Research 541
In the vast underground palace of Dead Eagle Valley, the enormous Sand Giant Lizard and the curse manifestation had already collapsed and disintegrated. The powerful Wilderness Spirit was torn apart, and the soul of Chabakunka was burned down to just a wisp of spirit thread. Just as Doro was about to deliver the final blow, an unexpected spirit appeared before her.
Diadeen Baruch, the last king of the Baruch Dynasty, was floating in mid-air, holding a spiritual version of the Phantom Pulling Lamp, his expression blank as he gazed ahead. Upon seeing Diadeen’s sudden appearance, Doro immediately retracted the electric light from her hands, halting in the air at a distance without taking further action. Out of a cautious mindset, Doro did not act rashly.
‘Could this be… the soul of the last Baruch King, Diadeen? Surely he has been taken by the Underworld Coffin Cult? This guy, even at such a moment, can summon such a powerful spirit. Is this the strength of a Red Tier Extraordinary Being of ‘Silence’?’
Watching the scene unfold before her, Doro thought warily. After hearing Shadi’s intelligence regarding Diadeen, she had been concerned that the soul of the last king would be used as a weapon by the Underworld Coffin Cult. Initially, she was relieved that the coffin shaman had not summoned Diadeen’s soul during the battle, but now it manifested just as he seemed to be lost.
Faced with the unusual phenomenon, Doro stared at Diadeen with caution. As she remained entirely focused on guarding against the king’s soul, Diadeen’s soul showed no signs of aggression. It simply floated quietly in mid-air, holding the Phantom Pulling Lamp, with a blank expression and no unusual movements, which puzzled Doro.
Just as Doro was pondering whether to proceed with a probing attack, she noticed the once-dulled eyes of Diadeen’s soul beginning to tremble. He seemed to have sensed something, and his face gradually began to change, twitching as if under some spasm. Diadeen’s expressions rapidly shifted at a visible speed, alternating between sorrow and joy, accompanied by a series of strange sounds. The state of his spiritual body displayed extreme abnormality, causing Doro to frown, her sense of caution and confusion rising.
‘This Diadeen’s soul… is rather strange… This is not what a normal spirit should be!’
Suddenly, the expression of Diadeen’s spirit, which had been constantly changing, froze into a fierce glare. Seeing this determined expression, Doro readied herself for an attack. Yet, unexpectedly, Diadeen’s spirit turned its head and focused on one of the walls of the underground palace. Doro noticed that Diadeen was gazing south, toward the direction of Karnak.
“Shadi…”
Opening his mouth, Diadeen emitted a hoarse, haunting voice, and then his entire spirit rapidly floated into the air. The surrounding sand, scattered after the disintegration of the Sand Giant Lizard, began to swirl again, lifting off the ground and forming a swirling vortex of sand over the vast underground palace, with Diadeen’s spirit positioned within this storm of sand.
In an instant, a considerable amount of accumulated sand was swept up in the underground palace, creating a sandstorm-like phenomenon that swept back and forth in the confined space of the underground palace. The swirling sand made it difficult for Doro to open her eyes for a moment. At the same time, the last remaining wisp of Chabakunka’s soul took the opportunity to escape.
‘Is this… sand? This guy has the ability to manipulate sand, just like that lizard Wilderness Spirit?’
Covering her face with her hand, Doro stared at the increasingly furious and agitated Diadeen in the center of the sand vortex, gathering electric light in her ready hands, prepared to attack at any moment. However, at that moment, Diadeen’s actions surprised Doro.
“Shadi!!”
Fiercely glaring, Diadeen’s spirit roared loudly towards the south, his voice filled with endless resentment. Then he turned and, surrounded by the vortex of sand, charged straight toward the exit of the underground palace. He rapidly passed through the long corridor that had been repeatedly blasted open, directly bursting out of the underground palace and into the area outside Dead Eagle Valley.
Seeing this scene, Doro, who had been on high alert, was taken aback. She hadn’t anticipated that Diadeen’s spirit would leave the underground palace without attacking her.
‘This Diadeen’s spirit… seems to not be under the control of that Underworld Coffin shaman. Instead of targeting me, it has run outside… Does he sense that Shadi is approaching for revenge?’
Furrowing her brows, Doro thought seriously. She had just heard the name Diadeen mentioned by him, and it was clear that he was heading after Shadi!
