Bro, I'm not an Undead!



First, Skullius gathered everything he knew about Ferex's Flaw. The Apostle was not supposed to engage in tough battles. Or more aptly, Skullius had interpreted this Flaw as meaning that Ferex had to have the efficiency in combat to dispatch enemies without effort.

When the Apostle was still the Limitless Body Null Demon Hound, he had quite the inflated stat for Intelligence and truly, if it wasn't for the fact that Skullius' journeys never went in a linear pattern of difficulty according to his growth, Ferex would have been more than adequate with just this.

At least, he was smarter than what Red Rage had been in the beginning.

When Skullius thought a lot about Ferex, he even considered the fact that he had wanted the Apostle to be a speed-type combatant by his side with Red Rage being the brawn. After all, he himself had a wide array of diverse abilities that could complement the two's speed and strength in battles.

Unfortunately, Skullius hadn't been able to do it.

It was all because of circumstances.

When it came to choosing a race for Ferex when he acquired his corpse, he had seen a better mutation, [the Pseudo Spirit Walker's Hide], which was, in his opinion more valuable than the alternative that had been there at the time, the [Inorganic Null Burst Engine] which facilitated what he had wanted for the Apostle in the beginning; speed.

The [Pseudo Spirit Walker's Hide], as Skullius recalled, was something related to one of the Classes he had been offered at the very beginning, which was the Spirit Walker.

At that point, the Hybrid Luman had judged that it would be more useful for Ferex to adopt this assassin-esque mutation to grant the Apostle incredible stealth. He had hoped it would lead him to the promised full potential of what the Spirit Walker was said be capable of by the guidance field.

'It wasn't a bad decision. It worked pretty well. I think it was the best choice back then,' Skullius thought, but couldn't help but become bitter.

His aspirations for his Apostle... his hopes and dreams for the growth of the loyal Hound...

Were they all gone now?

Could the Apostle return from his transformed state, the BoneTender?

That much wasn't known. But it had to be, right? What kind of Flaw led to his Apostle's demise after one mishap?

That wouldn't be fair!

If he waited long enough would that creature revert? And if it did, would Ferex be the same?

Once more, this was unknown.

Yet, what Skullius knew for sure was that another enemy had come into this world and he partially understood what it was after.

The race.

So that's what it had meant. After having a close chat with Aurolio, he was able to comprehend what the race the BoneTender mentioned was about.

The creature had also said that what he was right now... that was what it had been before...?

Did this mean that the statement Vow showed him was incorrect?

Was he not the first bearer of Null Life, or was there a clear distinction between him, an outsider and creatures born from Null Life from the very beginning?

In any case, the BoneTender was likely going to try to claim this world. Or rather, to find whatever it is that had to be found within a Rich World.

But Skullius was sure that there was no way of doing that without invoking the forces of this world.

For one, as Serenity had said, two of the three governing Deities were gone but there were individuals entrusted with things to do with the world in their place.

These beings... they had to be extremely powerful and knowledgeable.

Additionally, Skullius assumed that they were mortal. He didn't know how many they were, but perhaps, since history mentioned that the Deities created all the races on Aigas, there was one of these beings among the humans, one among the Sif and also...

'Sause... he couldn't be one right? But... well, If we are talking about knowledge alone, he seems to be aware of events and occurrences that even the history books are oblivious to. Also, he was captured by Fulgardt. Maybe that was the reason? No, it doesn't seem like it. There was that man, Rayn, who had something similar. I doubt Sause scales up to that guy, but... Ah, this is confusing...'

Rayn's tale was a popular one.

The man born with a body and potential profound enough to house the consciousness of a Deity.

Skullius assumed that these elects of the Deities... they had to be at least as strong as this Rayn guy or maybe a little weaker, though their role was unclear to him.

Still, the Hybrid Luman was sure that they wouldn't remain idle if this Null Terrorist poked its head into sacred places, after all, he was sure his presence on Aigas wasn't a secret to whoever those people were either.

The closest bit of evidence was the fact that whenever Skullius cleared a Cluster, he couldn't attain a blessing, something he noticed during the time when he defeated the lucky gremlins.

Whatever mechanism the Deities had in place, must have already picked up on this. Even when he was in his Penetrator from which was unburdened by the Binds of Fukal, he still didn't receive a blessing, meaning that... something was afoot.

This depressing issue aside, Skullius turned to other harrowing matters that bled into the previous topics as well.

There was the pale man, Aurolio.

Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that there were parallels to Null Life. Undeath, sure, but he had been baptised to the fact that it was just an inferior version of Null Life and had thus thought he was... special.

Apparently, he wasn't.

In fact, he was embroiled in a struggle that wasn't his own at all.

The Eminence of Undeath.

Serenity.

Void.

Who would call themselves lucky when they were being forced to take on a mission where much of the detail was highly reserved. Above that, it also seemed like Serenity was a different case altogether. She actively tried to stop him from hearing what Aurolio had said.

What was the reason?

'Argh. Thankfully, I have a better idea of what's going on now. Regardless of his methods, I'm grateful to Aurolio. Some competition to harvest vague McGuffins...Oh, that's a nice one! While it really seems like a big deal, I need a choice of my own. Whether or not I participate shouldn't be by Serenity's whim. Now if only I could share this information with Replicus. I wonder, does he also see Serenity when he evolves?'

It would be disastrous if he and Replicus had differing opinions. Since they had differing experiences, Skullius imagined that the replica could become its own different version of him. Since he was sure Replicus would reach Tier 4 before him, Skullius was worried the story Replicus would be told by Serenity was different from what he had heard.

But wait...

Was he sure that Aurolio was telling the truth?

He had been so enthralled by the new information which fit perfectly into some of the things he knew that he hadn't doubted it that much.

But now...

'Nomatter. If we end up sealing the arrangement we are about to make with a powerful contract, I will just add transparency into the clause. And If push really, really comes to shove, I'll just have to use the Tie of Exchange after all.'

This was Skullius' solution to this. In any case, he'd confer with Sila first.

There were two other matters Skullius wanted to digest.

One... was about Stylla.

He couldn't even begin to process what had gone wrong and what she had become. He hadn't had the luxury of gaping in awe at her newfound power in the heat of the situation, but he hadn't ignored it.

What did the BoneTender do to her?

As if what she was experiencing wasn't enough, she had to have this added onto it all.

Skullius face palmed.

Since the Null Terrorist seemed to follow after her, did that mean that if Skullius chased after that thing, he would find Stylla?

Possibly.

Deep down, he felt like she was his responsibility, after all.

It was because of him that this creature had come here, wasn't it?

While he couldn't come out and pronounce to the world that the assault on Genhuis was his doing too, he chose to claim this one task, as impossibly hard as it seemed.

The rest... could go to hell.

The more Skullius thought, the more he sank into despair.

He cut off this line of thought and reached the last, which was not as morbid.

'Now, about Vali...'