Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

Mordred calmly processed the influx of timeforce. He is using time-path methods to sense the dimensional coordinate in the river of time so that he could connect his dimensional ring with the tributary, so that his static dimension gained ‘time’. 

Bang! When his supersonic senses heard the sound of a sound barrier being broken by a railgun bullet, he immediately realized what happened.

The railgun that Paimon held was his own creation. He understood the parameters the best, and thus, knew what kind of firepower that it held. If he was struck by the temporal supermagnetic round, his mortal shell would be completely obliterated. That weapon was designed to hunt large-class beasts who often weighed a dozen or so tons. How can he defend against it without a scratch? Even if his AT-Field was concentrated at full power, it would be impossible to defend it completely. 

However, he has no worries. 

The round roughly traveled at the speed of mach 16. Due to the relatively short distance, the instant Mordred realized it was shot was the moment it hit. 

But the unexpected thing happened when the attack was about to reach mordred. Roughly ten meters away, the spherical bullet suddenly disappeared after a flash of golden light. 

Obviously, he knew about what it was, as he was the one who designed it. 

“Let’s see… negative time factor?” Mordred muttered as he sensed the timeforce undulation from the bullet’s trail, it was the maximum setting allowed by the railgun. “She’s so quick in understanding my situation…” He chuckled.

Negative time factor is an extremely effective method to delay an attack, but difficult to use. Unlike the positive time factor which could unleash the attack before it was made, the negative time factor is typically used as a trap.

Of course, traps have their own uses, but a cultivator would normally be very observant and would be prepared for time-traps like these. Normally, time factor attacks are used between 1 to 0 seconds. It is rare for an attack to be delayed more than two to three seconds as the longer it is delayed, the more obvious the traces that linger in the area.  

Typically, almost all rank 4 Paragons have some methods to passively sense time-path undulation and check for traps like this, thus most high-rank cultivators wouldn’t rely on time-traps too much unless it was top-tier ones.

Time slowly passes as the second tickles by. Eight seconds after the disappearance of Paimon’s attack, the spherical Tributary suddenly surges as a rank 1 year beast suddenly breached through the dimensional hole into the material world. 

This rank 1 year beast is actually stronger than the typical beast. The snake-type year beast was also faster than normal, having golden-silver scintillating scales that undulated in metal elemental particles. It’s 1-meter diameter body might be smaller than a giant kararan serpent, but it was a beast with a high danger rating due to its various time-path and metal-path bloodline abilities. Furthermore, the reptilian creature is actually on the brink of advancement, it is infinitesimally close to breaking through to rank 2!

“What a show off…” Mordred commented as he ignored the snake year beast slithering out of the tributary. When it realized there was someone else nearby, the snake hissed and lunged at Mordred who did not make any defensive action. 

Just as the snake was about to bite Mordred, a railgun bullet suddenly pierced the snake’s head after it traveled through time. Crunch! Although the round could not completely pierce the snake’s skeleton, it was enough to penetrate the thinnest layer of the skull, completely destroying the beast’s brain.

It was an instant kill. The snake year beast has no chance to activate it’s time-path bloodline abilities to heal or shift itself through time. 

“The phrase ‘there might be wrong names, but never wrong titles’ is completely true….” Mordred praised. “As a former Demon King of ‘Grand Strategy’, Paimon’s strategic insight is absolutely frightening…” 

With the death of the rank 1 snake year beast who tried to ambush Mordred, it was obvious that his time had run out. The karmic retaliation of the world is bent on denying Mordred of his spoils of war. He has to get out of this place as soon as possible, otherwise, there wouldn’t be a chance to. 

Paimon, the former Demon King of Grand Strategy, was aware of both Mordred’s desire and condition. He was communicating his findings through a roundabout way so that he does not get infected with Mordred’s bad luck. Although doing so would be impossible since Paimon is connected with Mordred through soul link, such countermeasures would actually lower the karmic infection rate.

“Damn it, I only managed to siphon a little bit of tributary…” Mordred stopped his Tributary refinement to take on all the spoils of war in the battle, including the corpse of the serpent which was an excellent treasure, the rest of the wasp corpse and the chicken year beast’s egg. 

He didn’t want to abandon the refinement of the tributary of time, but it is a complicated process that would take some time. 

As stated previously, the tributary is not an object but a dimensional hole. The method of redirecting the tributary so that time flows into a small dimension requires a mastery of both space and time.

Mordred has some attainment on both, so it is possible for him but it does not make things easier. Redirecting the tributary would typically require space-path methods as space and time supports and restrict each other the best, but Mordred could not use any due to the lack of space-path resources. All the space-path resources inside the combat exosuit minor inheritance has been used up to refine his dimensional ring. 

