Bro, I'm not an Undead!

"Why are you suddenly so limp? Are you that scared of that guy?" Replicus said.

At first, Thrill didn't answer. He looked annoyed... and ashen.

Replicus scoffed.

"What manner of coward are you? I thought your name was Thrill."

"I'm not a coward!" Thrill finally barked with vigour. "Have you any idea what I've had to do in order to keep that... him... imprisoned?" At the latter end of his outburst, Thrill seemed to remember that he who spoke of was still at large. "All of us are subject to a special wand the Great Father of that era is gifted by the gold. We can't oppose."

"Is that right?" Replicus said, and his eyes darted to where the gold continued to boil a distance away. "You know the wands he has by name? And their effects?"

Thrill remained silent.

"For socket's sake just say it, you bastard! You're screwed whether or not you tell me. You kept that sockethole locked up for centuries!"

"He deserved it!" Thrill blurted again. "He's cruel to his own kind! You won't get to see it. He doesn't have an absolute hold over you, does he?"

At that moment, the layer of gold where Hope and the Bishop had been washed down exploded upward, and the former shot out into the sky with a gleeful triple grin.

He stretched out his six arms and with one wand that Replicus immediately deigned to identify, he caused the gold to cool and solidify instantly.

With a wave of the wand again, the gold fashioned itself anew, creating golden vegetation, hills, homes and many of the same things Replicus had seen when he first came here.

Thrill shuddered.

Replicus used Spatial Lightning to appear far and into the sky and dragged the Distorted Gravity orb pulling on Thrill up to him in a blink.

'Did the Bishop lose?' Replicus thought while watching Hope look down in satisfaction.

No way.

Her nine guards were still around, flying in the air, their faces inexpressive.

Surely that meant the Bishop was still alive, right? At least perhaps the glowing tunics the nine were should.

The nine all held out their bows, aiming arrows at Hope.

Replicus couldn't understand why they kept doing this.

It seemed Hope wondered the same.

"The rest of you fled. You should have taken the chance to run as well..." he said as he raised his wand.

Replicus turned tense.

He really hoped it wasn't the Siphoning Axis again.

In any case, he was sending a command to Araeyn at the same he saw Hope's wand flick. If it really was his turn to fight-

"Hahahahahaha!" a raucous laughter exploded, not from below, but above.

The Mad Bishop was soaring above Hope, her figure looking burnt but vivacious.

Hope looked up with three frowns.

"Still?" he grunted before desperately pointing his wands up.

However...

Something he didn't expect occurred.

Even Replicus hadn't, and it was fitting, since he had been wondering about its source just now.

The nine flying around in the air, holding their bows, saw them vanish from their hands and rush upward as streams of pristine blueish white light.

It happened too quickly!

...!!!

Replicus was grateful that he hadn't been anywhere close to the nine, who, as it seemed, were constantly flying while creating a circular boundary around Hope and the Bishop, intentionally.

 Hope, sensing danger, relaxed the Siphoning Axis and extended the Flawless Flail of Ruin at the Bishop!

The old fossil above him merely laughed.

"This is not from me, dear fool. This is purely the strength of my subordinates. Ah, those I have inducted into my Faith. THEY are the true source of my strength," she said, stunning everyone who heard.

"Good!" Hope bellowed before pointing the Flawless Flail of Ruin at one of nine.

"Ah, fair mistake. Did I give you the impression that these nine are all that are piously involved in my Faith? Pity. There are thousands of believers and unless you can kill them all once, you are kidding bread," the Bishop said.

Hope growled unreasonably and he flicked another one of his wands.

The world spun.

Replicus cursed.

Again!

However, he heard the Bishop speak clearly.

"You see, when my believers, in a collective cannot fell an enemy...ugh, I might vomit... When exactly 1,000 blows they attempt fail to reach an enemy, an intervention beyond even me flourishes and comes to their aid. Divine intervention. Even I don't know where it comes from and it takes a different form each time."

...!!!

As though to demonstrate in action what the Bishop had just said, the so-called Divine intervention showed itself.... from above.

Of course, Replicus couldn't see what was happening, but he felt it.

It descended from the blameless sky; a partly visible dark purple hue that stormed down like lightning, with purpose!

It smashed into Hope in high fractions of time, and the Curse was torn down from the sky and onto the golden land he had reformed with an incredible boom that wrecked an excessive amount of it!

The Curse bellowed in pain, for the torrent of purple didn't stop descending!

It seemed infinite!

The victims of the Siphoning Axis were relieved at that moment, and they looked at the ongoing result of the 'Divine Intervention'.

The jolt of purple was akin to a misty acid that tore Hope's skin apart, disintegrating his flesh by the second. His triply scream rang across the Cluster boisterously!

Replicus was amazed.

'What could be capable of this?' he asked himself.

He couldn't tell what the light purple haze was supposed to be.

The Bishop knew.

She laughed in ridicule at Hope.

"Of course! The answer to hope... It was so clear. Despair!" she cried out.

The Penetrator looked at her and gaped.

Despair?

So the purple he saw... the torrent attacking Hope... was tangible despair!

Right! The Curses were protected by exaggerated versions of the emotions they represented. The swiftest way to beat them... was to expose them to an opposing emotion!

 If only humans could actualize emotion as weapons.

Hope looked to be in a great deal of pain.

Blood gushed from his mouths, and his arms were quickly starting to become all bone.

Was this the end for the Curse?

Replicus turned to Thrill who had a semi-hopeful look on his face as he watched his Great Father's demise.

"Now will you tell me what Hope's wands can do?" Replicus asked.

Thrill looked to turn stubborn again, but he did respond.

"Why do you keep asking? You want to steal them? Hahaha! You can try, but only a Curse can use these wands! They are nurtured by mother gold only for us! It will be useless to you!" he sneered.

"I'll be the judge of that," Replicus said and he turned to Araeyn. "I want you to retrieve that particular one."

He sent a mental image of the exact one he wanted, and Araeyn obeyed his command with a frown. As always.

With the Empyrean Ribbon, which could extend as long as he wanted, the Apostle rushed down on a silky red curve.

At the same time, the Mad Bishop darted down towards Hope as well.

The two descending towards the Curse, with obvious objectives; ones that did nothing to assuage his panic, caused him to rage.

The Siphoning Axis activated.

The Mad Bishop used a Creed to stabilise her vision and find Hope's location.

As for Araeyn...

Replicus had entrusted this task to him because he had discovered, quite obviously, that the Apostle was not affected by the Siphoning Axis. After all, he didn't have eyes.

Much like how he resisted the ghost in Nedalia's Territory, he was immune to things he could not see and more.

And thus, with his mysterious perception he continued to hurtle towards Hope freely... and without pause.