Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1053: Amalgam



[Bringer of All] was a skill that allowed Replicus to merge with one of his Apostles. Replicus would also be allowed to take one of his skills - a non-Null Life skill - and throw it into the mix, with said skills being deconstructed, bettered, multiplied into many, unique variants, and used as a further amplifier of the resultant creature from the merge.

This, was what [Bringer of All] had been.

Skullius had used it only twice. Once in Inhone City and once more on the night he split himself.

Replicus hadn't used this skill since he hadn't had an Apostle to merge with after the incident with Ferex, and before that, he hadn't had a real need to use it. Because of its 15-day cooldown and 5-minute duration, he preferred to save it as a trump card.

The current [Bringer of All], was different.

After it was refined by the External Fragment of Realised Choices, the skill became the best version of itself; what Replicus assumed to be its fixed limit within the Nullmancer Class' scope.

The skill now allowed Replicus to merge with all available Apostles, that is, all the Apostles he had acquired and was allowed with the current level of [Apostle Summon]. Thus, even the Pelvic Arbiter, Red Rage had been dragged to this location.

Better yet, the skill now allowed Replicus to include as many skills as the number of Apostles he had at his disposal.

At this current point, the Penetrator had three, but the third, Ferex, unfortunately was currently unavailable for merging because he was bonded to the Null Devil King's body as the BoneTender. However, a third slot for the skill was still open to Replicus, and he used it without hesitation.

Even better than the aforementioned was the fact that each of the skills used in the merge did not have any restrictions anymore; they didn't need to be limited to non-Null Life skills, which meant...

...

The figure born out of [Bringer of All] was magisterial.

While maintaining a regal aesthetic, it also managed to look abominable, and unbeatable. It took on a dark blue hue over its whole, vaguely mixed in with splashes and trails of red and yellow. This dark layer, which was rather glossy and wrinkled, was covered to the extreme by large, bright stars that could be described to be like stellar warts. Indeed, like warts, because this amalgam did not look quite like a skeleton. On the contrary, it looked like a tall, muscular beast of flesh.

A tall muscular beast with six, powerful arms!

The starry layer of darkness was its flesh just as much as it was its armour.

Its head featured tall horns growing over it, a small thundercloud above them. Below the horns were four large holes dug in its face, wild, golden-white flames as fierce as those from a bonfire issuing from each.

Below them in turn, a large, flexible jaggered set of lips could be seen, opened wide to reveal a maw that exposed a furnace of the same fire burning in the amalgam's sockets.

The ungodly figure held, in one of its hands, an extremely long, thick cloth of a stark white fabric. In another, it held a golden, double-edged short sword without much distinct design, and in another, it had not an item, but a dreadful flare of purple-gold particles that scared the space around the abomination.

Flames fired from the creature's mouth and fell into the sea.

They were not extinguished. It showed as they fell on and on below.

'Not bad,' the creature thought.

[Bringer of All] had allowed the Nullmancer more control over all the components - other than the skills - used to create this new form. How flexible.

All this was achieved using no more than 45,000 Null Life Essence units as the cost, a price the Nullmancer had paid through Araeyn's vast well of resources which, thankfully, weren't exhausted after his battle with Aurolio.

'Twenty minutes. I will end this in twenty minutes. I must,' the creature said.

This was the limit of this skill, it seemed. The External Fragment of Realised Choices could do much less when dealing with Null Life components. They already had limits to them that not even it could bypass, unfortunately.

But this wasn't anything to scoff at all. Not at all.

"Yuyui..." the creature spoke, its vibrant voice akin to three bursts of thunder weaved into a harmonic rhythm, travelling far.

The green-haired girl was a little frightened of her master's new form, but she quickly gained her composure.

"Yes, master." she said.

The monstrosity walked forward towards Yuyui. It moved slowly, seeming to get a grasp over its new strength. A long red ribbon had been woven into the form of a beautiful kilt-like piece of clothing that covered its waist to its knees. It swayed like the finest linen when the knees of monstrosity beat against it.

The silk cloth the two stood accommodated them alone. Yuyui had instructed Yagrina and Bassbion to protect the Unlimited lot when they heeded Replicus' words and got out of the way with haste.

"You better be able to keep up," the amalgam said.

"Don't look down on me, master. Didn't you hear Bassbion? I might be stronger than you now," Yuyui said with a grin.

A hoarse, horrific chuckle leaked from the amalgam.

"Good."

Then it moved.

A sharp spike of Null Life Essence was felt only by four others on this side of the world, and the dark, magisterial monstrosity was suddenly high in the sky... Yuyui by its side, drops of sweat issuing from her temples.

Then...

"[Budget Tug-of-War]," the creature said, and giant chains of wild, fiery mana burst from its body, powered by six mana cores hidden behind its dark skin.

The chains snaked their way - at atrocious speeds - towards the Null Devil King, and

Jerthrax.

The former did not move as the chains dug into him and clanked, but the latter vanished from where he had been with such alacrity that one would think his size was fake.

The Vision of Misery had dodged.

Of course, he had. He was that fast... and cautious.

However...

"Yuyui," the amalgam called.

...And where Jerthrax had vanished to, up in the skies, the great mana chains followed and

bore into his chest without having to contend with his scales.

Yuyui, sweating even more, had moved her hand onto which the Eye of Moving was fixed, and

it had been as her master desired.

"HMMMM..." a great hum issued from Jerthrax.

What were these chains? And how come they reached him? They didn't seem to do him any

harm.

In the next moment, however...

Jerthrax's pool of mana, contained in a great golden mana core, drastically drained away until

it was only two-tenths of what it had been!

The dragon looked at the Null amalgam with spite, as did the Null Devil King who found that his reserves of Null Life Essences had plummeted also.

"Bold," he said.

"FOUL," Jerthrax said.

And the amalgam cackled.

But then...

The sea exploded below.

An enormous creature forced itself out of the waters and rose rapidly. It looked as though it

was made of stone, its form like that of a lizard and a mantis mixed together. In its broad hands, it carried a great vessel that the monstrosity floating above Jerthrax and the Null Devil

King recognised very well.

Too well.

It was its stolen vessel.

Beyond the umbrella-shaped barrier covering the ship's deck, two men could be seen. One

with a mask, and a dark robe... and another with a dark robe and no mask.

Whichever was which, it didn't matter.

After all, it was all but clear.

The masked man had entered the battlefield.