The impact of the last energy influx was the worst. Even though Michael used the energy influx of six Tier-4 Awakened to refine his body, mind and War Rune, the energy influx of a Tier-5 Lord was several tis worse. It circulated through his entire body like molten lava and seed to burn down everything in its path.
Michael scread at the top of his lungs right before he disappeared inside the Origin Expanse. He forced his eyes shut to focus on his refinent techniques and use up as much energy as possible. He tried to refine his body, mind, and War Rune simultaneously so as to utilize the energy that wreaked havoc inside his body.
Several days passed before Michael opened his eyes once again. His entire body was drenched in sweat and he felt eerily weak. Yet, the power that surged through his body was amazing. It was exhilarating.
Instead of rushing to leave the Origin Expanse, Michael decided to eat sothing. He devoured more than a dozen jumbo-sized trays until he finally felt full. He then rubbed his stomach with a satisfying smile and collapsed on the bench.
When he woke up again, Michael found himself in his room. The tiredness that had accompanied him for the last two weeks was no more to harass him. Michael finally rested a bit. He talked a little bit with Tiara, and the Forest Elves about the territory developnt. Michael then checked the progress of the Sacred Knight Temple and a few other projects as well.
A few hours later, he returned back to the underground prison where a surprise was waiting for him.
The War Priestess, missing an arm, and the Berseker Chieftain, covered in various wounds that stemd from explosions and razor-sharp blades, were back in the prison.
"Ohh…W-welco back!" Michael greeted them, flashing a forced smile in the direction of the two powerhouses.
"You are still alive. That's good." Palika Mavenham said, patting Michael's back.
The force in Palika's pat was nearly enough to fling Michael across the room. Fortunately, his physique had improved quite a bit in the last few weeks so he could absorb the impact.
"The security system's sound detectors perceived your screams. The vital signal radar then showed us that you killed the traitorous Tier-5 Lord. I should have warned you about the energy influx. Good thing your limbs are still where they ought to be," The War Priestess explained, draining all the color from Michael's face.
'I forgot about the vital signal radars! Fuck this shit… Were they able to sense the SoulStar Fragnts and Soultrait Symbols as well?' Michael broke into a sweat at this thought. His breathing grew rougher and a lump ford in his throat. He was about to hyperventilate when he slapped his cheeks to force his body back under control.
'No. If they noticed sothing like that they wouldn't have asked about my well-being first. They would probably ask about the Soultrait Symbols and the SoulStar Fragnts first…right?'
"H-how can I help you? Did you co just to look out for ? That's…nice…" Michael managed to say, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Actually, we just returned from Kirata. You were correct. It was a trap. Thankfully, we were prepared to jump straight into a trap. We created a strategy to counter most traps, and were able to overwhelm the bastards from Dark Heavens. We got the Tritaenus back and our people are currently checking the internal systems to check whether Dark Heavens' hackers were able to procure all or any information. They will also check for viruses and all the other stuff," Palika explained, not hiding that he had no idea about technology.
All the Berserker Chieftain cared about was combat, strength and the death of his enemies. Everything related to technology and modern science was not his forte, so he let others do what they were good at.
"You can read the report later. For now, we ca to pick you up and check on you. The security system worried us a little bit because nobody would be stupid enough to kill a Tier-5 Lord while being a Tier-2 Awakened, but it's a good thing that you survived," The War Priestess pointed out.
Her gaze told Michael that she was mocking him. However, Michael could only sigh in relief – inwardly, of course. First of all, the War Priestess seed to have accepted him. She didn't consider him as a stupid youngling, who trusted his gut feeling like a naive fool. The War Priestess might have lost an arm, but her expression didn't show any signs of worry or resentnt. Michael didn't understand that quite well, but it was possible that the War Priestess was unburdened by the loss of her arm.
'They probably have the ans to heal her. If Maria is willing to help out they can definitely regrow her arm. That should hardly be an issue.' Michael thought, happy that the security system didn't seem to have picked up on the Soultrait Symbols and the SoulStar Fragnts.
He felt a little bit foolish for forgetting about the countless functions most modern security systems possessed, but it was a good thing that he Extracted the SoulStar Fragnts and Soultraits of the war criminals.
He procured a total of 24,900 SoulStar Fragnts and 8 Soultraits. Second Skin, Insert and a bunch of other rather useful Soultraits entered Michael's possession. The gains Michael made were exceptional, but there was still more. Other than the SoulStar Fragnts, Soultrait Symbols, and energy influx, Michael also procured a large portion of the war criminal's goods, and several mory Orbs.
Their War Rune's storage was emptied by Michael and the mory Orbs were consud at once. The dead couldn't speak, but their mories could.
After putting himself in a dangerous situation that could have exposed his secret, Michael obtained what he desired. It was definitely worth the risk. Of course, that didn't an Michael didn't feel stressed out and under enormous pressure. His heart was palpitating, and he had a hard ti talking to either of the races' leaders.
"The Battle Exchange must have ended by now. What will happen now? We have only like…six or seven weeks left before we have to depart, right?" Michael asked, trying to change the topic.
"The Battle Exchange is over, yes. The participants of the Flag War have already been inford. You should also have a notification. In fact, you should have received multiple notifications by now. As for the rest, they'll leave Piloq in the next few days," Palika explained, looking back at Michael before he added, "But why did you kill that Tier-5 Lord? I an, I understand why you did it, but I don't understand why you would put your life in danger like that. Don't you know that the energy influx of soone two Tiers higher than you is already dangerous? I didn't say anything because I was pretty sure that you would be fine killing the Lowest-ranked Tier-4 Awakened. But you went ahead and killed the Tier-5 Lord as well? You can consider yourself fortunate for being alive!"
