A minute before…

Bright flashes popped in and out of existence with each exchange between Sause and the skeleton of Fulgardt!

Sause made sure to lead the troublesome bones away from the two that he had assigned to kill Skullius!

The remains of Fulgardt were quite powerful, the sword that they wielded giving Sause a run for his money. Ever since he had awakened, he found himself to be restrained.

He couldn’t exhibit much of his strength and he often found that wherever the darkness gathered, he had to blow it away, otherwise he’d constantly feel weakened.

His transcendence above the normal threshold of power in the world was what allowed him to achieve this feat as even though the darkness and light he had found so far was merely a downgraded version of the one that Fulgardt used in his life, it was still an extraordinary power!

A bright red energy enveloped Sause, shielding him from a dangerous slash that came from the claymore his foe held!

Unfortunately, everything behind him shuddered and broke down from the one handed slash that had been dished out by Fulgardt!

Sause kept his eyes on Fulgardt, but in the next moment, the skeleton vanished from his sight and appeared above, darkness being pulled to his sword and changing its form into a larger, dark bastard sword that it swung with an untraceably fast movement!

Sause’s senses flared as he sensed danger but he didn’t dodge!

He couldn’t!

The red energy gathered onto his hands that he then crossed to receive the impact!

A clash of red and black reverberated in the air, causing the world to become warped for a few moments, Sause finding himself being crushed under the weight of the force of the blow!

BAAAM!

He kneeled, the ground under him breaking down as the force he took on was too much for the furnished rock to handle!_.

‘So much for gaining a chance at divinity by sharing my strength. Though, I have to admit that I wouldn’t have been able to last this long if I hadn’t. I’ll give my thanks to Benzard later,’ said Sause as he revealed the reason why he had given Benzard a portion of his strength. However, this would only become relevant only in the future.

“Why are you doing this, Fulgardt? Your conflicting actions don’t make any sense,” Sause said as he felt the weight of the massive, eerie sword that overlapped over Fulgardt’s claymore increase!

“Ah… mieji…os..kateh.. umhie….slahet iminar… ivetuka… aik..bir…” the unsightly remains of the Immoral uttered with a broken voice.

…!

Sause’s eyes opened wide.

He couldn’t believe what he had heard. This corpse had uttered words. Comprehensible words that he understood.

However, it wasn’t talking to him. It merely recited what it was supposed to.

” ‘Even in death, a powerful will should rise… I am not done nor am I gone. I still have business with them that…’ ” Sause interpreted what Fulgardt had said.

“It’s incomplete…urgh..” Sause said with a heavy grunt, his muscles bulging as he struggled to withstand the force from the bastard sword of darkness. “Unfortunately I can’t wait for you to tell me your entire will. Nor will allow you to fulfill it. We’ve had one Immoral too many. There’s no need for another! At least one that I don’t already have a grasp over! RAAAR!”

The red energy around Sause bubbled and expanded with his roar, bursting out and pushing against Fulgardt’s assault just enough for him to roll over and evade its eventual continuity!

Once more, the ground shuddered under the force but Sause had already retreated.

He was preparing to counter when something caused his skin to crawl!

The darkness around the room rushed towards a certain place, flowing with a tremendous speed as if it was being sucked into a drain!

Sause turned while in utter shock as a sensation he was very familiar with followed after this peculiar occurrence!

A power he knew of too well.

His eyes focused onto the figure of Skullius that was leaning against the double doors in the distance, awaiting Reon’s sword to put it out of its misery!

“|…THE SAME WOULD HAPPEN TO YOU…|”

Darkness rushed into Skullius’ mouth as he spoke as if to carry his words, empowering them!

In the next moment, under the shocked gazes of Reon and Benzard, the same darkness shot out of Skullius’ mouth and assaulted them like a tidal wave!

“NO!” Sause barked with an unsightly expression as he extended his large hand towards Benzard, the red energy that surrounded him bursting from him and gushing through the air to reach Benzard in a flash before he could be completely covered by the darkness!

The two disappeared in the onslaught of darkness under the surprised gaze of Skullius.

“EEEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!” a horrifying screech was heard from the darkness as someone yelled at the top of their lungs!

The darkness suddenly withdrew, seemingly absorbed into something.

That something happened to be Reon, darkness speedily sinking into his body to enact a tragic and terrible command!

FKKKKKSHHHH!

A terrifying scene appeared next, Reon’s body tearing itself open to reveal all the organs that he had within!

