Bro, I'm not an Undead!

....

"B-Black... Black... did you see what happened?!" Brown asked with sweat dripping from his brow.

"..." Black remained silent.

His body was now fully healed but it anxiously stiffened. He didn't even have to give his brother a reply. His answer was obvious.

Yes, he and Brown had seen Skullius' mad killing spree, grimacing at this man's unnatural desire and style for killing even by their standards. Brown was gripping the grey shaped cube in his hand tightly as he had been about to attack when the Master Stage bandits swarmed the Hybrid Luman.

This was the chance he had been waiting for!

However...

On the opposite side of the fight, near the wall, Cast, Oliviana and Bull wore pale faces.

All of them felt the saliva in their mouths vanish.

In the heat of the massacre that was going on before them, there was suddenly a golden white flash of light that they all couldn't tell if it was true or not because of how quickly it had appeared and disappeared.

Regardless of what it was, everything changed after its passing.

Over a hundred and fifty of the bandits had suddenly collapsed to the ground. Dead.

Unlike the ones Skullius had murdered before, these ones... they couldn't tell what the hell happened!

Yet, this mystery paled in comparison to what the trio was focusing their eyes on right now.

16 Master Stage experts stood around the man responsible for this chaos.

They all had hollow looks in their eyes.

Those that had weapons had dropped them.

Those that had aggressive expressions had retracted them, so had those that were in the process of conjuring the effects of their techniques to kill this enemy.

They all stood still as a thin haze of golden white wrapped around their bodies individually, a distinctive mark shaped like half a skull plastered on their foreheads.

"This is my current limit it seems. Even with all that mana I used. That's hilarious," Skullius chuckled with the shake of his head.

He was completely unharmed from the attacks that had been raining from him as they had been dispersed, but he had to admit, if it had been a day ago, he definitely would have suffered some heavy damage before catching the eventual win.

But today, he not only avoided that.

He also won without anyone realising how.

He looked around, noting the faces of these men and women that surrounded him.

He couldn't make them do anything, yet.

But this peculiar effect didn't last forever. In fact, Skullius expected it to last for six minutes at most.

That's why...

"Might as well put this to good use."

Skullius pulled out the Simmering Cloud, the Legendary grade object he had just received as a reward for competing one of his Association missions.

He popped off the cork on the glass bottle packed with liquid and watched as it slipped out as a blue vapour that covered a vast range, pouring over the bodies of his enemies like a mist.

The 29 Master Stage experts collapsed to the ground one after the other following this, their faces still not showing any reaction.

The effects of this item worked like a charm.

A drop of 80% in mental clarity, 85% in soul clarity, 65% to all stats and 60% to precision!

With these experts having withdrawn their Auras and additional defences, the Simmering Cloud made short work of them even while they were absent of mind!

Skullius' gaze then turned to the last two enemies beyond the range of the abstruse ability he had used just now.

"Brown! Let's get out of here!" Black yelled as he saw that they were now the object of attention of this ridiculous individual before them.

Brown concurred.

If he had decided to attack just now, his fate would probably be sealed along with the twenty nine others!

Brown immediately attempted to activate the tool in his hand but he immediately felt a blade digging at his neck along with a shadow that blocked his front view!

'He's fast!' Brown thought in a panic.

Fortunately, a layer of green Aura was protectively shielding him!

Because certain conditions had to be met before he could use the tool in his hands, he couldn't use it while engaging with Skullius who had suddenly appeared before him wielding a goosebump-inducing green blade!

Half the image of Brown's mantis Incarnation quickly appeared above him, two of its claws glowing with tenacious light as they hacked down at Skullius!

As he did this, Brown passed the grey tool over to Black so that he could operate it, taking the two away from the danger!

Brown's attack was faster than the ones Skullius had experienced from the other Masters. It was a given.

However, before this attack could land and before the tool Brown had cast could reach Black's hand...

Mana slithered its way from Skullius' finger and activated his spatial storage ring, retrieving the All Eater scroll which appeared before Skullius!

...!

Brown was confused about what this was.

That was until he saw the claws of his Incarnation sink into this scroll in their entirety and in the next short breath...

