Replicus' form was as needlessly lethal-looking as always, but despite what his looks suggested, he was actually a bit sullen.
No, rather he was a little agitated.
He could not show it though.
Instead, he focused on his returned subordinates led by Grim, his emotions sparked to a more cheerful state.
Already he could tell, as he gazed at Allora, that she had succeeded. A boundless sensation eagerly flared from her, enticing his immensely sensitive perception.
'Something about her has become inexhaustible. Intriguing. She quite literally embodies the title of Unlimited...'
Allora's confidence had not been vain, and that was a sight for sore sockets.
"Congratulations. You did not disappoint," a voice like a gust of wind trying to stifle the bellow of thunder escaped from Replicus' mouth behind the clouds.
The lesser among the experts shuddered at this voice, but Grim retained his relaxed posture, Yuyui looked to the side, and Allora beamed.
"Of course I did not, boss!" she called loudly, much to Replicus' amusement.
His sockets continued to study her, and then he spoke again.
"Do you wish to become an Unlimited?" his heavy, authoritative voice came.
"Absolutely!" Allora answered without a moment of hesitation, her tall frame turning rigid. Grim seemed a little disturbed by her enthusiasm. He had half hoped that the boss wouldn't see her as worthy of joining the elite circle. Still, all hope wasn't lost yet.
It wasn't that Grim hated her, but in his view, she was a bit... extra.
"Good."
Replicus seemed to shift under the layer of cloud of lightning.
"I shall test you, and then... we will see if you can claim the honour of donning your own Granted Armament."
Allora wasn't disheartened at all. She knew for a fact that the boss already knew how strong she was now, and while that sentiment could have alluded to the fact that he wasn't confident in her abilities, Allora knew the other three Unlimited had undergone a test.
It was routine.
She gave a bow while donning a grin, and inched closer to Grim whom she dwarfed slightly. The white-haired man expelled a light sigh.
Being an Unlimited didn't work that way, damn it!
Replicus surveyed the group. The glow from his sockets made it hard for anyone to perfectly pinpoint who he was looking at, and frankly, the Null Lifeform liked it that way.
He gazed at Yuyui, and alas, she didn't know it.
A strange emotion burned within him.
One of the sources of Replicus' agitation, stemmed from what he had been sensing for a while now. Ever since the world shuddered vehemently – more specifically Feinheath – he had felt that his original body, Skullius, had sustained a great deal of damage to the soul. Obviously, this was terrible news, but what interested Replicus more was the fact that this sensation he felt from Skullius, registered a few minutes before the great trembling.
Given how his luck was, even though it wasn't as tragically motivated anymore, it wasn't a stretch to think that once again, Skullius was somehow involved in this.
Thankfully, Replicus had a copy of Skullius' soul and didn't share the original's. While they were linked, soul damage dealt to Skullius didn't affect Replicus, though the opposite was not true.
Still, this was bad news, and Replicus wished he could talk about it with someone meaningful. That would have naturally been Yuyui, but...
"We have been called," Replicus addressed the group while quickly killing off the growing sentiment.
Grim and the others turned serious.
"It's because of that quaking, isn't it?" Grim asked with a grave face.
Replicus didn't answer. Instead, from the dark clouds around him, a pitch black phalanx laced with thin traces of Levin pointed to his left, and then he called, "Pherdanta, if you would..."
"As you wish."
The eyes of the gathered turned to Replicus' left and focused on the figure of a slender woman, decked in armour similar to Grim's. The only difference was, from the waist, it turned into a plaited battle skirt, and continued with high silver boots that had a metallic sheen.
This woman had dark hair tainted with green at the ends, tied into a ponytail. She had a pair of hostile, narrow eyes and a pointed nose that seemed to accuse anyone it faced.
Grim shivered a little, more weirded out than afraid.
This woman, Pherdanta, was also an Unlimited, and she had a creepy ability that made everyone oblivious to her presence as long as there was a big enough distraction. And well... the boss matched the requirements for that perfectly.
All this was to say, she had been standing here the entire time.
'Another thing I can never get used to,' Grim thought exhaustedly.
Pherdanta exposed a scroll from her storage. It had a velvet coloured paper onto which a message was written in white cursive.
She read it out:
---
A tragedy worth our attention has risen. All registered factions are to travel to the Severed Coliseum in half a day's time. Failure to do so will be met with a VISIT.
-Emissary of the Nine Immortals
---
Grim's face turned dark and his red eyes bulged.
"The Immortals are calling? They are actually real?" he said.
Allora's excitement also dimmed significantly.
"A summon. Usually it comes from the Head Faction. They wouldn't joke around and say it's the Immortals right? It's been a fable for so long," she said concernedly.
The others seemed confused and a little frightened as well, but they hardly showed it. Only the Unlimited had freedom to express themselves before the boss.
Replicus didn't speak for a while, but then...
"All that doesn't matter. We will leave as soon as I am done with a few errands. As you said, Grim, this is likely to do with the trembling, and I too am curious as to what happened," he said.
The calmness in his voice seemed to infect the others.
"Alright then," Grim said with a sigh. "Will we be using the cloud?"
"That won't be necessary, " Replicus said, and then his focus which had already perused over the group, settled on the boxes a few of them were holding. "What have you captured this time?"
Grim cleared the sediments of thought from the previous conversation and wore a wide smile.
"I found some interesting Cluster beasts, boss. One of them is even of a very high tier. For some reason, he can't use his mana, but I thought he and his hairy friends would be useful to us," he said before gesturing for the boxes to be presented closer to Replicus.
"Is that so?"
A phalanx extended from the clouds and pointed at the boxes that were set a few meters from the pool of lava around Replicus' throne.
In an instant, the boxes were disassembled into separate plates, and from within them, the living beings that had been miniaturised grew to full size.
ραΠdαsΝοvεl ƈοm There were many beasts, much of them looking the same, except one.
This one looked like a man with silver fur around his face and over his head as hair. It wore a baggy long-sleeved shirt and similarly baggy pants. Its eyes, unlike those of the others, dark and deep, focused on the strongest individual around.
Both Replicus and this beast were smitten with surprise, but for two completely different reasons.
...
Suddenly, a fierce burst of mana poured from the Null Lifeform and his clouds swarmed to fill half of the floor, the Levin that struck from them growing several folds more terrifying.
Replicus bellowed, excitement and awe livid in his voice.
"Hahahahaha... Is it fortune or chance that you have leapt from my right hand only to fall into my left?"
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