Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Before Pherdanta engaged Ashema and the four Divine Cavern…

"Boron's Herald told me a lot of the basics when she ascended to Aigas. I was extravagantly inquisitive. I wanted to understand more about the Cavern," Guissepo said to the Unlimited Star. "Back then, I believed they would become my new partners. My family. The Herald knew a great deal, including the extravagant operation of the powers of Summoners – how they could connect to creatures trapped in Stagnant Space."

An ugly expression grew on his face as he reminisced. He detested that old version of himself, and the reason was likely because he understood that old him very well.

Guissepo and Pherdanta were hidden from sight by the Majestic Territory's properties. They could see the four Divine Cavern looked around in confusion, swiping at the surroundings in hopes of landing an accidental blow. They even tried to destroy the houses conjured by Cogent Stark Order but it was no use.

"What else did you learn?" Pherdanta asked the former cultist. The swords on her waist were throbbing and vibrating eagerly as they melded together. "The abilities of the Cavern being more like Blessings than skills is understandable, but I feel as though that has deeper implications."

"It does. The Cavern as a race are mostly expendable in Boron's eyes. He only cares for a few of them. The rest are bits of his power he'd sooner have returned to him or used up for some other extravagant scheme," said Guissepo and he gave the Unlimited Star a knowing look.

Pherdanta narrowed her eyes.

"Hmm. That explains why their abilities resemble… Wait," she frowned, "do you mean to say that killing the Cavern not only adds to the power of the crystals on Aigas, but also strengthens Boron?" she asked.

Guissepo nodded his head sombrely.

"Humans, Sif, Giants and beasts are swept to the Yormuness after their extravagant deaths – if their souls aren't destroyed, that is. There is no such thing for the Cavern. They are chunks of Boron himself. Unlike with the functions of a world, where Deities cannot allow themselves to feed off the strength from their deceased creations, unless in specific cases, that's the extravagant advantage Boron has bought himself for not making the Under function as a world."

"I see," said Pherdanta.

A look of concern passed Guissepo's eyes.

"How are you going to deal with these extravagant variations of the Cavern, especially without going for the kill?" he asked, and he look beyond them. Ashema was just outside the Territory boundary. "I've seen that bastard before. He seemed to have a lot of freedom and an uncommonly powerful will among the Cavern. With the extravagant powers he has now—"

"What if I make it so that as long the Cavern are killed in my Territory, their deaths won't register to Boron?" Pherdanta cut the former cultist off.

Guissepo looked baffled.

"What?"

"The Under isn't like a world, right? Boron doesn't benefit from it the same way as Quintess, Listafelle and Suzamete benefit from Aigas. He can't even see the flow of events – like the future – happening in the Under, can he? That just means he doesn't have a deep connection to this place. He has relinquished control of it to that Ashema."

Guissepo did not understand her train of thought.

"But that doesn't change a whole lot to the argument! The extravagant question remains, how can you stop a Deity's power from returning to them?"

Pherdanta sighed as tendrils of her new powers coiled about her armour.

"By turning my Territory into a pseudo-world like the Under, and enveloping all the Cavern before slaying them. Boron will never know, and their deaths will be printed into my Territory alone, nothing else. No one will recognise that they have died until I release Cogent Stark Order."

***

Present time…

Ashema's bodies were flying off, ripped through cleanly. A lethal poison ate at his cells, delivering… death.

It might have been a fact that most had forgotten or hadn't known to begin with, but Demion's Dance, which was now part of Dance of the Necrotic Butcher, had the lethal powers of death. Skullius had once used them through a technique called the [Swindling Death's Dance]. Thus, when the green sword was melded into the Bashful Abomination and then made a part of Pherdanta's [Infinite Sword God, Sardonic Latitude], these powers became a part of Pherdanta's whole arsenal.

[Infinite Sword God, Sardonic Latitude] did after all, have three facets: the Impossible Splicer Series, the Coddling Enclosure, and the Serpents' Graces. On some level, these facets shared properties.

'This damned woman!' Ashema cried deep within the confines of his split mind. He tried to heal his bodies, but it was useless. His blood manipulation ability wouldn't work on the cuts he'd received.

To think such damage reached him all because Pherdanta had drawn her sword. It even seemed like the long, curved blade had attacked him on its own, furious at the fact that he'd stared at it.

"You won't take me down that easily!" Ashema cried with the bodies that could still manage speech. At once, he wrung them all out of their blood (they had frightening volumes of it since they were amalgams), and made it dance as a singular, massive blob above them. At the same time, he summoned more Cavern to use. Some of them were incapacitated, emaciated and disembodied in ways that didn't kill them, a product of them fighting the experts below.

