Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

 

[Convert], the joint of man and machine. 

The concept is actually pretty common in the Land of Sand and Fire, especially in Kaiserreich. The original Clockwork Church who believed in the (now) self-proclaimed ‘Machine God’ Oppenheimer offer a life alteration surgery service to swap one’s body part with prosthetics. It doesn’t matter if it was the arm, legs, eye, or even internal organs such as the heart or lungs, it can be replaced with gears and other mechanical contraptions.

Actually, Klauss of Radiant Desolation did just that. He had undergone a life alteration surgery to change one of his hands with machinery. 

Originally, such augmentations weren't popular due to the lack of follow ups. Those who choose to be a ‘Convert’ are mostly the believer of Machine God Oppenheimer or are mercenaries, low-rank cultivators who are too poor to ask for help at some churches after their limbs got severed or those who have reached the end of their potential.

Asking for ‘healing’ from the churches sounds cheap, but it isn't. As one’s cultivation base progresses, the resources required to heal them spiked tremendously. It isn’t uncommon for rank 3 Legendary to hold on to a year-old wounds or rank 4 Paragons suppressing decade-old ones because he or she could not afford to heal up. It would be far more expensive if the wounds are on the mind or the soul.

Thus, young geniuses refrain themselves from turning into a Convert, because most body tempering art does not consider the effect of having prosthetics. The only way for prosthetics to advance is to switch with the corresponding level. Imperfections such as missing a limb would also disrupt the internal cycle of energy, it was common to see one with mechanical body parts to have difficulties in advancing their body cultivation realm.

However, after the Great Archmage brought refinement-path to a new level, the term ‘Convert’ has a new meaning. 

They are not merely those who have chosen to swap their limb with mechanical prosthetics, instead, he brought it to the point of truly living up to the term ‘life alteration surgery’.

Cybernetic Augmentations.

It was originally made to further augment his physical body because the Great Archmage isn’t showing great prospect in terms of physical body. He is ultimately a ‘weak’ and ‘fragile’ glass cannon-type mage who had obscenely crazy damage output but low ‘HP’ and ‘DEF’, he uses battle puppets as cannon fodder to compensate. Even with various Mage Armor spells and artifacts protecting him, they could not cover the aspect of his fundamentally fragile body.  

Now, people who are revered as ‘Converts’ are those who are cybernetically enhanced. As long as the correct materials are used, propper cybernetics does not negatively impact the speed of which one’s body cultivation realm progresses, having no difference compared to real organs. In fact, the truly special ones could even aid in body or spiritual cultivation! Of course, the cost of cybernetic augmentation was beyond exorbitant, especially the good ones or any that related in supporting spiritual cultivation, but the effects are definitely worth the price.

Everyone is made clear by the power of the new generation of Converts a decade ago when the Great Archmage dispatched his cybernetically enhanced personal guard, the Schutzstaffel, for a certain skirmish in the elven Land of Eternal Spring.   

“I’ve never thought that you were a Convert!” Ayame exclaimed in happiness. It was  genuine delight because seeing a fellow Convert with high-tech enhancement is rare. Although Ayame has seen Shion naked and thus saw her magic circuit-like ‘body runes’, there are all sorts of body runes out there, having circuit-like design does not necessarily imply it was related to cybernetic implants.  

Needless to say, almost all Murasaki Clansmen are cybernetically enhanced on top of having excellent body runes, thus they could be categorized as top tier Convert.

“May I?” She pointed at Shion’s hand in anticipation. 

Shion sighed. “We don’t have time, so be quick about it.” Shion’s broken arm suddenly detached from her body. 

Ayame immediately placed her whole attention on that robotic arm with a fleshy exterior. “Amazing, this craftsmanship is at the level of a Master-Artificer.. No! Perhaps a Grandmaster-Artificer?” Her eyes are shining in prismatic lights, evident of her use of information-path methods. Because the arm was ‘unpowered’, it lost its immunity to detection properties like the rest of Shion’s body, no different than scrap metal. 

