Bro, I'm not an Undead!-Chapter 1611: Godspeed Highway! (3)

Vali clicked her tongue. It didn't come as a surprise to her at all that Kintar had shielded her from Nigerra's Territory instead of warping her and Maxim out like everyone else. From the little she'd seen of the Mage, she was far from a saint.

'She wants us make good on our resolve, huh?' she thought, her navy-blue hair whipping about with the tempo of the Genuine Divine energy billowing all around her. Vali was all for it.

Maxim's will, on the other hand, was weathering.

"I don't… I don't think I can do this." She was panting, her hands on her knees.

Vali turned to her. "You said you could. I thought we were in this together."

Maxim shook her head. "No. I'm not trying to give up. It's just… My powers are wearing off."

Vali frowned.

'So, it's already time?'

Ferex's [Soul Talisman] wasn't supposed to last for very long, at least for experts who were under the Incandescent Stage. It was only natural for Maxim to start losing her empowered abilities now. Without them, however, she might as well have been fodder in this battle. The same would have been true for Vali. Her Cellular Supremacy and discount version of Rias' Imagining Technique weren't fit for this battlefield as they were before Ferex's input.

However, unlike Maxim, Vali had nipped the problem of her temporary buff in the bud early on.

"There's a simple fix," she said to Maxim and looked up at Aimon. The masked man's conduit for imagination was far up within Godspeed Highway. "The changes that creature made to our souls before we headed to the Under… you can feel them, right?"

(A/N: She's referring to Ferex.)

Maxim's face twisted in confusion. "Yes. Why?"

Vali chuckled.

"Can you really not think of a way to make those changes stick? Or at the very least, to delay how quickly they dissipate?"

Maxim shook her head, still confused. "What do you mean make them stic—?"

It came to her right as she said the words.

"Good." Vali saw the revelation float through the pink-haired woman's eyes. "I'm actually going to need your abilities soon enough. So you better get creative and match me."

Behind her, a giant, ferocious lion made entirely out of potent lilac flames emerged. It was her conduit for the ultimate combination of her Imagining Technique and Cellular Supremacy. To be sure, it was way inferior to Rias' conduit, but there was a glaring caveat that Vali suspected would allow her to make it useful against the masked man. She could almost taste the feasibility of her theory as she stared at the deer head above.

For an instant, her eyes caught sight of the masked man clashing with all the Generals and Void Users at the same for time. He almost seemed invincible. Indomitable.

Vali grinned. "Or not."

…

Meanwhile, a staggering battle was brewing between Nigerra and Kintar. After cloaking herself in clothing made from mana, the Mage had imagined that even within the Territory, she only needed a little more than two seconds to kill Nigerra… but she was wrong.

A Beyond the Veil Stager's Majestic Territory was in a league of its own. Not to mention…

Kintar grabbed Nigerra's wrist just as they landed on one of the many glowing pathways, pulled, twisted her arm and struck the elbow with all her physical might.

That… did nothing.

Nigerra grinned like a demon. Her figure melted into the air and a blink later, she seized Kintar's wrist – a petty getback – pulled her close, and fed a palm strike straight into her fist.

Kintar was blown back, but she barely suffered any damage.

'She's gotten faster again,' the Mage noted. She clicked her tongue, lunged at Nigerra, kicked her in the ribs, in the shoulder and then slung her leg around her neck from behind, forcing her to bow. She then stabbed the back of the woman's neck with a knife hand, intent on severing her head.

That… did nothing.

Nigerra seemed impervious to all damage.

Just as Kintar scowled, a glowing human sped along the glowing pathway at fierce speed and smashed into her. She went flying, but she welcomed the short window to gather more of her thoughts while separated from the relentless user of this Territory.

'This is pretty terrifying,' she thought, channelling her Divine energy into her limbs and kicking off the air to kill her momentum. She then studied the many figures racing along all the tracks within the Territory. Trigger Racers, Nigerra called them. They were growing faster and faster by the second. 'They build up kinetic energy as the seconds tick by, and all of it is channelled into Nigerra and the Territory as a whole. In essence, with every second by goes by, Nigerra grows stronger and so does the Territory. And this is only the effect of the Primary function of this place.'

Innovation when it came to Territories was indeed unlimited, but Kintar had never imagined something like this was possible. Nigerra's physical prowess was already drawing close to that of the masked man; she must have been better at allocating the accumulating power better than Rias since she was a Form User.

"You're sharp. I could tell from earlier," Nigerra said to the Unlimited Star from below. "You've figured it out: how it's simply not possible to beat me while I'm here, especially without meeting my Territory with another right from the start." She smirked. "I've never been able to find the limit of how much energy I can take, but I promise you, what I've explored so far is way beyond what you can imagine."

Kintar snorted. "I believe you." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Good. So why don't you consider my earlier proposal? Join me. You are worth more than the sum of my peers – most of whom you killed, by the way. And it would be a waste to kill you. Fine Aigas feminine energy that stands on the precipice of the Divine is exceedingly rare."

"It sure is," said Kintar. "I'm having the same sympathetic sentiment, actually. It would be a shame to kill you."

The Realm Source Mage channelled Genuine energy into her palm and activated her Absolute Magic, Infinitesimal Division.

'There's something more than just the potency of this Territory,' she thought. Almost at the same time, she blinked behind Nigerra and shot her glowing palm at the woman's back. She meant to divide her against herself, leaving nothing behind!

But Nigerra was close to becoming fifty times faster than light at this point. Kintar's fingers only managed to taste her afterimage. Before even that vanished from the Mage's grip too, Nigerra was circling her right palm in the air before striking Kintar's back.

Faux Sand Fist!

The blow was atrocious. Kintar spat blood, but she wouldn't be outdone.

No matter how fast Nigerra was, Kintar was still capable of predicting the movements of all mana and mana derivatives in her range. In a way, she was a clairvoyant, and an even better combatant. Firing destructive flames from her foot in the opposite direction, she shot herself back towards Nigerra and vaulted in the air to drop a reverse axe-kick down on her head.

Naturally, Nigerra was long gone by the time the attack fell, but Kintar knew. She knew where her opponent would dodge and attack from next.

'I refuse to believe you're so durable to the point where even this won't work on you either!'

Genuine Divine energy condensed behind Kintar's head and was seamlessly melded with her Nitros and the essence of Infinitesimal Division at the same time. The proportions were perfect, and the result was something that mimicked the potency of a full power Ko Aggrante but without the Null Life properties. Of all the Starmations accessible by the Stark Troops, the Ko Aggrante was the strongest and even Kintar didn't have the firepower to perfectly replicate it.

Her current execution was perfection, however.

The jet of energy she released without relying on her physical body – gestures and such – didn't travel in a straight line. It wound around Kintar four times, widening its radius with each loop. Finally, it fired at full speed to the Mage's left where Nigerra's figure had just popped up. The woman barely had time to frown before the attack blasted her in the shoulder.

A stellar explosion followed the collision.

…!

But then Kintar's eyes bulged.

Nigerra's hand poured out of the fiery, shiny aftermath and grabbed her face.

"Maybe you're not as smart as I thought," Nigerra, perfectly unharmed, said. "You can't beat me here. But in contrast, I have the luxury of something like this…"

…!!!

A wad of glinting energy was suddenly pushed, or rather, moved out of Kintar's body in one swift motion.

It was all the Genuine Divine energy she had generated… along with her vermillion mana core!

The Realm Source Mage gaped, but as hard-pressed as she was to believe that Nigerra could use her Eye of Moving to do something so absurd, she was more concerned about the human-shaped, sombrely coloured vibration half-spilling from Nigerra…