Bro, I'm not an Undead!



The simultaneous return of everyone with a Control Seal called for a blinding silver spectacle within the partially dilapidated city of Genhuis.

 While the eyes of the returners first saw the damage to their favourite places within the massive settlement, many were fortune enough to glimpse the blissful sparkle of a second sun resting in the sky first, which strangely gave them a broad sense of reassurance.

Beyond that, the patrolling units of Capital Service personnel also calmed the collective hearts of the citizens. It was apparent that the threat was no longer burdening their policing force for them to be taking care of menial tasks with the assistance of the Mages.

While an infectious calm spread through the common folk and weaker experts as a whole from all this, a certain Discount Human couldn't help but feel agitated instead.

He had spawned right where he had been teleported from – the remains of the Bryne Family mansion.

Skullius clicked his tongue.

A few hours away from all this hadn't made his memory of the unexpected atrocity any duller. It was still vivid and frankly, it was all he could think about... among other related things.

"Lord Luminant Festos..."

A voice called from Skullius' side, prompting him to turn to its source.

It was Sevill who had been by his side too before the transportation to the noisy venue yonder.

"Ah, Sevill..." Skullius said.

The Sif guard gave a short bow and checked if he was alright. Her assigned task had been interrupted by the spatial glow earlier, after all.

When she saw that he was unharmed, she wore a look of hesitation behind her veil and finally asked.

"Lord Festos... That creature from earlier... Do you have any knowledge of what it was?"

Skullius' face relaxed and he emitted a faint breath. The 'mask' he wore was so realistic that Sevill was nearly startled by it.

"A little," Skullius answered. "But right now, it's of no concern to you."

Sevill nodded, choosing not to ask on this any further. Clearly, the Hybrid Luman didn't want to discuss the subject.

"I have a task for you, however."

Sevill looked curiously to Skullius who gestured for her to follow him. He then walked in brisk steps a distance away where a gathering of the Bryne Family auxiliary staff and guards could be seen.

Since most of them didn't have Control Seals, they had been here in the city for the entire duration of the Preliminary Round matches. From the looks on their faces, which were pale, and with some showing inhuman levels of stress, Skullius could only imagine what they had seen.

No doubt, from the terrifying remnants of mana and other essences he could sense in the air because of [Greatest Mana Crafter], many of which he didn't even recognise, Skullius could only guess what kind of a battle had ensued.

There were also no traces of the Null Badubs from the city, which made him wonder if they had been disposed of, contrary to what Aurolio believed, but for now, he didn't have the time to think about that.

He had to make haste.

He arrived where Ed and the rest were, and when the loyal combatant saw him, a look of subtle relief registered on his face.

"Sir Festos..." he called.

"Is everyone alright?" Skullius asked.

"Yes. None of us were harmed, but..."

"Stylla. I know," Skullius said with a hard look on his face.

The atmosphere turned a little more sombre.

Skullius sensed the bed where Stylla's father was placed and he couldn't help but feel a pinch of pity.

Following Skullius' line of 'sight', Ed found the Hybrid Luman's attention taken by the image of the man on the bed shrouded by a glowing runes and decided that this was as good a time as any to spill the news.

"Sir Festos. Lady Stylla... I think she removed the curse from him."

"What?" Skullius donned a look of shock.

"Yes. She reached in and pulled out something dark and vile from him before taking off to who knows where," Ed explained.

'No way,' Skullius thought.

Just like that?

He had his assumptions about what happened to the poor redhead, but they were all shattered by what Ed said. If she managed to do that then...

Skullius unconsciously glanced at the man laying on the bed once again and breathed out a sigh.

It was fascinating, but he couldn't give it too much focus right now.

"I see," he said.

From the side, Silrat rushed up the group with a double of Skullius following beside him.

The Hybrid Luman turned to the Supervising Overseer and gave him a wink and a shake of the head which the latter understood quickly. After developing quite the strong bond, the two had a series of gestures to communicate without speech, after all, both were secretive and had grown accustomed to the fact that straining circumstances needed efficiency and succinct information conveyance.

The Hybrid Luman collected the Conforming Trickerteer and packed it his ring before turning to Sevill who had been silently observing the whole time.

