“Sovereigns are the peak of the world or a civilization”, is a sentence that best describes the realm of Rank 6.
The metric to measure the strength of each Sovereign is somewhat ambiguous, as they represent the pinnacle of their respective civilization, and each civilization frequently employs a distinct measure to assess personal might. A civilization founded on martial prowess might prioritize combat ability as the quintessence, whereas a civilization rooted in science and progress would assess one’s intelligence and creativity as the primary indicators.
However, one of the easiest methods of knowing how strong a Sovereign is is through their death mitigation methods.
All Sovereigns have a handful of death mitigation methods in their repertoire. A demonic sovereign might be able to use their descendant as a vector of reincarnation, a wood sovereign could be using reincarnation seeds hidden in secretive locations, and so on. One thing for certain is that most sovereigns can revive themselves from a drop of blood. Depending on their strength, some sovereigns are so powerful that they could naturally revive themselves as long as their concept still exists in the heavenly dao.
There are infinite variations of death mitigation methods, which emphasizes how hard it is to kill a rank 6 Sovereign.
The ‘Great Archmage’ is no exception to this ‘trend’.
“[Divided We Stand]...” Mordred scanned Shion.
“That’s right.” Shion didn’t bother covering herself as she exited the bathtub. She slapped her power armor’s leg, “You’re currently conversing with a disposable Mortal Shell. This is my true body.” A viscous liquid metal slowly flowed from the Armor’s interior, dripping onto the floor. After gaining sufficient mass, the silvery liquid quickly transformed into a mature version of Shion with a taller body and great proportions. She had the right curves in the right locations, making her voluptuous body very alluring.
“So it’s a multi-layered camouflage…” Mordred began eyeing the liquid metal mature Shion who slowly gained color. Long, pale purple hair and heterochromia of red and blue eyes decorated her face.
“Let me revive Katyusha first. She’s not completely irrelevant to our talk.” Liquid metal Shion trotted along with her petite mortal shell.
“I knew it.” Mordred had already guessed it, but he couldn’t confirm it with his limited intel.
The two Shions moved efficiently, not bothered by the frigid temperature inside the insulated bag. After dropping all of Katyusha’s frozen body parts, Shion took out some kind of liquid spell catalyst and began pouring them onto the pile of ice blocks. “It’s a secure environment, you can stop playing dead.”
The pile of ice reacts with a mysterious hunger, absorbing every drop of the spell catalyst. And then, with an almost ethereal grace, the ice fragments began to stir. Floating, swirling, and uniting in a symphony of movement that defied the laws of physics. Each shard found its partner in the intricate dance, connections forming like a chain reaction.
In the heart of this ballet of frost, the ice blocks seamlessly merged, interlocking like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Bound by a magical force, the frozen parts responded, resonating with an otherworldly pulse. As if guided by an invisible hand, the body has been reconstructed from a pile of ice blocks.
A breath seemed to whisper through the room, bearing witness to the culmination of the revival method. As the last piece nestled into place, Katyusha’s pure white ice flesh slowly returned into flesh-and-blood once more, and her white ice skin began gaining a faint pinkish-blue hue.
"Ваше Величество... вы уверены, что стоит раскрывать это перед посторонним?" While standing up, Katyusha uttered in a foreign language, wary of Mordred.
“You worry too much. He’s fine.” Shion waved at Katyusha, dispelling her suspicion. “This is a priority level ‘zero’ situation, make sure nobody can pry.”
“As you wish, then.” Katyusha generates an ice needle to prick her fingers, before they dance into the air, spraying blood. Curiously, her semi-translucent pale blue blood did not fall onto the ground. They stayed in the air, creating a unique tapestry of three-dimensional spell formation around her. After the spell formation is finished, the icy blood quickly evaporates, as if their existence were an illusion. A barrier of some sort has been made, but it doesn’t block physical or magical objects.
