Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1009  RETAINER (2)

The reason was, of course, his affinities.

As long as Skullius had a good affinity, he was able to freely control the elements well enough. Skills for manipulating these only added a much-needed finesse and simplified the process. Where additional crutches were truly needed, was for the mass production of elements.

Since [Greatest Antiphon of Malignance] was out for the count, Skullius had used the essence that made up the Attegoth – what was left of it before its destruction – to fuel the proportions he needed to create the PHANTASMIC RETAINER. His Graceful Monolith was made of a large amount of condensed [Just Light] after all, hence its name, the Precept of Light.

A PHANTASMIC RETAINER could only be made using affinities for darkness and light that were of the A rank and higher, with precise proportions, as Skullius had read from the tablets back in the Temple of Unlusted Tears.

Of course, the current him already had greater knowledge of this than his former self.

The RETAINERS – three in all – were like vessels that empowered his abilities better than his flesh could, no matter how strong he got, and were the best at using the Seeds of the Fruit of World Myths.

Skullius had been awarded with three more Seeds – much like – after his interaction with Luserus.

Noboboyhama, however, was a vessel only capable of holding two Seeds at a time, but that turned out to be more than enough.

\'This should do,\' Skullius thought, and he loosened his fingers from their gesture.

The darkness that had swallowed the world receded back into the bold figure above him, revealing once again the humble night which had suffered a ton of horrors in a short span of time.

The spectacular characteristic of Noboboyhama had only lasted a minute, but so much had changed and so many had been affected.

So much had changed.

The status core had completed shifted.

Skullius sighed.

The Bashful Abomination vanished from the grip of his teeth, and he slotted his hands into the darkness cast on his entire torso to his knees by his robe. Leisurely, he walked over to where the Preeminent Attegoth had been protruding from the lake, and let out another sigh.

"It is a bit inconvenient for my Attegoth to remain exposed every time. But well, it has to be planted somewhere rich each time so that it blooms well," he said.

Indeed. The Attegoth may have been destroyed, but it was not lost. Skullius only needed to plant its seed again, and wait for it to sprout back up.

It would have been convenient for him to plant it somewhere safe, like in Fortune, the magical world in his Elimparidis Stone Staff, but there was a caveat. If he set up the Graceful Monolith there, while it would be safe, he wouldn\'t be able to use its expansive sensory range on the battlefield to constantly keep track of everything. All the Attegoth would be able to see, would be the things it was surrounded by, after all.

In any case, Skullius only needed to work towards giving the Attegoth better chances at defending itself. This had failed in the last battle because he was expending a massive amount of mana against the Ode, and for the Attegoth to protect itself in the same way, it too would have to expend just as much mana.

That was not efficient.

"I should work towards getting a purple core myself. And I should probably merge all my [Evil Darkness] skills when I recover the Attegoth. That should solve some of my shortcomings…" Hmmm. The thought of that made Skullius smile. "Will you leave us like this forever, young man?" Skullius had been so absorbed in his review of the Graceful Monolith\'s performance that he had nearly brushed off the results of his RETAINER\'s effort.

He turned to Umbett.

"Ah, I was sure you got mind-addled too. Though, I suppose you really are a cut above the rest," Skullius said while flashing the woman a mocking grin.

Umbett still stood above the water.

She didn\'t look like she had received any damage, but well, injuring and maiming wasn\'t the point.

Umbett\'s arms were folded before her chest. It wasn\'t her wish to adopt such nonchalance, however. She was forced to. If one looked closely, they could see thick stitches digging into her arms and then into the skin of her chest. The stitches transcended the material of what she wore, and eerily, her hands and chest were melded together, the skin of both becoming one.

The color of the stitches was so dark that it might have been a concept instead of actual material, and quite clearly, it was the reason behind this odd phenomenon. It looked permanent. The fact that Umbett hadn\'t broken free suggested it.

Beyond that, however, Umbett\'s feet were also stitched onto the water, and there was no longer a distinction between her soles and toes, and the surface of the lake.

Freakiest of all, was how taut stitches pulled on the whole outline of the old hag, stretching her skin and digging into the obscure surroundings; into space itself.

"I assume you are waiting to see what I will do before trying to use your Creeds to break free?" Skullius said to the old woman.

Her face turned ugly with a slight frown.

"Indeed. Will you kill the Ode?" she asked.

Skullius laughed.

"You\'d be in trouble if that were to happen, wouldn\'t you?" he said, and he turned his head towards the Ode.

Like Umbett, the poor young prince had his hands bound, as well as his whole outline. However, his mouth, legs and ears were also melded together by stitches. Worse yet, his eyes were glazed, a faint golden light visible on them. His pupils could be seen staring up, his eyeballs stitched in a way that kept them rolled in a direction that supported this.

He wasn\'t the only one to be in this rough predicament.

Every other Maqian who was still alive was in the same boat.

This was the effect of the Number 8 Seed, Delight\'s Pursuit.

Those who stared into the glowing eye, the only source of light in the darkness, had had their minds enticed into living in a fantasy where they enjoyed their deepest desires; where they weren\'t trapped in the eternal black, where they weren\'t questioning whether or not they exited or not. Of course, this ability only worked this well after the victims were left desperate and vulnerable.

This was achieved using the Spirit of Blind Drowning\'s wide field of dulling darkness.

The same could be said about the Melding Stitch. It was only possible to bind all these targets after the thick domain of [Evil Darkness] was erected for a long enough time.

Umbett seemed to have survived the former of the two Seed effects because she hadn\'t looked into the light. That took some nonsensical degrees of mental resilience.

With that in mind, Skullius scoffed at the Ode\'s image. To think he had actually been prepared for a reality where the Ode resisted like Umbett.

"I\'ve decided against killing him," Skullius answered the hag\'s inquiry. "Our agreed upon conditions were simply \'if I win\' and in this case… it\'s rather obvious who beat the other. Besides that, I think it\'s a waste to kill a Spirit Warden. Even I don\'t know much about them. While we are on our way back to Maqi, I\'d like to do a few experiments." n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Umbett gave Skullius a stern glare.

"So, you truly wish to go to Maqi as part of your reward, and with the Ode in such a state?" she asked. "Are you mental?"

Skullius waved the old woman off.

"Yes, and yes. "Though, I do think it\'s fair that since I\'m letting the Ode alive, the rest of your combatants should be put to death. Preferably by those they assaulted. That would do wouldn\'t it, my dear Queen?" the Hybrid Luman said as he turned to Embrell who stood free from any binding or mental affliction.

She was simply stunned and quite frankly, rattled. The Spirit of Blind Drowning still stood over her head, after all.

To Skullius\' question, she gave a simple nod.