Volume 3, Chapter 48 – Soul Manifestation

“He’s already dead. There’s no reaction from his mana in the room. Haah, dealing with him took too much time. It’s about time to go to the surface. I’ll take you up. Don’t scream.”

Although Balor was not as troublesome as the Despair Demon General, his constant resurrection ability was still exhausting. Who knew what the situation on the surface was like now.

“Wait, what’s that?”

“Hmm?”

Following Laplace’s Demon’s shout, Fia looked back and saw a seed-like object, constantly emitting a black aura, gradually detaching from Balor’s body and floating about a meter above the ground.

A Seed of Chaos.

Previously, when dealing with the Despair Demon General, he had taken out a variation of this thing, the “Seed of Despair.”

“That’s a Seed of Chaos, the source of what makes these Darkborn so tricky.”

Fia explained as she walked towards it. She had encountered this thing more than once. Considering the high probability of encountering it again in the future, it was more appropriate to collect it now. If she could understand the Seed of Chaos, she could find its weaknesses, and by extension, the weaknesses of Chaos itself. It would also be easier to deal with Darkborn who possessed it in the future. Balor had mentioned “my lord” earlier, which indicated that there were even more powerful Darkborn above him.

Fia first used a hand formed by [Telekinesis] to confirm that the Seed of Chaos would not resist like a living thing, then used [Mental Shock] to ensure that it was an inanimate object. After doing all this, she carefully grasped it.

“Hey! Wait!”

A shrill male voice came from outside the door.

Instinctively, Fia looked back. The one who had entered was the tall Darkborn with a thick dictionary for a head. If she remembered correctly, he called himself one of the Seven Demon Generals, the Knowledge-seeking Demon General.

“Knowledge-seeker?”

The Knowledge-seeking Demon General ignored Laplace’s Demon’s question and ran towards Fia at full speed.

“Don’t touch it!”

However, Fia had already touched the Seed of Chaos.

As if a switch had been flipped, the black aura on the Seed of Chaos spread along Fia’s arm as if it had come to life. Then, as if it had been nourished, it exploded in less than a second, filling the entire conference hall in the blink of an eye.

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The Knowledge-seeking Demon General’s urgent shout made Fia let go of the Seed, but not only did it show no sign of retracting, but the black mist in the conference hall grew thicker, soon becoming so dense that it was impossible to see through. Even the dazzling light emitted by Laplace’s Demon was completely obscured by it.

This is… the boss’s third phase?

Fia couldn’t help but frown. Balor was clearly not as strong as the Despair Demon General, yet he was causing so much trouble.

“How-how dare you touch this thing!”

The Knowledge-seeking Demon General, who had come to Fia’s side, shouted. Because he had the burly, three-meter-tall body of a beastman, Fia had to look up to see his book-like head.

“What happens if I touch it?”

Although he was called a demon general, he showed no hostility. He said in a low voice.

“I don’t know. The effects of the Seed of Chaos are varied, but each activation is extremely troublesome. Even Lord Absolute Evil has praised it. Balor must have had a reason for not using it from the beginning. This is troublesome… Where’s Laplace? Where’s Laplace!”

“I-I’m here!”

As soon as Laplace’s Demon’s voice fell, the scene in the room changed rapidly. The black mist disappeared, replaced by a dazzling display of lights and the sounds of conversation and sirens, as if they were in a bustling city. Although the rapidly changing images were dizzying and disorienting, Fia felt that they were strangely familiar, as if they were from the Human Alliance.

If it were someone with less strength, the rapidly jumping images would have made them feel seasick and vomit, unable to tell left from right.

“Be careful, Balor is about to cast a spell. Let’s escort Laplace out of here together.”

As if two or three seconds had passed, or as if countless years had gone by, when Fia and the Knowledge-seeking Demon General—mostly the latter feeling dizzy—arrived beside Laplace’s Demon, the disorienting images suddenly stopped.

The scene froze in a deep space, dark all around, with countless twinkling stars in the distance. At first glance, it looked like a night sky, but the stars of the night sky were by no means this bright and large.

The universe.

Any being from the Human Alliance would call this beautiful sight by that name.

