Chapter 1190: The One Left Standing (4)
Chapter 1190: The One Left Standing (4)
Sixty blows rained on the Stolen Angel in a fraction of a second, each with power enough to pierce space casually!
The creature burst from the might that met it, and turned into shards of light that Replicus was sure would reform sooner rather than later.
According to Serenity, the Attegoth had become the bearer of all of Skullius' skills, but he imagined that the two probably couldn't use the same skill at the same time. If they could, at the very least, one would have a lesser version of the ability. This would explain why Skullius had a smaller [Heart of Revelation] over his head while the Stolen Angel had a larger one; the Angel was also the one predominantly making use of it.
As for how the Stolen Angel managed to recover from being frozen in Absolute Frost...
'As long as he carried a shadow and was embraced by the dark, he would never know any harm. He would never die.'
This was what Skullius had said just earlier.
To Replicus, this meant that Skullius had acquired a new ability. One, as he guessed, that like [Greatest Antiphon of Malignance], was an amalgamation of all his [Evil Darkness] skills!
This skill apparently made him immune to damage as long as he was smothered in darkness. If the Stolen Angel had access to this skill as well...
'It appears this skill allows him to remain perfectly hidden too. Even though he is using mana for these slashes he's ending now, I can't pinpoint his location,' Replicus thought as his speeding hands blocked all the disembodied sword attacks intending to dice him to bits. 'I have to get out of here.'
The Stolen Angel had just recovered when Replicus pointed one of his free hands forth, the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow - which he had called on earlier - raised, and declared:
"Brunt Divide."
At once, the darkness was parted like a dark sea, revealing once again the dark tiling, bright chandelier, and expansive sixth floor of the tower which the battle was now taking place in. Replicus saw thousands of Skulliuses wielding long, chipped zhanmadaos and green hangers. It still staggered Replicus that all these Skulliuses were actually real.
He couldn't have known, but they were products of one of the four Pinnacle Sword Styles of the [Infinite Sword God], known as the Slow Ghost Divine Sword Art. The user could create up to 7,000 fleeting ghosts that possessed the same attack power as the user, but they only lasted for five seconds before dissipating.
Many of these ghosts seemed a little surprised that the darkness was parted so
unceremoniously, but they reacted almost immediately. They hurtled towards Replicus at
once.
However, the Warmoth's Progeny was way ahead of them. After weaving in behind their attacks with astounding speed, making sure to kill some of them with quick jabs to the head, The activated [Mana's Whores].
Right then, the cores of the Skullius ghosts were suddenly tugged towards a point in front of Replicus along with their owners and a large, suspended mound of Skulliuses was soon created!
"[Core Demolition]," Replicus then said.
At once, the cores of the ghosts ignited in a spectacular explosion that caused the building to tremble.
None of them possessed a mastery of essence that eclipsed that of the Warmoth's Progeny after all, and thus they couldn't resist.
'I see. So, these ghosts aren't protected by the mysterious power of Skullius' new darkness skill,' Replicus reasoned while clashing his Ju`wtta together.
He seemed to be right on the money because a moment later, the real Skullius dashed from the solid darkness of the wall and hurtled in his direction. At the same time, the Stolen Angel lunged, its orange eyes strangely gleaming bright. But Replicus didn't hurry to engage with the two. Instead, a porous ball of purple-gold appeared in one of his hands and he swiped downward with it!
BOOOOOOM!
The entirety of the towering building of darkness suddenly shook vehemently, and for a moment, the view of distant trees, charred ground and the mostly clear sky spawned around the three combatants, but it was quickly devoured by the sombre interior design of the dark building once again!
Replicus frowned and he shot a hard gaze towards Skullius who had stopped in his tracks, and with a look of extreme effort propped up two of his fingers in a magical gesture.
'Again?' the Progeny thought.
Just now, he had used Reversion on the entire building in an effort to revert it back to a state where it hadn't been constructed yet; all to get rid of Skullius' advantage. Unfortunately, it seemed to work only partially before Skullius used his unusual, unknown powers to resist.
Once again, he had resisted the influence of Maximum Catalyst.
This didn't make sense to Replicus.
Skullius' skills were all Super skills.