Ashema wore one of them, replacing the consciousness inside it. With furious hand gestures, he took control of the blob of blood while invoking as much Primus as he could around himself. So much of it lathered him that his figure turned intensely blurred.

Shards of super-condensed crystalised blood flew at Pherdanta, some impossible for the seasoned eye to see.

But that wasn't all Ashema would fling at the dreadful woman.

No. He boiled another portion of the blob of blood suspended over him and sent it as a thin vapour against the Unlimited Star.

'Blood, like any substance, can become a poison. Before, I could turn it into a lethal toxin that could kill even the strongest human experts in minutes, but if I infuse Primus into it…!' Ashema thought.

Indeed, he could make it even more lethal. It would enter through the pores of a target and make them suffer.

At the same time, the Lord of the Under applied the unique ability of one of the Cavern on his attacks; with a flick of his fingers, he turned the shards of blood and poisonous blood vapour invisible – furthering the difficulty of detecting it with the senses.

Still, he didn't feel assured of victory, and thus, with as much violent intent as he could gather, he aimed his blood manipulation ability at Pherdanta's body. Any momentary delay he could cause to her reaction – whatever that would look like – would earn him a win.

He would contort her body!

Or so Ashema had hoped.

None of his attacks mattered.

Pherdanta flicked Dance of the Necrotic Butcher to the side, as though in a casual effort to remove stains latching onto its blade.

…And then everything ceased.

The shards of blood, nomatter where they were, stopped moving.

The poisonous vapour froze in the air by the particle, as did the blob of blood it was made from.

Ashema's attempt at controlling the blood in Pherdanta's body failed.

He himself froze, unable to muster the strength to move.

Worse yet, he couldn't see.

He couldn't speak.

He shuddered.

What in the world was going on this time?

'Is it the Secondary function of this Territory?' Ashema dreaded. He would have sweated if he could.

But it wasn't, Ashema would be devastated to know.

Pherdanta had four types of cutting techniques, each with a different purpose.

[Great Vein] for executing the basic, unlimited slash.

[Great Necrotic Rending] for ensuring that each slash that landed on an enemy denied them the ability to regenerate.

[Great Sempiternal Vein], a technique blessed individually by Fundamental Barter, for cutting as much as Pherdanta wanted over a long span, endlessly, in fact. She could only use it on Divine entities – living or unliving.

It was peculiar. Once it had been created, it kicked itself up into full gear; it was always active, cutting infinitely and endlessly, which was why Pherdanta couldn't use other slashing techniques while it was operating at full throttle. She essentially had to smother [Great Sempiternal Vein] by brusquely activating another slashing technique, which would steal the energy expended for its use.

And then finally, there was [Universal Error]. Like [Great Sempiternal Vein], it was a technique that was kissed by Fundamental Barter individually, bolstering its power above the other slashes.

With it, Pherdanta could only target inanimate, conceptual targets, and could only apply it ten times a day.

Movement.

Technique activation.

Sight.

Time.

Space.

Gravity.

Everything that couldn't normally be touched, she could cut.

"I'll ask you again. How does it feel?" Pherdanta said. She was suddenly in front of the body Ashema was possessing, squeezing its neck. "I can sense that you won't die no matter how many bodies I cut. A truly impressive ability. Some of your courtesies were genuine, after all. You really Lord of the Under."

As Ashema frothed, seething with fury, he heard a familiar noise below.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Once again, Pherdanta had begun to use her slashes against Boron's halberd. And indeed, she was using [Great Sempiternal Vein] for this feat, which meant she didn't have access to other abilities for the moment.

But Ashema did not know that. He only knew this woman as a monster with the ability to do as she pleased.

But still…

'Don't look at me as though you've already won, wench!' he thought, and an instant later, his consciousness had fled from this body he'd been inhabiting and fled outside Pherdanta's Territory.

'Just watch me! There's more than one way to prove which of us is the better subordinate to their master!' he cried inwardly, his resolve not faltering in the least.

---

[Author's Note]

Essentially, the new skill Pherdanta created – [Infinite Sword God, Sardonic Latitude] – was empowered by Fundamental Barter once as a whole. But [Great Sempiternal Vein] and [Universal Error] were empowered by Fundamental Barter individually on top of that.

That is to say, both of these techniques each have another ^5 boost to their applications.

(Every application of Fundamental Barter boosts power and effectiveness by ^5. If you've seen a ^2.5 before in earlier chapters. That's an error I've corrected.)