Chapter 31: Shattering the Artifact!
In the depths of Naratel.
Soren saw a pile of strange lich soul jars, the most obvious feature being that they looked almost identical.
One thing is beyond doubt.
These liches were artificially created, and their purpose of existence was to guard Naratel. Soren picked up a dark golden lich soul jar and glanced at it, immediately feeling a controlling magic circle. Orcus created these liches and controlled their souls; as long as one holds the soul jar, they can control these liches. However, the cost of doing so is that these liches have lost their ability to advance; they weren’t liches transformed from legendary mages in the first place, and once the soul jars were controlled, they could never advance to demigod liches. Through the long years, they guarded Naratel, but their strength and potential were already limited.
On the other side was a whole box of legendary soul crystals.
Naratel is the territory of the undead, and the most common item here is the soul crystal. Undead are the creatures most likely to drop natural soul crystals.
“It looks like a good harvest.”
On the other side of the treasury, there was a large pile of materials. Undead don’t care about gold and silver, so here the most are gemstones and rare minerals. Over the long years of operating Naratel, the undead thoroughly developed this plane and found a large amount of valuable minerals. Soren saw a lot of mithril, fine gold, cerulean silver, astral stones, orichalcum ingots, etc. These are materials refined by liches, and some rare materials from the astral realm can be found at the edge of the Bottomless Abyss. The center of Naratel is a gigantic fortress, and inside the fortress is a massive control magic circle.
“Indeed!”
Soren stepped onto the magic circle before him and immediately felt the control of the surrounding obelisks. Their function is very special because these obelisks can gather the power of death.
“Orcus really wants to stake a claim to the God of Death profession!”
The power gathered by the obelisks is the power of death, and Orcus’s becoming the King of the Undead hinges on this.
“What a pity.”
Soren quickly stepped down, shaking his head: “Just possessing the power of death without a divine profession or believers cannot compete with a true God of Death. But this does grant Orcus the characteristic of the undead!”
The number of these spoils is enormous.
Part of it needs to be left in the Bottomless Abyss, while another part would be sent to Modo City. As for the most crucial batch of legendary soul crystals, Soren only kept about one-fifth and sent the rest to Modo City. After developing a diamond planet, the majority of conditions for constructing diamond golems have been met in Modo City; the only thing missing is high-tier soul crystals. These legendary soul crystals are enough to produce a large number of top-tier diamond golems, and even consider creating advanced versions of diamond golems, which are legendary constructs that guard the Arcane Tower. They are weakened versions of tower spirits without the auxiliary capabilities of tower spirits and focus most of their functions on combat and killing.
The casualties of the Demon Legion are massive.
Such significant casualties forced Soren to pause his plan to assault the King of Ghouls, Doreisen, and instead began to bestow titles of lesser demon lords to some.
His controlled territory is already vast.
From Thanatos to the enormous territory of Naratel, it’s enough for Soren to bestow a dozen lesser demon lords, but he did not do so. Instead, he chose seven from the numerous demon lords and promoted them to lesser demon lords.
Each layer of the Bottomless Abyss varies in size.
The 113th layer of Thanatos is considered medium-sized, enough for Soren to bestow a batch of lesser demon lords. However, while Thanatos can be bestowed, Naratel absolutely cannot be; there are still many secrets here, and the concentration of death power is exceptional. Orcus has almost turned this place into a semi-divine kingdom. The secrets of these obelisks must not be grasped by other demons. Soren prepares to control this place himself while researching how Orcus obtains his divine power of death. It is known that Orcus possesses many powers that only gods of death have, such as the Hand of Death, resurrection of the undead, etc., while Orcus’s staff can directly turn the slain into undead, a power that even a god of death finds difficult to replicate.
…
On the other side.
Far away in Modo City, just as Soren breached the last fortress of Naratel, his true self Soren also opened his eyes in an instant.
A golden light burst forth from his eyes!
“The time has finally come!”
Soren’s figure stood up, light gathering from divine power all over him, appearing like a golden-armored giant. He reached out towards the sky, grasping at it, and all the temples on Modo Island immediately rang out with bells. Countless divine powers of faith then gathered towards the Grand Temple, and a magnificent divine power was summoned and consolidated by him.
——”Divine Power Shaping!”
——”Change Form!”
What Soren held in his palm was Orcus’s staff. He had stayed in the temple during this time, deciphering the secrets of this artifact, and when Naratel was breached, a certain power imbued in the artifact was instantly unlocked.
A mournful scream echoed!
Just as Soren broke through the defenses of Orcus’s staff, countless wails of souls immediately arose.
This is an extraordinarily evil artifact.
Just like the infamous Frostmourne, the essence of Orcus’s staff is also to turn any slain creature into an undead while imprisoning many mortal souls. Over the long years, this artifact has imprisoned too many souls; its evil power might even exceed that of Orcus himself, as every time Orcus resurrects, he must take it to truly come back to life. Countless souls turned into fierce vengeful spirits lunged toward Soren; this was the artifact’s desperate backlash and Orcus’s final resistance. If a mortal faced such an attack, they would surely die. If one accidentally destroyed the artifact with the Great Shatter spell, they would almost immediately perish from the backlash. However, Soren is a true god after all, and moreover, a true god close to great divine power. Faced with a swirling current of black mist formed by numerous vengeful spirits, he merely raised his hand and swept through the sky, and immediately a light gate appeared before him.
“To dust, we return; to earth, we return.”
Soren reached out and grasped at the void, immediately capturing tens of thousands of vengeful spirits. Then he waved his hand towards the light gate before him, and a massive attraction erupted.
The sound of terror arose.
Countless vengeful spirits were forcibly sucked into the light gate and sent into Soren’s divine kingdom, then cast into the reincarnation pool.
In the end.
Cracks appeared on Orcus’s staff, and a somewhat chubby human soul appeared before Soren’s eyes. This was the true body of Orcus, also the appearance he had as a mortal.
