Chapter 1583: Freedom! (1)
"You didn’t account for what would happen with your Doom Factor 2 if you stayed in the great void for too long, did you?"
Future Skullius had told Skullius that – as a favour – VOW had made it so that he (Skullius) could delay the effects of the Doom Factors by inhabiting a world with a slower flow of time.
Consternals were the standard form for the flow of events in the wider reality, a grander scale of time. Each world, depending on powerful it was, had a flow of time lesser or equal to the standard flow of events in the wider reality. The latter was only true for worlds created by the Primeval Deities.
Doom Factor 2 had a countdown based on Consternals, but VOW had made it so that it could be offset if Skullius inhabited a world like Aigas, where he had a full seven days before the Doom Factor took him.
But if he remained in the void, this cooldown was even shorter.
And since it was shorter in the great void, Somanda’s influence (which Skullius was willingly invoking right now) grew stronger more quickly!
This was... very bad.
’Damn it! I have to get back to Aigas!’ Skullius thought while balling his hand into a fist.
Somanda was cackling as his Undeath energy flared with such a vibrant red that it started to light up the great void.
"Are you sure you made the right decision, Skullius?" he barked scornfully.
...And then his presence died down.
Skullius saw an opportunity right then.
As SoSei began healing again, recovering Camilla’s appearance, he glanced at the smirking Fulgardt and then at SoSei.
Doom Factor 2 flared once more. The turns were randomised, but perhaps for Skullius’ sake, this time, it was Fulgardt’s turn to bear Somanda.
Just as the Immoral’s body took on the High Lich’s influence, Skullius gathered Ju`wtte around his body and shot off from the dead world. Warping wasn’t so easy in the void, even with Andori. Skullius remembered how Future Skullius could effortlessly cross through the void by mobilising Ju`wtte around his body, and had attempted to copy him.
Alas, he was nowhere near that level of skill yet. His remarkably slow escape would have to do.
He had only crossed a little more than a hundred kilometers, however, when a hand pulled him by the hair and drew him back.
"Your former master isn’t so keen on remaining in my body, Skullius, remember?" said the Immoral and threw the Hybrid back on Lumen. As soon as Skullius landed, he bolted along one enormous part of it while concocting a plan. His hand was shaking.
He took a gander at SoSei again and Somanda’s presence bounced off of him and fell on Fulgardt again.
"Keep trying, my precious Skullius!" Somanda cried from Fulgardt’s body... only to dispel his own influence yet again.
Skullius cursed. He looked at SoSei again, and this time, the Lich’s pressure fell on the artefact. But almost immediately after, Somanda bolted towards the Hybrid.
This really was a 2v1, and so far, Skullius had yet to deliver on his declaration against the Immoral and the Lich who split his soul. He had yet to take them both on victoriously.
Fulgardt suddenly had Skullius in a tight vice in the next instant.
"I bet you’ve already forgotten," he said crisply. "Now that we’re so far from Aigas, Quintess, Listafelle, Suzamete... They can’t save you. No Tie of Exchange is binding me now because you found out my secret, brat!"
...!!!
Somanda was upon them a second later. Simply out of spite, he cocked his arm back and decked Skullius with a hearty blow in the face. The Hybrid was astonished to find just how much it hurt.
"You’re so close to storming Emmae’s domain to fight me, right?" he said and decked him again. "Unfortunately for you, the truth is, freedom is a difficult thing to find. It’s a difficult thing to take." He landed another blow. "It takes strength to take away the freedom of others, Skullius! And I relish in it! You made a fine attempt just now, but you need to go back to the drawing board!"
By the time Somanda hit Skullius with a sixth blow, the Undeath energy flaring from him was so potent Skullius was sure it reaching Divine levels.
That was not a good sign!
The Hybrid’s hand shook.
Even as he bled, even as he was forced to listen to the words of madmen, he knew there was a way out of this...
’Do it! Do it! Just do it... Skullius!’ he thought, but his fingers felt stiff.
The only thing he could bring himself to say aloud was...
"Both of you are going to eat your words!"
"Am I now?!" Somanda barked in laughter and sent Skullius reeling with a cruel punch in the chest. The Hybrid felt his ribs cave in. His Immortal Physiques and reinforcements weren’t doing a damn thing.
Fulgardt, on the other hand, scoffed.
"That’s rich. Is it because of that power you’re still holding back?" he said. "Well, it wouldn’t be any fun if I didn’t see it. If I recall correctly, you said I should make you use it, right?"
...!!!
Before he could reason what Fulgardt meant by those words, Skullius was once again whisked off into the void. Somanda lingered for only a few moments before following after the two. In those few moments, however, he channelled Undeath energy into the dead world – Lumen.
...
The sensation of flying through the void at terrible speeds bordering on nonsensical added terror to Skullius’ already tense heart.
It didn’t last long, however.
His surroundings quickly grew vibrant. Light was pouring from yet another world, a ginormous resplendent disk standing in the darkness. It was thriving; full of life.
"Keep your eyes peeled, brat," said Fulgardt as they fell into this new world.
It was no easy feat invading a world, however. Before the likeness of the innards of this world was revealed to the two, something began pushing back against them.
Rules.
But Fulgardt only scoffed at the hindrance. With Skullius still in his grip, he cocked back his right arm, darkness flaring around him like a vicious tide. The Immoral then sent his fist forth with all his might and also...
Exorbitance X Master Cataract!
DUUUUM!
A shockwave traversed the great void as the surface of the gargantuan disk collapsed inward. It was like watching a golden plate cracking in the middle.
Fulgardt and an absolutely flabbergasted Skullius fell into the world freely, unrestricted.
Indeed, this was how easy it was for the Immoral to bully weaker worlds.
"Now let’s test that will of yours! I wonder if I’ll be worthy of your full strength by the end, brat!" declared the Immoral as a sky appeared below them.