Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1377: The Truth of It (3)



Serenity elaborated while Skullius furrowed his brows, reserving his comments for now. He hinged firmly on the fact that Serenity apparently wasn't allowed to have a bearer of Null Life outside the wider reality.

That was... unexpected.

"In order to skirt this restriction, I had VOW help me create a Book of Alignment. Books of Alignment, as you well know, are the pinnacle of Runecraft in reality and the style of their creation cannot be replicated easily, save by someone like VOW who sees and knows most things," she said, and suddenly sounded a little nostalgic. "In order to mask the presence of my odd powers, I also added another Book of Alignment with an ability - accessible even to a mortal - which would help them blend into different environments: [Flesh It Like You Mean It]. I didn't come up with the name, by the way."

Skullius almost chuckled.

Serenity continued.

"Since I couldn't create a bearer in this reality, my plan was to smuggle my Books of Alignment elsewhere - somewhere without the restrictions that bound me."

Skullius frowned at this.

"Don't tell me..."

"Yes. I wanted to smuggle it to another reality and travel there myself, away from this place. Start a new life as an obscure entity. I'd heard the other realities might be greater and richer than this one."

...!

Skullius barely held in his visceral reaction to this revelation. He had much to ask, but he allowed Serenity to continue without interruption.

"This is where Somanda comes in. I'm sure you've wondered at some point - after learning about the Existential Parallels - why it is that Somanda was the one with the Books of Alignment I had VOW make for me, if they did hold a power of a higher calibre than Undeath," she continued.

Serenity merely asked for the sake of creating an adequate atmosphere for the information she was about to give. She knew Skullius had wondered about everything. The books, Somanda's intentions with Aigas before he escaped him, everything.

The Hybrid Warmoth listened keenly.

"In order to smuggle my Books of Alignment out of this reality, I foolishly employed the help of Emmae - the Eminence of Undeath. You see, her realm - which you call Deadmanland - is located at the edge of this reality. Well, technically. It is a cheap copy of what I made with the Null Verse, but in some ways, it is very impressive. In exchange for helping me, I offered Emmae the blueprint of how I created the Null Verse using a Reality rank Prime Treasure as a base. I thought it was a fair trade. I still believe it was. Perhaps even a little more beneficial for Emmae since once I was gone, she would have one less major competitor for worlds."

Evidently, Serenity's plan had failed.

Skullius could scarcely hold himself back from outwardly rendering a guess as to how it fell through.

"Let me guess. Emmae decided to try and steal your power through the Books of Alignment?" he posited.

Serenity laughed.

"I knew you'd think that," she said, "But no."

There were hints of pride in her voice.

"In all truth, that was the first time Emmae earned my respect over Void as a sister. She, like all others envies my powers and my Treasure, and would love to learn the secrets, but she wants to accomplish it in a manner that satisfies her pride. I saw it back then. She took the Books of Alignment and threw them at the feet of one of her highest-ranked High Liches and told him to do as he would with them. And as for me..."

Serenity chuckled.

"She jeered and scorned me for treating her like a lapdog - something so desperate that it would lick even the leftovers which fell from my table. She chased me out of her halls with her armies, laughing at me, sneering at how my creations were locked up somewhere, probably ignorant of the existence of their creator, unable to stand and fight for me."

Skullius would be lying if he asserted that the contrast between Serenity's chuckle and the sombreness of her tale didn't tug at a few of his strings. He felt a little sorry for the progenitor of Null Life. However, even stronger than this emotion, was his curiosity.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"So, let me get this straight. You offered Emmae the method for how you created Null Verse, and even a Book of Alignment bearing your powers and in the name of pride she threw them away? That's not pride. That stupidity!" Skullius declared.

"Not at all. Like I said before, the Books of Alignment are made using the highest tier of Runecraft there is. Emmae and her Liches aren't privy to such knowledge. They would have, if Vow favoured them, but well... Because of that, I was confident even if she tried to pry the book open, breaching our agreement - if she did agree, that is - she wouldn't be able to learn its secrets. Only VOW could allow that. Emmae knew this too," Serenity said.

Skullius frowned. Well, if that was the case then it made sense. Now that he put some brain cells into it, he gathered that the blueprint for how Serenity created the Null Verse and the Null Verse itself were two different things. Emmae was interested in the latter - the creatures and artefacts born within the Null Verse.

"So, this High Lich who got the Books of Alignment..." Skullius began.

"I soon learned through VOW that he was Somanda's superior at the time. He spent Consternals trying to learn the powers in the books, and only succeeded where [Flesh It Like You Mean It] was concerned. Books of Alignment have ranks of complexity, and those containing mortal abilities are significantly less complex than those with Existential Parallel powers. This High Lich soon lost interest, and passed the books to Somanda. As an Arch-Lich, Somanda his own ambitions. He had been eyeing Aigas for a while back then. He had placed an artefact there, just like many other Liches when Aigas' Rules were in shambles, and someone had actually managed to find it and connect with him."

"The masked man..." Skullius said.

"Yes," confirmed Serenity. "Somanda couldn't use the Book of Alignment with Null Life, and thus, settled for using (Flesh It Like You Mean It] instead. His superior had already cracked that one for him. The ability might have been a mere parlour trick to the High Lich, but to Somanda... well, he imagined if he gave himself flesh, he could work out a plan to infiltrate Aigas, with the added help of the Legendary grade artefact SoSei in the hands of the masked necromancer. You put a stop to that. Thankfully, VOW, ever-watching, used the chance. She acknowledged you, gave you access to the guidance field, and allowed you to acquire both Null Life and [Flesh it Like You Mean It], the latter already primed for Aigas' power system."

(A/N: Refer to Ch.299.)