Chapter 201 201: Token Crusher
"Selling my soul... What does that actually do?" Mara said.
"It do exactly as you think it is. Your soul is no longer your own. Obviously you are still you. But if I want anything..." The goat-horned man smiled.
He didn't need to say anything more. The deal was clear.
"You can make me... Pretty?" The Crone said.
"I can make you pretty on the outside. And I can make you pretty on the inside as well. The latter needs you to meet one of my beneficiaries."
"Your beneficiaries?"
"I own more than ten thousand souls, little witch."
The thought of those souls shocked the Crone. This was not the kind of man that would lie to something about it. He didn't feed to. A man to his stature needed no lie.
"What do you want from me?"
"Your loyalty, little witch. Your loyalty."
The devil reached his hand out and patted Mara's head. He didn't hide his disgusting look and wiped his hands the table.
"Your Wicked Magic really has gone out of control." The devil pouted.
"Wicked Magic?" The Crone dazed off in confusion.
"You don't even know? Poor little witch. I will show you the truth. I will change your life. All you need to do... is to sign right here."
Carter tapped on the empty spot of the paper.
Each tap knocked into the sense of reality that slowly fading away from Mara.
"What exactly... are you?"
"I am one of the seven Princes of Darkness. The Prince of Souls."
The devil stood up and bowed in a theatrical way.
"I am known by many names. Lucifer. The devil. The demon. But I go by Satan these days."
"Satan..." The Crone trembled even more. "The original evil."
"Oh? So you have heard about me." Carter smiled. "Well then. What would you say, little witch?"
The devil tapped on the contract again.
Mara picked up the pen. "Will you keep your words?"
"I always keep my word, child." The devil smiled even more.
Shadows rose above the ground and surrounded Mara.
"He's the Prince of Soul. Of course, he will keep his words."
"Sign it! Sign it! Sign it!"
"Do it now, you stupid woman!"
"Sign and all your worries will go away."
The shadow whispered. The shadow pulled. The shadow called.
His dark eyes were terror incarnation. She knew she had gone too deep into something that even her, the ancient Forest Crone, couldn't understand.
But she couldn't back out now. Sell her soul or face an even worse outcome.
She knew these beings. Because she too was playing with people exactly the same way.
She signed her name. "Mara."
A lowly farmer like her didn't even have a last name.
The shadow cheered. The shadow roared. The shadow moaned.
10,000 souls celebrated in agony and epiphany. Another had joined them. Another fell into his hand.
Crone's shadow stood up and wrapped around her. But this time, it wasn't hostile.
It changed the Crone. Her hunchback ugly posture straightened. Her green skin turned white. The bald head blossomed with thick flowing hair.
The ugly Crone was no more.
Mara the Pig Feeder was also no more.
There was only a follower of the devil.
Carter approached her and smiled faintly.
"Mara... Mara... You have no last name. I shall grant you one now. You are royalty from now on. Because I am royalty. Your name shall be Maria Du Manac."
Carter took the last name of Belina. He liked it so he reused it.
"Maria Du Manac is here for you, Master."
The beautiful Crone knelt and bowed. Her head touched the ground heavily.
"Maria. Call all your witches. They're mine now, too. This is no longer a Witch Coven. This is my Church. You are my Bishop. Bishop Du Manac."
"Yes, Master. What should we call this church?"
"This is the Church of the Devil, my dear. And I am its one and only God."
"Yes, my lord."
Catching the Crones allowed Carter to catch the rest of the witches of the Dark Coven. He actually still had two that were, technically, being spies for Dracula, Prince of Blood.
Dracula took their bodies. And Satan took their souls.
But should Carter expose this and push the plot further? That was a question he was pondering.
'The Forest Crone is taken care of. There are still the Necromancers. With them around, I can never get the World Key of this world. Let's keep the two Princes tolerate each other for now. Their climaxes will approach soon.'
The Dark Coven had a total of 78 witches, excluding the Crone. 5 of them were killed by Carter.
The witches really were few. If he had continued killing, he might push them to extinction.
"This place is hideous, Maria." Carter looked around the house. "This is not a place for our Church."
"Where should we be, Master?"
"I don't know yet. But I know one that can help. Come to Luandon, Maria. And find for me a witch called Ursula LeBeau. She's also a beneficiary of mine. She will take care of our new Church."
"What does she look like, Master?"
"She? A cheeky little girl."
Carter returned to Luandon after that. He was rather pleasantly surprised at the power the Prince of Souls gave him. He teleported at least a few hundred miles away.
Carter transformed into Zeneros Blackburn to fly back. Satan could fly but his speed would be nowhere near the Eldritch Knight.
He landed back in Luandon after an hour.
'Oh well. That was something. The Crone and her witches should arrive in Luandon soon.'
[SHADOW APOTHECARY EQUIPPED]
Carter returned to his apartment. It was night time and James wasn't in the apartment at the moment.
'Perfect. I can finally check what is that Token Crusher is.'
After he reached 50,000.0% Synchronization for Satan, the Skin System unlocked a new feature, the Token Crusher.
He hadn't had the time to check it yet because of Maria.
'Show me the Token Crusher.'
The new window appeared. It was literally a slot machine with a gap to put in Skin Tokens and a handle to pull. But there weren't icons like an actual slot machine, there was only a plain white screen with two lines.
[Input Skin Token]: 0
[Output Skin Shard]: 0