Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1301: Free Favours



It seemed Fulgardt had just about had his fill of sharing. Skullius' remark triggered something in him that prompted him to stand.

"As you have no intention of restraining me, I should think I'm free to leave," he said and the chair under him dissipated.

Skullius had a lot he wanted to ask. Just now, Fulgardt had spoken about something called the Great Rending, but he had been a step late in asking what it was because of everything else the Immoral spilled after.

Skullius also wanted to ask about the utilisation of Corrupted Deities, but unlike the subject of the Wanderer, he knew for sure Fulgardt wouldn't be coerced into teaching him about it.

"Is the Great Rending the formation of reality?" the Hybrid Warmoth asked.

Fulgardt scoffed.

"Make of it what you will," he said and then he turned to the First Horn who had been silently listening the whole time. "I hope for your sake that you chose the right Insurgent Magnus. I truly wouldn't want to see Maqi die so pitifully in the future, especially at the hands of someone who doesn't belong."

With that, he gave Skullius a sharp look and vanished along with Rias.

Skullius shook his head.

"Well, that was abrupt," he said to himself. "I couldn't have pushed him to stay though." He wondered where Fulgardt was off to. If he didn't have access to the Labyrinth, what would he do about his goals? Skullius had thought about enlisting Fulgardt's help in killing Boron, but he didn't trust the Immoral enough for that. He discarded any notion that proposed Fulgardt collaborating with.

"Mind bringing me out of the dark?" Elita by his side asked. She had figured it wouldn't be possible to squeeze herself into Skullius and Fulgardt's conversation given all the context she was missing.

"When we're out of here," Skullius said and he stood, facing the First Horn. "We shall proceed as we talked about before, but not right now. I will come to collect the Ode and the hag when the crisis on Aigas had ended. Until then, I hope you can defend yourself well."

The Ode leaned forward from his bowl.

"You defended our honour minutes ago. Why would you sully it with such a hope? Of course, our nation will stand."

Skullius had no doubts about that, at least where mortal Cavern were concerned. If Divine ones cropped up...

"Just in case, let me leave you with this," he said and one of his hands pulled something from the [Entropy's Harmonising Nimbus]. It was a scroll, or more aptly, a Charged Mantle.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

A Charged Mantle was a scroll charged with a unique power - Andori, Parlous Nature and the likes. They could be activated with the user's will.

The one Skullius was giving the First Horn was a World rank Prime treasure with an offensive Andori packed into it. It could be used five times before the Charged Mantle was exhausted. Divine Cavern were few and far between, and incredibly weak. Even basic Andori would likely work against them.

Despite his pride, the First Horn did not miss the incredible, threatening energy coming from the scroll. This was goodwill he couldn't refuse. He ordered one of his guards to collect the scroll.

'The nice thing about Charged Mantles as Treasures is that they aren't as aggressive as regular weapons. Even mortals can handle and use them,' Skullius thought.

"I'll do you one last favour, First Horn. I'm sure you'll be thankful for it," he said to the ruler of Maqi and then turned to leave with Elita. The First Horn was puzzled but he didn't ask for clarification.

Soon, the two anomalies were outside the First Horn's palace. Skullius politely declined the offer by the Shamanic Mages from before to escort him outside the city.

"I can't tell you all about Fulgardt's secret just yet," Skullius said to Elita. "It's not because I don't want to. There are Creeds or maybe Rules at play, I'm afraid."

"Rules?" Elita frowned. "What kind of Rules?"

"There is SOMETHING in Fulgardt's Labyrinth that remains thriving and strong under a Rule that demands obscurity in exchange. No one other than Fulgardt himself was supposed to know of this THING. But, Fulgardt being Fulgardt, he had contingencies and countermeasures in place in case, the Deities, for instance, found out," Skullius explained.

"Every additional individual who finds out is under the protection of a Tie of Exchange from Fulgardt. Essentially, he can't harm me. This is another Rule meant to restore the effect of the first Rule I mentioned. The risk my knowledge of the THING poses to Fulgardt offsets the fact that the THING has been found out - the original condition for its vitality."

Elita reeled.

Basically, Fulgardt had made SOMETHING empowered by a Rule, but that Rule wanted him to keep that SOMETHING secret at all costs in exchange.

But just in case he couldn't fulfill this secrecy, Fulgardt added another Rule to ensure that the benefit of the first Rule wouldn't be lost.

This second Rule protected those who found out about his SOMETHING from him, which was a disadvantage against Fulgardt himself. This disadvantage kept up the benefit of the first

Rule.

"That's... intricate," she said, and she took another couple of seconds to make sure she understood what Skullius had said. "This was actually not a bad move. Though, if it's a Tie of Exchange that protects you from him, if you ever leave Aigas..."

"Yeah. He'll rush to kill me," Skullius chuckled.

"But, don't the Deities already know everything that happens on Aigas anyway?" Elita asked.

Skullius had considered this. He didn't have a straight answer.

"I imagine it's not so easy for Deities to spy on everything Divines do, even on their worlds," he said and he looked up into the darkened sky. "Ah, time to do that favour for the First

Horn."

Flocks of Cavern were flying in aggressively, intent on ruining Maqi. It had finally dawned on the main forces of these creatures that the numbers they had sent to Maqi had been obliterated. Skullius could sense two Divine Cavern among them.

He conjured the Noboboyama at once. The great Phantasmic Retainer emerged, tall and broad

as ever, its darkness more extravagant than that of the night.

Skullius had imbued portions of both his Majestic Territories, Aphotic Catacomb of the Daemon and Purified Cadaver's Impartial Felicity into each of his Retainers so that he could use the effects of the Territories much more conveniently.

The Noboboyama groaned and the suddenly, a wall of light flooded from its face, travelling to

meet the Cavern. When the Cavern were met by the light, their defences were stripped away, flesh and skills alike. And then, an unending series of ruthless dark slashes ripped them all - all three million of them - to bits in a less than a breath.

And then all that remained, were the Divine Cavern who were practically immune to powers of

this level.

Skullius sighed.

Not these disappointments again.

They were simply canon fodder to him. What purpose did they even serve?