Bro, I'm not an Undead!

"This is a sign. It\'s time for you to wake up, Skullius," the Immoral said, his sharp eyes turning to the Boneman.

BOOOOOOM!

The crisp impact came again, its cause still yet to be seen.

What was it?

It seemed like something was attacking Skullius\' soul, but what could that be? What from the outside world could be attacking him? Could it be Rayn again?

The thought scared Skullius. He understood from when Ferex visited this place back then, that time seemed to move differently here when compared to the outside world. Perhaps during this interaction of his with Fulgardt, a plethora of harrowing events had already happened outside.

But what was he to do?

The only thing to mellow his concerns was that Fulgardt didn\'t seem too concerned about this. Since he seemed to know a lot about things that happened around Skullius, the Boneman decided to confide in the fact this meant he wasn\'t in fatal danger just yet. Was that comforting though?

"Tomato… Flinger!" Sila called from the depths of the gorge. His voice expressed more than what his face could have; a desperation to be heard.

Skullius, who felt a considerable amount of strength leave his mind, snapped in the General\'s direction.

Sila looked much smaller, no bigger than a fist.

Fulgardt was right. He really was sacrificing himself. But what would become of him?

The former Tower General also seemed, tired. BOOOOOM!

"Don\'t lose heart yet, tomato flinger! You can beat him! This is YOUR soul, mind and body!" Sila yelled in encouragement.

Skullius could hardly hear him, or was it that his mind was tuning him out? It was impossible to tell.

\'I can beat him? How?\' he thought to himself. \'Fulgardt is probably right. My entire goal is to switch from one master to another. That\'s all there is to it. Maybe everything is a lie. What sister did I ever have? Maybe that\'s just Somanda\'s way of luring me back to him…\'

Indeed. Maybe Camilla never existed. Skullius hardly felt anything for that vague memory he kept seeing from time to time anyway.

It wasn\'t so important.

A shot of lucidity sprang in Skullius\' mind at that moment.

\'What am I thinking? Ah…. this is bad,\' he thought.

It seemed like everything was turning clouded and stuffy. His reasons, his motivations. What about the Doom Factors? What would become of them if he abandoned what he had been fighting for all this time?

Did Sila\'s sacrifice to heal his soul mean they didn\'t apply? Was the problem solved just like that?

Inklings of these concerns pulsed and faded in Skullius head without end.

He heard Sila call out again, his voice as though drowned in a sea. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"You don\'t need to win the battle today, tomato flinger! These aren\'t your thoughts. You have people waiting for you out there, don\'t you? They will help you… and when they do… use that chance… to fight back!"

Sila seemed to grow smaller and smaller. His voice also turned into an incomprehensible, distant scream.

…And then Skullius couldn\'t hear it.

"Indeed, you do have friends, don\'t you?" Fulgardt suddenly said. "Well, the stronger you get, the less likely it will become for them to reach you. That\'s a price you have to pay for some sense of freedom. Trust me, you don\'t need them anyway. All they are good for, is raising you higher. If they can\'t even do that, they will only betray you."

"N…o…" Skullius struggled to tell Fulgardt that he was wrong, that he wouldn\'t know about the value of intimacy with people.

However, a little introspection made him wonder if he was a model for intimacy with others himself.

Most of his life on Aigas had been the opposite. He had had to be under contracts with people because of UNCoddled for their safety, and as such hadn\'t quite been able to bond with people.

Afterwards, he had been happy to be rid of that curse, but the desperation to grow meaningful connections with people without the need for conditions had made him remember Somanda\'s cold words:

\'Have you ever wondered why you and your crew of Lesser Undead have emotions? Why you feel things that a bunch of bones mana shouldn\'t? …Your emotions carry more emotions and show the sorrow that your soul bears through the camaraderie that you try to cultivate among yourselves as the dead!\'

Was what Skullius felt… real?

The Boneman\'s body became heavy, and he dropped his knees again.

Maybe Fulgardt was right. He was simply… a slave to someone else.

Maybe… maybe if he chose this path… he would indeed get to choose whom he gave his allegiance.

Yes.

This all made sense!

\'Ah, that\'s right. If everyone is meant to forever be below the feet of someone higher… then this is best option. All I need to do is…\'

He was supposed to wake up and…

"Go on then," Fulgardt beside him said as he looked up at the sky. "Go and show them all the WILL of the WANDERER WHO SEEDS"

***

Present time…

Skullius took a breath.

He still heard Sila calling loudly in his head.

\'TOMATO FINGER!\'

The Hybrid Luman smiled.

\'You can scream as much you want. It won\'t change anything. I am who I am now,\' he told the Tower General who was somehow still alive after giving up his piece of soul.

Skullius didn\'t have time to wonder much about him though. His eyes stared ahead while his senses, which were massively more effective and expansive gathered information on his surroundings and his opponent.

The old hag, Umbett gave him a keen look before zipping hundreds of meters away. Queen Embrell gave a sigh.

"After boldly stepping in on my behalf, you better not doom us all," she said with a rough, tense voice that couldn\'t have made it more obvious that she lacked faith in Skullius.

The Hybrid Luma turned to the beautiful El Sif. "Don\'t you worry. I will bring him to his knees," he said with a sinister smile that bloomed gorgeously over his gleaming face.

The Queen merely narrowed her eyes and vanished from sight.

Skullius turned back to what was ahead of him; a young man with crimson hair, small satin grey eyes and a long face with hollow cheeks. He was naked from the waist up, but an intricately designed fuzzy hide covering his midsection to his knees. He was quite muscular but not overbearingly so, which, in a way, made him all the more intimidating.

"Bring me to my knees, you say?" the Ode chortled and tilted his head. His face suddenly looked as though it was a cracked mirror, webs of shadow decorating it as he scowled.

Then his voice deepened as he uttered:

"Kneel."

…!!!

Skullius suddenly felt a terribly aggressive influence fall upon his soul, coercing it into doing as the Ode\'s voice commanded.

In the next instance, his knees gave out and he knelt down on the ground, digging two pits in it!

A look of surprise was etched on the Hybrid Luman\'s face.

\'Compulsion? But it\'s not supposed to work on me on anymore. Hmm, this somehow seems different,\' he thought with suspicion and raised his head towards the Ode.

The young man walked towards Skullius with a confident, arrogant gait and soon, he was looking straight down at the Hybrid Luman.

"You shouldn\'t talk big like that without knowing your opponent. You ended up giving me an idea on the best possible way to put you in your rightful place," he said before extending his hand to harshly grip Skullius\' neck.

But…the Ode\'s hand soon learned that it couldn\'t casually touch one who was declared as not just the Antiphon of Malignance, but also the Infinite Sword God.

Fourteen pieces of fingers cut finely at the joints, and a palm sliced into six wide ovals flew in different directions as the Ode wore a dumbfounded face.

The Hybrid Luman wore a devilish smile, his white eyes growing wide with insidious pleasure.

"Looks like we both like to talk big," he said as he rose to his feet.

The Ode drew back a few steps and looked at his non-existent hand.

"Indeed," he said with a sigh that changed his whole demeanour.

A green flame ignited around his feet, burning so fiercely and with such heat that the ground melted in seconds.

"Tell me. What\'s your name?" he said.

Skullius chuckled.

Demion\'s Dance appeared in his right hand, the Bashful Abomination in his left. He then gave his response.

"You\'ve yet to earn the right to say my name. For now, you can call me the Insurgent Magnus."