Chapter 1277: Fury of the Doom Factor!
Chapter 1277: Fury of the Doom Factor!
Skullius, Elita, Beyrmir and Silrat exited the room. Theurien seemed to need time alone with Stylla.
"Heartwarming," Elita remarked.
"Is it?" Skullius asked, turning to her. "I wish I at least didn't have to make Stylla look like MY daughter. It feels like I'm forcing them both to remember that I'm the one to thank or something."
Elita raised a brow.
"Was there an alternative? If I had to guess, you ripped off one of your own limbs and somehow formed a whole body out of it, right?"
Skullius sighed.
"Yeah. I used the principle behind one of my skills: the one that made me look like a 'normal' human being back then. I forged a bunch of fake organs and all. They should feel real to her at least."
Elita nodded.
"Impressive. Thankfully, she doesn't look half as fake as you did back then."
Skullius smirked.
He had looked rather weird back in those days. Each upgrade that [Flesh It Like You Mean It] went through allowed him to have a more convincing Discount Human body.
The Hybrid Warmoth's mind slithered back to the subject of Stylla though.
He found the mirth disappearing from him and a sombreness setting in.
Skullius started to wonder how Theurien was going to react to the fate of Setkh. When Yuyui had slid into Stylla's Reflection of the Soul, she had been told about what Stylla had done to Setkh. Apparently, she had turned the young man into a jar and stowed within him the same curse that had been used to incapacitate their father for so long; he was the one who had caused it, after all.
It was truly a sad fate. Skullius was sure that discussion was going to come up sooner or later as soon as Stylla woke up. He could only imagine how Stylla was going to feel recounting all that. He couldn't even fathom how Theurien was going to feel.
A sudden pang of guilt shot up through Skullius.
He frowned.
'Not again.'
He stopped moving, but he didn't realise it.
Flashes of images from when he was constructing Stylla's body swept through his vision. Her naked body taking form, being proportioned according to how her original body looked before...
And then, it happened.
...!!!
Skullius' blank eyes bulged.
Stylla's figure started to change. Her coin-grey skin acquired a tame, ivory tone and she turned slimmer, smaller. Suddenly, her hair turned light brown and her eyes opened. Fury was livid within them, and it was all directed at Skullius.
The Hybrid Warmoth frowned.
'Shit.'
It was happening again.
IT was triggered again.
He saw Camilla before him. This was the second time in the last two minutes. Stylla's figure triggered this.
Skullius felt his soul tremble.
Doom Factor 2 was becoming livelier.
As Replicus, Skullius had not seen Camilla's image in a while, but as the possessed Festos, he had suffered a chilling, life-like experience of meeting her on a snowy peak during the Premium Age Royale a little more than a week ago.
(A/N: Refer to Ch.723.)
The girl looked equally as angry as she had looked back then and once again, Skullius could not for the Null Life of him understand why.
He took a deep, shaky breath.
Looking into his adopted sister's eyes was more chilling than staring down Suzamete.
The story hidden in those eyes, could only be found in Somanda's domain.
"Skullius!"
Skullius shook.
The image before him faded like mist in the dry wind and he saw Elita looking at him with
concern.
"You alright?" she asked.
Skullius took a deep breath.
"Yeah. I'm fine. I was just lost in thought," he said and continued walking.
Silrat gave him an odd look.
Even to him, that didn't look like a 'lost in thought' moment.
Skullius had simply frozen still and hadn't responded the first three times Elita had called to
him.
The former Paladin Champion continued to look at Skullius with concern but she didn't press him.
Beyrmir understood what was happening though. He gave his master an appraising look.
At once, he realised that he was going to need to step in for him whenever he sensed him space out. This could be dangerous.
As for Skullius himself, he began battling with that thought as well.
'Doom Factor 2...' he thought and immediately had the guidance field project the details.Nôv(el)B\\jnn
Doom Factor 2: Existential Crisis
<Progressive Soul Confusion>
Your distinct perception and absorption of mana throughout the years has caused you to start awakening what should have been lost a long time ago. If you fail to recover and remember this in time, you will suffer a crisis of your own existence and descend into madness.
Time till DF2: 7 days
Only seven days remained.
Skullius had known this before he even confronted his alter, but he hadn't known about the severity of that little tag: <Progressive Soul Confusion>.
This tag had appeared the day Somanda reached Divinity. That was also the day Skullius got rid of the UNCoddled curse and split himself into two.
When Doom Factor 2 was triggered during the Premium Age Royale, if Skullius had remained sane, he probably would have realised that this would make the last stretch of days before Doom Factor 2 completely took over horrific.
The slightest thing that even remotely resembled what he knew of Camilla triggered this <Progressive Soul Confusion> and it seemed it was going to be how he turned mad. 'Thankfully I decided to make my move on my other self today. As confident as he was, I'm
not sure the plans he had for getting rid of our soul were going to work as well as he thought. Best case, we'd have a heavily damaged soul that's dealing with this damned Doom Factor,'
Skullius thought.
His eye twitched.
Through the memories of his alter, he discovered that the bastard had actually been getting attacked by the <Progressive Soul Confusion>, but had curbed the effects by expelling their soul out of Aigas and having it connected to him only remotely through arrays.
But Skullius couldn't do that.
'I can't banish my soul like that. That's too risky. All I have to do is make sure the crisis on Aigas is resolved quickly and head to Deadmanland straight away. Thankfully, I'm not alone. My allies can look after me when I falter,' he thought, and he looked at Silrat.
It was time to give this man a role.