Bro, I'm not an Undead!

As ready as Ashema was to engage Pherdanta, however, certain thoughts pricked at his mind, questions that he was sure if left unsolved could create gaps in his path of victory. He had full confidence in his current abilities, but…

'I only managed to extract the flesh and blood from two of the kin I sent into this construct. Does that mean the other two are truly dead?' the Cavern thought, scowling and twirling his scythe. There were things happening inside the Territory that were hidden from him completely. 'Why is she killing us freely? Her companions are careful not to slaughter my kin, which means they know that killing more of us serves Lord Boron's goals. So why…?'

But these considerations didn't make Ashema stall for much longer. He wasn't afraid of meeting Pherdanta's powers in her domain. Thus, with his blood and flesh thrumming with powers that almost stole his sanity, he shuttled into Cogent Stark Order with all the ferocity of a solar flare.

The inverted innards of Cogent Stark Order dyed Ashema at once.

…!!!

The Lord of the Under frowned.

Something was very strange about this Territory. It had changed on a very fundamental level, but he couldn't put his finger on what this change was. It was truly baffling, but Ashema didn't show his unease.

His eye found Pherdanta almost immediately. They looked sights – Pherdanta's cold, cutting gaze piercing the mad, throbbing glow of his eyeball.

'No. It's fine. I can handle her. No matter how strong she is. She is nothing more than I am.'

…But then Ashema felt his head slip from his head, the joints of his arms slackening, sliced clean. His legs also gave out, as did his midsection. Something silent, invisible yet fatal had struck at an impossible speed, and he hadn't been able to react to it!

'Madness…!' the Cavern thought, shaken.

He didn't even see Pherdanta move, but his body was split into eight portions!

It was ridiculous.

But Ashema grinned. As frightening as this was…

'No matter.'

Now that he was inside the Majestic Territory, he could sense the presence of all his kin. Indeed, Ashema had full control of everything in the Under – except the invaders, of course – but before, with Cogent Stark Order in the way, he couldn't pinpoint the locations of the others unless he tried to interact with them.

He needed not have strained himself anymore.

Every one of the Cavern that had been placed under his charge were somewhere below where he was.

It was a trifle warping five hundred of them to him.

After all, Cogent Stark Order was contending with the Under for space. It had taken in much of the Under, but the opposite was also true. The Territory, shockingly, was attempting to stand on semi-equal footing with the eroded body of Boron.

This was more than just a battle between individuals.

Using his authority as Lord of the Under, Ashema abandoned his slashed body and entered another. His godly strength left him at once, but that did not matter. He had access to a countless variety of abilities, and the bodies he had summoned were all Fifth Circle and higher. Two of them were even Divine.

…But those same Divine Cavern bloomed at once, rupturing as a result of a series of cruel slashes brutalising it from the inside out, until nothing remained. The rest of the Cavern Ashema had warped to use for his own benefit were chopped into a hundred portions neatly, meeting death before they knew it!

Pherdanta's [Great Sempiternal Vein] and [Great Vein] were merciless indeed.

'Cruel woman!' Ashema thought, and he summoned more of the Cavern who were clashing with the experts in the isolated half of Pherdanta's Territory. 'I'll have to concentrate all the residual Primus energy from Lord Boron's body to counter this woman's ridiculous powers. If I can't, I'll be forced to fight her from the outside.'

Said cruel woman merely stood in the dark surroundings, watching Ashema.

The look she had started to get to the Cavern.

'Don't underestimate me!' he thought.

"I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing," Pherdanta answered his unspoken declaration. "I want no excuses from you when I prevail. Struggle, and struggle hard. I'll give just one chance to fortify yourself."

…!!!

The fury that caught Ashema could hardly be described in words. Right then, he couldn't even care to question how Pherdanta had discerned his thoughts.

The whipping slashes that had caused the bodies he had summoned just before to split and bloom stopped, leaving the nigh thousand Cavern he had warped just now untouched.

This woman… really was giving him a chance. She had read his mind, or rather, guessed his thoughts and chosen to antagonize him, to get his fury going.

The blood running in all the Cavern boiled as Ashema turned livid beyond belief.

The Under quaked.

"You will eat those words, wench!" his voice, disembodied came, wrathful. The bodies of the Cavern he'd summoned began to get suffused in strange tendrils of energy that sought to rid the Imaginary GeoScape of Cogent Stark Order around their hosts. They failed, but they kept trying anyway.

The volumes of this energy that flooded around each individual Cavern were astonishing. They could have drowned a continent. Boron's Primus truly was something to behold.

Each of the Cavern bodies was reinforced spectacularly, and only after each of them reached the utmost limit of their growth potential with the Primus did strands of blood blossom from each of them, connecting them to a Cavern near them.

Ashema's ability revolved around controlling blood to intricate and intrinsic levels. Anything that could be done with blood, he could pull it off, and now with the powers Boron had granted him, he could do that and then some. He could even use this blood ability without his original body here in the Under.

Pherdanta watched the proceedings with a small smile.

'He was always going to find a way, even without my giving him a reprieve. But all the better,' she thought, and stole a short glance at the halberd she was pushing against with her Territory.

In front of her, Ashema fused the blood and organs of the gathered Cavern, seamlessly moulding their bodies into ten powerful vessels – each more revolting and unnatural than the next. Primus roared around each of the bodies, and all of them had the same mind. Ashema's consciousness ran through all of them.

He grinned with all ten bodies and glared at Pherdanta.

"Are you done?" the Unlimited Star asked.

"Yes. But so are you," Ashema replied, and with one of the bodies, he extended his hand at her.

…!!

The Unlimited Star looked surprised for her moment. Her arm contorted, twisting sixfold. A violent spectrum raced along her blood and flesh, beginning from the appendage and extending to her shoulder.

'My Granted Star Armament can't guard from his abilities?' she thought.

In that instant when she was distracted, one of Ashema's bodies stormed towards her, growing larger with the distance, a sick grin on its face. It locked its fingers above its head and brought down both of its hands to crush Pherdanta.

But…

BAAM!

The statue of the Stark Constellation in the middle of Cogent Stark Order shone bright, and at the same, some horrific blow nailed the side of the attacking Cavern's head, sending it flying.

Ashema frowned with another body.

'Right. We are still in this woman's Territory.'

Pherdanta's Granted Star Armament had warped and contorted along with her arm, her torso beginning to twist like a screw, but then she used Granted Restoration. She healed – armour and all – but her arm began twisting again.

'How troublesome,' she thought, but with a grin.

"How does it feel?" Ashema asked, with ten of his bodies – even the one that had been sent flying away.

"Good enough," Pherdanta replied, and with her free arm, she reached in and tore a strand of hair from her head. "I'll be asking you the same question soon."