“Done,” Katyusha reported, her pale face flushed. Mordred could sense she had sacrificed her cultivation base just to activate that method. As of now, Katyusha has degraded back into the realm of early-stage rank 0 Apprentice, almost weaker than Mordred. Her radiation has become so weak that her body is showing signs of melting. She drank vials of potions to maintain her body’s structural integrity, but even a mortal could see that the potion barely helped.
Shion eyed Mordred, ignoring Katyusha. “We only have a limited amount of time before the barrier that protects us from the laws of causality and the cycle of karma expires, but even then, we can’t directly exchange telepathic memories since they contain too much karma beyond the threshold of the barrier. As ‘Black’, you are privileged to ask me anything.”
Originally, he knew nothing about his situation. However, meeting and knowing Shion’s name had caused him to have an intense bout of deja vu, unearthing a portion of his hidden past. Despite not recovering his complete memory, he can ask the right questions to complete the missing parts while not triggering karmic retaliation of knowing certain information. “What is [Divided We Stand]?”
Liquid metal Shion answered, “The Great Archmage’s death mitigation method. I’m not sure of the specifics, the True Colors wiped the memories of us Color Fragments.”
Mordred squinted, more unfamiliar terms. “Then what can you tell me about it?”
“It could be a killer move, a concept, an idea, or a doctrine, I have no way of knowing exactly what. I might be overstepping my boundaries, but according to my knowledge, the Great Archmage wouldn’t put all of his eggs in one basket. During his death, he split his truesouls into nine portions and scattered them all over Morgen World in pseudo-random coordinates, and we refer to them as True Color.”
He frowned, “The nine True Colors, do they have any relation with Lemegeton?”
Shion nodded, “The nine-tiered skies of Morgen World, the nine Great Elemental Planes of Morgen World, the nine Demon Kings of Lemegeton, and the nine True Colors, the numbers match, don't they? Twice is a coincidence, thrice is a pattern, and four times confirms the pattern. Each True Color will be accompanied by one of the nine Demon Kings of Lemegeton in some way post-resurrection. However, the details are quite vague since we both know that amongst the Demons of Lemegeton, you can’t control Demon King Baal. One of you must be alone.”
Mordred can’t refute her since it was a fact. It was unknown how he was able to imprison Demon King Baal within Lemegeton since she is not someone that he can deal with. “You make it sound like you’re not a True Color.”
“I am not,” Shion confirmed. “I am True Purple’s first generation split soul, a Color Fragment. Other than him, I’ve only met a few other Color Fragments, but not a single True Color.”
“Oh?” Mordred was caught off guard. “Tell me about True Purple.”
Thinking that Mordred isn’t aware of his condition, she considered this as the perfect opportunity to elaborate. “The ‘Great Archmage’ died in the year 10,300 under the hands of the Braves. A couple of years later, in year 10,302, True Purple awakened in a random cave without a body. While you revive four years after True Purple in a small frontier village, he wasn’t so lucky. He had to consume the souls of insects, rats, and other small creatures just to persist. Fortunately, the local Hunter Association is having a bi-annual event near the cave where he revived, a Hunting Festival of sorts. He managed to deceive the hunters participating in the event and start infiltrating society with the identity of Yukikaze Shion.”
“Since his cultivation rate is significantly faster than most cultivators, Shion’s identity has used up its usefulness. When the opportunity came up, True Purple ditched her identity, leaving me to control that body.” ‘Liquid metal’ Shion pointed at ‘petite’ Shion. “My callsign is Kasumi, a triple-core Metal Slime, and I am acting as Yukikaze Shion’s Soul Armament. I separate my three elemental cores, allowing me to control the mortal shell ‘Shion’, that power armor, and my true liquid metal body.”
“Smart.” Mordred praised.
Soul Armaments are self-aware artifacts, they can think, move, and perform actions by themselves. Only rank 3 Legendary refinement-path experts can refine them, so being able to get one is a chance a lot of people would sacrifice anything to get. There’s a significant difference between a cultivator who has them and those without. Typically only obtainable by elite rank 3 Legendaries, only certain clans abundant in resources and manpower can bestow a Soul Armament to a rank 1 Official.
On the off chance ‘Shion’ is dead, Kasumi can still perform her mission by parasitizing a new host.