Not only that, but soon, giant steel beasts with long tail flames appeared in the picture. These steel “monsters” were everywhere, their destination being the slowly rotating, unbelievably massive ring-shaped structures not far away.

The movement of the steel monsters looked slow, but one moment they were just a point of light, and the next they had already arrived in front of Fia’s group. The swift speed and power even made the Knowledge-seeking Demon General instinctively scream and cast a defensive spell. This steel monster was unimaginably large. Even dozens, no, hundreds of giant dragons put together would not have the same oppressive feeling as this “one monster.”

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“—[Profound Celestial Aegis]!”

However, after the Knowledge-seeking Demon General’s splendid seven-layered magic shield was deployed, the behemoth passed directly through it and his own body. This monster was merely a masterpiece of illusion, with form but no substance. In the next second, the steel monster that had rammed into him, who had his hands crossed in front of him, only left him a view of its back, once again turning into a point of light and disappearing from sight.

What was that…

Although he was not injured, the feeling of lingering fear still remained in his heart. He had never seen a creature that was both so terrifyingly imposing and so beautiful at the same time.

Yes, beautiful. According to common sense, beauty was usually associated with soft, curved things, but this monster, which was almost entirely composed of straight lines, was as exquisite as a work of art. If he had to use one word to describe it, it would be a violent beauty. Even as a behemoth, it could be called an artist’s finest masterpiece.

A tremor from the depths of his soul filled him with reverence for this unknown thing. Just as he had heard of that new world from Laplace’s Demon years ago, he once again felt the same fear and excitement, and what he felt now was far greater than before.

The Knowledge-seeking Demon General couldn’t help but ask with a tremble.

“What was that…”

“A Vega II-type civilian starship. An ancient model that doesn’t even have ship cannons.” ¹ woa sudden sci-fi theme

Fia shrugged. The period depicted in this scene was the New Era, before the formation of the Human Alliance, so she felt no shock at all. Of course, she was not without emotion. This picture of countless twinkling stars showed that the universe was in its youth, which filled her heart with nostalgia and warmth. In her time, the universe was not so lively.

The Knowledge-seeking Demon General trembled all over. He suddenly looked down at Fia, his tone urgent.

“You know the name of this monster?!”

“No, it’s not a monster. It’s the crystallization of human wisdom.”

“The crystallization of wisdom? Is it raised by humans?”

Why is this guy so obsessed with monsters?

Just as Fia was about to suggest they leave and talk later, Balor’s sigh suddenly echoed in the room. His voice did not come from any one direction, but from all around.

“Oh… a scene I have never seen before. This is not from the World Tree Continent, is it? I never thought the elf princess was a Saint pulled from another world by the Elf God. The last time the Elf God appeared was thousands of years ago. I thought it had died long ago. Since you are a Saint, my earlier defeat was not in vain… no wonder you always thwart us, you dog of a god.”

“Whether I am a Saint is another matter. Why don’t you continue to pounce on me like a dog?”

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While mocking him, Fia scanned the room with [Wind of Exploration], but the result showed nothing representing Balor.

“There’s no need to look for me. I have already dedicated myself to the Seed of Chaos. It will take revenge for me. If not for you actively approaching it, the Seed would not have been able to capture you so easily. I didn’t expect you to fall for it so easily.”

What Balor didn’t say was that even if Fia hadn’t actively touched the Seed of Chaos, he could have still achieved the same effect. The moment Fia had stood in this conference hall, she had already become a target for the Seed.

“This is now my domain. You cannot… escape… from here…”

For some reason, Balor’s voice suddenly became intermittent, and the surrounding images also began to tear as if they could not be maintained. Both the starships and the starry sky flickered frequently.

“It’s [Soul Manifestation]…” The Knowledge-seeking Demon General’s voice was extremely heavy, as if something terrible had happened. “The Seed of Chaos will imitate the strongest magic in your memory. If he had used it on me, I would still have a way to deal with it. But on you… I am definitely no match for the monster that just flew by. The things in your memory are too powerful. Damn it.”

No, no, this isn’t from my memory at all. If it were truly a product of my memory, the starship just now wouldn’t have used conventional power and wouldn’t even have had the cannons for defending against space pirates. Such an ancient thing didn’t even make it to the Shining Era.

