Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Replicus was still frozen in thought, tens of debates occurring in his head every inch of every moment when the calm voice of Pherdanta called to him, inquiring what they should do with a simple word.

"Master..."

The Penetrator's sockets flashed glaringly, and with his finger under the chin of his helmet, Replicus offered a response contained gloriously in a single word as well.

"Araeyn."

At that moment, the pale Apostle in the pale armour, with somewhat long tufts of pale, sickly hair was spurred into action. He looked ahead with his hollow, eyeless sockets at the rapidly approaching enemies that then blasted out streams of energy with their wands and he remained calm.

Rather, he retained his dazed, couldn't-care-less look.

Something wrapped tight around his arm unravelled, and whipped out just before the attacks could reach anyone on the cloud.

It was a long and large vermillion ribbon that wound excessively around the group with smooth motion, as though it was animated at a higher frame rate than everyone else.

The ribbon then suddenly turned still, as though frozen in place and the many jets of energy sent its way smote it heavily, with some erupting into colourful explosions of violent that caused gusts to roll outwards!

The dozens of attacks were certainly powerful, but the Empyrean Ribbon was just fine.

It resisted them all without issue.

The Ardent Curses who now spun around the group like a bunch of vultures anxiously looked at the silly ribbon.

How was it so resilient to their attacks?

It didn't make any sense.

It looked thin and fragile.

Araeyn expressed a mild appreciation for the surprise in the eyes of the enemies.

He then stepped off the cloud Replicus had made, and began walking over his Fond Calamity which widened further to accommodate him and sturdily whipped forth at his will.

The Unlimited were stunned by Araeyn's usage of what they had assumed was a mere decoration around his arm, given that they couldn't sense any mana from it.

The Curses that zipped around screeched and sent jets of energy towards the Apostle again.

This time, Araeyn didn't use the Empyrean Ribbon to block.

He allowed the attacks reach him, which almost made the Curses that sent them grin.

Almost.

It hadn't occurred to the Ardent Curses that their thick beams of specialised skills cast from their powerful wands... would simply disappear before they reached Araeyn, as though they had drowned into somewhere before him and appeared elsewhere!

Naturally, they didn't know what the Titan World Storm Penetrator knew.

That Araeyn had two ridiculous defensive skills, with only one of them currently being enough.

~~~

[Inverted Boundary | Lv. 1]

A cubical space that constantly masks itself by taking the likeness of surroundings, passively encases the user, and transports all that approaches to a place of the Duke of Transversal's pre-set location.

...

~~~

Baffled, the Curses kept on trying again and again but it was the same result each time.

More of them appeared, with some attempting to fire at Replicus and company, but the same Empyrean Ribbon Araeyn stood on swirled and protected them too, covering them in its deceptively silky enclosure.

While all this occurred, Replicus organised his thoughts.

'Is that man really going to break that Cluster General out? Maybe, but I bet his main objective is to make the Curses restless. They have turned frantic. They want to finish us off quickly now and are prone to making mistakes...' he thought as he turned to look between the gaps in Araeyn's Empyrean Ribbon.

A treacherous battle had begun yonder, with Dander attacking fiercely at the bejewelled Faction leader and his two subordinates, the Mage who had a <Marked Spot> on him, and a bulky Form User.

'I intended to use the Mad Bishop to sow chaos and get rid of my targets, but there's too many volatile elements on the battlefield right now. First, this stinging gold...'Replicus thought.

Even he wasn't exempt from the sting of the excessive light the gold spat from everywhere.

Everyone was braving through the pain, but there seemed to be the possibility of some long lasting effects, something Replicus didn't want to find out.

'Second, is the Ardent Curses and third is that Cluster General. The former are impervious to all attacks. Or perhaps direct attacks? What about...?'

Replicus looked between the gaps in the Empyrean Ribbon again and swished with his fingers.

Unseen by all except Araeyn, a thin line of Null Life Essence made its way towards one of the Ardent Curses and slashed at it.

