Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1154: What Makes It Rich (1)



The group was soon fed into the thickets of clouds by the winding steps carved into the Sovereign's Peak. A bit of silence persisted for nearly twenty minutes as it seemed that Replicus and the rest had a lot to sort through within their minds, though, of course, the Warmoth's Progeny processed the information faster and was thinking about further implications that came with what he had just learned.

On top of having to mull over what Sause had said, something else caused the prolonged silence.

The thickets of clouds seemed to have no end.

They continued to block the view for everyone in a manner that made Replicus, Aurolio and Yuyui doubt that Aigas was built with such a thick layer of cloud at all. The density of the clouds was also unnatural. Replicus could have sworn that as he passed through them, they sapped bits of his mana with every passing second. Of course, no harm was done by something like this given that he could replenish it all rather quickly, but he did find himself wondering where all that absorbed mana went exactly.

It was unnatural to find an environment that actively stole mana as though it were a living thing.

Strangely, Replicus remembered the Emissary of the Immortals mentioning, in his narration of the Ashing of Time that to perform the breath that healed Aigas' Rules, Jiggorrhax had drawn a massive amount of the world's total mana. That must have included that which came from living beings. With that in mind, Replicus wondered if that had anything to do with the current sensation.

Perhaps the freedom a dragon like Jiggorrhax had to draw upon the world like that was not innate. Perhaps he had learned it because of this phenomenon by the clouds, undoubtedly created as a result of the Eternal Drakkens tempering with the Sovereign Peak.

Beyond this, Replicus found himself wondering more about the Majestic Territory.

Was it truly a tool used to limit the horizons of beasts?

Did they have alternatives then?

How would it affect him then?

Unlike his Hybrid Luman form, Replicus was pretty much akin to a beast by Aigas' terms. While he was unique, able to produce Aura and Nitros as he wished through Maximum Catalyst, thus making himself a formidable enemy to humans who usually defeated mana- using beasts with simple Genuine Incarnations, he feared that perhaps, his desire to create his own Territory... Territories, might limit him.

But would it?

Replicus had manifested two dormant Territories in response Caxellac's overwhelming expression of the self - Mors Serene Grace.

He didn't, by any means feel like the Majestic Territories he conjured were the peak of what he could achieve.

His horizons were wide.

He had been wondering - in the background - if he could learn to manifest Serene Grace too, but he wasn't too optimistic, at least not in the short run.

Mors Serene Grace as a power form required one to use their soul as fuel and have a sagely understanding of Null Life Essence, and Replicus lacked the capacity to do both in the same manner he had seen Caxellac do it.

'Well, flesh that...' he thought. 'I'll probably only be able to do it after retrieving the other portion of my soul from Somanda. Well, it will be a start...'

There was also the issue about this secret that Sause shared with Fulgardt about reaching Divinity. What was it exactly? Would Sause tell him if he asked?

Replicus eyed Aurolio suspiciously and decided against casually inquiring about such a thing.

After what felt like an hour, Replicus and the others finally saw an end to the massive wad of clouds.

The highest point of the Sovereign's Peak was yet to be seen still. The mountain seemed to only now begin to turn conical, which was quite disheartening, but to the surprise of the tourers, Sause came to a stop only a few hundred meters after the end of well of cloud.

He pressed his hand on the wall of the mountain and sighed.

As seamlessly as though it wasn't made of rock, the face of the mountain receded, creating perfectly circular hole large enough for the group to enter through all at once.

"Inside. We are close," Sause said with a strangely severe expression.

Everyone, with some manner of hesitation crawled into the hole and were immediately devoured by nigh tangible darkness; Yuyui could have sworn it was like a kind of soft adhesive. Before the hole Sause had caused to spawn closed up, she had seen the darkness cling to her hand as she waved it and then it crept away.

She shivered.

When utter darkness enveloped them, such that not even Replicus' Ju`wtte spilling everywhere could be seen, Sause's voice beckoned:

"Follow the sound of my footsteps. Should be easy to here. Or better yet, follow my voice. I believe this would have been the best time to exhaust all your questions to keep me talking. For your own benefit, that is, ahaha. It is a tricky place this one. It's easy to get lost."

A few moments of silence passed and then Yuyui asked:

"You said there remained some of your kind even after some were sacrificed for Jerthrax. W- what happened to them?"

As she asked, Yuyui heard a sigh behind her; Benzard was following after her.

Sause chuckled deeply.

"Are you sure you want to know?" he asked ominously.

Yuyui withered.

"Yes, actually," Replicus said in her stead.

Sause remained silent for a few moments and then answered.

"We Giants are quite like our predecessors. We have difficulty producing young. Those of my people that remained after the Ashing of Time did not really multiply by much since Jerthrax's feeding. They numbered a few thousand. They held a welcoming party when I

returned with Benzard," he said in a cold tone.

Replicus frowned. He didn't like the vibe Sause expounded. It was subtle yet obvious at the same time that something really bad happened.

"And?"

Sause scoffed.

"I ate them all."

...

Everyone except Benzard had their face contort, a mash of emotions too deep to be explained

by singular words showing on their faces.

He... ate them?

Ate, ate?

He ate a few thousand Giants?

But... why?

Before the question could be posed, the livid darkness was broken apart by an even feistier

light, silvery in hue that poured ahead, outlining Sause's image first.

A staggering gust of wind and heat also came with the light and nearly swept Yuyui off her

feet before Benzard caught her and planted her down with a palm to the shoulder.

A massive pit had appeared and the overbearing glow was coming from something at its very bottom - the bottom of the hollow within the Sovereign's Peak.

Everyone was forced to temporarily cast away what Sause had just said and look down.

...!!!

Hundreds.

No.

Thousands.

No.

Tens of thousands of gigantic figures, ghostly blue in colour, and ferocious in appearance were swirling in what seemed like a vast pool of a liquid silvery substance!

They were all dragons or at least, dragon-like.

They did not give the feeling of life, yet, instead they seemed larger than it by several

leagues!