Bro, I'm not an Undead!



'A Tie of Exchange?!' Aurolio thought in shock. 'A Tie of Exchange?! What Tie of Exchange?!'

[You are breaching the terms of your 'Tie of Exchange'. Any further harm against the prime attendant 'Festos Dawn' will result in dire consequences]

...!

Aurolio turned paler than the word itself. His skin adopted a pearly white hue when this guidance field notification was coupled with a set of words – his words – rang through his mind, making the process of piecing together the truth much quicker and yet... much more confusing:

"I'm not one for hostility, but I like to keep my ego on a high pedestal above Lady Aigas' ass where it belongs. So I won't hesitate to kill if it's challenged or ridiculed. That said, as I mentioned earlier, I will refrain from doing you any harm if you help me procure Null beasts to raise my level."

Yes.

Yes indeed he had said this.

But that was to Festos!

The blood jutting out of Aurolio ceased its flow and he stumbled to his knees, much like Replicus, dipping himself in his own blood while panting heavily.

Everyone had frozen, but with caution stacked over all else.

It was clear that this hadn't been what the pale man had in mind, something that had struck the others – with Pherdanta being the first – when she noticed that Replicus' sockets weren't adapting the same look they usually did when everything went according to his plan.

He had a certain flash to his sockets when things went as he wished.

This wasn't it.

This was anomalous.

"What the hell?" Grim was the first to break the silence, his eyes bulging at the sight of Aurolio.

If it wasn't the boss who did this, then...

Replicus twitched and slowly stood up.

The influence over him had suddenly vanished, likely because of what had happened to the pale man. While reassuring his Unlimited that he was alright, he took light steps towards Aurolio.

When he was merely two meters away, Aurolio's blood-stained face rose to face the Penetrator's. The pale man's eyes were livid with a kind of wrath Replicus hadn't expected to see.

How curious...

Aurolio looked like someone who had been swindled, losing a great deal of money as a result.

The tone of his voice betrayed it all the more.

"It's you..." he said darkly. "You. Fucking..."

He paused while Replicus waited for him finish speaking, but with an assurance prepared that what happened earlier wouldn't happen again without an immediate reply.

Aurolio fumed.

"You're the same person... The SAME! FUCKING! PERSON!" he barked before pinching his skin where his wound had grown much more ghastly, opening further with every movement he made.

Replicus remained silent for a while.

His thought phantoms became restless. They collect every string of, weaving a large sock of information.

"You've met him?" Replicus stated vaguely, baiting a response.

Aurolio shook his head, chortled, and then laughed.

It was a laughter of self-ridicule.

"You address yourself as HIM? That's hilarious. I was convinced you were a little too weak for a... Right. You probably don't know what he knows, do you?" Aurolio said mockingly. "I thought you were just another Null beast he created without my knowledge or something. Or perhaps a separate entity – oh I was hoping so. To think... You got me. You really got me. Your other self is rather modest then."

"I've heard," Replicus said. "I suppose all this blood has to do with something you had with my other self then? Like a contract. A Tie of Exchange perhaps?"

Aurolio scoffed with a hateful look towards Replicus.

He hadn't thought the Penetrator would come to that conclusion that quickly given that he and Festos didn't seem to share information through some kind of invisible network. If they did, the Festos before him would have been more guarded against him.

Aurolio had seen various cloning abilities, but this seemed extra. Perhaps it made sense that they couldn't share information with how far they were away from each other.

Yet still...

To think that this is what was going on the entire time...

Of course, Aurolio didn't know that Replicus knew the trends with his past self. He had formed a Tie of Exchange twice to save his life with powerful or influential people. Thus it wasn't that surprising to Replicus for Skullius to have forged another Tie of Exchange after getting into a tight spot, especially with how Kenno had reported of how much weaker Skullius seemed to be compared to him.

When Aurolio didn't reply to Replicus' question, the Penetrator shifted the conversation to the obvious.

"Since you know about Null Life, that not only confirms to me that you had a rather crushing relationship with... Festos. He wouldn't reveal such things casually. You must be aware of some other things as well. You also seem to have some kind of resistance against my Null Life Essence. I slashed you with the intent to kill, you know. But there was effective resistance. Even Territories can't guard their users against raw Null Life Essence, which means you're quite special. What are you?"

Aurolio raised a brow.

"I think I've divulged enough," he said while licking his lips of the blood that had splattered on them.

'The Tie of Exchange considers them to be the same, huh? It's really another Festos under that armour? Or rather a... Skullius. This is too fucking strange,' he thought, rationalising.

"Is that so?" Replicus said. "That's fine. I'll figure everything out eventually."

"Heh, sure! Though you're reluctant to kill me now, huh? What happened to punishing me for the sake of your precious subordinates?" Aurolio sneered.

Replicus placed his fingers on his chin, as if thinking carefully about a relevant comeback.

"Reluctant is misleading. You also had some sharp bloodlust oozing out of you before I carved you up. You intended to kill me at some point too, right? We're both just postponing a death match further than we intended. There's no foul in that," he said.

"I supposed that's true," Aurolio said while standing up with some difficulty. "I volunteered to be Eaniss' messenger just to learn a bit more about you since our first meeting. And speaking of that..."

Replicus' sockets dimmed when Aurolio took a pause.

"Eaniss wanted me to tell you something. That damn woman is freakish about you," the pale man said.

"What did she want to tell me?" Replicus asked.

Aurolio shrugged while conditioning his breath.

"'I loved your lightshow. Stir things up again soon.' That's her message."