Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Exercising the authority he had on the Sif, Skullius decided it was time to move things along once the parade exited the city, with Darwel still showing an intense desire to spend her time with people beneath her.

Skullius still couldn't tell if she was possessed by duty, and a sense of longing for the attention or if she genuinely cared for her people. He couldn't bring himself to decide on either completely because somehow, he felt a bit disconnected from everyone.

It was an odd, gradual feeling.

Curious.

Darwel relented without much opposition.

Much like Sevill, when she had noticed Benyn and Cosycn seasoning their words with reverence when addressing Skullius (after coming out from the Oath of Mourning), she had been delighted.

She had also noticed the huge change in Skullius and her deep interest in him only grew.

Somehow, he felt more like a Luminant than before. His presence was practically suffocating if he didn't deliberately keep it in check.

She enjoyed it overbearing nature still.

Moving through the Auroras they did after that excursion to the shrine would have been impossible if Skullius didn't rein his presence in, but apparently, according to the Hybrid Luman, his ability to effectively hide what he was, like he could do before, was gone.

"Are you going to reveal yourself to my parents outright?" she asked brightly "My mother is likely to pick up on the energy coming from your wings instantly, though, whether or not she will believe in you, is a different matter."

"It depends. It seems they have company," Skullius replied. "I will decide when we meet them."

From the playful look in his blank eyes, Darwel got the distinct impression that they weren't talking about the same thing.

How odd.

"Benyn, if you don't mind?" Skullius said to the royal guardian.

"Of course, my Lord Luminant!" Benyn said before promptly mobilising his mana.

Skullius paid keen attention to it.

He didn't need to, but he still did so.

Whether he liked it or not, the intricate details within every spot of mana around were relayed to him with excruciating detail. He felt Benyn's purple core churn at his will, and with slowed perception, he felt the Sif's mana trickle out of him vibrantly before activating a skill stowed in his body.

'The nature of the mana the Sif use is different. It is very lively, quite like the life energy I've seen from their plant life. Is this a product of evolution?' Skullius asked himself.

He also noticed a portion of Benyn's mana trying to drift off course from his mana channels, tilting towards him.

The mana from the Sif's very core... was tempted to follow Skullius.

The Hybrid Luman was amused.

'It's probably because his body submits to me. It only works with the Sif...'

At that moment, a flood of brilliant light encased the five, arching and falling on itself aggressively around them, and then...

VWOOOSH!

The five individuals were lifted off and carried across a large distance in an impressive bubble of radiance!

Their travel speed was quite modest, but the conditions of movement themselves were rather spectacular. It was so comfortable within the embrace of the light, and if not for keen senses, it would be impossible to tell that they were actually moving.

Skullius nodded, impressed.

Benyn didn't miss the note of appreciation.

He smiled.

They crossed the sky over massive hedges of forestry far larger than anything Skullius would have ever seen.

Many, massive Auroras with millions of souls and thousands of soldiers moving within them registered in his senses.

His awakened racial characteristics as a Luminant were shockingly effective.

Skullius recognised every soul below him without the need of any skill at all. He felt... connected to nature around him to such an degree that it told him whatever was around it, and over it. Even the Aigas crust.

It was like having the whole of Aigas as your personal snitch.

Skullius heard voices from it.

He felt the most minute motions through the mana around him.

He even detected collective sentiment.

Fear, worry, devotion.

This night was particularly stressful for the ordinary Sif.

'Makes it seem as though they were destined to become my responsibility...' Skullius thought with narrowed eyes.

As they glided a bit higher in an effort to avoid what Skullius immediately sensed to be a Sacred Forest with quite the larger number of powerful entities, he sensed something overhead.

It was far beyond the heights they were travelling, and perhaps that was why he hadn't sensed it before.

"What is that? A barrier?" he asked.

Cosycn hurried to answer.

"It is, my Lord Luminant," he said with a respectful tone far removed from the testy one he had used before he knew, or cared about who Skullius was. "This barrier has been around Opungale for as long as we can remember. Legends say that the nature and the oceans around Opungale willingly constructed this barrier to protect us Sif as a reward for treating them right.

"They constant supply it with energy, and as legends also say, this barrier is equipped with defences against physical, mental, elemental, even lesser divine attacks."

"Even divine, huh?" Skullius said with chuckle.

In theory, that meant even if an attack was imbued with Nitros or Primus, it wouldn't be any more effective than one which used mana.

Astounding indeed. To think such a thing was made because common greens couldn't figure out how to say thank you.

"Why does it look so faint?" Skullius asked.

He felt the brimming energy within the barrier. It was more intricate than it appeared. "Has it always been like that?"

"I suppose. It's hard to see it from the ground," it was Darwel who answered as they passed by a massive canal that fed into quite a large lake.

Skullius nodded in understanding.

...

"Stop," he said immediately after.

At once, the five of them paused in the sky, shrouded by the intense light.

"Is something wrong, Lord Luminant?" Sevill asked.

"No," Skullius said with a grin. "Not at all."

He looked blankly below at the massive expanse littered with animals, hills, plateaus, coves, forests and of course, the great lake.

The Hybrid Luman stretched out his hand towards it.

"That is perfect," he said and his hand became smothered in a bizarrely gorgeous shroud of golden white light.

It was far more brilliant than the one from Benyn's skill!

A notification popped up in Skullius' view immediately.

['Graceful Monolith of the Eminent' opens...]

Right before Skullius' palm, something slid out of the luminance he manifested with [Just Light]. It had a spherical shape, and was about the size of an average human head.

Its appearance could be likened to that of an almond, but with a faint tinge of orange.

The four around Skullius looked on with intense interest. Or perhaps, it was more apt to say they were enthralled by the look of this thing.

A moment after it appeared, the object fell down gracefully before sinking into the lake.

"W...what was that?" Darwel asked.

The others were also very curious.

"A Seed," Skullius replied simply.

He only gazed upon where the seed had landed for a few more seconds, leaving wide ripples, before telling Benyn to resume their travel; everyone was a little disappointed. They truly felt as if something phenomenal had happened here, but they couldn't tell what it was.

Nevertheless, the group continued their flight and soon enough, they reached their destination.

Gauurdfell, the Royal Mansion, as it would be called in human terms.

In appearance, it looked quite like Darwel's home in the Wonderfall Torrents, but was much bigger and grandiose, with more impressive defences, no doubt. Skullius could already tell that much.

While his keen racial senses drew him towards every detail the elements around him picked up though, his instincts alerted him to the presence of someone sitting by a giant fountain before the great mansion and its circles of huge, bowing sycamore trees.

It was a man strumming a spent lute while singing a song.

The moment Skullius and company landed, the man gave them all a relaxed sweep with his vibrant eyes.

Then he locked onto Skullius.

The Hybrid Luman also fixed his focus on this man's figure and for a while, it remained as so with Darwel and the others not daring to break the unexpected tension.

Finally, though, Skullius spoke first, an annoyed tone buried in his voice.

"So, you're the one they call Erlton, are you?"