Bro, I'm not an Undead!
Chapter 1557: A Mortal Dictates The Course (2)

Chapter 1557: A Mortal Dictates The Course (2)

After sealing the others away, Kintar poured her focus back onto the battle unfolding before her. She’d managed to establish her limits against Rias just now, and the results were actually...depressing. With how much she pissed him off – and she knew she did – she was sure he wouldn’t fall for her tricks again, especially since she couldn’t normally move as quickly as her two partners.

’And it’s just as I feared with the vermillion quality mana...’ she thought looking at her hand. She had it healed now, but the truth was, after using her hand infused with the special mana to attack, she’d been unable to use it again, as though it had...died.

Her soul and body couldn’t handle the power from the core being channelled from an external source. This was a fundamental of mana Kintar hadn’t experienced before; likely exclusive to this new core she’d created.

Kintar grinned.

This didn’t mean she didn’t have options, though.

She spared a moment to try and capture Uyuniya and Sila’s movements.

The Tower General had indeed been a Form User in his prime. His preferred fighting style had been revealed all the way back when he had hijacked Skullius’ body. He’d sacrificed the Discount Human’s mana core and even key skills for raw strength. In the current battle, however, it showed in how he held himself, matching Uyuniya’s sword strikes and exploiting every evasive manoeuvre Rias made to dodge them with simple but brutal movements and attacks.

’He’s adjusting to this unique property of the vermillion quality mana. He can probably utilise it better than I can at the moment and will probably start improvising, using other forms of powers different from the basic. His body has too much potential. Wasting it on punches and kicks would be distasteful.’ Kintar turned to Uyuniya. ’She’s testing the waters. She won’t use her Voided Undeath aspect as easily, likely because of how she expanded it. Should I get in on this Fundamental Barter too?’

The little monster thought about for a moment.

...She laughed. ’Nah. Not yet.’

Summoning the absurd power of [Hegemon of Sorcerous Mana], Kintar began constructing roughly thirteen million, atom-sized creatures with six layers to their ’biological’ make-up. It took half a second to manage this feat, but double that to define their powers and finally... to grant them independence.

Each of them was humanoid, but with six arms and six eyes. They looked a little like Kintar herself but gave the vibe of a collection of druggies on caffeine, twitching excitedly and energetically.

From the distance, while enduring the pile of attacks from Sila and Uyuniya, Rias noticed these little creatures. He would have dismissed them as inconsequential...if Kintar hadn’t shown him how frightening she was as an opponent for a mortal.

The Deputy of the Stark-Soul Order noted that Rias had noticed her creations. She grinned.

"That’s right. Lessen your guard by a little bit, and all of these are going right up your—"

But Kintar was interrupted.

A large black crow with eyes flaring with Undeath energy had just been fired from Rias’ conduit right at her head. It was too fast for Kintar. Her head was blown off in an instant.

However, killing Kintar was about as hard as killing the average Divine. One of the thirteen million organisms she’d constructed out of mana frothed from the mouth and expanded like a balloon in less than a blink of an eye, becoming a new Kintar.

Another crow fired from Rias, aiming at the new Deputy and nailing her, but she was alive in the next second and the next second.

The millions of critters split up, all chittering an annoying laugh.

As they did, Sila and Uyuniya switched gears in their attacks. The latter was the first to catch Rias by surprise. An unseen blast of force struck Rias at the wrist, forcing him to drop his sword. As soon as he did, Sila shot stepped closer to Rias, seized his left arm and churned his vermillion core, making it pour a massive amount of mana into his palm. A palm strike to the chest from the Tower General had Rias scowling behind the mask.

A flash of light, genuine Divine energy crashed against his guard of Amras. It didn’t penetrate, but it staggered the masked man, allowing Uyuniya to hit him again with her Broader Existence.

And indeed, the Broader Existence could land invisible blows. Such a move was especially handy against enemies who had to use basic Amras reinforcement for general defence. As a new Divine, Rias was subject to this. That was why the invisible blow to his shin was especially effective. When he fell forward, Sila caught him in a tight vice while Uyuniya once again raised her sword, intent on decapitating him.

...But Rias was slowly cranking his gears too.

The conduit above him roared and six giants fell out of its mouth.

They were haggard skeletons in worn armour, each thrice the size of a man. They looked as though they might have been dragged out of the sea after a thousand-year soak given the look of their bones, but they were especially strong. The ground howled when they landed.

Uyuniya and Sila, sensing the threat immediately turned away from Rias. The young masked man had sent crows spilling from his conduit to aim at them both too, after all.

Funnily enough, though, Uyuniya and Sila never got to battle the skeletons.

Kintar had grinned. She had waiting for Rias to spam a move like this.

She snapped her fingers and the six giant skeletal Undead creatures flashed bright... and vanished from existence.

This... unnerved Rias. He had managed to find an opening to create distance between himself and his other enemies after his crows fired towards them, but that hardly assured him, especially after this.

What in the world was he looking at?

He had just summoned Undead monsters capable of holding their own against Beyond the Veil stagers in terms of raw physical ability. They were basic summons indeed, but still.

What had Kintar done?

The former dwarf wouldn’t tell, of course.

The battle had reached a turning point. Or rather, she had steered it towards a checkpoint.

’You don’t get to be lazy about what you create, dickhead,’ she thought, looking at Rias with taunting eyes. ’I want you fighting desperately.’

And the ghost of the masked man would, once Kintar started spamming the peak of Magecraft, like she’d done just now.

She was a Realm Source Mage, after all. The only one Aigas ever bore.