Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1039  Vision of Misery! (1)

In the moments that followed, Replicus found his cognitive abilities returning to him, his mind turning lively again after what felt like years of being preserved in ice. Indeed, he was back in Aigas.

Indeed, below his feet, the ebony waters were boiling, releasing toxic fumes in the process.

Indeed, he had heard a vicious roar just now, one that he could have sworn no regular tiered beast on Aigas could have made. It had shaken his soul only slightly the first time he heard it, and chose to ignore, but right now, the saying that went 'sound is nothing but a pair of shy hands' seemed to get validated.

Worse than the sound and the vexing view of the boiling sea, was how space seemed to crane and melt. Replicus wasn't sure if it was an illusion or not, but he was inclined to believe it was. After all, there was no way Aigas was tilting to the right, with the clouds above melting like wax.

Speaking of these clouds, they were moving now. They raced in the new, slanted direction which the world was supposedly tilting towards.

'Flesh me! What is going on?!' Replicus thought… and then it hit him. 'Wait. Am I…?'

Indeed, he was.

He was no longer a massive storm cloud.

He was the pitch-black skeleton, the Titan World Storm Penetrator embedded within the Hollow Dusk Prison.

When was [Titan World Canvas] dispelled, and how?!

As his socket flames gushed inconsistently, the Penetrator summoned his thought phantoms, and they frantically screeched possibilities in his mind.

"What in the world is this? Can you all feel that? Something really, really bad is coming."

"Worse than that you sockethole, how in the world did our thundercloud body and Araeyn's [Grandiose Manifestation] suddenly end before their respective durations were up? I could have sworn there was still four or five minutes left for [Grandiose Manifestation], and we sure as flesh didn't disable [Titan World Canvas], right?"

"No, you fool! Listen to the first guy! I'm willing to bet whatever is coming is what's causing all this? Can't you sense it?"

"Its bizarre. I feel it on our bones. It's like the world is sick or something?"

…

What was coming?

Replicus focused his senses North.

Oh yeah.

At that moment, it didn't matter to him that the Bishop and Warding Pride were only a few hundred meters from him on either of his sides. It didn't matter that the liquid-ice monstrosity had sunk into the ebony sea. The Faction Leaders were stunned, and were also gazing intently in the direction that Replicus set his eyes.

What was coming?

Whatever it was, seemed to either have a very deep shadow or several massive ones. It was impossible to say it was one or the other.

Distorted shapes of whatever this thing was, dark silhouettes, ran across the surface of the sea hundreds of miles away. They were both slow and fast.

They seemed infinitely wide.

Replicus' sight couldn't tell where each of these – or where this one vast shadow – ended whether from the West or the East.

Worse yet, the owner of these shadows couldn't be seen over them.

If anything, it seemed the shadows were a mere carpet, a prelude announcing its arrival as they shredded the ebony liquids.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!

Another great roar came and to Replicus and everyone else… the world turned dark and muffled with only the voice of whatever god was approaching prevailing, burying every sense and will under its oppression until its echoes faded.

As Replicus' sockets flickered, he couldn't help but think that the sea had dipped a little. A large portion of it had evaporated.

'That roar. It… it's trying to freeze my thoughts! I need to act fast!' Replicus thought and he immediately began surveying the surroundings. If everyone was spat out of the Boring Mine Nova Star Course, then…

As expected, the Penetrator saw Araeyn, quite a distance away. The Apostle was standing on the Empyrean Ribbon, opposite him the figure of a slightly battered Aurolio. The pale man had a disgusting laceration on his cheek that revealed the set of teeth behind it. The sleeve to his thick jacket was also gone, exposing a flayed arm.

The conditions concerning his altercation with Araeyn boiled down to only this. At face value, it seemed the Apostle had been giving Aurolio the works, but the unexpected sequence of events had torn their attention from each other. They too were facing Nxorth.

Replicus shifted his vision.

'Of course…' he thought.

He saw Eaniss a little further away from the two. She looked with firm eyes towards the coming disaster too.

Of course, she was alive.

The Penetrator's eyes then finally switched to a large ball hanging above sea level South-West of where he stood.

It shimmered with firmly integrated Nitros from the outside. Baddan's Territory.

Somehow, it still stood quite firm, and because the expanded space of Araeyn's skill had been cancelled, it was much, much closer than before.

However…

ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR!

A bombastic roar later, which enveloped the world in darkness and confusion…

CRRRACCCCK! BOOOOOM!

The Territory exploded violently, its shards flying everywhere!

Seven figures flew out, their bodies almost whirling, following the changes to the space around them, coming from the stability established within Baddan's Majestic demesne.

All seven immediately bore looks of shock at the new sensations to be felt, but a majority of them already carried an emotion and sense of urgency equally as deep as the horror Aigas was now inspiring. Thus, this majority turned to the Penetrator.

"Masteeeeer!"

Replicus' sockets flared.

He was shaken.

He had never heard Pherdanta's voice so… heavy.

There she was, in midair, wielding in her hand… the Harmonic Ember!

Good! Great even!

Replicus' emotions surged in a bit of triumph. But…

The look Pherdanta wore gunned down his relief.

His sockets scoured behind her.

His socket flames blazed furiously.

It seemed…

It seemed the mission he had given his subordinates had been completed, but at a cost.

'Damn it! Damn it all!' Replicus barked in his mind.

The Harmonic Ember flew from Pherdanta's hands and he caught it.

…But not before the numerous, distorted shadows that had been approaching buried him and everyone else in total darkness.

The cast darkness was so deep, it might as well have been a tangible substance that had accolades in submerging reason and cordial thoughts.

However, the metaphorical darkness the Penetrator felt seemed infinitely superior in terms of making him feel sour and void.

Even if it weren't though, the shadows passed a moment later, bringing light once again to the world, not to mention a blast of waves washing over the remaining Factions and their Leaders.

Six groans…

Six shuddering blasts of raw force…

Four wails…

All these shook the world after the cover of shadow was gone.

Each of them sent all living beings below plummeting through the ebony sea, for they came from directly above.

It appeared whatever had interrupted the normal state of the world, wasn't simply passing by.

It was… contending against something else.

The effects of this contention were so absurd that none were able to resist the dying and replenishing of gravity to ensue, the disappearance and re-emergence of the air, and the twisting of the world which came from it.

Several moments after this fresh experience, Replicus rose to the surface, just like everyone else and looked up.

He didn't know who shouted the obvious first, but the despair in that person's voice, was rather fitting.

"DRAAAAAGOOOOOON!"