Chapter 8: Chapter 08 – The Magus, The King, and The Duke

As Mordred jogged towards the resource point where he first met the Murlocs, he spared a wary glance towards the cloudy skies. 

The southern continent, better known as the Land of Autumn Rain, has four major countries. The environment here is similar to a perpetual autumn where heavy downpour happens instantaneously and lasts for a long time. It only has two ‘seasons’.

The ‘rainy’ season, and the ‘dry’ season.

Being called the Land of Autumn Rain, the ‘dry’ season isn’t very long. It lasts roughly a month before being followed up by nine months of rainy season in which sunlight is a rare luxury. The southern continent is rich in earth and water, followed by wind and lightning elemental particles, so a heavy contrast of muddy ground and rugged landscape has suffused the mountainous Southern Continent.

Though, the location with the highest concentration of mountains in the southern continent, perhaps even Morgen World itself, lies within the borders of the Xin Empire, a neighboring country of Hartina Kingdom.

Nevertheless, it was lucky for Mordred to resurrect during the ‘dry’ season because traversing the land is, comparatively, extremely easy, and there’s less [Elemental Waves] that raises the hazard of exploring outside the walled, hydrophobic cities. 

“Your Majesty, what plans do you have for today?” Asmodeus’ telepathic message sounded in his mind.

“Slaughter.” Mordred casually replied, his answer being more thought than the spoken words they produced. “With you two here, I can harvest souls more efficiently. If I can raise my soul foundation to mid-stage rank 0 before sundown, my chance of survival after the third stage of the Rite of Passage should rise exponentially. I had a hunch that this would be my last ‘free time’ in this village.”

“Hahah.” hearty giggles came from Astaroth. “I thought that having your memories almost completely wiped would change your personality, but it seems like Your Majesty was like this from the start.”

“What do you mean by that?” Asmodeus was the inquisitive one this time. Unlike Astaroth, the word ‘scheme’ usually only comes up when she is insulting a lower lifeform, so there exists a tremendous amount of facts that should be common sense for demon kings but not-so-common knowledge for her.

“One’s ego or personality is usually constructed out of one’s experiences, but more importantly, their memory of them. If the result of my observations are correct, then His Majesty should have lost around 80-90% of his memories. Depending on which part was lost, then His Majesty’s personality would be greatly affected, perhaps losing an edge here and there. The fact that the Ancient Devil King of Death Tyrant could be just as genocidal even with a tiny sliver of his personality remaining speaks to how suffused death is with his memories. It’s no wonder Your Majesty is crowned as the ‘Death Tyrant’ in the Purgatory World.”

As someone who’s an expert of indoctrination and brainwashing himself, Mordred was more than qualified to rebuke her. “It just happens that I am extremely resistant- perhaps immune to my ego being changed, altered, or several other unfavorable conditions. Even without memories, my soul instinctively remembers my core values.”

“Was that the result of your soul-path methods, Your Majesty?” Astaroth was interested. As a split soul of an archdemon who shared her powers to demon warlocks in exchange for sacrifice, the method of influencing ego would be extremely helpful in developing warlocks into her long-term slaves- er, subordinates. “May I be able to purchase said inheritance?”

“First, merit. Second, ask me again after I recover all my memories.” Mordred absentmindedly replied. He was already distracted with his own thoughts once more, seemingly recalling some minor things that he had forgotten. “It seems like my previous self’s deduction was correct, having contact with people from my previous life to treat my fragmented, disjointed memories works wonders, but considering the hundreds or perhaps thousands of years worth of memories… It'll take eons to remember them all through this method. Sigh, I can’t even recall how long my soul has existed in the Boundless Astral Realm.”

“It’s alright, Your Majesty.” Asmodeus comforted him. “Considering the different time flow between worlds, it’s not strange for you to be ten thousand years old in one world while in another, you’re probably less than a thousand years old. Age is irrelevant for us… or rather, specifically to an immortal being such as yourself.”

“Hmm.” Mordred unconsciously agreed to her argument. “I almost forgot. Astaroth, what’s the extreme spirit that I’ve inherited from you?”

It took some time before the archdemon was able to answer. “I apologize, Your Majesty. It seems like my main soul has erased that portion of memory. However, it should be related to the flames of purgatory, bloodline, or chaos.”,

Mordred shrugged his shoulders as if he had expected it.

…

“We’re back here again, Your Majesty. Is there something on your mind?” Asmodeus inquired, puzzled at his action.

