Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Replicus had thought that if he could outrun it, flee from its range, then he would have a fair chance of escaping. However, he was proved wrong. A part of him had already judged that he was doomed, but instinct drove him to act.

Before he knew it, he was spinning.

No.

Yes?

He was forcibly returned to his Penetrator form from the dazzling Levin, and while floating in the open space, his eyes and senses perceived the world spinning all around him.

There was no way to distinguish which way was up or down anymore, as everything turned into a rushing blur. Replicus felt as though he was within a massive, hollow, colourful globe that spun incessantly, not giving him the chance to rise or plummet.

'DAMMIT!'

While enduring the ordeal, it seemed activating skills was impossible, because even his mana channels were disoriented. They couldn't carry mana to the right positions where skills were etched into his body.

His body wasn't firm enough to resist.

'That wand...!' Replicus thought.

The glimpse he had managed of it showed to him that that wand, was called the Siphoning Axis, an object of the Mythical+ grade!

As long as one saw it, they would be unable to resist its effect once it was activated, and said effect, caused the target to feel the world spinning around them. If they truly believed the world was somehow spinning, the target would start spinning in place, making the effect more potent.

The sensation at that point could be likened to how a chunk of wood nailed at one end would react when someone moved around the other end in circles.

'Nghh...!' Replicus groaned.

He had been living off the few seconds before Allora's protection from the Collective song died out, but now, he heard the melody no more.

He wasn't the only one to be affected by the Siphoning Axis' ability after all.

He imagined the Bishop and her guards were affected too.

At that moment, he heard a distant cackling and then a disjointed, muffled sentence.

"This... y... Creed! ...see you!"

The Mad Bishop screeched something in what he could only imagine was glee. It was definitely a Creed!

But she didn't stop there.

Replicus definitely heard the muffled word 'creed' again, and then a deafening impact with a grimace-inducing shock sounded, almost seeming to vibrate against his armour, even though it had happened a distance away!

At once, Replicus wasn't spinning away, and he began falling to the ground.

His curious sight searched the skies for what caused the sound, and he saw the last signs of a figure shooting to the ground with a tinge of flame and rings of broken air, only to crash to the ground in a meteoric spectacle!

"Hahaha! Brilliant!" the Mad Bishop roared as she hung in the air looking at where a crater was dug in the ground.

Her eyes depicted slight signs of disorientation.

Shockingly, the grand cathedral, several times larger than it had been before, was floating around her, skewed at an angle, and very faint, as though it was a mere illusion.

It was a bizarre sight.

As Replicus also plummeted and took a few moments to restore his balance, his mind worked furiously.

'What the hell did the Bishop do?' he thought and his sockets darted to where the figure he had just seen had shot and fell.

That was Hope. Somehow, the Bishop had... hit him, using a Creed.

But how?

A moment later, the figure of the Curse exploded from deep into the ground and soared high.

Replicus was alarmed to see his face marred with a nasty gash on its right side, as though someone had nailed it with a hit using a barbed bat!

The set of events that happened next almost happened too fast for Replicus to see.

He was surprised to see the now silent nine guards from before emerge and start to whiz around the Bishop and Hope at flashy speeds, leaving pale trails from their bright tunics.

Dozens of their white arrows flashed towards Hope, but with the same degree of indifference as before, he held out a wand that mysteriously caused them all to disappear before they reached him, and at the same time, he pointed another wand at the Bishop.

Replicus turned into Levin and climbed up the clouds away from the battlefield, but he didn't forget to identify the wands being used..

The Flawless Flail of Ruin.

The Elemental Gambit

Both Mythical+ grade.

A thick jet of white climbed through the air rapidly to reach the Bishop. It seemed at first, to be fire, but Replicus only realised after it hit the Bishop with obscene speed, that it was actually frost.

The sudden disappearance of heat, and the emergence of cold so potent it changed the colour of the world, told much.

'Even she couldn't react to that...' Replicus thought warily, continuing to back away.

He watched as the pristine block of ice that was the Mad Bishop, so pretty and almost sacred, fall from the sky.

But yet again...

Somehow, from within the faint cathedral, the Bishop emerged and sprinted across the air with the construct following her, each of her footsteps causing shuddering booms. She donned an unnaturally grin and called out:

"A saint never dies!"

Then Replicus felt himself and the world spinning again.

He grunted.

This ability was loathesome!

He couldn't see what happened next, but a lot of violent exchanges seemed to happen. He heard the Mad Bishop scream in pain – with jovial cackles, of course – and for moment, the world stopped spinning and then resumed right after.

Within the moment of reprieve, Replicus heard the Bishop scream a Creed and then a horrendous impact occurred again.

The cycle continued for ten whole seconds, and twice, Replicus almost believed the Cluster was falling apart.

All the while, his thought phantoms shrieked their thoughts, and after furious debate...

"I think I heard it well enough this time! She's using two Creeds at a time. One to see the location of that Curse when he uses the Siphoning Axis, and another to hit him! The latter... if I heard corrected makes her attacks practically non-existent until they hit that thing's body!"

"That's ridiculous! You mean she is using her bare hands? Raw physical might each time? How many Creeds do you need to do that? Is she aiming for an endurance battle? Against a creature with multiple purple mana cores?"

"Well, she seems to be immortal. I'm not sure how it works, but it definitely has something to do with the cathedral. Can she do it indefinitely?"

"Doubt it."

The world turned normal again in that moment, and Replicus tumbled.

The sky was littered with remnants of vicious heat and uncaring chill. The green and gold over the ground had either frozen still or incinerated.

That was definitely the power of the Elemental Gambit.

Hope seemed capable of using all elements, and on a much deadlier scale than his lesser kin.

Each jet of flame or cold he cast, was capable of killing the Bishop in one hit!

Replicus got a good look at the Hope.

His body wasn't looking too good.

He had taken a beating, and the bruises he had, while not as gruesome, did seem to be from punches.

A slightly anguished look appeared on his face, and he pointed the Flawless Flail of Ruin at the Bishop who had a demented smirk as she kicked at the air, backing away.

Replicus was curious about this particular wand.

It seemed to make things disappear without a trace.

What would it do to the Bishop?

Replicus heard the first voice of fury from Hope as the Flawless Flail lit up with a tinge of orange.

Something strange happened.

Instead of anything happening the Bishop, something occurred to her illusory cathedral instead.

Pwaaa!

As though it wasn't just illusory, but fragile, it shattered like glass, and in a manner that seemed to express that it had been hammered by something unstoppable, and quick!

Whatever it was that crashed into the cathedral wasn't satisfied with just this.

Replicus saw for the fourth time since he came to Aigas, the pool of multi-coloured substance spill from where the Bishop's cathedral had stood.

The Cluster had been harmed, broken through.