It was interesting to know that many Awakened criminals were executed in the past. Since killing Awakened rewarded an energy influx to the executioner, various families began to search for high-ranked criminals to let their children kill them. The young Descendants were at a similar Tier and rank as Michael when they killed the Higher Lifeforms in the hopes of refining their War Rune rapidly. While that worked most of the ti, it created two major problems.
The first problem was pretty simple. It was a fact that Awakened provided an energy influx upon getting killed. Various criminals were executed by young Descendants, but that was not all. So big families were getting greedy. They wanted to grow faster than others and exceed them all. They wanted to beco the sole and unrivaled rulers of mankind. Therefore, they began to hunt criminals to capture them for their children to kill.
Most families accepted this. They did the sa in the beginning. However, they didn't kill innocent Awakened or smaller criminals. However, there was one family that began to fra powerful Awakened from unknown families. They captured and killed them for their energy influx. But that was not all. Smaller criminals who stole their party's goods were also captured by this family – and rcilessly killed by the younger generation. The family changed a lot, and they developed techniques to procure more energy influx from killing 'criminals'. Their hair turned crimson like the blood they shed when they killed the innocent and criminals alike.
Their family's na was added to history's books as the Crimson Hunters, the Arcania family.
The second problem was the danger of the highly potent energy influx a Higher Lifeform provided. The energy influx was on a completely different level from the energy influx of a Lesser Lifeform. Therefore many Descendants with weaker Soultraits suffered major backlashes from killing criminals, who were two Tiers above them in rank. Only the strongest Descendants with powerful Soultraits to strengthen their Soul, and a sturdy foundation encompassing both physical and ntal fortitude could overco and endure the energy influx provided by an Awakened two Tiers above their rank.
Michael t that requirent mostly because he was in possession of so many Soultraits. Even if his mind and body would crumble, his Soul provided enough protection to his existence to endure and use the energy influx of a Tier-4 Awakened. As for the Tier-5 Lord…Michael would rather be in unbearable pain and be considered an idiot for thinking that he could endure the energy influx of a Tier-5 Lord rather than keep his guinea pigs alive.
He had used the war criminals as guinea pigs for his experints. He removed their Soultraits and extracted their SoulStar Fragnts. Leaving them alive was not an option. Therefore, Michael chose to beco the stupid fool, who overestimated his capabilities. That was much better than his secrets getting exposed.
Michael was still alive and he was almost done with the second refinent stage of Sacred Rectification. Caesurium nta was also nearing the limit of the second stage. It was only a matter of ti before he reached a bottleneck. By then, Michael would have to change his refinent technique to a better one or advance to the 3rd Tier to practice the 3rd stage of Caesurium nta and Sacred Rectification.
"Well…how about I show you sothing? You might understand why I killed that old bastard on a whim," Michael responded to Palika. He retrieved a mory Crystal and channeled so mories inside it.
The mories originated from the mory Orb of the Tier-5 Lord he'd killed. Michael was disgusted just thinking about the mories, but he kept a straight face as he handed the mory Crystal to Palika Mavenham.
The Berserker Chieftain's expression remained neutral for the first few seconds. However, upon reaching a certain point his expression turned sour. It worsened until his large hand twitched and his grip on the Orb tightened. Not even a second later, the mory crystal burst into thousands of pieces.
"This…Is that how humans can be? Not even the worst criminals of our kind would dare to do sothing so cruel and evil to children…and innocent won. How could soone let loose Goblins and Kobolds onto them….?"
Palika Mavenham had seen a lot. He had seen many bad people. However, most of the ti the Chieftain could sense the bad within people. But that was not the case with the Elder. In fact, the Elder of the Silvermoon University had a likable personality. Many liked him. Even Palika had had a favorable impression of him…until now.
"That is terrifying…" The War Priestess mumbled as she received a similar mory crystal from Michael.
"Yes, it is. He is one of the worst humans I've encountered until now…so I couldn't hold back…especially with his mory being imprinted in my mind…I hate it…I want to get rid of them all…but I needed that to collect information…" Michael swore under his breath, clenching his fists.
He really hated so of the mories that had been imprinted deep into his ntal with exceptional clarity. It was horrifying to have soone else's mories in his mind, especially if those were foul. The only good thing was that Michael could organize his mories and thoughts. If not for being able to differentiate his mories from those of others, Michael would have crumbled by now. That was sothing he was certain of.
'But I need to know how disgusting mankind can be and how low they can stoop. I need to understand that not everyone is good. If I extract the mories again, I will lose every mory connected to the bad ones. The weapon mastery, their knowledge, and how disgusting they are. I…have to use their mories as a source of energy to grow stronger, and to remind myself about the dark side of mankind…'
"Their mories are inside you? That…must be your Soultrait's doing… I am sorry for you. That must be terrifying. I understand why you killed them," The War Priestess said, looking at Michael with a tinge of pity, and newly found respect.
Despite knowing how vile the war criminals had been, Michael spent the previous two weeks procuring as many useful pieces of information as possible. Silvana couldn't imagine how horrifying it must have been for Michael, and how much he had to endure. Yet, he worked so hard to help everyone. He deserved to be comnded and respected.
"Don't worry about what others might say. I will make sure nobody can even harm a single hair of your hair for killing these bastards!"
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