Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 960 True Veneration! (2)

Several seconds ago…

Skullius felt the forceful grip of the bald man's blessing wane, and just like that his halved strength was restored. His first order of business in the miniscule scales of time that followed, with his opponent dazed at what the plume of darkness that had just done, was to bash the man's head with a vicious, full power kick.

As he watched him flash through thick greens, Skullius took a moment to gather his thoughts.

'I suppose that man's Blessing has something to do with using the ground as a medium for sapping away the strength of whoever is caught in the range of those blocks. It's quite effective…' he thought while his body fully healed all the internal mess dealt by the man's annoying rot technique. His blackish-red armor sealed up too.

'I underestimated the scope of his blessing, but it doesn't matter. As long as I can use my Veneration, I can ignore it. Though the cost…'

Skullius was interrupted by a tug at his senses. The surrounding greenery forced upon his eyes sight, and in the next moment, he was looking at the image of Sif civilians dying by rot.

'Fine,' Skullius thought with a sigh and he vanished from where he stood, appearing in an Aurora; where his attack had sent the bald expert.

Replacing his best speed boosting skill [Destined Warp Steps], was the Super Skill [I Am The World], activated through the Preeminent Attegoth, like [Gradius Order Halo], which he used to heal; the runic halo over the Attegoth right now was a sign that the healing skill was active, protecting it and Skullius simultaneously.

[I Am The World] allowed Skullius to travel to any location within the Preeminent Attegoth's range in less than an instant. And of course, the Graceful Monolith's range, was the entirety of Opungale.

Seeing the chaos caused by the enraged bald Incandescent Stager, Skullius applied golden marks to all the Sif he could, those that were alive, healing them with [Gradius Order Halo] and teleporting them away to distant Auroras using [I Am The World].

The efficiency was unparalleled.

Unlike the red mark, the golden mark – aside from functioning as the limbs of the Graceful Monolith – was meant to benefit allies. By being branded with it, targets, if Skullius willed, could be blessed with anything that the Preeminent Attegoth had, or was linked to.

The results were laid bare.

Skullius was amused by the bald man's reaction to everything, especially his fixation on how his blessing had been dispelled.

'He's still underestimating me, but he's about to break…' he thought,

In the next moment, the bald man used a Creed to catch Skullius off guard. It nearly worked, for splits of a second, but Skullius, employing the help of the skill [Ghost Rending Divine Sword Art], manipulated the Incandescent Stager into seeing a ghost of himself, a fake.

Then it happened.

The bald man broke as he saw that he had yet to even reach the bottom of Skullius' bag of 'tricks'. He immediately mobilized more mana, refining it into Nitros.

'That's what I wanted to see.'

Skullius grinned nastily as he unsheathed the Bashful Abomination again, its whole getting encased in an unreal thicket of black… then he threw it away, high and far.

His opponent clasped his fingers close to his hands and groaned with serious immensity:

"Majestic Territory Expulsion, Festering Tide!"

In an instant, a wash of white bathed the entire space, trapping Skullius and the bald man in its bounds. Then, its pristine coat over the two turned to a dark, murky green – much like a vague, cloudy sky – while under their feet, it became a sloshy mud land that became wetter and wetter by the second.

'It's foul…' Skullius thought as he felt his feet sink little by little.

He was fully at the mercy of the Territory now.

His blue mana core seemed to rebel against him, becoming unable to issue mana into his mana channels, which effectively cut off his ability to reinforce his body and use anything he had within it.

Argh.

This sense of helplessness along with the fact that there was an atrociously putrid smell coming from the domain which ravaged his innards when he took an unneeded whiff of the suffocating air, would have already ended the resolve of anyone else below the Incandescent Stage.

'Filthy.'

Skullius sank to his knees. The mud was extremely thick, so thick that his raw strength wouldn't allow him to leap out.

Worse yet, he felt the wet soil, if it even was that, chewing at his red armor, clearing it from the way and moving onto his flesh.

The rot. It was extreme. And this wasn't even the primary assault of the Territory. It was simply a natural trait of the Imaginary GeoScape!

The bald man scoffed at Skullius.

Unlike him, he wasn't sinking in the mud. While Skullius was analyzing his predicament, he made a different symbol with his hands.

"I won't be teasing or underestimating you anymore…" he said with a dark look that strangely had traces of… respect.

And then…

"Corrupted Rain."

Without delay, fierce precipitation fell from the vague outlines of the dark green clouds in the sky, its color so starkly green that it might have been black!

It was so violent that it looked like thick, long steel rods falling vertically from the sky nonstop!

By the time the rain hit him, Skullius was already halfway through the muddy ground, and each drop that hit simply carved its way through his body, eating away at him without resistance until it emerged on the other side!

In the few seconds Skullius was nailed by the Territory's primary assault function before he was submerged in the liquid rot, his torso almost seemed to melt in its entirety!

He was devoured.

…

The rain continued.

Its foul grace remained, edifying the already potent corrosiveness of the mud.

A second passed.

Then ten.

The bald man didn't assume victory.

He couldn't.

…because he felt that his enemy was still alive in the mud.

A deep frown appeared on his face.

What was coming?

If all this couldn't finish a mere Advancer…

"| To me… |"

A chilling voice so loud that it resounded from the walls of the Territory blared from the mud… followed by an indomitable darkness that dispersed much of the mud in the area while reaching for the Incandescent Stager!

…!!!

The bald man was already on alert, but that didn't seem to matter.

'Damn it!'

As soon the pitch black touched him… he was reeled in like a fish on a hook, his figure darting towards a bloody, broken skeleton smothered in dirt!

From its mouth rose a plume of darkness darker than that which cleared the mud in a spherical pattern, and just when the Incandescent Stager reached it… two shocking things occurred.

A dazzling light bathed the haggard skeleton and, in an instant, strings of flesh whipped over its body.

And then…

"| Twist for me |"

…!!!

The Incandescent Stager was instantly drowned in swathes of darkness that came from the Hybrid Luman, and as it sank deep within him without resistance, he felt it whirl, forcing his body to follow its movement!

"AUUUUUGHHHHH!!" the Incandescent Stager screamed terribly. Blood and bones speared from his flesh as he angled to the right, twisting abnormally.

Within Festering Tide, the bald man's powers and the efficiency of his powers were increased tremendously, but right now, he didn't feel any of the augments do anything to help him!

And to make matters worse…

Skullius was fully healed a moment later, and with a hideous grin – his red armor reforming around his body – he looked straight at the agonized face of the Incandescent Stager with his blank eyes.

"Come on. You still have Creeds, right? Use them. Give me your all. What kind of an idiot loses in one move in their own Territory?"