Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1074: The Logic-Defying Clash Across Null Remnants! (15)

The masked man\'s influence was still cranking up his power significantly, and right now, his overall strength had just shot up by roughly 55% percent!

This was unsettling.

To think that the masked man was so vicious and confident that he was able to endure having this happen to him each time he had to face an opponent.

The reward for actually defeating an enemy who was juiced up the longer it took him to defeat said enemy must have been tremendous.

But then again, the Herald had noticed that the Null Devil King, the amalgam and that other masked fellow didn\'t seem to be smitten by this effect.

"HMMMM..." the dragon mumbled.

But that didn\'t matter for now.

Jerthrax had decided to switch up his fighting style into a less physically-oriented one.

And thus, he began with a dark dragon breath.

The fire that gathered in his mouth was quickly expelled, but unlike before, it didn\'t cover everything in sight. It condensed into a thin laser that was much faster than an all- encompassing outpour!

...!!!

Both the masked man and amalgam had prepared for it, though.

While this beam looked more lethal, it had a slightly longer charge time than its predecessor. Thus, as the dragon sent the laser forward and even turned his head to have it sweep across, the two anomalies - one with his sarcophagus - had already leaped up, barely evading the dark scorch which erased not just the structures in this odd city, but space itself!

The amalgam looked at the narrow, black crack below him, mark of the disturbed space. This black fire...

However, his focus was stolen back by another surge of power from the dragon. He wasn\'t letting up.

"THIS WORLD IS THE DEEPEST PIT OF FROST!" Jerthrax declared.

A Rule!

Before both the masked man and the amalgam knew it, the world around them turned dark and they simply... froze.

The world became so cold that the cold part didn\'t even register anymore.

Everything was forced to a stop.

The amalgam could barely feel that he had a body. If he had organs, they would have all perished instantly. But even though he didn\'t, this kind of cold was really bad. Though it happened a little slower than to his body, Vohnvolt felt his mana cores and the mana within them, freeze over. Of the five solely dedicated towards his purple quality mana, two had already died, in a way. They were cracking.

The most resilient among them, was the one that bore the effects of Maximum Catalyst - the Nature-Bound Malleable Form Core.

Even worse than this mana-freezing, was the fact this became one of the few instances where the amalgam felt his soul. It too, was freezing.

Red Rage and Araeyn didn\'t have souls. They only had Sources, so the distinction was easy to make for Vohnvolt.

\'Damn it!\' he thought.

His dominance over this world was rather hard to rely on at the moment. Everything was frozen, even space itself, thus even if he desired to travel beyond this world, it would be useless.

He could have managed to reverse the state of this world with Reversion, but the amount of mana needed for such a feat was enormous. With some of his cores gone, the amalgam felt that he barely had enough to manage. If he reversed the effect cast on the world, he would be at risk. He had skills that replenished his mana quickly, but it would take time, and he wasn\'t sure he would be able to handle remaining completely defenceless for a few seconds.

But then again, time was running out.

The amalgam felt another of his cores freeze over and die out. Then another.

\'Damn it!\'

His only hope was...

...!!!

The amalgam vaguely felt himself get seized by something.

At once, he imagined that the dragon wasn\'t going to take any chances now that he was actually stalled!

He must have been grabbed!

\'Well, it\'s now or never!\' Vohnvolt thought and forced his remaining cores to fuel Maximum Catalyst as best they could.

Precious little of it was amassed when compared to before, but that would have to do.

The amalgam felt bits of him go missing. He was probably being destroyed, shattered like

glass!

Thus, he pushed all his efforts desperately, activating Maximum Reversion and Maximum Progression at the same time!

His body was suffused in an overlay of crystal-shaped particles, some of them gold, some of them purple. They seemed to ripple, interchanging hues every second, and creating a beautiful look over the amalgam.

Right then, all sensation returned to Vohnvolt, and at the same time...

[You have successfully created the skill \'Neutral Maximum\'!]

Vohnvolt would have worn an appropriate expression for the occasion, but his body was still frozen solid. Half of it was shattered, starting with his horned head, and his torso which was barely intact. His original arms were destroyed and only the two he had restored by assuming his Moronic Undead properties remained.

\'It will probably take a moment for me to unfreeze,\' the amalgam thought.

While appreciating how much of him was left, he couldn\'t help but be glad that he managed to learn this application of Maximum Catalyst in time. It was all thanks to his blabbering thought phantoms.

It seemed the Reversion and Progression - which were merely effects of Maximum Catalyst and not skills - were freely granted as soon as one mastered the concept, but [Neutral Maximum] was different.

Funny enough, it had the properties that Replicus had originally wanted from Disruption.

By combining Reversion and Progression together - which used a ton of mana - the result was a steady state of stasis.

In simple terms, the user became immune to change other than that which they themselves allowed, meaning all attacks and influences that came their way, were immediately negated! Vohnvolt immediately set to use [Brilliant King\'s Adoring Stars] to heal, but something sped his way and attempted to crush him!

It looked like a large, green tongue when illuminated partially by the light coming from [Neutral Maximum]. The amalgam allowed it to strike him, and it effectively dealt zero damage. It didn\'t even manage to push his body!

\'I see. I thought it was the dragon himself who had decided to attack while I was frozen. I guess I was wrong.\'

Several creatures decked in large scales and dark shadows were charging at the amalgam.

It seemed that right after he was frozen, the dragon had summoned creatures he made contracts with and sent them through the cold, protected by his shadows to finish him and the masked man off!

To the amalgam, this spelled the fact that the dragon was probably blinded as well by the darkness induced by the cold, and was wary still of him and the necromancer.

And speaking of the necromancer...

Right then, a powerful sphere of light suddenly appeared a short distance from Vohnvolt.

The light from it was unusual, quite like that which came from his Maximum Catalyst as it lit up the world again, albeit to a limited degree.

It only managed to illuminate its source, the masked man, and roughly ten meters around

him.

Said masked man... looked to be in rough shape.

Blood kept pouring from behind his mask.

Him copying Jerthrax; using Divine energy to create Rules, was taking a great toll on him. This

was how he had managed to survive the cold.

That was how he had managed to survive being eternal cast in stone before as well.

The masked man opened the sarcophagus he had retrieved before, and a shrivelled corpse was

revealed.

Before the amalgam got to see what the masked man would do, a shivering of the ground, a wave of explosive heat and the glow of an awry reddish-purple light in the distance, against the cold and its induced-darkness, tore his attention.

Sparks of the flame as it struck something massive shot outward.

That flame was directed towards the dragon!

The Null Devil King was finally making his move!