Chapter 61 : Seal Release
Chapter 61. Seal Release
Yul could not afford to simply wait for time to pass any longer. The seal was set for 1,000 years, and if he failed to achieve something called a Communion within 30 years, Yul would be erased from history altogether.
A horrifying penalty that went beyond mere death. That was why he had to break through this situation by using a loophole.
If it had seemed completely impossible, he would have fallen into despair, but looking at the skills he still had, he could see a faint possibility.
Skill: Soul-Splitting Art.
[Soul-Splitting Art: You can divide a portion of your soul and store it in something else.]
Skill: Regeneration.
[Regeneration: Allows you to regenerate body parts.]
Yul could not currently use the formulas of the Great Balance school. It was as if his magic circuits had been reset, leaving them completely blank.
However, the theories of magic remained intact in his mind. And so did the correlation between soul and body.
‘They said the soul is essentially the blueprint of the body.’
Once a human is born with a given soul, they cannot improve their magic circuits or increase the size of their magic core.
That was because the soul and the body were identical. It was a complicated magical theory involving something like the Soul–Body Identity Theory, so Yul had selectively sampled only certain parts of it.
‘The soul is identical to the body, and when the body collapses, the soul disappears as well.’
That was true in most cases, with exceptions like certain ghosts.
‘Then I just have to separate the soul.’
But there was no medium to contain the soul. At that moment, a brilliant idea flashed through his mind. Yul’s regeneration ability would have been strengthened to an overwhelming level.
What if, instead of merely restoring fins or regenerating bones, he could return to his original form from a completely shattered state?
‘The main body is far too large and powerful to be fully restored, but if it’s just part of a fin…’
In that case, just like he had done before during his battle with the Barcenoy, the deep-sea barnacle monster, he might be able to use a part of his body.
Yul gathered all his strength and thought about severing part of his fin.
Just by thinking it, a portion of his fin separated from his body. It was something made possible by the extreme bodily control of a Deep King Tribe member.
Thanks to his regeneration ability, flesh instantly filled in where the fin had fallen off.
-Soul-Splitting Art!
Then, onto the severed body part, Yul used Soul-Splitting Art. Recalling how he had once used soul isolation formulas made it even easier.
Tearing off and implanting a portion of his magic core, Ian had once been horrified watching this, saying it was on the level of relocating one’s brain.
Still, while it wasn’t easy, it was doable.
A fragment of his soul was imbued into the fin, and in an instant, the soul took root within it.
‘Success.’
It had taken a long time, but he had succeeded in separating part of his soul and sealing it within a body using only skills, without any formulas.
Yul’s fin possessed regeneration ability.
And just like in magical theory, the soul contained a record of the body’s form. As Yul had expected, regeneration was activated based on the original form engraved in the soul.
The fallen fin stabilized its shape and gradually began to transform its body.
After a long while, the fin used its stored nutrients and took on the same form as Yul.
Slightly smaller than Yul’s current body.
‘I did it!’
He had been nervous it might regenerate into something strange, but the loophole of regenerating a body containing a soul had worked.
[Rank: Legendary]
‘It’s too high. I can’t move this one either because of the seal.’
A Legendary rank required a seal period of 50 years.
Only after repeating the same process, splitting off another part from the Legendary rank split soul, was it completed.
[Rank: Unique]
‘I did it!’
Yul focused his mind on the split soul. He felt as though two souls were connected at once, an alien sensation as if he had three bodies, making him feel like he was about to vomit.
‘This is distracting. One split soul is enough.’
He retrieved the Legendary rank split soul, leaving only the Unique rank one, and tried moving it around.
He figured that if he reduced his own size significantly, it would end up about this big.
The body still felt awkward, since synchronization wasn’t complete yet.
Then, a strange status window appeared.
[Birth of a Split Soul]
[Deep King Tribe Phantasm]
[A separate status window is granted.]
[Inherits the main body’s skills in downgraded form.]
[Warning. If Soul-Splitting Art is used once more, it will become completely separated from the main body and turn into an entirely different individual.]
‘Separated from the main body? Then would there be two of me?’
A chill ran down Yul’s spine. That would mean it would completely escape his control…….
Yul once had an SF-like fantasy about uploading the information of his brain into a machine.
He had reached a conclusion back then: in that case, it would no longer be him.
‘Soul-Splitting Art is forbidden beyond this point.’
This was more than enough. What mattered was that he could get out for now.
Yul focused his thoughts entirely on the split soul and put the main body to sleep. Having reached Mythic rank, there shouldn’t be any creatures capable of opposing him anyway…….
‘Now I just need to escape. Hehe.’
-Ah!!!?
A problem arose. With the split body, he couldn’t lift the rocks pressing down on the main body.
A massive pile of rocks that the main body could have dealt with in one blow looked enormous to the split body.
This rock pile didn’t seem to have been stacked haphazardly-it looked like someone had piled it up with meticulous care.
-Let’s check it out.
He scanned the area with ultrasonic waves, mapping the space into a three-dimensional layout.
‘Is this a dungeon or a temple? Looking at this, it’s clear someone intentionally built a structure on top of my body.’
It seemed Yul had been asleep for a very long time. He didn’t know who had built a temple on top of him, but it made him angry.
‘Could this also be part of the seal?’
At that moment, he sensed something beyond the rocks.
-Behind it, I can feel the aura of a Stone of Authority. So I wasn’t mistaken.
‘……!?’
Then, he felt magical power condensing.
