Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1243: For The Merge! (2)



Replicus was perplexed.

This wasn't what he had expected to hear.

Try as he might to deny it, he had actually put a lot of stock into the idea that his phantoms and Serenity had been suppressed or disrupted somehow by Boron. But to think that the reason for their absence was something like this.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" he asked the phantoms. "What do you intend to do?"

"Ah, Prime. It wouldn't benefit you to know any of it right now. We would rather explain afterwards. We've just had an extensive discussion and we'd prefer not to go through it again until the results have been actualised. Hope you understand. Besides, there are things we have to clear up and finalize during the merge," a phantom said.

Replicus frowned.

"During the merge?"

"Indeed!"

"I suppose we could feed him a bit about the overall plan. Perhaps that would get him excited too and stop being such a nag. We are way smarter than he is. He should be glad we are doing everything for him!" another phantom bellowed.

"Did you just call me stupid?" Replicus hissed.

"Glad you picked up on it! What are you going to do about it? If you intend to beat me up, do know that I can fight back!" the phantom said and made Replicus' bottom right hand twitch.

Replicus took a deep breath to calm himself.

What exactly had gotten these guys all excited to this degree? He had never known the phantoms to get violent like this, however unserious they may be.

The Progeny massaged the bridge of his nose.

"Tell me this smidgen of information you think I can handle," he said.

"Well," began one of the phantoms, "there are some very interesting secrets that your alter received through Fulgardt's WILLS. We intend to use those to our advantage."

"What secrets?"

"It's simple, you idiot! Fulgardt knew how to reach Divinity. Sause taught him how to do so - even though Sause himself doesn't seem capable of reaching that level yet. During the merge, we will get access to all these memories and we intend to use them to improve the quality of the result of the merge. If we are going to fight Somanda, we probably need to be on his level at least, right?"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Oh!"

Replicus was surprised and delighted.

He hadn't thought about this, at least not in this instance.

The last time he had wondered about how exactly one reached Divinity, was when he was talking to Sause on Edagon. The Giant had revealed that he was the one to spell the secret to Fulgardt. At the time, Replicus didn't ask because of several reasons, the greatest one being that Sause immediately shadowed over the subject with ridiculous reveals about the Giants and the Drakkens.

Now, the Progeny found himself extremely intrigued.

What was this secret?

"That's about as much as we will divulge, Prime. Let's get the merging started," one of the phantoms said.

Replicus almost pouted. He felt like a mere assistant now, being told to do this and that. He had half a mind to shut out the phantoms, but that would be unwise - stupid, really, not to mention petty.

He had the Strawlers bring his Hybrid Luman body close.

He looked at it intently.

That handsome face with slightly glowing, slicked-back auburn hair, white, blind eyes and a perfect jawline... What would become of it after the merge.

Apparently, the skill [Brisk Storm Avatar] would generate the best results if Replicus and Skullius had massive differences between them. These differences - disparities, rather- compiled every kind of strength Skullius and Replicus had obtained and fused them to create a collection of unique, new strengths.

Replicus wasn't sure how exactly [Brisk Storm Avatar] would facilitate the merge. Would it work on his bodies separately; as in Hybrid Luman form to Hybrid Luman form or use some other metric?

'I guess I'll find out right now.'

Replicus used his affinity with Integral Time to accelerate the time around Skullius. An instant later, the timer for [Greatest Celestial Counterfeit] elapsed and Skullius assumed the Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator form.

Replicus drew close and grabbed Skullius' hand. Using the Stark Constellation, he made the Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator activate [Brisk Storm Avatar].

Right then, sparks of Levin exploded between the two Null Lifeforms' hands along with a massive surge of Null Life Essence!

[You have activated the skill 'Brisk Storm Avatar'!]

[Calculating disparities between individual known as 'Skullius']

[...]

There was a pause as the guidance field began to calculate.

It lasted longer than Replicus thought.

One minute.

Ten minutes.

Forty minutes!

'Bro, what the flesh is taking so long?' Replicus thought. He was getting frustrated.

Of course, he figured the delay was probably a good sign, but still.

The guidance field only responded after twenty-three more minutes had passed.

[An error has occurred!]

[The detected disparity transcends the ability of 'Brisk Storm Avatar' to process, analyse and

multiply]

[A higher-level skill is required]

Replicus gaped, and then he facepalmed.

"You've got to be kidding me!" he cried.

Of course!

Why in the world did he not think about this?

It actually made sense!

[Brisk Storm Avatar] was only a Special Skill. How in the world was it supposed to comprehend and enhance Replicus and Skullius' abilities, especially the Supreme ones? Worse yet, what was it to do with his abilities and aspects which were bordering on Divinity?

There was no way!

Replicus clicked his tongue.

Now what?

"Relaaaax, Prime. We considered this," one of the phantoms said.

"What?" Replicus was astounded. "You did?"

"Didn't I tell you that he was hopeless without us?" another phantom said and laughed quite

annoyingly.

Replicus seethed, but he didn't address the comment. Instead...

"Please tell me you know how to solve this?" he said.

"Well, we have a theory. It might work. It will probably work. It will work."

The Warmoth's Progeny somehow didn't get any reassurance from this.

"What's the theory?" he asked with furrowed brows.

"For the first one we had, we need the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow," a phantom said. "By

now, it should have generated some Divine energy for use. If it hasn't, we might have to wait

a bit longer."

At once, Replicus understood what the phantoms intended to do.

Of course!

He could bypass the current problem very easily with the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow!

'Am I really dumb without them?' he asked himself.

"Well, we might not have to wait at all," another phantom suggested. "I believe this is the

time to test if Maximum Catalyst's Progression can work perfectly with skills, don't you

think? Fire it up!"

It was as if Replicus was smitten by a lightning bolt to the brain!

Dammit! There was another pathway to try. Indeed, while in the Timemould Mirror Box, he had experimented with Maximum Catalyst's limits but he had fallen short of exploring some of its

other strengths.

'It didn't work so well last time we tried, but I guess this really is as good a time as any to see

if this works,' he thought.

At once, his body was flushed with purple-gold light, and he smote the Eternal Storm Veil

Penetrator with it!

While the Progeny was busy wrestling with the small error standing in the way of his

progress, however, the world outside the Empyrean Bosom did not remain in stasis. The threats Replicus, Elita and Suzamete dreaded were finally pouring into the present Aigas!