In the same morning.

 

Sumire opened her heavy eyes, her sight revealed Shirogane whose upper body slept on her bed while holding her right hand and Sakuya who was reading a book by the window. The room layout indicates that she’s in the Academy Healing Ward.

“So bright…” She commented on the morning sunlight, using her fingers to block the uncomfortable brightness. She prefers her room to be darker for some reason.

Her voice notified Sakuya who was reading a book. She closes them as she gazes at her, “Captain, you’ve awoken.”  

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Two weeks.” Then, as if she recalled her captain’s preferences in dealing with exact data, she corrected herself, “Sixteen days. You were knocked out for quite a while, we were worried that you’ve received irrecoverable damage. We followed your instruction by only allowing Priestess Miko of the Church of Knowledge to treat you, she said you were fine and simply refused to wake up.”

“I uh, had a rough dream.” Sumire changed the subject. Despite being so, thanks to Priestess Miko’s manipulation, nobody found out the change she experienced. “Did we succeed in killing Nyx?”

“Yes.” Sakuya elaborates on the event after Nyx’s ‘death’ under the hand of Shion. She also elaborates on any notable events regarding what happened during or after the hunting festival such as Wild Savage’s domination in the 3rd stage and others.

“It’s good to know that everyone is alive… after our dangerous encounter with a former-legendary necromancer.” Sumire sighed.

“But captain, your moth suddenly died not long after you went unconscious.”  

Sumire smiled, “It was a price worth paying for. Our life is more precious than some beast, even if she’s a rare mutant.”

“Even so, your cultivation base has regressed to 3 transparent stars. This damage…” Sakuya said dejectedly. Her captain was one of the elite geniuses in the academy whose personality is easier to befriend with. With her captain’s decrease in cultivation base, it would be hard for Violet Sword Blaze to maintain their ranking amongst the first year students.

“Hey, it’s alright.” Sumire calmed Sakuya, “I’ve got an unexpected gain instead.” She put her finger on her lips, implying that she had a secret that she couldn’t tell.

Since her captain has said so, then there’s no need for her to worry about spoiled milk. “Fine, I understand.” Her worries toned down after recalling Sumire also cultivate in wisdom-path. There’s a slight chance that her decrease of cultivation base was a method to fool others. “I shall call upon the others; they are dying to know about your conditions. Your recovery is the news they are waiting for.”

Sumire nodded, “Please.”

…

After spending some time with her teammates, Sumire got discharged from the healing ward. Soon, Sumire returned to her dwellings alone as Shirogane was busy dealing with her family affairs.

“These gains… are unbelievable.” Sumire smiled ear to ear the moment her room’s stealth formation was activated. “Nyx, appear for me.” She commanded.

From her shadow, a semi-translucent Spectral Soul materialized himself in the shape of a high elf. He has the same exact look to the Nyx that tried to possess her a while back, though he is less opaque now.

“You’ve called for me, master.” Nyx kneeled, showing his allegiance.

Back then, Sumire sealed Nyx’s truesoul within her Malicious Heart. The price of sealing him was not cheap, her cultivation base regressed permanently from the peak of 5 transparent stars (mid-stage/50-59% Spiritual force development quotient) to 3 transparent stars (early-stage/30-39%). Yet, it wasn’t her cultivation base that made her heart bleed, but her spectral soul, Aya!

Using Aya (the spectral soul that possessed the dark-path moth) as a spell resource, she successfully activated a rank 1 killer move to trap Nyx’s truesoul. In that situation, Nyx has no way out since every move he made would be canceled and every method he activated would be stolen.  

Of course, as a former legendary necromancer, he wasn’t stupid. Nyx stopped thinking, maintaining his existence through silence. He found out that Sumire’s [Malicious Soul Prison] can only steal telepathic thoughts under certain conditions. As long as he does not think, he could live rent free in her Malicious Heart.

However, just because you don’t want any trouble, doesn’t mean trouble wouldn’t want you. The truth was, Sumire couldn’t maintain the [Malicious Soul Prison] forever. Her ability would be reduced by half since her Malicious Heart couldn’t be used to produce malicious thoughts. Maintaining the said killer move continuously expend malicious thoughts!

That being the case, Sumire began torturing Nyx’s soul through various means in hope to incite retaliation. Silence meant Sumire can easily poke his truesoul while retaliation meant the soul chains will siphon his telepathic thoughts.

Also, it needs to be said that since he is caught within Sumire’s secondary Sea of Consciousness, she could alter the rate of time according to her preferences as long as she’s willing to expend the telepathic resources.

