Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1132: Mercurian Long-Snout! (1)



Several minutes ago...

The Empyrean Bosom.

Replicus stood with all four arms crossed in front of his chest, looking at the gigantic corpse of Jerthrax, the Vision of Misery.

It still astounded him that he had managed to kill this behemoth right before Actuass could enslave it through the unique lifeform known as Eobald-Minobu. However, even more staggering than that, had been the fact that Sause had allowed him to keep the corpse of the Herald without taking any action.

Benzard had explained that Sause had let the Warmoth's Progeny take the corpse because of the Tie of Exchange that was made between Skullius and Sause all the way back then in the Labyrinth of the Yoke.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.104).

The Giant had assured Skullius that he would help him deal with any problem as long as he helped him escape the Labyrinth and spared Benzard. Of course, Sause only got to know Skullius' outrageous demand after he had established the Tie of Exchange: He was to help Skullius defeat an Arch-Lich... well, a High Lich now.

To do that, if Skullius, rather, Replicus, could find use in Jerthrax's corpse, that would be splendid, after all Sause wasn't confident that his strength alone would do against an Undead of such calibre.

"I guess we can begin," Replicus said while looking at Jerthrax's great snout and raising his hand.

"Wait," Serenity interrupted, swaying lightly beside him. "It's better if you utilise the Class Reinforcement first."

"The Class Reinforcement?" Replicus repeated.

He had earned four benefits other than racial evolution as a reward for reaching the Fourth Tier: Personal Configuration, Flaw De-demonization, Class Reinforcement and In-Verse glimpse.

Replicus had already used the first two options and now two remained.

Class Reinforcement was rather straightforward. Replicus' Class, the Vehement Bone Nullmancer would be augmented in some significant way. The Warmoth's Progeny gathered that this would have an effect on his Apostles too, which was why Serenity suggested that he use it first before making Jerthrax his Apostle.

Thus...

"Alright," Replicus said and had the guidance field commence with the Class Reinforcement. At once, notifications popped up before him.

[Class Reinforcement in progress...]

[Your 'Vehement Bone Nullmancer' Class has been augmented significantly!]

[Your Class evolves into the 'Nullmancer']

[Processing...]

[Class relevant skills have been awakened through odd channels! Bonus evolutions apply!]

[Existing Nullmancer skills are being significantly upgraded!]

['Apostle Armament' and 'Apostle Summon' have been merged...]

['Apostles' Liege' has been created!]

['Apostles' Liege' evolves thrice!]

[...]

[User has awakened all ten summoning slots for 'Apostles' Liege'!]

[User's newly summoned Apostles can immediately evolve to the Fourth Tier with a plethora

of high-quality evolutionary options opened up to them]

[All User's Apostles will be granted the 'Blessing of Serenity'!]

[All User's Apostles can share their Liege's skills, including restricted Class skills!]

[All User's Apostles are granted Null Cores upon summoning]

[Processing...]

[The Nullmancer's available Apostles evolve thrice!]

Replicus was gobsmacked!

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Before he could utter a word though, Red Rage and Araeyn, who had been curiously staring around the Empyrean Bosom, suddenly jerked and began to change, notifications of evolutionary options opening up before them.

Red Rage seemed pleased. This wasn't his first time choosing his own evolutionary path. Skullius had been surprised to find that he could do that, surmising that it was likely because he was a bit more... free-spirited.

Araeyn, on the other hand, simply stared at the guidance field either unsure what to do, or disinterested in it altogether.

Replicus was looking at the two, watching the slew of options his Apostles had been offered, which were mirrored onto the panel before him.

'Interesting! This was a lot bigger of a boon than I thought. My Apostles... All of them...' Replicus couldn't find the words to finish. His phantoms did, however. They made so much noise that it became impossible for him to continue zoning out.

He looked at Serenity and then at the many benefits offered by the new skill [Apostle's Liege]. No wonder Serenity insisted that he wait for this before making Jerthrax an Apostle. This must have only been part of the reason, though, because Replicus saw that notifications about his Class skills - [Nullmancer's Unforgiving Lancet]; [Nullmancer's Royal Raiment of Acclimation]; [Epiphany]; [Wealth of Spoils]; [Depths of the Core] - were practically festering, but he was only focused on the Herald's corpse right now. None of these skills would affect his summoning of a new Apostle, so they could wait.

Thus...

Replicus walked up to the massive snout of the massive dragon and touched it.

"Summon," he said while activating [Apostles' Liege].

Immediately, the already stacked stack of notifications grew, announcing very good news!

[Congratulations! You have summoned your fourth Apostle!]

[A carcass of impossibly high quality has been detected! High chance bonuses as well as

original ability and skill retention apply!]

The Empyrean Bosom trembled.

[Class Evolution bonuses apply]

[A fitting list of evolutionary options at the very top of the Null Verse have been selected due

to the quality of the corpse]

Replicus' curved eyes shone as he saw what was presented.

Soon, he wore a treacherous grin, pleased.

He was immensely pleased.

***

A great flame exploded upward with about as much force as a hundred thousand geysers bursting their ferocious, scorching, steamy load into the sky.

It attached itself to everything, rapidly and wildly expanding its influence with what might have been a true, living will.

Both its great force and its greedy proliferation was even more terrifying when one realised that this vicious flame... was hardly visible.

If not for the twists in space (which was also burning) brought on by its crushing heat, it would be impossible to notice its wisps and warps!

Even though both Replicus and Caxellac had been in the direct line of fire, only the latter met the full brunt of the vengeful flame.

He was tossed skyward, spinning like a top as his armour rapidly began to melt, as did his skin and bone in barely a breath's time!

"Arrrgh!" Caxellac roared before summoning a great bull with whipping winds around it and

settled on its back amid the conflagration.

This kind of flame...

He could have sworn he had experienced it before.

It had to be Clear Fire!

Soon, the stream of scorch came to an end.

Everything looked as though it had turned into a mirage after the blast, but strangely enough, other than Caxellac, nothing else showed any signs of being harmed by the fire.

Replicus churned.

The Null Devil King had been blasted away with his sword upwards, and thus he was free to

stand.

His two feet supported him on a great mercury tongue deep within a great maw that rose from

the ground. This maw started to emerge further up, and then a great head showed itself.

It was abnormally vast, so much so that Replicus, on seeing it for the first time, had wondered

if the Colossus Warmoth could have been its match.

Riddled with hundreds of thousands of mercury scales, the new Apostle's immense, partly

illusory body, cast a dark shadow over Replicus. Its massive feet, six in all, settled on Edagon and the ground turned to mercury which boiled intensely over vast regions. Its four terribly colossal wings gave a uniform flap, and even the clouds flitted away as fast as they could, as did everything that was idling below and around the great tail behind the behemoth when it swayed harshly.

The Mercurian Long-Snout Legend have arrived on the battlefield.