His [Heart of Revelation], which was at that similar tier of power, shouldn't have been able to overpower his Transcendent armour, rendering it meaningless when the Stole Angel attacked earlier. A Supreme skill - at least - was required to counter something of the Transcendent grade.
The same applied with Skullius' inexplicably potent sword slash which sliced him two. Somehow, the Hybrid Luman was ramping up the output of his abilities to mind-boggling degrees and without using any essence at all.
Skullius grinned as soon as the building was reformed and joined the Stolen Angel, which had already struck at Replicus.
The Warmoth's Progeny was wary of its [Heart of Revelation] suddenly flaring like before and leaving him wide open (literally), but thankfully that didn't happen. He swiftly grabbed the thing's wrist, pulled it forward and sent his knee banging into its torso. The creature burst apart even as it automatically turned into light to protect itself.
A rain of slashes then met Replicus' automatic Ju`wtte.
Skullius had come in close. He was always surrounded by a field of slashes that protected him - an effect of [Infinite Sword God] - and they immediately attempted to slash apart Replicus. Of course, they had been quite irrelevant so far, and thus Skullius had to act himself.
He unsheathed Demion's Dance, his green hanger, coated it in a thin, but firm layer of darkness, and flung it up into the air while keeping the Bashful Abomination in his grip.
A dark outline of him then spilled from his flesh and sped upward to catch the darkness- coated hanger while Skullius' body, which remained mobile, sliced incessantly at Replicus with impeccable speed!
Skullius had been marked by the half a skull mark from the Stolen Angel earlier. This was how his limp body was able to move even after his consciousness was expelled from his body with Crude World Projection. Essentially, the Stolen Angel was piloting his body!
The Projected Skullius, wielding Demion's Dance unleashed [Courting Death] - a field of immensely sharp, extremely refined Mortal Ruin - which immediately dyed the entire sixth floor in thin, straight lines of dark red!
But Replicus was unbothered. Even as the Stolen Angel entered back into the fray, cartwheeling, jumping up and drop kicking him from above, his Ju`wtte, which defended him from the previous two attacks in a shower of yellowish-red, erratic bolts didn't let the great
foot touch him.
In the gap in time where his assailants exercised their violent right to fail at dealing him damage, Replicus activated [Unrelenting Ju'wtte Chain]!
A bolt of Ju`wtte as large as Replicus' entire body sprang into existence with a loud zap and connected Skullius to the Stolen Angel!
At once, the Stolen Angel was obliterated for the umpteenth by the shocking electric oomph, turning into what seemed like flaming ash after a blinding yellowish-red light. Skullius, on the other hand... was completely fine, albeit a bit luminous.
'He really doesn't take damage as long as he is surrounded by darkness...' Replicus thought, and he swung two of his fists harshly into the Hybrid Luman's face and torso!
On contact, balls of Ju`wtte emerged within fractions of miniscule time, and exploded like great fireworks around Skullius with about as much grace as canon-fire!
It was Crush damage!
One of these explosions had been enough to greatly harm Caxellac and even crack his armour!
Skullius was sent ploughing through the poorly lit space, and he bounced off the floor and
smashed into the ceiling.
But he was unharmed. On the ceiling where his momentum died, he looked at Replicus with a
calm grin as his Projected form slithered back into him.
'Shock damage didn't work on him either, huh?' Replicus thought.
He didn't like the way things were going.
Behind him, the Fallen Angel had reformed. Its orange eyes gleamed menacingly as it began
walking towards him.
Everything was a mystery so far. This wasn't good. Something had to change.
While wielding the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow, he pointed to the darkness depicting the
end of the building and called, "Brunt Divide."
At once, part of it split, revealing the view outside.
Replicus then turned to Skullius above.
"Let me abuse my time advantage a bit. A little game of cat and mouse ought to change the
pace," he said and he streaked through the gap in the wall, appearing outside.
Skullius scoffed.
"Knock yourself out. But I'm afraid it won't go as you think it will."
As soon as Replicus met the outside air, his body was warped.
A second later, he appeared elsewhere. He wasn't in a forest, but in a town.
Quite an overpopulated town; it was one of the several strongholds for common men left in
Pelian. It was just as Skullius had promised.
Their battle could only be held in the tall tower or populated areas around Aigas.
And also, quite like how Skullius pointed out, things didn't go as Replicus thought they
would.