Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The heavy atmosphere conjured by Replicus didn’t see a pause for a while since Kenno finished delivering the news. The Penetrator didn’t move an inch. It seemed only his thoughts did, swirling around his head, unseen by his Unlimited who only grew more tense by the second.

“To think Theurien actually woke up. How did Stylla even manage such a feat? I guess Skullius would be the only one to know,” one of the thought phantoms said as it whizzed past Replicus’ eyes.

“More than a dozen million souls… What is that masked necromancer’s goal? And what did Guissepo get from this? If his goal was to release Boron, what could he have extracted from the witnesses?”

Almost at the same time that a second thought phantoms asked this, the other responded with the answer. It was so clear.

“Dormant blessings!”

Given that Skullius, while in his Hybrid Luman form, always got the notification about a reward in the form of a blessing after clearing a Cluster, only to get taken away by the influence of the Binds of Fukal – which blocked any blessing or curses from the four Deities – the idea of how normal people got blessings that most of them never got to use stayed in his mind.

As the Penetrator, he never got any notifications like that after clearing a Cluster, strangely, but he also kept the prospect in mind. The Deities rewarded those served by vanquishing Clusters by increasing the potency of their blessings according to the level of Cluster they cleared.

As such, if dormant blessings grew enough, even someone who had yet to taste the Incandescent Stage could activate them and began using them for their own good.

A good example was Gertreld from Tulnas’ Harem Guild.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.273).

“The blessings come from the three Deities, meaning they must play a part using this key the Emissary spoke about. And well, if gathering a lot of blessings is all that is needed, then in a way, it really wasn’t all that difficult to free Boron in the first place,” a thought phantom said.

“None of us wants to find that out.”

Replicus sighed.

The tense atmosphere turned warm and willy again.

However…

“You recall that man with that black and white jewel around his neck?” Replicus said to the Unlimited.

Kenno, Grim, and Pherdanta nodded, but Allora seemed to be in the dark. She hadn’t been able to meet a lot of the other Faction leaders yet. Pherdanta would have been in the same boat if not for her trip with Replicus to the Union hours ago.

“The jewel he always wears around his neck. It’s called the Harmonic Ember. It’s something the Bryne Family – the people my other self has been working with – have had in their household for centuries. It was stolen months ago.”

Kenno’s face hardened.

“I see.”

Red Rage had been the one to tell him what happened with the incident when Setkh confessed, and didn’t know enough to give Kenno any clue that the attackers were from the Severed Union.

“My other self marked the person who stole it. I’ve been sensing the mark placed on him without knowing what it was for. And now…” Replicus said, his sockets flashing terribly. “…That whole Faction is on my list.”

The <Marked Spot> Replicus saw on the Mage who was the guard to the man with the Harmonic Ember around his neck finally made sense.

Skullius had probably hoped to one day meet this man again, but well. First come, first served. Replicus would have to deal with the original’s business.

Grim grinned.

“To think you’d have targets of your own, boss,” he said. “I thought we would be on the defensive for the whole trip.”

“I did too,” Replicus said.

Having said that, he turned back to Kenno.

“These towers you spoke of… they’ve only been appearing in Pelian, right?”

“Yes. I made a few trips around. News is that only Pelian is plagued by them,” Kenno replied. “The Six Houses have intervened though. I heard certain regions have already cleared out the towers and the beasts that they released.”

Replicus nodded.

Unfortunately, there was probably no aid coming from a sixth House.

“Master.”

Pherdanta’s call grabbed Skullius’ attention, and his senses immediately widened. Pherdanta normally wouldn’t call for him without adding on what she called him for.

This meant that there was danger somewhere.

A split moment later, Replicus detected the problem.

Far, far off, was a treacherous tangle of powers that attracted his Special essence manipulation skill, [Sorcery of Essence].

A large Cluster sent pulses of mad power in every direction.

It was a bright blue Cluster, the large crack in space that represented it half submerged in the ocean.

“Hmmm,” Replicus sensed its shape.

His Unlimited could barely see a bright dot in the distance, despite knowing what it was already. Even Grim who had very good eyesight couldn’t see it any better than the others.

With the quick speed with which the ship carved through the length of the ocean, however, the Cluster was getting clearer and clearer.

“It’s open,” Allora said as the view of the thing improved.

Indeed. The Cluster was open. The bright blue that could be seen only hung around the crack, but at its center, there was a gaping void that would have been plastered blue otherwise.

The door to the small cabin opened, and Baddan emerged from it. The Unlimited turned to look at him and found him looking dazedly at the Cluster which was drawing closer and closer with each moment.

The Sky Watcher seemed lost in it.

The sensation the phenomenon propounded must have drawn him, as it felt all too familiar.

It had the distinct flavor of his past home, but he knew it wasn’t.

Hours ago, Replicus had taught him the basics about this world, and the formation of Clusters had been part of that lengthy explanation.

Getting to know that his whole world was only a very insignificant portion of a larger world was certainly unpleasant. The Sky Watcher had already known since he met Rias, but getting the breakdown of the how and why just hit differently.

Now, as Baddan looked at the large crack a mere five hundred meters away, he shook his head solemnly.

A tinge of pity even crawled up to his heart when a large, winding body sprang forth from the ocean, a few meters from the Cluster, its head facing the ship with a vicious visage.

Another like-bodied fiend emerged and then another.

‘Poor souls,’ Baddan thought.