Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1007  Did You Say Trump Card?

The sight he saw featured several people flying off in different directions, away from what remained of his glorious Graceful Monolith; a torn half of it, detached from its brilliant, visually engaging canopy.

Skullius saw Vali and Maxim, gravely injured in one direction, Shannazah and Kudobtu seemingly fleeing in another, and Ashema soaring up with half a functional body.

Their opponent, was of course, the calm old woman standing on the surface of the lake the Attegoth was growing from, looking at its doomed glow with an expressionless, frighteningly wrinkled face.

Frightening indeed.

It seemed the shattering of the Territory had drawn the attention of Skullius\' defenders.

Vali and Maxim had exasperated looks, the former donning one that had hints of a smile while the latter looked a little furious.

It looked like they had tried their darndest and seeing their effort not pay off made them feel bitter.

Shannazah and Kudobtu looked a little more blasé. This really appeared to be a side mission for them, even though they had wanted to help as much as they could. Skullius assumed Vali and Maxim had told them about how the glowing tree was some kind of ultimate move of his that should be defended, reining them in.

As the two representatives of the Pelian Houses looked the Hybrid Luman\'s way, they seemed to offer their apologies.

\'Well, it was all my fault in the end. I was not fast enough…\' Skullius thought. The large, purple mana core in the Attegoth was still present, but it wasn\'t as vibrant. There were only a few tens of thousands of units of mana left.

Considering the cost of his Super skills, that was quite little.

The Attegoth might have been able to use [Greatest Mana Manipulation] to draw more mana, compress it and replenish the purple quality reserves, but that was too huge of an undertaking for it with all the skills Skullius had been using in this battle.

\'A shame…\' Skullius thought.

The only reason the Attegoth even had its bottom half still standing, was because another person was standing against Umbett.

It was Queen Embrell.

She looked a little worn, but she was far from looking beaten up.

Skullius wouldn\'t have believed that the five he saw flying off had been able to stave off Umbett since he was dragged into the second Territory expulsion. The fact that the Sif Queen had entered the fray made it all make sense.

She too seemed to give him a concerned look from the vast distance, and then sigh.

She too must have felt that her efforts were close to meaningless, after all, the Graceful Monolith was doomed.

While the purpose of the Attegoth was still vague for others, they understood a little of what it could do; \'it must strengthen that man\'s unusual powers greatly\' was the common assumption.

And it was true. The Attegoth housed Skullius\' skills, and if parts of it where certain skills were imbued were destroyed… he would lose access to said skills – as it was with how he had lost access to both his most powerful skills just now.

Contrary to the somberness that sat on everyone who was not Maqian though…. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"HAHAHAHA! I told you! That thing sticks out like a sore thumb! You lost the moment we discovered it was your trump card!" the Ode barked jubilantly… after creating a large distance between himself and Skullius.

He must have felt incredibly confidence because the Thriving Green flames he had set up earlier were still burning brightly, meaning that even as he was, mana-less and fiendishly tired mentally, he could still revive after death.

But even beyond that fact, which was still something Skullius could potentially take care of, even without his full powers…

"This is my Creed! Restore my mana!" the Ode cried once again.

Again, the crimson-haired young man had used his Creeds to replenish what he had lost, and no one looked happier than him. He wore a mad look on his face as he stared at Skullius fearlessly.

 "That was your way around not perishing instantly within a Territory, right?! Right? It\'s dead now, and this time, I strip you bare and kill you hundreds of times!" It was clear what the Ode was about to do.

Once again, he was about to use his Territory.

With how loud the Ode yelled out, everyone within the region heard what he said, and no small amount of concern filled Maxim, Vali and even Queen Embrell.

This was a loss.

It didn\'t matter if the Ode and Umbett weren\'t playing fair. Or maybe they were.

 The Attegoth could be said to be an outsider, so perhaps it was right for Umbett to destroy it.

The battle rite, Kuthmuk, only acted to set area limits for the battle, to decide the terms of the battle and what the winner would get, after all. Nothing else.

Skullius and the Ode had set firm conditions already… and it looked like the latter had won.

…

"You sure have a lot of Creeds to spare. And did you just say trump card?" Skullius asked leisurely.

His calmness took the Ode aback.

What?

"Ah, I see. You thought my Graceful Monolith was a trump card. I guess it definitely looks the part," Skullius said before stowing away Demion\'s Dance in his Temporary storage, and leaving only the Bashful Abomination in his grip.

The Ode was confused. This gesture by Skullius both worsened and lessened his anxiety about the man\'s freakish sword attacks.

"Hah! Say it till you believe it!" the Ode bellowed, and he set to expel his Majestic Territory again. Unfortunately for him, Skullius vanished from range.

…!!!

The Hybrid Luman appeared a great distance away, his robes fluttering wildly.

He sighed.

It would have been a mark of remarkable incompetence if he was caught by the freakishly fast activation of the Ode\'s Territory for a third time.

The crimson-haired young man immediately spotted and charged after him.

Skullius grinned, and he zipped away, but the Ode was soon to catch up. He wasn\'t as fast as he was before.

His trajectory made the Ode cautious, though.

The Hybrid Luman was headed towards the remains of his Attegoth; where the Queen and Umbett were!

The two quickly noticed the approach of the two combatants, and the latter immediately cast a distortion that swerved around the Queen to finish off the Attegoth!

The Ode, assuming that Skullius had been hoping to save his masterpiece guffawed.

Yet Skullius… grinned.

He didn\'t hurry to the Graceful Monolith as everyone expected.

Instead, once he touched the surface of the lake, he zoomed his way to the right of the Attegoth, and watched as the distortion just now bashed into his creation and begin to drain both its brilliance and frame like a black hole!

Umbett turned her head to Skullius, as did the Queen, albeit with worry.

The old hag had a subtle \'fuck you\' to the contours of her lips.

However, to her surprise, Skullius had the same look as he looked dead straight into her eyes!

In the miniscule morsels of time it took for the rest of the Attegoth to be destroyed, a great blanket of [Evil Darkness] and [Just Light] exploded from Skullius, towering up, up and further up!

The light coiled into the darkness and the darkness coiled into the light rapidly, with Skullius, the source of the vicious tide locking his fingers in a complex manner, which prompted the mesh of elements to instantly take on a horrific shape that hadn\'t been seen in over 4,000 years!

Skullius watched as the look in Umbett\'s face changed. Only she could have felt more rattled than everyone else as the shape above cast a shadow so wide and so dark that the night might have been convinced that it had become the day.

The Ode froze, then desperately called the name of his Territory!

The Queen turned pale… and opened her own!

Amidst the furious action, only Skullius looked fit for the darkness that everything was happening in, and as he donned a devilish look on his face, the guidance field rewarding his great achievement, forged above Opungale.

[Congratulations, you have successfully completed the Second Trial!]