A Scorching Tear dropped between the odd duo and the old undead Incandescent Stager.
The Penetrator turned into Levin and shot past the enemy right when the Scorching Tear caused a huge splash and generated steam so potent that it could lt the skin off Masters with ease!
The old Incandescent Stager dashed back while coating himself with a thick layer of Nitros, and Aurolio dashed back as well – in the opposite direction – and coated himself with a large blanket of Voided Death Essence.
Within the blinding white and deafening hiss, the old Incandescent Stager didn't miss Replicus' figure trying to zip towards Actuass in a large flash!
That wouldn't do.
His whole purpose was to stall.
With rapid motion befitting a Form User, he pointed a finger at his forehead, touched it and then pointed the sa finger to the ground, mana weaved in a complex manner igniting at its tip.
He then declared quickly, his voice only sounding after his intent had already left his mouth.
"I invoke KUTHMUK."
At once, Replicus' Levin form which was only two ters from the great, huddled black beast ahead smashed against an invisible barricade and bounced back. The Penetrator was forced to return to his original form.
"The hell?"
He pressed his hand forward, and it was impeded by sothing he could not see.
"It's no use," the undead Incandescent Stager said as he looked back at Replicus. "This is a battle vow. Even though it is only half-invoked, the KUTHMUK will keep whoever I challenge within the bounds I set. The only way to escape, is if I will it, or to face and kill , the invoker."
Aurolio who passed through the remnants of the pristine steam which still remained thick on his side sneered:
"That old Maqi tradition, ey? I didn't think we were dealing with an enemy of that origin."
The old man didn't have a response to this.
"Kill you? You're already dead, sockethole," Replicus said as he turned. After several attempts at pressing through the hindering force, he found that he wasn't faced with a barrier. He was simply not allowed to pass.
"All things face a true form of death given the right circumstances. If you do not have the ans, then I pity you," the Incandescent Stager said, and then his body abruptly swelled to twice its size, getting thrice as shredded as he had been before such that even as a pale undead, he looked to be full of vibrant vigour!
White Nitros ford patterns over his skin, making him look like a beefy, paper cut-out of extravagant design!
As if all that wasn't enough...
"This is my Creed. My might strikes only the soul!"
...!!!
Replicus felt it before he saw it!
A crushing blunt force slamd into him, but it did nothing to his armour or his body. It hit sothing deep within instead!
His soul!
Another piercing blow smashed into him, and abused his soul with such brutality that Replicus felt it...crack.
Through his peripheral vision, he saw that the old Incandescent Stager was performing vehent movents while standing in place, yet their effect was all but clear!
On the other side, Aurolio seed to have been fed a few harsh blows as well. From what Replicus could see, he was affected and had been flung back, grunting muffledly in pain!
The old undead Incandescent Stager was resorting to using attacks that didn't trigger Replicus' rebounding effect!
The Creed he used was to skip a few steps and harm the soul without physical contact!
It was the ideal strategy against soone like Replicus.
However...
"Haha... hahahahahaha!" the Penetrator suddenly guffawed. "How inconvenient for you!"
The stars he had set up with [Brilliant King's Adoring Stars] shot multiple beams of light that turned the Penetrator luminous, boosting his attack power.
He didn't need healing.
He wasn't hard, after all.
If he were Skullius, he would have been dealt so degree of damage, but Replicus... Replicus only had a copy of Skullius' soul – a projection of the original!
The one who would suffer from the damage he just received, was Skullius, not him, a replica!
WHUUUUUUUP!
Where the old Incandescent Stager stood, showing slights signs of confusion as to why Replicus was unhard, a sharp thread of faint, blue light dove down from his left to split him in half!
WHOOSH!
The Incandescent Stager managed to dodge it!
Behind him, Aurolio who seed to be recovering from the hit he just took, let out a "Wooo!" before dashing to the side to avoid the Null Life Essence condensed into a slicing attack, boosted to 120%!
Replicus felt the Incandescent Stager's attack bash into him again, but of course, he felt nothing – if not pity for Skullius.
The bastard was moving quickly.
He was barely visible.
Replicus sent another attack, and it missed.
Another. It missed. Another, another, another.
He followed up by imdiately turning into a bolt of Levin that darted around the area, yet sohow, he and the Incandescent Stager didn't collide once.
He sent another slash, and as it travelled, Replicus thought he saw it nick flesh.
It went on to pass towards the distant Faction mbers that retreated from falling calamities with their ships!
'Hmmm. It passed through?' Replicus thought only for a micro mont.
Right then...
"|You're holding back on us, aren't you? Go all put already!|" Aurolio roared from the surface of the ocean, looking up at the two who were moving at hyper speed.
BOOOM!
A might force, one akin to concentrated gravity applied directly onto the old undead and he was smashed into, pumlling straight into the ocean!
It was Veneration again!
Replicus didn't miss it.
The force of Aurolio's attack and the old undead's descent were so great that waves of ocean water splashed around them violently!
In that mont before the enemy was completely subrged though, Replicus' slashes, finally reached the old undead! The blasted combatant's head was severed in three with little resistance!
Replicus' sockets flashed as he gazed at where the old undead had sunk.
He then looked at Aurolio and Aurolio looked at him.
The two imagined that they hadn't accomplished anything really.
The undead probably alive.
That said, the reason for this was that both of them were reluctant to show off too much about their abilities.
Aurolio wasn't in a hurry like Replicus, and seed to be committing to his tight lip protocol, which extended to him only using abilities he didn't value that much. This extended to his Veneration art which Replicus was - unknown to Aurolio - deconstructing.
Replicus on the other hand didn't have anything that could one-shot an Incandescent Stager as of yet. He needed a several stage attack strategy and revealing all those steps to Aurolio didn't seem ideal.
He would have done so without a thought, if he hadn't already confird that indeed, his crew was alive... sowhere, after Actuass' green pulsing field was taken down.
But still...
BOOOOOOM!
The world trembled again.
The trembling had a sense of finality to it that made everyone turn towards Actuass again.
Under the shadow of the great black lizard-mantis, he seed to relax and take a breather.
Behind him, the other side of the world which had broken away, drifted faster, further from this side.
Under the lights and steam, it looked terribly disturbing.
Then, a wall of darkness rose from the deep, dark chasm that existed between the severed world, and rose to et that which ca from the sky!
When the two harmonised in black, the instability that had been evident – the falling destruction, the chaos and all – disappeared.
"Complete," the voice of Actuass ca crisply in the next mont, audible to all. "Now..."
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