His current location is the hole in the wall of the resource point where he slaughtered Murlocs and sacrificed them to the archdemon. “I found some erased tracks.” Mordred swept the chamber with his eyes while recalling the state of the cave before he left. “Someone, or something’s been here.”

“We’ve only been away for a couple of hours. Perhaps, a rank 1 avian-beastman had visited during our absence?” Asmodeus guessed, while Astaroth used an investigative method despite being in Mordred’s soul phylactery. 

Unfortunately, her limited cultivation made her methods less potent. “Small humanoids, gnolls, perhaps?”

“How can Asmodeus’ instinct be better than your investigative method, Astaroth?” Mordred thought it was amusing. “From the leftover radiation and other traces, it’s obvious that whatever left them excels in counterintelligence methods. An avian-humanoid race that excels in counterintelligence… perhaps, a Kenku? But what are they doing here far away from cities?”

Astaroth felt her metaphoric face burning hot in shame after Mordred’s rebuke. “Your Majesty, please do not compare me with Her Majesty. Her instincts are probably affected by her attainment, granting her the ability to sense karmic relations by partially ignoring the law of causality.”

“Hahah…” Asmodeus did not deny nor confirm it, but her jubilant chuckle gave it away. “I think the Kenku used this chamber as a brief resting spot before moving on. This area may not be their goal.”

“Alright, then.” Mordred had complete faith in Asmodeus, his mind lingering on the reason deception doesn’t work on her- or with her, for that matter. Not long after the demon king’s verdict, he immediately went down to the resource point to find something to murder.

Traversing the muddy soil is difficult, but deftly jumping around thick roots and rock while swinging around through vines allowed him to advance swiftly. The ambient water-path radiation in this location quickly moisturized his clothing, the higher temperature also made him sweat more. If he were to be exposed to too much radiation in this water-path environment, his body would suffer the same fate as a bloated corpse submerged in seawater for several weeks. 

Nevertheless, since he did not plan to be exposed for too long, he endured the humid and, literally, elementally uncomfortable environment to achieve his goal.

As he walks through the sea of invisible elemental particles, he recognizes how utterly suffused the environment is- the previously self-designated resource point lives up to its name. 

Just the ambient life beneath his feet is plentiful enough that he is tempted to directly harvest their souls, but considering the laughably low murder efficiency, it’s better for him to find a semi-intelligent lifeform. 

While munching on a mushroom containing a slight trace of poison in it, Mordred found a group of Murlocs on the edge of his senses. 

“Your Majesty, why are you eating a paralytic mushroom? Your reaction time would be affected.” Astaroth voiced her concern, but even the most straightforward Asmodeus recognized that she isn’t worried about him at all, but his mortal shell instead.

If Mordred were to ‘die’, he could simply switch bodies as long as his Soul Phylactery is intact. Like most demon kings of old, the immortal Magus is not bound by biological limitations nor age. However, if his mortal shell is ruined, then it’s a significant loss for the archdemon. After all, the mortal shell has been altered with a drop of the archdemon’s true blood.

It’s like seeing a precious investment going down the drain because the company went bankrupt. 

“I’m synthesizing a resistance to it.” Mordred replied, annoyed. “Stop being a worrywart, when did I let you suffer a loss during our transaction?”

Asmodeus faked a cough, feeling rather awkward. “Your Majesty, every single being in Lemegeton is forced to choose between true death or permanent employment. You even protected our souls from crumbling in death, not allowing us to reincarnate, but were forced to return to Lemegeton instead…”

“You’re right, but I was doing you all a favor, you should realize. Death would be a mercy compared to my brother, you wouldn’t want to know what he would do with you….” Mordred suppressed a chuckle as he slowly got closer to the Murlocs. 

Meanwhile, Astaroth warred with anger at Mordred’s gall and the mention of Mordred’s kin. ‘The audacity of this fucking ancient devil… I’ll…. ’ Astaroth suppressed the anger building up inside her. Asmodeus was completely correct as the permanent employment contract does not allow the status known as ‘death’ to free her soul from Mordred’s evil clutches. In the end, she let it go. ‘Sigh, even Her Majesty couldn’t kill him, let alone me. I can at least hope that this is better than whatever this egotist’s sibling might intol upon us…

While Astaroth was distracted with her own thoughts, Mordred reached the group of seven Murlocs who’s currently cornering a type of 4-meter-long alligator beast. Unlike the mortal-level Murlocs which were sacrificed to the archdemon, these Murlocs are rank 0s, these seven having the ability to overwhelm Mordred even on his best day. However, with his hand already making hand seals, he activated his “method”, being more in quotations than without. “Astaroth, I choose you! Get the fuck out!!”

