Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1146: Billions of What?!

It took a few moments for Replicus to register what victory Serenity was talking about. For him, while he was indeed looking at the fallen Null Devil King, before that, he had thought he was stuck in silence for millennia upon millennia. From his point of view, it was hardly

feasible to celebrate a victory here and now.

"Skullius..." Serenity called to him.

Replicus had his Ju`wtta part, and the storming Ju`wtte around him faded at once.

"Arrrghhh!!!" he suddenly found himself screaming in agony, as unbelievable pain raced through him from all the wounds on his body.

"Keep your bracers together, Skullius! Keep healing!" Serenity urged and at once, Replicus resumed the use of [Ju`wtta Resounding Restoration]. The surging pain diminished

significantly, but he still felt it pulse from each and every spot on his body that was gouged out or dissolved.

He took heavy breaths, his curved yellow eyes shining dimly.

What in the world...? This pain...

He had thought it had lessened or perhaps that he had gotten used to it, but that wasn't the

case.

Serenity explained his current circumstances with a sigh.

"The damage you took is rather severe. Caxellac's attack was designed to erase anything with a touch. And of course, there was not a lot of chances for him to miss. Luckily for you, your attack dismantled that growing thorn before most of those hands could touch you for much longer that would have rendered your constant healing even less effective; it's the only reason you're still alive. You're going to have to keep it up. The healing factor isn't strong enough to cause a full recovery in one go. It may take a while."

Replicus slowly nodded.

So that's why he felt the intense pain.

As soon as he stopped healing, the damage would worsen indeed. He could feel it.

"I see," he said as he looked at the Null Devil King. "How long was I out for?"

Serenity seemed to sigh again, this time exasperatedly.

"Not as long as you think," she said, much to Replicus' surprise. "When you faced Caxellac's attack, you felt so much pain that you blacked out. Unfortunately for you, blacking out in a place like this - where Caxellac invoked silence and tranquillity - made you sink so deeply into your consciousness that you could hardly hear anything, even though the pain radiated from both your body and soul."

Serenity had known Replicus would be stunned by this knowledge. She had sensed his confusion when he was drifting, after all. He had even unconsciously toggled off the assistance of his phantoms while drowning in the silence.

Replicus clutched his head with his remaining bottom hand which quivered.

"I felt like... like I was lost in that silence and pain for so many years," he said and then he realised something. "My Ju`wtta can heal damage to the soul too?"

"Indeed," confirmed Serenity. "If that weren't the case... Well... I'd say it's better not to discuss that."

This, Replicus thought, was a bonus he didn't expect. He hadn't considered such a boon, what with the fact that the Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow protected his soul tremendously too (passively). Come to think of it, the effects from his weapons were probably part of the greater reasons why he was still alive.

Replicus paid his entire attention to Caxellac. Knowing his thoughts, Serenity explained. "Caxellac's armour, as I'm sure you know, had a lot of different defences, one of which was against soul attacks. The arrows from your Fallen Reincarnator's Shadow aren't supposed to interact with physical matter at all, but Caxellac's armour forced them to. You enhanced the properties of that last soul arrow with the [Wanton Royal's Void-Biting Serpent] and Inverted Mana. Hence it hit Caxellac successfully. The result... You killed a Divine and tamed their soul."

...!

Replicus shook.

"What? A Divine?" he asked, flabbergasted.

"Of course. Caxellac was indeed Divine."

Replicus immediately looked at Caxellac's soul, but once again, sensing his intent Serenity quickly cleared his ambitious thoughts.

"I'm afraid it's impossible to claim his soul for any meaningful use. That attack of yours did significant damage. If it weren't for the fact that Caxellac's soul was in a higher league than a normal one, it would have been destroyed. But all the same, its refined fabrics must have been obliterated, which means you can't use it to forge a weapon as you did with the necromancer's."

Replicus frowned.

"What about the body?" he asked.

"You want to claim it as an Apostle? I'm afraid that's impossible as well. Caxellac might have lost his Dominion when he left the Null Verse, but he still possesses privileges that he carved into himself before that happened. He and the other Authorities are privy to powers that can enslave them, like Nullmancy, after all. Because of the unique powers given to them because of their Dominion, they all have measures against that even in death."

Replicus frowned even harder.

It made sense, but he couldn't help but be irritated that there was nothing to gain from suffering through this ordeal at all.

Was there really nothing to gain but all the tricks he had learned from Caxellac's fighting style?

"I might add, you know that Divines can be killed, but are rather hard to erase, right? Caxellac may be dead, but part of him still exists in his body. Boldly and foolishly trying to wield it may be unwise. I'm certain you yourself have experience with that kind of thing."

It took only a moment for Replicus to recognise what Serenity meant.

"Fulgardt..." he said.

Indeed. Fulgardt was a Divine who died, but never perished. His will continued on in the Legacy he left behind and even his corpse which Sause fought all the way back then in the Labyrinth of the Yoke.

Knowing what was happening to Skullius right now, Replicus discarded all thoughts about trying to give Caxellac's body some use.

Full of fury and bitterness, he called upon Beyrmir who manifested his giant head from

behind Replicus' back.

"MY LIEGE..." the Mercurian Long-Snout said reverently.

"Stow away the Null Devil King's body and soul," he commanded.

At once, Beyrmir conjured a large, scaly arm of mercury that reached past the blasted limbs of

the thorn in the distance and did as his master decreed.

While he did so, Serenity said to Replicus:

"Why not check your guidance field?"

"What?" Replicus said, surprised.

"You've assumed you earned nothing from defeating Caxellac. That is not quite true. Check

your guidance field."

Replicus did as he was told and sure enough...

[You have killed LV(!&@!) Caxellac, Null Devil King, former Authority of the Null Verse.

43,560,755,232 Null EXP]

"Huh?!" Replicus exclaimed.

What in the world...?

What was Null EXP?!

And he had 43 billion units of it?!

Goodness...

Replicus got annoyed when, for the umpteenth time, Serenity didn't even give him the chance to elaborately voice his confusion and shock. She was already answering his question. "I'm not too sure either. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that Caxellac did not use mana and

thus you couldn't get his experience that way. You now have a Null core, so you are legible for extracting his experience. Though perhaps this only applies here where such a method to increase strength applies."

"I see. That must be it. Caxellac did look down on the use of mana in general," Replicus said, his thoughts spiralling. He would have wanted to place his arms on his waist as he engaged

with his thoughts, but alas...

He summoned his thought phantoms.

"Goodness! Why did you shut us out, Prime?"

"Nevermind that, he knows he can't work out the current mystery on his own. Null EXP, ey?

What do we make of this?"

"I don't think we can use this EXP to level up. Not here on Aigas at least. Or can we? Perhaps its existence isn't as much of a mystery as is its use."

"I feel we should be paying a lot more attention to Caxellac's body and soul. There has to be a use for him. We just have to find it."

Replicus nearly got a migraine from the noise. He had almost started getting used to having

silence in his mind.

As he listened to the theorising in his head, along with the phantoms gliding around him, he

suddenly looked to where Edagon had been, a complex look on his face.

Right.

What had become of Yuyui and the others?

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