“No, you’re overreacting. This is my personal creation. Stop prying, I have to repair this as soon as possible and we don’t have time for this. We can talk about mechanical body parts later.” Shion rebuked.

Ayame’s shoulder dropped. “Fine.” She returned Shion’s broken arm, the silver nanomachines are still moving slowly towards her body which eventually converges in the detached arm. 

Shion took out parts from her dimensional storage rings and with the help of Kasumi, the repair was done in less than five minute. There’s absolutely no difference between the new and the old one. She grasped the air with her new arm, her operating system is currently readjusting minute errors for the new parts. “Sumire, be quick.” 

“Right.” While Shion was repairing her arm, Sumire was looting the weapons and ammunition from the Exo-primate squad, giving them all to her Kobolds. As for the experimental railgun rifle carried by the exo-primate squad leader, it was taken for herself as protection. With her signaling everything worth taking has been taken, everyone started to move out. 

“That was unexpected.” Sumire Commented at Shion.  

While moving, she replied to Sumire’s small talk. “I made a blunder and was taken captive and tortured in one of my extraplanar explorations. My four limbs were cut off, my breasts were severed, both of my eyes were gouged and my heart pierced by a scorching spear. If not for my sound-path methods and my big brother saving me on the verge of death, I would’ve been deader than dead.” 

“How did you survive until you got your heart replaced with cybernetics?” Sumire asked in surprise. Although she was curious about her situation back then, surviving after one’s heart has been impaled for a long time seems impossible. 

“Through the use of sound-path methods, I made my veins pulsate by itself… Don’t make me recall those unpleasant memories, at that time, my control wasn’t as good as now, I inadvertently wasted all of my blood vessels and was forced to replace it with cybernetics. Instead of human blood, blood-strain nanomachines are flowing in my pseudo veins. Let’s focus on what’s ahead of us.” Shion lied with a pained expression.

‘I see… so that’s why her chest becomes hot during battle… Her mechanical heart must be activated to compensate for her weakness. She could no longer be the ‘perfect’ antimage assassin due to her heart, so she’s been endlessly looking for refinement-path inheritances to make her own cybernetic implants… What a poor and strong girl you are…Shion’ Sumire shared a look of sympathy. 

Everyone heard Shion’s brief story, so the team moved wordlessly after her shocking revelation. Now, nobody wondered why she had such a strong desire for the Great Archmage's inheritance and refinement-path in general. Without them, it would be impossible for her to progress in cultivation as she must change her cybernetic parts often, unless she found the perfect refinement-path inheritance that covered the aspect of growing-type cybernetic implants.  

Sumire did not ask more meaningless questions as she cooperated with the team by using her kobold to fight against the next wave of Exo-primates. With the existence of guns, it was easier to fight against these armored monkeys because it forced them to take cover too. 

Just as the monkeys are learning, the hunters too, are learning, especially Shion and Sumire. With their intellect and experience of fighting against robotic puppets, the situation like their first encounter against the exo-primate never got repeated again. Now that the kobolds are slowly getting used to using guns, it was definitely easier to kill them.

“Is this why you want me to learn marksmanship, boss?” Kenji asked as he used a large-caliber rifle taken from one of the exo-primates. It has a limited amount of ammunition because not a lot of them used it, but it was very effective in killing armored primates, especially because their head is somehow not protected by a helmet but a visor instead. 

“I am not a god. I can only plan so far.” Shion denied, but she had a faint smile on her lips. 

The Inheritance Trials are not made to be unbeatable. Thus, despite the exo-primates are hard to deal with, killing them by shooting their head from afar is quite easy. Since Ayame, a true markswoman, is here, she could easily kill them with her own railgun.  

Clank! Ayame reloaded and threw away the empty clip of her assault railgun. 

“They don’t use your mana?” Sumire asked as she returned fire to an exo-primate with her own looted experimental railgun. According to her knowledge from Alanis, the Murasaki clan’s railguns siphoned the user’s mana to shoot. It functions like a true magic wand that amplifies the user’s offensive power. Those railguns are all custom fitted to each family member, each shot could be considered as a lightning-path spell. That’s why most of their combatants are mages with robust spiritual foundations and flat A-grade or even the fabled Ex-grade mana pools.

