Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Skullius had been more baffled than he let on.

Fulgardt was wrong. The Hybrid Warmoth had fully expected him to be prepared to kill him because he knew too much. Skullius wouldn't underestimate Fulgardt that much. This was why he had been wary of using his War Body for Kintar earlier.

But as it turned out, sharp as Skullius was when considering everything that could go wrong, he had still underestimated Fulgardt.

Only now, when the Immoral mocked him for being unable to understand how he (Fulgardt) processed things, did Skullius truly understand the essence behind why his evil self from before, the possessed Festos, had been so unwilling to go back to Somanda to retrieve his soul.

In Maqi, when Skullius and this past version of Fulgardt had met, the latter had been so stumped by how Skullius figured out his secrets that he seemed to give up on countering entirely and admit defeat; Fulgardt had even retreated with Rias.

But that was a truth isolated to only that time.

Fulgardt had attacked Skullius right after he had gained the upper hand against the Doom Knight that had traversed through time. Only perhaps an hour had passed after the Maqi incident, but Fulgardt had gotten his get back. He was confident and daring that time.

Even though he couldn't kill Skullius because of the trade-offs he had created for that secret he kept hidden in the Labyrinth of the Yoke, he still appeared dominant. That was when he had slipped a band that then formed a mark around Skullius' wrist and forbade him from messing with his secret for an hour.

That much was to be expected from the Immoral. Skullius had spent his time from then on preparing for Fulgardt's eventual moves after the hour time limit was up. It was natural for Skullius to assume that in that hour, Fulgardt, while preparing to attack Boron and Suzamete as he said he would, was going to find the means to kill Skullius for sake of preserving his secret.

But no.

At the present moment, it didn't seem as though Fulgardt was interested in the Labyrinth and his secret at all. He wasn't even willing to kill Skullius for it or at the very least restrain him for now.

Was it a bluff?

Maybe. Or was it the fact that Fulgardt was not interested in the past. Each waking moment of his was dedicated towards making sure weaknesses of the past didn't drag him down. He was a man of contingencies.

Perhaps his secret no longer had value to him now. Perhaps, in order to render past weakness meaningless, he had secured another means to pursue his goals and it truly didn't matter what Skullius did with the Labyrinth of the Yoke.

Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps.

Skullius didn't like this.

'But he's still here. My ultimatum means something to him. He must be bluffing,' he thought.

As the Immoral turned and faced him, he locked sights and senses with him.

"Now we're getting somewhere, brat. Keep talking," Fulgardt said.

"Convinced then?"

"I'm just curious what your next play is. How much leverage do you think you have with the Labyrinth of Yoke in your possession?"

Skullius frowned. He couldn't help it.

This bastard.

"Why are you trying to pretend as if you don't care? I know you do. You're not going to abandon your life's work, especially not to me. That thing of yours in the Labyrinth is your key to finding others like you in the wider reality, right? So why act tough? Admit that you need it."

Fulgardt chuckled and sighed. There was a fury to his smile, to his face. Every expression he made was a mask for something darker. He slowly walked towards Skullius.

"Like I said. I'm not the one lying here." He rubbed his temple. "You remember why I spared you earlier? What did I say? I told you I never desired to create a successor in the first place. You just happen to be decent and interesting. However, I can only say that because of your abilities and not your brain." He pointed at his head, still approaching the Hybrid Warmoth. "Your mind is the one thing that makes me second guess myself. Even now, you speak of my goals as if you understand them."

Skullius didn't shirk away from the man's gaze, nor did he back away when Fulgardt was standing right in front of him. The man was slightly taller than him, his robe of darkness thicker – more robust – than Skullius' cover of clouds.

"You don't understand anything about the Existential Parallels, the Wanderer or the secrets hiding behind the massive veil of black around us. All you have is my word. Most of what you are and what you know is because of me. If you hadn't received my powers, would you be as strong or as knowledgeable as you are right now? I think not. It was amusing earlier when you actually managed to outsmart me, but that Fulgardt you bested is already dead. The Fulgardt who cucked you of your score earlier is also dead, yet you were hanging by his every word still, weren't you?"

Skullius balled his hand into a fist. Fulgardt scoffed and pointed at the barrier in the distance again.

"Even now, you figure that separating me and that little necromancer is your best move. But it's not. Believe me. Again, I'll stress how ill-equipped you are to handle me, brat," the Immoral hissed to Skullius' face. "Now, did you have a better proposal for making me stay? As it stands, none of us would benefit from a battle."

When Skullius said nothing else, Fulgardt snorted and turned once more.

A waste of time.

BOOM!

The Immoral was hardly surprised when something fell a meter before him, blocking his path. He had sensed it or rather, him, minutes before, when he was warped here to Edagon.

A giant stood before Fulgardt, grinning.

The Immoral raised a brow and turned to Skullius. "Really?"

Skullius shrugged. "I'm in the habit of exhausting all my options now. Frankly, you're making it very difficult to kill you the way I want to."

Only after the Hybrid Warmoth had said this did Sause finally speak.

"Ahaha. Come on now, Fulgardt. Just fight him and be done with it," he said.

"What does it matter to you?" said the Immoral.

"With luck, if you kill him, I won't have to commit to a Tie of Exchange where I have to accompany him to fight an Arch-Lich, ahaha."

"High Lich, actually," Skullius corrected him.

"A High Lich, ahaha."

Fulgardt laughed. "And that's supposed to motivate me?"

"Well, perhaps this will. We figured it would mean much more coming from an old friend – an old tutor, really – ahaha," said Sause. "Aigas is about to become a battlefield for a violent battle between Boron and Listafelle and Quintess."

…!!!

Fulgardt raised a brow. His intrigue shot up.

"Is that right? Then doesn't that just motivate me to deal with Boron and Suzamete more quickly than I intended?" He turned to Skullius. "I still see no need to fight you."

"Are you sure about that, ahaha?" said Sause, and his grin grew wider. "Believe me, Boron will likely choose not to engage you if you prove to be a great challenge for him. The same goes for Suzamete. And even if you beat them before Quintess and Listafelle arrive, ahaha, do you think this miscreant is going to allow you to run them all without being a nuisance?"

The look Skullius gave the Immoral right then teased that indeed, he would make Fulgardt's endeavours a living hell. If Fulgardt only had to deal with Boron and Listafelle, perhaps this wouldn't have troubled him at all, but when he had four Deities to beat, having someone like Skullius buzzing about would really make things difficult, even with Rias and the Order of the Trodden Rose helping him.

The Immoral sighed.

His face turned to stone as he looked at Skullius.

"You're about to get what you're asking for, only, it won't go as well as you think," he said.

Skullius brazenly met his words with his own.

"Trust me, it will. Just make sure you don't run away when it turns out I'm too much for you to handle."