Unlike most magic machinery artifacts that require telepathic connection to its user, the Soul Phylactery had an extremely high requirement of being directly connected to one’s soul. Not everyone can refine a Soul Phylactery, but those who did had the knowledge on whatever happened within the phylactery even more so than one’s own palm. The two demon’s souls are like guests, the master of the house can eject them however he’d like, no magic required. 

“Wait!” Astaroth’s soul was forcefully ejected outside, the dim sunlight blocked by thick foliage barely corroded the ball of soulfire.

“Fetch me their souls!” Mordred ordered while making provocative gestures towards the Murlocs, distracting their orderly hunt. “You are authorized to take everything other than the souls, as long as you don’t leave any traces.”

“Your Majesty, you’re not even planning to fight in the first place!” Astaroth quickly realized why Mordred poisoned himself. Nevertheless, as Mordred’s slave- er, permanent employee, she’ll have to obey. “Rank 0 blood-path killer move, [Blood Drain]!”

Blood Drain works by forcefully draining the target’s blood. The seven Murloc along with the alligator beast that they are hunting did not possess the necessary resistance to shrug off her methods, so their pores ejected all the blood and moisture in their body, leaving an empty, dried husk. 

As their blood gathered into a floating ball in front of Astaroth’s soulfire, she activated another method. “Rank 0 blood-path killer move, [Blutopfer]!”

Blutopfer, Blood Sacrifice, is an equally famous and infamous method that uses blood as an energy substitute. All Demon Lords are able to use it, so it wasn’t strange for an Archdemon to be able to use it with extremely high conversion efficiency beyond Mordred’s level. The blood ball ignited in crimson red flame as it was partially converted into an alien energy that couldn’t naturally be found in Morgen World. 

“Rank 0 blood-path killer move, [Sanguine Chassis]!”

Whoosh! The remaining blood ball is ignited in extremely hot flames, but the heat is contained within a small area. As it engulfed Astaroth’s soulfire, the burning blood rapidly took the form of a petite girl, less than 1 meter in height. Her skin, if it was skin in the first place, is a boiling mess of flowing blood, having the texture of lava underneath the earth’s crust. There’s no differentiating between the skin or hair, the temporary body is made out of boiling blood.

While collecting the souls of Murlocs and the alligator beast, Mordred gave his input. “Your [Sanguine Chassis] is miraculous… but it's too deeply affected by your fire-path methods. You should lower the temperature a bit more so the temporary body might be able to last longer.” He had to shield his eyes from Astaroth’s presence while devouring the souls since she was too hot.

“It is originally designed to be used on the blood of fire-path lifeforms with extremely high boiling and evaporation points. If I lower the temperature further, it could not accommodate my soulfire. Even then, I have five minutes or so before this blood vessel completely evaporates. If I keep killing and resupplying the Sanguine Chassis with more blood, it’ll be enough to accomplish Your Majesty’s orders.” Astaroth's small body fell into her knees in respect, in opposite of whatever vile words she had in her mind.

“Your Majesty, please let me out as well!” Asmodeus' telepathic whisper resounded in Mordred’s ear, her childlike excitement clear for all to see. “I wanted to get out and play!”

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“Astaroth’s method is too inefficient and can only accommodate fire-path beings. Unless you have a method to make a temporary body out of mortal-rank materials, leaving the Soul Phylactery with Astaroth’s method would do more harm than good.” Mordred softly denied while his cultivation base rapidly rose as a result of devouring souls. 

“Did you forget that you also brought me from Purgatory World?” Asmodeus retorted.

Despite being a rank 0 spit soul, the two demons are in the absolute peak of rank 0, they are on the brink of rank 1 ascension. Being far stronger than Mordred who are barely in the early-stage of rank 0, her request is beneficial to Mordred. Unfortunately, because of this, he also can’t control her well, either.

The magus reveals a wry smile. “My dearest, lovely Asmodeus, if you were to get out and pick a fight with something and enter a battle trance, there’s nobody here who can calm you down.” He spoke using a tone as though he’s speaking to a lifelong partner rather than an explosive-punching-dragon-demon-queen. 

He can’t risk the demon king who’s known for her capricious temper going nuclear since he lacked the strength and methods to suppress her. “I’ll make you a semi-permanent mortal shell for you as soon as possible, but for now, you’ll have to be content with seeing the world through my eyes, okay?”

“Hmm… okay, fine.” 