“It does.” Ayame fired her railgun once more, killing another monkey that blocked the team’s advances. From this angle, Sumire could see some sort of flexible tubes that connected a few holes on Ayame’s magic circuit-covered hand and the railgun rifle. The purple-blue electric shine indicated it was siphoning some sort of energy from Ayame. “I have three mana pools.” She tapped her belly. “All are peak A-grades, probably at the brink of Ex-grade, but I don’t know how long I can keep it suppressed.”

“Three… suppressed… what?” Sumire was lost for words. 

Having an A-grade mana pool could make you a genius that stands on top of other geniuses. But three… and it was suppressed? Sumire felt her perception of the world crumbling.The saying of there’s a heaven above the heavens are true. Galatreon clans are… monsters amongst monsters.

“Mana pools, not mana apertures. Oh… I am still one of the weaker ones in my clan. That’s why I came here to play. Some of my seniors have extreme physiques and better gear than me. ” Ayame muttered. “Oops, I forgot. Don’t tell people what I just told you. Our inquisitor could track the leak of intel even if you hide in other planes. I would probably be punished in some demon hunting mission, but you'd definitely lose your life if you told anyone.” She added. “Uhg, I hate demons, they smell so bad.”

“...” Everyone who heard her complaints is lost for words.

Sumire had an urge to punch Ayame in the face, she did not want to talk with her anymore. Their viewpoints are too different to the point of… there’s a lack of proper words to explain the emotion she felt right now. Jealousy of the talent, resources, experience, or the fact that she can be so carefree even though everyone else was struggling?

Shion chuckled as she fired her gunlance from her position. ‘As the Mordred’s descendants, how can he let them be normal? He altered their physiology, sea of consciousness and soul, making them to have the most potential amongst Galatreon clans. Although breeding them was a hassle because they took a lot more resources than the Deveraux or the Al Arsy and they don’t want to have sex with anyone other than Mordred or his replicants, it was still worthwhile.’

They seem like having a casual conversation, but they are actually engaging in a bitter fight against exo-primates. 

These armored replicants are always moving in groups of ten, their coordination and guns made them hard to deal with. But, the Archmage is in the end, a ‘Lawful Good’ character, not an ‘Evil’ one. He made these primates wear visors instead of exo-helmet, allowing the hunters to easily kill them through exploding their brains.

Despite their slow progress, everyone is getting used to fighting against gun-wielding foes. Even the kobolds are starting to get the hang of using gunpowder-based guns. 

Navigating the labyrinthian corridors took a lot of time. Each corridor has doors that lead to rooms, but most of them are either empty, containing research apparatus, workshop, storage rooms, or fabrication rooms. Due to the fact that they are constantly under a wisdom-path saturation attack and being pursued by haemonculus wearing exosuits, they have no time to thoroughly check or loot useful inheritances in those rooms. 

One of the rooms that they entered contained a map of this location, allowing the group to steadily progress, but these ‘clone soldiers’ are relentless. The more they delay, the more powerful combat strategy that they employ. 

This goes on for an hour until they reach a special corridor as large as a gathering hall.

“The design of this place. As I’ve thought, they are funneling us towards that black door.” Sumire analyzed the room’s layout. 

“That inconspicuous black gorilla that stood in front of the large door… his presence literally screamed ‘Lesser Boss Fight’...” Sakuya muttered as she dropped an exo-primate whose head had exploded by her fist. Although they are happy that this should be the last group of enemies, these exo-primates are weird. 

“Ayame, break it down.” Shion ordered as she used her gunlance cannon to push back the monkeys. Unlike the normal 10-man squad, the exo-primates in this location actually gather and fortify the area. They gouged the metal floor and wall to make cover, there are also a lot of rubbles and metal scraps that protect them from snipes.  

Hiding behind his minion, there’s an exo-primate covered in black fog. Different from other haemonculi who stood 1.7-meter on average, this particular 2-meter tall gorilla has a glint of intelligence in his eyes.  

