Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A green light flashed around Gabel, while a red one circled his dead opponent.

The result was clear.

However, Gabel's eyes were torn from his notebook for a moment.

He looked at the corpse of distance from him, specifically the limb on which the Control Seal was planted.

A faint glow lit up on the Seal but Gabel was teleported back to his seat before he could see what came of it. He felt a little strange when watching that glow.

Something was amiss.

As soon as he appeared in his seat, he began to write everything to do with it down, thinking of a shrewd ballad to mix in with this occurrence. Whether this was a hidden secret or something as mundane as the Control Seal disappearing as it was no longer necessary, he did not care.

It was interesting and maybe, it would interest the veiled woman he sought to court.

....

The witnesses were starting to get a better sense of how...'real' this was.

An event where humans slaughtered each other wasn't something that everyone could agree on, but it was only a minority that expressed complete disgust towards outright. The rest were either mildly disturbed, indifferent or all for it.

The people dying here weren't forced to participate, right?

They came of their own free wills. It was only natural that some would die.

This was how many consoled themselves or reasoned in order to condone this.

Some merely found the issue of free food attractive and thus didn't care about anything else.

It was all good as long it wasn't them being killed.

Guissepo descended from his height once again and had the platform cleaned before the next battles could commence.

His eyes took a glance at the man who was writing on his small book in his seat under the tent and he showed hints of curiosity.

'How extravagantly amusing...' he thought before snapping his fingers.

Two matches passed quickly afterwards.

Somehow, it became trendy to kill your opponent instead of simply defeating them. It wasn't clear whether those fighting within the next matches had genuine grudges from outside the Premium Age Royale or if they were trying their best to not be ones who ended up as flesh chunks that were scraped off the platform, bringing a close to their hopes and dreams.

Whichever it was, the audience had to watch.

The progress of the matches was quick but Skullius piled under mountains of thoughts as this happened. Most of these thoughts were all about Gabel.

He linked everything he had learned from the bandits whose information he had extracted with [Basic Evil Sanction] to what he heard from other channels.

There truly was a secret... or rather a hidden, seemingly untraceable society solely based off the demand for illegal or typical unusual goods and services.

There were those that were content with allowing the organisational structure flowing from the Royal Family to reign over them with its mandates and rules, and then there were those who weren't.

According to what Skullius knew, there were two main pillars in this society.

One, was the Severed Union.

It was something like the Guilds Association, an organisation that gathered separate individuals under its wing to offer chances at handsome rewards in exchange for completing some pretty nasty tasks.

The other was something akin to a myth. No one knew if it was real or not but that didn't matter as that didn't change what it's purpose was.

It was a band of individuals who were known as the Nine Immortal Perils.

It was rumoured that they established this underground society and they maintained it, keeping it untraceable even by the strongest powers of Feinheath.

What was scariest about this was that this society wasn't based in Pelian. It seemed to have global roots, some even hypothesising that it even reached Opungale in its treachery.

'It bothered me when I first heard about bounties and such. I thought such a thing would be something the Capital Service would want to deal with but since it runs so deep...' Skullius thought.

Why was he thinking about this right now?

It was because of Gabel.

Apparently, his most recent fame came from dispatching a few Families ruthlessly. No one was left alive.

No one.

Those who took jobs for the Severed Union rarely did anything too big, which was why there hadn't been that many collaborative events between Emeradis, Pelian and Maqi to source out this thing from the routes.

They barely did anything garnering immediately and absolute action. That was the essence of the Severed Union.

However, this recent kill by Gabel. There was no one it was personal.

Someone had definitely hired Gabel to get rid of that many people and unlike with many such requests that were miraculously intercepted by the so called Immortal Peril in order to keep the society afloat, this one... was let to pass.

This made many fearful of the implications of this  one of them being, Gabel's identity beyond a simple bounty hunter.

Wait. Was he even a bounty hunter to begin with?

This discovery was one of the central reasons Skullius wanted to broaden his network.

There were too many things in Aigas that acted as landmines to his ignorant self. The more knowledgeable he was, the better.

Another match passed with Skullius still lost in his thoughts but then...