With those facts combined, although half a month passed by in the real world, it was actually much, much longer in her Sea of Consciousness. Nyx was constantly tortured for half a year in that soul prison, until his truesoul couldn’t resist Sumire’s method. When that moment arrived, Sumire immediately used Nyx’s crumbling truesoul as the primary material to refine a brand new Spectral Soul!

The process wasn’t without more sacrifice. In that mental world, she split her own truesoul and combined it with Nyx’s so that the new spectral soul would be a part of her. The result was her soul foundation regressed far more than her spiritual force cultivation!

If her previous soul foundation allows her to enslave 14 same-rank beasts under ideal condition, then her current limit was 4, and only 2 under normal condition. This was almost the same as restarting her soul foundation cultivation, but it was worth it!

The price she paid was exorbitant, but she still considers it a bargain! This was a former-legendary necromancer. His memory alone worth several hundred Sumire put together, needless to say his capability!

Now that she gained an enlightenment from subjugating Nyx, she realized Spectral Soul is an ethereal soul-type lifeform whose possession ability is comparable to banshees, but it would be comparing a dog to a tiger since Spectral Soul isn’t actually an undead. If used properly, spectral souls could act as sentries (since they don’t sleep), scouts (ethereal means can pass through limited matter), and if grown to a certain degree, Spectral Souls can even use soul art!

They are alive, though the standard metrics of biological lifeforms couldn’t be used on them!

As of now, the soul arts that Nyx can use might only be weak mental attacks with its power equivalent to weak wisdom-path methods, but it’s greatest advantage is that it affects the soul directly!

It needs to be said that wisdom-path methods have been developed for 200 years, it is very young compared to other paths, but countermeasures have been developed already. Only supreme wisdom-path experts can dominate battles with their unknown methods.

However, soul arts have never been officially developed at all! This means countermeasures for it are weak, if there are any at all! 

Thanks to the suppression of necro-path by the Twelve Main Divines since the Undead Calamity, necromancers are forced into hiding the moment they began cultivating necro-path. Those necromancers are not idiots, they are constantly developing methods to resist the Twelve Main Divines, but only those who reached legendary rank are allowed to enter the organization where necromancers share their findings to fellow peers.

It wasn’t free and Sumire couldn’t enter the said necromancer organization due to the lack of rank clearance, but it doesn’t mean Nyx is. Despite having lost the privilege of a member after losing his cultivation base, Nyx was a former member whose personal research topic delved into the domination of soul.

The reason why he lost his physical body in Fuyuhiro permafrost mountain range was because he had recently traded a Minor Inheritance of the Devil King’s direct disciple, King Solomon, from the organization! The inheritance was mind-bogglingly expensive to the point that he had to trade all of his life-saving treasures and had to execute various missions for the organization for a hundred years before it was fully paid.    

His research topic was to find a better method of enslavement towards intellectual races. Thanks to King Solomon’s inheritance, he was able to perform experiments on the kobolds that Sumire fought in Thunderpeak mountain. In other words, King Solomon’s ‘Minor Inheritance’ he purchased was thousand times better than Nyx’s worth.

This gains… if it isn’t a jackpot, then Sumire wouldn’t know what jackpot means.

Sumire can’t hide her smile that went ear to ear. This was like winning a trillion dollar in a lottery with 100 dollars as the winning reward, the sheer dumb luck required to win this was truly incomprehensible.

Suppressing the euphoria in her heart, she inspected Nyx. “Tell me why you are skirting around Fuyuhiro mountain range.”

“A mission by the organization.” Nyx began to elaborate, “Yukikaze clan is a secluded ancient family whose martial arts progressed into a foreign route compared to the orthodox martial arts of our Morgen World. Someone deduced that Yukikaze clan’s Secret Planes contain lost inheritance of Grim Reaper’s followers.

Someone commissioned me to capture their young ones so that they could analyze further. Also, Yukikaze clansmen boast formidable soul foundations, making them great raw materials for high-intellect undead refinement…”

As Nyx continued to explain, Sumire slowly understood that Yukikaze clan’s ninjutsu are closer in form and function to soul arts instead of true martial arts. This wasn’t her nor Nyx’s analysis, but a deduction from an expert of soul in the said necromancer organization. They wanted to obtain Yukikaze clan’s inheritance to deepen their own soul arts, yet doing so was harder than kidnapping a royal family member since they are sensitive to soul arts themselves.

“Do you know who you’ve kidnapped?”

“No.” Nyx answered without hesitation. “I seem to have lost that part of my memory.”

