The Great Archmage Mordred’s magnum opus, the Floating Fortress Alistair, was the trigger that started the era of Floating Fortresses in Morgen World. Although it is not visible in the eyes of the public, demigods of every faction are entering an arms race to refine their own version of Floating Fortress. They are the epitome of magic machinery construct that encompasses almost every aspect of cultivation.
Laymans would suggest that the creation of Floating Fortresses is thanks to his magical accomplishment, but refinement-path experts who are worth their salt would argue otherwise.
Alistair and all the future derivation work of Floating Fortresses are only possible thanks to two great inventions: Mordred Energy Loop System and the Mise Energy Core.
Mordred Energy Loop System was the Great Archmage Mordred’s personal invention, this was already obvious from the name alone.
The second one was the creation of his late student, Katharina Mise Richtofen. After her death, her son Karax Richtofen, the last known clan head of the Richtofen clan, became the recipient of Mordred’s refinement-path true inheritance.
Both are connected with each other, the Energy Loop System regards the circulation of external energy, while the Mise Energy Core is a giant reactor who’s responsible for the internal source of energy generation. A floating fortress requires at least one of them, but having both at the same time would allow the said floating fortress to stand above others.
“Unfortunately, my Energy Loop System requires nine extreme elemental energy pools that represent all the elemental forces of Morgen World. Even if I want to make a miniature version of it, it still requires nine extreme mana apertures of all elemental paths.” Shion expressed her helplessness. “As of now, I cannot tap into the vast reserve of elemental energy particles in the material world.”
“Isn’t it why you refined a lightning core for me. You wanted to have a modular Energy Loop System, right?” Kasumi replied as she tinkered with Shion’s omni-gear. It was given to her because she could cast information-path magic spells.
“Yes. Currently, we have two mana pools from Ork shamans. Although the quality is not up to par, we can begin collecting material for your second core. Are you ready?”
“Proceed.” Kasumi answered.
Two mana pools are harvested from the Ork shamans.
Unlike other races, almost all greenskin divine casters (faith-path cultivators) are all magic caster themselves. Almost certainly, mana pools can be harvested from greenskins shamans, but their quality is mostly shit.
For mages, their original mana pool size is the metric that could be used to measure their talent. It is separated into 5 grades of arcane talent:
E-grade talent meant the potential magic caster had roughly 0.1 to 2 initial ‘mana capacity’. The size of their mana pools are extremely small that unless certain conditions are met, they could not cast spells unless they reached the late-stage or peak-stage of rank 0.
Just add an additional 2 for their upper and lower limit, and you get the next classification. D-grade arcane talent have size 2 to 4 mana pools, C-grade 4 to 6, B-grade 6 to 8 and A-grade 8 to 10.
Someone with an initial mana pool size of 10 would have an easier progression in their arcane cultivation because they could start casting spells even when they are in 1 transparent star cultivation base.
Keep in mind that one’s spiritual force development quotient affects how much they can utilize their mana pools at one instance. Meaning, a 1 transparent star mage with 10% spiritual force development quotient could utilize 10% of their total mana pool size in a single instance. 2 transparent stars could utilize 20%, so on and so forth.
Of course, now that better spellcasting methods have been invented due to the modernity brought by Mordred, the effect of spiritual development quotient on utilizing one’s mana pool at a single instance could be bypassed with certain methods. However, doing so would drastically increase the difficulty of casting the spell, therefore it is unpopular and only used as a last resort.
If a spell cost 1 unit of mana, then an A-grade mage with 10-unit mana pool initial size could start using it even when he or she barely started their cultivation journey at 1 transparent star. For comparison, a mage possessing D-grade mana pool with initial size of 2 units needs to have at least 5 transparent star arcane cultivation base to activate the same spell. This was the cause that made rank 0 magic casters can only cast a few spells before taking a break.
Just like any other powers, arcane talent could be passed on towards one’s descendants. This is the primary factor why those with a good bloodline will mingle with those with good bloodlines themselves.
After all, the difference between those with talent and those without is like heaven and earth. The size of one’s mana pool truly determines the might of the magic casters, but that’s life.
Life is unfair to everyone, it is fair.
For comparison purposes, most elite hunters who are mages are, at the very least, having C-grade or B-grade arcane talents. Perhaps, as one of the members of Hartina Kingdom’s Nine Master clan, Kobayashi Hana is an A-grade talent, which showcased how precious arcane talent is.
That being said, talent classification is not applicable to every race in the modern world, especially Greenskins.
Because they could cheat.
The greenskins have a powerful racial trait known as [Greenskin Mental Network], which allows any greenskins race in proximity to share their emotion with each other. By tapping the mental network, greenskins shamans could stimulate emotion and extract lifeforce in exchange of using mana to cast blessings or spells.
That’s right, greenskin shaman’s methods shortened the lifespan of those who are affected. But, it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things as low-tier greenskins are cheap perishables that could be replenished quickly. Lifespan is the least of their worries.
Due to those factors combined, mana pools gained from goblin shamans are mostly shit-tier, hovering between E-grade or D-grade. If one is lucky, perhaps one could get C-grade, but that’s like winning a lottery.
As for harvesting an A-grade mana pool from the greenskin?
Well… one would have a greater chance of finding a specific particle of water in the pacific ocean. Greenskins are simply not known for their talent in magic.
Knowing Shion’s luck, the mana pools she harvested wouldn’t be special, it has an initial size of 3 and 2.5. Using the talent classification, they are D-grades. Yet, it isn’t a problem for her. She was the one who officially invented a method to transplant mana pools into non-mages to create quasi-mages. How is this simple matter a problem?
Shion gazed at the mana pools while frowning, she remembered a distant memory.
“Main Soul, perhaps you’re still indignant of leaving the Aperture Refinement True Inheritance in the hands of Vladmirovich Stukov?” Kasumi noticed and commented.
“No.” Shion said with a tone of nostalgia. “If I didn’t use one of my seven True Inheritances to ‘purchase’ Yulsaria from the Union as a dowry, they wouldn’t let her go.” She sighed. “Her bloodline is too precious for them, after all.”
“This is not the time to reminisce about the past. We have no time to spare.” Shion got reprimanded by Kasumi.
“You’re right. Let’s start the refinement…” Shion produced a bag filled with blood red crystals. This was the second batch of her contribution from the previous war. Due to her killcount, her contributions are massive and are separated into multiple batches.
In this concealed room specifically shielded against investigative methods, Shion could activate her secret methods without worry. She drew a complicated ritual formation using purified blood of greenskins that she harvested personally from the battlefield. The ritual formation has exactly 99 points that could be used as formation nodes.
If a common person took a glimpse of the blood runes, they would feel their emotion being stimulated little by little until they become enraged or fell under extreme emotion. This was because the runic words are not related to the common magical language used in Morgen World.
It is written in demonic tongue.
‘Evil’ languages such as ones spoken by demons or devils have a side effect of inflicting mental attacks upon the listener. Mild exposure could influence emotions, and worse exposure could mean insanity or mental collapse. If it was written on a piece of medium such as being used as runes, then the reader would be affected even if they do not understand a single thing.
