"Everybody’s hunting freedom!" the Immoral cried with a voice so loud that it diffused through all of Aigas at once. It was a mystery where his voice was coming from since his whole body had beco an immobile statue by now. He floated in the air still, with an undefeated air budding around him.
All the players on the battlefield – gods, Liches and Null Life users – turned to him in surprise, interest or indifference. There was quite an intriguing reason behind the Immoral’s survival, they all saw.
A Corrupted Deity had erged behind the Immoral. It was a horrible looking entity with scars, scabs and warts all over its moist skin; its imnse size made the details all the more nauseating. Great, cracked beads floated around it, casting shadows over its ugly robes. As terrible as it looked, however, the creature was a Deity of a high order. Indeed, it was the sa one Fulgardt had summoned when he t Skullius for the first ti in Maqi and when he stole his (Skullius’) kill earlier.
Boron, Quintess, Listafelle and Suzate recognized at once that the Corrupted Deity’s purpose wasn’t combat.
A furious torrent of Amras exploded from it, and it grunted chillingly. It might have been a death throe. Its Amras blanketed the petrified Fulgardt... and then suddenly, his flesh began to get restored.
His skin returned, as did his flesh and bones, throbbing with sothing finer than life or death. His eyes were freed from the lathering of stone, and they whipped here and there vivaciously. The Immoral flexed his appendages and turned his neck. Amras flared from him as well – a signal that he indeed had overco a Void rank Treasure’s Property.
The Amras of the Corrupted Deity, on the other hand, dwindled rapidly. It fizzled out like a fla in a furious wind; this, though, was a signal for the end. The potent strength deep within the creatire fell away and it lost its vigour. It lost its Divinity. Soon, it was plumting from behind the Immoral and into the oceans below.
Fulgardt spared a single glance at the Corrupted Deity and a glimr of regret spanned his eyes before quickly vanishing.
....!!!
Quintess scowled while Boron clicked his tongue.
They gathered what had just happened at once.
It was... impossible. It was supposed to be impossible!
thought Quintess.
Indeed, that was exactly what Fulgardt had done. The Corrupted Deity, thoroughly under his control, had sacrificed its own potent Broader Existence to both rejuvenate Fulgardt’s petrified Broader Existence and reinforce it. It took all of its vitality to completely nullify the power of a Void rank Treasure and from there, Fulgardt did the rest of the work.
Such a thing was hardly common. Who knew Broader Existences could be expended that way? It could have been that only Fulgardt knew it was possible.
...He and perhaps a certain Future Hybrid who had battled a Corrupted Deity capable of doing the sa thing if only for a different reason.
Boron was having the sa thoughts as Quintess and he was instantly thrown into conflict.
He needed to try and kill this bastard again? Was it supposed to be this hard? Was this the very reason why Void was intent on killing Fulgardt in the first place?
As it happened, Fulgardt was thinking along the sa lines as he balled his hands into fists repeatedly.
’Does Void have other ans to try and kill ?’ he thought while wincing. An unbearable pressure was crushing him from the inside and out. ’However more powerful Boron has beco, I won’t fall to the sa enemy twice. If Void is really crazy about getting rid of , the only other person here she would employ is the only one with the power to actually kill comfortably...’
It was no mystery as to who that was.
Quintess increased the pressure of his Zu’sse right then. It shuttled across, threatening to rip Aigas open and reached Fulgardt.
Blood exploded out of the Immoral’s eyes, nose, mouth and ears. He gritted his teeth and plumted into the ocean imdiately. He felt his bones rattling and cracking just as much as the molecules that made up the ocean body. Everything had turned restless just by being in Quintess’ presence... and the Deity wasn’t even using it as maliciously as he could yet.
"URRRRRRRRGHHHHHH!" Skullius’ scream tore through the air and even penetrated the ocean. Fulgardt heard it as he sank. He mustered enough strength to grin at the fool’s agony.
This was a battlefield with Deities and Liches. Did that brat really think he could dominate it so easily?