A rank 1 dimensional storage would normally be impossible to harbor any rank 2 resources. The treatment that Mordred did on it was the only reason the micro-dimension did not simply crumble and implode upon receiving the corpse of the chicken year beast. Although his dimension was smaller compared to other rank 1 dimensional storage rings, it was far more durable and stable, allowing materials up to rank 2 to be stored within.

And so, he tried to siphon the tributary through the use of time-path methods to replicate the effect of space-path. 

However, no matter how good a replication is, it is still a replication, not a true one, the effectiveness of his method is on the low side. At the very least, it would take him some time to completely refine the tributary which would also consume all the timeforce that he had collected during the battle. Without sufficient timeforce, it wouldn’t be possible to accelerate his own rate of time, so time acceleration is not a shortcut to solve this issue. 

Also, with his bad luck and the giant-class beast roaming somewhere nearby, it’ll be obvious what would happen if he stayed for too long. He absolutely cannot fight against any giant beast… not without a MEKA.

“At the very least… My dimensional storage is no longer stasis. It is at .25 time rate compared to the material world… acceptable.” Mordred quickly left after making sure no corpses were left nearby the tributary. 

 

….

 

At the edge of the dark-path minor elemental wave, fourteen kilometers away from the River of Time Tributary. 

“Aspect of the Devil, [Grasp of Thorns]!” Paimon opened his palm as it turned into a devil claw with poisonous blade-like thorns. He swung his arm at the poor eighteen-eyed spider beast who was dazed due to Paimon’s hypnotism. Crunch! The 2-meter tall spider had its central cognitive organ crushed, it’s soul being consumed by the devil. 

“Ah~” Paimon moaned. This was the first soul that he consumed in the material world. It barely satisfies his insatiable hunger since devouring souls would literally allow his cultivation base to advance, but he has to hold back his desire a little bit. He took a step down from the corpse as he noticed the approaching figure.

“My king.” He bowed, his hands still maintaining the form of a devil’s thorny claws. 

Despite the gruesome spectacle behind him, his tuxedo was clean as the spider’s blood  could not stain it. Thus, he always looks prim and proper. On his back was the 4-meter long railgun, folded into 2-meter long gun parts. If one is not familiar with railguns, one could not guess that the equipment on Paimon’s back was a heavy weapon made to hunt large beasts.

“Just in time…” Mordred produces a lump of telepathic will to shorten explanation, he didn’t even bother Paimon who had killed a beast to satisfy his hunger. The telepathic will contains instructions and directions, he gave it to Paimon in which he received without resistance.

“You want me to take your identity while you’re away?”

“Yes.” Mordred nodded. “There’s the dark elf girl, Valerie... I want you to corrupt her soul. Since there’s a giant-class beast roaming nearby, she might be alerted, so you’ll have to find her. I don’t care what method you use, but her soul is an extremely precious material, perhaps…” Mordred paused, “Do you still have the ability to grant Devil Warlock class?”

Since everyone has limited time and those who tried to be a jack of all trades would simply be next to useless compared to a true expert, a cultivator’s ‘class’ would define their primary technique of cultivation. There are all sorts of cultivation techniques out there, so a ‘class’ is a method of classification of one’s archetype which typically defines what kind of cultivator they are.

As for Warlocks, there are also all types of warlocks out there. There’s Dragon Warlocks who have made a deal with dragons to gain their bloodline, Demon Warlock who have demonic bloodline flowing in their veins, Abyssal Warlock who have abyssal beast bloodline gained from heretical methods, and of course, Devil Warlock who have been bamboozled by devils.

Equal trade with a devil?

Pfft. Don’t joke around. There’s no such thing.

“Who’s going to provide the blood sufficient to do that? We are both rank 1, I need to provide 10 times the blood volume of my body so that she’ll inherit my bloodline. The blood-purifications required to create a devil warlock is too taxing, furthermore, my bloodline is only attractive to commanders, not combatants.” Paimon did not lie. It was a fact.

Bloodlines of certain entities might be inherited, but there’s a need for it being stronger than the recipient. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be attractive in the first place. There's simply no need for someone to receive a foreign bloodline of a weaker entity as that would actually weaken oneself.

Despite being genetically engineered to inherit the paternal gene of Devil King Mordred and maternal gene of Demon King Paimon, the current Devil Paimon merely has the potential to be a rank 6 sovereign, he is not a rank 6 entity yet. Even if Mordred wanted to brute-force the bloodline inheritance, there’s a need to purify and concentrate Paimon’s blood multiple times to unearth the potential. 