No discomfort could be seen on Shion’s face as she wrote them down, she put 99 blood crystals on the formation nodes after writing the runes. Encircled by blood runes of demonic tongue, the formation spoke of its evil and heretical nature. If a believer of any god sees this, they would immediately report towards their patron deity for heresy of the highest order even if they have to sacrifice their own life.
“Sacrificial formation is finished. Shall we?” Kasumi reported.
Shion nodded. “Rank 0 blood-path killer move, [Blutopfer]!”
The ritual formation rumbled as bloodlight shone. An evil aura emerges from the formation even though nothing is there yet. The blood-path killer move is actually harmless. Its function is to sacrifice the blood crystals to provide a large amount of fuel because the ritual required a tremendous amount of energy.
“Onto the next step…” Shion’s body suddenly becomes ignited in a ghastly purple soulfire which does not radiate heat. In fact, it lowered the temperature to below zero degrees as frost accumulated on her mechanical body. She is currently burning souls to boost her cultivation temporarily.
“Rank 0 soul-path killer move, [Lemegeton Projection: Lesser Demon Summoning]!”
The blood ritual formation collapses, consuming all the remaining blood crystals as an energy source to open up a purple demonic gate.
A thick sulphuric stench permeates the room as if it is an underground volcanic tube. Then, a demonic entity passed through from the purple gate into the material world. At this very moment, the dimensional law of the world rejects the entity as it screams in anguish and fury.
“Class-14 transparent star demonic entity detected. Demonic signature matches with predetermined ritual sequence, we have successfully summoned a Chaosmetal Demon, one of the cannon fodder reared by Great Duke Berith… but it’s stronger than expected!” Kasumi reported as she typed at the Omni-gear on her wrist, using it as a spellcasting medium. “Rank 0 lightning-path killer move, [Brilliant Lightning Chains]!”
The Chaosmetal Demon is a humanoid with a 3-meter tall body. It has a gleaming silver-colored fish-like scale made out of demonic biometal that enveloped it’s thick, tensile muscle. Its red eyes burn in dark red demonic flames, its body releases a potent sulphuric stench all over the small room. Its blade-arms are laced with countless smaller blades and demonic spikes. The moment it touches the dirt floor, it slowly corrupts the ground as small granules of demonic metals start to materialize on the floor.
“ROOOARRR!!!!” The chaosmetal demon screamed as the demonic aura corroded the surrounding. The information-path formation erected to defend against investigative methods shuddered, it barely held on. Lightning chains soon materialize as it bound the demon, limiting its movement greatly, but it couldn’t hold for long as the demon’s strength is powerful beyond Kasumi’s limit.
“Main soul, hurry!” Kasumi muttered as she tried her best to protect the information-path formation that blocks intel leaks.
Shion activated another method. The souls in her Soul Phylactery are quickly ignited under a cold-temperature soulfire to serve as fuel.
“Rank 0 soul-path killer move, [Lemegeton Authority]!”
Her mechanical red eyes shone in dark purple glint. Under the effect of Lemegeton Authority, any demonic entity bound by the Demonic Grimoire Lemegeton will have no secret. This includes one’s true name, race, or other personal information that, if known to others, would make them susceptible to curses.
Shion quickly muttered the chaosmetal demon’s name which was 244 words long. “Kill yourself.” she ordered in fluent demonic tongue.
The chaosmetal demon screamed in retaliation, but under the authority of Lemegeton’s projection, it cannot deny Shion’s order. The chaosmetal demon detonated its own soul, but through sheer survival instinct, it managed to barely survive by fighting against the command. Due to the backlash of her method, Shion’s sea of consciousness received great damage.
Her crystal processor exploded into a thousand little pieces, scattering the content of her skull everywhere.
Shion’s strength is barely 5 transparent stars. Even under the aid of Lemengeton’s projection, giving a command to a demon with 14 transparent star strength to kill itself is impossible.
Demons are not a creature native of Morgen World. They are ‘chaotic evil’ lifeforms who thrive in a distant Demon World. One common trait shared by demons is that individual demons are inherently far more powerful than devils of the same rank, this was an ironclad rule. In fact, most peak-stage rank 0 demons are far stronger than the typical rank 1 cultivators.
Kel-Zulkis the Troll Warlord’s son is probably weaker than this demon if he isn’t protected by magic machinery armor.
Still, [Lemegeton Authority] could not be underestimated. After the demon retaliated against the order, its strength plummeted. Yet, it still struggled due to sheer survival instinct.
Shion’s body whose head detonated dropped to the ground as if her body was a puppet whose string was cut. Pixels of a ghastly figure of a tall male slowly materialized on top of her body as if three-dimensional digital pictures were being loaded.
The semi-translucent figure has a 180-centimeter tall body, his purple eyes are similar to the finest amethyst. His black sclera served like a jewel box, enshrining the ametyst-like eyes for eternity. He had short dark purple hair and a pale skin tone. Due to being a Chaldean Soul, his transparent truesoul has a tinge of prismatic color like that of a badly rendered holographic image.
This was Shion’s, no, Mordred’s Truesoul. In this dark environment, no sunlight could shine upon his soul, therefore he could exist for a longer period of time without a physical body.
Mordred took a glimpse at the dead Shion. “Tsk. This world’s passive retaliation against my ever-increasing karma made our luck plummeted further.” He said in a cold tone.
He flew towards the chaosmetal demon while the demon felt boundless pressure as if it was in the presence of the Grand Duke Bertih himself. It wanted to fight for its life as the demon struggled to break free from the lightning chains that binds its body tightly but because of the backlash of refusing an order from someone with Lemegeton Authority, its truesoul was heavily damaged.
“This wouldn’t happen if you follow my order to die.” Mordred muttered as his truesoul entered the chaosmetal demon’s body.
The chaosmetal demon screamed in pain. The deep red demonic flame that burns on his eyes slowly turned purple as its demonic lifeforce started to dwindle. From within, Mordred corroded the demon’s souls slowly, implanting despair and indescribable pain on the demon.
‘Chaotic Evil’ Demons are the archnemesis of ‘Lawful Evil’ Devils and the soul extraction method Mordred used is similar to what the Devil used to fight against the demons. Although most demons have a resistance against the devil race's soul extraction method, Mordred wouldn’t be revered as the Devil King if he isn’t well versed in the devil race’s methods.
In less than five minutes, the chaosmetal demon turned limp, dead.
“Finished.” Mordred’s prismatic truesoul exited from the chaosmetal demon’s corpse, he sacrificed the integrity of his soul structure. What he did was obviously harmful towards his truesoul, but it couldn’t be helped as it was an emergency.
He held a lump of dark red soul that undulated with demonic presence. Mordred kept the 70-man demonic soul into his Soul Phylactery for later use.
Kasumi sighed in relief despite her lack of need to breathe. “The demon is stronger than our upper limit. I’ll take care of this, you should repair Shion.”
Mordred’s truesoul touched his own chin. “We have no time, the process of purifying the demon’s corpse and refining it into advanced material required a lot of manpower.” He telepathically took out two golden crystals from Shion’s dimensional storage ring (harvested from Xi Ling) and made some hand seals. “Rank 0 Retsu Kuji-in Ninjutsu, [Subjective Time Reversal]!”
