Bro, I'm not an Undead!



The concept behind generating Aura stemmed from how one's body, which had been enhanced by growth through Stages, could strain the mana core into concentrating vast quantities of mana into Aura.

The Aura produced when one became an Advancement Stager was rough, because their body was less refined, only several degrees stronger than when they had been a Foundation Stager. Therefore, with the highly inefficient method the body resorted to in order to influence the mana core into Aura generation, only an inferior product (Full Body Aura), whose production weakened the mana core's capability very quickly, could be born.

This was why Full Body Aura could only be used once a day, that was in one go. Even if one stalled, it couldn't be used for long within 24 hours.

For Masters, their bodies, especially when they entered the Second Phase, grew as refined as they were strong, and could instinctively coddle the mana core into producing a better form of Aura that eased the strain on the mana core, though while taking up loads more mana to create.

This went to show that to be a Master, increasing one's capacity for mana storage, and bettering the quality of their mana core, was imperative. Creating a cohesive balance between mastery of Stages, and the mana core was rough, and the journey to understand how best to exploit one's strengths, and stifle weaknesses, began when one began to produce Aura.

Most found the leap from Full Body Aura to Perfect Aura to gift an immense amount of merit, particularly the granted increase in strength which they would be a massive gain.

For someone like Skullius, however...

'If I conserve it enough, I can make it last for 30 minutes. My Aura has always been different ever since I first used it...' he thought.

The Hybrid Luman, after gaining so much time to experiment with his powers, had found that his blackish blue Aura was more vicious than any he had seen. Every time he used it, he felt like he was exceeding a certain boundary, and even if he didn't take a break, he could last roughly 15 minutes while using it, something he hadn't seen other Advancement Stagers do.

But this wasn't all there was to it.

Not by a long shot.

As for the situation right now...

Liura glared at Skullius with her menacing, wrathful eyes, looking to be ready to pounce and not give him the chance for an initiative again.

'I better finish this quickly...' Skullius thought, as he turned to Mandon's corpse which he had filleted to pieces. 'At least the Revival Star doesn't work like a potion. You won't continue to heal. I can rest assured with that. Even if she has more of them, she will die if I attack correctly."

As he thought this, something darted out of the flames burning from where the second bolt of lightning had been redirected, smashing into Grutus and Hun. Skullius had manifested an opening for his Temporary Storage right where the lightning fell, stored it, and expelled it where he had desired, denying Liura's Beckoned Retriever a chance at revival twice, in exchange for getting rid of her friends.

Now though, it seemed one of her friends had skirted death.

A figure stood beside Liura who was quite alarmed at first.

The individual gave out a hard sigh before nodding to the bulky woman astride the Retriever with a ring of light over its head.

It was Grutus, and he was whole, a cloak of orange Perfect Aura around him.

Skullius narrowed his eyes.

"Glad you're alive," Liura said with relief, sparing only a side glance to the blondie. "Thought you died before using your Star."

"Yeah, well," Grutus didn't seem particularly pleased though. "I had Hun give his to Mandon. Now we lost both of them."

Liura scoffed sadly – however that was possible.

"Let's avenge them. There's meaning in it," she said, but Grutus looked contemplative as he locked eyes with Skullius who looked to be ready to strike once more.

Suddenly, a loud round of applause was heard.

Turning to its source, the trio found Vali on the other side with a smile, the green light from the flame all the way into the distance illuminating her face.

"I think you've settled your scores enough for the time being. For now, it's wiser for us all to ascertain our current situation," she said. "You don't need a genius to tell you that something has changed for the worst here, right?"

Skullius, Liura and Grutus wore hard faces, and turned to the gleaming green and black fire.

The hostility lingering between them had temporarily overwritten their caution, what with Skullius striking quickly to kill Mandon who had evaded death once, and Hun, as Grutus had just now confirmed.

The hostility could still be felt even now, as Liura brought her gaze back to Skullius, who now had '12,150' Units for the kills of her mates; 4,000 added from Hun and 2,100 added from Mandon!

All had been added to the 6,050 he had amassed before!

"Oh we can ascertain our situation. Just after we kill him," Liura said threateningly.

The shapely lady with the golden hook attached to the end of her navy blue hair laughed as she walked forward.