His body warped as bloody flesh and dripping innards wiggled, shifting continuously whilst Reon’s eyes popped from his ‘face’!

His entire body floated in mid-air, the fleshy noises that it made as it adjusted itself making Benzard who was at the side with a horrified expression, tremble and move back!

A thick film of red energy had warded away the darkness that had almost done the same thing it was doing to Reon, to him!

As he looked at his comrade who had turned inside out, his eye couldn’t help steal a glance at Skullius, his mind beginning to wonder just what on earth was going on with this weak human he looked down on!

Mana gushed from Skullius’ armour as it supported the atrocity that was happening to Reon!

The man’s body splattered on the ground, not a trace of his armour or skin visible at all; only flowing blood, flesh and organs that continuously twitched remaining in view!

Skullius was genuinely shocked, his body going on to convulse as his mind began ringing and causing him immense pain!

He didn’t even intend for [Pseudo Evil Veneration] to activate. He had merely wanted to spite these two men by giving them no closure yet…

He had taken out one of them!

[You have killed a Higher level existence, LV12 Human. You have gained experience]

[150,000 Exp awarded]

[Your prey emits the Essence of Null Life. Would you like to extract it? Remaining time 59 seconds]

‘Right… I’m not done yet!’ Skullius held onto his sanity while trembling as he then looked at the bewildered Benzard who looked at him as if he was seeing a demon.

Now was the chance he had!

Against the pain, he had to make the most of his chance!

From the moment he had seen the doors that he was currently leaning against, he felt the embers of the elements [Evil Darkness] and [Just Light] on the spiral groves.

To Skullius, it seemed like a hint for what he had to do to open the door.

Even though he hadn’t tried opening it, he had a feeling that pushing and grunting wasn’t the way to make it reveal what was hidden behind it!

Thus… he pushed himself to focus!

Even as he felt a flaring pain that threatened to cripple his mind, he knew that it was all or nothing.

[Basic Evil Weaving!]

The Discount Human activated a skill geared towards moulding [Evil Darkness] to his will.

The surrounding patches of darkness were drawn to him as he pulled on them, finding it to not be easy, especially when his body and mind were rebelling against him.

Yet, he pushed on!

Light was even more difficult to focus on.

The spots of light that were around the room didn’t seem to respond to him as his comprehension had dipped!

He tried to focus on the closest spot of light that was around two meters away but it seemed too distant for his influence to grab its attention!

‘COME ON!’ Skullius pleaded.

Sause tore himself out of his stupor.

‘That was definitely a Veneration art! A verbal one at that! How in the world did this little one get his hands on it, much less use it?!’ he wondered as his mind was still under immense shock.

Sause saw the darkness that was converging around Skullius. He didn’t know what this human was about to do next and didn’t intend to find out.

If he lost his investment in Benzard now then…

“Don’t just stand there! Kill him!” Sause barked at Benzard.

Benzard shook himself from the terror he felt and wielded his sword.

His body blazed with a fearsome aura and he didn’t hold back!

“Full Body Aura!” he spoke, trying to dispel the phenomenal fear he felt towards Skullius at this moment.

Lightning danced around him, spewing like waves to cover a distance of four meters, a circular cage being formed by the vicious element around him and Skullius!

Skullius’ eyes opened wide as he felt the bubbling energy. Something was strange about this guy and his power. It seemed to constantly be growing without pause.

Benzard’s sword became tinged with a blood red hue as he prepared to attack with everything he had.

He wouldn’t underestimate an opponent like this!

Skullius found pulling the spot of light extraordinarily difficult and it didn’t seem like he had the years needed for his affinity to [Just Light] to grow sufficiently!

In a last ditch effort, he used [Basic Evil Weaving] to push forward a plume of darkness to wrap around the spot of light and pull it towards himself!

At the same time, Benzard’s sword came down, flashing with hundreds of bolts of lightning that began to assault Skullius before the sword even touched him!

The darkness with the spot of light in tow reached Skullius’ charred hand and the Discount Human didn’t waste time, pushing both the plume of darkness and spot of light against the door’s groves!

Immediately, the two unique elements ran along the spiral groves in harmony, quickly covering the entire spiral way and reached the centre of the door but…

Benzard’s sword reached Skullius’ head, the Discount Human’s auburn hair being ignited and his skin turning into crisps as a prelude before the bright red blade descended with the intent to erase every speck of his existence!