Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The subject of the masked man and his conniving soon dwindled as there were no apparent answers.

It was especially hard to speculate about it now that Replicus didn't have access to the thought phantoms while in his Hybrid Luman form.

Grim and Allora had promptly excused themselves after the lull, as they went to explore the space Replicus had created under the deck while Baddan and Pherdanta remained, the former seated on a soft cushion while the latter stood aloof behind the Hybrid Luman.

Replicus shifted his mind to planning how he would approach the latter half of the journey. Given the estimated time of seven days to reach Edagon, he surmised that in the next few days, the tension was going to reach its peak.

He was convinced that the masked man was getting to the land of the Giants nomatter what – regardless of whether or not Eaniss and the others launched several attacks on the way.

If the plan to corner him using Integral Time from the Reverse Cluster failed to catch him off guard, then how else were the Factions supposed to beat him swiftly. Perhaps there were other remarkable treasures that the higher tier of Faction leaders had that could stall the masked man?

Perhaps, but he also had swarms of undead of different calibre that he was intentionally holding back, not to mention his own strength, which, at base, Replicus thought was greater than anything any individual Faction leader had.

So many variables.

'I wonder... what is this Edagon like anyway?' Replicus thought.

Many of his thoughts about the voyage had been centred around the danger on the way, from both the environment – the ocean and skies – and the Factions. He had given little thought to Edagon itself.

The land of the Giants.

This was where Sause lived.

According to the Emissary, Edagon was the only continent that was spared from Jiggorrhax's breath which incited the Ashing of Time, as another dragon that existed during that period had shielded the continent.

This piece of information was a little terrifying.

Replicus had thought about it before, but...

'Just how large is this Herald that the masked man is after. Can he even beat it?' he tried to imagine a clear picture of a dragon covering a continent with its wings.

He got the impression that this was how it happened.

For the first time, Replicus felt like the masked man, in spite of his mysterious, unfathomable presence was biting a little more than he could chew.

And still, his goal was unknown. All anyone knew was the path he was choosing to take.

'Well. That doesn't matter for now. I should worry about myself and my subordinates. For that, I need to see if I can truly make something impressive out of this...'

Indeed. Speculating wouldn't help.

He would reach Edagon and see for himself how things would unfold.

For now...

The Hybrid Luman drew the wand he had acquired from Hope – the Flawless Flail of Ruin.

Its mesmerising shade of golden was pleasing to the eye, though of course, Replicus couldn't see it right now.

He sank further into his seat.

Because he was stuck maintaining the ship with his [Evil Darkness] for the time being, he couldn't experiment as much as he would like. That would be for 24 hours later. By the time [High Cosmetic Body] timed out though, he wanted to have a concrete plan on how he was going to use this wand.

~~~

[Flawless Flail of Ruin]

<Mythical+>

Born from the abundant, sacred gold close to attaining vibrant consciousness, born for the Ardent Curses, children of the gold, the Flawless Flail of Ruin – a name inspired by the rich world – can disrupt and restore guarded energy mechanisms at the whim of the user...

...

...

~~~

While the properties of the wand, the stats it gave and all were impressive, Replicus was more interested in its individual trait.

To disrupt and restore energies.

This was rather loose, but Replicus had seen Hope disrupt the Bishop's perpetual revival through the summoned cathedral. It had been disrupted, perhaps even destroyed.

This ability, to Replicus was heavily flawed though. His Nullmancer powers could do something similar, and to some degree even better.

The Flawless Flail could be dodged, for starters.

Hope had to find the target, aim and release the attack.

This wouldn't help Replicus against faster enemies, even if he managed to extract the power of this wand and use it without needing to point the wand, but his finger instead.

He needed something that went beyond what he currently had.

That was the whole point of growth.

If this was going to be an upgrade, it needed to be bolstered to a terrifying degree.

After extraction, this skill would no doubt be a high tier Special skill or a Super skill, which he could use to a decent degree with the effects of [Sage Save] and [Sage Strain] active for the next eight or so days.

But, how to make it even more powerful...

Replicus stood from his cushion and paced around the deck for tens of minutes while his senses, shared through the darkness, told him of the surrounding Reverse Clusters, nearby monsters and all.

'Hmmm... that's actually not half bad...'

It finally came to him.

Replicus had begun perusing through his arsenal of abilities when he thought about... Lambent Phosphor.

A smile ripped through his face.

"That's it..."

Lambent Phosphor.

