'Dominion?'
Replicus was caught off guard by the presented term.
He didn't have an inkling of an idea what this was, but the simple fact that the guidance field had brought to his attention this detail as evidence that the little Apostle was resisting him, not only instinctively, as he had expected, but with the support of an unknown authority, threw him off.
Then again, this little thing wasn't supposed to have a crown growing from its temples either.
Replicus still made to clasp the band in his head around the little thing's neck, when he found that his body... couldn't move. It refused to budge even an inch closer to the floating body.
He tried to push further. He was only a few inches from the little rascal. If he could just...
But it was no good.
He tried to draw himself back instead. Surprisingly, the binding force stopping him withered away, allowing him to move.
'The flesh? What's going on?' he asked with his sockets flashing bright.
The guidance field continued to narrate what was happening.
[Your Apostle qualifies in quality for a Higher Authority within the Null Verse]
[Your Apostle is attempting to fully claim the Authority left behind by a missing King in the Null Verse]
[Processing...]
Replicus felt a grave sense of unease.
A missing King? What was that supposed to mean? And his Apostle was trying to become... what in the Null Verse?
What did all of this allude to?
"Master!" Yuyui suddenly called to Replicus. "That crown... it looks just like the one the thing Ferex turned into had!"
Replicus' socket lights narrowed.
'Is that so?' he wondered, and his mind furiously tried to piece things together.
However, the little Apostle didn't remain idle. The greenish Null Life Essence from before began to gather behind its eyelids, which began to rise. It appeared that there were only holes behind its eyelids, which were filled with green light, as it did not hold have eyeballs at all, which Yuyui recognised to be similar to that thing the BoneTender had taken the body of back them.
As the bright hue overtook its sockets, Replicus immediately made the call.
"Timmit. Do it! Use your Primary assault!"
The stork, which had been massively taken aback by the sudden course of events – mainly the Penetrator's inability to tame his own creation – looked to Replicus hesitantly.
"But Bright Storm, the Primary attack for my Territory doesn't distinguish between friend and foe! You will be—"
"Just do it. We'll all be fine. Trust me. Your hits are fittingly weak, as a bird's should be anyway," Replicus said with a chuckle.
Timmit was offended even while knowing it was a joke, but he was more concerned about what the outcome to this was going to be.
Still, if Bright Storm said it was alright, then it was probably alright.
Timmit switched his Territory from dormancy.
The entire space shook, a moment away from expelling Timmit's Primary assault. At the same time, Yuyui turned pale, realising something.
"Master...!" Yuyui screamed and hugged the little creature in her arms tight.
Before she could finish her sentence, Replicus' finger had already pointed to her, and sent a dazzling bolt of grey lightning that smashed into the little beast's face. At once, it disappeared from Yuyui's arms, just before a terrible power smashed onto her!
This same power smacked Replicus and the floating Apostle too!
'I really hate this bird's Territory...' Replicus thought with his sockets dimming.
He buckled and knelt on one knee. Then suddenly, hundreds of rough, red leaves began to gush from his body, soaring up into the collective circle of hunching trees that could be seen when one looked up.
The same began to happen to Yuyui, whose confusion at first then turned to incredible fatigue that killed her in less than two seconds after Timmit activated the hostile functions of his Territory!
The newly born Apostle was not exempt from this.
It made a shallow cry equal in likeness to that of a human infant, and squirmed as leaves burst from its body as well.
Replicus cackled.
That's it.
Timmit's Territory, Scarlet Usurper's Corridor – as the stork had named it – was the best for this situation after all.
Its Primary attack mechanism targeted all living organisms within the Territory, and confiscated their vitality and mana, the sequence of which was represented visually by red leaves leaving the targets' bodies, as all of it would be stored within the Territory.
Of course, vitality was a loose term. In reality, vitality, in the Territory grounds extended to both mental and physical. To fiends like Replicus with inexhaustible stamina, the strain would be mainly focused on their mental energy, and this was what Replicus was hoping for – well not for himself.
Like him, the little creature was turning weary, but as it turned out, the effects were even worse for the little thing because unlike Replicus, it wasn't all bones. It had a finite capacity for activity.
'And if it has been consciously trying to become a King or whatever, this should mean...' Replicus hypothesised, and surely, his thoughts turned out to be true.
The small crown that had begun to appear from the little Apostle's temples slowly started to flow back into its pale skin. The little creature cried and its altitude fell, its small body landing lightly on the bottom shell of the egg it had hatched from.
Replicus immediately clasped the band around the little Apostle with the little strength he had, and just like that, he had successfully thwarted what might have actually been an unprecedented disaster.
"You can stop now," Replicus said to Timmit.
The stork immediately turned its Territory dormant again, and the primary assault of Scarlet Usurper's Corridor disappeared.
Replicus felt his mental strength rise once again. The assault had only lasted for a little more than five seconds, but he had felt himself slipping away. Timmit's powers were rightfully potent, and useful.
"Good job," he complimented the stork, but it only kept its sight on the little Apostle.
Replicus scooped up the little thing, which fit in both his palms perfectly.
With the band – which adjusted accordingly – around its neck, the Apostle looked a little different. It barely looked alive. But then again, was it, in the conventional sense?
'Thankfully, that crown disappeared completely. I have a hunch about what would have happened if it fully manifested...' Replicus thought.
Yuyui had re-emerged alive and well from nothingness. She walked up to Replicus and looked at the little creature in his hands.
She gulped, not knowing whether to say it was cute and carry it up.
Replicus turned to her.
"Can you recount to me what happened with Ferex and that other creature again?"
Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m fre𝒆webnov(e)l.com