Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The explosion from the hidden underground storage within the field had garnered the attention of the Mage, the beefcake, Skullius and the Gale Fiend.

The shrieks of Aura that had been released from there outclassed the power being displayed by the bulky Form User with his Incarnation fully showing over his body, which gave a more impactful meaning to what the Mage had said about Seddrik earlier.

As if this had suddenly turned into a contest, the simple minded brawn brain, as a Master Stage expert who could also bring out ridiculous plumes of power, let his Aura run wild!

In his journey to reach where he was, he had decided that what he needed was a pair of gauntlets as his Genuine Incarnation in order to increase the power of his Dragon Breast Ram technique. Other than that, he wanted to use his full might without incurring much damage, thus serving his fisty nature well.

A teal coloured pair of large gauntlets wrapped around his arms from the elbows, their size being easily twice the size of his hands.

They had protruding knuckles aimed at delivering extra damage to the opponent with their designs being intricate, the depiction of a dragon on them to forcefully create a brand for himself.

The two of them hissed lightly as the Aura seeped from them, the bulky enemy grinning as he looked at his foes, searching for hints of awe and fear.

Sadly, he found none.

Skullius wasn’t really impressed.

He couldn’t see its detail anyway.

The burly Form User’s lip twitched and he shot towards the limited space of the Gale Fiend’s Dormant Territory!

The Mage’s attention looked to still be stolen by the explosion of power in the direction where Seddrik had gone.

That latest opponent with the cape had gone there too, hadn’t he?

A strange spatial effect had wrapped around him and taken him there, such a thing being something the Mage was easily able to follow.

That aside though…

‘Curious. How long is it going to take for Seddrik to retrieve the object?’ the silver haired man wondered.

He turned back to find his partner rushing foolishly towards the Dormant Territory and sighed.

This idiot.

He didn’t even realise how pointless that was.

As the eager punching machine closed in on Skullius and the beast, he was ready to land a punch with all his might when…

The jagged rays that formed the edge of the silvery blue Dormant Territory… couldn’t be breached!

“Huh?!”

The bulky Form User tried but he remained in one place! His feet raced wildly, scraping against the dirt but he didn’t go anywhere!

Skullius marvelled at this discovery.

Was this a property of a Dormant Territory?

One couldn’t invade unless the user allowed them to?

‘Well… this is inspiring!’ Skullius thought as he flashed a distance closer to the struggling Form User and slashed with Demion’s Dance that allowed him to casually wield all the power it could lend now!

The wind screamed as the sword cut into it, the force of the slash undeniably living proof!

Yet…

FWOOSH!

The figure of the Form User, which had been in mortal danger vanished and appeared right where he had been standing before!

Another look of confusion appeared on the man’s thick face as he had barely noticed that he would have been fatally wounded at least if he was forcefully moved.

The Mage had teleported him to safety.

The power of Skullius’ slash still hit its intended target though.

It slashed cleanly through the air and split the ground for miles with a low rumble!

UUUUUUMMMM!

The Mage whistled, very much intrigued and impressed.

Did this man know who forged this blade for the infamous Irisa who then gifted it to her lover Demion?

Curious.

Did the forger know that his sword was in the hands of someone like this?

Frankly, he might just be proud if he knew.

‘I haven’t seen the four relics he forged in a while, now that I think about it,’ the Mage thought.

“Hmm?”

His attention was once again stolen as he felt a familiar life signature fade in the distance.

That was…

The silver haired man blinked before closing his eyes shut.

His body then ceased floating above and descended to the ground next to his partner who was barking about why he had been forcefully taken away.

“He’s dead,” the robed man informed.

“Who?” the bulky Form User asked with a frown.

“Seddrik…”

“…”

The burly man grimaced.

His Incarnation swiftly faded as he turned in the direction Seddrik had headed towards.

A figure emitting a golden hue from his cape flew from there, reaching a distance from the scene where he attracted everyone’s attention.

He spoke no words at first, as his next action spoke louder concerning his intent.

He stretched his hand, revealing within its grip a spherical, dual coloured object.

The Harmonic Ember.

“You want this?” Red Rage asked.

The grey haired Mage’s expression didn’t change but he did look at the crystal with a bit of yearning.

“Seeing as our partner died for it, that should be obvious,” he replied.

Skullius was impressed.

He had received a notification about Red Rage killing Seddrik just now, but he could barely believe it.

That man was easily stronger than this muscle brain he had had fighting before.

The leaps in strength that Red Rage had gone through were incredible!

Now however, the problem lied with how this interaction was going to go.

The Mage wouldn’t leave without a fight, right? Especially with his comrade dead.

Then again, these too seemed to be taking Seddrik’s death without much sap. The Mage didn’t seem to care at all actually.

“I’m sure you plan on a baiting game with me. A clever strategy considering I can’t possibly hope to contend with you in flight, given your… traits,” the Mage said while once again pulling out his sceptre from an unseen storage.

“However, a word of warning. Say I benevolently decide to leave that thing… Or perhaps you defeat me somehow… Our leader has gone through much trouble to secure that item. Paying a heavy price for a curse that can’t be dispelled by natural means and making sure to hide the traces of our involvement intricately was only part of the investments he made. From that description alone, those who aren’t fools, like myself could tell that this is no mere trinket to him as he claimed.”

The Mage gave a brittle smile while the burly Form User beside him gawked at him in realisation.

Perhaps he was one of the fools that actually bought what leader said? Or was it simply that he had no idea the leader had invested so much in this?

Skullius narrowed his eyes.

“There is no rush. He is willing to put up with the Severed Code’s regulations for as long as it takes, you understand? Even if we’re not the ones to get that crystal, swarms of others will follow with that intention in mind.”

Why give them a warning?

The Mage’s hostile intent had been toned down as he spoke. One would argue that he hadn’t been hostile to begin with.

He had stated that killing was Seddrik’s business and had been fooling around all this time.

“The society I’m from dictates that I be reasonable. Besides, I very much enjoyed what I saw here today. Your abilities and a beast performing a Dormant Territory for the first time… I appreciated that. You two are not inherent members of this Family, that much I can gather. So you might not care for the deaths that will ensue on everyone remaining in this estate. But what of everyone else that remains?”

Red Rage’s attention was peaked.

Harming innocents?

That was definitely something he didn’t want to happen!

Then again, leaving these criminals…

“Give me the crystal and the pursuit on this Family will cease. If not, well… I don’t take pleasure in senseless slaughter but seeing as I’d be forced to…” the Mage said as his body fumed with an unnerving presence.

One that was painfully crippling.

“Taking that route will not end well for you. You’ll find that I’m not oblivious to your nearly bottomed out mana core and your cracked blade that CAN’T handle my full might.”

The former was with respect to Red Rage and the latter was for Skullius.

The Hybrid Luman wasn’t thrilled by fact that he understood just how outclassed he was.

It seemed even Red Rage understood.

With regards to what the grey haired man said though, Skullius ran his fingers over Demion’s Dance and only now did he realise that it had several cracks.

It was true.

Tsk.

‘Well that’s humiliating….’ Skullius thought as his blank gaze rose to his flying Apostle.

Well?

What would they choose?