‘What?!’
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing!
A terrifying beam shot out, and part of the rocks melted away completely.
‘But we’re in the ocean.’
What burst out from amidst the massive bubbles and rock debris was a Ktazar alien with thick eyebrows.
-W-what?
-Huh?
The moment they recognized each other, both sides immediately went on guard.
‘A Ktazar!’
In his tentacles, he held an alien weapon that looked like something out of some MeX Slug game.
Yul realized that this was the very weapon that had melted the rocks.
And although the opponent was a Ktazar, he could tell it was a different being from Arktar, whom he had seen before. The eyebrows were ridiculously thick.
-Who are you?
-You tell me first.
Without warning, he pointed the muzzle straight at Yul and spoke.
-I’m a Ktazar who came to retrieve the Stone of Authority.
-That belongs to me, though?
Tension filled the air in an instant.
Yul took a closer look at the Ktazar again.
‘I thought seeing with six eyes would feel strange, but it’s not as bad as I expected.’
Back when he was a deep-sea creature, he barely used eyes as organs to begin with, and even after becoming an orca, most of his vision had been murky. Now, however, everything was incredibly clear.
The six pupils functioned like a split screen, operating from multiple directions and combining all reflected light from every angle. At the same time, they corrected the darkness as if there were light present.
It looked as though the other party was standing in broad daylight, not darkness.
The alien aiming the gun was tense. Even the rigidity of the muscles throughout his body was clearly visible.
The opponent clearly didn’t seem eager for a fight either.
‘This feels like it could be resolved through conversation.’
Once a fight began, it would be hard to move on in a peaceful way.
Yul himself was in poor condition, having only just adapted to his body after using Soul-Splitting Art.
Aside from having several fins attached in front of him, his movements felt different as his body had generally lengthened.
First, he gauged whether there was room for conversation. Yul was certain that the toy-like gun would fire the same laser beam that had pierced the rocks earlier the moment its trigger was pulled.
-If you want to talk, lower the muzzle.
Perhaps the other side had the same thought, because he obediently followed Yul’s words and lowered his weapon.
-Who are you?
-You tell me first.
-I am Acolyte Yorum, a tracker dispatched by the Ktazar High Council to recover the Stone of Authority.
His tone was polite, but the atmosphere remained murderous.
-Arktar definitely said he handed it over to a jelly octopus.
-That was me, too.
-……Did you ascend in that recent universe-scale incident and even change your body?
-Something like that.
-Remarkable…….
Yul concealed several details, but it didn’t really matter to him.
-I’m Yul. You said you came to retrieve the Stone of Authority?
He recalled a memory from long ago. When Arktar escaped, he entrusted the Stone of Authority to Yul and vanished. He must have thought it was a replica.
-Arktar said I could have it.
-He was merely a sentry guarding the seal, and he had no authority to pass it on. I’ve tracked it across an immense distance to retrieve it.
-Isn’t this your fault for poor management? You managed it in a way that anyone would think it was just a place where a replica was kept.
To be honest, it had been practically abandoned. If it were truly important, they should have at least maintained and managed the location of the real Stone of Authority.
-That was due to policy from above. Some mantras can read minds. If the highest ranks were brainwashed, it would be stolen immediately.
-Yet it got stolen anyway.
-With astronomically low probability.
-Probability?
-Yes. There are tens of thousands of Stone of Authority replicas scattered across ruins all over the world. And the seven Stones of Authority that exist across the entire universe are blessed by the Aeon of “Fate.” The fact that you obtained it means either an unbelievable coincidence or that you were born with the fate to take it.
-What? That fate nonsense again.
Ever since the Regulator, he was sick of hearing about fate.
-It was just luck.
-Was it? The probability of breaching the hidden ruins’ perception barriers, the probability that the degraded security systems inside were disabled, the probability that the guardian had grown weary of his duty, and even the probability that he decided helping you and handing over a mere replica was acceptable.
-So? It ended up in my hands anyway.
-I’ll propose a deal. If negotiations break down, I’ll take it by force.
-Is that a threat?
-No. That’s the worst-case scenario. I’d have to fight the creature holding the Stone of Authority until one of us dies. With high probability, I would die. But if I die? Another tracker comes. If that tracker dies? The Ktazar military comes. From that point on, it’s total war. Our race teeters on the edge of the ‘threshold of power,’ so crossing the dimensional stratum isn’t difficult for us.
Yul recalled the numbers of the Ktazar. It was said there were hundreds of trillions; even one-hundredth of that would be in the trillions... even if divided by ten again, it would be billions. If that massive number of aliens all became trackers...
There was another issue as well. When he’d spoken with Arktar back then, their contract had been to receive a Stone of Authority replica, not the real Stone of Authority.
‘That contract stops being an issue the moment it became mine anyway.’
There was no law involved, but it pricked at Yul’s conscience just a little.
How many crises had he overcome using the Stone of Authority?
‘But trillions of Ktazar are still troublesome. If I hand over the stone, what happens?’
Even if he gave up the Stone of Authority, the loss wouldn’t be that great.
Even now, without the Stone of Authority, the skill Madness was still registered in his skill window.
‘It’s probably weaker than when I actually had the stone? I haven’t tested it, so I’m not sure.’
Even with the Stone of Authority, he wouldn't be absolutely invincible until the destruction of the universe, but he could still use the ability to its fullest.
-If it’s a deal, what can you offer?
-How about this?
Yorum raised the weapon he was holding and showed it to him.