself as he could not even begin to fathom the dreadful things hidden within it just for such circumstances.

After calling for Skullius’ attention, Yagrina was about to speak when…

“I don’t think he can understand us. He speaks a foreign language I’m unfamiliar with,” Bassbion said with a hard face, relenting to Yagrina’s logic.

She was older and wiser, after all.

For this, she decided to trust her judgement.

“That’s right. I did feel that you were not communicating well. How about a gesture then? Let him continue to Depth. He might just get tempted like the rest and be punished for it. Even among those favoured, some couldn’t contain their greed. You would love to see him fall, wouldn’t you?” Yagrina said to Bassbion who grumbled before snapping her fingers.

Skullius grew alert at this gesture as he knew it to be for an entirely different purpose but…

GRRRK!

From behind Bassbion, a layer of the thick rock used to make the walls, chock full of intricate mana weavings, rose, creating a large arched doorway into a dimly lit corridor.

Bassbion then moved to the side and gestured for Skullius to pass with a threatening look.

This threw Skullius off for a few seconds but he then realised that if this monster wanted to kill him, she would have done it already.

His guess was that she was being reprimanded by the other weird figure that had called to him, as perhaps that was the purpose of her frown.

‘Are they letting me through to wherever I can go next?’ Skullius thought. Without Sila, he couldn’t be sure but heck, he really wanted to get the flesh out of here.

“Let’s go see what’s next then,” Skullius said as he walked forward, his steps ringing around the silent space until he reached the doorway, facing Bassbion who gave him a murderous glare.

The Discount Human merely smiled with his burnt and crackled body, before passing through and entering into next atrocity.

Or was it?