...!

He felt a ring of silver energy grip him firmly, rejecting any of his attempts to resist.

In the next moment, he found himself standing on the white unblemished platform, cleaned perfectly after the latest brutalisation.

'It's finally my turn, huh?' Skullius thought.

Standing within the confines of the thin barrier seemed surreal and to actually witness how large this platform was, made Skullius smirk.

The subdued excitement had begun to pick up again and all of it being carried down from all sides down to him was... strangely exhilarating.

He limited himself to the most basic application of the Insurgent Magnus powers, forming small balls of darkness that acted as pupils on his white eyeballs. This was a limited version of Crude Vision but it would do.

'Right...'

Skullius looked up, coming to gaze at the image of the enemy up close.

The Game Master.

Guissepo noticed his gaze and looked down at him with a simple smile. Of course, Skullius had a hard time seeing expressions but he could feel it.

This guy definitely remembered him but he didn't care at all!

'This unsettles me more and more.'

There was nothing much to gain from acting more suspicious by taking a prolonged look at the Game Master so Skullius focused more on his opponent.

Before him was a middle-aged looking man.

An opponent who didn't seem to care about him whatsoever.

"Ahahahahahah..." the man laughed lightly while waving to one of the witnesses seated a bit higher on the stands. "Can you see me, Aliyah? Your dashing fiancé is about to take care of business."

This person whom he was waving to could hear and see him of course. She waved and blew a kiss at him while standing from her seat. The people beside her seemed to carry her enthusiasm forward, chattering endlessly about this dynamic.

"Awww... I wish some incredible warrior would wave to me too before bashing in some random fool."

"Right? It's so romantic! This woman is so blessed. Her betrothed is about to mercilessly shed blood on her behalf!"

"Oh, may the Deities bless the poor soul standing between this showing of love."

Skullius felt insulted but he didn't show it.

Somehow he felt like somewhere out there, he was being treated as some random fodder about to die.

'Tsk. Getting enraged about it would only feed to the profile,' Skullius thought.

Mana began to sift from his body as the information about his opponent was revealed to him.

--

Name : Kurtish Oldd

Stage : Second Phase Master

Core : Blue

Family : Oldd

--

Skullius used his guidance field on this man on top of this. Given his realisation during the fight between Hocce and Maxim, he figured it was better to know how strong the Second Phase Master he was facing was. His battle with Kenno was also telling. If he was to face to a Genuine Incarnation that was as fast as those cards the bandit boss could produce without having expected it and while keeping his Insurgent Magnus powers under wraps...

It would be disastrous.

After the individual before him,  Kurtish, was done tending to his celebrity cravings – waving at random people also – he finally faced Skullius.

His smooth chocolate brown hair which met with a like coloured anchor beard gave him a dashing look that was only spoiled by the arrogance that twinkled from his satin grey eyes.

His armour was showy too, nigh impracticable in its appearance, as if not made for any type of high speed movement or combat at all.

The man gave Skullius a look of pity, sizing him up multiple times.

"To think my first appearance on the stage will be with a nobody such as you," the man said while elegantly holding his forehead in genuine distress. "Is this truly a coincidence, Game Master?!"

Guissepo gave a short laugh before flying up, giving no reply to Kurtish.

Skullius ignored the words of his opponent.

'Might as well end this quick. I'd rather not show too much,' he thought as his body grew light.

Seeing the look on the Hybrid Luman's face and his stance, Kurtish Oldd wore a shocked face, his hand elegantly touching his chestplate as if he was appalled by something truly vile.

"Young man! Are you truly... ahaha! Are you truly under the impression that I will battle you?" Kurtish Oldd said with the shake of his head.

"Sadly, this battle ended when you witnessed my glorious image."

...!

Suddenly, Skullius felt a torrent of mana brush out of Kurtish and converge to a single point!

No.

It wasn't just a torrent of mana!

Skullius could have sworn this man had expended 90% of his entire mana reserves in an instant!

Wait! No!

He didn't expend it! This was something of an automatic activation of a technique that immediately withdrew the required amount of mana!

The result was...!