Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1385 You Didn't Defeat Him

1385 You Didn't Defeat Him

The beams of light were no source of an attack.

Skullius had read that before they even touched him, and that was why he allowed them to strike him as they did. They did him no harm, merely engulfing him in a mucus green hue.

...And then a voice spoke to him just as a ton of information lanced through his mind. It was loud so that everyone could hear.

"You'll thank me later for this, master. Or... you'll rush over here, seething. Well, whatever you choose, you needed to know all this at once."

Skullius didn't react to the message from the voice because of all the bits of information funnelling into him. He saw odd, crystals positioned in several points around Aigas as well as several other things with frighteningly high resolution. But Elita and Kenno recognised the voice and reeled.

"Is that...Kintar?" the latter said.

Elita only donned a curious frown before sighing and looking back to Revia who couldn't have given a thousand shits about the light show.

Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the two's torn relationship. For indeed, it was torn.

Aurolio could hardly have cared for the intriguing drama anymore. He, quite like Sila, Kenno and Araeyn was concerned about what was going on with Skullius.

As he was fed the information, his face increasingly grew grim, and as though the night was gathering on his face, Skullius' face turned so dark that it became impossible to decipher any of its details.

Kenno saw it coming from a mile away.

'Oh no. What did that little freak do?' he thought, filled with dread.

...And then Skullius exploded.

The look on his face stunned everyone present. It might have been a collection of ellipses doing their best to form a visage.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU STUPID BRAT?!" Skullius growled with a voice many decibels different from his own, and then he vanished.

Kenno was the first one to react.

'Shit. Kintar's mission was to go to Emeradis. That's probably where the boss is going,' he thought, his heart racing. He turned to Araeyn, intending to tell him to warp them to Emeradis, but the Apostle was already on it. He could sense where his master was. He drew in Sila and Kenno... and after a little hesitation, he beckoned Uyuniya, Aurolio, Elita and Revia as well. The latter refused to move. She might not have even heard Araeyn's calm and succinct, "Come here." Thus, she was left behind. Elita gave her a pitying glance as she and the rest disappeared.

14:47

'Shit. Kintar's mission was to go to Emeradis. That's probably where the boss is going,' he thought, his heart racing. He turned to Araeyn, intending to tell him to warp them to Emeradis, but the Apostle was already on it. He could sense where his master was. He drew in Sila and Kenno... and after a little hesitation, he beckoned Uyuniya, Aurolio, Elita and Revia as well. The latter refused to move. She might not have even heard Araeyn's calm and succinct, "Come here." Thus, she was left behind. Elita gave her a pitying glance as she and the rest disappeared.

"Kintar..." Skullius said. His voice was low, but it was loud. His blank white eyes had turned dark... black. "What do you think you're doing?"

Kintar looked at her master. Her ovular eyes turned into crescents.

"Did you perhaps not receive the information I gathered, master? I could have sworn I sent it to you just n—"

"You know exactly what I'm asking," Skullius cut her off.

Kintar smiled and then she rose from the throne, floating before the lines of puzzled Arch-Mages failing to summon their mana. They felt as though they had been caught in a Majestic Territory.

Kintar's smile faded.

"I guess you're here because you don't approve of the method I used," she said and she floated a little higher from the ground. "I expected as much."

"You have five seconds to explain yourself," Skullius hissed, his face a mess of dark wrinkles. Red Rage gave a sigh. He was anxious. Unlike Kintar, he wasn't quite so sure of himself.

Kintar turned thoughtful for a second and then she fixed Skullius with a stern gaze.

"Do you know why I bet against you, master? When you went off to fight against your evil self?" she asked him.

Earlier, Grim had referenced - jokingly - how Kintar had forced the Stark Troops to make bets on who would win between Replicus and Festos. (This was when when Skullius, Theurien, Silrat, and Soidon had been relaxing on the giant butterfly in the Empyrean Hatcher earlier.)

Skullius' eye twitched.

Why would Kintar bring that up now?

"Admittedly, I did it half in jest," Kintar continued. "But the other half of me thought you would actually lose. Do you know why?"

Right then, Araeyn warped with everyone else behind the mound of corpses below the wheel of Runes just in time... just in time to hear Kintar say it.

"Why?" Skullius asked acidly.

Kintar sighed and she suddenly looked a little tired.

"Because you didn't defeat him. You didn't defeat the masked man. You couldn't. And to me, it was highly probable that you'd fail to beat a nastier version of him when you didn't have much help."

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