Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The intensity of Zu'sse depended almost entirely on emotion, and the clearer the target of the emotion, the more effective it would be on the whole. This meant that the damage Zu'sse dealt to third parties was only a fraction of what the actual target would have to deal with.

This saved Skullius a lot of trouble, as he didn't have to expend too many resources to protect his subordinates aboard Amanas. It also made it possible for spectators to watch without having to worry about paying the price for curiosity, hence why many had gathered to watch the clash.

Skullius would have been lying if he said he wasn't curious too.

'That's five Deities I've met so far who can use Zu'sse…' he thought.

The ability wasn't all that common, but Skullius wondered if it really was rare. Boron never did move around enough to determine that.

Skullius lifted Amanas high and then jumped on top of it to get a better view.

When shrouding themselves with Zu'sse, the appearances of Deities were typically difficult to make out. There must have been something different about the two combatants Skullius was watching. Their Zu'sse wasn't trying to impress itself over their bodies. It wrapped around their arms… and their weapons, distorting their appearances wildly.

'More monsters…' thought the Hybrid.

And indeed, the two were a different breed of monster than what Skullius had seen thus far into the Breaking Chasm. One of them was like Gylliard and the 'furious woman' – as Skullius had decided to call her – a creature that seemed to have retained the body they ascended into Divinity with.

It was a gaunt man with pale skin that spotted a few shiny scales around the forehead and cheeks. A nest of long, messy black hair fell from the top of his head in a wild tangle, almost obscuring his eyes, the most fascinating thing about him. Two streams of black smoke that spat sparks, as though his socketholes were a hearth, rose into the air.

The man donned a smile unlike Gylliard's. It was wide and indulgent, revealing rows of sharpened teeth. More so than his smile, the way he held the neck of the scabbard of his unusually long sword spelled his confidence. The rest of his fingers tenderly dapped the hilt of his sword as though only humoring the idea of drawing it for an attack.

An unusual stance.

But even more unusual than his stance was the form of his opponent. An unsuspecting, dense cloud of poison green stood against the humanoid with smoke for eyes… and quite literally. The cloud, with no distinctive shape, was floating above the landing port floor, but two boots of gleaming black and gold could be seen under it. Even more strange than that were the eight pieces of armour on either of the smoke body's flanks: black and gold gauntlets and rerebraces. Four swords, all different kinds, were hovering inches underneath the open gauntlets, while four more hung above the rerebraces, sheathed. All eight weapons and armour pieces were flaring with Zu'sse.

"I had a feeling they'd cause a scene if they happened to meet here."

Skullius turned to Gylliard, who had somehow managed to appear beside him without his knowledge. The Hybrid twisted his lips.

"Who are they?" he asked.

"Sword Gods."

Skullius snapped back to the two. "…Sword Gods?"

"The pinnacle notation of swordsmanship," said Gylliard. "'Smoke Eyes' Dragon and 'Protean' Shidao. No mystery who is who, I hope. The last time they clashed, it was over which of their styles was the best. Shidao abhors Dragon's Counteractive Dazzling Rote Style, and Dragon seems to think Shidao's Active Warform Panople Style is impractical."

"Who won that bout?" asked Skullius.

"Didn't care to find out."

'Figures.' Skullius sighed and turned his attention back to the two Sword Gods.

Somehow, Gylliard was now standing between them, poking their swords back with two fingers.

Skullius' eyes opened wide. 'The hell?'

"Alright then," said Gylliard as Dragon and Shidao drew back, dispersing their Zu'sse. He clapped. "If we're done showcasing our Divine genitals, I'd like to move us all along."

Some of the gathered spectators drew away. The lessers, followers, seemed just as baffled and wary as Skullius was by the General's appearance and by how Dragon and Shidao retreated without a fuss.

The Aspire to Divine underlings – like Subossais – in silver, ballooned armour converged towards the Stellars, their Tors Lampions in their hands. Gylliard silently assigned them to groups of Stellars.

'That's fourteen Stellars then,' thought Skullius after a count.

They were organizations of Divine experts that filled the gap between the Aspire to Divine and pirates, according to Paliothese. Like the Aspire to Divine, they owned territories in the great void and clashed mainly against Undead forces and Fiends for control rather than the Primeval Deities.

"I will kindly ask that you secure your vessels and leave them here in the landing port. I assure you that they will be safe and untouched. I personally handled the operation of Runic imbeds here. General Navvexr's sweep of the Quadrosphere will not see any of your belongings harmed," said Gylliard sternly. "For those of you with dimensional pockets, please keep them sealed and avoid accessing them until we leave the Quadrosphere."

No one had any qualms or doubts. That left only Skullius to respond in kind.

While sending an instruction to the Stars and Troops, he cloaked Amanas in a pool of Null Life Essence so massive and rich that it garnered the attention of the Stellars. Soon, a group of tiny mortals and a single Divine was standing before Amanas and behind Skullius, nestled in his protection.

The sight was… displeasing to more than a few.

One of the Heads of the Stellars, an unusual creature Skullius had noted right before Dragon and Shidao caused a scene, 'rose'. He was a giant serpent with thousands of legs and a human-like face – unsettling in every sense of the word. One of his spindly, ugly arms crept forth, pointing an accursed finger at Skullius, his eyes narrowing.

He rasped, "You demean your newly bred reputation, young one. How could one who triumphed against a favored son of the Wanderer parade a swarm of mortals? You ram through Momem Thyrgga's jurisdiction to flaunt… this?"

Another felt the same and voiced their displeasure, the woman suffused with frost.

"I thought your show was all a fluke, a fool's tokened moment in the sun," she said, her eyes as cold as the temperatures around her. She turned to Gylliard. "You welcome a stain like this in your O so precious home, Grand General?"

Gylliard said nothing. His unchanged thin smile said enough.

A few others voiced their displeasure while the rest merely chose to radiate it.

The subjects of this displeasure… shrank.

The Troops were pale and rigid. They couldn't even lift their heads to look at any of the Divine figures ahead of them. Sweat formed bullets over their faces. These experts were nothing like Pell and his pirate company. The instant the Troops had left Amanas, they had known immediately that were it not for Skullius shielding them, the pressure from the Divines would have crushed them into paste.

It didn't help that the atmosphere within the Breaking Chasm was even more cruel than the great void. Again, if not for Skullius' protection, they would not have been able to so much as blink, and that was if the gravity didn't turn them into pancakes first.

The Stars fared only slightly better, but they too had never felt so overwhelmed. Even Uyuniya, whom the Stellars seemed to regard as a mortal like the rest, was having difficulty moving freely.

Truly, this wasn't a place for the average, not to mention the subpar.

Skullius sighed, considering his subordinates.

Kintar.

Grim.

Yuyui.

Baddan.

Savast.

'Wait just a little longer…' he thought before facing the oncoming flood of animosity.

"For all your barking, you're suspiciously reserved. Look at you all, standing in place and mouthing off brazenly when you could do something about your qualms. Last I checked, words didn't do all the fighting," he said, summoned Rafnuung, and pointed it at the great serpent Stellar Head. Subossais and the other armoured figures tensed and drew their weapons.

"Unlike you cowards, I wouldn't mind taking your heads right this instant," continued Skullius lightly, as though he were merely retelling a sweet poem. "I dare you. Make another snide remark about my family if you think Gylliard is fast enough to stop me from taking your life."

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