After all, everyone is interested in inheriting a Soul Armament.
“Did Purple tell you to do anything specific? The identity of ‘Yukikaze Shion’ isn’t a random nobody.” Mordred inquired.
“That’s right, you are a True Color, so you must be more aware of the Great Archmage’s arrangements than I am. Before he died, he had prepared around eleven thousand possible identities, with around eight hundred of them prepared for infiltrating the Hartina Kingdom. Each name is imbued with a minor information-path method that won’t allow them to be taken twice. Despite lacking in memories, there wouldn’t be any True Color or Color Fragments that took the same identities…”
“However,” She emphasizes, “the name Yukikaze Shion is special because she’s the descendant of a secretive clan in the Extreme South, publicly having a close relationship to both Galatreon’s four clans and Hartina Kingdom’s Yamato clan. With this, I can be as unhinged as possible, while sowing karma left and right without worrying about the justification.”
“Just like what you did to me.” Mordred guessed, which was replied by a nod of confirmation from Kasumi.
According to his experience, the travel from Satoru's home village to the train station could be considered extremely lucky. Mordred wouldn’t even be surprised if there’s a natural disaster occurring on the way to the station, but that didn’t happen because Kasumi has been taking the brunt of the karmic retaliation from the world.
The World Will take surpluses while granting the deficits to maintain the balance of all things. This is the primary cause of why, despite having countless death mitigation methods, Sovereigns can still be defeated by other Sovereigns. Merely having the memory of their ‘past lives’ is a ‘surplus’ that will help them in their endeavors. Unnecessary expansive knowledge is a karmic burden, and shaving it off helps in reducing this burden. The World’s Will will suppress any reincarnators with everything in its repertoire. Its first method is by grinding their luck into the extreme negative, which will eventually escalate into heavenly phenomena if it gets even worse.
“But my objective in taking this identity isn’t simple. True Purple gives me two primary missions with one conditional secondary.” Kasumi’s words stopped Mordred in his ponderation. She elaborated further, “Primary objective #1: Garner attention as much as humanly possible, reveal vague signs that I am the Great Archmage’s reincarnation by becoming the [Canary in the Mines].”
Mordred frowned, but he waited for Kasumi to explain further.
“I am your early warning system. The moment Yukikaze Shion is dead, it means the Sacred Alliance’s forces had begun their crusades to cleanse Grimsong Specter’s influence in the Hartina Kingdom. At that point, our enemies have begun closing in towards Galatreon, your foundation in this world. True Purple or other True Colors will escalate Galatreon’s combat readiness state, taking the next step of Grimsong Specter’s original mission. For all we know, he must’ve prepared countless sleeper agents spread all over this world, and I’m just a splinter of his nine truesouls.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“I see.” Mordred noticed that Kasumi had used the title Grimsong Specter, not the Great Archmage to refer to his true identity. Considering names could contain some kind of karma, her words contain an underlying message that he, at this point, couldn’t grasp. Nevertheless, he didn’t press further since it might contain certain information that could threaten him. “Then, what’s your primary objective #2?”
“Refine a [Mordred Energy Loop System],” Kasumi answered nonchalantly.
Mordred quickly connected the dots. “So that’s why you have three cores…”
The Great Archmage is known as the Sovereign of refinement-path and lightning-path. Amongst all of his accomplishments, the brightest stars in the night skies would be his grand opus, the Floating Fortress Alistair. According to the bits of memory that Mordred had, Alistair has two core components that define Alistair. Meaning, that all other parts can be replaced but not these two: [Mordred Energy Loop System] and the [Mise Energy Core].
While the Mise Energy Core is its primary source of energy, the Mordred Energy Loop System is indispensable. It is a type of internal energy circulation system, responsible for redundancy, backup, energy amplification, and energy conservation. When both of them worked together in tandem, non-combat daily energy expenditure of Alistair reduced significantly from tens of trillions of crystal coins to a mere million. Considering it is a rank 6 construct, the daily expenditure of a million crystal coins is dirt cheap.
