Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Kenno gulped.

His instincts egged him to attack, but he held himself.

He needed to understand the situation first.

Who was this?

What was this?!

His crew rapidly followed after him and upon seeing the figure of Replicus, they all turned pale and took on defensive stances!

"What in the name of Listafelle is that?!"

"Boss...! BOSS what is that?!"

"Argghhhhh!"

The reactions were different but pretty tame compared to what they would have been if Replicus had not done a little tempering on himself.

Because of this, the thoughts rampaging through the minds of these bandits were all the same. They mostly the generic form of fear and the occasional brave soul calling in their hearts to 'kill it with fire.'

Right now, under the [Defiant Raiment of Perversion] Replicus' bones were not exposed. The only thing that could be seen were thick, dark clouds swirling within his hood, the same filling his robes as even within the sleeves, only bursts of the darkness of cloud saturated the confined space.

Four torching lights bled through the clouds from his hood, gazing at his guests as blinding flashes of Levin glared the eyes every time they struck, making some of the bandits grimace.

What on earth was this thing?!

A Cluster beast? A high tier beast from a Sacred Forest?

"Relax," Replicus said with his sockets flashing brightly.

He stood from the throne, walked through the boiling pool of lava that it was set in without getting harmed and emerged on the same ground his guests stood.

"Kenno. It's me. What you are seeing is my true form, unbound by flesh and firmly set in powers you can't even imagine," Replicus said, his voice oozing mystery while the storm clouds around him swirling madly around to hide his full figure even more, save for the perfectly exposed white cloud above his head.

'This is pretty cool. Who knew broadening vocabulary could make every sentence sound so... cool?!'

Kenno's face darkened.

It darkened even further when his guidance field involuntarily popped up in front of him with the words, 'It's really me' shown on it.

His doubts were erased immediately.

The Penetrator had learned to do this after messing with the guidance field enough where <Attachments> were concerned. He could manipulate the guidance field for Yuyui and Kenno as he wished!

The armoured man nearly buckled under the shock.

His group was the same.

They all looked at Kenno while expressing incalculable levels of astonishment and amazement.

Kenno was in leagues with this creature?

Was this what they had been dying to know?

"Now, now. Don't look at him like that. I gave him no choice. I'm sure the sting of being killed is still ringing in his head right now," Replicus said as his figure zipped towards Kenno, much to everyone's alarm but...

They all found that they couldn't move to attack!

It seemed like... this entire world forbade any move against this being seemingly made of cloud!

This was a feature of the Brilliant Dent – enacting defences of various kinds.

Replicus' body circled around Kenno who took deep breaths, trying to cope with the situation.

As he did, he addressed the rest of the group.

"You are all minor figures that I spared that day. Had I wanted to, I could have killed every single of you after killing your boss. But... you're here today because I find you to have the potential for both use and growth," Replicus explained, a stream of Levin carving its way out of his body to carve into the ground menacingly as he spoke.

Silently.

Powerfully.

"I am not a beast. I am a fully sentient, evolved species much like you. I feel that should discourage some moral ethnics you may try to push against him. That said, as you stand here now, I present you with two options. Heed me and follow me till your release or die here and now. I'm make it a painful send off for wasting my time."

...!

Gulp.

The world turned darker as Replicus said this, the sun dimming considerably under his command to give his Levin more shine. Literally.

Heavy breaths could be heard, sweat running down pale faces.

Some looks of rage were targeted towards Kenno who didn't utter a single word but they were few and their ferocity dwindled quickly as Replicus spoke again.

"You seem to think you have all the time in the world to ponder over this..." he said as he pointed towards one of the bandits who was shaking excessively in fright.

"Break."

...!

Crack!

An inhumane howl escaped the mouth of this bandit as he fell to the ground, clawing it at miserably!

His mana core had been cracked and the pain this brought was nothing short of excruciating!

The Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator let him scream and cry bitterly for a full two minutes without showing him any mercy.

