Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1255: Tasting Divinity (2)



Divinity expanded the range of one's existence and a mortal had to come to terms with this. Being extracted from mortality had many meanings, and one of them was that simply existing as one entity that could be obliterated ceased to be the norm.

Even though Fulgardt had perished long ago, he still existed. His body, through a collection of conditions and powers, was able to move on its own within the Labyrinth of the Yoke, following a desire he had instilled in it, and his consciousness had been terrorising Skullius vivaciously.

Mortal Binding helped with making a mortal familiarise themselves with something like this, which would have been extremely unrelatable for most of their life. Feeling the throbbing of their power from multiple vessels, the surge of it promising an existence beyond the blood and veins that they began the journey of life with, was both thrilling and difficult to grasp for the average individual.

But Skullius, upon trying to so hard to relate to this feeling, found it...extremely familiar.

Fulgardt's experiences helped, but Skullius' personal memories and recollection of memories did as well.

Skullius knew how it felt to dwell in more than one vessel.

He had a shocking number of memories that reminded him that he was anything but an average aspirant of Divinity.

In the Labyrinth of the Yoke, in Fulgardt's Hall, he had used [Basic Evil Invasion] for the first time on an Incandescent Stager known as Eldris Traven. The skill allowed him to transfer his consciousness into that of a target and wrestle control over their body. At the time, while Skullius' consciousness had moved into the man's body, his wholeness had remained in his Discount Human body.

This wasn't the only time Skullius had used [Basic Evil Invasion], of course. He had used it again on his first mission as a mercenary of the Guild's Association - when he was invited by Stylla, Bron and Fore.

But Skullius' experiences were not only limited to [Basic Evil Invasion]. He had also existed as two entities on the multiple occasions where he used Crude World Projection. This Seed of the Fruit of World Myths allowed him to project himself as a dark humanoid that could soar and scout while his soul remained in his body.

Yet this wasn't all either. Skullius also had [Basic Evil Sanction] which had helped him crawl into a target like a phantom and extract memories and skills.

But the greatest instance of all would probably be how the possessed Skullius had essentially made a different version of himself in the Preeminent Attegoth, which he funnelled all his skills into, allowing for the existence of two of him at the same time.

While some of these experiences didn't fully meet the requirements for what was necessary for Mortal Binding, they chipped away at Skullius' insufficient experience with the concept of existing in a broader form.

Skullius nearly laughed.

By the time ten minutes passed since he began passing his elements into the Stark Troops, he felt himself breach a threshold of experience for Mortal Binding.

If there was any hiccup at all, it would be that Skullius didn't have enough blessed vessels. As expected, his Stark Troops weren't enough. He needed to expand the sharing of his essence for just a little while longer.

And thus, he did.

With deeper focus, he felt the millions of Masterpieces his other self had created and instantly began funnelling power through them.

The Masterpieces lit up like lanterns.

Some couldn't hold too much of Skullius' power and he had to dial it down.

Some were greedy and demanded more of it subconsciously.

The rapid growth of vessels guzzling at his rich essence immediately pushed Skullius' experience sharply upward.

'I guess my hardships weren't all that bad if they allowed me to experience enough bizarre incidents to reach Divinity only a few months after I arrived here,' Skullius thought. He couldn't help but laugh.

To think that little skeleton from Somanda's mines was so easily doing what others spent centuries trying to accomplish.

The road might have been rough, but Skullius endured, and he could say with confidence that The deserved the boons he was getting.

'And now, Ember Tasting,' he thought.

At once, he sank his focus completely into all the vessels he had drowned in [Just Light] and [Evil Darkness].

They were all blessed beings.

They had inherited Blessings, even though a majority of them were dormant.

Skullius didn't need to search the innards of the Masterpieces or the Stark Troops for these Blessings.

The latter's bodies and souls were already open books to him and for the Masterpieces, Skullius' expertise with the Blessings allowed him to locate the Blessings hiding in his vessels easily.

It was as Actuass had told Revia back then.

Blessings were not branded onto the body or the soul.

They were rather easy to find with the right eye.

Skullius saw their pretty lustre in the Stark Troops and the Masterpieces.

If he were the average expert, he might have marvelled - after days or months of trying to find the locations of all the Blessings.

But through Actuass, Skullius had acquired the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow, which allowed him to create Blessings.

Because of the Transcendent grade tool, Skullius understood the limits of Divine Blessings: the trade-offs one could make in their creation, how to bolster them and many other little bits of information about them.

He understood what it was like to create powers that could be given to the lesser.

He had an understanding of the gap between mortals and gods that steadily grew as he interacted with the Blessings from the Masterpieces and Stark Troops.

The wide chasm that existed between creations and creators, Divine and mundane, was not simply power. It was an appreciation of the higher resources one would be open to, the different myths within the great void that could now be reached without fear, the fellowship with other ascended beings, and the worth of a reality as a whole.

A part of Skullius, in this moment, began to understand why Suzamete had seemed like an arrogant, stuck-up prickess.

She did indeed see things through a wider scope.

She appreciated the vastness of the world and her ability to traverse it while Skullius'

reasonings had been trapped within the confines of Aigas.

It seemed knowing something, or perhaps even knowing everything, didn't mean much if you didn't understand or grasp the meaning behind each piece of knowledge, or the right way to

use it.

This truth seemed so mundane and generic, but the fact that it was so often overlooked and deemed basic was precisely why beings like Skullius couldn't have ascended past mortality

before.

Skullius caressed the millions of Blessings he could see once more after what seemed like an eternity, and something seemed to click.

Whatever it was, he didn't voice it.

He didn't even drown himself in analysis and rough thought.

Skullius dragged his consciousness back to the Second Layer of the Empyrean Hatcher. He drew on all the other relevant components left outside of the merging process, and pulled them as he descended to become part of the soon-to-blossom seed.