To Replicus' mild surprise, the recipient of his attack wasn't harmed and didn't even notice that they had been attacked.

'Even Null Life Essence doesn't work. This means this is not some kind of barrier around them, like Perfect Aura. It's some other kind of supernatural phenomenon... Aggrante likely won't work either...'

The Penetrator sighed.

His original plan had to do with his human targets and he wasn't willing to abandon it for the sake of these ridiculous Cluster beasts. Still, that didn't change what he had to do.

With a snap of his fingers, a large number of storm clouds appeared in the sky and close to the ground.

With another snap of his fingers, white clouds appeared over his Unlimited's heads.

Before any of them could inquire anything about this, and their boss' plan, the storm cloud they were standing on zoomed forth, going towards the fiery battlefield near the ancient gazebo.

As they went, more and more clouds appeared at varying altitudes.

Araeyn followed steadily while discouraging the still growing mass of Ardent Curses that hurled bolts, jets and streams at him.

"I need to make sure I understand the circumstances we are in correctly if I'm to salvage the situation," Replicus said to his subordinates. "I've created footing for you. I need you to do something for me while I..."

The Penetrator paused.

He felt something ominous make forceful way into the Cluster, seemingly from the outside.

It appeared from right above the ravine, where he and his crew had just left.

He barely saw a glimpse of what it was when it whizzed down at vehement speed.

'What?' the Penetrator paid immense attention to the figure.

As he focused his sight, Replicus was appalled to see the figure reach Eaniss who had just dodged a bolt of silvery flame from Thrill that looked like the one he had used to conjure the outpour of Scorching Tears before.

'Is that one of Eaniss' creations?' Replicus wondered.

When he saw that indeed, it was one of Eaniss' dark, humanoid mysterious servants – evidenced by how it bowed as it handed her the object in its hands – Replicus felt uneasy for the umpteenth time in the last five minutes.

The object Eaniss was passed, was hard to describe.

The Penetrator couldn't quite see what it was, actually.

In the next moment, however, he got an idea.

Eaniss seemed to sense his gaze, and turn to him even with the great distance between them.

She raised the object as though to toast to him with a sweet smile.

Replicus didn't know if it was his imagination or not, but he could have sworn he perceived the Head Faction leader say...

'You were taking too long, so I decided to go first...'

Replicus shook.

At once, between Eaniss and Thrill, a large rupture opened in the stable space and towered over the ravine.

...!

Replicus was alarmed.

All the other Factions were too.

The look of that rupture...

The way it blinked in and out of existence desperately, as though disliking the idea of being contained...

"Is that—" the Penetrator had began when all went white.

Everything he thought important.

Everything he thought dangerous.

Everything was devoured by a familiar stench, and energy signature that oozed from the Reverse Cluster which suddenly emerged!

---

[Author's Note]

[Empyrean Ribbon]

<Mythical>

Four thousand enslaved Sages of the Musing Embroider were tasked to carefully create this beautiful piece over seven years, by an ambitious fiend that sought authority. Soon after it was finished, tales of its profound abilities, as well as its exploits in the hands of the ambitious fiend called upon powers that coveted it so much, that they killed the fiend and each other for it.

-Special Effects-

• Responds to the user's will

• Can find anything that the user's desires

• Can heal itself with Null Life Essence

• Embodies traits of the user to make itself stronger

• Extremely resistant to physical and elemental attacks

• Can stretch as far as is needed

---

[Skill: Suffocate]

Whoever this Empyrean Ribbon wraps around will be flooded with Null Life Essence from the body to the core until all their active abilities are shut down.

---

[Skill: Crossition]

By expending the user's Null Life Essence, the Empyrean Ribbon can create alternate versions of received attacks and send them back to their source.

---

[Skill: Gluttonous Bringing]

Once a certain number of substantial sacrifices are fed to the Empyrean Ribbon, it gains the ability to draw restricted essences, their bodies, essences, and weapons are mutated and fed directly to the user. This skill works in combination to [Imbued Fester Blights].

~~~