Ayame took an effort to expose her head to activate her investigative method. Her eyes gleamed in prismatic light, but in less than a second, her eyes teared in bright red blood. “Ack! That thing…” Ayame took out medical cotton and pressed her eyes with it. As the medicine took effect, she explains. “We have to assassinate him. He is controlling the other monkeys like an enslavement-path master. Also, I cannot get a lock on him, he’s under the protection of antidetection methods that are… hard to counter even for me.”

Shion reveals a frown on her face. In the meantime, she switched her gunlance with Kasumi’s heavy shield. She quickly changed the shield into a heavy axe while Kasumi altered the gunlance into Devastator. It is time for both of them to fight with every resource they’ve got.

‘Did she just… used a spectral vision…  to glimpse on Mordred’s truesoul? Who the fuck uses spectral vision on haemonculi…’ Shion had an urge to facepalm. This little shit was so dumb that she forgot that not even her ancestor Mordred dared to casually use spectral vision on devils. Where the fuck did this little shit get the balls to use it on the Devil King? ‘For fuck sake, main soul is a former rank 6, good thing he suppressed his passive countermeasures, with your soul foundation, even the life-saving treasures of Murasaki clan couldn’t save you from having your sea of consciousness collapse.’ 

‘Shion’ inadvertently took a deep breath. ‘Anyhow, Mordred has killed the commander of these soulless cannon fodders and enslaved the rest so that nobody gets suspicious of the situation. According to his instruction before our Soul Link got disconnected, if he didn’t do this, we wouldn’t be able to progress as the learning algorithm of that gorilla is so good that killing it would cost an arm or a leg…’

‘So I have to ‘kill’ his possessed body as soon as possible… but can I evade his shots?’ Shion jumped in an erratic way. Under the cover of electromagnetic armor, her body could defend against most kinetic shells used by the exo-primates, but it definitely wouldn’t work on Gorilla Mordred’s experimental railgun as it was… modified! 

Shion flicked her finger as multiple invisible [Finger Whistle] are sent towards the exo-primates who are attacking her. Some of them had their heads decapitated, while others managed to protect their heads by ducking or using their armored arms. [Finger Whistle] could not break their exosuits because Shion is still a rank 0. If she advanced to rank 1, her attack would contain more weight.

In exchange, Gorilla Mordred shoots her with predictive accuracy, forcing her to duck down and take cover. 

Since Kasumi is following her like a shadow, she too, took cover. Kasumi and Shion split to draw Gorilla Mordred’s fire, but… Gorilla Mordred suddenly took out another experimental railgun rifle and… dual wield!

“Fuck. Ayame!” Shion screamed from the frontline.

“I…can’t!” Ayame wanted to take a shot, but these monkeys are somehow capable of shooting her while she’s cloaking. It needs to be said that her camouflage contains the profundity of information-path, her camouflage is not merely on the optical-level. When she’s getting pinned by gunfire, even her energy shield couldn’t last for long.

‘My dearest main soul, Mordred, please stop showing off!’ Shion grinded her teeth when she saw Gorilla Mordred was smirking and making gorilla noises. While his main body is fighting against Shion and Kasumi, his battle puppets are pinning down the rest of the team. He’s showing his might as a backline commander and a frontline fighter at the same time.

Still, she did not vocal her complaints, because she knew Mordred was being an ass for a reason. 

‘What is it that you need?’ Shion knew both of them could not use soul communication because it would give a trace to Ayame and Sumire. Ayame has information-path methods, and Sumire excels in sensing soul undulation. If their memories are read by inquisitors with a high cultivation base, it would be hard for Shion to bullshit her way through. The best method is to mislead them into a false truth, not to blatantly lie.

Shion threw white phosphorus bombs at Gorilla Morred, but he shot them while they are flying on the air, spreading the thermal gas onto the surrounding exo-primates. Since these haemonculi are no different compared to biological entities, when they inhale the white phosphorus, their lungs are slowly being burnt. Even if Shion did not do anything to them, they will soon meet their demise, but Gorilla Mordred is still alive! He managed to protect himself from white phosphorus! 

