Bonet's sockets flickered with an intense light as he welcomed another day in undeath. He rose from the position which he had laid in and stood up.r
His spot was a hollow space in the wall where he and the rest of his dead folk would go into 'slumber' a�" each with their own individual spots, of course.r
Below his own hollow was another one also etched into the same wall, one of his many brethren still in slumber within it though only moments away from being revived into fresh death by the power of their master.r
The tomb was small, with a large, firm rock covering the circular entrance imposingly, this clearly being a hilarious aesthetic placed by the unfunny higher echelon of the dead, as in all seriousness, who could escape from this place?r
Bonet's fellow brother in death shook, causing his bony body to rattle and the fire in his sockets to burn a bright blue.r
He woke up and jumped down from the hollow, landing on the ground with a perfect bony score of 10.r
"Dead morning, Bonet," he said to his bunk tomb mate.r
"Dead morning to you too, Socketson," Bonet reciprocated the cheerful greeting.r
Bonet's gaze lingered on his friend, as he did every time since THAT day. He got the feeling that something was missing but he couldn't quite put a bone on it. There was a specific scene that should play out where he would then be forced to ask...r
"Bro, what are you doing?" Socketson broke Bonet's immersion into deep thought with the blue flames in his eyes dancing in confusion.r
Bonet jerked, his large frame swaying a little.r
"I don't know. I vaguely felt like something was missing," he replied dismissively.r
"Alright then, mate. Let's hurry. We really shouldn't miss roll call."r
Bonet walked up to the large rock that covered the tomb, as did Socketson. As they began pushing the large rock away, behind them, a figure decked in an ethereal glow, its finer details barely looking to be connected to this world stood, gawking, mouth agape and blank eyes swollen with disbelief!r
"WHAT THEEE FLESH?!" Skullius screamed but no one heard his boisterous voice ring so madly around!r
In his hazy Hybrid Luman form, he had spawned several seconds ago to find that, [Celestial Hack] had actually worked!r
It transcended Rules and Worlds to actually allow him to peer into distant places as promised!r
It had brought him to Deadmanland, as he had envisioned and right where he wanted to appear to boot!r
With a mysterious kind of vivid sight that actually allowed him to see properly granted to him, Skullius was taking in everything a�" his old bro Bonet, the bunk tomb and...r
"I'VE BEEN REPLACED?!" Skullius screamed again to the oblivious two skeletons a�" one bulky with a greyish bone colour tone and an unimpressive frail one with no features of note a�" who pushed the large rock that acted as their door from the entrance successfully.r
Skullius took steps towards the two with a furious visage, the usual calmness that was slowly smothering his Hybrid Luman form of late collapsing temporarily under the pressure of his original temperament!r
"Seriously, Bonet?! After all this time, you actually replaced me?! Who even this new bro? Socketson?! That's a terrible name! Mine is clearly more imaginative! His mana core.... it's barely existent and there's nothing special about him! Ah, I could strangle you right now, you traitor! Have you ANY idea how much I have spread your false legends in Aigas?! And here you are, fraternising with inferior sons of lanky femurs?!" the Hybrid Luman huffed after bombarding the completely unaware Bonet who strode with this... Socketson, out of the bunk tomb... with his arm around his shoulder!r
Skullius' eyes bulged and he nearly extended his hand with the intent to cast [Undaunted Calamity] on the frail, assless imposter!r
Soon though, he calmed down. He only had a limited amount of time and several seconds had been beaten to death by the cringe worthy scenes he had seen.r
Skullius scoffed, turning away from the two skeletons to look around the massive space between the collection of bunk tombs where the seemingly insurmountable number of Moronic Undead a�" Greater and Lesser included a�" flocked at the end and at the start of each day.r
The Hybrid Luman's rage faded as a blast of nostalgia smote his mind. The dark, creepy space full of stupid skeletons chatting before the work of the day began, the luminous collection of pathetic mana cores, the constant challenges for who was next to attain the skill [Boneman of Steel]...r
It was all painfully nostalgic.r
Skullius felt a powerful emotion grip him as he saw the cracked, weak skeletons.r
