Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1036: Coordinated Disruption



With the use of [Epiphany], a Nullmancer exclusive skill that allowed him to analyse and learn concepts just by being exposed to them, Replicus had been able to assimilate the core power that allowed the Flawless Flail of Ruin - the Cluster General Hope's wand - to disrupt and restore guarded energy mechanisms.

He had had Thrill use the wand on him many times in the last three days, with each time the Penetrator paying with Null Life Essence to get a higher affinity for the concept.

As a result...

[ Affinities]

[Coordinated Disruption - A ]

Coordinated Disruption.

That was the name of newly learned concept.

While it worked quite well in the hands of the Penetrator, it was arguably better applied using

the Flawless Flail of Ruin since there was practically no resource cost.

And there lay the problem in learning Coordinated Disruption as a concept.

...

The cathedral's layers exploded, shattering like glass in the face of the orange light!

The black space outside the cathedral was revealed instantly.

The Bishop and Warding Pride wore dark faces as the chilling expanse of endless Null Life Essence poured into the cathedral once again. It meant they had to guard earnestly once more with Nitros!

"Bright Storm!" the Bishop cried, half aggrieved and half furious. "You deceiver! Are... are you truly no more than a walking corpse!"

Warding Pride, who was nearest to the Penetrator grunted in fury and struck him hard with the remains of that block-like shield she had had tank a blow from the Bishop for his sake.

Replicus was sending flying across the hall, which was starting to scatter as well.

His entire right set of ribs was broken, including his spine, but he was fine.

It seemed unique artefacts meant for absorbing harsh physical impacts were the bane of his Deviant Trigger Build, which rebounded all physical impacts below a certain threshold.

Thankfully, Prime Perpetuation, his variation of the Health stat, was unimpeded.

It allowed him to keep feeling and acting his best, even if his body was horribly damaged. Replicus landed on his feet and immediately activated [Brilliant King's Adoring Stars]. Nodes of Levin, fifty in all appeared like miniature stars around and above him, and started pouring rejuvenating Null Life Essence as bolts right onto him!

Skullius' cracked bones were quickly healed, and he was empowered by the 210% attack power boost the skill gave.

This was in addition to [Epiphany]'s 110% increase in skill efficiency and proficiency.

...And the environmental amp of 140%!

Replicus felt frightening power run through his bones.

His sockets flashed blindingly, eclipsing even the brilliance of the fifty bolts striking silently at him!

"This is what I am," he said, two sets of his socket flames seeming to be shared between glaring at Warding Pride and the Mad Bishop who looked at him oddly.

They were repulsed by him.

They were revolted by him.

"This is who I am! I am not one of you, and I never will be! I am bone, Levin and Null Life walking among you! I'm no beast! I'm no undead! I'm no source of entertainment for either of you! You best take me fleshing seriously!"

The words of the Penetrator, no, of SKULLIUS, reverberated through what remained of the hall.

It was impossible to miss, even for Warding Pride, because his words travelled through the pool of Null Life Essence, amplified several fold.

Replicus' hand was still aglow with the orange light of Coordinated Disruption.

It was because of this that the song of the Collective no longer had its tight hold on him.

That said, this was all Replicus could manage for now.

The reason he didn't start firing off Disruption sooner, was because there was huge cost.

It turned out that disrupting a technique, cost an amount of mana equivalent to a third of the target's total mana reserves.

In other words, to successfully disrupt the Bishop's strange cathedral, Replicus had to pay one third of the Bishop's total mana quantity as payment.

And of course, the Bishop's reserves were more monstrous than his, which were temporarily amped through [Sage Save] and [Sage Strain].

That was why he had hesitated.

At the moment, Replicus was relying on his second mana core, which was also bolstered by [Sage Strain] and [Sage Save] to reach blue quality.

His primary core, which had been boosted to purple, was nearly exhausted.

Still...

'I'll manage!' Replicus thought and he set his sights on the flying nine.

He had to kill them before his reserves of mana depleted at least.

Before he could, however...

A dark shadow was cast over him.

A great stone double gate with a fierce demon's face carved onto it appeared to his left.

This was Warding Pride's doing!

What was this?

A seal?

A barrier?

"Fine then, Bright Storm! I'll take you seriously. Survive this and you would have made your point. Not that that will save you. You are still going to die."

The blue-skinned Faction Leader's voice came.

The odd gates she made opened right after, groaning as though they hadn't been opened in

centuries.

Water came out.

Rather, a great flood.

It poured so swiftly, and with such great volume that Replicus had barely managed to attempt to use Spatial Lightning to evade when he was completely submerged.

Just after he was buried, though he and the Brilliant King's Adoring Stars - the vast gush of water which had almost covered half the hall's floor in a moment... froze solid.

Its enormous size oozed cold steam while growing from the only thing remaining of the cathedral; the wide flooring, which was also disintegrating as well.

Replicus felt that he couldn't move. No part of his body could so much as twitch. "This is a semi-living organism I captured in a high level Cluster a decade ago. Once you are trapped inside it, all your bodily functions will cease because of the ungodly level of cold, and every cell in your body dies," Warding Pride said as she walked over to the large body of ice.

White flakes of it continued growing outward, greedily attempting to devour anything else in the vicinity.

"This thing won't stop reaching its cold fangs if you give it the chance, and it always

recognises old prey. So even for someone like you..."

ZWOOOOP!!

Warding Pride's eyes moved at the sound.

Replicus' pitch black skeletal figure appeared with a flash of grey over the body of ice. He had

used Spatial Lightning on himself to escape, a feat that didn't require him to move at all.

The Brilliant King's Adoring Stars followed after him.

The massive body of ice, unfortunately, also followed.

It immediately turned liquid and lunged at him! Replicus flashed in the air again and again as the odd monster leapt.

It truly did indeed hold a grudge.

'This isn't going to work,' Replicus thought. The glow of Coordinated Disruption was still

alight on his hand, but it wasn't going work in this instance.

Warding Pride and the Bishop made their way towards him, shooting through space with differing means after the tiling of the hall finally vanished.

The Bishop's crazed expression and her constant call of his moniker told Replicus all he needed to know about her mental state.

Warding Pride had succeeded in turning the Bishop against him, though probably not in the

way she intended.

'I can't win against them in a physical contest. Matching them blow for blow is impossible. I'm just going to have to apply the Titan World Storm arsenal,' Replicus thought.

He had decided to switch to the more hard-hitting skills he had on his racial side three days

ago anyway.

He readied himself as the wide body of water splashed against him from below, behind it the

figures of two mighty Faction Leaders.

'I just have to survive long enough...'

At that moment, Replicus thought he heard a loud roar that made his soul shiver, but he didn't pay it much mind. He couldn't afford to be distracted.

While focusing his mana reserves, he activated his most powerful Titan World Storm Penetrator skill after, of course, [Titan World Storm]...

A instant later, the Penetrator's body ruptured into a gigantic mass...