A notification flashed in front of Seramoro, though it could hardly care for it. It all spelled one thing with extended specificity, though in the same casualness as when Skullius was still an Undead in the Tremur.
Immense danger.
[Congratulations! You have royally screwed yourself by entering a Majestic Territory!]
....
Seramoro let out a blood-curdling screech as the light from the enormous moon above hit it with its smooth, pale glow. The effect on the long-haired figure, was that it was turned hazy, like an illusion. But that wasn't all.
Far from it.
Seramoro wailed and knelt down, huddling against itself like a foetus. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that only its physical body was turned into the see-through apparition by the moon. A solid, short form with a bright glow was revealed under the mortal vessel!
A battered and incomplete soul that couldn't even fill the body.
Around the soul's edges, a ghostly steam rose softly, and as it did, the pitiable soul was eaten away, parts of it seeming to travel as gorgeous flakes of white up to the moon.
This was what caused Seramoro great pain.
Rayn looked at this vessel with an uncaring visage.
"Time has been eaten away, Fulgardt. Histories, Families, and legacies as well. But, this moon... Under its bare light, even the sturdiest of concepts have to reveal their most delicate weaknesses. You are NO exception. You NEVER will be..." he said coolly, and the moon seemed to swell once more, as though Rayn was its sun.
Seramoro writhed.
Majestic Territories were among the fiercest powers in Aigas.
Incandescent Stage experts and above were the only ones with access to them, but it was no small feat to project a Territory.
Even the most talented Incandescent Stager could only conjure a murky-textured colour scape around them when they finally learned to express their Territory for the first time. Besides arbitrary inflations to their physical ability as well as technique efficiency, their Territories would have nothing else special about them, and could even be countered easily by similar Staged experts without them having to express their own Territories.
It took skill, past layering the solid white Nitros, to colour it as one pleased, and to create an Imaginary GeoScape; an extraordinary structure of the user's desire that allowed them to exploit the strengths of a Territory.
Only by laying out a vivid environment encrusted with personalised objects could one develop the Primary, Second and Tertiary abilities of a Majestic Territory. These were entirely separate from the ERASURE of energies that occurred as soon as a Territory fully enclosed around its target. That was simply an effect of creating the Territory shell.
What was exerting over Seramoro at this moment, for instance, was a Primary ability of the Majestic Territory, Deific Moonlight Paradise.
Moonlight Revelation.
It was a passive Primary attack that made the physical body of the target irrelevant, and slowly dealt damage to their soul. Though 'slow' was subjective. It depended on the opponent.
Primary abilities were usually passive, and a stronger user could create multiple of them. However, within the Territory, the Passive effect was limited in its power. It was supposed to be an environmental effect at best, not a world breaking attack or defensive mechanism.
Sevill and Viccil watched with hard, hidden faces as Seramoro cried out. Seeing the revealed form of the soul captive in this vessel, and how far it was from looking anything remotely close to graceful was a great blow. The two Sif guards couldn't help but feel a pang of fury on Skullius' behalf.
Sevill was preoccupied with withholding Darwel's soul, thus she couldn't even dream of racing to help Seramoro, or as she saw it, Skullius. Viccil on the other hand, she felt an increasingly growing dilemma within her mind.
A bubbly, solid white coat of Nitros was around her, encompassing Vali and Maxim as well, and any offensive strategies she had which she thought would work to save Skullius, could only work if she was moving alone. And if she left these two, they would undoubtedly fall prey to the Territory's Moonlight Revelation.
It wasn't a question of loyalty. Besides this reason, Viccil didn't know if she could change the situation. This Territory was incredibly sculpted, and absurdly powerful. Her own couldn't even venture to clash against it in the best of cases.
Even now, the Primary attack, Moonlight Revelation, was devastating her Nitros layer quickly, even though she wasn't being actively targeted.
The tall man definitely wasn't an Incandescent Stage expert, otherwise she wouldn't be this nervous.
All a weaker Incandescent Stager could do against a stronger Territory, was to guard with Nitros. Because of the physique attained when one reached the Incandescent Stage, it was possible for an expert to delay the effect of energy ERASURE within a Territory long enough to transform their mana into Nitros.
With just this, Viccil could only hope to defend against a Primary attack from this Territory. Anything else...
Actuass, a distance away in this massive Territory, observed. He too was decked in Nitros, but like Sevill and Viccil, he felt it rapidly crumbling, forcing him to exhaust more of his mana to replenish it. Luckily...