Sumire shook her head. It was common for soul entities to lose memory, especially after receiving significant damage. When biological lifeforms received wounds, their fleshy body would bleed but soul entities have a chance of their soul structure crumbling. Loss of memory is one of the mildest consequences. Furthermore, her Spectral Soul refinement method wasn’t perfect; she’s aware of her own inadequacy.

“Then, according to your experience, if she was taken outside of her clan like this, what do you think will happen?”

Nyx pondered before answering, “She will either have to return to her clan as soon as possible, or stay outside at all cost. I am unaware of the internal culture of Yukikaze clan, but as a secluded ancient family, there has to be a serious lack of entertainment or non-clansmen peers for youths like her. I think she will try to satisfy her curiosity before returning to her clan.”  

Sumire nodded, “Excellent deduction.” She was testing Nyx to determine whether he still possessed his former intellectual capability or not. She was already aware that Shion had transferred into the academy two days ago since Sakuya just told her about it. ‘I will obtain Shion no matter what.’ was her inner thought.

“Then, give me your status report.”

Nyx lacks the capacity to feel emotion as Sumire didn’t want him to have desire, his tone was flat and cold “Affirmative. Combat strength has decreased by 99% and enslavement capacity decreased by 98%. Theoretical split distance from master is 170 meter, with 104 minute of independent operation time.”

“Convert enslavement capacity to rank 0 beast. How many beasts can you enslave at once?” Sumire asked expectantly.

“Depends on power level and beast types. Necro-path lifeforms: 11 units, wolf-type beast: 3 units, lizard-type beast: 2 units, monkey-type beast: 1….” Nyx continues to mutter all sorts of beast types and his limits. Unless they are necro-path lifeforms, all of them are at the level of single digits.

“So low?” Sumire frowned but she was actually delighted. Spectral Souls can’t and shouldn’t have greater soul foundation than the owner since that would promote certain desires within the Spectral Soul to rebel or take over the host’s soul. The chances of it happening are extremely low, but the chance exists.

That being said, Nyx actually can enslave far more beasts than Sumire with roughly the same level of soul foundation due to his [Legendary] Attainment in both necro-path and enslavement-path.

“Forget necro-path lifeforms, I can’t bring them out in the open. I want to know how you can control hundreds of kobolds at once without overburdening your soul.”

“Master, that isn’t pure enslavement-path methods but a derivation of command-path.” Nyx began narrating, “I coerce the tribe leader into my servant using a supreme command-path method known as [Command Seal].”

Unlike enslavement-path of dominating the minds of lesser lifeforms, command-path was more similar to soul contract. Of course, the contract isn’t equivalent as the ‘servant’ will have to obey a set of rules according to the contract, yet it was still a better method to dominate intellectual lifeform.

“Is this related to King Solomon’s ‘True’ Inheritance that you wanted to use to trick me back then?”  Sumire asked.

During her initial contact with Nyx, he tried to bargain King Solomon’s True Inheritance for the team’s silence. The truth was, not only was it merely a Minor Inheritance, the deal was also a fake. How can verbal promise be enacted in that situation? Since that was the case, there’s only one way for them to make peace other than the total obliteration of the other party: soul contract.

Needless to say, Nyx wasn’t a good person.

Nobody in Violet Sword Blaze could make a soul contract, at least not yet. Should Sumire reach rank 1, she’ll be capable of doing so but that’s for the far future. In that situation, they’ll have to do with Nyx’s soul contract. However, any mage who had a bit of knowledge regarding extraplanar beings would not sign a pre-prepared soul contract thanks to the existence of the devils.

These soul-enforced contracts might be the best promise in all of Morgen World and its related dimensions, but devils loved to scam mortals through this method.

That being the case, Sumire was more knowledgeable about soul contract than other mages thanks to her Death Command True Inheritance. Well, now that she knew any True Inheritance would be incredibly precious, perhaps hers was a minor instead of a true inheritance, but that wasn’t the issue.

In her inheritance, there was a method to create soul contract because high-rank undead such as lich or undead dragon who retain their intellect are not retarded zombies and therefore, enslavement-path methods are not effective towards them. In this case, intellectual undead can only be controlled through soul contract between the two parties.

Perhaps, this was a command-path method, but there was little explanation in her inheritance. Instead, it was considered as necro-path methods due to its effectiveness only target undead.

That being said, there are various ways to ensure a harmless ‘non-disclosure agreement’ into a lifelong servitude contract.

How?