That was the most advanced thing in Laplace’s Demon’s era—when humanity had just established interstellar transit stations and had just flown out of the solar system. At that time, the profession of space pirate had not yet been born, so there was naturally no need to install anti-ship weapons.

“Elf princess… I admire your soul. Now… even… I… I am overwhelmed—”

Balor’s voice came to an abrupt end. Suddenly, the deep universe around them was filled with noise like a TV that had lost its signal. By the time his voice sounded again, it was half a minute later. At this time, his voice was no longer as smug as before, but filled with fear and disbelief.

“No… impossible…! Such a huge amount of information… it’s even more than a go—”

Before the last syllable could be uttered, with a light “hiss,” the surrounding images suddenly disappeared, and the battle-scarred conference hall reappeared before Fia’s eyes.

Although it was strange, Balor was probably completely dead.

He had wanted to use the Seed of Chaos to deal with her, but had been consumed by it instead.

Even without confirming, both Fia and the Knowledge-seeking Demon General had this thought.

As for how he had died, it was probably as he had said before his death: he could not withstand the torrent of information and had been “stuffed” to death. This was also the disadvantage of a soul-form. A physical body would at most just become demented, but a soul-form didn’t even have the chance to go to the Land of the Dead.

She didn’t know whether the Seed of Chaos had copied her own memory or had mistaken Laplace’s Demon’s memory for her own. In any case, neither was something Balor could withstand. After all, the ways people on Earth received information were varied and far from what this world, with its lack of entertainment and slow flow of information, could compare to. Even if you randomly grabbed an ordinary person from the streets of that time, regardless of whether the information in their head was useful, the amount of information they had received would be tens of thousands or even millions of times more than that of an ordinary person in this world.

That being said, to be unable to withstand the information of just a few starships, Balor was really useless.

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“Uh…” The Knowledge-seeking Demon General’s hesitant voice came from beside Fia. As if unable to accept it, he looked at where the Seed of Chaos should have been and muttered, “Just… dead like that? I haven’t even done anything!”

With that, he turned to look at Fia’s face.

“What magic did you use?”

“I didn’t do anything either,” considering that he would surely not believe her, Fia added, “He committed suicide.”

“Then what about Laplace? Laplace must know what happened!”

The Knowledge-seeking Demon General suddenly turned to look at Laplace, only to hear the faint sound of crying.

“What… What have I done… This is my homeland, the place that created me… Our starships could already fly out of Saturn, yet I was engrossed in such ethereal things…”

It seemed that seeing the scene of its homeland had moved it to tears. But the starships of Laplace’s Demon’s era had only reached Saturn and not the edge of the solar system? So, the Seed of Chaos had indeed reflected her own memory?

How is that possible?

Fia frowned slightly. She had no impression of the scene she had just seen. In the end, she was born in the Shining Era. How could she have seen a scene from before that… no, was she really born in the Shining Era?

For a moment, Fia’s memory felt a little confused. From a long time ago, she had felt that there were some inconsistencies in her memory. She seemed to have been born at the beginning of the Shining Era and also at its end. This was simply impossible. After all, the entire Shining Era spanned trillions of years. Even if humans could merge with machines, they could not live that long…

Wait, wasn’t the technology of merging humans and machines only realized in the middle of the Shining Era? How could she, who was born at the beginning, know of such technology? And heat death was by no means a disaster that occurred at the beginning of the Shining Era.

In that case, she should have been born in the later part of the Shining Era. But why were some of the streets and knowledge in her memory from the early part? Could it be that she was really a human who had lived for trillions of years, and therefore had memories of the entire era? But could that still be called a human?

Fia only felt that she had come into contact with something indescribable, dark and profound, that was simply impossible to try and understand.

Perhaps only by trying that spell called [Soul Manifestation] again could she find the answer. If that spell could really work on her and could peek into the things that she had forgotten, deep in her memory, then the mismatched pieces of the puzzle in her memory could slowly come together.

I should pay attention to the Seeds of Chaos in the future and try to actively obtain them.

With this thought, Fia took a deep breath. She flicked her black twin tails over her shoulders and turned around.

“Let’s go to the surface. There are still hundreds of thousands of monsters waiting for us there.”