Bro, I'm not an Undead!

'A spear is your primary choice for an attack using a weapon, huh? How ironic,' Skullius had thought before Nunax launched the blue spear his way, the pools of darkness that counted for his eyes deepening.

It was ironic indeed.

The First Phase of the War Body cost 200 units of Amras to access and 100 units every hour to maintain – a trifle of a cost.

But interestingly, it wasn't entirely a product of the Andori known as [Instant Body of Perfection]. The powers contained within it didn't quite align with the Common Reality League.

There was only one Andori that Skullius could access while in the War Body, but while even he had called it an Andori at several points, its properties, most of them born from Null Life, caused it to only qualify as an Andori in the sense that it was a technique. Formally, it could not be classified under the power structure created by the Primeval Deities.

This one 'Andori' Skullius had, was stripped from him for five minutes as soon as he accessed the War Body – same as his Immortal Physique and other select qualities that gave him an advantage.

This was part of a set of Creeds he had made in order to make himself much, much more powerful following the five-minute restriction.

But of course, as Elita had said, some anomalies thought they were using Creeds when in actuality, they were invoking Fundamental Barter.

In return for becoming terribly stronger later, Skullius had to survive for five minutes against an opponent while being weaker than his Default Body's peak strength.

It was terribly risky, dangerous even, but Skullius had ways of skirting the danger.

As the treacherous spear approached, assured of hitting its target, it was more than clear that with his current stats, Skullius could not hope to evade or survive a hit from it. He was indeed weaker. The spear's power was great enough to cause Nunax's Fated Reef to collapse.

But Skullius was not concerned in the least.

As the Sovereign of Refined Anarchy – a blend of the Nullmancer and the Insurgent Magnus Classes – he had many solutions to most sorts of enemies.

Before Nunax had flung her spear, Skullius had already prompted that to meld itself into existence. Unlike the name of the Andori that brought his War Body into being, that thing was capable of responding in less than an instant.

Darkness and light exploded out of the Sovereign of Refined Anarchy in fragments of time too intricate for mortals to measure and created a massive shape over him. The way the throngs of both elements roiled, coiled, twisted and trembled was mesmerising and enthralling.

Quickly, a majestic figure was constructed, its great head first.

It was a massive, frightening draconic head of darkness, with cracks of golden white light and bright, bared fangs that peeked from its slightly agape mouth. Its ten great eyes were throbbing with light also, as were the nine golden wheels spinning between its crown of twisted horns.

The creature's entire body was a collection of thousands of powerful arms clasping together, cracks where bits of light escaped marring them all. Some of the arms collected far beyond the creature's back, creating some monstrous backdrop - like a cloak's hood - for its giant head. This backdrop reflected the intense light shining from the great wheels spinning within the crown of horns.

This was indeed the combination of all of Skullius' PHANTASMIC RETAINERS: the Gajjkav, the Noboboyama and Ororoborou.

The Aggregate Inclination Retainer as it was formally called.

The 'inclination' bit in its name noted another type of power included in its formation.

Great throngs of Ju`wtte coursed through the Retainer right then, lighting portions of it in an intense merigold hue. It was frightening. Its ten eyes shone as bright as the sun with the fancy light, and immediately, a counter towards the incoming translucent spear was formed.

Just as the Retainer sparked with Ju`wtte, so did Skullius. The wells of darkness in his sockets blazed. His lower arms followed suit.

…And then two weapons appeared in his hands.

Both of them were made of the same material as the spine winding around Skullius' waist as well as the chausses he had on – with a harmonious mix of gold, azure, silver and scarlet.

One was akin to a wakizashi (a short slashing katana), and the other was a gladius (a short thrusting sword). Both had a four-dimensional quality to them, as though they didn't belong in this plane of existence.

As the ordinary, nameless Ju`wtte coursed through Skullius, he brandished his gladius forward, his hand moving at a speed beyond what it should have been capable of. But that was all he could do before the blue spear reached him.

…Yet it was all he needed to do.

He had positioned his gladius right between himself and the great spear.

The two met in the next instant… and the spear split like paper, its two parts bouncing off in two different directions and escaping the borders of the collapsing Fated Reef.

…

….!!!

Nunax shuddered.

She had seen the fluid motion of Skullius' arm just now and she refused to believe it was real. That short burst of movement eclipsed anything he had done before, and it didn't make sense. He was supposed to be weaker!

The Corrupted Deity raged silently.

As her domain of light bubbles burst apart, she reformed the Fated Reef and imbued another Exotic Parlous Nature into it.

This one was terribly unusual, and extremely powerful. Omni-Radiance, it was called.

Suddenly, the tiled space was forced to change again. A kind of light with margins of colour hard to express, except in the form of shapes, appeared. Great orchids appeared everywhere, slowly floating about with gradients too beautiful to define. They cast shadows outward, making everything within the space hard to perceive and define. It was strange. They were lights, but they hardly exposed properties of lights at all.

Nunax beamed.

This was a light-based Exotic Parlous Nature too hard to comprehend even for Deities, and though it cost almost half of her Amras to use, she didn't hold back.

She would kill Skullius right then!

The Corrupted Deity could only use this Omni-Radiance in one specific way.

She connected her Broader Existence to the orchids appearing as a result of it, and then… every conceivable photon in this incomprehensible space became a copy of her!

Indeed, an inconceivable number of duplicates were made of the Corrupted Deity and all of them at once, brandished pastel-blue spears made from Glad Sorrows, aimed at Future Skullius, and threw them with all their might!

Yet in the face of such treacherous danger… the Sovereign of Refined Anarchy donned a soft smile.

'How ironic,' he thought.