Sadly, Somanda's words rung in his head as he gazed upon all the fellowships among his past brofriends.r
All this was fake. The camaraderie, the friendships...r
It was all because each and every skeleton here was missing a piece of their soul and to make themselves feel whole, they were forced to desperately try and forge intimacy through any means to fill the void.r
Suddenly, Bonet hanging out with this Socketson character made Skullius less angry and more sympathetic.r
In fact, he began to feel a bit ashamed for screaming at Bonet when he knew this truth now and to top that all off, Skullius' earlier quandary about his identity almost seemed like a luxury when compared to the struggle these souls denied rest went through a�" resurrected only to be split and put to eternal labour service by a cruel force.r
'I was thinking too much,' Skullius thought. 'I do want an identity but... maybe goals determine identity more than anything else. First and foremost, as far as I'm concerned, I was this.'r
He was this. A weak, oblivious skeleton that vaguely started to remember fragments of his past through [Mana Sense] and also the obscure ability from his past that Serenity hinted at.r
'Since in a few months or less I'll be coming here anyway... I'll keep my identity as a former undead and use it to free these guys,' Skullius declared in his mind, his mental voice choking on sorrow.r
He considered that perhaps Somanda knew he was here. Well... 'here', but he only had a few seconds left anyway and he wanted to use the last bits of this time to watch his old pals.r
As he reached the crowd of skeletons gathered for roll call, he found the old gang bundled together and chatting.r
Bonet, the large Fractures, Mono-socket... and then this new Socketson.r
"Tktktktkktktktktkt! You're kidding! This little one is trying to learn [Boneman of Steel]?!" Fractures laughed while pointing at Socketson who looked flustered a�" an emotion Skullius could only identify because of his unalive-reanimated background.r
"Yep. He was begging me to teach him yesterday but he literally falls down at a touch. Brother here can barely lift up a pick axe. Somanda may be THIS close to pulling the mana plug on you, you know?" Bonet teased with a chortle.r
Socketson couldn't take the joke. He was alarmed.r
"Pull the mana plug?! No! No! I want to live! I want to live!" Socketson hugged Bonet's arm and screamed.r
Unfortunately for him, several death stares immediately landed on him from Bonet, Fractures and Mono-socket whose flames burnt bright, their taller frames intimidatingly looming over him, a bit closer than before.r
Mono-socket gripped Socketson's shoulder with a dark skull face.r
"Might want to rephrase that, bro," he demanded threateningly.r
Immediately, the fairly new Socketson recognised his mistake and shuddered.r
"I meant that... I want to stay dead...?" he said, a bit unsure.r
The atmosphere quickly switched to a lighter one again and Bonet smacked Socketson's back heavily.r
"Tktktktktktktktkt! That's better!" he said, laughing out loud, as did the others.r
Skullius watched this interaction with a quizzical expression on his face.r
"Has the word 'live' become another curse in Deadmanland? Weird, I don't remember any other undead ever saying something like 'I want to live' before," Skullius said while focusing on Socketson.r
Strange.r
This interaction was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps approaching, causing all the skeletons to shut up and stand at attention.r
Skullius turned to the front, the remaining seconds ticking by within his unwilling heart.r
To his surprise, the Death Knight he expected to show, as the reason behind the menacing footsteps was nowhere to be found. All he saw was giant creature decked in a black and red armour that hissed of a furious, crimson fume that bellowed around its figure terribly!r
Skullius doubted it was a Death Knight. It was definitely far stronger than that. The skeletons shuddered as well, all kneeling on one knee fearfully in a single swift movement.r
'It seems like things have changed a bit since Somanda's rise to Divinity,' Skullius thought with a scoff.r
Sadly, his time was up but thankfully, [Celestial Hack] didn't pull him out of this well of ongoing terror until he heard something he had wanted to hear for a long time.r
Something all the skeletons chanted everyday at this exact same time.r
As the bony fingers of all the undead were placed on their chests, Skullius joined in for old time's sake, chanting the daily motivation mantra along with his brethren.r
"FOREVER DEAD, DEAD FOREVER! F*CK LIFE! A NASTY ENDEAVOUR!"r
Yeah. That hit the spot.r
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