Scraps of what used to be Shion’s crystal processor glowed in faint golden light. Then, the timeforce altered the time course of Shion. Her body reassembled back as if the scene of her head exploding was played in reverse. In a few seconds, the dead Shion stood back up like the explosion of her head was merely an illusion.
Then, Mordred downloaded his truesoul back into Shion.
A quarter of the two timeforce crystals has been expended in the process. “The demon’s corpse is of higher quality than the original plan… This allows us to refine better end-products, but we need more time to process it. However, the more we delay, the world’s passive retaliation will increase the difficulty further, it is unwise for us to delay.”
“Yes, we have to use time-path methods to make up for our lack of time.” Kasumi urged Shion.
Shion pondered for a few seconds before making hand seals. “I’ll keep the ¾ timeforce crystal for emergency use, we can use this one instead.” She put away the incomplete golden crystal. “Rank 0 Retsu Kuji-in Ninjutsu, [Subjective Time Dilation]!”
Ninjutsu is the activation of soul arts through the use of hand seals. Although Shion could activate soul arts without the hassle of hand seals, doing so would reduce telepathic resource expenditure because ‘shortcuts’ are actually preparations. Ninjutsu is split into nine seal sets and Retsu Kuji-in is the dimension seal set that governs time and space.
Unlike [Subjective Time Reversal] that reverses the course of a physical object’s time, [Subjective Time Dilation] has better resource efficacy. “I’ve set ours and the corpse’ rate of time twice that of the real world for six hours. We should not daly.” Shion said as both immediately went to work.
The demon died without receiving a physical wound, allowing Shion to preserve its body in its prime condition. It could be considered as quasi-rank 1 metal-path resource because the demon was at the superlative height of rank 0.
Of course, the system of cultivation that demons used is completely different compared to that of Morgen World’s natives, but the power ranking could be utilized to give a rough representation of the demon’s strength. Not only does the demon have an extremely strong body compared to Morgen world’s natives of the same rank, it also has a robust soul foundation because in Demon and Devil World, souls are the most-sought after currency.
“Seeing [Lemegeton Projection] is still usable, it means Lemegeton is still sealed in place… King Solomon accomplishes the task that I’ve given to him before he died.” Shion muttered in her heart while processing the demon’s corpse.
Galatreon housed four great clans that served the late Great Archmage: Murasaki, Delcroix, Richtofen and Al Arsy.
The Murasaki clan received MEKA True Inheritance, Delroix clan received his Space Marine True Inheritance, Richtofen clan was given the most advanced refinement-path True Inheritance of Morgen world.
Then, what does the Al Arsy clan receive?
The house of Al Arsy is led by King Solomon Al Arsy, an Epic of enslavement-path and command-path but the Great Archmage is not known for his enslavement-path attainment.
Before the Great Archamge was branded as the Devil King, Mordred and King Solomon were having multiple trips to Demon World whose coordinate has been discovered from researching Demon King Maximilian’s castle.
Well, the only reason why Galatreon was constructed in a corrupted land with the only solution is to freeze it over with a world-terraforming spell was because of Demon King Maximilian, the 4th Otherworldly invader.
That’s right, Galatreon was constructed atop the former Demon King’s castle. Galatreon became the ‘Dimensional Anchor’ that held the integrity of the dimensional wall of the extreme south because of this very reason. Through various extraplanar research that used up countless resources, Mordred successfully found Maximillian’s homeworld.
Other than a few types of enslavement-path beasts with powerful bloodlines and the methods to rear them, Mordred left King Solomon a top tier quasi-rank 7 grimoire-type artifact, Lemegeton.
The book held Devil King Mordred’s Soul Contracts over the demons that he subjugated in a Demon World (which include Demon Kings, Demon Great Dukes, Demon Princes, and other demon nobility).
Needless to say, using Lemegeton’s true form to summon Demon Kings is impossible for King Solomon as he is merely a rank 5 Epic. Therefore, a method to use its power was made, which is to use replicas to summon Demon Great Dukes or Demon Princes. If Lemegeton’s projections are used, then it could be used to summon their subordinates.
Thus, Demon Hunters stationed in Galatreon who's responsible for ‘cleaning’ the demons that crossed into Morgen World are capable of summoning demons for their cause. This was an established fact that was pardoned by the Twelve Main Divine churches, because each Demon Hunters has countless extremely strict regulations that bind them, and Galatreon really needs to use demons to hunt demons.
Demons that could cross worlds through the path paved by Demon King Maximilian are simply too strong for the typical cultivator. And since Galatreon is ‘selflessly’ serving Morgen World as its guardian, then why not let them use demon-enslaving techniques? Demon Hunters never left the extreme south, anyway. The extreme south is lacking in natural resources, without the rest of Morgen World and the Hunter Association funneling resources, Galatreon could not survive. The Sacred Alliance is using Galatreon as a shield.
Of course, the existence of Lemegeton is not known to anyone else other than the current clan head of Al Arsy clan and Mordred. A demonic book containing Soul Contracts that bound several Demon Kings (although not the same level as Demon King Maximilian as he is a special case) is still an artifact that is worth far more than a mid-grade Floating Fortress.
That being said, Shion was merely doing what the Demon Hunters did. After all, she was the one who created Lemegeton Projection and produced its ‘blank’ replicas used by Demon Hunters. However, she did not dare to use them without the protection of information-path methods.
This is where the Omni-gear given by Ayame made a contribution.
Information-path resources are… information. There are countless forms of information, but for intangible spells such as [Color Spray] or something similar, it could be generated by a human brain through thinking.
Yes… telepathic thoughts, which was a resource of wisdom-path, could be used as a material to refine information-path resources.
Although the efficiency is low, Shion has a crystal processor which could, in a limited sense, copy-paste most non-unique information. Then, the omni-gear can use the data, or in this case, the telepathic thoughts that were refined into spell codes to activate information-path spells more efficiently than when Shion did not use omni-gear.
In short, Shion could produce her own information-path resources and the omni-gear greatly helped her in spell activation sequences just like a wand or staff to a mage.
Unfortunately, due to the omni-gear having limited clearance and hardware specification, it gives her a small array of options. Not all the spell codes she had could be activated, but after a bit of ‘tweaking’ and ‘optimization’ with her Dark Mist, the omni-gear in her possession is now specialized in information encryption. Using Kasumi’s mana, the omni-gear can be used to activate several spells so that whatever happened in the room stayed in the room.
One demonic energy purification method after another is being used in succession, Kasumi and Shion are working together with perfect compatibility.
The chaosmetal demon is one of the demons under the banner Berith, a demon Great Duke who excels in metal-path. The demon’s corpse is slowly being ‘cleaned’ of its demonic energy, allowing normal refinement methods to be used.
After the demonic energy is compressed to it’s demon core, Shion could begin the core’s extraction.
Just like cultivators, demons started condensing cores after they reached rank 3. Since the chaosmetal demon is merely at the superlative height of rank 0, then it has yet to condense a demon core, but demon’s heart served as a placeholder until they reached rank 3. The primary hearts of demons is a high-grade material for refining various artifacts.