Green coloured Aura was expelled from the scroll without delay, its edge slicing towards Brown!

The bandit was shocked!

This was his own attack used against him!

How?!

This was dangerous!

As a reasoned fighter, he hid his shock behind action, as with his Aura split between him and his Incarnation, he didn't know if he could tank his own attack fully, thus he opted to dodge!

Sadly, the moment his muscles twitched to move, his adversary was already aware of it.

Skullius smirked.

[Greater Mana Crafter] pulled on the mana in the air and made it all barrel down on Brown and his surroundings, resisting his movement!

That momentary lapse in his ability to move was what caused... two flashes of green light to slash at his torso mercilessly!

"ARRGHHHH!"

Brown screamed as blood flooded from two gashes on his chest!

He staggered.

At the exact same time, the grey cube landed in Black's hand but he couldn't focus on it at this moment.

"Brother!" he called in anguish as Brown's screaming voice cracked, his body kneeling on the ground.

Without delay, Skullius shot his hand out, grabbed Brown's head and faced Black.

He said no words as the look on his face was enough to make Black boil with rage.

A cold, unfeeling smirk.

Tendrils of darkness stormed from Skullius' body and entered Brown's body through his eyes, nose, ears and mouth, [Basic Evil Sanction] being used to pull out the true darkness within Brown that the Hybrid Luman saw.

This image brought Black back to rational thought.

This...

What madness was this?!

What was this man doing to his brother?!

Immediately, he activated the tool, a spatial tremor roaming through the surroundings to reach Brown as well who was within Skullius' clutches.

In the blink of an eye, Black was gone, but...

As the darkness that had invaded Brown receded back into Skullius who had been paying attention to Black's movements, he came to a realisation.

Thud.

Brown's body fell down. Now a corpse.

"I see. That tool only works on the living or something close to that," Skullius said as he gazed towards the body in front of him. "Sorry you were left behind."

The Luman scoffed as he began walking back to the wall.

His thoughts spiralled as the darkness he had extracted from Brown told of a great deal of things. He had to partition everything so that it made sense as in terms of information, he had gained quite a bit of it. Moreso than he had even hoped.

'I was thinking about cutting this trip short with this. Surely this fits the description of sufficient volunteer work. But... finding the man behind all this should be interesting,' Skullius thought.

Over his plan before, additions and adjustments were made.

The man Brown and Black called boss.

He was quite interesting.

He was worthy of becoming the nucleus, no the central marionette, to a vast web that the Hybrid Luman planned to enact over a society separate from the Capital Service, the Guilds Association and the Families.

"Hehe," Skullius grinned as the effects of [Beyond the Hype] helped him forge multiple ideas and outlines over how to deal with this boss and his plans.

Before he knew it, he was already standing before the stunned and vigilant Cast and Bull who couldn't help but keep their Auras ablaze.

Oliviana was the only one who wore a sheepish smile as she recovered her senses but Cast beat her at breaking the ice with this terrifying man.

"Excuse me... sir. Who... are you?"

"Hmmm?" Skullius hummed. He was way ahead of this conversation as he naturally figured what would follow, so much so that he had forgotten he was in the now.

To the question though, he provided a very fitting answer.

"Oh I'm just a vile man seeking redemption."

***

Black stumbled into existence within the rocky and mildly vegetated area that he and his large band called a temporary base while they were in the Isise.

He grunted and punched the ground as hard as he could.

'Alan...' he thought with grief.

This was his brother's real name, never to be mentioned when they were in the presence of anyone outside their circle of blood.

The moment the cube failed to carry his brother's body along with him, he knew.

He knew that Brown was doomed.

A sob escaped from his being as he felt himself crumble. Never did he ever...

"You have never considered the possibility of living while your brother dies, have you?" a voice spoke from before Black who hung his head.

He refused to raise it, even while knowing who it was.

"I thought your alias was more symbolic of the darkness in you that no longer feels anything, but I was wrong. Carry yourself up, Black. Tell me what happened."

---

[Author's Note]

Spatial storage ring activation is instantaneous regardless of the grade of the ring. Only high grade arrays or runes are capable of manipulating space, thus with the increase in grade, other aspects other than how fast the ring responds improve.