Obviously, they could just summon a rank 2 demon from Lemegeton, kill it with traps and use its blood and soul to refine a devil, but the point of creating Devil Warlock is to completely enslave them with desire and contract. If the bloodline is not from either Mordred or Paimon, then what’s the point? 

“I’ll think of something. You need to periodically bleed for me, I’ll refine your devil bloodline, you don’t have to think too much.” Mordred replied.

“...” Paimon was speechless. 

Technically, Paimon’s current body is the purest, 1st generation descendant of Mordred born from former Demon King Paimon’s womb, so there must be some kind of bloodline secret that Mordred had kept. After all, Mordred no longer has a body of flesh and blood, yet his bloodline is still extremely sought after in Galatreon, even those purist hypocrites from the Sacred Alliance would try their best to get Mordred’s replicants to decipher his bloodline.

“Are you doubting my ability in life-alteration surgeries?” Mordred asked, annoyed at Paimon’s silence.

“You’ve refined the Murasaki clan’s bloodline into a new war mage archetype known for their multi-mana pools, I wouldn’t dare doubt it!”

“Then, quickly take my identity, we need to get the fuck away from this place.” Mordred reminded Paimon that the giant-class beast is still nearby. With Mordred’s stealth methods, it would be impossible for it to find them, but nothing is certain anymore with Mordred’s luck being shit. 

Paimon mentally sighed, but he did what was commanded. “Aspect of the Devil, [Assuming Human Form]!” Paimon’s body undulated as the sound of bone crunching and flesh tearing could be heard. 

“Aspect of the Devil… This reminds me of my last battle with the Braves…” Mordred commented as he took out his dimensional ring from his rib cage.

Paimon’s transformation soon finished. He looked exactly like Mordred's appearance, with tanned skin and average height. The only incongruence was his butler outfit, but it is a type of artifact refined from the skin of shape-shifting demon in Lemegeton, there wasn’t even a problem as it can change into any type of apparel.

Soon, there are two Mordreds with similar appearance.

“Excellent, there seems to be no difference in terms of appearance, spiritual undulation, and soul presence. It seems like your Devil’s Aspect True Inheritance has not deteriorated after I plundered it.” Mordred muttered.

“My king, rest assured, I am your most capable servant…” Paimon smiled.

“Whatever.” Mordred wouldn’t take to heart whatever words that came out of this devil’s mouth, especially if he tried to kiss his ass. Though, as long as Lemegeton exists, there’s no need to worry about being betrayed. It was a magnum opus not inferior to the Floating Fortress Alistair, after all. 

He passed his dimensional storage ring to Paimon’s hand, “I’m going to fix everything and prepare for my next stage of the plan, it’s going to take a while since the time flow within is four times slower. Just go to the surface while you coax Valerie into a Devil Warlock, I’ll finish the bloodline inheritance before we’ll reach the surface.”

“My king, there must be something troublesome, isn’t there? That dark elf…” Paimon’s sharp intuition allows him to sense something wrong in Mordred’s command.

“Oh… I almost forgot to tell you. Valerie is a believer of the Dark Elven Goddess of Desire. Try your best not to alert that slut, but knowing our bad luck, you don’t have to force it. It’s fine even if you have to kill her as long as the goddess does not notice.” Mordred casually reminded him, but he was confident in Paimon’s experience and methods because demon and devil kings are the nemesis of gods. At some point, Paimon must’ve gained some experience in bewitching the servant of gods into his warlock.

“Also, you need to reach the surface in less than four weeks of material world’s time, which is a week inside my dimensional storage. I’ll allow you to consume half of the souls that you’ve collected during this trip, but you have to collect a bunch of other things for me.” He commanded as he sent a telepathic will containing a list of materials that he had to gather. 

“Since you’re a command-path soul cultivator now, you are allowed to summon your forces into this material world, we’re going to go hunt a vampire lord soon, specialize your units for that purpose. Here’s a method to conceal your devil summoning radiation in case you’re not up-to-date with the modern demon and devil hunting methods of this world.” 

Mordred produced another lump of telepathic will, then took out something from one of his spine segments. It was a dark purple crystal the size of a rice grain. “[Enlarge]!” Mordred used some special method to make it physically bigger but it does not change anything else. The purple crystal is now a 2-cm diameter pear-like sphere with a smooth surface. 

