Aurolio's gaze lingered on the blacksmith long after he vanished with the Strawlers through the secret passage into the Timould Mirror Box. He felt the stinging conflict brewing within him worsen for so reason.
Elita wondered about the place itself rather than those going into it. She had heard that the Timould Mirror Box was indeed a place that altered the flow of ti to give the user an advantage. She wished she could have gotten a glimpse of it.
But Skullius was in a hurry.
He opened another rift with Ju`wtte and warped everyone to the Empyrean Bosom.
Aurolio gaped upon reaching the place.
"Holy…!" he exclaid. He would have had the sa reaction if he had seen the hall that contained all the World to Void rank Treasures in the Warmoth's Treasury, but they hadn't travelled that far.
The aesthetic of the Empyrean Bosom was ant to befuddle with awe. It worked every single ti a new person ca and saw its odd wonders. The grandiose figure of the Empyrean Hatcher in the distance especially drew in the eyes, with the limited sky directly above it doing the most.
Right then, a voice spoke to the group. There was wariness in its tone.
"Who are you?" It was Susu'k. He imdiately recognized the difference between his master, who had been here not too long ago, and this new individual herding a bunch of familiar and unfamiliar individuals into the Bosom.
"Oh please. You know who I am. Aside from the slight disparity in appearance, I'm not that different from that younger sockethole," Future Skullius said before dismissing the Strawler and looking around at all the places in the Bosom. "Let's see… where would be best to do this?"
While Aurolio pondered with confusion over where the voice just now had co from and gone, Elita focused on Future Skullius' movents.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
Without turning to her, Future Skullius answered:
"I'm looking for the best place to handle this taming ritual. Fighting a Corrupted Deity could get a bit nasty without the right environnt."
Aurolio turned sharply to the future Hybrid at the ntion of a Corrupted Deity.
"You want to do that here?" he asked.
"Why not?" said Skullius and he retrieved the Taming Appixel from a spatial storage. "I wish I could get to fighting the thing imdiately, but there's supposed to be six trials that I have to go through. Apparently, they make taming the Deity a little easier."
It was Aurolio who had freely given Skullius the Taming Appixel back then, but now, he felt a little strange – perhaps a twinge of jealousy. Back then, he gave Skullius this ancient page without ever imagining that the Hybrid Luman would be able to use it in the future.
Well, the word Deity had held a lot more weight to Aurolio back then than it did now. A part of him had wanted no part in trying the power of a Deity.
He sighed and told himself it was ti to swallow another portion of his still-bulging pride. Perhaps just like how Uyuniya and Elita had helped him overco one hurdle to growing his strength, this Skullius could too.
"Skullius," he said, a rarely-seen serious look on his face. "What is the significance of weaponry and artefacts in battle? As a combat style, is it truly effective to lean on them? How much does it really strengthen an expert?"
This might have been the biggest surprise to Future Skullius since he landed on Aigas.
He wore a small, intrigued smile.
"Right, right," he said. "Your fighting style is heavily biased against weapons, I rember. You prefer to cultivate strength that thrives and imbibes your body most of all. When we fought for the first – and last ti – you were a real thorn in my side."
Aurolio folded his arms.
"While I could pretend to be flattered by that, I can't bring myself to do so," he said. "Against that dragon Herald, I was completely thwarted. I couldn't keep up with everyone. But it wasn't as though you, the masked man, that Null Life king or whatever or the dragon relied solely on artefacts and weapons. You were still overwhelming without them. Yet, in so situations, I've seen experts excel with nothing but a sword - one without a high grade - or a knife or a whip. You're an example. Or I suppose, a previous version of you I once knew. While I admire that commitnt to a weapon, I've also seen many fall because they relied too much on such power."
After he said his piece, he waited patiently for his answer without a word. Skullius' smile grew wider. He spun the Taming Appixel around with a bit of Ju`wtte.
"This will sound like the blandest explanation you've doubtlessly heard from different Arma Users, but using a weapon and living with it, are two different things," he said. Aurolio frowned. He had indeed heard similar quotes from different masters. He had bested or killed them all. "Well, I suppose I have my own refined insight."
Future Skullius sighed.
He truly hated speaking so much.
"Classes often cripple experts. I believe Class Branching ca about as a result of trying to remove the tunnel vision that resulted from owning one Class. A Swordsman by Class isn't a true Swordsman. Feats determine whether or not they are truly powerful wielders of a blade. I suppose the upgrade of Classes from normal to Advanced can show a jump in skill, but that is not always the case," he said.
"I was never a swordsman by Class. I learned to be a swordmaster by connecting with the sword I have used since escaping Fulgardt's Labyrinth: Demion's Dance. The connection I shared with it and its properties – death, Undeath, and Null Life – brought us together and I drew from it just as much as it drew from ."
"At so point, the sword, even without a powerful consciousness, acknowledged as its wielder. Legendary-grade swords aren't supposed to have such a trait, I'm sure you know, but this sword recognized . After it did, I found another sword I managed to entice after killing its master, a powerful Cluster General by the na of Hobbu Gobbu. He was the original Sword God, albeit a Finite one. I was the one who took his skills and brought them to the next level, as a re Insurgent Magnus."
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