Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1396: Stand-In Apostle (1)



Skullius explained what Serenity had told him to Red Rage. In his excitement, he completely ignored everyone else even though they were listening closely to what he said.

"Must be nice. Your benefactor communicates with you directly?" Uyuniya said after Skullius explained. It might have been the only thing she truly grasped from what he said to Red Rage.

"Their relationship is a whole lot more intimate than that, believe me," Aurolio chimed in with a chuckle. It was no baseless remark. He had been standing right next to Serenity when Void had tried to kill Skullius, and he hadn't missed it when Serenity had flowed back into Skullius from Sila's body.

Skullius kept his focus on Red Rage though, ignoring the comments.

"If it helps narrow down exactly what needs to be done, then I think you should get on with it, master," Red Rage said. "However, before you do, I think you should hear what I have to say, and understand even a smidgeon of my reasoning."

"Alright," Skullius said while dialling down his excitement. "But it's still related to the connection you feel from the Null Verse, right?"

"Yes," said Red Rage, and the glow around him intensified. "The connection I've felt when evolving has taught me a few things about my race, the Imperfect Judicial Saint. The powers I have are along the same lines as the ones I had when I was the Juvenile Pelvic Arbiter. The essence of my abilities revolves around the idea of judging enemies, imposing punishments and taking something of theirs in return. But unlike when I was the Arbiter, now I can take what I deem to be fitting or issue commands that enemies cannot avoid simply by judging their intent and actions, and then invoking your name, master."

And indeed. Red Rage was capable of taking elements from his enemies nigh instantaneously. He had even demonstrated this power when he had paired with Elita to fight the swarm of Cavern Boron had called forth earlier.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.1224.)

Skullius remembered this ability of Red Rage's. He had used it himself actually, when he was Prisma Vohnvolt Exonn on Actuass. That was how he had extracted the masked man's powerful soul which he later used to create the Transcendent grade artefact, Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.1098.)

When Skullius confirmed that he did understand Red Rage's former powers, the Apostle continued to explain.

"There are subsets of abilities I will obtain under the Imperfect Judicial Saint species. With the glimpses I have been getting because of this connection to Prisma, I am sure these abilities will work wonders. But of course, if I were to awaken them in my current state, they would be too weak to affect the crystals. I wished for a Rank or an Apostle Trait because I know both will transform my present state into something far superior."

"I see. But what do these... sub-abilities do exactly?" Skullius asked the Apostle suspiciously. Just what made Red Rage so confident?

The Apostle was silent for a while. He likely wanted to create room for awe when he finally answered.

"For the sake of tempering expectations, master, please allow me to keep it a secret until I verify if I'm right or wrong," he said.

Skullius scoffed. He didn't know if the bastard was seriously worried that whatever he was cooking up would fail, or if he just wanted to make an even greater show of his powers when the time came.

In the end, he relented and didn't press the matter. Thus, Red Rage continued.

"So, before you leave with Serenity, please grant me a Rank," he said. "You can create a fifth Apostle just to fill the count of five required for me to receive one. You can easily discard the Apostle later, right?"

Skullius supposed that was fair.

It wasn't the first time he had created Apostles only to destroy them, after all. As Replicus, he had done a lot of experiments with his Nullmancer powers. Araeyn was the product of one of the successes of Skullius demented trial and errors. The pasty, pale Apostle had actually been hatched by Skullius alongside Yuyui's Bubbles.

"Alright," Skullius said with a nod. "But what shall I kill to make an Apostle?" His vision swept across the room even when his eyes didn't move.

Unlike typical summoners or necromancers, Skullius could not resurrect anything that he had not killed himself. Thus, he began searching for candidates. He looked at the Arch-Mages and Monarch. They flinched.

He wouldn't kill them though. That went against everything he had argued with Elita and Uyuniya about just now.

"I have a solution to that already," Red Rage said confidently.

"What? How?" Skullius asked him.

As though it was the simplest thing in the world, Red Rage snapped his fingers and after a white flash of light suddenly sparked in front of him, a large, extremely muscular goblin appeared.

Skullius raised a brow, as did Elita. Uyuniya made a curious "Hmm?". The rest merely watched blankly.

The Hybrid Warmoth meant to ask Red Rage what this goblin was when he came to a realisation himself.

"You still have that army of yours?" he asked the Apostle.

Red Rage nodded proudly.

"I managed to keep a lot of them safe even against that last attack from your possessed body which wiped out a chunk of Pelian. I have great plans for these children of mine, but what I intend to do also hinges upon my ascension," he said. "In any case, feel free to use this one."

Skullius found it eerily discomforting that Red Rage had offered one of his 'children' as a sacrifice. But then it was all for the greater goo-

Skullius cursed at that.

No.

He had yet to reconcile with the fact apparently, he could give himself a pass to kill or invoke chaos just for his own sake - his own good.

Perhaps killing the goblin looking blankly from him to Red Rage would be a conscious

initiation into accepting the fact that some wrongs needed doing After all, realistically, Skullius did know there was no way he could become a complete saint. He sighed.

'Well, I can at least make it painless,' he thought.

His intent was instant and powerful.

The [Entropy's Harmonising Nimbus] sent forth a microscopic string of Ju'wtte that the goblin couldn't have seen or felt. The string passed through one of the goblin's ears and fried

its brain in less than an instant.

The creature fell to the ground, dead, but it couldn't have even processed how.

"Now, let's make the stand-in Apostle then," Skullius said.