He passed it onto Paimon. “This is my Soul Phylactery. Your devils would be suppressed greatly in this world, so summon spectral ones that could possess bodies. I’ll refine some mortal shells for them after I’ve refined all the things that I need.” Mordred gave both the telepathic will and Soul Phylactery to Paimon before he entered the dimensional storage ring.

Paimon stared at the marble on his hand after Mordred had gone. “Casually giving me a rank 6 artifact like this…” Paimon sighed. The Soul Phylactery is not an offensive or defensive artifact, but a logistics instead. Souls stored within simply do not deteriorate, allowing them to survive without a physical body for an indefinite amount of time. For a flesh-and-blood army, it would be practically useless, but it could serve as a barrack for a spectral one. 

“Your next target is a Vampire Lord… Alright, time to get to work.” 

Paimon turned around to face the corpse of the spider that he killed. He clasped his hand as he chanted in devil language, a purplish-red ritual circle made out of blood was slowly forming underneath the spider's corpse. “Rank 1 command-path soul art, [Summon Lesser Devil: Shadow Stalkers]!”  

Unlike Mordred who had absolute advantage in dominating devils and demons that he collected in Lemegeton, Paimon could not do the same. In the first place, Lemegeton is Mordred’s, not a shared public property. Others who have its lesser replica might use some of its power, but Paimon could not as he is technically bound by it. Without Mordred’s summons, Paimon would still be locked in that dark grimoire which contains a dimension filled with demons and devils.

However, he is a devil and a former demon king, the methods in his hands are no less than Mordred himself. 

He had accumulated his own forces while he was imprisoned in Lemegeton. Before Mordred summoned him into the material world, he hunted and ‘recycled’ a lot of lesser-tier and mid-tier demon souls into devils and forced them to sign a contract with him. Needless to say, it was a contract of permanent employment like the one that Mordred used on him. 

“Mordred already knew I recycle some demons in Lemegeton and collect them as my slaves…” Paimon muttered. With Mordred temporarily giving him his Soul Phylactery, it was clear how he knew about Paimon’s action and tolerated it. 

That being said, as a Desire Devil whose flesh and blood has been genetically engineered by Mordred, he has less restriction in summoning his kin in the material world. It could be said that his ‘bloodline’ abilities were designed for summoning and dominating other devils. With the intel regarding how the inhabitants of this world hunt demons and devils, it was easy for him to slightly adjust his methods so that it wouldn’t leave any meaningful traces. 

Also, unlike Mordred who has to rely on a significant amount of energy to compensate for the distance and other restrictions to summon beings imprisoned in Lemegeton, Paimon could simply use his own devil blood as a catalyst since his own body is a literal treasure engineered for summoning and subjugating devils!

Paimon splattered a bit of his own blood on top of the spider’s corpse. With his blood as catalyst and the corpse as sacrificial material, the ritual has fulfilled its requirements. 

The large spider’s corpse slowly melts into dubious black-purple liquid. The biological energy contained within is being used to construct a channel. As soon as the dubious liquid reaches sufficient mass, it slowly assumes the figure of a human, but its similarity stops at the form. The Shadow Stalker that Paimon summoned looked like a shadowy human silhouette as if existing both corporeal and incorporeal at the same time. 

As a devil excelled in espionage and assassination, the Shadow Stalker has low direct combat prowess but great assassination and stealth technique. It has dagger-like limbs instead of arms, and its forms allows it to blend in into darkness or squeeze itself into even the smallest cavity. Theoretically, there’s nowhere that it cannot infiltrate.  

Since Mordred has given an order to focus his underlings to specialize against a Vampire Lord, it was only natural that Paimon chooses Shadow Stalkers. As a semi-corporeal semi-elemental lifeform, these stalkers do not have blood in the first place. 

Of course, the suppression of the material world instantly took effect, which is why Mordred wanted to refine mortal shells for the devils Paimon summoned. At the very least, inhabiting a mortal shell would allow the devil to ‘disguise’ as the native of Morgen World. Until then, they are suppressed by the world and would experience an unnatural level of bad luck.

“At this level, I should accumulate 24 Shadow Stalkers. Only then, I could match Mordred’s passive investigative range…” Paimon was in admiration towards Mordred. Paimon himself might be able to match his investigative range and level of detail, but there’s a need to activate some sort of soul arts or using his subordinate.

He sent a telepathic order through the soul link between him and the Shadow Stalker. It was time to hunt for more beasts and sacrifice them to summon more devils.

“Kekekekeke.” The shadow stalkers have the same feeling like Paimon had towards Mordred. It wasn’t loyalty that made it do Paimon’s bidding, but the power of soul contract. It immediately faded into darkness as it readied itself to assist Paimon to the best of its abilities.