But the crucial question was, according to the intelligence Doro had gathered, Shadi was currently attacking Karnak, which was about seven or eight kilometers away from Dead Eagle Valley. How did Diadeen know Shadi was there? Was his sensing ability that powerful?
In her confusion, Doro began to control the zombie puppets outside the underground palace to observe the state of Diadeen as he rushed out, and upon seeing the situation from the perspective of the zombie puppets, she felt a sense of surprise.
At this moment, outside the underground palace, above Dead Eagle Valley, the sky was filled with swirling sand and howling winds. The previously blazing sunlight had turned exceedingly dark. A vortex resembling a tornado sandstorm quickly formed above Dead Eagle Valley and continued to expand. This sandstorm centered around Diadeen’s spirit had gathered even more sand from the outside world, evolving into a more powerful sandstorm.
‘This guy actually… has grown…’
The tornado-like sandstorm created by Diadeen raged above Dead Eagle Valley, swirling up clouds of yellow sand while rapidly expanding, initially only filling the underground palace, now starting to envelop the entire Dead Eagle Valley. Outside the underground palace, the chaotic howling was incessant, and Doro’s zombie bird puppets had to quickly fly away, escaping from the gradually expanding sandstorm formed by Diadeen.
Through the many bird-like zombie puppets and various perspectives, Doro observed that the sandstorm vortex centered around Diadeen was rapidly moving southward. As it moved, its size grew, picking up more sand along the way and forming an even larger tornado sandstorm. Its target was evident; it was heading straight for Karnak in the south, where the Revolutionary Army was conducting the final siege against the Savior Faction.
‘It is indeed moving south… heading to Karnak to find Shadi. This soul of Diadeen is driven by the hatred from his life to seek revenge. But why is he able to create such a fierce sandstorm? Could it be that Diadeen’s extraordinary ability in life was something similar?’
Watching the growing Diadeen sandstorm, Doro felt anxious inside. In his current state, he was not easy to deal with, but the Phantom Pulling Lamp was still on Diadeen, and she had to handle it.
‘The urgent matter now… is to clarify what state this Diadeen’s spirit is in. A normal spirit would not have the ability to manipulate such a large sandstorm. This Diadeen spirit must have something peculiar…’
Thinking this, Doro decided to prioritize another important matter before figuring out the situation of Diadeen’s spirit.
Doro quickly walked over to Nephnis, who was lying unconscious on the ground. Watching the flickering Soul Flame of Neph nearby drifting lazily over, Doro picked up a stone and drew a magical array under Neph’s body. Then, following the method taught by Uta, she consumed a bit of ‘Silence’ spirituality to perform a ritual that accelerated Neph’s soul back to her body. As Neph’s Soul Flame re-entered her body, her eyes fluttered, and she sat up, rubbing her eyes.
“Phew… I’m finally back. I almost thought I was going to d*e… Thank goodness… thank goodness…”
After sitting up, Nephnis breathed a sigh of relief and spoke, her expression tinged with fear, indicating that parting from her soul and being devoured was not a good experience at all.
“Thank you, Neph-senpai… See, I told you nothing would happen. I made sure to confirm the entire process.”
Patting Nephnis on the shoulder, Doro reassured her. She had extensively consulted Uta and Satraya, two seasoned extraordinary beings of ‘Silence,’ about how long a living soul could be out of the body before dying, whether the subject of the curse was the physical body or the spirit, how long it took for a soul to be resolved after being consumed by a great shaman, and whether the curse would affect the consumed spirit or the consumer.
After verifying a series of crucial questions, Doro then devised the plan to draw Chabakunka into consuming Neph’s soul, thereby inviting the curse to attack Chabakunka.
Thus, although this plan appeared risky, to Doro, it had a high degree of feasibility. While Nephnis was extremely worried about the plan, Doro had been filled with confidence from the start.
“Phew… That coffin shaman has finally been dealt with, but it seems he left us with trouble. Miss Doro… what’s happening to the spirit he summoned at the end?” After catching her breath, Nephnis asked Doro, who pointed toward the exit of the underground palace in response.
“It’s out there now, turning into a bigger and bigger headache. We need to deal with it quickly, but before that, we need to clarify what it actually is and how it possesses such powers.” Doro replied to Nephnis, and upon hearing this, Nephnis furrowed her brow and asked in return.