Most demons have two, sometimes three or even five sets of organs and the chaosmetal demon is not an exception. In this chaosmetal demon’s case, it has two hearts. Shion took out both and left the corpse for Kasumi for further processing. Its body has a large amount of demonic biometal content. After the demonic energy has been concentrated on its hearts, it loses its chaotic nature and can be used for various purposes.
All of this hassle was done because Shion wanted the demon’s heart. Due to being a metal-path demonic lifeform, its hearts could be used for metal-path mana aperture refinement.
For slimes, their cores served both as their sea of consciousness and mana pool. If Shion wanted to add another core for Kasumi, she could not refine a normal mana aperture. She will have to refine a slime core that fits Kasumi and connect them both through a ‘sea of consciousness’ surgery.
In other words, this would be a wisdom-path life alteration surgery on a slime.
The two demon hearts have the same level of energy. Both are being boiled in a special soundfield by the soulfire ignition. The boiling blood was obviously the demon’s own. It took her three hours of constant ‘cooking’ for the heart to melt. In that process, the soulfire intensity changes over a thousand times, sometimes rising to 2000 degrees celsius, while in some instances, it could lower to -400 degrees.
After that process, the content of the soundfield has turned into an extremely thick, viscous, white liquid.
This is a purified metal essence harvested from the demon. It could be used in refinement of metal-path artifacts, or could elevate Kasumi’s liquid metal body’s hardness level. Still, Shion is yet to finish. She took out one of the two mana pools, the ones with 2.5 initial size and broke them.
Mana pool is like a hollow crystal organ. Within a human body, it is connected by magical nerves and veins that allow the distribution of mana depending on the mage’s cultivation techniques. After it was extracted, it could not be easily ‘reconnected’ with any human because it is literally an organ that requires the recipient to fulfill several checklists. Due to various conditions and factors, unless the recipient is twins, Mana pool transplantation is usually impossible.
As for Mana Apertures, they are an artificial organ that was made so that it can be exchanged easily, like an artificial organ that could be replaced if the user has outgrown its previous size. A mana pool ‘prosthetic’, so to speak.
The refinement of Mana Aperture is actually very easy: disassemble a mana pool, and assemble it.
Unfortunately, disassembling a mana pool is anything but simple. If the crystal walls of mana pools received a sufficient amount of trauma, its structural integrity will fail and it will break. The collapse of mana pools is typically brutal as it contains a high amount of energy.
How can one simply assemble a Mana Aperture from the dust of what used to be a mana pool? The answer is not destroying them into thousands of countless pieces, but melting them with a catalyst and then reshaping it according to the most basic mana pool model.
Just like how one refine a glass vase.
Still, it is quite complex because not everyone has the same magical nerve and veins, and different cultivation manuals will eventually produce different physiology. In addition, bloodlines and other factors further increase the difficulty of creating a ‘universal’ mana aperture.
However, refining mana aperture templates that can be used by a certain clan with cultivation technique inherited from several generations is possible, because most of the time, their cultivation and bloodline are similar. Thus, mana apertures of certain clans can be replaced quite literally like a prosthetic limb, which can be further inherited in later generations.
That being said, Shion will have to personalize the mana aperture into a slime core for Kasumi. She could not refine a mana aperture for humans. Their biology is simply too different from one another.
The white, viscous liquid of what used to be demon heart and a mana pool is now being poured down into the second mana pool, the one with 3-unit initial size. The crystal wall mana pool immediately melted due to the high temperature. Then, Shion began reshaping it according to Kasumi’s first core’s model.
It was well known that quasi-mages, or those with mana aperture, are unable to grow their mana apertures. They will have to change mana apertures as their cultivation base grows.
However, growing a mana aperture like a mana pool is possible. The inventor, Mordred, simply never bothered to share the method to do so. He is not a saint, there’s no benefit in doing so.
As the refinement continues, the consumption of telepathic thoughts becomes unbearable. Shion was forced to burn the souls stored in her Phylactery to keep up. Halfway through, Kasumi finished processing the demon’s corpse as she brought a chunk of purified demonic biometal the size of a human head.
Although it is quite small, it was extremely heavy and super-concentrated as she extracted them all from the chaosmetal demon’s 3-meter tall body.
Kasumi combined Shion’s soundfield who’s burning in soulfire, with her electromagnetic force field that held the purified biometal. With the merge of the two force field-type cauldrons, the ethereal cauldrons are now burned in electric soulfire. The two mixed and reshaped it countless times to refine, condense and re-purified like how a master blacksmith forged a tamahagane steel with thousands of layers.
The end result was a bright silver core the size of Kasumi’s lightning core, containing various spiritual runes engraved on its surface.
“Are you ready?” Shion asked, exhausted. Resting would help his excited soul calm down a bit, but the second core’s refinement process took a chunk of their time. If they delay, the world’s karmic retaliation would further increase the difficulty of taking Combat Exosuit Minor Inheritance.
Kasumi nodded. She too, feeling extremely drained. But recovery methods are used in successions, allowing them to persist.
This step is actually simple for the two of them. Wisdom-path life alteration surgery is a surgery that changes a lifeform in the aspect of wisdom-path. Adding a new core to Kasumi means spiritually connecting the second core with the first. Connecting the intangible magical nerve and veins of both cores should be extremely difficult as one will have to fine tune and consider the elemental instability.
However, Kasumi is literally a split soul of Mordred who has done this multiple times. The process has been streamlined so it only took an hour or so.
“Secondary slime core successfully connected. Initializing Dual Core System...” Kasumi could feel her spiritual force cultivation doubled. Lightning Core’s spiritual force is at 7 transparent stars, whereas Metal Core’s spiritual force is at 8 transparent stars. This was only possible thanks to the amount of personalized spiritual runes being engraved on its surface.
Also, since Shion used two mana pools to refine the metal core, it has a bigger size than both, at 4 units. For those who could refine mana aperture, increasing the size of mana pools is not too difficult, it’s just that it’ll require more mana pools to do so.
3 + 2.5 should be 5.5, but the mana aperture refinement method she possessed does not grant linear size increment, and hers was already the most advanced in Morgen world. The higher the size, the more mana pool it requires. Perhaps, to get her current mana pool into initial size of 10 units, she’ll require hundreds or thousands of mana pools of various grades.
“Now that I have a Dual Core System running, my telepathic resource generation, mana capacity and regeneration rate is doubled… and I can do this…” The mature Shion form that Kasumi took split into two smaller Shions.
Then, the fake Shions which are bright silver and blue around the edges suddenly changed color to follow the true Shion. If not for the fakes being naked, not a single difference could be sensed from their appearance.
“Electrochromic transformation successful. After the Metal Core’s addition, I have regained metalmorphosis ability.” Kasumi reported.
“Perfect. Now we can deduce how to incorporate magnetic armor on Sumire’s [Violet Sword Blaze] killer move.” Shion replied, expectation gleamed in her eyes.
Soleil It's almost double the usual chapter length... I want to lower the chapter count and finish volume 2 before chapter 70 so I can start writing on volume 3: Wild Hunt.
