Bro, I'm not an Undead!



The contents of the message almost made Replicus feel a thick dose of exhaustion. When he had heard that Eaniss had a message for him, he had actually expected a revelation, or some useful information or at least a threat for his flashy attack earlier.

But as it turned out...

'She wants more chaos? What a greedy woman. Everything around us isn't enough?' he thought.

"Typical," he voiced.

"Isn't it?" Aurolio said as he smirked and turned. The wound across his torso didn't look like it was bothering him anymore, at this point. Whether it was because of a natural healing factor or the work of some equipment, Replicus couldn't quite tell.

"By the way..." the Penetrator said before Aurolio left as mysteriously as he had arrived on board. "Since you were participating in the Premium Age Royale, I reckon you know what happened to my other self?"

Aurolio did a half turn.

This brought him to think of everything he had witnessed between the masked man, the terribly powerful force he resurrected... and the horrible creature Festos became.

He snorted.

"So you know that about me at least?" he said to the Penetrator. "Yes, I do. I guess it's one of the answers you'll want to pry out of me, isn't it?"

"Of course..." Replicus said with a hint of malice.

Aurolio snorted again, and disappeared without another word.

Replicus let out breath of storm clouds that seamlessly passed through his armour and dissipated in the open air.

His Unlimited immediately flocked him.

"Boss. Are you really alright?" Allora said concernedly.

Before Grim could express his own version of worry, Replicus replied to all their spoken and unspoken concerns.

"I'm fine. You did well. I feel much better knowing that you didn't engage him much. Things could have ended badly. He's not someone you want to fight while blinded with notions of responsibility and duty, especially not with where we are," Replicus said.

Grim and Allora knew the boss was trying to cheer them up, but they both felt a flaring flame burning at their chests. It wasn't empty words though, what their leader said. The pale man even survived a might slash from Replicus' Null Life Essence, which the Unlimited knew was quite frankly impossible for Masters of any type.

But still...

Being given the tile of 'Unlimited' and not exhibiting traits that matched it, bruised the three's egos. Even Allora, who could give the excuse that it was her literal first rodeo with the high-ranking duty, felt the sting of defeat.

If only...

If only...

Pherdanta held the greatest weight of these words among them all and she didn't hide it.

"Don't stress yourselves. Like I said. We're going to settle the score and not just with that man," Replicus said.

"But... didn't he discover your secret? Isn't that really bad?" Grim asked with a deep frown.

"My secret was never a trump card. So what if other people know?" the Penetrator said as he strode from where the deck was stained with blood. "Remember our goal. All you need to do on this mission, is to not die. Whatever leaves you on the brink of the death, and fails to finish you off, make it pay later. Whatever discovers your secrets and powers, make sure it dies with them. Whatever deals you heavy blows, make sure those blows do nothing the next time they come around."

"I'm not concerned with how you look when you do all these things. Failure now doesn't matter. I don't care for it. I'm only concerned with growth. This is just our prelude to what we have to face, so don't let it get you down. Think of it as an exercise where a certain degree of misses are allowed."

The three Unlimited seemed to brighten up a bit.

Replicus always did have a way with words when he really wanted to make them mean something.

It occurred to them from what he said, that they subconsciously set expectations for themselves and judged themselves harshly in Replicus' name.

 Their boss didn't care for it.

He didn't care that they could have gotten themselves bashed just now by the pale man.

As long as they survived it, he was fine.

He was only concerned with the results.

Without words, all three Unlimited wrote sets of resolve behind their eyes.

Yet they also didn't forget the pale man.

Replicus, who assumed that matter was done, looked to Baddan who had been watching from the side.

"This applies to you as well," he said, to which the Sky Watcher gave a dignified nod. "And speaking of you, and your talents. It's about time I put them to use. It's time to go for our targets before it's too late."

"What? We are moving on with—"

"The plan, yes," Replicus said to Allora who looked rather surprised.

"Are you taking Eaniss' advice?" Grim asked with a grimace.

"No. It's just a coincidence," Replicus replied, but Grim heavily doubted it. "I'll give you the details of it later. For now, make sure you're ready. We might be doing away with the ship for a while."

Everyone was stunned.

Doing away with the ship? What?

Replicus then pointed a finger at the bowsprit, and a bolt of grey lightning struck Araeyn and transported him to the Penetrator.

Naturally, the Reverse Clusters obstructed teleportation, but their effects were limited to long range spatial movement and especially for anything that was within a hundred meters of them. Thus, a simple feat like this was still possible.

The pale Apostle, donning a similar pale armour appeared before the Penetrator. It looked blankly at him.

"I'll be implementing what you've learned so far. You better not disappoint," Replicus said, and of course the creature did not offer a reaction.

Everyone was drawn to the Apostle.

What is it that it had been learning all this time? Hadn't it been sitting dazedly on the bowsprit without doing a thing?

Grim and the rest had been freaked out by Araeyn during their expedition within the Cryptic Axiom Chasm, Nedalia's Territory. He had acted dully to anything, even what they considered dangerous, like the ghost which had many eyes. Grim, Allora and Pherdanta had thought looking into its eyes would lead to something bad, but Araeyn hadn't been affected at all. It was as though he couldn't appreciate anything around him.

The look he gave back to Replicus also told that his feelings towards his master did not have reverence mixed in.

"Master, what about the Cluster? Does it factor into what you intend for us to do?" Pherdanta asked with a stern face as she returned her full focus to managing the ship.

"It's impossible to imagine what is going to come out of it, so factoring that in is difficult. However, I do have another shaky variable that I want to employ to my plans. To spice things up."

"What variable?" Pherdanta asked.

Replicus' sockets blazed.

"I think it's time to give the Bishop what she wants."