Chapter 183 - 183: EVOLUTIONARY PATH UNLOCKED
High above in the sanctuary, the dark void rippled inside Red's main chamber. Glitch trotted out and happily jumped up onto Red's lap.
"Incredible work, little guy," Red praised warmly. His cold demeanor melted away entirely as he scratched the tiny fox behind its ears.
Red opened his Sovereign system interface and quickly navigated to the marketplace. He spent a few thousand DP to purchase a premium cut of void-cured phantom meat. He tossed the dark, savory treat to Glitch, who caught it mid-air and began happily gnawing on it.
"You are absolutely terrifying," Red smiled, watching the tiny creature chew. "If your anti-mana field was just a little wider, and it didn't drain my DP like a black hole, I would have dropped you directly onto King Voranthar's throne room and let you eat the royal mages for breakfast."
Red reached out to stroke the fox's midnight fur again. The moment his fingers brushed against Glitch's back, a sudden, blinding surge of warmth shot up his arm.
The golden and sapphire energy that Glitch had devoured from the Heralds violently transferred from the fox's body directly into Red's skin.
Red gasped, his eyes widening as the radiant light sank deeply into his chest. It didn't burn or reject him. It felt like a phantom limb suddenly reattaching itself. It felt entirely, perfectly familiar.
A heavy, vibrating sound echoed in his mind, followed immediately by a glowing crimson prompt materializing in the air:
[ SYSTEM ALERT: RECOGNIZED SOUL SIGNATURE DETECTED WITHIN SUMMON. ]
[ INITIATING ORIGIN REINTEGRATION... ]
[ HOST SOUL INTEGRITY: RECOVERING... ]
[ WARNING: UNIQUE EVOLUTIONARY PATH UNLOCKED VIA SOUL RECLAMATION. ]
Red stared at the floating text, his breath catching in his throat. He looked down at his own hands, watching a faint, golden-blue aura pulse under his skin before settling deep into his bones. The sheer, overwhelming emptiness he had felt in his chest ever since the botched summoning ritual suddenly felt slightly... lighter.
'It gave it back,' Red realized, staring at the happily chewing fox in absolute shock. 'Glitch didn't just drain them. It retrieved my stolen soul.'
A dark, genuine smile spread across Red's face. The game had just changed entirely.
Red stared at the glowing crimson text floating in the air of his sanctuary. He completely ignored the usual steady stream of resource notifications from the conquered valley below. His heart hammered against his ribs as he reached out and mentally selected the blinking prompt.
[ INITIATING UNIQUE EVOLUTIONARY PATH: SOUL FRAGMENTATION ]
A new window expanded across his vision, detailing the exact nature of his recovered power.
[ HOST STATUS: SOUL INTEGRITY AT 7.14% (1 / 14 FRAGMENTS RECLAIMED) ]
[ EFFECT: Severe metaphysical trauma partially healed. Host's physical vessel is no longer actively deteriorating. ]
[ NEW PASSIVE UNLOCKED: DOMAIN RESONANCE ]
Description: The Host's soul now passively anchors itself to the physical realm. Summoned units within the Host's conquered territories receive a 10% increase to base physical and alchemical resistances.
[ NEW PERSONAL SKILL UNLOCKED: LEYLINE SIPHON (LEVEL 1) ]
Description: By reclaiming his stolen potential, the Host can now directly interact with the ambient mana of Aethelgard. The Host may personally siphon energy from conquered leylines to convert into DP.
'Draining DP from conquered leylines seems useful but useless at the same time, unless I never plan to use that land again. But it is a good emergency measure indeed.'
Red let out a slow, breathless laugh.
When the Royal Mage cast Soul Flay back in that cathedral, it killed him, but the main purpose was a source of power. They had shattered his essence into fourteen distinct pieces to power their fourteen pairs of Heralds. Until now, Red had assumed his soul was permanently gone, consumed to fuel their stolen divinity.
"So my classmates who sacrificed… or rather, sold me to save their skins…" Red whispered, his eyes gleaming with dark realization in the dim light of the sanctuary. "They are literally holding my property. I am gonna have to sue you all, and I will be the lawyer, the judge, and the executioner."
Red had originally planned to simply slaughter his former classmates to satisfy his vow of vengeance. But this new system path changed the entire trajectory of the war. If he hunted down the remaining thirteen pairs and used Glitch to devour their stolen light, he wouldn't just be taking his revenge, but he would be reconstructing his own soul, ascending to an entirely new tier of Sovereign power with every piece he took back.
He tapped a finger and opened his command link to the Shattered Maw.
[ Iron-Scale. Syra. ] Red's voice echoed directly into the minds of his two Vanguard leaders.
Down in the canyon, Iron-Scale was in the middle of supervising the binding of Jason and Chloe in heavy star-iron chains. The Kobold instantly stood at attention, tapping a claw against his chest plate. 'We hear you, Sovereign. The two mortals are entirely stripped of their power and secured.'
[ Excellent work, ] Red praised smoothly. [ I am updating our primary campaign objectives immediately. The Fourth Continent's army and their capital are now secondary targets. ]
Syra paused her note-taking in her leather diary and tilted her head. 'Understood, Sovereign. What is our new primary directive?'
[ There are twenty-six more of those "Heralds" scattered across Aethelgard, ] Red commanded. [ They are high-value resource caches. You are to hunt them down. Do not kill them. Break their armies, shatter their defenses, and hold them down so my fox can eat. We are going to drain them dry. ]
Iron-Scale looked down at Jason, who was currently weeping into the dirt, completely stripped of his arrogant godhood. A vicious, predatory smile spread across the Kobold's snout.
'With extreme pleasure, Sovereign,' Iron-Scale replied.
Iron-Scale lowered his head in a deep, respectful bow, even though his Sovereign was above the physical world. The telepathic link closed, leaving the Kobold commander staring at the two broken humans trembling in the dirt.
"Change of plans," Iron-Scale announced to the gathered squad leaders. "We are not pushing into the central plains today. Pack up the alchemical cannons and secure the canyon perimeter. We march back to the eastern shipyards."
Commander Novus wiped his star-iron blade clean and sheathed it. "Falling back? We have the momentum, Commander."
"We have new priorities straight from the Spiral," Elder Syra corrected, walking over with her leather diary tucked under her arm. "Our primary objective is no longer a blind territorial conquest. It is a targeted hunt. We need to completely secure these two assets and extract the locations of their twenty-six peers before we advance."
"As per my experience with the wars and battles, the weakest ones come first, so these two must be the weakest of all. And yet…" Gulag gripped her club tight. "Yet, the Spiral had to intervene to stop us. Imagine how the rest of the twenty-six are like. We don't know what kind of abilities they have, what weapons the kingdom possesses."
Novus glanced down at Jason and Chloe. The former Heralds were shivering in the cold mountain air, entirely stripped of their silver-trimmed tunics and blue spell-caster robes.
The Vanguard infantry had roughly dressed them in coarse, itchy burlap sacks and bound their wrists in heavy iron chains.
"Get them moving," Novus ordered.
Hawl grabbed the chains connecting Jason and Chloe and yanked hard. Jason stumbled forward, his bare feet scraping against the sharp rocks.
"You can't do this!" Jason yelled, his voice cracking with panic. He looked around wildly, waiting for his golden fire to return. "We are the Heralds of Aethelgard! King Voranthar will send the Royal Guard to slaughter every last one of you!"
Hawl sighed deeply and delivered a swift, backhanded slap to the back of Jason's head. "Shut up and walk, joker."