303 Tomatoes...?
Absolute garbage!
Trash!
Doodoo butter!
These were the terms that Skullius would have used if he actually knew them.
However, nothing could discount the feeling of hopelessness that he felt in this moment.
“Seriously…? I have to find a… Ah…” Skullius gaped as his four sockets resumed burning with blue flames.
He slumped and laid down his body on the hard ground.
Once again.
What was this?
Atrocious luck?
On one hand, he seemed to breeze through tough situations, with a staggering level of difficulty no doubt, but going through nonetheless.
On the other hand, there were situations like these, where he was firmly held down with little to no hope of escape.
“UNCoddled won’t allow me to have something like this. I’m sure finding some non-socketholes would be easy enough but…” Skullius thought, his inferences swimming in his skull.
Red Rage saw Skullius’ once ‘better’ enthusiasm plummet and thought to how to make his master feel better.
It was once more, time for the Pelvis Boar-Man to cheer up the Penetrator.
The Pelvis Boar-Man inserted mana into his ring, on the ground appearing something that almost made Skullius leap up!
“GAAAAH!”
Skullius screamed.
This was…
It was…
It was…
The remains of the above legendary grade treasure SoSei!
The cracked structure of the treasure laid before Skullius and it was only after Red Rage expressed to him that it was not functional anymore that the Penetrator relaxed.
Its image with the broken skull and limbs was still terrifying to Skullius who had seen this thing as it harboured Somanda’s will, a fact that he wasn’t exactly privy to until now when Red Rage told him some of the finer details.
Apparently, it was a treasure and not an actual undead.
The material it had was not exclusively bone.
Of course, Red Rage could confirm it.
“Oh…” Skullius said as he took a closer look. “You retrieved this? So that means that Somanda was here? Not exactly, at least.”
He remembered that they had been far above at a dangerous height and if he fell, then this treasure must have been falling too.
Skullius felt a bit more relieved with this detail. He hadn’t thought that Somanda could show up as he pleased, but he had been pretty apprehensive of that.
This gave him a bigger chunk of peace as well as a great appreciation of the fact that [Pseudo Evil Veneration] had activated in that moment.
Now that Skullius thought about it all…
“Where’s..”
The Penetrator was cut off as his armour, the Fleeting Ghoul’s Adornment and his [Demion’s Dance] fell out of Red Rage’s spatial ring.
“Thank you,” Skullius said. He had thought he had lost these, especially the sword which he had tried to fling at his body to kill himself.
He then refocused on the green bones.
“What can we even do with this?”
Skullius used his guidance field to try and acquire more information about this thing, but most of it was marred with <???>
~~~
[SoSei]
– Legendary+ –
???
~~~
“Of course…” Skullius remarked as he saw the lack of detail derived. He then turned to Red Rage. “You keep it for now. I hope it’s as you said. If it does anything, tell me.”
In this moment, it was sad that the Fulgurant Bone Penetrator didn’t know how grand a thread of Direction would be born from this treasure in the future.
Skullius watched his Apostle the damn thing when…
“WHAT ATROCITY HAVE I BEEN AWAKENED INTO?!! AAAARRRRRRGHHHHHH!!” a loud voice called with nerve wrecking intensity!
…!
Skullius leapt up and struck against the ceiling of the hidden space he and Red Rage were currently in!
What the hell?!
Skullius looked this way and that in confusion, his blue flames scouring everywhere!
Red Rage looked at him confusedly.
“You didn’t hear that?!” Skullius asked with a high pitched voice.
Red Rage shook his head.
“Bro, someone just yelled right now? How didn’t you hear it?!”
“OF COURSE I JUST YELLED YOU UNDEAD BASTARD! WHY AM I HERE?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME? WHO… WAIT?! ARE YOU THE ONE WHO THREW THE TOMATOES?!” the voice once again blared loudly.
“Huh?!!” Skullius’ gaped as he questioned what the flesh was going on.
