Kenno had told Replicus and the others all that he had managed to learn after his assigned mission to the Bryne Family State. Among many other things, he had learned of Stylla's
mysterious disappearance after she suddenly acquired the power to remove the curse that had hung over her father for a long ti.
Replicus had found that odd.
There had been no explanation for this occurrence, which had been beyond his wildest dreams, but now, as he glimpsed the differences in the redhead; her more defined physical features, how she now spotted a pair of webbed wings behind her back, and her inexplicable level of strength that allowed her to face against a Herald...
'Is she... is she sohow now allied to that thing?' Replicus wondered in horror. 'Or is that thing the reason she beca so strong?'
This developnt rocked him to his core.
What had really happened back then in Genhuis City all those months ago?
It seed the only one with the other portion of the story - the missing piece - was Skullius. Replicus gritted his teeth.
The odds were continuing to stack themselves against him, and the stakes kept rising. After Kenno told him everything he knew, the Penetrator had been inclined to try to help Stylla, return her Family jewel, the Harmonic Ember, and make Em-Sul and his goons suffer for what they did to the estate back then.
This, along with how he was constantly troubled about Ferex's whereabouts, had weighed on the deepest recesses of Replicus' mind.
So of the answers he had desired were finally here, but he hardly knew what to do with them.
Wordlessly, the Penetrator clutched the Harmonic Ember in his hand tight and allowed himself to be smacked by the vicious gusts of mana-filled wind, and an odd wall of darkness that proceeded another crackle like lightning in the sky. The battle between the dragon and the Null existence, aided by Stylla continued.
"Keep calm socket hole! This isn't the ti to give in to sentint!" one of the thought phantoms he had summoned cried right as Replicus was subrged in the vile, ebony sea.
"Yeah! Rember, we need to get out of this alive no matter the cost. If we can do that... and re-rge with Skullius - perhaps after a fight as bitter as this one - we will be able to handle most things on this damned world, which should be a good thing, since we are going to need all that strength against Somanda!"
"Hurry! Inaction will only cost us. You're a skeleton dammit, stop caring for a minute or two!"
The loud choruses of encouragent in his head did help Replicus a bit. He had started to get crushed under how impossible everything he set out to do was, but his thought phantoms were right.
If he could make it alive from under these odds...
However, said odds were a little more treacherous than t the eye.
Replicus wrestled against the dark tides within the ocean. Harsh lights burned above the waters, and the searing heat that ca with them was egregious.
The Penetrator had figured out why his Titan World Storm Penetrator abilities were all dispelled, along with Araeyn's.
It was because of that damned dragon.
The weird tilting of the world, the lting of the clouds; things he had seen and thought to be illusions, were the creature's - perhaps - passive effect on the world.
Every influence under a certain level was imdiately crippled in the dragon's presence.
Replicus guessed that Special skills and below were quite weak against that overbearing power, which made sense considering the sheer calibre of the dragon.
The Emissary hadn't done justice in describing the dragon's power at all.
As for how Araeyn's [Grandiose Manifestation] ability was affected, well, it seed that spatial abilities were likely to fail in front of the dragon as well, but there was so slight
nuance.
Baddan's Territory persisted for a few monts under these conditions, while [Grandiose Manifestation] fell imdiately.
A Territory was pretty much a spatial manipulation feat, and not just on the inside. What likely made Baddan's Territory last, was because Baddan had full control over his Territory, while Araeyn couldn't possibly be able to control an entire dinsion. At best, he could manipulate a few elents of the Boring Mine Nova Star Course, not be deigned its complete master.
Replicus' sockets blazed even within the dark liquid.
All these factors were why he couldn't use things like Spatial Lightning, or warp into Stagnant Space which he already had a weak affinity with. Heck, he couldn't even store the Harmonic Ember in his spatial storage, and thus settled for having his armour hide it within itself.
'I can't use [Unbound] on the Ember either. Even that skill is being restricted here...' the Penetrator thought.
His use of the Ember was stalled. He had wanted to upgrade it right after acquiring it to maximise his gains, but...
'Dammit!'
For now, Replicus resolved to find his team. He could sense them through their Granted Armants.
They were moving.
He swam as fast as he could as the sea flipped this way and that. Within the dark waters, he noticed a great many things. Struggling humans, struggling fish and struggling beasts. The latter made a desperate attempt to swim deeper into the ocean, fleeing from the presence of an infinitely more monstrous problem.
Replicus weaved through them all. They didn't see this as a ti to attack, after all.
Soon, the Penetrator noticed a familiar coat of fur above the sea. A large beast with a long tail was running on the air while mounted by multiple figures.
Replicus imdiately launched himself out of the water and clutched onto the beast's foot.
He then hurled himself onto its back where several eyes shot towards him.
At once, Replicus' socket fla fluctuated between bright rage and soft fury. Only one among the three in his direct line of sight felt the pain this subtle sign expressed. Baddan looked quite heavily injured. The series of lacerations and gouges on his arms and chest told of the coarse ordeal he had barely managed to struggle through.
Grim's shaggy body also depicted his tribulations through the nurous singed or outright scorched spots on it. His front leg was mangled, but he powered through the pain, using its ability to use the air as a foothold to move away rapidly from the thick of the conflict in the
skies.
Pherdanta seed to have sustained the least amount of damage. She was bleeding profusely from her hands and face with the cause unclear, but of course, she could care less about her
own minor injuries.
After all, the one nested in her arms had it far worse.
The sight of Allora with her waist a few grams of flesh away from parting with her torso, leaving her in two halves, was quite harrowing to say the least.
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