Invisible inks, microscopic font, convoluted wordplay or technical jargons, vague word selection as if they were near-mistranslation but have a different meaning in other less-known language, word arrangement that was supposed to be read vertical or backward and those beautiful ornaments on the contracts? Those are hypnotic wisdom-path runes designed to lower your mental defense or directly break your mind.

It has become common sense for devils or those who often deal with devils to never accept a pre-prepared soul contract due to these reasons. In fact, the said methods were one of the easier ones to be detected. At a higher level, there are advanced methods that will hide contractual clauses in the contract depending on time or certain wavelength of light. The action of deceiving is an art for the devils.

Nevertheless, she wasn’t expecting that these soul contracts are the true essence of command-path.

“Affirmative, but command-path isn’t that rigid. King Solomon was a true king and the supreme commander of Galatreon’s Military, his specialty is enslavement-path. However, there are limits of what enslavement-path can do, especially towards intellectual lifeform. To cover this weakness, command-path was designed with soul contract as the base, though I am not sure of his thought process.” Nyx explained.

He added, “In his hand, command-path became a supreme method to construct the perfect military chain of command. Not only did he have an army of cannon fodder made out of beast slaves, he also had strong intellectual military units. His strategic insight is comparable to the brave who invented enslavement-path.”

“Unfortunately, he’s dead.” Sumire sighed. She truly wanted to have King Solomon as her teacher, that great man brought enslavement-path to a new height. If he was a Sovereign (rank 6) instead an Epic (rank 5), Sumire was sure King Solomon could have the potential for being a Brave.

Of course, if she was given a chance to choose between the Devil King or King Solomon, she’ll choose the Devil King in a heartbeat. Why? Because he was simply King Solomon’s master.

“Since you’ve managed to experiment on the kobold; how did it work and what’s your limit?” Sumire asked.

“Refining [Command Seal] cost my soul foundation permanently, I couldn’t refine too many of them. On the contrary, dominating those kobolds isn’t actually that difficult, I don’t have to use Command Seals on each of them. I use them on the combatants or those who have a say in the tribe. By dominating all the military force, elders, and the tribe leader, I effectively controlled the tribe.

However, my controls aren’t perfect. Thus, I spare some of my combatants into a type of internal police force to enforce my will and rule. Any who broke the rule that I set up would be punished. I can also use their family or their loved ones as punishment to ensure their loyalty…” Nyx narrated.

Enslavement-path was absolute domination, while command-path pursued absolute tyranny. The end goal was more or less the same, but it was accomplished through different means.

Sumire nodded as she listened to each of Nyx’s deeds. In her eyes, those evil deeds that he committed without blinking an eye were commendable because it was practical. In any case, she wasn’t a good person either, necro-path cultivators are typically evil to begin with, so there’s no conflict of morals between the two.

“What happened after you ‘died’, did the command seals get nullified?”

“My death would drag the kobolds to the grave, it was one of the conditions that made them motivated to protect and serve me. However, my truesoul is still alive albeit in a different form, therefore I should be able to re-establish my connection with them.”

“Great, Sakuya has been complaining to me that the kobolds are taking the team’s contribution points to feed, and they are unruly. After we’ve dealt with other matters, I want you to re-establish the chain of command so that we can hunt for their feeds. Also, there are various resources that we’ve plundered from your former lair, let’s make the best use of those.”

“Yes, Master.” Nyx accepted her command.

“Onto the next matter, I want you to impart to me all of your necro-path combat methods, starting from the offensive and defensive ones. I am interested in your bone power armor and [Death by Piercing], they are really handy in certain situations.” Sumire asked.

“Affirmative-” before Nyx finished speaking, he hides his soul presence within Sumire’s. At this time, the door was knocked.

Sumire immediately changed her expression into her usual cold and calculative face. When she opened the doors, she was surprised.

“Sakuya, what’s wrong?”

“Captain…” Sakuya gasped as she regulated her breath. “Wild Savage has been defeated in a duel. He’s now a member of the team ‘Absolute Duo’, led by Yukikaze Shion.”

Sumire’s expression was blank, “Shion… the Shion who fought with us against Nyx?”

“Yes, that Shion.”

“Damn, I was thinking about recruiting her into our team.” Sumire furrowed her brows. “Where are they now?”

“Recovering in the healing ward. Kenji was defeated badly, he didn’t manage to activate his trump card, [Power Overwhelming].”

Sumire was shocked to the core. “That easily?” As far as she remembered, [Power Overwhelming] is an extremely powerful self-mutilating technique. Meaning: it would hurt the user first before hurting the enemy. Thus, it was usually used as a trump card since the backlash is pretty severe. “Tsk, I was too slow…”