“In the meantime…” Mordred quickly switches his attention towards the slowly-shrinking crimson woman. “Let’s find more things to murder. I think I can reach a 30-man soul before sundown at this rate.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.” The small humanoid which is now around 90 centimeters tall unleashed her palm towards Mordred. “This will help you build up immunity to poison. Rank 0 blood-path killer move, [Hemotherapy]!”

A small needle of the burning blood that made up Astaroth’s [Sanguine Chassis] pierced Mordred’s hand, quickly assimilating into his bloodstream. His body temperature quickly rose, rendering him in an unhealthy burning fever, but after making several cycles of circulation, his blood rapidly equalized to a higher, but acceptable level of temperature. 

“Hmm…” Mordred paused for a brief moment, not expecting the compatibility he had with Astaroth. However, thinking that this body has been altered by her true body, it shouldn’t be surprising. After all, if other mortals were to receive her ‘healing’ method, they’d burn into charcoal. “Astaroth, change of plans, I want to fight.”

Before Astaroth was able to react, he put his palm on her head. “Astaroth Blood Sword.”

The archdemon’s split soul was confused for a brief second before realizing it was an order. “Fine. Rank 0 blood-path killer move, [Hematomorphosis]!”

The petite girl of burning blood took the form of a broadsword. Astaroth’s one second of hesitation scorched Mordred’s palm, but he acted as if it wasn’t his problem while Astaroth used a portion of her Sanguine Chassis to heal him. The constant ‘healing’ allowed him to slowly build up fire-path resistance, but this would accelerate Sanguine Chassis’ blood expenditure.

“Your Majesty, at this rate, I’ll use up my blood supply in less than two minutes.” 

“Not a problem.” Mordred hushed the talking Astaroth Blood Sword. “Asmodeus, point me where I can slaughter to my heart’s content.”

“As you will, Your Majesty.”

…

“As expected of Asmodeus, it’s not a group but a village!” Mordred whispered as he scanned the Murloc village on top of a high tree. The village is constructed in shallow waters around a huge tree with a diameter around several dozens of meters. Brief calculations indicate that the village houses a hundred or so murlocs, most are mortals while a select few are on the same level of a rank 0 cultivator.

“Your Majesty, 30 seconds left…” Astaroth reported while her sword body had become as small as a kitchen knife.

“Understood.” Mordred jumped down towards an unsuspecting group of Murloc progeny snacking on some humanoid creature, his hand already made hand seals. “Rank 0 sound-path soul art, [Shocking Noise]!”

As he dropped into the shallow waters, the splashing sound that he produced was induced with the soul art, creating shocking waves while breaking his fall. The group of Murloc children fell on their feet, discombobulated. Before they were able to comprehend what had happened, a boiling blood knife sliced each of their throats in rapid, swift motion. 

The wound caused by the boiling blood knife should be enough to cauterize mortal flesh, but it was affected by Astaroth’s blood-path method, [Hemorrhage]. The wound would not close as it continuously bled, gathering into a blood ball on top of their dead, empty husk of a corpse. With a telepathic command from the archdemon, the blood balls made a trajectory towards her blood sword body, thus replenishing her blood supply.

“Perfect, it looks like the work of a vampire instead of a flame archdemon, we can dump the blame to those bloodsuckers. Rank 0 sound-path soul art, [Misophonia]!” While the archdemon is resupplying, Mordred did not waste time. He had made hand seals and activated a method to draw the attention of Murlocs in a forty meter circumference around him, almost depleting his soul essence in the process. 

Nevertheless, the soul magus is not worried since the souls captured in his phylactery is increasing, and they can be used to recover his soul essence.

Enraged, copious amounts of murlocs, be it young or old, male or female, sick or healthy, came swarming towards Mordred with whatever weapons on their hands. There were some who carried wooden spoons while others, rotten metal farming tools. There were all sorts of objects.

As the village went into an uproar, the Murloc village chiefs were enraged- but still sane. He is a rank 0 cultivator, but he did not sense Mordred’s appearance in the periphery. He screamed on top of his lungs towards his villagers to not do anything rash, but it’s useless. The affected Murlucs have their mind blinded by a sourceless rage that they themselves are unaware of why they are angry in the first place. At this point, they do not know who they are or who they are going after, just that they must kill.

While the Murloc village chief raced towards Mordred to kill the unknown invader, Mordred’s first three opponents had arrived. “Astaroth Blood Urumi!” Mordred muttered as he swung his short sword, expecting it to thin itself and behave like a sword whip.

