Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1205: The One Left Standing (19)



Replicus, Skullius and the Stolen Angel were free from the current contusions of time. They could freely move from one drape of time to the next.

The normal people and even combatants up to a certain level of powers hadn't been able to feel the change in Aigas, how they were existing simultaneously with previous versions of the world long expired through time. However, now that the breath of the infamous elder sibling of Jerthrax, and son of Seongssax, Jiggorrhax, was charging the same blast that had both saved and warped Aigas, the fact that Aigas was existing in three became clear even to commonfolk.

The three drapes of time were brightly illuminated by the glaring light of certain salvation. Replicus' phantoms worked furiously.

Skullius had outsmarted the Progeny in the prior minuscule bits of time. He had made it so that his four-armed counterpart would have a delayed reaction to the imminent burst of power from the dragon because of the effect of his [Evil Veneration], and it had worked like a charm.

There was a little hitch, however, which Skullius immediately solved: positioning.

The drapes of time were hard to manipulate, even with Skullius' new (and still incoming) knowledge and power. He could twist time enough to create them, yes, but doing anything else required might the likes of which he had yet to achieve. He was even aware that what he had accomplished - splitting time and drawing forth the past - was only temporary.

With this limitation in mind, plus a few others, it would have been impossible for Skullius to position Replicus directly in front of Jiggorrhax's blast, especially when considering that said blast was to be aimed upward, where the shattered Rules and otherworldly enemies were coming from.

Thus, through the Stolen Angel...

A half a skull mark appeared on Replicus' [Neutral Maximum] coat, and nigh instantaneously, the beam of light he had been seeing from the distance was enlarged ten-thousand-fold in his vision!

He had been warped several hundreds of meters above the maw of a gargantuan creature - a Herald, and a dragon.

The first thing the Progeny noticed was how everything was melting around him. EVERYTHING.

It was so hot that the world was hard to define; it had become one massive collage of mirages.

It was so hot that he nearly lost control of the mana in his cores. Strangely, it had subscribed to a furious desire to simply evaporate like water.

But Replicus soldiered on with vivaciousness.

As space and stability itself was melting, there was no means of escape with which he could

use.

'Damn it...' he thought, and then....

HWAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Jiggorrhax's breath came with an intensity so far removed from mortal conception that Replicus nearly lost his sense of self before it. Even his phantoms had stopped putting plans upon plans in play in order to survive the blast.

It had no colour.

It seemingly had no form.

And it seemed to spawn from everywhere.

This... this was true power!

Everything boiled and evaporated in the path of the blast, CLEANSED!

Such a stream of energy would have been expected to move slower, but it was the fastest thing to move through Aigas since the Deities created this world!

Replicus had only partially perceived it as he struggled with the rapidly dissolving [Maximum Neutral], his evaporating mana reserves and his disintegrating flesh.

Things were dire!

His only means to defend was Null Life Essence, which remained resilient against all this. Even Skullius' trick wasn't enough to cut it apart, which was why his Null Core had remained when all his mana cores had been destroyed earlier.

Before the blast came, Replicus had already cast [Null Extraction] without any gesture or word, and Null Life Essence was flying in from ALL three of Aigas' timelines and being channelled through [All Null Commander] to reinforce the Progeny's body.

Yet... the effectiveness of this manoeuvre didn't get to be tested immediately.

A massive mercurian entity had manifested in front of Replicus, its vast size shielding him from the incoming blast!

The Mercurian Long-Snout Legend, Beyrmir had arrived!

However, his massive body wasn't at all enough to protect Replicus; both the Apostle and his master understood this.

Thus, quickly after appearing, Beyrmir opened his long, crocodilian mouth and spat out the greatest stream of Clear Fire he could conjure with all his energy reserves!

The invisible flames shot out as a narrow, concentrated stream which rushed to meet the incoming, hard-to-comprehend breath from the Abiding Madness!

Yet it was no contest.

It was as though nothing at all had changed.

A meaningless split of a nanosecond later, both Beyrmir and his master would be reduced to nothing. In fact, Beyrmir had already begun to fragment, when...

Replicus, perked on the Apostle's back, raised one of his mangled limbs. He didn't have time to heal.

He extended the Warmoth's Spine forward while simultaneously channelling the billions of units of Null Life Essence flooding to him into Beyrmir. Then...

"[Honoured Lacerance]!"

The Warmoth's Progeny slashed down with the blades of the spine just as he charged it with 500,000 units of Null Life Essence!

At once, there was a difference.

First of all, there was second of silence.

Then, it was as though someone had transported a waterfall to the scene.

The shocking, glaring brightness of Jiggorrhax's blast lessened in intensity and its

effectiveness on Replicus and Beyrmir was cut down significantly!

Before the two, it seemed the beam of light reluctantly thinned, but it was never fully

thwarted!

Replicus' arm trembled violently.

[Honoured Lacerance] had worked!

It was a skill of the Warmoth's Spine that could only be activated by expending 500,000 units of Null Life Essence. According to its description, it could cut through anything, a trait which Replicus attributed to the fact that the Spine itself was resistant to concepts.

As powerful as this skill was, however...

'It's not going to hold for long. As I recall... Jiggorrhax kept up his breath for thirty days back when he used it to mend the Rules of the world!' Replicus thought with gritted teeth.

His hand wielding the Spine could hardly stay firm.

He was trapped in the torrent with a skill that was going to fail him sooner rather than later.

And if he managed to somehow get out of this, he could only imagine that Skullius was waiting to finish him off.

Or even before that, if Jiggorrhax discovered him, perhaps he would mistake him for a...

...!!!

No, wait!

What if it was a combination of these two things?!

Replicus nearly turned pale.

If Skullius somehow managed to acquire Jiggorrhax's strength, perhaps by using Masterpiece

empowered by his 'trick'...!

...

No way!

That would be disastrous!

'I really was taking him too lightly!' Replicus thought and his face hardened. Immediately, he brought up the guidance field in his vision and gazed intently at his status.

'Of all the places and times... I didn't think it would be here...'

It greatly surprised him that he would be utilising even greater trump cards just to best...

himself.

But what else could he do now?

With a click of his tongue, Replicus set to use the 43 billion units of Null EXP he had acquired

from Caxellac!