Bro, I'm not an Undead!

"GRIIIIIIIIIIIM!" Yuyui screamed.

As it happened, Grim was already on his way out the door following his mild altercation with Baddan. Startled by the sudden call, he hurried towards Yuyui only to freeze when the untamed pressure of a Deity slammed into him like an ocean current. He wasn't the only one startled by the scream, however.

Yuyui was dumbfounded when she saw the giant child grow stiff, pale, and then become a blur that rose up the stairs with an accompanying cacophony of thumping noises.

Only then did the thrashing pressure simmer down and vanish completely, leaving both Yuyui and Grim free to move.

"D-d-d-d-d-did you see it, Grim? Please tell me you saw it!" cried Yuyui, pointing towards the stairs with a shaking finger.

Instead of answering, Grim grabbed Yuyui's wrist and pulled her back into the Parlor, where a soothing sensation slipped through them at once. Just like that, the ordeal they'd just been through became a lie – like somehow, the doorway to the Parlor was some threshold that strained all uncomfortable sensations out of its residents.

As the door closed behind the two Unlimited Stars, the others gathered around them.

"What happened?" said Baddan, folding his arms.

"Please don't say you've just had another brush with death," said Gerriey, still looking both sick and weary.

Grim was in a better state of mind to answer Baddan's question, but he turned to Yuyui instead. As he patted her on the shoulder, only then did she seem to come back to her senses, her eyes turning vibrant once more.

"I didn't get to see it. Can you describe it?" he asked.

By then, Uyuniya and Elita had also joined the growing crowd, curious as to what was going on.

Yuyui turned from Grim, to Baddan and then to the Void Users. "I-I thought I was just… interpreting what I saw wrong at first, but when I screamed… Their reaction confirmed it, I think." She took a moment, drawing a deep breath. "I wish Grim had seen it too, just to confirm I'm not insane." Another pause. "Have you two ever seen a… child Deity?"

Elita opened her mouth as if to say something, paused, and then her jaw turned one way, her eyes narrowing and her head tilting. "Say that again."

Uyuniya folded her arms, brows furrowed.

"Just as it sounds," said Yuyui, alternating her gaze between the two. "A literal child Deity. He…rushed off when I screamed, scared. But his powers… they are definitely the kind only a Deity would have."

"That last part I can confirm," Grim chimed in and looked up at the ceiling. "If it weren't for the fact that this place actively restricts conditions that would harm or disturb its inhabitants, you would have all felt that pressure. It was…wild – like it was coming from someone who couldn't control it."

Everyone was baffled. The Troops were lost for words and thoughts as to what this could mean. Unlike the Stars, they couldn't distinguish the peril this posed from what they'd already seen from this place. Elita was the exception. Her speculation matched that which instantly began brewing in Yuyui, Grim, Baddan, and Savast's minds.

As for Uyuniya…

"Skullius needs to know about this immediately."

***

Speaking of the Hybrid, he was furiously at work in the Second Layer of the Empyrean Hatcher, scribbling on blank scrolls and reaching for the ones the Warmoth had already written on, branding them with unique ideas. His mind was getting saturated with odd innovations of every kind, and it was taking a while for him to get used to compartmentalise them without the guidance field's aid.

'I'm so used to it announcing the name of an attribute or ability and giving a blueprint as to how it can develop further. Maybe it's all for the better. I can't rely too much on the guidance field, not here.'

Still, it was inconvenient. Unless he got used to the absence of handholding in some respects by the Voice of Worlds, it would remain so.

But that wasn't the only inconvenience, it seemed.

'Pherdanta should have been done by now. I told her to follow the same course I set before. Did something go wrong? I should have Susu'k check.'

Indeed, two months should have elapsed within the Timemould Mirror Box by now (using the same metric of time as Aigas). As Skullius didn't have full authority over all the Warmoth's dimensions, he couldn't simply check in himself, hence why he considered having the great Strawler do it.

'I'm going to have to do a lot of delegating if I'm to get enough information about this place while dealing with all the incoming hazards. The Troops and Stars will have to get involved, risky as that may be. I was hoping to assign tasks based on everyone's strengths, but with the rest of the new recruits still in training…'

Skullius sighed.

It only made him feel worse, coming to terms with the fact that there were more hazards than resources to stifle them at the moment.

As he scribbled on the scrolls, he had been wondering about the intentions of the Primeval Deities. Now that he was here, how exactly would they use him as a spy? Was their method discreet enough to not get Skullius targeted, branding him the next Paliothese?

Then there was the matter of the weave keeping his Doom Factor 2 frozen. It would only last 10 Consternals (five days, according to Aigas' time), and in those 10 Consternals, Skullius had to analyze it enough to be able to recreate it with Conste. Was it doable? If he failed, Doom Factor 2 would erupt with a vengeance, attracting no small amount of attention.

On top of that, Skullius had promised to rescue Paliothese's son. The child was imprisoned somewhere here in the Monosphere, according to the severed head. How would Skullius secure the child without any hiccups? Thyrrga and all his underlings were already suspicious and wary of the Hybrid. A great number of them were much stronger than Skullius in terms of the Observed Calamity Scale, another thing Skullius had to analyze and truly understand.

And then there was the unnerving, latent danger posed by the Abyssal Fiend.

And then there was the animosity some of the Stellars had for Skullius.

To thwart all these dangers, Skullius needed resources – reliable ones. He had a few avenues to secure that, and most of them weren't easy to acquire. Not for now, at least.

…But there was one thing that could make his immediate goal of information gathering easier.

"Ferex, Red Rage Beyrmir…" the Nullmancer called to the Apostles waiting patiently below him.

Short of the siege of Deadmanland, there was perhaps no bigger role for the Apostles than what Skullius was about to give.

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