’I’m at fault for the sa hubris, admittedly,’ thought Fulgardt. ’Reaping Suzate and perhaps even Listafelle won’t be that difficult, but I did not think Quintess was capable of using Zu’sse, especially while in this state. How could a Deity’s growth be so non-linear? Winning on my own is already impossible.’ Blood flooded from him again as the Zu’sse intensified, burning the water molecules. Fulgardt cursed. ’I can at least prevent my Broader Existence from being targeted again, but that might have been the last ti I could replace everything in my body and soul conveniently. How much longer will that bastard last? Zu’sse has an infinitely more lethal effect than that petrification.’
Fulgardt could see the great shadow of Quintess even while subrged.
His eyes were different now, however.
He had donned the eyes Nigerra had offered up to him earlier in exchange for safe passage out of Aigas. He closed one and looked intently at the powerful Deity with the other – an eye that looked rather... ordinary. That was ironic, given its na.
The Zero Sight.
Suddenly, in Fulgardt’s view, everything beca an unending black wad. It was imnse, but not empty. Glowing spots could be seen – man-shaped dots of lights scattered across Aigas. There weren’t many of them, but they were significant. Each of them cast threads that wound egregiously sowhere high and far with a singular destination. Fulgardt couldn’t see said destination clearly, though.
But who cared? He knew what it was. The Yormuness.
The man-shaped dots of light were the Spirit Wardens of Aigas. They were the individuals that refused to be transported to the Empyrean Bosom by Skullius earlier – Quintess’ trump card.
Indeed, they were living beings with special powers that allowed them to access elents related to the Yormuness – the resting place for the intact souls of those who died on Aigas.
Bek.
The Ode of the First Horn.
Revia (even though she had been warped to the Empyrean Bosom earlier).
These were Spirit Wardens. Since Aigas’ creation, they were ant to exist in all generations. Their powers were hereditary so as to ensure that at any given point in ti, their powers would be available to the Deities of Aigas – Quintess in particular.
But why? What powers could mortals bestow upon a god?
It was simple.
Deities did not have full access to the souls of those who died on their worlds, as Suzate had explained to Grim, Yuyui and the others earlier. All souls needed to be transferred to the Yormuness to rest and the Deities weren’t allowed to openly interfere with this arrangent; it was one of the requirents for successfully establishing a world.
The Spirit Wardens were the loophole Quintess used to bypass this restriction. They were his ticket to accessing all the souls pooled up in the Yormuness since Aigas’ creation.
Fulgardt could see this with the Zero Sight. It was an eye that blinded his usual Divine sense of sight in exchange for allowing him to see everything else he wasn’t allowed to see within a given area for a short period of ti.
And indeed, he couldn’t see anything except the vague silhouette of the Spirit Wardens (hidden by Quintess from view so that they wouldn’t get obliterated by the large scale battle), the Yormuness, and the obscure cordon of light falling from it down to where Quintess himself should have been.
’Frightening,’ thought Fulgardt.
Zu’sse was a fearso power. It was Deific Amras refined to the point where it no longer had a physical form.
For the average Deity to acquire it, they had to cycle their Amras through the souls of other living beings for hundreds of thousands of Consternals at the very least. Mortal souls worked best as they barely had any resistance to the Amras flow, but it was even better if the souls were born of the Deity’s own power – souls from their own created world.
Only worlds with Deities that had mustered Zu’sse thrived for long with the looming threat of Undead invaders.
Though...
BOOOOOOM!
Fulgardt’s body twisted violently as the ocean vanished around him. He grinned and closed the Zero Sight eye.
Quintess and Boron had begun their fight in kind and the flying silhouette of the latter already teased who had the upper hand.
Fulgardt knew his chances were even slimr than Boron’s in this fight.
He was different in one regard, though.
The Immoral’s body flared with Voided Death Essence, and he placed a battered hand over his face.
’Watch , Void. Even you can’t take away my freedom.’
As a gold and black mask, a Bare Guise for Mastered Void Gate appeared on his face, Fulgardt called forth three of the Seeds of the Fruit of World Myths.
Seramoro, Oblivion’s Edge X lding Stitches X Delight’s Pursuit.
---
[Author’s Note]
Next Chapter Title: The Acceleration Incident!
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