'The cracks on Rayn's body worsened since using the Territory, but not by much...' Actuass thought, a hopeful look showing from under his mask. 'It's adjusting. Both effects will calm it.'
The moon grew brighter, and it got worse for Seramoro. It grunted, and curled but nothing changed. The pain grew more severe, the agony harder to endure. And this was before the Secondary attack came.
The Secondary ability of a Territory was rarely ever ready to use as soon as a Territory was projected. It wasn't a problem for beasts who were able to constantly express their Territory in a dormant state, like Azila the Great Mane Mountain Ape, or the Grinning Jester Fox, but not humans who had a limited usage to their Territories.
Rayn was waiting for the Secondary attack to charge, which showed by the swelling of the moon, but he didn't take pleasure in the prospect of killing Fulgardt. After all, this wasn't exactly him, and he didn't know if it was the ONLY HIM.
Suddenly, as he gazed at the writing Seramoro, he found it standing up.
'Not going down that easy, huh?' Rayn thought unsurprised. But he didn't approach.
The moonlight intensified after a ripple of added power droned from under his feet to push the Primary attack of the Territory further against Seramoro. It could be bolstered manually.
Seramoro howled once again as the pain turned even more excruciating, and the soul visible through its body was reduced in size by a third!
The outside world, visible through the transparent sandy gold walls of the Territory trembled at the moan of pain.
...And Seramoro persisted, standing upright even as it screeched disturbingly.
For while the pain increased, Seramoro's hatred and fury for Rayn, the very thing that summoned its will, grew.
It was like a stabbing sensation that bit behind its second face, causing it to become restless. And as a result...
[ Pseudo Evil Veneration | 5% ]
...
[ Pseudo Evil Veneration | 20% ]
...
[ Pseudo Evil Veneration | 65% ]
...
Its prowess grew.
Seramoro's body started to shrivel up, as if being wrung from the inside, something pulling on what it could to sustain itself. Its soul was even rapidly drawn on, as if a portion if it – asides from the damage from Moonlight Revelation – was also used to give strength to something else.
Rayn frowned.
'The vessel it is using isn't capable of resisting the lock on its mana. How is it...?' he thought frustratedly.
In the next moment...
"|RAAAAAAAAR!|"
Seramoro roared at Ryan, and large ball of distorted darkness spawned and flew at the former Royal Knight so fast that the rest didn't see anything but a crippling shadow a moment before a loud bang! The depth of the darkness had been so great it had temporarily shunned the golden glow within the Territory!
Rayn emerged unharmed though.
Before him, what looked like silvery golden sand was whipping on and on in a messy tangle, dismantling what remained of the dark attack just now.
This was another Primary ability of his Territory. A defensive one.
Moon's Guardian.
The tall man's attention was drawn back to Seramoro, and he found it trembling, withering even further.
Then...
"|@#&*!|" the figure uttered unknown words with excruciating emphasis, as if speaking from its gut. A mass of darkness spilled from before its second face, and slid to the ground like a dark liquid.
...!
The darkness then turned solid after flowing to Seramoro's side, and began to form a tall, blacker than night stalk that rose to hang limply over the long-haired figure. With what was most definitely immense difficulty, drape-like objects, coloured in the same dark matte, emerged from the tip of the stalk and cast a deep shadow over Seramoro.
The shadow was quite wide, and it discontinued the flow of the moonlight from anywhere near the long-haired figure, cancelling the Moon Revelation over it!
"Absurd," Rayn remarked, disgusted.
He was looking at a terribly ridiculous feat, yet all he could think of was revolting it was; the payment to achieve this.
Veneration again.
A Veneration art was not the same as a technique branded onto the body. Limits could be surpassed by giving sacrifices and supplying power that wasn't the usual requirement.
Rayn had seen it. The shrivelling of the flesh, the usage of soul energy. Mana wasn't the only way to power a Veneration art.
And the results of the sacrifice couldn't be denied.
Seramoro knelt down, his body now fully physical again, and the outline of its soul safe and hidden within it.
And then...
[ Pseudo Evil Veneration | 95% ]
The darkness around Seramoro grew stronger, the spreading shadow blocking the lunar enmity lorded over by its greatest foe, granting it more strength and reckless resolve.
A suicidal resolve fuelled by hatred.
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