The Great Archmage Mordred’s magnum opus, the Floating Fortress Alistair, was the trigger that started the era of Floating Fortresses in Morgen World. Although it is not visible in the eyes of the public, demigods of every faction are entering an arms race to refine their own version of Floating Fortress. They are the epitome of magic machinery construct that encompasses almost every aspect of cultivation.
Laymans would suggest that the creation of Floating Fortresses is thanks to his magical accomplishment, but refinement-path experts who are worth their salt would argue otherwise.
Alistair and all the future derivation work of Floating Fortresses are only possible thanks to two great inventions: Mordred Energy Loop System and the Mise Energy Core.
Mordred Energy Loop System was the Great Archmage Mordred’s personal invention, this was already obvious from the name alone.
The second one was the creation of his late student, Katharina Mise Richtofen. After her death, her son Karax Richtofen, the last known clan head of the Richtofen clan, became the recipient of Mordred’s refinement-path true inheritance.
Both are connected with each other, the Energy Loop System regards the circulation of external energy, while the Mise Energy Core is a giant reactor who’s responsible for the internal source of energy generation. A floating fortress requires at least one of them, but having both at the same time would allow the said floating fortress to stand above others.
“Unfortunately, my Energy Loop System requires nine extreme elemental energy pools that represent all the elemental forces of Morgen World. Even if I want to make a miniature version of it, it still requires nine extreme mana apertures of all elemental paths.” Shion expressed her helplessness. “As of now, I cannot tap into the vast reserve of elemental energy particles in the material world.”
“Isn’t it why you refined a lightning core for me. You wanted to have a modular Energy Loop System, right?” Kasumi replied as she tinkered with Shion’s omni-gear. It was given to her because she could cast information-path magic spells.
“Yes. Currently, we have two mana pools from Ork shamans. Although the quality is not up to par, we can begin collecting material for your second core. Are you ready?”
“Proceed.” Kasumi answered.
Two mana pools are harvested from the Ork shamans.
Unlike other races, almost all greenskin divine casters (faith-path cultivators) are all magic caster themselves. Almost certainly, mana pools can be harvested from greenskins shamans, but their quality is mostly shit.
For mages, their original mana pool size is the metric that could be used to measure their talent. It is separated into 5 grades of arcane talent:
E-grade talent meant the potential magic caster had roughly 0.1 to 2 initial ‘mana capacity’. The size of their mana pools are extremely small that unless certain conditions are met, they could not cast spells unless they reached the late-stage or peak-stage of rank 0.
Just add an additional 2 for their upper and lower limit, and you get the next classification. D-grade arcane talent have size 2 to 4 mana pools, C-grade 4 to 6, B-grade 6 to 8 and A-grade 8 to 10.
Someone with an initial mana pool size of 10 would have an easier progression in their arcane cultivation because they could start casting spells even when they are in 1 transparent star cultivation base.
Keep in mind that one’s spiritual force development quotient affects how much they can utilize their mana pools at one instance. Meaning, a 1 transparent star mage with 10% spiritual force development quotient could utilize 10% of their total mana pool size in a single instance. 2 transparent stars could utilize 20%, so on and so forth.
Of course, now that better spellcasting methods have been invented due to the modernity brought by Mordred, the effect of spiritual development quotient on utilizing one’s mana pool at a single instance could be bypassed with certain methods. However, doing so would drastically increase the difficulty of casting the spell, therefore it is unpopular and only used as a last resort.
If a spell cost 1 unit of mana, then an A-grade mage with 10-unit mana pool initial size could start using it even when he or she barely started their cultivation journey at 1 transparent star. For comparison, a mage possessing D-grade mana pool with initial size of 2 units needs to have at least 5 transparent star arcane cultivation base to activate the same spell. This was the cause that made rank 0 magic casters can only cast a few spells before taking a break.
Just like any other powers, arcane talent could be passed on towards one’s descendants. This is the primary factor why those with a good bloodline will mingle with those with good bloodlines themselves.
After all, the difference between those with talent and those without is like heaven and earth. The size of one’s mana pool truly determines the might of the magic casters, but that’s life.
Life is unfair to everyone, it is fair.
For comparison purposes, most elite hunters who are mages are, at the very least, having C-grade or B-grade arcane talents. Perhaps, as one of the members of Hartina Kingdom’s Nine Master clan, Kobayashi Hana is an A-grade talent, which showcased how precious arcane talent is.
That being said, talent classification is not applicable to every race in the modern world, especially Greenskins.
Because they could cheat.
The greenskins have a powerful racial trait known as [Greenskin Mental Network], which allows any greenskins race in proximity to share their emotion with each other. By tapping the mental network, greenskins shamans could stimulate emotion and extract lifeforce in exchange of using mana to cast blessings or spells.
That’s right, greenskin shaman’s methods shortened the lifespan of those who are affected. But, it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things as low-tier greenskins are cheap perishables that could be replenished quickly. Lifespan is the least of their worries.
Due to those factors combined, mana pools gained from goblin shamans are mostly shit-tier, hovering between E-grade or D-grade. If one is lucky, perhaps one could get C-grade, but that’s like winning a lottery.
As for harvesting an A-grade mana pool from the greenskin?
Well… one would have a greater chance of finding a specific particle of water in the pacific ocean. Greenskins are simply not known for their talent in magic.
Knowing Shion’s luck, the mana pools she harvested wouldn’t be special, it has an initial size of 3 and 2.5. Using the talent classification, they are D-grades. Yet, it isn’t a problem for her. She was the one who officially invented a method to transplant mana pools into non-mages to create quasi-mages. How is this simple matter a problem?
Shion gazed at the mana pools while frowning, she remembered a distant memory.
“Main Soul, perhaps you’re still indignant of leaving the Aperture Refinement True Inheritance in the hands of Vladmirovich Stukov?” Kasumi noticed and commented.
“No.” Shion said with a tone of nostalgia. “If I didn’t use one of my seven True Inheritances to ‘purchase’ Yulsaria from the Union as a dowry, they wouldn’t let her go.” She sighed. “Her bloodline is too precious for them, after all.”
“This is not the time to reminisce about the past. We have no time to spare.” Shion got reprimanded by Kasumi.
“You’re right. Let’s start the refinement…” Shion produced a bag filled with blood red crystals. This was the second batch of her contribution from the previous war. Due to her killcount, her contributions are massive and are separated into multiple batches.
In this concealed room specifically shielded against investigative methods, Shion could activate her secret methods without worry. She drew a complicated ritual formation using purified blood of greenskins that she harvested personally from the battlefield. The ritual formation has exactly 99 points that could be used as formation nodes.
If a common person took a glimpse of the blood runes, they would feel their emotion being stimulated little by little until they become enraged or fell under extreme emotion. This was because the runic words are not related to the common magical language used in Morgen World.
It is written in demonic tongue.
‘Evil’ languages such as ones spoken by demons or devils have a side effect of inflicting mental attacks upon the listener. Mild exposure could influence emotions, and worse exposure could mean insanity or mental collapse. If it was written on a piece of medium such as being used as runes, then the reader would be affected even if they do not understand a single thing.
