Bro, I'm not an Undead!

It wouldn’t have been a stretch to say that the wooden and metallic scraps scattered all over the reddened ocean surface suggested a fleet-on-fleet battle, rather than a one-on-one battle between men.

Worse yet, even with the evidence of dozens of shattered vessels on the surface, dozens more could be spotted deep underwater and over an enormous range in all directions.

Given that the great battle just now – regardless of how short-lived it was – had been changing setting from sea to sky, it made sense that probably the majority of the vessels that made a line along the Central Boundary would be ruined, sunken, and scattered with the waves.

Tragically, the ships weren’t the only losses.

The hundreds of dead Purity Knights, most eviscerated, incinerated, disembodied, disemboweled, and dismembered, told of just joe many resources the Purity had staked into this.

This wasn’t all either.

Vaguely, everyone who looked several tens of meters past the carnage could see a mesmerizing blur. It was like a chunk of obscure glass dropping from the heavens like a veil and barring travel past it.

If one looked east and west, they wouldn’t be able to tell where it ended.

It looked extraordinarily sturdy, especially with its sporadic flashes of silver – which contributed to how those who looked at it could even notice it.

It seemed to click for some why it was hard to see from a distance. It was likely made so purposefully. If the Purity were to mark the Central Boundary with something that could easily be seen from a distance, worse, with its outrageous size, that would no doubt attract more attention to the Central Boundary, the very thing they didn’t want to encourage.

Sadly, this barrier, even with all its overwhelming majesty, had been broken through.

A large, uneven crack that dropped glassy chunks of itself could be seen right ahead. A greenish-black flame burnt at its inner edges, continuously breaking it apart bit by bit.

Replicus’ sockets flashed.

Well, that certainly settled it.

The masked man had emerged victorious in the end and he was still ahead of everyone.

Skullius had expected it and he was sure that after having the initial doubts blown out of the other Faction leaders’ minds, they had expected the Paladin Champion to lose one way or the other.

The same conclusions he had drawn about the masked necromancer possibly being immune to Divine energy type abilities were likely known to the other Factions as well. If the Factions were good for anything, it was learning and adapting.

Given their job description, it wasn’t strange at all that some of them were likely accepting the fact that they were wrong for doubting the Emissary’s evaluation and were now stacking up multiple plans on how to deal with the masked man.

That said, it also wasn’t strange that others were concluding that while they were all forced to accept the assignment, with Eaniss having the final say, this didn’t have to devolve into a 1 v. 100.

As it was in the Severed Union, whenever a setting that allowed for settling scores and stealing what you could, appeared, it was best to take it.

The fleet had paused temporarily to appraise the situation, but soon, it was moving again with Eaniss in the lead.

Her ship was the first to pass through the gap in the massive blurred barrier.

The rest followed slowly and passed through three at a time at most.

Replicus’ ship sank through the barrier which had obscured whatever was ahead.

…!

The Penetrator was awestruck when he saw the major change on this side of the world – the other half of Aigas as he presumed it to be.

The ship swayed, facing some difficulty moving forward.

The waters were darker, and they felt… richer.

They had no steady flow but they clashed against each other constantly in a lightly aggressive manner that contended against the ship’s slow cruise.

The waters were the least concerning, however.

Above, the scar Skullius had seen before past the clouds, lightly represented with faint strokes, like a beautiful painting, turned rough and bold. It now looked as though a valley had been carved in the sky, beginning with a narrow opening from where the blurred barrier was, and widening in the skies beyond.

Oddly, the sky had a darker shade of blue on this side, with its lighter tone reserved for the scar over it.

It was this darker shade that was prominent with the ocean and sky that made Replicus a little nervous.

This was it.

Because of it, the mana here felt a little restrained, and with every meter the ship moved through, Replicus spotted slight increments in this limitation on the atmosphere.

‘I guess this is what he meant,’ Replicus thought, referring to the Emissary’s words.

The scrambling of concepts born from that story he had told about Jiggorrhax’s atrocious breath, was about to begin.

‘I was wrong earlier. I guess it has a specific point where it starts to take effect. I should have let Allora fire off as many Aggrantes as she wanted. <Sigh>…’

As Replicus thought about this while analyzing the similar stunned expressions of his subordinates,…

“Boss!”

Grim suddenly appeared on deck!

He was drenched and pale, looking utterly spent. His eyes depicted a deep sense of exhaustion that wouldn’t have been brought on by simple exercise; in this case, fighting.

“Finally. Where…” Allora began, but she suddenly stopped.

Baddan and the rest turned to Grim with odd looks too. Then these odd looks turned into utter befuddlement.

“I was wondering if it really was him…” Replicus said to Grim.

The Unlimited was not alone. He was lugging four figures whom he immediately set down.

Allora rushed up to these people and crouched down. She looked at them all closely, noticing that they were all Purity Knights and all alive. However, her sights – like those of everyone else – were set on one particular individual among them all who looked anything but alive.

It was a man decked in a white suit of glossy armor, fancy in some ways, but with emphasis on functionality, given all the parts added to its design. The man had medium-length cherry-colored hair and a large, curved nose that almost met his thin lips.

These features actually made a rather riveting face, but currently, they were marred with second-degree burns that glittered with faint dark green sparks.

His beautiful armor as well, which purported a chilling feeling, had a good portion of its chest plate to the right broken off, along with the part of the man that it had once protected. There were also small sparks gleefully popping on this gruesome injury.

“Is that…?” Allora said, addressing Grim who plopped to the ground with several heavy breaths.

Grim simply nodded.

Indeed it was the first ranked Paladin Champion.