Bro, I'm not an Undead!

(A/N: This chapter is written in the first person perspective).

I was there.

Two months after meeting King Edricus and the man whom the Deities ordained as a vessel for Quintess, Rayn, I was standing there, gritting my teeth and steeling my resolve.

I forced myself to look at it.

To savour it.

The faces that wore different expressions at this betrayal.

They eyes were nearly set ablaze with hatred.

As their bodies were bound and intoxicated with poisons no man on Aigas could withstand for single breath, I looked down them.

All three of them called upon the power heavy within their veins. The powers they were given by HIM in order to spread his agenda.

Powers that set them very close to the boundary that separated the norm and the Divine.

I knew their individual strengths and weaknesses.

I knew how much each of them trusted me.

Both served as tools for me to bring them here and have them erased. Their bodies had become to strong after all. Even this poison barely did anything but paralyse them.

Minobu, Mezatee, Joyyse...

I begged for their forgiveness in my heart.

Of course they would never let forget this, even after passing on but...

Yes, this was just my way of making myself feel better for betraying them.

Sadly, I was the one to make them kneel while they were held down by multiple experts under Rayn as well as two vessels. Three Incandescent Stage volunteers knelt before each of three Chosen, their hearts having prepared for what I had told them would happen.

For I was the one who operated the Otherworldly Synchrony Spear, the Transcendent grade artefact that I had given to Rayn to hold on to before.

Its effect was cruel but it was just what we needed to end these friends of mine.

Instead of targeting their bodies, we had to target their souls.

The Otherworldly Synchrony Spear grabbed the souls of the volunteers and those of the Chosen and entangled them together, letting their essences bleed into one another.

Slowly, the Chosen and Incandescent Stage experts went mad from being mixed together, their bodies trembling even in the absence of their souls.

Their screams were gruelling.

I was almost driven to vomiting both my physical and immaterial self-righteousness, to justify this and somehow convince myself that I was different. How I was the only one undeserving of seeing the same fate.

Rayn and the others who saw the crushing scene grimaced.

The portion of Quintess in him never spoke or presented itself to the masses like the others, but I was sure it and the rest of the other Deities could not stand to condone this.

Thankfully, while within mortal vessels they did not possess the extraordinarily power that they normally did, else they might have been forced to perform such a cruel task themselves.

Heh... I spared them the need to.

With the Otherworldly Synchrony Spear, I stored the entangled souls into the bodies of the Chosen and watched them writhe, their minds corroded by madness to the extent where their vessels held nothing but raving voices that I and my new allies buried under heavy mounds of dirt and had sealed.

Sigh.

A fitting end, I'd say, but a far cry from ending the entire problem.

There was something Fulgardt had been up to behind closed doors.

What had driven me to act this quickly.

He ordered the best assassins in his Union to travel far and offer propositions to certain individuals in exchange for their very select services, much to my and the others' confusion. Fulgardt never mentioned any details about this to anyone, which gave me grave suspicions that he was getting ready for something unexpected.

All I knew for certain was that Fulgardt had a meeting with a giant.

He had revealed this bit of information to me briefly through our talks, though I'm sure it was unintentional.

He always felt safe in my company.

...

This revelation had been shocking but it opened my eyes to what was possibly happening now.

Those who were abducted were very important individuals.

Among them, I only knew of a few.

A man from Emeradis, Remos, who quite literary invented the form of power called Magecraft.

A wanderer of legends, one of the few renown globally for his prowess because of his interventions in the First Grand War, his name, Ijiin.

And lastly, a fearsome woman from Pelian recognised as the greatest Tamer alive.

I had wondered what purpose they served in Fulgardt's grand plan and what they had been offered in order to come of their own free will.

I would never know until much later, the inklings of my realisation beginning on that day three months after the sealing of the Chosen, when while acting as a double agent, the time to lose the facade turned ripe.

My act had been convincing. As a trusted friend, I had not garnered a reason for Fulgardt's suspicion to come my way. I had acted as shocked as he was when so much time passed without a single sight of the Chosen, only for a conclusion to be drawn about their deaths.

