Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The dark, sleek and sharp Skullius rose high and higher into the night which was saturated with the sound of a horrible bell's ring and a litany of screams. Things were escalating rather quickly... or perhaps not quickly enough, at least where Skullius' goals were concerned.

In any case, the Projected Luman needed to gather information before he and his two lady friends moved out as he intended, and he knew just where to start.

As he darted east quickly, soaring in a straight line amid the vast canvas of black above which his tone tried to so hard to meld into, he appreciated how he currency felt. What he currently was.

He had longed for it.

He was light, almost immaterial.

He was free, unstrained.

When Skullius first awakened his powers as an Insurgent Magnus back in Eofel, the Fruit of World Myths introduced him to the first of its 9 Seeds, [Crude World Projection]. Well, the guidance field classified it as the number 2, among the 9, but that wasn't too relevant.

[Crude World Projection], was not a skill. Even his status agreed with the fact. It was an odd trait given by the Fruit of World Myths, quite like his tattoos, the Binds of Fukal.

The collection of traits of known as the Seeds of the Fruit of World Myths were unique, and varied.

According to Fulgardt's plaques, not all of these abilities could even be used independently by the user. Apparently, some of them were best utilised by imbedding them into the PHANTASMIC RETAINERS.

PHANTASMIC RETAINERS were supernatural constructs which required specific amounts and arrays of both [Evil Darkness] and [Just Light] to create. High affinities in both elements were required to construct them.

Skullius' Second Trial demanded that he forge one of these, and so far, he had the [Just Light] part ready.

It pleased Skullius to have his first Seed back in use.

He had awakened another Seed some time ago, back when he became a Hybrid Luman, [Seramoro, Oblivion's Edge], and with [Just Light] reaching the 'S' rank in affinity, he had unlocked 3 more, which he had yet to check on. Well, he didn't need to. He knew what they could do.

None of them were quite as... amusing as [Crude World Projection], however.

As this Projection, Skullius had free flight capabilities, was intangible through normal means, and he could manipulate already existing [Evil Darkness] vastly better than he could when he was trapped in his body. His vision in this state, was a mix of grey, black and white; this was what Skullius normally used to see when dark dots appeared in the whites of his eyes.

In all, Skullius was quite fond of this ability.

It had been a shame when he had had to stop using it after he discovered that it left a way for Sila to steal control over his body.

Well, now, that wasn't an issue anymore, after all, Sila...

...

'Let's see how bad things actually are...' Skullius thought.

He sped over the trees, watching recurring scenes of thousands of Sif combatants who had acquired some form of resistance against the gong, rush through Auroras to deliver the civilians with a variety of artefacts that Skullius couldn't make out clearly.

In this state, he wasn't in touch with nature as he would be in his body, thus, there was no perfect broadcast from the loyal greens in his vision.

It seemed the Sif were responding rather well, however. Profoundly even.

The darkness that whisked away many was swiftly countered; Skullius saw several experts bring out large jars that contained some kind of liquid which they poured on saplings which they brought and planted on arrival.

These saplings grew at incredible paces, attaining thousands of meters in height and hundreds in width in no time. The civilians were beckoned into the new giant trees' trunks, which opened wide to reveal rich, pristine white spaces that seemed impossible for the dark blankets to reach.

The Projected Skullius watched this occur across nine Auroras. The situation was quickly stabilising and much of this was owed to the fact that Opungale had shocking military strength.

Sif combatants flooded the streets everywhere he passed.

Skullius saw large trees help out as well, some saving Sif combatants who were moments from death, stricken silly by the gong. They reached in with their branches, dragged the injured away, wrapping them in their roots and bathing them in their immense life energy.

It was strange to see trees regarding humanoids like Sif as companions worthy enough to turn active for, though, in Opungale's case, the nature was already strange.

Skullius saw it happen so many times in his flight, that it eventually became a norm, and even when he saw an entire woodland heeding the call of experts who called upon them, directing them towards local establishments so that they could help with warding off the Auroras where common civilians were, he wasn't fazed.

"Humans could never..." Skullius muttered to himself.

A minute of flight in the same direction later, he found the Queen.

She was in what Skullius would think was probably the capital of Opungale. It was an enormous Aurora with over forty, natural defensive stations like the ones he had seen before. It had more extravagant sights than Gauurdfell and the Wonderfall Torrents, though, to be fair, these two places didn't really need to look gorgeous.

The Royals didn't really care for extravagancy.

Hadn't Darwel said that royalty to the Sif didn't mean getting bathed in endless luxury, convenience and resources, as the humans indulged in?

That was why she went to Pelian without hundreds of Legendary or Mythical grade tools for her own protection.

...

With keen, dark sight, Skullius saw that the Queen was gathering an army alongside Benyn.

His Territory had finally been released, which, to Skullius meant that the constant onslaught of attacks had ended. This was probably why the King was no longer by Queen Embrell's side, since she had given him a task before.

Odd. That woman seemed to have the undisputed reins in the royal relationship.

If the Projected Luman remembered correctly, she had told the King to prepare something while she confronted the situation at hand.

Now, she had gathered quite the number of Sif soldiers and these were just the ones that were ready in this massive Aurora.

They numbered nearly a million.

The Projected Skullius saw, after Queen Embrell gave a command, 100,000 of them march out of the grand Aurora with Benyn taking the lead.

They were headed towards the coast, which wasn't too far from here.

"Well, I better get ahead of them..."

Skullius shot forth quickly, and soon, he could see everything he had wanted to see. Everything he had wanted to confirm.

Several large ships were approaching from the vast oceans – about two hundred meters out.

From them, the loud gong continued to ring ominously, louder than ever.

However, the welcoming party waiting by the shore wasn't fazed. It didn't look like any of them had died from the unexpected sound attack like the experts inland.

Of course, they couldn't have.

As Skullius hovered close to where the powerful, vigilant-looking Sif were, he couldn't help but wonder how long they would last in direct confrontation.