“So how do we clarify what it is?”
“It’s simple; we just need to ask it.”
Saying this, Doro pointed to another direction of the underground palace. There, in the shadows, the body of a member of the Underworld Coffin Cult, Moen, was lying quietly. Above Moen’s body, a flickering Soul Flame floated, which was his soul.
High-ranking members of the Underworld Coffin Cult typically carry special incantations to prevent summoning. This incantation would immediately send the soul of the attached person into the depths of the spirit realm after d*ath, increasing the difficulty of summoning. However, in the presence of Hafdar’s cursed entity’s hand of magic, these incantations were trivial. Moen’s soul was affected to the point where he couldn’t even return to his own body, let alone enter the spirit realm.
Under Doro’s arrangement, Nephnis quickly set up a summoning array to draw Moen’s soul from an ultra-close distance. Following Doro’s complete killing of Moen, she successfully restrained his soul and forced it back into a spiritual form, allowing Doro to use a ritual to compel Moen to answer any questions.
“Do you know who that shaman was who relied on you earlier?” Doro asked directly to Moen’s spirit in the summoning array, to which Moen nodded in reply.
“I know… That’s Lord Chabakunka, one of the big figures in the cult. He is the planner and head of various operations concerning the affairs of the cult in Adus.”
“Chabakunka, huh…” Taking in Moen’s words, Doro silently noted that name and continued to inquire.
“Is the soul that Chabakunka summoned at the end that of the last king of Adus, Diadeen? Why is he able to manipulate sand? He feels very different from other spirits… What’s his background?”
Doro earnestly asked Moen, who paused slightly before slowly responding.
“Yes, that soul is the last Baruch king… Under Lord Chabakunka’s orders, we obtained his soul through long-term preparation in Adus, just as Diadeen was defeated by the Revolutionary Army, and presented it to Lord Chabakunka. Diadeen’s soul is an important experimental tool and research material for Lord Chabakunka and his colleagues.”
“Research? What kind of research?”
“According to Lord Chabakunka, this research is called ‘Artificial Wilderness Spirit.’” Moen answered Doro’s questions quietly. Upon hearing this, both Doro and Nephnis were startled and exchanged surprised glances, sensing a mutual shock in each other’s expressions.
“Artificial Wilderness Spirit? Clarify this for me. What kind of research is this?”
“Artificial Wilderness Spirit refers to the areas beyond the Falling Star Continent, where no Wilderness Spirits exist. The research seeks to artificially create Wilderness Spirits, conducted by the cult’s subordinate Witch Spirit Sect, aiming to produce powerful regional souls for the cult’s use.
“There are several research directions for Artificial Wilderness Spirits, among which the fastest progress and best results have been in a direction called Sovereign Spirit… This involves transforming the soul of a recognized ruler into that region’s Wilderness Spirit…”
Moen continued to respond to Doro’s inquiry, and as he spoke, Doro’s eyes reflected a deeper sense of intrigue. She continued to ask.
“Transforming the soul of a ruler into the region’s Wilderness Spirit… How can it be done?”
“Of course, it can. A publicly acknowledged ruler bears the recognition and memory of all the wise souls within the territory they govern. Among the collective consciousness of countless people, a territory’s ruler can represent that area. Utilizing this recognition as a key and link allows the ruler’s soul to be transformed into a Wilderness Spirit, binding the ruler’s spirit to the land, thus controlling the affairs of that territory…
“This is a complex research that simultaneously involves ‘Lamp,’ ‘Silence,’ and even a hint of ‘Enlightenment’ spirituality, and the process is quite profound. Only shamans capable of mastering both ‘Lamp’ and ‘Silence’ can conduct this research better…
“It is rumored that there are also secret methods in some nations on the Main Continent that maintain the king’s power through the recognition of worship by the citizens. The shamans of the cult drew inspiration from these rumors to commence the research on Artificial Wilderness Spirits. Up to now, this research has seen some stable minor results, and the sole experimental result at the kingdom level is Diadeen.
“According to Lord Chabakunka, as the kingdom’s only experimental subject, Diadeen seems to have many flaws, but he already possesses many of the basic abilities of a Wilderness Spirit. In a certain sense, Diadeen is now the soul of the land of Adus. He can summon the land’s natural spirituality with his will, creating specific phenomena.”