No discomfort could be seen on Shion’s face as she wrote them down, she put 99 blood crystals on the formation nodes after writing the runes. Encircled by blood runes of demonic tongue, the formation spoke of its evil and heretical nature. If a believer of any god sees this, they would immediately report towards their patron deity for heresy of the highest order even if they have to sacrifice their own life.
“Sacrificial formation is finished. Shall we?” Kasumi reported.
Shion nodded. “Rank 0 blood-path killer move, [Blutopfer]!”
The ritual formation rumbled as bloodlight shone. An evil aura emerges from the formation even though nothing is there yet. The blood-path killer move is actually harmless. Its function is to sacrifice the blood crystals to provide a large amount of fuel because the ritual required a tremendous amount of energy.
“Onto the next step…” Shion’s body suddenly becomes ignited in a ghastly purple soulfire which does not radiate heat. In fact, it lowered the temperature to below zero degrees as frost accumulated on her mechanical body. She is currently burning souls to boost her cultivation temporarily.
“Rank 0 soul-path killer move, [Lemegeton Projection: Lesser Demon Summoning]!”
The blood ritual formation collapses, consuming all the remaining blood crystals as an energy source to open up a purple demonic gate.
A thick sulphuric stench permeates the room as if it is an underground volcanic tube. Then, a demonic entity passed through from the purple gate into the material world. At this very moment, the dimensional law of the world rejects the entity as it screams in anguish and fury.
“Class-14 transparent star demonic entity detected. Demonic signature matches with predetermined ritual sequence, we have successfully summoned a Chaosmetal Demon, one of the cannon fodder reared by Great Duke Berith… but it’s stronger than expected!” Kasumi reported as she typed at the Omni-gear on her wrist, using it as a spellcasting medium. “Rank 0 lightning-path killer move, [Brilliant Lightning Chains]!”
The Chaosmetal Demon is a humanoid with a 3-meter tall body. It has a gleaming silver-colored fish-like scale made out of demonic biometal that enveloped it’s thick, tensile muscle. Its red eyes burn in dark red demonic flames, its body releases a potent sulphuric stench all over the small room. Its blade-arms are laced with countless smaller blades and demonic spikes. The moment it touches the dirt floor, it slowly corrupts the ground as small granules of demonic metals start to materialize on the floor.
“ROOOARRR!!!!” The chaosmetal demon screamed as the demonic aura corroded the surrounding. The information-path formation erected to defend against investigative methods shuddered, it barely held on. Lightning chains soon materialize as it bound the demon, limiting its movement greatly, but it couldn’t hold for long as the demon’s strength is powerful beyond Kasumi’s limit.
“Main soul, hurry!” Kasumi muttered as she tried her best to protect the information-path formation that blocks intel leaks.
Shion activated another method. The souls in her Soul Phylactery are quickly ignited under a cold-temperature soulfire to serve as fuel.
“Rank 0 soul-path killer move, [Lemegeton Authority]!”
Her mechanical red eyes shone in dark purple glint. Under the effect of Lemegeton Authority, any demonic entity bound by the Demonic Grimoire Lemegeton will have no secret. This includes one’s true name, race, or other personal information that, if known to others, would make them susceptible to curses.
Shion quickly muttered the chaosmetal demon’s name which was 244 words long. “Kill yourself.” she ordered in fluent demonic tongue.
The chaosmetal demon screamed in retaliation, but under the authority of Lemegeton’s projection, it cannot deny Shion’s order. The chaosmetal demon detonated its own soul, but through sheer survival instinct, it managed to barely survive by fighting against the command. Due to the backlash of her method, Shion’s sea of consciousness received great damage.
Her crystal processor exploded into a thousand little pieces, scattering the content of her skull everywhere.
Shion’s strength is barely 5 transparent stars. Even under the aid of Lemengeton’s projection, giving a command to a demon with 14 transparent star strength to kill itself is impossible.
Demons are not a creature native of Morgen World. They are ‘chaotic evil’ lifeforms who thrive in a distant Demon World. One common trait shared by demons is that individual demons are inherently far more powerful than devils of the same rank, this was an ironclad rule. In fact, most peak-stage rank 0 demons are far stronger than the typical rank 1 cultivators.
Kel-Zulkis the Troll Warlord’s son is probably weaker than this demon if he isn’t protected by magic machinery armor.
Still, [Lemegeton Authority] could not be underestimated. After the demon retaliated against the order, its strength plummeted. Yet, it still struggled due to sheer survival instinct.
Shion’s body whose head detonated dropped to the ground as if her body was a puppet whose string was cut. Pixels of a ghastly figure of a tall male slowly materialized on top of her body as if three-dimensional digital pictures were being loaded.
The semi-translucent figure has a 180-centimeter tall body, his purple eyes are similar to the finest amethyst. His black sclera served like a jewel box, enshrining the ametyst-like eyes for eternity. He had short dark purple hair and a pale skin tone. Due to being a Chaldean Soul, his transparent truesoul has a tinge of prismatic color like that of a badly rendered holographic image.
This was Shion’s, no, Mordred’s Truesoul. In this dark environment, no sunlight could shine upon his soul, therefore he could exist for a longer period of time without a physical body.
Mordred took a glimpse at the dead Shion. “Tsk. This world’s passive retaliation against my ever-increasing karma made our luck plummeted further.” He said in a cold tone.
He flew towards the chaosmetal demon while the demon felt boundless pressure as if it was in the presence of the Grand Duke Bertih himself. It wanted to fight for its life as the demon struggled to break free from the lightning chains that binds its body tightly but because of the backlash of refusing an order from someone with Lemegeton Authority, its truesoul was heavily damaged.
“This wouldn’t happen if you follow my order to die.” Mordred muttered as his truesoul entered the chaosmetal demon’s body.
The chaosmetal demon screamed in pain. The deep red demonic flame that burns on his eyes slowly turned purple as its demonic lifeforce started to dwindle. From within, Mordred corroded the demon’s souls slowly, implanting despair and indescribable pain on the demon.
‘Chaotic Evil’ Demons are the archnemesis of ‘Lawful Evil’ Devils and the soul extraction method Mordred used is similar to what the Devil used to fight against the demons. Although most demons have a resistance against the devil race's soul extraction method, Mordred wouldn’t be revered as the Devil King if he isn’t well versed in the devil race’s methods.
In less than five minutes, the chaosmetal demon turned limp, dead.
“Finished.” Mordred’s prismatic truesoul exited from the chaosmetal demon’s corpse, he sacrificed the integrity of his soul structure. What he did was obviously harmful towards his truesoul, but it couldn’t be helped as it was an emergency.
He held a lump of dark red soul that undulated with demonic presence. Mordred kept the 70-man demonic soul into his Soul Phylactery for later use.
Kasumi sighed in relief despite her lack of need to breathe. “The demon is stronger than our upper limit. I’ll take care of this, you should repair Shion.”
Mordred’s truesoul touched his own chin. “We have no time, the process of purifying the demon’s corpse and refining it into advanced material required a lot of manpower.” He telepathically took out two golden crystals from Shion’s dimensional storage ring (harvested from Xi Ling) and made some hand seals. “Rank 0 Retsu Kuji-in Ninjutsu, [Subjective Time Reversal]!”
