"I am here to stay. Believe it. Even if I have to be a nagging, nosy neighbour who bangs on the door everyday until he is allowed in for good."
Sohow, this statent made everyone even more tense. In the end, even if they sohow managed to stop the High Lich right now, he was going to keep coming back in this fashion?
This idea was especially vexing for Uyuniya who was yet to be very well acquainted with Skullius' predicant.
She couldn't help but wonder how a Null Lifeform could suddenly erupt with Undeath essence. It had already co as a shock to her that Skullius managed to assimilate the properties of Voided Death powers, but now this? How did all the Existential Parallels harmonise within him?
When it seed as though Serenity had no answer to his declaration, Somanda gave a chilling laugh and turned to the others.
"Elita, Sila, Red Rage, Uyuniya, Kintar, Kenno, Weaver…" he said, his blank eyes narrowing mockingly. "Ah, there's so many of you standing with this puppet. Even another Lich? How surprising. You all are determined to stand with this little self-serving skeleton? Why? Why risk it? Are you that ignorant about the powers of the Eminence of Undeath? It can't be out of the kindness of your heart, can it?"
"How can you know what this little thing was originally, and still follow him loyally? He was a little human once, barely equipped with tinkles of magical power. He died like the rest on his world and beca mine. He was mine and he is mine. That will never change. He will never change. Don't you see? So critters in the wider reality belong in the mines, to farm for the strong or serve as amusent – whatever form that takes."
Somanda looked at Uyuniya.
"Isn't that right, my dear? That's what Divinity is, isn't it? Discrimination and domination. You should know, as soone in power yourself."
Uyuniya had a murderous look in her eyes. Veins throbbed from her temples.
She wasn't the only one, however.
There was dark look in Elita's eyes too and her sword was itching to exercise that darkness righteously.
Kenno's hands were already in motion. He would unleash his Territory again as soon as everyone moved in.
Sila wasn't yet well-acquainted with his new body, but he was ready to act.
Everyone flared. If the Doom Factor had depicted just how foul Undeath energy was, then Somanda had instilled in everyone how nasty all practitioners of Undeath – true practitioners – actually were. They were vile and disgusting without exception. Depraved.
And right then, everyone had the sa sombre thought sifting through them.
So this is what Skullius had to put up with a more than 1,000 years? This was what he was struggling with even after escaping the physical clutch of Undeath?
Indeed, that thought united them all in hatred for Somanda.
It wasn't all loyalty towards Skullius that prompted the hateful feeling, of course. But that didn't change anything.
"It's good that you've noted all our nas. You won't be forgetting us anyti soon," said Kintar icily. She might have been the most incensed out of all of them. Her eyes had opened wide, and her pupils might have beco slits. "Believe , you've just convinced all the more that I am not dying until I have my way with your stack of bones, whether in Aigas, the great void or in your domain."
Somanda traced a ghoulish smile on the Hybrid Warmoth's face.
"Is that so?"
Right then, a crack appeared in space a few dozen ters from the torrent of Undeath. It might have been a Cluster. A figure walked out of the rift. It looked human, but even Somanda was surprised but how… hollow it was on the inside.
The appearance of this figure, a Fruit Bearer, might have been the signal that triggered everyone to act.
Uyuniya was the fastest. Her Bare Guise – a mask that symbolised her using her Mastered Void Gate – layered over her face and she pointed forward with her palm.
With her Mastered Voided Gate aspect, she could temporarily make her target lose touch with their Broader Existence, which would make them freeze; it was like forcibly placing the target in a deep sleep that lasted a few seconds.
…But Somanda knew about it. He had read ALL of Skullius' mories.
Strings of Maximum Jaqquezjaqqz poured from all his hands. Two of them burst apart because of the incompatibility of the Exotic Parlous Nature with Skullius' body, but what Somanda intended succeeded all the sa.
…!!!
Uyuniya cursed. Her ability didn't work. Of course, it didn't.
Somanda was grinning, still perfectly conscious.
Maximum Jaqquezjaqqz had been developed specifically to counter her ability after all. It was just like how having a high affinity with a certain elent granted you immunity from the damage said elent could cause.
Kintar was the second quickest to spring into action.
Somanda had been dismissive of her because she was mortal, unlike Uyuniya, but he found that he.... was quite wrong to do so. Very wrong.
Indeed, Divines couldn't be put down with mortal abilities, but they could be fooled by them.
Rings of complicated runes appeared below the Hybrid Warmoth body. They assembled astonishingly quickly and activated a type of Absolute Magic: Fiction's Summit!
Shockingly, it was effective.
"Hmm?"
Somanda saw the ground shatter under his feet, revealing a deep darkness, and from it, he saw Elita spring out, her Broodweiler aid at his neck.
The High Lich narrowed his eyes.
That blade was dangerous, he knew.
He made to defend with a more familiar ability, part of his Undeath arsenal, but then…
He realised too late
Elita and her Broodweiler… were fake.
The real Elita, in that fraction of microsecond that Somanda was fooled, had rushed to restrain Skullius' upper right arm. She had her Bare Guise on.
Uyuniya had locked Skullius' upper left arm, Red Rage and Kenno had the Hybrid Warmoth's lower left, and Sila, with Kintar's help had the lower left in their grip.
"Hoo…" Somanda said, quite surprised.
…And then Serenity gave the signal.
"Weaver."
The Apostle looked Somanda in the eye. He was calm and composed.
The High Lich watched with a mix of awe and excitent as Weaver's hands made beautiful arcs of blue in the air with rapid, strange movents. They had aning, however. They had purpose.
"Oh…"
Somanda sensed the Null Life Essence in Skullius' body explode out. It responded to Weaver's gestures and spread through Skullius' flesh and bones in great, inconsistent throngs that changed shape, texture and state.
The Null Life Essence turned into bands of white Levin.
The Null Life Essence beca a biting cold that released pink vapours.
The Null Life Essence beca green liquid.
But it all had purpose. The fourteen different states that the Null Life Essence took coalesced into a Seal.
Somanda was pleased to be watching it all happen.
How graceful Direction was, to show him what would ultimately be his.
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