The archdemon clicked her tongue, but she could only follow his desire. With another activation of [Hematomorphosis], the short sword changed into an urumi, a sword whip typically used by the warriors in the Land of Sand and Fire.

With Mordred’s technique, the blood urumi danced on his whims, slicing the feet, arms and eyes of the three Murlocs. He did not try to instantly kill them since he needed to use these weaklings’ wail of agony as a terror weapon. After all, he is alone, while the Murloc have a whole village. His mortal body could not outlast the strength of the fish in their waters.

The three Murlocs are slowly bleeding to death, which further enrages the murloc vilage’s chief. On the way to Mordred, he had joined up with a group of Murlocs hunters, fellow rank 0s. However, when he reached the invader, there’s already fourteen Murlocs screaming in agony, their eyes gouged, their hands and feet mutilated cleanly to allow blood flow efficiently.

Facing the four rank 0s Murlocs, Mordred is unfazed. Three of them are on the early-stage of rank 0 while the strongest is at mid-stage. Furthermore, Astaroth had resupplied a good amount of blood, so she can use some of her methods.

“Asatroth, slow them down!”

With a telepathic command, the archdemon instantly recognizes his intent. Truthfully, Astaroth could kill these four Murlocs without much of a hassle, but her master wanted to refresh himself by killing, so she can only oblige. “Rank 0 blood-path killer move, [Hyperthermia]!”

The blood temperature of the four Murlocs suddenly rose to unnatural levels after the activation of her killer move. Since Murlocs are a water-path lifeform, having high body temperature affects them greatly. Of course, these rank 0s had slight resistance compared to the mortals, but Astaroth used sufficient power to render their natural advantage of race and cultivation base even, not allowing them to utilize more than a third of their strength. 

Dizzy, tired, dehydrated, and uncomfortable, the Murlocs began suffering from severe heatstroke.

With these debuffs neutralizing their strength, Mordred was able to take advantage of their temporary weakness. “Astaroth Blood Spear!” He thrust the urumi towards one of the discombobulated Murloc, but halfway through, the blade suddenly elongated, morphing into a spear. The sudden extra reach proved to be an excellent surprise as it pierced through the unsuspecting Murloc’s brain, killing it instantly.

The Murloc chieftain is strong enough to function while suffering from heatstroke. He counterattacked by thrusting his own rotten metal-tipped spear towards Mordred, making use of the opening.

Unfortunately, the magus had far more combat experience than the Murloc. The spear on his hand seemed to have a life on its own as it took the form of an off-hand gauntlet, allowing Mordred’s hand to slap the spear coming for his heart. 

In the heat of the moment, Mordred elbow striked the Murloc chieftain, but when he pulled back his gauntlet-protected elbow, it had already become a long elbow blade that ruptured the chieftain’s heart. With Hemorrhage still active, the large wound is lethal, but Mordred still went for the kill. He made a sweeping gesture at the murloc’s neck, the gauntlet had already turned back into a sword, thus decapitating the poor fish-human.

With the strongest of the bunch dead, dispatching the remaining two rank 0 murlocs is but a breeze. He jumped back, retreating to a certain distance before holding his sword up high. Making a throwing gesture, the blood sword instantly turned into a throwing spear. 

Swoosh! A sharp and vaguely moist sound cut through the air, but the blood spear missed its target, hitting the shallow waters just a step away from the two chasing Murlock. 

The Murlocs briefly hesitated about whether to mock Mordred or run for their lives, but Mordred merely smiled.

“!!!” The two murloc’s bodies stood still in shock as blood spears that grew from the ground penetrated both of their hearts, sucking their blood and killing them instantly.

“Excellent adaptability.” Mordred praised Astaroth for being able to adapt to his combat style as the blood spear turned into wire that slithered back into Mordred’s arm. Having no need to order the archdemon during intense combat is an excellent ability worth commending.

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” 

“Hmm. With this killing, I’ve reached 10-man souls!” Mordred’s each hand began making hand seals. “Now that I am officially an early-stage rank 0 soul cultivator, I can use [Double Widen: Bedlam Amplifier]. Let’s harvest all these blood and souls.”

“Rank 0 soul-path killer move, [Misophonia]!!” 

Augmented by the Bedlam Amplifier, Mordred’s aggro-pulling method had a wider area-of-effect, allowing him to restart the killing spree with renewed vigor.

If any, only one or two might escape his grasp. But if they did, in the Murloc’s language, they would’ve called it the ‘le fasiotiga toto inosia’.

In the shared human tongue? 

The Hated Bloody Massacre.