However, it obstructed his surrounding in white phosphorus, a cover that could be used by both Shion and Kasumi! They lunged at the white smoke while Kasumi pinned Gorilla Mordred down with Devastator fire.

Just as they entered melee range with Gorilla Mordred, he dropped both of his experimental railguns and started to brawl with Shion who uses an axe and Kasumi who uses gunlance. At this range, they can telepathically converse without a problem, “The situation is worse than I’ve predicted. [Dragon’s Shadow] rate of awakening is nearing completion, even with Xi Ling’s corpse as my temporary mortal shell, we need to exert more effort in the ‘raid’.”   

“Then, what should we do?” Kasumi telepathically replies while both of her bodies are entangled with Gorilla Mordred. Gunlance cannon fire and heavy axe attacks fell on Gorilla Mordred, but his movements are too refined to be hit by those precise attacks, it was as if Gorilla Mordred was an ascetic monk trained in some sort of phantasmal school of evasion. His heavy punches and counter attacks could break steel floors and walls, but Shion and Kasumi rely on their peerless dynamic defense to barely dodge them.

“I need to advance my soul cultivation to rank 1…” Gorilla Mordred replied with a telepathic message. “But that’s quite difficult with our limited time. I need to reach the absolute peak of rank 0. I’ve fed Dark Mist with a lot of rare metals, it only requires a lot of souls to reach the same level as me to achieve a qualitative change.” Mordred then sends Kasumi a telepathic message containing a rough plan regarding the ‘raid’ on Dragon’s Shadow.  

“Understood.” Shion, which was actually Kasumi’s Metal Core, telepathically replied while her heavy axe cracked Gorilla Mordred’s head open, scattering black corrupted brain matter to the ground.

With the fall of the commander, these haemonculi noticeably become slower while entering a state of panic. Cleaning them up becomes easy as they do not have the same unwavering resolve they possessed previously.

While everyone was killing the panicked exo-primates, the dark fog that covered Gorilla Mordred slowly dissipated. It brought Shion’s dimensional storage ring and the Soul Phylactery to a small underground chamber. The dark fog only took out a frozen corpse before going back to the surface to return the dimensional storage ring to its owner.

 

The Soul Phylactery is a rank 6 artifact, it shouldn’t be able to enter this micro-plane as it was too cumbersome for the dimensional laws of this plane. However, all rank 6 artifacts possessed one or few special abilities that allowed them to stand atop other artifacts. 

For example, amongst the 4th Generation Braves, Multicast’s [Mantle of Chaos] not only allowed her to use the power of the 9 elements, it also shrouded her(?) existence in secret to the point that her(?) gender is completely speculative. Another example was ‘Undying Juggernaut’ Yurnero’s twin greatsword. They are considered as a single piece of +29 Soul Armament, whereas normal Soul Armament could only hold +15 enchantments or curses.      

There’s a reason why rank 6 are venerated as Sovereigns, even the artifacts of their rank are special. 

As a life-saving treasure, one of Mordred’s Soul Phylactery ability is to adapt its existence according to its owner. Its burden on fragile dimensions such as this one is dependent on Mordred’s soul strength. Therefore, it could exist in this inheritance space because it is now a ‘rank 0’ artifact.

After returning the rank 1 dimensional storage ring back to Shion, the Dark Mist quickly retreated underground. Under the control of Mordred, he made sure that no trace could be picked up from its movement.

Then, Mordred started thawing Xi Ling's corpse for future use by enveloping her with dark mist. Standing next to her is the exosuit that he made while waiting for Shion. 

In the meantime, Twin Helix is taking a brief respite after cleaning up the last exo-primate. Half an hour later, they opened up the door after preparing for the worst possible outcome, but what greeted them was endless darkness. Tendrils of shadows enveloped everyone, dragging them towards the complete darkness, nobody was spared.

A few moments after their disappearance, an armored Xi Ling resurfaced and entered the same door of darkness.  

“I’ve entered the raid after a 30 second delay. They should be too occupied by the Darksteel Dragonoid to notice me.” Mordred thought to himself.