Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 959  True Veneration! (1)

"| Your Blessing Is Gone! |"

At the words, a swath of blacker than night darkness erupted his Skullius' mouth and sped so fast towards his opponent that it might have been the night packing up its belongings and rushing to bash into him.

The sight of the dark tide oozing forth was chilling, but it came and went just as soon as it appeared, with the darkness seemingly flowing past the Incandescent Stager harmlessly before disappearing.

…

Words could not do justice to the amount of surprise and confusion that blasted the bald man right after.

'What was…'

Right then, the blocks which he had positioned in the region around Skullius and himself, suddenly exploded!

At the same time, the Incandescent Stager felt something within his body turn dim, as though it had been a fire raging comfortably in his body, only to be doused by what Skullius had just declared!

The effects of his Blessing…

They were somehow cancelled!

…

'The effects of my Blessing are gone!' the bald man shuddered at the thought and what that meant immediately pounded him in the face, quite literally.

The Hybrid Luman, still suspended above him, nailed a vicious right kick into the man's face.

It wasn't a normal kick; it wasn't one bathed in a mere 850,000 tons of force anymore, and that was why, an absurd mushroom dust cloud followed a horrendous explosion when it met its target.

The bald Incandescent Stager howled in pain as he tumbled from it. The outrageous directional wind that came also carried him forward, and before he knew it, he had crossed a furious forest at hot speed, crashing into a far away Aurora that was mobilising a fighting force of Sif to defend against incoming enemies.

His arrival, along with that of a vicious gust that carried a few Sif and houses away, caused alarm, and the Sif combatants recognizing the enemy, hurriedly lunged.

However, the bald man quickly recovered his balance after emerging from a humble kitchen, though, his face was bleeding profusely, his skull cracked horribly. Seeing the approach of several Incandescent Stagers, he grunted.

"Don't spoil my entertainment!" he cried before whipping his palm out like a whip.

A forceful burst of warm wind barreled forth, followed by a pungent smell, and immediately, a few Incandescent Stagers were turned into rotten, walking corpses with similarly rotted armour as the gust brushed against them… same as the lower Staged experts and civilians in their direct line, who simply turned to foul-smelling sludge on the ground.

The chaos this stirred throughout the rest of the Aurora was treacherous, and the bald man grunted unpleasantly at it all.

But then…

To his surprise, there was a spray of small golden lights over everyone he could see, and the majority of them vanished in the blink of an eye!

…!

Only the Incandescent Stagers and several other experts who had been caught in the bald man's attack just now remained, and all of them… were healed.

They all looked at themselves dazedly, seeing that the vicious smell and decomposition that had clung to them, leaving most of them – even the stronger Masters among them – close to death, was gone before it could kill them.

The bald man's face turned crumpled like paper.

'Again. My technique has been dispelled. Is it him?' he thought.

Right then, the figure of Skullius appeared amid the Sif who anxiously backed away. Several of them, namely Masters, were branded with a golden mark and they disappeared from view immediately.

He then turned to the Incandescent Stagers.

"You owe me for bothering with your lives. Now get out of here and make yourselves useful elsewhere," he said.

It took a second, but it registered to the Incandescent Stagers that Skullius was the one who had healed them and evacuated everyone, and after only slight hesitation, along with a fair amount of restraint, they rushed away..

"Where did you take away the meaningless collateral? Watching them burn as a consequence of a battle beyond them raging nearby is one of the joys of having strength…" the bald man said as he began circling around Skullius, who followed suit.

"How sophisticated…" he merely said.

The man painted in green snorted.

"You have formidable powers. None can easily heal from my technique. Surprisingly, you can handle it just fine…" he said. "And you can somehow extinguish Blessings. I feel I can't use mine for a while."

"I'm not going to answer your questions, you know. It ruins the fun."

The bald man could only pretend to be amused by Skullius' reply. He was wrestling with many questions in his head.

What were all these powers?

That unreal healing property which extended even to others, and especially that darkness…

Skullius grinned.

The former was simply the result of his upgraded healing skill [Gradius Order Halo] which worked on a higher level than [Saint Lumis' Benign Arc] – on a Super level – matching the power of the bald man's Technique which was on a similar level, evidenced by his purple core.

And while [Gradius Order Halo] had the specification to extend to others other than Skullius, like [Static Limbo], it was forcefully given targets by the Preeminent Attegoth, though, unlike [Static Limbo], it had practically unlimited targeting.

As for the uncanny eruption of darkness from earlier…

Skullius moved at the same time as the bald man, only, the latter followed up his lunge with words.

"This is my Creed, bring forth a world of lava!"

…!!!

As soon he began to speak, the ground under Skullius abruptly gained a vibrant tinge of reddish orange, and exploded over a hideously wide range that encompassed the entire Aurora and then spat unreal volumes of lava which rose up to touch the sky!

In a blink, everything was devoured by scorching heat and ash, the abundant greens married to ebony and black, the ground oozing blistering orange.

The shift had been too swift to react to. Lava had suddenly sprang forth.

Skullius had been caught in it in the first micro-instant.

The bald man saw it.

Half of his body was burned badly before his proud recovery ability could kick in.

Haha.

Proud bastard.

He knew it.

Even though this man had the ability to flee, he remained. He wouldn't leave the battlefield like that.

'That's what I wanted to see!'

And in that instant, the bald man sped up to Skullius, grabbed his neck, and slammed him into lava-filled ground with a thunderous boom.

He felt Skullius' flesh vibrantly, uncloaked by an Aura, healing constantly from the burn.

Heh. This bastard was struggling now.

But before he could escape, he had to finish him off.

For that… what better way than-

"You're really having fun with the ghost, huh?" …!!!

The Incandescent Stager was alarmed.

Skullius' voice came from ten paces ahead amidst the inferno.

He was fresh, unharmed, looking down at him as though he were a fool.

If that was the Hybrid Luman…

Dubiously, the bald man looked at what he was holding down in his hands.

Whatever it was… whatever it had been… he would never get to know because it disappeared after giving him a nasty grin.

Then, the real Skullius tilted his hand, sword in hand and spoke.

"You're fighting a little desperately while trying to prove you're much stronger. Let me reveal this card of mine then, hmm? Then you reveal yours. How does that sound?"

The bald man didn't dawdle. He finally realised that his opponent had too many tricks.

Thus, at the same time, amid the blaze… one man cast his Territory while the other…

…

['Evil Veneration' has been activated]