Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1385 You Didn't Defeat Him

1385  You Didn't Defeat Him

The beams of light were no source of an attack.

Skullius had read that before they even touched him, and that was why he allowed them to strike him as they did. They did him no harm, merely engulfing him in a mucus green hue.

…And then a voice spoke to him just as a ton of information lanced through his mind. It was loud so that everyone could hear.

"You'll thank me later for this, master. Or… you'll rush over here, seething. Well, whatever you choose, you needed to know all this at once."

Skullius didn't react to the message from the voice because of all the bits of information funnelling into him. He saw odd, crystals positioned in several points around Aigas as well as several other things with frighteningly high resolution. But Elita and Kenno recognised the voice and reeled.

"Is that…Kintar?" the latter said.

Elita only donned a curious frown before sighing and looking back to Revia who couldn't have given a thousand shits about the light show.

Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the two's torn relationship. For indeed, it was torn.

Aurolio could hardly have cared for the intriguing drama anymore. He, quite like Sila, Kenno and Araeyn was concerned about what was going on with Skullius.

As he was fed the information, his face increasingly grew grim, and as though the night was gathering on his face, Skullius' face turned so dark that it became impossible to decipher any of its details.

Kenno saw it coming from a mile away.

'Oh no. What did that little freak do?' he thought, filled with dread.

…And then Skullius exploded.

The look on his face stunned everyone present. It might have been a collection of ellipses doing their best to form a visage.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU STUPID BRAT?!" Skullius growled with a voice many decibels different from his own, and then he vanished.

Kenno was the first one to react.

'Shit. Kintar's mission was to go to Emeradis. That's probably where the boss is going,' he thought, his heart racing. He turned to Araeyn, intending to tell him to warp them to Emeradis, but the Apostle was already on it. He could sense where his master was. He drew in Sila and Kenno… and after a little hesitation, he beckoned Uyuniya, Aurolio, Elita and Revia as well. The latter refused to move. She might not have even heard Araeyn's calm and succinct, "Come here." Thus, she was left behind. Elita gave her a pitying glance as she and the rest disappeared.

14:47

'Shit. Kintar's mission was to go to Emeradis. That's probably where the boss is going,' he thought, his heart racing. He turned to Araeyn, intending to tell him to warp them to Emeradis, but the Apostle was already on it. He could sense where his master was. He drew in Sila and Kenno… and after a little hesitation, he beckoned Uyuniya, Aurolio, Elita and Revia as well. The latter refused to move. She might not have even heard Araeyn's calm and succinct, "Come here." Thus, she was left behind. Elita gave her a pitying glance as she and the rest disappeared.

As they began warping using Araeyn's abilities, Kenno couldn't have imagined his heart would ever settle.

'I always did wonder why the boss gave Kintar a higher position than Pherdanta or Yuyui. Those two deserve to be closest to him. But no… he chose that freak of nature,' he thought.

Kenno had thought Skullius had made a mistake, and honestly, so did the rest of the Unlimited Stars. There was something unnerving about Kintar.

Her eyes.

Her demeanour.

Her freakish record in the Impossible Task.

But Kenno believed with all his heart that Skullius didn't choose Kintar to be his Deputy solely because she was the strongest of all the Stark Troops.

But then… what else had Skullius seen in Kintar?

And would he still see it after whatever was happening right now?

***

Kintar was still sitting (floating) on the Monarch's throne, surrounded by her loyal Arch-Mages, headed by Stern-Mage Weyven Irlis.

These Mages were watching.

Those who hadn't believed in Kintar before were watching.

The Monarch was watching.

Red Rage also stood, watching… watching as the thousands of souls were sacrificed.

A giant array had been branded onto the floor of the Royal Dwelling and laid on top of it was a mound of a little less than 100,000 Mages of different calibres, from Apprentice to Grand-Mages. They were all dead. Soft lights, pristine and powerful, rich with all their potential rose from their corpses, feeding into a large, impressive golden wheel of Runes.

The wheel emitted a WHAARP! noise whenever a soul reached it and was burned up as fuel.

Kintar watched from the throne, both fascinated and frightened. Death did not frighten Kintar, but death without cause did. She feared ceasing to exist without a grand purpose after all she had accomplished. But also, death fascinated her. If her soul wasn't used up, burned like the ones she was looking at, what would be the next step for her? What would become of Kintar Aladaster? Would her fate, her Direction be any different?

Right as this thought assaulted her, something warped into the Royal Dwelling, swift and noiseless, landing right in front of the mound of corpses.

But in stark contrast to the nature of its travel, its presence was suffocating. Everyone in the Royal Dwelling immediately sensed the danger.

The many Arch-Mages who had been watching the sacrifice of souls readied for battle instinctively, but Kintar stopped them all. The rise of her pinky finger was enough to dispel all their mobilising mana.

"Kintar…" Skullius said. His voice was low, but it was loud. His blank white eyes had turned dark… black. "What do you think you're doing?"

Kintar looked at her master. Her ovular eyes turned into crescents.

"Did you perhaps not receive the information I gathered, master? I could have sworn I sent it to you just n—"

"You know exactly what I'm asking," Skullius cut her off.

Kintar smiled and then she rose from the throne, floating before the lines of puzzled Arch-Mages failing to summon their mana. They felt as though they had been caught in a Majestic Territory.

Kintar's smile faded.

"I guess you're here because you don't approve of the method I used," she said and she floated a little higher from the ground. "I expected as much."

"You have five seconds to explain yourself," Skullius hissed, his face a mess of dark wrinkles. Red Rage gave a sigh. He was anxious. Unlike Kintar, he wasn't quite so sure of himself.

Kintar turned thoughtful for a second and then she fixed Skullius with a stern gaze.

"Do you know why I bet against you, master? When you went off to fight against your evil self?" she asked him.

Earlier, Grim had referenced - jokingly - how Kintar had forced the Stark Troops to make bets on who would win between Replicus and Festos. (This was when when Skullius, Theurien, Silrat, and Soidon had been relaxing on the giant butterfly in the Empyrean Hatcher earlier.)

Skullius' eye twitched.

Why would Kintar bring that up now?

"Admittedly, I did it half in jest," Kintar continued. "But the other half of me thought you would actually lose. Do you know why?"

Right then, Araeyn warped with everyone else behind the mound of corpses below the wheel of Runes just in time… just in time to hear Kintar say it.

"Why?" Skullius asked acidly.

Kintar sighed and she suddenly looked a little tired.

"Because you didn't defeat him. You didn't defeat the masked man. You couldn't. And to me, it was highly probable that you'd fail to beat a nastier version of him when you didn't have much help."

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