What if he combined a skill he developed from Lambent Phosphor, which, from his experience, couldn't be dodged, with the extracted ability from the Flawless Flail of Ruin?

Yes. Yes.

That would work.

If he managed to combine these in some capacity, he would be guaranteed of a 100% hit rate, even if the depending on the target, the effect may not always be successful!

In fact, perhaps that latter doubt could be solved as well!

Depending on which method Replicus chose to use to fuse these abilities, the power of Lambent Phosphor to reveal truths, could potentially be defined in a way that opened up his targets to his attacks!

But...

'Let me hold that one off. I don't have Nedalia's Hidden Class, so perhaps stretching the interpretation of 'revealing truths' to that, may be impossible...' Replicus calmed himself with a breath.

A Scorching Tear fell from the sky and landed in the nearby waters.

The Hybrid Luman raised his fingers and a shroud of golden white cloaked every individual entity on deck.

The steam that hissed through the air towards them contended hard against the [Just Light], but it couldn't get through it to harm the ones protected. The worst it did was raise the temperature to an almost unbearable degree, but even then, everyone was alright.

Replicus resumed his thoughts.

'So, how exactly do I fuse a skill I create through Lambent Phosphor and the one from the wand...'

The answer came almost immediately.

Ever since Kenno came and gave a detailed breakdown of what happened in Pelian and at the Bryne Family Estate, many of Replicus' thoughts continued to whirl around every subject the Unlimited spoke about.

And one subject that Replicus had sworn to look into, was that of the Harmonic Ember that was currently in the hands of one of the most prominent Faction leaders.

According to Kenno, the Harmonic Ember was a crystal capable of combining elements together. It was how Stylla got her steam-centered swordsmanship – combining water and heat.

'Well elements, huh? Lambent Phosphor could fall under that category, but the skill from the wand... That could be tricky,' Replicus thought while leaning against the top edge of the hull. 'To turn the Flawless Flail of Ruin into something akin to an element or a concept at the very least... I will need to rely on [Epiphany]... not [Wealth of Spoils] to extract. Urgh. I dreaded this...'

Using the wand on himself to acquire an affinity towards whatever concept gave the Flawless Flail of Ruin its power...

This was the method that would work if he wanted to use the Harmonic Ember.

The other method he could try, was using Aura to combine skills... but the powers he needed were in a different body – Lambent Phosphor.

Thus, it was back to [Epiphany].

  It was risky. He had argued against it with his phantoms, but there was nothing he could do about it.

'I'll have to bring out Thrill, I suppose, and try it out...'

Hopefully.

Hopefully this would be worth it.

"Master..."

Replicus was a little startled at Pherdanta's voice.

In this form, he didn't have the ability to sense the Unlimited, so he was prone to forgetting she even existed like the others.

"Yes?" he tried to compose himself quickly.

"Our mana reserves and Null Life Essence reserves... can you still access them?" Pherdanta asked with a concerned look.

Replicus sighed.

"No. I can't, unfortunately."

Replicus and company could only replenish using the pools of mana and Null Life Essence when they were on the ship, or inside a stable space, like when they were stuck in Nedalia's Territory, which warded off the effects of Reverse Clusters.

Pherdanta shrivelled visibly.

Replicus smiled.

"Don't worry. Call the others."

Soon, Allora and Grim were by Replicus' side, and he addressed them all.

"Our first order of business for now, is to recover our pools of Null Life Essence and mana. I have already constructed storage containers below deck," he said before facing Grim with his white eyes. "Your current Task requires you to kill water-based monsters, right?" He looked to Pherdanta "Yours is something similar. We will be working hard to recover our reserves the hard way. You will kill, and bring the corpses here in under a minute, and I'll extract. Allora, I'll be working you to the bone too. By the time we catch up to the others, you should be proficient with many classes."

Grim grinned, Allora wore a bright smile and Pherdanta gave a dutiful nod.

It seems that the boss had really meant it when he said their setback was nothing.

Now, all that was needed, was a decent attitude towards the arduous tasks ahead.

"You got me itching for some good fights, boss. Though I hope I won't have to dive into the water for too long," Grim said vibrantly.

"We'll see," Replicus smirked and then he turned to Baddan. "Come with me. I have a task for you and Araeyn. It will be very integral when we get back to the conflict."

And indeed it would be.

For three days later, Replicus' nameless Faction made waves that echoed into the near future, and that which was looming a distance away.

---

[Author's Note]

We'll be switching perspectives for a while. By the end of this next arc, it's probably going to be apparent what the climax of this volume will be.