"I promise you. This is just me hoping whatever has risen can somehow be solved with our remaining numbers, or at the very least not be aided by your dead bodies. I'm not asking because you're somehow very relevant," Vali said, her smile turning a bit twisted.

Liura twitched.

Grutus patted her shoulder.

"She's right. We have bigger problems right now. It won't matter what kind of revenge we get if we die immediately after. I personally would rather live after this," Grutus said with an agitated frown.

Despite what he said, he truly wasn't pleased about Skullius walking free. He only convinced himself of this because... well, he knew exactly what kind of fate awaited him and Liura if they objected to what Vali had said.

Unlike with Skullius, Grutus didn't see a shred of a possibility of victory when facing this woman who had dispersed a sharp burst of Aura with her bare hand.

"And you?" Vali said, turning to Skullius.

The Hybrid Luman glanced at her with the dark dots in his eyes, and sighed.

He honestly didn't want this problem right now.

Even if Grutus and his group were the ones that started the fight, and deserved to pay for it, he had to agree that wasting any more Aura on them wasn't worth it. His main objective by striking first moments ago, was to relieve himself of the brand on his chest, which he had successfully done.

Now...

His Aura died down over his sleek armour.

"Fine," he said, much to Vali's cheer.

Grutus, with an uncomfortable frown turned to Vali and said:

"So, do you have any idea what that is all about?"

"Not a clue. Except perhaps, for the fact that some of the rumours I heard could turn out to be true after all," Vali said while looking unblinkingly at the rising pillar of fire.

"What rumours?" asked Liura.

"Just vague suspicions that the EverSword House was up to no good. I didn't think it would be something as bad as this."

Grutus' face hardened even more.

"We heard the same suspicions. Especially when civilians started dying unnaturally, all of them with that damned Controlled Seal. Does this mean the Royale was all for nothing? We were just killing ourselves for no reason?" he asked.

"I wouldn't think so. Some contenders managed to get away from the Royale, and are safe now. I should now. I hogged most of those that withdrew from the Preliminaries. There's a goal to this game, and it's likely still valid and worthwhile to earn Units, and get out of here," Vali replied.

Liura turned to Skullius, her hostility soaring again.

"But... I don't think we can just ignore this, can we? Especially you two. Would you be satisfied knowing that your friends died for what... so that something related to undeath could be put in motion?"

Grutus' lip twitched.

He suddenly sighed and walked off, heading towards Mandon's corpse. He took something from it, and then went to Hun's charred body, and did the same.

"What are you doing?" Skullius who had been silent until now, contemplating over what the three were speculating, asked.

Grutus ignored him, and revealed two rings. He gave one to Liura, and kept the other. Facing Vali, he then asked:

"You seem to only be moderating here, but how do we know you won't kill us all, take our Units and rush off to the goal?"

"Well, you don't. Hmm-hmm. But, if I wanted to, I wouldn't have so playfully jumped in front of you so you could all see me. I could have killed you in oh so horrible, but quick ways. You seem to already know that," Vali said while tucking tufts of her hair behind her ear, her eyes staring keenly into Grutus'.

The man couldn't withstand the firm gaze.

"Lucky for you, I only came running here because I've been looking for this one," Vali said cheerfully and laid her arm on Skullius' shoulder as if they were pals. "Barely managed to catch some Units because of it," she pointed over head where a measly '2,800' was showing, and continued. "Maybe I was just unlucky. I did run into many bizarre obstacles, you know? Wasted much of my time, really."

Skullius looked at her, and frowned.

"You were looking for me?"

"Of course. Best way I could find to pass the time. I'm not really that motivated by this whole Royale thing at this stage. I accomplished and acquired more than I could ever hope for already," Vali said while looking keenly into his eyes. "Except for one."

Skullius shrugged off her arm and sighed.

He wasn't sure how to feel about that. He did know that Vali was quite eager to recruit him for reasons he didn't quite understand. Darwel was the same, but at least her reasons were clear cut and he was mostly on board.

He was quite wary of Vali honestly, though thankfully right now, she seemed to be urging everyone into an alliance.

Since that was the case, Skullius figured he might as well follow everyone's example, as passed down from Tallo.

They were already knee deep in some terrors ahead anyway.

"Well then, everyone else seems comfortable talking about it, so I might as well share. The EverSword House is working with...."