Scraps of what used to be Shion’s crystal processor glowed in faint golden light. Then, the timeforce altered the time course of Shion. Her body reassembled back as if the scene of her head exploding was played in reverse. In a few seconds, the dead Shion stood back up like the explosion of her head was merely an illusion.
Then, Mordred downloaded his truesoul back into Shion.
A quarter of the two timeforce crystals has been expended in the process. “The demon’s corpse is of higher quality than the original plan… This allows us to refine better end-products, but we need more time to process it. However, the more we delay, the world’s passive retaliation will increase the difficulty further, it is unwise for us to delay.”
“Yes, we have to use time-path methods to make up for our lack of time.” Kasumi urged Shion.
Shion pondered for a few seconds before making hand seals. “I’ll keep the ¾ timeforce crystal for emergency use, we can use this one instead.” She put away the incomplete golden crystal. “Rank 0 Retsu Kuji-in Ninjutsu, [Subjective Time Dilation]!”
Ninjutsu is the activation of soul arts through the use of hand seals. Although Shion could activate soul arts without the hassle of hand seals, doing so would reduce telepathic resource expenditure because ‘shortcuts’ are actually preparations. Ninjutsu is split into nine seal sets and Retsu Kuji-in is the dimension seal set that governs time and space.
Unlike [Subjective Time Reversal] that reverses the course of a physical object’s time, [Subjective Time Dilation] has better resource efficacy. “I’ve set ours and the corpse’ rate of time twice that of the real world for six hours. We should not daly.” Shion said as both immediately went to work.
The demon died without receiving a physical wound, allowing Shion to preserve its body in its prime condition. It could be considered as quasi-rank 1 metal-path resource because the demon was at the superlative height of rank 0.
Of course, the system of cultivation that demons used is completely different compared to that of Morgen World’s natives, but the power ranking could be utilized to give a rough representation of the demon’s strength. Not only does the demon have an extremely strong body compared to Morgen world’s natives of the same rank, it also has a robust soul foundation because in Demon and Devil World, souls are the most-sought after currency.
“Seeing [Lemegeton Projection] is still usable, it means Lemegeton is still sealed in place… King Solomon accomplishes the task that I’ve given to him before he died.” Shion muttered in her heart while processing the demon’s corpse.
Galatreon housed four great clans that served the late Great Archmage: Murasaki, Delcroix, Richtofen and Al Arsy.
The Murasaki clan received MEKA True Inheritance, Delroix clan received his Space Marine True Inheritance, Richtofen clan was given the most advanced refinement-path True Inheritance of Morgen world.
Then, what does the Al Arsy clan receive?
The house of Al Arsy is led by King Solomon Al Arsy, an Epic of enslavement-path and command-path but the Great Archmage is not known for his enslavement-path attainment.
Before the Great Archamge was branded as the Devil King, Mordred and King Solomon were having multiple trips to Demon World whose coordinate has been discovered from researching Demon King Maximilian’s castle.
Well, the only reason why Galatreon was constructed in a corrupted land with the only solution is to freeze it over with a world-terraforming spell was because of Demon King Maximilian, the 4th Otherworldly invader.
That’s right, Galatreon was constructed atop the former Demon King’s castle. Galatreon became the ‘Dimensional Anchor’ that held the integrity of the dimensional wall of the extreme south because of this very reason. Through various extraplanar research that used up countless resources, Mordred successfully found Maximillian’s homeworld.
Other than a few types of enslavement-path beasts with powerful bloodlines and the methods to rear them, Mordred left King Solomon a top tier quasi-rank 7 grimoire-type artifact, Lemegeton.
The book held Devil King Mordred’s Soul Contracts over the demons that he subjugated in a Demon World (which include Demon Kings, Demon Great Dukes, Demon Princes, and other demon nobility).
Needless to say, using Lemegeton’s true form to summon Demon Kings is impossible for King Solomon as he is merely a rank 5 Epic. Therefore, a method to use its power was made, which is to use replicas to summon Demon Great Dukes or Demon Princes. If Lemegeton’s projections are used, then it could be used to summon their subordinates.
Thus, Demon Hunters stationed in Galatreon who's responsible for ‘cleaning’ the demons that crossed into Morgen World are capable of summoning demons for their cause. This was an established fact that was pardoned by the Twelve Main Divine churches, because each Demon Hunters has countless extremely strict regulations that bind them, and Galatreon really needs to use demons to hunt demons.
Demons that could cross worlds through the path paved by Demon King Maximilian are simply too strong for the typical cultivator. And since Galatreon is ‘selflessly’ serving Morgen World as its guardian, then why not let them use demon-enslaving techniques? Demon Hunters never left the extreme south, anyway. The extreme south is lacking in natural resources, without the rest of Morgen World and the Hunter Association funneling resources, Galatreon could not survive. The Sacred Alliance is using Galatreon as a shield.
Of course, the existence of Lemegeton is not known to anyone else other than the current clan head of Al Arsy clan and Mordred. A demonic book containing Soul Contracts that bound several Demon Kings (although not the same level as Demon King Maximilian as he is a special case) is still an artifact that is worth far more than a mid-grade Floating Fortress.
That being said, Shion was merely doing what the Demon Hunters did. After all, she was the one who created Lemegeton Projection and produced its ‘blank’ replicas used by Demon Hunters. However, she did not dare to use them without the protection of information-path methods.
This is where the Omni-gear given by Ayame made a contribution.
Information-path resources are… information. There are countless forms of information, but for intangible spells such as [Color Spray] or something similar, it could be generated by a human brain through thinking.
Yes… telepathic thoughts, which was a resource of wisdom-path, could be used as a material to refine information-path resources.
Although the efficiency is low, Shion has a crystal processor which could, in a limited sense, copy-paste most non-unique information. Then, the omni-gear can use the data, or in this case, the telepathic thoughts that were refined into spell codes to activate information-path spells more efficiently than when Shion did not use omni-gear.
In short, Shion could produce her own information-path resources and the omni-gear greatly helped her in spell activation sequences just like a wand or staff to a mage.
Unfortunately, due to the omni-gear having limited clearance and hardware specification, it gives her a small array of options. Not all the spell codes she had could be activated, but after a bit of ‘tweaking’ and ‘optimization’ with her Dark Mist, the omni-gear in her possession is now specialized in information encryption. Using Kasumi’s mana, the omni-gear can be used to activate several spells so that whatever happened in the room stayed in the room.
One demonic energy purification method after another is being used in succession, Kasumi and Shion are working together with perfect compatibility.
The chaosmetal demon is one of the demons under the banner Berith, a demon Great Duke who excels in metal-path. The demon’s corpse is slowly being ‘cleaned’ of its demonic energy, allowing normal refinement methods to be used.
After the demonic energy is compressed to it’s demon core, Shion could begin the core’s extraction.
Just like cultivators, demons started condensing cores after they reached rank 3. Since the chaosmetal demon is merely at the superlative height of rank 0, then it has yet to condense a demon core, but demon’s heart served as a placeholder until they reached rank 3. The primary hearts of demons is a high-grade material for refining various artifacts.
