Chapter 1575: What I Need You To Do (1)
’Dammit. They are really going to fight,’ Skullius thought. He then turned behind him, searching where a greenish-black flame had writhed just earlier. ’The souls of the Drakkens are gone. What will become of Aigas now? Does no one care about that?’
Tensions rose between the three Deities above him right then.
Skullius could feel their striking emotions threading through the air like magical essences. Perhaps, when they flitted from Deific figures, these emotions were more material than otherwise. The strength of these sensations forced Skullius to put the subject of Aigas’ fate to the back of his mind. For now.
Instead, while cursing, he entertained a fascinating idea.
’That Doom Knight from before didn’t feel as imposing. He was powerful, but he didn’t inflict as much of an impact on me. Is it because a majority of his pressure constituted Undeath, which I’m used to at this point?’ Skullius thought as he watched Boron raise his halberd and super charge his entire body with Amras. ’Maybe. Or is it that.... Undeath weakens the original vessel? That might be right. Undeath is the weakest among the Existential Parallels.’
Pushing the theory to the back of his head, Skullius grabbed the decapitated corpse of Nunax by his feet and smacked Kenno up side the head to retrieve him from his stupor. As soon as the Unlimited Star tore his eyes away from the three Deities, Skullius warped everyone away to the other side of Edagon.
"What would you have us do?" Red Rage said to the Hybrid Warmoth as soon as they appeared at the foot of a burly mountain. "Is there a reason why you didn’t allow me to join Araeyn and Weaver against Fulgardt?"
"Plenty of reasons, but for now..."
BOOOOOM!
Edagon was forced to violently sail further North along what remained of the ocean (the part Boron hadn’t split with his halberd). Some horrific impact exploded, gushing from where Listafelle, Boron and Quintess were beginning their conflict.
The noise nearly drove Kenno insane. Skullius had to mend his mind using the Stark Constellation on his forehead. He didn’t like using it that way, though. If there was no need, he wanted his subordinates to have their privacy.
Kenno’s eyes rolled back into view and he clutched his head with a grimace.
"Are you all there now?"
"I...I think so, boss," stuttered the Unlimited Star.
Skullius dropped Nunax’s corpse, sighed and turned to the thing standing next to Red Rage. He didn’t dare look at its face, though.
The Legendary grade artefact SoSei, or so it had been before, didn’t look like a worn, green skeleton anymore. After it was delivered by Future Skullius, Skullius had prompted one of its new functions, giving it the shape it had now.
What shape, one might ask?
Skullius dare look too closely.
The youthful, innocent face, the brown hair...
The Hybrid Warmoth might not have known exactly who Camilla was as an individual, but her appearance lived rent free in his mind. The girl, his supposed adopted sister, was dressed in a fashionable black dress that reached her knees. She was immobile, and inexpressive.
As it just so happened, Kenno only saw the transformed skeleton’s appearance now.
"What the...? Boss, what is this?" he said, frowning and pointing at the artefact’s placid face.
Skullius took a breath.
A shattering explosion stole the colour from the world momentarily and Edagon lurched kilometers away again, distancing from the Deities. It broke apart and mended itself rapidly.
Skullius reined in Kenno’s sanity back again.
"You were saying, boss?" said the Unlimited Star while striking his head with a palm as though to turn his brain over into the correct position.
"I have two tasks for you."
Kenno immediately rebelled.
"Boss, I don’t think I’m the right man for whatever job you have in mind for me. I’m exhausted. I depleted most of my Creeds and frankly, I don’t think I have what it takes to help you fight someone like Fulgardt," he said with a dejected sigh and rubbed his temple. He looked more frustrated than anything else. "It probably would have been better for you if you had Kintar or Pherdanta here instead of me."
Skullius considered him.
"You think so?"
Kenno got the feeling the Hybrid wasn’t taking him seriously. "Fulgardt stared down a Deity and didn’t even flinch. Worse yet, he intends to kill them all. To kill them. Are you seeing this?" He pointed beyond, at the massive frames of the Deities.
Skullius didn’t need to look. He merely laughed, which frustrated Kenno all the more.
"What are you laughing about now?"
Skullius smirked. "You know, before I sliced the top of your dome off all those months ago during our battle, I never would have guessed you were ever the kind of guy who would accept defeat."
(A/N: Refer to Ch534.)
Kenno threw his arms up. "Here we go again. You’re reminiscing about that now of all times?"
"Sure I am. The Impossible Task has changed you for the better and for the worse. You’re stronger, but also, you’ve begun comparing yourself to the others in a very disgusting fashion."
Kenno frowned. "What?"
"When you, Pherdanta, Grim and Allora were the only Unlimited, you were proud and level-headed. You wouldn’t have hesitated to charge towards Edagon to encounter a dragon – despite what you might have said. That’s why you were more of a leader. Dependable. Someone I could count on. That’s why I left you to defend our little island, Deign, from the other Factions while I left for that mission to defeat the masked man. You were strong, but I valued your experience prior to joining me more than that."
Kenno gave a sigh, face hardened.
"That was a different time. And I’m not the
leader anymore. That’s Pherdanta. And I’m not more dependable than Kintar."Skullius shook his head. "Pherdanta is trying to become what you were. I chose her as the leader because she has the right heart for what I’m trying to build. I can trust her with the lives of others, and sure, that has to do with her strength."
"You’re not doing a very good job of talking me into your plan, boss."
Skullius smacked him up side the head.
"You’re not listening!" said Skullius sternly. "The reason I don’t have Pherdanta here with me right now is the same reason I don’t have Kintar with me. Both of them have roles they are building themselves into. I can trust them with one task, but I can’t trust them with another. You are different. I can trust you in just about every regard. Leadership, battle, heck, even logistics. This isn’t your first rodeo. You know how all this works. You’ve been where I am before and you were pretty damn good at your job, even while only being a bandit leader."
Kenno loosened a breath. His face softened.
"...Really?"
"Yeah," said Skullius. "You proved just that earlier. Even against a Deity, I could count on you. You can take a hit too. Many hard blows. That’s why I have you here. Right now, I don’t need some sophisticated powerhouse. I need a hard-head with rich experience that I can trust wholly. Can you become that for just a little while?"
Kenno considered the words. They baffled him, honestly.
Trust, was it? He hadn’t thought about it that way.
Was he really deserving of Skullius’ trust more than Kintar and Pherdanta?
Well, phrasing it like that wasn’t right?
It was all a matter of roles.
Kenno had a good understanding of those. He’d played multiple of them all at once back then. Those experiences had yet to leave him.
Indeed, that was why he did manage to keep Deign safe while Skullius and the others were away, why he was able to take care of everything just as well as Skullius for a limited time. Heck, Skullius had even trusted him with going to check up on everyone in the Bryne Estate.
’I am pretty good, aren’t I?’
Shaking his head, Kenno gave a sniffy laugh.
"I admit. That was a pretty good speech," he said. "You kind of insinuated that I’m this brutish simpleton at the end, but that’s fine. If you find me that useful even now..."
Skullius gave a modest laugh. "I do."
Kenno nodded, proud.
"So, what do you need?"
Grinning, Skullius pointed at the transformed SoSei without breaking eye contact with Kenno. "First, I’m going to need you to keep an eye on that..."