"Our house was destroyed, so for now we have nowhere to stay. Can you help them find somewhere to rest? Maybe if you can talk to the Governor..." he said the Sif guard.

"At once. But, what about you Lord Festos?" Sevill asked, recognising that Festos was leaving himself out of the equation.

"I'm going to leave the city for a bit. I'll be back soon. I'll meet with you when I get back."

'If I'm not hijacked before then,' Skullius said this last part in spirit.

Sevill nodded.

Skullius gave a brief explanation to Ed before grabbing Silrat and rushing away.

Without saying a word, he activated [Absolute Zero] and a purple haze covered him and the Supervising Overseer, masking their presence as they pushed through the crowds of people yet to settle anywhere because of the state of the city.

~~~

[Absolute Zero (Special) | Lv11 ]

With the exception of your voice, mask your entire body and presence perfectly from most forms of mundane and magical detection. If you will it, anyone you touch will be enshrined by the same absolute layer of stealth as well, obscuring them from view.

Mana Requirements: 100 (I) Mana Points, 10 (I) Mana every minute.

Duration: ---

Cooldown: ---

~~~

Quickly, Skullius had the two pass by numerous patrols and wandering Knights and Mages who were preoccupied with many tasks until they reached one of the massive holes made into the city wall.

Soon, when the two had reached quite a great distance away from Genhuis, Skullius removed the veil of [Absolute Zero].

"Can I talk now?" Silrat asked.

"Not yet. And you might want to tense up your insides."

"What?"

Before Silrat knew it...

"WOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

...he and Skullius had shot into the sky in the most unnatural way possible!

The Hybrid Luman had turned into a massive blanket of darkness that featured elongated, dark tattered rags which rustled in the wind, giving the flying entity a more frightening look.

Silrat found himself trapped within it, without as much comfort as he would have hoped from a flying mass of rags.

At the very least, he was guaranteed to not fall.

As Skullius soared higher into the sky to avoid being noticed, he felt his mind turn a bit less tense. Flying like this, in this form facilitated by [Boundless Evil], loosened most of his burdens temporarily.

~~~

[Boundless Evil (Special) | Lv.25]

Transfigure yourself into a dark wraith capable of travelling at immense speeds while ignoring gravity, adverse inertia and limits from friction.

Mana Requirements: 350 (I) Mana Points, 120 (I) Mana every minute.

Duration: 1 hour

Cooldown: 15 minutes

~~~

After some time passed, Skullius finally spoke to the human trapped within his body.

"We can talk now."

"I know, I was just... trying to keep my guts in place," Silrat replied with a hoarse voice. "Would you mind telling me about what was going on back at the mansion?"

"I don't think this is a good time for me to explain it but... Basically, there was something there that you couldn't see. It did something to Stylla and turned her into... I honestly don't know... and now, I have bigger problems to deal with," Skullius responded.

"All I heard from that was problems times more problems. <Sigh>. And why are you running from the city?"

"Because... I'm pretty sure that Gillewart guy is going to come to ask some questions. I don't need that right now. Besides, we have that meeting Stylla managed to arrange."

"Should we even be concerned about that right now?"

"Yes, we should. The meeting's being held at the Bryne Family Estate. We can't afford to just flake on them. Besides, most of the Families involved aren't participating in the Premium Age Royale and don't know that Stylla is gone. We can take advantage of that while we can. Even... even when things are as messed up as they are..." Skullius explained.

Aside from this, he also needed to time to figure out what to do with his arrangement with Aurolio, and for that, he planned to have Silrat take care of the meeting while he solved his problems.

"Stylla is gone?" Silrat asked.

"Yeah. She just flew away, and I don't think she'll be dropping by anytime soon."

There was a pause.

The subject of the redhead plunged Skullius' mood down the drain every time it was announced.

In fact, when he recalled that Stylla had been trying to push her responsibilities onto him just yesterday...

'Damn you...' he thought with a bitter click of his non-existent tongue.

With how fast the [Boundless Evil] form was, the journey to the Bryne Family Estate was going to take three minutes at most, and thus, Skullius decided to squeeze in a short subject of conversation.

...A curious little one that he had been reminded of when he had been debating with himself earlier.

"Hey Silrat. How did you come to know about Ties of Exchange?"