Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1164: Empyrean Bosom (4)



Replicus would have wanted to keep scribbling on the scroll, but the fatigue seemed too great for him to attempt to break past his limits and see if he could get enlightened enough to learn anything more about Maximum Catalyst or anything else that was as open-ended as it was.

He withdrew from the scroll and watched as its long sheet of paper sprang up and rolled around itself snappily. It then hung lower than the rest of the scrolls around him, which, to Replicus, signified that what he had just written so far... was in a lower class when compared to the bottommost tier of scrolls in the entire Second Layer.

'Just what is contained in those strolls?' Replicus thought with a mix of excitement and frustration.

He did his best to disregard whatever techniques or cosmic knowledge might be stowed away in the scrolls for now, though. There was nothing he could do about it anyway. The obvious best alternative choice was to explore the rest of the Empyrean Hatcher. He needed to see what was on the Third Layer and ultimately, what the other keys beyond the ivory one he had just used - the green to the Pestilent Vault and the gold for the Treasury - could show him.

He was quite excited for the Treasury in particular, after all, he pretty much already knew what was in the Pestilent Vault and it didn't seem like something one should really be giddy about.

He wondered just what kind of treasures he would find in the Treasury, and whether or not he could use them.

'I'm getting ahead of myself,' Replicus said. A Strawler behind him gently took away his quill pen, recognising that he was done with his writing.

Replicus then drifted lower and watched as the scrolls above him vanished from view. The denseness of the unseen substance around him lessened significantly as he descended, allowing him to move much quicker than before.

Once he felt free again, he floated towards the vertical pillar of bluish-gold light and swiftly shoved himself through it, his Strawlers following along.

What was in the Third Layer?

The First was a complete paradise, the Second was, in a way, a library on steroids. What could possibly be the theme behind the Third Layer?

As Replicus was devoured by the light, he was gripped by intense anticipating... until his body was forced to stop.

Something cold and absolute had swum into every fibre of his being, bringing his flesh, soul and mind to a complete halt.

The Warmoth's Progeny couldn't think. He couldn't move. He couldn't feel.

...

"Fascinating. I had my doubts, but it really happened as he said it would," a voice said curiously.

There was a pause.

"Is this really all there is?"

The voice came from a gigantic being who, quite like the Strawlers, was made entirely out of Ju`wtte, but with finer, more defined, more realistic details.

This being had a rather wide face with a large number of radiant white eyes - ten in all - arranged in a T in the middle; there was almost no room for his button nose and narrow mouth.

He didn't seem to be clothed. His body seemed muscular - it was hard to tell because the details were concentrated on portions of his body that would have been deemed as highlights - but there was no emphasis on more... intricate body organs.

His hair was comprised of thick bolts of Ju`wtte that shrieked madly, violently, in all directions.

"He seems rather wounded. How long has it been since he inherited the Jan`ind's powers, I wonder?" he asked himself as he revolved around Replicus' stationary figure. "He seems decently powerful. Was he chosen, or was it an accident - a coincidence? Oh, the struggle..." The figure gave a loud sigh.

"I have no choice but to try and see if he is worthy, don't I?" he said and looked at something in the far distance with a sense of longing.

An exasperated look then appeared in the figure's many eyes and he flicked his finger in the air.

At once, Replicus was torn out of the state of suspension he had been stuck in.

He looked ahead of him.

His reaction to the massive figure floating in front of him was quite... mild.

"Wow..." he said, sizing it up with his glowing, curved eyes. "Everything really is plus-sized here, isn't it?"

The great figure didn't provide Replicus with any reaction. He almost seemed to have not heard him.

He merely floated in place staring intently at the Warmoth's Progeny.

The look... the tenfold look was rather unnerving. Replicus couldn't maintain eye contact. He, instead, looked around him to see the details of where he was - the details of the Third Layer.

It was an odd, deep purple space littered with great, world-sized swirls of grey, black and red, almost innumerable in number. They looked perfectly still in the purple canvas, some close and some so distant that they hardly gave off the hue they should.

There was something else in addition to this bizarre view, however. It took Replicus by surprise, really.

It was a set of truly vast, shiny, silvery rings embossed with great runes that sparked with Ju`wtte, about nine in all, enclosing around a rather magnificent, colossal chair that looked like... like it was made of a material not unlike white chintz. It spun within the rings, while, around it, smaller versions of it, much less extravagant and clean-looking, followed along, orbiting around it.

The view was completed by a harsh halo that had been wrestling with Replicus' ability to see what he was looking at clearly.

"Enticed, are you?" the brilliant figure before Replicus said, a tone of annoyance livid in his

voice.

"Intrigued, yes. Enticed, not quite. I don't really know what I'm looking at," Replicus said calmly, his vision settling on this being again. "I sense an unwelcoming tone here. What is it

that I have done to offend you already?'

The brilliant figure gave Replicus a sharp look.

He noticed a note of sarcasm in his words. He didn't like it.

"Indeed, I'm not so keen on welcoming one who intends to succeed my Jan`ind while being so... lacking in nearly every aspect," he said. "This is a very sacred space, one greater than even his Treasury. As I see it, one such as you is yet to even deserve to take a whiff of the hallowed, ancient breath my Jan`ind left behind. And I..." he gave a pause, a cold, satisfied smile creeping on his face, "...am allowed to send you below until you become someone I can learn to serve without needing to hear the crude rubbish bursting from your mouth."

There was a flick of a finger and in a blink, Replicus found himself floating in the Second Layer once again.