Bro, I'm not an Undead! Chapter 1377: The Truth of It (3)



Serenity elaborated while Skullius furrowed his brows, reserving his comnts for now. He hinged firmly on the fact that Serenity apparently wasn't allowed to have a bearer of Null Life outside the wider reality.

That was... unexpected.

"In order to skirt this restriction, I had VOW help create a Book of Alignnt. Books of Alignnt, as you well know, are the pinnacle of Runecraft in reality and the style of their creation cannot be replicated easily, save by soone like VOW who sees and knows most things," she said, and suddenly sounded a little nostalgic. "In order to mask the presence of my odd powers, I also added another Book of Alignnt with an ability - accessible even to a mortal - which would help them blend into different environnts: [Flesh It Like You an It]. I didn't co up with the na, by the way."

Skullius almost chuckled.

Serenity continued.

"Since I couldn't create a bearer in this reality, my plan was to smuggle my Books of Alignnt elsewhere - sowhere without the restrictions that bound ."

Skullius frowned at this.

"Don't tell ..."

"Yes. I wanted to smuggle it to another reality and travel there myself, away from this place. Start a new life as an obscure entity. I'd heard the other realities might be greater and richer than this one."

...!

Skullius barely held in his visceral reaction to this revelation. He had much to ask, but he allowed Serenity to continue without interruption.

"This is where Somanda cos in. I'm sure you've wondered at so point - after learning about the Existential Parallels - why it is that Somanda was the one with the Books of Alignnt I had VOW make for , if they did hold a power of a higher calibre than Undeath," she continued.

Serenity rely asked for the sake of creating an adequate atmosphere for the information she was about to give. She knew Skullius had wondered about everything. The books, Somanda's intentions with Aigas before he escaped him, everything.

The Hybrid Warmoth listened keenly.

"In order to smuggle my Books of Alignnt out of this reality, I foolishly employed the help of Emmae - the Eminence of Undeath. You see, her realm - which you call Deadmanland - is located at the edge of this reality. Well, technically. It is a cheap copy of what I made with the Null Verse, but in so ways, it is very impressive. In exchange for helping , I offered Emmae the blueprint of how I created the Null Verse using a Reality rank Pri Treasure as a base. I thought it was a fair trade. I still believe it was. Perhaps even a little more beneficial for Emmae since once I was gone, she would have one less major competitor for worlds."

Evidently, Serenity's plan had failed.

Skullius could scarcely hold himself back from outwardly rendering a guess as to how it fell through.

"Let guess. Emmae decided to try and steal your power through the Books of Alignnt?" he posited.

Serenity laughed.

"I knew you'd think that," she said, "But no."

There were hints of pride in her voice.

"In all truth, that was the first ti Emmae earned my respect over Void as a sister. She, like all others envies my powers and my Treasure, and would love to learn the secrets, but she wants to accomplish it in a manner that satisfies her pride. I saw it back then. She took the Books of Alignnt and threw them at the feet of one of her highest-ranked High Liches and told him to do as he would with them. And as for ..."

Serenity chuckled.

"She jeered and scorned for treating her like a lapdog - sothing so desperate that it would lick even the leftovers which fell from my table. She chased out of her halls with her armies, laughing at , sneering at how my creations were locked up sowhere, probably ignorant of the existence of their creator, unable to stand and fight for ."

Skullius would be lying if he asserted that the contrast between Serenity's chuckle and the sombreness of her tale didn't tug at a few of his strings. He felt a little sorry for the progenitor of Null Life. However, even stronger than this emotion, was his curiosity.

"So, let get this straight. You offered Emmae the thod for how you created Null Verse, and even a Book of Alignnt bearing your powers and in the na of pride she threw them away? That's not pride. That stupidity!" Skullius declared.

"Not at all. Like I said before, the Books of Alignnt are made using the highest tier of Runecraft there is. Emmae and her Liches aren't privy to such knowledge. They would have, if Vow favoured them, but well... Because of that, I was confident even if she tried to pry the book open, breaching our agreent - if she did agree, that is - she wouldn't be able to learn its secrets. Only VOW could allow that. Emmae knew this too," Serenity said.

Skullius frowned. Well, if that was the case then it made sense. Now that he put so brain cells into it, he gathered that the blueprint for how Serenity created the Null Verse and the Null Verse itself were two different things. Emmae was interested in the latter - the creatures and artefacts born within the Null Verse.

"So, this High Lich who got the Books of Alignnt..." Skullius began.

"I soon learned through VOW that he was Somanda's superior at the ti. He spent Consternals trying to learn the powers in the books, and only succeeded where [Flesh It Like You an It] was concerned. Books of Alignnt have ranks of complexity, and those containing mortal abilities are significantly less complex than those with Existential Parallel powers. This High Lich soon lost interest, and passed the books to Somanda. As an Arch-Lich, Somanda his own ambitions. He had been eyeing Aigas for a while back then. He had placed an artefact there, just like many other Liches when Aigas' Rules were in shambles, and soone had actually managed to find it and connect with him."

"The masked man..." Skullius said.

"Yes," confird Serenity. "Somanda couldn't use the Book of Alignnt with Null Life, and thus, settled for using (Flesh It Like You an It] instead. His superior had already cracked that one for him. The ability might have been a re parlour trick to the High Lich, but to Somanda... well, he imagined if he gave himself flesh, he could work out a plan to infiltrate Aigas, with the added help of the Legendary grade artefact SoSei in the hands of the masked necromancer. You put a stop to that. Thankfully, VOW, ever-watching, used the chance. She acknowledged you, gave you access to the guidance field, and allowed you to acquire both Null Life and [Flesh it Like You an It], the latter already prid for Aigas' power system."

(A/N: Refer to Ch.299.)