Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1419 In Death and Time (3)

1419 In Death and Time (3)

Something all too vibrant coursed the group. It had no trouble causing the great void to tremble, so it stood to reason that it wouldn't have any qualms pulsing through the mortals drifting within the boundless space they did not fully comprehend.

But it was not a mere vibration.

The beasts felt their time being disturbed. Indeed, a threat had come over to touch not just their lives, but the time they flowed through. For the weaker beasts, it might have been a mere pulse of dread coursing through their bodies and souls, but for the stronger ones...

Asthon and Jiggorrhax saw it.

They saw their time rising from them in shapes that matched their own. The time was colored in a mix of green and white, throbbing. As the vibration persisted, the outlines of time made to flee in the direction of the Chronocle Fiend.

The old bird and the Herald responded as quickly as they could.

The latter manifested vicious Rules Runes that rushed to brand themselves onto his own outline while the former spread his wings and cried, "Absolute Magic, Fear!"

A great wheel of Runes appeared before Asthon and cast a fizzing purple haze over his own outline. The shape of time was shocked in fright too conceptual to be mere emotion - mere sensation. It froze in place. Asthon applied the Absolute effect to the time outlines of all the other beasts as well, ensuring their safety.

'I cannot hold it for long. That thing wants to devour our time. I'm not sure what happens after, but I'm hoping it's something as simple as death,' the bird thought. 'This is all wrong.'

He felt his control immediately slip from his grip. It seemed even the peak of Magecraft he had learned through the Mages who often visited the courts of the many Kings of Pelian wasn't enough to stop the audacious, greedy pull of the Fiend. But, of course, it wasn't.

Luckily two individuals had responded to the threat less than a micro-second after the old bird.

Grim spilled out of his beast form into his human form. He used a piece of the sky from Jiggorrhax's shattered world as a foothold and activated two of the Starmation from his armour. A staggering amount of Null Life Essence and mana were expended at once.

Grim clicked his tongue. Azila and the frost goblin landed on the same piece of sky he was on.

Jiggorrhax flew lower until he was right above them.

"Only extremely high conceptual abilities may be effective against the enemy now. And it appears we cannot move as freely as we desire," he said to everyone through the network. "We cannot leave the protection of this barrier lest we fall victim to being siphoned of our time. I do dread the consequences of such a fate. We have to find a better way to fight and ultimately get what Suzamete wants."

Grim concurred, as did everyone else.

He couldn't copy the traits of the Chronocle Fiend while he was this far away and without interacting with and understanding it. The fact that the Fiend seemed to have stopped charging towards Aigas only made him nervous. It must have been unnerved by how it was unable to beat them at once with that time-siphoning ability.

'It's going to try something else. And I don't think our shields are going to hold for long if it uses stronger abilities,' he thought.

"This is all wrong!" Asthon cried through the mana network and everyone was shaken.

What the hell?

But even more worthy of surprise than the old bird's scream was the sudden shudder of the golden rings barrier and Grim's defensive Starmations. They quaked so boldly that it seemed they would break in a moment or two.

The scent of death grew fouler and viler.

The Impermanence Fiends were driven to agitation.

For death was an enemy to those who attempted to skirt it, and its emissaries had long noted the presence of one of its greatest enemies: Null Life.