Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Ashema laughed as most of his awakened corpses were erased, along with the great settlement that he had seen around him. 

It had happened very quickly, but Ashema had seen it. It only took a single flap from all of Skullius' wings to erase the Aurora, leaving a clean plain that had little evidence suggesting that there had been inhabitants and graceful structures towering and layering over it.

Just a single flap.

It was uncanny. Scary, even.

Heavy dust and the remnants of a brutal gust lightly beat at Ashema who grinned while crossing his arms over his face. The distance between himself and Skullius had grown a little, but that didn't seem apparent or relevant. 

Skullius was shining so bright it was almost impossible to tell if he was far or near. It didn't help that the Heart of Revelation's faint luminance also contributed to the obscurity.

'Well… I have my work cut out for me…' Ashema thought as he whirled his scythe.

Around him, the corpses of five Masters from Maqi could be seen, all donning furious expressions. If one look closely, it wouldn't be impossible to catch a glimpse of the unusual blood flowing through their veins, faintly highlighting their blood vessels from their skin.

Ashema, as Skullius had surmised, indeed didn't use any other form of energy he knew. His kind operated under a different scheme of power than all the dwellers of the world above the Under. 

They had no cores.

They had no channels of energy to filter through.

The only kind of energy that they learned to use, or rather, imbibe, was Primus, a low-level divine energy, most of which was drawn from Boron's residual powers. However, this was a crutch for the weaker ones among Ashema's kind to use to strengthen themselves.

Those like Ashema, advanced and strong, gained unusual mutations with age that more often that not gave them absolute control over particular aspects of the world. They were like blessings, in a way.

Ashema's mutation, had to do with blood. It was his tool and it was energy source. Varying kinds of blood tended to gift him different qualities when he used them, and that's why he liked to drink, tasting them for more than just flavor, but flair.

His control over blood was so profound that he could move around weaker bodies with it; of course, corpses were the easiest.

His strength ordinarily was way beyond what a Master could contend with and even the best Incandescent Stagers were more than likely to have a tough time in a contest of raw physical might.

As good as it was that he was of this level, Ashema could get stronger. Much stronger.

From the creature's gourd, blood splashed out with the grace of an ocean tide, and in the next instance, it funneled through his nostrils and mouth rapidly, giving the black and ashen skin on different sections of his body a glowing crimson hue. A guttural wave, like a miniature storm exploded out from under Ashema's skin, rolling out in all directions with furious speed.

His body bulked up lightly, his skin growing taut – though it wasn't quite as impressive to look at given that the Heart of Revelation was revealing all his innards and hiding his skin.

The same compounding and augmentation happened to the five remaining thralls he had secured. Unlike him though, they hardly remained intact. They ballooned up in a semi-controlled fashion and radiated a soft red hue around them. Since they weren't affected by the gem-like construct above, they looked slightly more intimidating.

"Are you done?" Skullius' voice came. Even though all this had hardly lasted ten seconds, it felt like a decent stretch of time had been elapsed already.

"Just about," Ashema said. "Thanks for the patience."

The finishing touch was an encasing of darkness around him and his thralls that partially hid his insides.

…And then Ashema attacked.

His takeoff was hardly seen. There was crushing boom, along with the collapsing of where he had been standing and then his scythe was close to biting into the side of Skullius' head while causing the air to hiss like a serpent!

There.

There…

Ashema was certain Skullius was going to counterattack somehow, given the absurd speed he had shown earlier. 

He was right…but it didn't happen in the way he expected.

As the blade to his scythe approached Skullius luminous form… it reflected his golden white light.

…!!!

In the next morsel of time, Ashema was befuddled to feel his scythe flee from his grip and soar away rapidly, as though pushed away by a turbulent repulsive force.

Ashema was tempted to look to his darting weapon in shock, but he forced away that impulse. 

That, thankfully, allowed him to see Skullius' brisk counter.

One of his six wings stabbed forth, but now, with the heightened performance of every facet of Ashema's body, he managed to see it. While employing the most intricate control of the blood empowering him in his body, he even managed to move his arms before him to guard.

Unfortunately, this didn't save him.

Despite the film of darkness around him, Ashema found that he still reflected the glorious light from the wing.

Somehow, his darkness was forced to reflect the light and as it did, a skin-ripping repulsive force drew him back, casting him away like a demon.

Ashema felt himself knock into several hard and fleshy objects, but he couldn't tell what they were because he had moved too fast and too far.

'Damn it! What is that ability?' he thought in fury, and shot up just when his speed lessened to a manageable degree.

By sensing where his thralls were, Ashema figured out just how far he had flown.

He was a little less than forty kilometers away from where he had been!

His face hardening, Ashema instantly cast away awe and concern. 

More blood shot from his gourd and as it channeled itself into his body, he felt himself grow stronger. Much stronger. He then took a great swig of the tempered blood, and conjured around him not one, not two, but four great birds that looked like they might have been carved from the night itself.

Right then…

A super bright light was cast from behind Ashema!

He turned immediately, his eye bloodshot and keen. 

Skullius was here, and so was the Heart of Revelation. 

His enhanced vision finally saw the outline of Skullius' figure and contours of his face amid the radiance, and he managed a grin for only several splits of a second.

Skullius seemed to notice the difference in the way the dark creature looked at him now and scoffed.

"Let's play!" Ashema called.

"Gladly…" Skullius said.

Three of the four birds Ashema conjured sped in different directions while the one that remained set loose a massive swathe of darkness that devoured Ashema whole. It was only when Ashema was drowned in black that he pointed his gourd forth, in Skullius' direction and released thousands of blood arrows!

The darkness clung to them tightly as they went on their way out at breakneck speed.

Skullius looked on indifferently as the arrows came.

As he expected, the arrows, even while thickened with darkness, still reflected his light, and all of them without exception were warded away with speed comparable to that of shooting stars.

As that happened, however, Skullius felt a massive build up in energy from behind him.

No.

It came from all around him.

Several kilometers away in four different directions – excluding where Ashema was hidden.

'The corpses…?' Skullius questioned himself.

In the next instant, four rapid attacks came for the Hybrid Luman, tempered to handle his speed, and his light!