Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1125: Six Minutes (1)



The moment Replicus' mana flashed blackish grey, all the other effects of his punch - his physical innate properties, boosts from skills and artefacts - were voided. Only the effect of the darkened mana took hold, absolutely horrifying the Null Devil King, who had nearly dismissed the attack as it been directed towards his armour.

The physical might behind it was extraordinary, but things turned out to not be as simple as he had thought when light disappeared around Edagon, and a warping feeling erupted from Replicus' fist, attempting to turn him extinct by way of... causing the very concept of his EXISTENCE to collapse in on itself!

...!!!

While the unceremonious darkness reigned, behind the Null Devil King, everything seemed to ooze of steam, and then a vast stretch of the land, including the gorges, hills and all, groaned and sank inward as though a fat giant had fallen from the sky and sat on it! It was as unusual as it was baffling!

Land masses large enough to be considered small countries rising exploded as they sank, water bodies around them evaporating in an instant and the skies... the skies turned skewed, the clouds painted over them whirling and vanishing with a poof!

Everything containing a trace of mana was challenged and defeated by the aftereffects of a punch that the Warmoth's Progeny had flung... and it went without saying that if there was a being that relied on mana standing before Replicus' fist, unless they were a step away from Divinity or greater, they would have been crushed by the force of his darkened mana!

The Warmoth's Progeny grinned while the Null Devil King spat blood and vanished from sight, reappearing in the skies just as light once again graced Edagon.

He took a breath and felt his chest where the heavy blow just now had landed.

He was not pleased.

A fist-shaped hole had been made into his dark armour, twisting the chest plate unnaturally. The pale, pasty skin of the Null Devil King, heavily bruised, could be seen through it.

A single punch had destroyed a portion of his armour when not even Jerthrax had been able to deal any substantial damage to it!

As dumbfounded as the Null Devil King was, he couldn't have missed the mocking visage Replicus wore in light of the feat.

The rumbling of a massive portion of Edagon crumbling and popping like fireworks persisted even after the heavy influence of the Progeny's powers waned.

'It worked. It actually worked!' Replicus thought ecstatically, as did one particular thought phantom who had suggested the mad idea to begin with.

The Colossus Warmoth's Progeny had used Reversion on his mana.

Maximum Catalyst allowed its user to cause a forward or backward evolution of a target and produced a result even if one didn't naturally exist in reality

In this case, the result of using Reversion on mana, was what Replicus called Inverted mana!

Everything to do with the power system ingrained in Aigas told Replicus that mana was the basis of many things. Mana became Aura and it became Nitros, which was able to create whole environments in the form of the Imaginary GeoScapes of Majestic Territories. Mana was also present in Sacred Forests where beasts thrived and also in Clusters.

Sure, it wasn't the source of everything. Man, beast and the world were made from a collection of Rules and Divine energy, but mana acted as a support within them all. An integral support.

Inverted mana was nothing like this.

Primarily, it dismantled the support that kept everything sturdy, pure mana in particular. That was why everything was crumbling within the range of Replicus' attack. The vicious amount of mana he had transformed into Inverted mana was enough to kill all living organisms on Aigas if hit directly.

Aside from this, without any complex application, Inverted mana was much more vicious than mana. Replicus was thrilled to find that in terms of physical reinforcement, it was at least three times as effective when it came to bolstering his physical attributes!

But of course...

'It's extremely draining...' Replicus thought.

That one use of Reversion had chugged down 97% of the mana reserves in his Nature-Bound Malleable Form Cores, and that was with the effect of [Resource Vault] - which optimised the cost of casting skills - active.

If not for the fact that he had [Mana Centurion], Replicus would have considered this his last use of Maximum Catalyst in this battle, but his reserves were rapidly regenerating.

Another negative point to Inverted mana was that it cancelled out all the other effects applied to his attacks, even those of his stats!

'That's an odd side effect. I can only use Inverted mana on its own...' Replicus thought, but that did not dampen his excitement. Not one bit. After all... 'I suppose we can proceed with using Inverted mana to power all skills. Delicate work that's going to be, but it should work. I wonder what the effect of this on my skills will be.'

But all this was for a bit later though, and it was going to be for the phantoms to execute.

Replicus wanted to explore the other facets of his powers first.

The Warmoth's Spine finally left his shoulder where it was perked while being wielded by his top right hand.

The Null Devil King didn't miss Replicus' intent. His stance was only going to get even more vicious from here.

"I see even the Warmoth's successor has inherited the same will. Took me by surprise. I was never afraid of Ju`wtte, but whatever that was.... Consider me wary of it," he said with a chuckle and Null Life Essence ran through him and his armour, healing him and repairing it swiftly. "It's an honour."

The Null Devil King's hand whipped out towards the ground and the Bastard Sword of the Hedonist hurtled towards him.

Once it slotted into his grip, however, Replicus' pointed a free hand forth and...

"Brunt Divide."

The sword flew out of the Null Devil King's grip again, but this time, his didn't relax. His figure vanished... or perhaps turned invisible, and in a blink, he had gripped the spinning sword again, a grin on his face!

Replicus was taken aback!

That movement...

That couldn't possibly have been...

'It's like the Astral Blizzard Corridor!' he thought just as the Null Devil King raised the damned sword, chanted, "Rune of the FIRST!" and swung it in the Replicus' direction!

...!!!

Replicus heard a rip and his arm holding the bulky spine flashed with Ju`wtte as it rose dextrously, bringing the Pseudo-Transcendent weapon up for a timely guard!

Replicus felt the tremendous might of the force that came down, but it hardly felt like that

from a sword.

Rather...

BOOOOM!

It slammed onto him like an accursed boulder and then...

[The effect of the 'Rune of the FIRST has been applied on you who have struck the first blow in

your clash against the Null Devil King 'Caxellac']

[Due to the effect of the 'Rune of the FIRST, Null Devil King 'Caxellac' has all his abilities

increased and accelerated by 450%]

[A timer has begun]

[Due to the effect of the 'Rune of the FIRST, if you cannot defeat the Null Devil King 'Caxellac'

in six minutes, you will lose 50% of all your abilities and stats permanently]