Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Elita stabbed Skullius with a hot look. Her face might have been a kind of wrinkled, dark, thick sheet of paper. Voided Death Essence blazed from her body, sputtering and scorching. It was violent indeed. It fascinated Aurolio, unnerved Kenno, frightened Revia, but Skullius felt absolutely nothing when he felt the hostility from it directed towards him.

Elita's jaw danced as she ground her teeth.

"What do you want from me, really? The Elita you remember and the one standing before you are two different people, yes, but that's far from being a bad thing. I wasn't an innocent knight back then, plagued with righteous ideals, obedient and charismatic. I was just an idiot and a coward. That Elita couldn't possibly have even dreamed of becoming a Divine, not until she realised some dark truths about the world. Void didn't implant ideas in my head as you assume, I discovered how reality really is on my own," she hissed at him, spittle flying from her mouth.

Revia shuddered.

Elita pointed at herself.

"This is me, Skullius, the Elita primed for Divinity. Get used to it. What I did… I did because I believed it was for the greater good. A necessarily evil that both purges other evils and makes room for better courses for others – others who are still like the old me! I saw it with my own eyes. My first necessary evil was justified. The old order of the Purity died, but an ally was born in their place, an ally that both helped you fight a powerful enemy and played a vital role in increasing your strength. Yes, that's on me!"

Skullius scowled. He meant to say something, but Elita shut him down. She answered it before he could say.

"Yes. Many people who didn't need to die died in the end. That's on me too. I didn't mean for it to happen and I don't like the feel of their deaths on my hands, but it happened and there's nothing you or me can do about it, alright? Alright?" She might have been a hot kettle. Steam issued from her nostrils. "Dear Quintess! You see? This is why I didn't come out and say everything in the beginning, Skullius! For all the power you have, great power, divine potential and whatnot, your mind is still drowned in naivete. Just like mine was back then. It's a mystery how you've gotten this far."

"No, no, no, no," Skullius said, wagging a finger at Elita. "NO. You don't get to judge me like that. Sure, I don't know what you saw out there that changed you to this degree, but I've had my fair share of opportunities to learn, and not just about the world. I know where I draw the line, and WHY. I'm just trying to figure out if you do."

"The line?" Elita expelled a laugh that wasn't a laugh. "You would really say that when you live in a reality where powers infinitely higher than you make territories in the great void, living as they please? Skullius, how have you touched upon all three Existential Parallels and still managed to miss that there are barely any lines to cross?"

Skullius looked appalled.

"You're kidding me. Do you mean to tell me that to you, there are no limits to what you will do for benefit?"

"For certain things, and for certain people, YES, Skullius!" There was no doubt to be found in Elita's eyes. "You're privileged enough to have rallied an entire group of people who will live and die for you. That's good, but I'm beginning to wonder if you've considered just how far you will you go to keep them alive."

Right then, the image of Allora spun into Skullius' head.

He regretted her death more than anyone knew.

She had been keen to prove herself when she asked him if she could try to become an Unlimited back then. She had acquired a Hidden Class that gave her unlimited mana as long as certain conditions were met, and she had been instrumental in the battle across the Central Boundary. She had proven her resolve and her worth to the end, when Actuass had stabbed and obliterated her soul.

She had died in Skullius' arms.

The memory was horrific. Skullius had made a mural for her in the Empyrean Hatcher to honour Allora… and to try and offset the burden she had left in him.

He couldn't understand it in full, truthfully, but he was trying to.

It was for this reason that Elita's words really bit Skullius where it hurts. She assumed so much about him falsely. To be fair, he did the same to her, but he was neither willing to admit it nor back down. Discover stories at empire

Other than perhaps reacting violently, physically, Skullius couldn't find a way to respond to the former Paladin Champion.

Thankfully for him, Revia stepped in.

She was shaking. Her bloodshot eyes and suddenly shrunken face expressed all there was to express regarding how she felt.

"What is it that you did to the Purity, Elita?" she said, half-whispering. She might have been a mouse. "I…I have never known you as the vengeful or violent type Elita. You taught me to keep myself in check… even… even when I had the power to do something about the status quo. Even when the Purity judged you unfairly, you seemed content and—"

Elita didn't soften her words.

"I was a coward and a fool," she cut Revia off. "As for the Purity... I did what I failed to do back then. I exposed the Purity for it really was. The Deities never needed the Purity. They had their Heralds. The Purity was a hub for cruel, false beliefs. I gave them ideas that they presumed to be sent to them by higher powers and they took the bait. They revealed what they really were inside. They revealed all their plans for a new order, plans that didn't have the sanctity of Quintess, Listafelle and Suzamete. They didn't hesitate to devolve into monsters. The worst kind."

Elita shot a glance towards the nine, attached together in the form of a disgusting pillar.

Revia shuddered. She was close to bursting with tears.

Skullius, on the other hand, was nodding, not because he agreed with Elita, but because he was finally starting to piece together how exactly Elita had 'exposed' the Purity and the nine.

"So it all started with a LIMITED CONTRACT, huh?" he said.