Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Pherdanta pushed the hilt of her sheathed sword. Indeed, there was only one now.

It was neither Demion's Dance nor the Bashful Abomination. It was both, combined into one.

The hilt – long and curved – was a poison green hue, intricately designed with grooves and swirls that forged the immaculate images of seven snaking serpents with triangular heads that looked a lot like double-edged, double-sided swords.

The inches of the sword that peeked from the sheath were brass-coloured and chipped at the edge.

This new sword was some horrific mix between a hanger and a zhanmadao. The blade was over two and a half meters long, glossy, with an unnerving curve in the middle. As it was unsheathed, it expelled a venomous energy, no, a kind of… Aura that made the three remaining Cavern immediately widen the distance between them and Pherdanta.

Their faces were screwed in confusion and hatred.

How was it that a mortal had slain their companion?

Even if they lacked Immortal Physiques to shield their physical and soul bodies, how was it that this woman could cut through them, making them bloom from the inside out like living flowers?

The three shuddered.

The look in Pherdanta's eyes didn't grow any kinder as she took another step forward, drawing another inch of her new sword. It wasn't her attempt at intimidating the opponents. She was still testing the baseline of her new prowess. It intrigued her.

Yes, much of her spontaneous growth just now was a product of her own machinations, but there was something that boosted her attack power by a frightening margin – something she didn't understand.

The Aura coming from the sword was a vicious mix of scarlet and violet. It swam within the dark Territory and formed shapes that looked like serpents – dark vipers, unexpectedly detailed.

One of them hissed and lunged. In less than a blink, its fangs were deep within the neck of another one of the Cavern. Such attack speed was beyond even the physical attributes of its ascended body. It roared and attempted to grasp the dark serpent on its neck, but its hand merely phased through it. The snake was gone in the next instant after that.

Pherdanta smiled.

'So even that is a facet of my abilities?' she thought, amused.

Nothing happened to the Cavern that had been bitten… yet. That was the beauty of it.

When she was hidden within the darkness of the Territory, Pherdanta had employed the rest of her Creeds in an attempt to create a formidable enough technique to handle Divines. She hadn't been sure it would work.

Pherdanta's Hidden Class, the Infinite Sword God, which was created after she was given the Supreme Skill of the same name by Skullius had absorbed the properties of her old Advanced Class (which gave her the ability to merge two or more swords together).

She used this property of her Class to merge the Bashful Abomination and Demion's Dance together, creating a very powerful, Transcendent grade sword by the name, Dance of the Necrotic Butcher.

The name came from one of the many variations of Pherdanta's new Impossible Splicer slash series. She had yet to try it.

But before she could, she used all her remaining Creeds to combine the skill [Infinite Sword God: Primordial Sword], Dance of the Necrotic Butcher, the [Impossible Splicers] (indeed, they were skills), and of course, her Majestic Territory, Cogent Stark Order.

Her aim was to create an extremely powerful technique that did not expend any fuel to cast, and without the annoying conditions she had to complete before using the Impossible Splicer slashes. (She aimed to surpass Festos even in that regard.)

…But the wider reality did good by her.

A Fundamental Barter was applied to the resulting skill. Well, a series of them.

Fundamental Barter existed outside of the Common Reality Leagues, just like the Existential Parallels. It was a power created by a Primeval Deity who found it interesting to reward even mortals with the power or potential to reach Divinity.

As such, it usually caught anomalies even before they transcended mortality. Sometimes, they wouldn't even know it that it was applied, mistaking it for the result of Creeds.

That was why Aurolio was able to apply it to his powers even though he wasn't Divine.

Pherdanta wasn't an anomaly, but what she was aiming to achieve was beyond the scale of even the Divine Cavern on Aigas.

Fundamental Barter applied to her new technique as a whole, boosting its potency by an integral of 5!

And indeed, Fundamental Barter improved the power and efficiency of a tool or ability by that much when applied only once!

But then it went on to grace two other facets within this new technique separately according to her own desires. (Indeed, a limited target was isolated, as was the limited duration for the effects.)

And thus, Pherdanta came into possession of a technique that stood on a similar stage as Skullius' [Nullmancer's Royal Reaper of Ugly Divinity], the attack that killed the Null Devil King Caxellac!

It was the [Infinite Sword God's Sardonic Latitude], a technique with three branches: the Impossible Splicer Series, the Coddling Enclosure (Cogent Stark Order), and the Serpents' Graces (based on the new sword).

[Great Vein] and [Great Sempiternal Vein], which Pherdanta had just shown, were both aspects of the Impossible Splicer series. In theory, she didn't even need more than just this to kill the remaining Divine Cavern.

And thus, she kept at it.

Another Cavern (different from the one that had been bitten), bloomed and died immediately. The other two panicked.

Their fates were sealed!

What could even possibly hope to do against this woman?

Nothing!

The answer was nothing!

Or was it…?

BOOOM!

Something must have rammed into Cogent Stark Order judging by the way it shook so violently. It didn't break, however.

Pherdanta looked outside her Majestic Territory.

Ashema was there, and he refused to be bested.

The Cavern was donning a ferocious look on his face. It perfectly displayed his unwavering belief that he would not be losing just like this.

"The lesser between us dies!" he cried out and something threaded through the Under and whipped into him – his flesh, bones, and soul!

Blood that wasn't his filled his veins, changing him qualitatively. He grew bigger and stronger. His horns grew more twisted, and his skin turned vermillion, almost smooth.

Pherdanta's eye turned from Ashema to the two remaining Divine Cavern. They suddenly became husks, shadows of their previous selves. They whizzed as the muscles and blood drained from them, flowing elsewhere.

They filtered into Ashema.

He was, after all, Lord of Under. Everything within this pseudo-world was under his control, especially the Cavern – those of his kin assigned to him by Boron!

He could influence them however he wished, as long as he had enough knowledge and energy for it.

He could steal their blood and flesh and take it on himself.

He could steal their memories.

He could use their abilities.

As long as he had strength enough, he was not limited within this place.

Grinning, the Cavern took a swig out of his gourd, relishing in the power flowing through his veins. He wasn't a Divine, but he had the blood and flesh of two Divine beings!

Surely, this had to be a match for the Commander of the Stark-Soul Order!