Bro, I'm not an Undead!

997 First Move!

"The Insurgent Magnus, huh? Sounds fancy. I thought we could be courteous to each other before getting to the more brutal part of this bit, but I suppose… your response is fine," the Ode said, a shallow smile drawing upon his face with a smooth transition.

He then looked at the bleeding stump at the end of his arm.

Flesh began to bubble there like cancerous boils laced with bright mana, forming bones, muscle and blood. Soon the Ode's hand was restored and he flexed it a couple of times – twiddling his fingers and balling the hand into a fist twice for certainty. It only took two seconds for him to be satisfied with the result.

"Neat trick," Skullius said as he twirled Demion's Dance, the shorter of his two swords.

"Thanks," the Ode said, and he began appraising the Hybrid Luman up. The look in his eye was made hollow and frightening by the green highlight issued from the flame burning at his feet. "Let's see. With those ears, you can't possibly be a Sif. Any kind I know of."

His eyes then settled on Demion's Dance… then the Bashful Abomination.

The Ode narrowed his eyes and in the next instant his newly formed hand whipped into the air to defend his face.

A piercing whistle cried aloud as something quick but unseen knocked against his hand and bounced away!

Whatever it was, after it ricocheted off the Ode's hand sliced everything that was to the right of the crimson-haired man – every bit of infrastructure within the Aurora and beyond, to an end unseen – leaving behind a fifty-meter thick gaping track that reflected only the depth past the Opungale crust!

All this had happened in barely the blink of an eye. The average human or Sif wouldn't know what happened until they saw the shocking aftermath.

The Ode glanced at the destruction and then at his hand.

There was a cut along the back of his fingers from which blood leaked.

The man sighed.

"It's not only you. Your sword is aggressive too. A mere glance at it makes it want to kill?" he said.

Skullius merely shrugged wordlessly and began walking towards the young man.

The Ode gave a short laugh.

"Given your doubly annoying fondness of swords, I'd say you're from Pelian," he said. "Lovers of the conventional. That's why your nation has always been so weak except for those… what do you call them? Houses." The Ode then also took steps towards the Hybrid Luman, his green flames following his feet. "Just this once, I'll play along even though I detest these things."

Green flames blazed in his hand and forged a large bastard sword that he held firmly. Wisps of the fire flicked off its body, their heat so ferocious they warped the distance between Skullius and him.

Then, in the moment that followed…

Both the Ode and Skullius vanished and at almost the same time, the area between them exploded, somehow becoming devoured in a great ball of fire that expanded every microsecond before suddenly being diced up into triangular portions continuously, until it dissipated.

Twenty meters away from the where the fireball had emerged, from both its opposites, Skullius could be seen in one, the Ode in the other. Their backs were turned against both the patch where the conflagration occurred and against the opponent.

The two vanished again, and then elsewhere, another fierce explosion of fire ensued, its intensity more than twice as staggering as the last.

…But the two combatants were not seen.

BOOOOM!

The sky became the next battle ground. A great eruption rocked from it and sent a shockwave so cruel to the ground that every structure in the Aurora was flattened without exception!

Another boom, another explosion, another blast, another burst!

The flying summons that remained rushed to get out of the way. This wasn't something they would have liked to join in on. Those of them that weren't fast enough in their retreat were turned to dust by the force of the explosions, and even those that were quick enough, were sent flying away at unwanted dangerous speeds!

The clouds parted and the mostly untouched space in the sky became tainted and ruptured. One needed to be close to be able to tell. Space was momentarily expanded, and then shredded almost simultaneously, but it remained intact. For now. Perhaps, it was because of the existence of Clusters that the world was used to this kind of abuse and had learned to bandage itself after every instance. Or was it something else…

The Ode kicked off the air, the flames on his feet turning into streaming jets, and with a crazy grin, he swung his flame-made bastard sword with an absolute sort of killing intent!

TSSSS!

For a split of a split of a moment, a searing thin green line was drawn in his vision, with its target being the individual in the black robe several meters away in the air.

Such an attack would have cleaved even accomplished Incandescent Stagers without exception, but for the Infinite Sword God…

The precise attack, a fine sword slash travelling at speeds far greater than sound, and closer to light, broke like a shard before it could touch Skullius.

No. Rather than broke, the sword slash was cut apart by something faster and more potent. Something that only passively guarded the Hybrid Luman.

'Incredible. Anything that tries to reach him is diced into nothingness. Whether it is physical or not. I've never seen an ability like this before. It certainly makes traditional fighting… impossible,' he thought.

The jet of flames at his feet bellowed, and a great outpour of fire was spat up so quickly that it pushed the Ode rapidly towards Skullius. As a blur he went.

As a bolt he sped.

…But the Hybrid Luman could feel him. He could sense every inch of movement he took.

The Hybrid Luman raised the hand which held Demion's Dance.

The Ode grew wary and decelerated.

Was his opponent throwing down an attack of his own? A downward sword slash?

No, that wasn't the case. Not at all.

What actually happened, threw the Ode way off.

Where Skullius' right arm rose just now with the green sword in his hand… there still remained another right arm on his shoulder, only, it wasn't wielding Demion's Dance.

…!!!

This third arm stretched out, and an index finger from it pointed to the night sky rather ominously… and then IT happened.

It wasn't a downward slash.

It was the evisceration of something that had clung to the night, to the sky, to the space.

The Ode didn't even know if something like this should be possible with such casual motion, but it happened anyway.

All the air… was cut up in an instant, leaving nothing a harrowing vacuum between the two combatants.

The Ode's eyes grew wide with both shock and excitement. He knew what would happen next.

This wasn't a ploy to suffocate him, or something so mundane. Rather…

The Ode's bastard sword vanished from his grasp, as did the coiling flames around his feet which enabled him to fly as he pleased. The crimson-haired young man was left bare.

'Incredible!' he called in his mind.

Right then, a gorgeous glow then lit up over the Hybrid Luman's head, soft like moonlight but as vicious as the sun's ray at the same time.

This light came from what seemed like a gem, its looks deceiving.

The Heart of Revelation.

Its radiance then stripped the Ode of his skin, to reveal what was beneath; his organs, his bones, his mana core, his soul.

All was laid bare.

All was made vulnerable, so that when Skullius' first right arm, which held Demion's Dance fell down like a sharp gavel, pulling in the sky as it descended with so much mesmerizing grace and precision, there would be no hindrance to the certain death it carried…

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