“OHHHH NO! I’M DOOMED! IT’S YOU! I REMEMBER! YOU TRULY ARE THE ONE WITH THE TOMATOES! I WASN’T DREAMING! YOU REALLY KILLED ME! YOU WERE AN UNDEAD?! HOW THIS WORLD HAS FALLEN! KILL ME DEAR QUINTESS FOR I HAVE BECOME AN ABOMINATION! OR BETTER YET, LET ME TAKE THIS EVIL WITH ME!”
“Bro, why are you shouting?! First of all, who and where the hell are you?! Second of all, where are you?! And lastly, I’m not an undead!!”
“OH PLEASE, YOU TOMATO FLINGER! I CAN SEE IT RIGHT NOW! YOU FELLING SOME SICKLY, INNOCENT STRANGER AFTER CHANGING YOUR FORM INTO UNATTRACTIVE MAN! DECEIVER! TO THINK YOU UNDEAD WERE CAPABLE OF SUCH! VILE TOMATO FLINGER!”
Skullius was about to open his mouth to angrily retort when his memory churned.
‘Wait. Is… is this guy… in my head?! Also… I killed an innocent stranger…. after I changed my… Bro, is this guy talking about Eobald?! Is he seeing my memories?!’ Skullius thought in a panic.
This was the only scenario that made sense when he properly thought of it all. While this voice seemed to speak in his ear, he felt a slight reverberation within him!
On top of all this.
Tomatoes?
Tomato.
Where had he heard this before?!
There was definitely someone who kept accusing him of this many times over in the past!
Someone he had killed before.
Someone bound.
Someone who…
…!
The Labyrinth!
“You’re the Tower General whatever!” Skullius yelled in realisation.
“IT’S SILA, THE GREAT TOWER GENERAL, YOU IDIOT! WAIT, WHERE IS THE VISION I WAS SEEING?! IT’S GONE! WHAT DID YOU DO, TOMATO FLINGER?!”
Skullius was immensely confused.
‘Vision? Is he talking about the memories?’
Hearing this voice now start to also sound confused and mention that it couldn’t see what it was seeing before made Skullius a bit relieved as he quickly thought of multiple hypothesis.
He started to gather his thoughts. It was obvious that conversing with this guy was impossible so he decided to retrace his steps while Red Rage looked at him with atrocious incredulity.
‘This guy was like the others, right? Tied to that thing made of [Evil Darkness]. I remember he was the first one that I killed. Then what happened…’ Skullius thought.
(A/N: Refer to Chapter 61 if you don’t remember).
“I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW!” Sila growled.
‘Right! I gained his soul as a reward and ate it!’ Skullius continued with his thread of thought.
“TOMATO FLINGER!”
That’s right!
Under the Labyrinth’s rules, he had managed to kill the guy with evil darkness and absorbed his soul.
But then… why was he suddenly hearing his voice?
Hold on!
Skullius’ socket flames flared!
Did this mean that he could potentially start hearing Dezrael’s voice too?!
Unlike Sila, Skullius remembered that guy very well!
If that was to happen?
‘No…’ Skullius thought as he raised his skull, ignoring the noise in the background that was polluting his mind. ‘I think I know why…’
First of all, this tied in pretty well with something he had seen quite recently.
His soul!
It had patches of gold and purple, with the purple ones being very prevalent!
Secondly…
‘I remember. I used this guy’s soul for something else back then. At least the guidance field did…’
Indeed.
After entering the Hall of Fulgardt, Skullius had commandeered the body of Eldris via [Basic Evil Invasion] which ended up getting killed within him still in it, causing him soul damage!
As a result, the guidance field had used portions of Sila’s soul in order to cover for the damage which had been extensive!
As Skullius’ thoughts reached this point, he realised that the purple patches of his soul were probably from Sila’s own soul!
“HEY! ANSWER ME WILL YOU?!” Sila’s voice rang out.
Skullius’ socket flames burned lightly.
Even that sliver of fortune from back then had repercussions it seemed.
The question of why this guy only awakened now was still upon Skullius though and he needed to have a discussion with this guy.
“I hear you, alright bro?!” Skullius said as he emitted a burst of mana from his mouth.
He needed to know the full story.
“First, answer me this. How are you talking to me just now?”
“…”