I had acted surprised at the prospect of our 'enemies' somehow knowing when and where our Unions would strike. Fulgardt had many counter measures even against Divination of the highest level.

I had also made distressed faces at our next failures and declared that something was indeed amiss while trying to figure out what Fulgardt was trying to do behind the scenes.

Sadly, before I could figure it out and find a way to stop it, my luck ran out.

There was no one else left to blame but me for the suspicious goings on and I will never forget how Fulgardt glared at me upon realising it.

Strangely, it wasn't bloodlust that first exhumed from the corridors behind his eyes.

It was immense sorrow conveyed solely through the dilation of his pupils.

The realisation... that he was all alone.

Thankfully, as someone treading along the footpath nearest to death, I had realised the coming atrocity of being found out and summoned Rayn and the other vessels.

Fulgardt hadn't expected this.

To suddenly find that he and the remnants of his Unions were surrounded by armies of the most powerful combatants in Aigas, was crippling to him. He bit down with a furious face, his eyes looking loathsomely at the vessels of the Deities that he had always called imposters.

False Divines.

Hypocrites.

Fulgardt had the strength to back up his claims, proving that he truly meant what he represented with his mouth. Even against thousands of beings far beyond the Incandescent Stage and at the same level of power as him, he didn't get overwhelmed.

I always knew he was powerful beyond reason but... Fulgardt's fury fuelled his power even further than what I expected.

Before he killed the armies from the two continents all by himself, Rayn and the other two vessels intervened, cutting him off.

The battle that ensued was brutal.

It dissuaded external clashes between the other armies that had been going at it, pushing them away.

The Battle of Countless Blizzard Shatters paled in comparison to this madness.

The land could not hold such a battle and thus the sea had to be the venue. At least it wouldn't crumble to dust.

I, along with all others watched as the massive ocean between Opungale and Feinheath was brought to ruin, the vast waters within it rising and falling, freezing and liquefying, vapouring and steaming grandly with its reach seemingly encompassing the entire world!

The sky couldn't decide what shape or form to take.r

It couldn't decide what mood to wear for the occasion.r

Some wagered there wasn't even a sky at this point.r

In my heart, I hoped that my actions would not cause the world to die that day, otherwise my plans would have been worse than what Fulgardt had aimed.r

I stayed close to witness the result.r

I wanted to be there should Fulgardt surrender or fall or perhaps... win.r

I owed him one last conversation, even if it killed me.r

As my heart burned, anticipating either of three results, something worse occurred.r

As Fulgardt's torn body was sent flying, its bulk smashing into Pelian, I witnessed an incredible horror.r

It was only now that I started to that it was grief and a terrible amount of sorrow that caused this phenomenon. Or at least it was the final ingredient.r

On Fulgardt's half naked body, a kilt made of darkness appeared to cover his midsection, tufts of light forming furs that wrapped around his wrists.r

His hair grew comically long, its dark hue turning even darker while a mask... no, rather a second face bloomed over his original one.r

This form I knew as Seramoro, Oblivion's Edge, had awakened... seemingly freely this time.r

Oh dear...r

Fulgardt, my friend, roared, his voice nearly causing the very foundations of the world to shatter and in the process killing hundreds of thousands effortlessly... cruelly.r

His might grew by what seemed like hundreds of thousands fold, though it was likely more and kept rising, garnering trepidation even on the faces of the Deities!r

This was it.r

It was a vivid moment.r

The sky was covered by a darkness so dark the word dark didn't do it justice.r

At the same time, a vibrant golden white light swirled around this darkness, marking the heavens.r

I sucked in a deep breath while watching this and turned to my friend fearfully, only to see a strange weapon appear in his hand.r

The sky and its emergence served to date the beginning of immensely dark times. r

The times when Fulgardt became regarded as the Immoral.r

When he reached Divinity.r

---r

[Author's Note]r

This concludes this flashback sequence and the first person perspective. If you're interested in connected the dots, you can re-read <Chapter 427: Secrets of the Immoral>.r

The next chapters follow a large time skip and in this portion of the story, we have reached the last third of the volume. When the Royale begins, know that volume is a few chapters from ending.r