Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The transition was horrendous.

Ashema had been certain of victory, but when the light came, he immediately felt that momentary sense of triumph slip through his fingers.

How did this happen?

When did he get trapped in this space, which looked as though it was crafted using an infinite number of large Cullinan diamonds, all of which reflected different intensities of golden white into Ashema's eye while launching a striking blur over everything?

It was nauseating yet also mesmerizing. It took Ashema all his willpower to not succumb to the beauty and gape foolishly at it.

'How did this…?' Ashema had wondered once again, when he remembered. He had seen a glimpse of what had happened. Just a little.

It was the Heart of Revelation.

It had still been floating above Skullius everywhere he went, and when he was about to get hit by that fatal blow – he assumed it was, at least – it simply erupted into a shower of light that seemingly moved as quickly and as gracefully as the Heart of Revelation to form this space.

'Ah… Was I doomed to lose from the beginning?' Ashema thought with a hollow smile. 

Something was holding him perfectly still. He couldn't do anything other than move his head.

Beyond that, if he had felt naked in the presence of the Heart of Revelation before, now he felt like he was being groped in all his sensitives, as though being frisked for secrets.

Squinting heavily, he tried to see past the glare of the space, but he couldn't see much. He noticed dark smudges some distance away and imagined that it was either the remaining birds or the furry beast kin, floating in place like he was.

"Ever heard of the saying, light conquers all?" a familiar voice came to Ashema.

He sighed. 

"Never heard of it. And I don't like it," he replied.

"Hahaha, of course."

A bundle of light much clearer and less disturbing to the eye compared to that which made up this space poured before him, creating the fully, ungouged image of a man with six wings.

Skullius looked to have vibrant smile on his brilliant face.

Ashema didn't like that either.

"Now that we've reached this point, do you mind telling me what you are… and what this creepy place is?" he said while tilting his head.

Skullius didn't respond for a while. He studied Ashema slowly, and then said:

"I'm a Luminant."

"Hmmm. I wish I knew what that was. Something impressive? I knew for sure you couldn't be human, or whatever the freaks who live here are. I'd love to taste their blood."

Skullius chuckled before assuming a sitting posture.

"It seems to me that what I am, is the opposite of what you are, in a way. You see, I have this ability that works best when I'm dealing with an enemy like you, a merchant of darkness perhaps figuratively and also literally. The fact that my light in this form works against you tells me much about you already."

Ashema looked confused.

Somehow being called a merchant of darkness didn't feel like a compliment. It made it seem like he was the bad guy here. Hadn't he been the underdog in this relatively short skirmish?

And what was this ability Skullius was referencing?

The answer to that, was rather fascinating.

~~~

[Son of Luserus (Special) | Lv.1]

A blessing wholly granted to the beloved, graceful winged paragons of excellence, to shed themselves of their delightful grace, and ignite their overwhelming ferocity when needed.

<Passive>

Gracefully, four wings remain etched to the user's back, perpetuating a 20x boost to their physical prowess and the overall performance of their magical abilities collectively.

<Active>

Gracefully, a third pair of wings ignite the child of excellence into the purity of light, into a vague shape of radiant majesty when confronted with opposite ideals to light and purity. The child of excellence will be granted several qualities of light: the reflective defense of light; the intangibility of light; a smaller portion of the speed of light. 

---

Mana Requirements: None

Duration: 10 minutes

Cooldown: 1hr

~~~

[Son of Luserus]'s active ability allowed Skullius to embody light to a certain extent. At least that was what it was currently limited to at the moment.

When he became encased in light, the third pair of wings granted him an additional boost to his physical abilities that raised the total upper limit to 30 times what his base power was capable of. 

Better yet, he could become intangible, releasing this characteristic when he wanted to deliver a blow to an enemy.

He could move faster with the granted portion of the speed of light, which worked best if he moved in a straight line.

He could also repel anything that reflected the light he gave off, which effectively drowned the effectiveness of most physical attacks sent against him.

 Skullius already considered all this overkill for a mere Special Skill, but he was sure this wasn't the epitome of what this skill was capable of, after all, it was still graded as Special even after Luserus unlocked it for him. The Hybrid Luman surmised that it was probably because of the Rules of the world that this skill was still limited as such, otherwise Luserus would have granted him the whole package. Quite honestly, he doubted Luserus had an intricate power system in the world he created.

Skullius sighed.

'I can only become a 'vague shape of light' for now. This doesn't match what Darwel said happened to the Luminants when they used this skill, does it? We'll see once it reaches the Super category.'

"Forget what I just said," Skullius voiced, seeing as Ashema didn't extract the meaning in what he said. Perhaps he did but chose to still feign confusion.

"I see. You still haven't answered me, though. What is this place? And while we are on the subject, how did you heal from my attack?" Ashema asked quite boldly.

Skullius looked up blankly, unconcerned.

"I am more proficient at controlling light right now. I've been learning that I can shape it however I like, much like you and your kind can do with darkness. My light CONTROLS and GUIDES. As you long as you are devoured by it, you will eventually lose control of your body. Hmmm, I hadn't given this space a name. [Perfect Light Domain] is probably fitting," he explained, thinking that it contrasted well with a skill he hadn't used in a long time – [Perfect Night Domain]. 

"As for how I healed, well… that will be too complex to explain."

The reason was of course [Gradius Order Halo] cast by the Preeminent Attegoth. What was strange was that the skill was even more efficient at healing Skullius' luminous body than his flesh one because it was derived from Dezrael back then, when it was still called [Luminous Healing]!

(A\N: Refer to Ch.68).

It was made for Luminants.

Ashema didn't press for more answers and would have shrugged if he could. Skullius decided it was his turn to do some asking.

"I think I did a pretty good job of getting a feel for all your abilities. They are quite interesting. Bood, darkness. Though, I suppose I won't be able to learn more about them by brute forcing the answers out of you, will I? You've got several of those corpse replacements for just in case you die here, haven't you?"

…

Ashema wore a snide smile.

It was true.

"Looks like we have to settle this with civility in the end, won't we?"