Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1306: Husk (1)



The interior of the great tower had no floor. From the doorway, a winding set of old stone steps descended deep into the darkness below. Oddly, after some distance inward, they looked like a coiling python, with the demarcations of each step making the serpent's spots.

There had been another array meant to hinder intruders, but its effect was made irrelevant by Skullius who casually crushed it. The genuine Divine energy that empowered it was powerful - as it was a form of Amras - but it was weak against Skullius' own.

"I've heard that it confounds an enemy, making them see an illusion of themselves going down the steps," Elita had described the array as they started making their descent.

The former Paladin Champion also pointed that this wasn't the only entry and exit into the Purity headquarters. There were others, but they wouldn't lead them where she wanted to go as easily. Others led to the Purity Knights' Barrion and others to what was known as the Pure Collectory, where pious blacksmiths sworn to the faith made wares for the Purity.

Skullius made endless attempts at grasping everything there was in this place. He made to scan the entire layout of the headquarters and ascertain where exactly the trouble was, but something was eluding and blocking his senses at the same time.

The Hybrid Warmoth wasn't particularly surprised. When he searched the entirety of Aigas earlier, Divine beings had dashed away from his sensory prowess, making their presences thin and others had responded more proactively, attacking him. As he was still new to this odd sensory power, Skullius wasn't too disappointed when it didn't work as well as he would have wanted.

Thus, he chose to switch to something that wouldn't so easily be countered.

Null Life Essence.

He cast the essence out in a wide net and had it sweep over everything. This was no different to him using the skill [Null Life Demesne]. In fact, it was even better. Though Skullius no longer had any basic Null Life skills, he was no weaker when applying their effects. This was another product of him reaching Divinity.

The results were better when Skullius scanned this time around, but...

"This might be a bigger problem than we thought," Skullius said.

"How so?" Elita asked.

"The Null Life Essence I expelled just now... When it reached a certain point down below, something reacted viciously. I think... no, I'm certain there's a Prime or Wicked treasure in play. It's responding to anything that tries to traverse past a certain point."

"How on earth would the Purity have access to a Treasure? Creating a Divine being is one thing, but a Treasure?"

Skullius didn't know either.

But then again, didn't that Cavern he had just fought have a set of Wicked Treasures? Skullius had taken them for himself after killing the creature. The Cavern were bred in the Under, below Aigas. How would they have gained access to Treasures? Could Boron make them?

"Treasures are different from regular weapons and artefacts, Skullius," Serenity answered after Skullius asked about this. "As I understand it, there is a special group of entities that creates all Treasures. The art was passed down by one of the Primeval Deities, who added on to the Common Reality Leagues. He formed a clan of sorts that has been crafting these Treasures for eons, or rather Consternals, and broke off from the clan as a trade-off to establishing his own name in the universal power system. If you look closely on any Treasure, you may see a signature of this clan. The story is different in the Null Verse, of course."

Skullius immediately drew the red sabres he had taken from the great Cavern he fought before. They were World rank Wicked Treasures. He searched for even the slightest hint of a forger's mark. There was none.

Curious.

He then drew the Realm rank Wicked Treasure, Malefic Gold Hand, the Treasure he had received from JOISEN ANTERRAS' contract. It was a large, golden gauntlet with what appeared to be thousands of parts. It clanked, bits of it chinking at the slightest movement. It appeared mechanical in one form or another, its protruding, pointed knuckles laced with strings of an unknown, white energy.

Skullius searched the Treasure and... there!

He spotted it.

Through his outlandish senses, he noticed a tiny engraving in the gauntlet's palm. It was a string of text bordered by a tiny rapier and a hammer.

'What does this mean then? Did the Cavern get their Treasures from another external source?' Skullius thought. 'That wouldn't make sense. They were sealed below.'

The Hybrid Warmoth gave the red sabres, which were called the Twin Usurpers of Misery, a pensive look before stowing them back.

There was no answer to the mystery. Only Boron knew the answer, and for now, he wasn't Skullius' concern.

'I really hope Araeyn encounters that bastard first and traps him in the Null Remnants,' he thought.

Skullius shared his thoughts on the possibility of a Treasure hindering them ahead with Elita. She didn't have too much insight to give. She didn't know much more about Treasures that he did. She inquired about what else Skullius had sensed up ahead.

"There really isn't much. There's a whole lot of corpses on the first few levels and on the deepest one I can reach, there's that odd one I told you about," he said.

"Right. You think the masked man had his hand in this as well? If an undead like that is here, that's the only conclusion we have, right?" Elita said anxiously.

Skullius had sensed someone inside the Purity headquarters with a signature he was well- acquainted with.

The masked man, Actuass, had unleashed a torrent of assorted undead creatures on the Severed Union troops more than once during the voyage to Edagon, and Skullius back then had spotted odd kinds of undead thralls. They were more... sane than the others, and they didn't feel like corpses raised to tainted life. They only seemed like bodies sucked up of all life and sustained by a wireless connection from somewhere, rather than flesh machines with Undeath streaming through them.

"I'm not sure. Whoever it is, they are intact and they are moving, though they seem injured," Skullius said.

His extraordinary senses would have picked up the exact shape, likeness and colour of this individual, but again, something was restricting him from obtaining details.

The two soon reached the end of the stone steps and entered a wide hallway lit with bright, ever-burning torches of some strange, red and black wood on either side of them.

Even though the light was ample, there was a gloom to it that neither of the two anomalies could explain.