It was quite entertaining to watch for him, though not for the rest. Even Kenno shut his eyes and turned away.

Skullius snapped his fingers and the man's mana core exploded with a light shatter that everyone heard, the mana contained within it bursting through the bandit's mouth, eyes and nose before streaming to Replicus where it was compressed into a shining white ball that the Penetrator tucked in his sleeve, adding to the 212 he already had.

The corpse fell to the ground, silence returning to the space.

Once again, desperation and fear clutched the bandits madly, this time a tighter grip!

Replicus pointed at another one of the bandits.

"I'll do it! I'll do it! Please spare me!" the bandit, a short man immediately dropped to his knees and begged.

With his action, the others followed suit, falling to their knees, some begging while others simply shook while touching the ground.

Soon, all were submitting. All except for Udo.

He stood with a fierce expression diluted with terror, refusing to simply bend and take this.

"Oh? You have a differing opinion?" Replicus asked.

Udo, with heavy panting looked to Kenno with disgust.

"So.. so this is what this was about? You really did stick to your... code till the end," he said before gazing sharply at Skullius. "I refuse to do this. I may be a thief... a murderer... but I won't be manipulated like this. I'd rather die!"

The mass of storm clouds decked in robes shifted in amusement.

"Is that so?" Replicus asked as he moved closer to Udo who shivered intensely as sparks of Levin tickled his body. "I know a thing or two about not fearing death. However, I don't see that in you. Sadly, for you, such a strong individual, I won't take no for an answer."

From behind Udo, ethereal strings appeared and injected themselves into his body viciously, the man jolting to an aloof stance before a guttural scream came from his mouth!

The image of Ferex swiftly appeared out of thin air, overlooking Udo's convulsing body. His screams were much louder and more goosebump inducing than the ones from earlier!

The scene of his torture but nigh invisible string was so terrifying that some of the other bandits closed their ears and shut their ears.

The pain of having one's soul toyed with was too much.

Thus shortly after...

Udo folded, just like everyone else in the end, looking very unsightly as he twitched on the ground.

Four bright lights gazed down at him as he begged.

"Please... make it stop. I'll do it. I'll follow..." he said while gripping a handful of soil with his hand. It had been his ticket to not turning mad from the pain.

"Wonderful," Replicus said as he backtracked, ordering Ferex to let the poor man go in the process.

With clouds gathering under his feet, he floated over back to the throne and shifted the tone of the conversation casually.

The sun grew brighter, giving a nice shade of sunlight to the lands while erasing what had been a morbid situation.

It was still... but the light gave the illusion that it wasn't at least.

"Now let's talk about the deeper prospects of this little project of my mine in detail," Replicus said without waiting for the new followers to recover.

"I understand there are some strict requirements when dealing with this Union, your secret organisation. You're my ticket to understanding and infiltrating it. You'll also be my elite team that I will groom, feed and deck in the most top quality equipment. After all, I'm looking to set my standards a bit high."

His words confused the bandits.

Feed them?

Groom them?

What was he talking about?

What kind of relationship was this creature proposing?

Even Kenno was surprised.

"As of today, consider yourselves part of something big. A large operation. No. A large project. I don't care how you see me. I don't care what you will say behind my back. All that matters is that you follow. At the very end, when I take you somewhere horrific, I'll expect you to plunge with me without fear."

Replicus snapped his fingers and a small mountain of Legendary and Legendary + grade equipment appeared, shining bright with unnatural elements tied to the Purity!

With the glow of such high quality loot, the eyes of the bandits were attracted, as was their nature nurtured through many years of thievery.

All this...

It was so...

Woow...

As some from the group began to wonder if they had misjudged this seemingly unfortunate event, the Penetrator's sockets flashed again.

"But before all the benefit... Your allegiance means nothing when it is mere words. Each of you will bind yourselves to me in the best of ways that I've come to know..." Replicus said with a cold tone.