Most demons have two, sometimes three or even five sets of organs and the chaosmetal demon is not an exception. In this chaosmetal demon’s case, it has two hearts. Shion took out both and left the corpse for Kasumi for further processing. Its body has a large amount of demonic biometal content. After the demonic energy has been concentrated on its hearts, it loses its chaotic nature and can be used for various purposes.
All of this hassle was done because Shion wanted the demon’s heart. Due to being a metal-path demonic lifeform, its hearts could be used for metal-path mana aperture refinement.
For slimes, their cores served both as their sea of consciousness and mana pool. If Shion wanted to add another core for Kasumi, she could not refine a normal mana aperture. She will have to refine a slime core that fits Kasumi and connect them both through a ‘sea of consciousness’ surgery.
In other words, this would be a wisdom-path life alteration surgery on a slime.
The two demon hearts have the same level of energy. Both are being boiled in a special soundfield by the soulfire ignition. The boiling blood was obviously the demon’s own. It took her three hours of constant ‘cooking’ for the heart to melt. In that process, the soulfire intensity changes over a thousand times, sometimes rising to 2000 degrees celsius, while in some instances, it could lower to -400 degrees.
After that process, the content of the soundfield has turned into an extremely thick, viscous, white liquid.
This is a purified metal essence harvested from the demon. It could be used in refinement of metal-path artifacts, or could elevate Kasumi’s liquid metal body’s hardness level. Still, Shion is yet to finish. She took out one of the two mana pools, the ones with 2.5 initial size and broke them.
Mana pool is like a hollow crystal organ. Within a human body, it is connected by magical nerves and veins that allow the distribution of mana depending on the mage’s cultivation techniques. After it was extracted, it could not be easily ‘reconnected’ with any human because it is literally an organ that requires the recipient to fulfill several checklists. Due to various conditions and factors, unless the recipient is twins, Mana pool transplantation is usually impossible.
As for Mana Apertures, they are an artificial organ that was made so that it can be exchanged easily, like an artificial organ that could be replaced if the user has outgrown its previous size. A mana pool ‘prosthetic’, so to speak.
The refinement of Mana Aperture is actually very easy: disassemble a mana pool, and assemble it.
Unfortunately, disassembling a mana pool is anything but simple. If the crystal walls of mana pools received a sufficient amount of trauma, its structural integrity will fail and it will break. The collapse of mana pools is typically brutal as it contains a high amount of energy.
How can one simply assemble a Mana Aperture from the dust of what used to be a mana pool? The answer is not destroying them into thousands of countless pieces, but melting them with a catalyst and then reshaping it according to the most basic mana pool model.
Just like how one refine a glass vase.
Still, it is quite complex because not everyone has the same magical nerve and veins, and different cultivation manuals will eventually produce different physiology. In addition, bloodlines and other factors further increase the difficulty of creating a ‘universal’ mana aperture.
However, refining mana aperture templates that can be used by a certain clan with cultivation technique inherited from several generations is possible, because most of the time, their cultivation and bloodline are similar. Thus, mana apertures of certain clans can be replaced quite literally like a prosthetic limb, which can be further inherited in later generations.
That being said, Shion will have to personalize the mana aperture into a slime core for Kasumi. She could not refine a mana aperture for humans. Their biology is simply too different from one another.
The white, viscous liquid of what used to be demon heart and a mana pool is now being poured down into the second mana pool, the one with 3-unit initial size. The crystal wall mana pool immediately melted due to the high temperature. Then, Shion began reshaping it according to Kasumi’s first core’s model.
It was well known that quasi-mages, or those with mana aperture, are unable to grow their mana apertures. They will have to change mana apertures as their cultivation base grows.
However, growing a mana aperture like a mana pool is possible. The inventor, Mordred, simply never bothered to share the method to do so. He is not a saint, there’s no benefit in doing so.
As the refinement continues, the consumption of telepathic thoughts becomes unbearable. Shion was forced to burn the souls stored in her Phylactery to keep up. Halfway through, Kasumi finished processing the demon’s corpse as she brought a chunk of purified demonic biometal the size of a human head.
Although it is quite small, it was extremely heavy and super-concentrated as she extracted them all from the chaosmetal demon’s 3-meter tall body.
Kasumi combined Shion’s soundfield who’s burning in soulfire, with her electromagnetic force field that held the purified biometal. With the merge of the two force field-type cauldrons, the ethereal cauldrons are now burned in electric soulfire. The two mixed and reshaped it countless times to refine, condense and re-purified like how a master blacksmith forged a tamahagane steel with thousands of layers.
The end result was a bright silver core the size of Kasumi’s lightning core, containing various spiritual runes engraved on its surface.
“Are you ready?” Shion asked, exhausted. Resting would help his excited soul calm down a bit, but the second core’s refinement process took a chunk of their time. If they delay, the world’s karmic retaliation would further increase the difficulty of taking Combat Exosuit Minor Inheritance.
Kasumi nodded. She too, feeling extremely drained. But recovery methods are used in successions, allowing them to persist.
This step is actually simple for the two of them. Wisdom-path life alteration surgery is a surgery that changes a lifeform in the aspect of wisdom-path. Adding a new core to Kasumi means spiritually connecting the second core with the first. Connecting the intangible magical nerve and veins of both cores should be extremely difficult as one will have to fine tune and consider the elemental instability.
However, Kasumi is literally a split soul of Mordred who has done this multiple times. The process has been streamlined so it only took an hour or so.
“Secondary slime core successfully connected. Initializing Dual Core System...” Kasumi could feel her spiritual force cultivation doubled. Lightning Core’s spiritual force is at 7 transparent stars, whereas Metal Core’s spiritual force is at 8 transparent stars. This was only possible thanks to the amount of personalized spiritual runes being engraved on its surface.
Also, since Shion used two mana pools to refine the metal core, it has a bigger size than both, at 4 units. For those who could refine mana aperture, increasing the size of mana pools is not too difficult, it’s just that it’ll require more mana pools to do so.
3 + 2.5 should be 5.5, but the mana aperture refinement method she possessed does not grant linear size increment, and hers was already the most advanced in Morgen world. The higher the size, the more mana pool it requires. Perhaps, to get her current mana pool into initial size of 10 units, she’ll require hundreds or thousands of mana pools of various grades.
“Now that I have a Dual Core System running, my telepathic resource generation, mana capacity and regeneration rate is doubled… and I can do this…” The mature Shion form that Kasumi took split into two smaller Shions.
Then, the fake Shions which are bright silver and blue around the edges suddenly changed color to follow the true Shion. If not for the fakes being naked, not a single difference could be sensed from their appearance.
“Electrochromic transformation successful. After the Metal Core’s addition, I have regained metalmorphosis ability.” Kasumi reported.
“Perfect. Now we can deduce how to incorporate magnetic armor on Sumire’s [Violet Sword Blaze] killer move.” Shion replied, expectation gleamed in her eyes.
Soleil It's almost double the usual chapter length... I want to lower the chapter count and finish volume 2 before chapter 70 so I can start writing on volume 3: Wild Hunt.