“Progress is infinitesimal since refining the remaining 6 elemental cores requires exponentially more resources, and I can’t raise my cultivation base too fast, but I’m getting there,” Kasumi reported.
“That’s not a problem. The fact that you were able to refine three elemental cores without Galatreon’s assistance is already an accomplishment worth noting.” Mordred waved his arms, “What about your secondary conditional objective.”
To that inquiry, Kasumi shook her head.
“Very well.” Mordred didn’t press further. The information must contain too much karma that merely knowing it would affect her progress. It is, after all, a conditional objective. He didn’t mind too much about it. “Now that we’ve reached this point, can you tell me who’s Katyusha?”
“Can’t you tell?” Kasumi smiled.
“There’s no Demon Kings imprisoned in Lemegeton whose primary concept is ice.”
Hearing his assumption, Kasumi beckons Katyusha who had cut off most of her senses, a standard procedure to restrict the spread of unnecessary karma. “This is True Black, tell him who you are.”
Katyusha was shocked, but before she was able to react, a shadowy figure of a tall woman manifested behind Mordred. The woman’s silhouette is vague as it has high transparency, but the outline of her shape implies that she is over two meters tall. From the blurry figure’s head, a single curved horn can be seen on top of the left eye.
“One-horned Demon King… You’re…” Katyusha’s cold radiance is seemingly being influenced by her emotions. “ASMODEUS!”
“Hahah!” Asmodeus chuckled, her blurry eyes seemed to express superiority over the less fortunate Demon King. “It’s been a while, Paimon. Thanks to your concept, I have controlled my limitless wrath.”
Swoosh! An ice spear flew, phasing through Asmodeus’ spectral image. “Your main soul ate my main soul’s secondary dragon body. I will take back what’s hers.”
Asmodeus chuckled. Paimon, the Demon King of Grand Strategy, has zero chance of winning against her, the former Demon King of Berserk Inferno. It’s not about combat resources or personal might. It is simply due to bad compatibility. Enslavement-path battle tactic relies on a war of attrition to exhaust their enemy’s combat resources, but that doesn’t work on Asmodeus. Her personal combat strength is too extreme for any stratagem to work on her. She would simply overwhelm Paimon.
In any case, both of them have already become Mordred's permanent employees. Even if they were inclined to fight to the death, the Lemegeton Contracts that bind them prevent conflict up to a certain point.
While the two demon kings wage verbal war against each other, Kasumi brings Mordred’s attention back. “Demon King Asmodeus… isn’t she the second strongest demon king after Baal? You're indeed True Black…”
“Un.” He nodded, “You said you’ve met other Color Fragments. Can you share your experience?”
“All I know is: Red is in the Land of Sand and Fire, probably in Kaiserreich, Blue is in the Seas of Eternal Winters, Green is accompanied by Demon King Vines, handling matters in the Land of Eternal Springs, while Yellow is in the River of Time, defending this timeline from the schemes of other timelines.” She added, “Yes, it was Yellow Fragment that made contact with me. She vaguely guided me to take this mission, our meeting must be her arrangement.”
“I see.” Mordred now understood. “Each True Color must be responsible for a specific mission. What is mine?”
“I’m not sure. ‘True Black’ has the highest clearance amongst all other True Colors, you are on top of the pyramid. For all we know, your mission might be to devour all True Colors. After all, each color is a fragment of your true self. To become Grimsong Specter once more, you’ll eventually have to collect your fragmented self.” Shion shrugged. “Considering I’m just a Purple Fragment not even having 1% of the memory of True Purple, the memories I have might be intentionally designed to fool our enemies so all that I told you are mere assumptions. You should take them with a grain of salt.”
Mordred frowned, his expression complex. There was a lot to take in.
Unfortunately, time’s running out.
The method 'Katyusha' used to remove them from the cycle of karma has started to break down. Transparent cracks in space had begun appearing, as if a glass or a thin film of ice was breaking.
“That’s our cue. What’s your plan with that meatbag?” Kasumi pointed at him. More specifically, at Satoru.
Mordred pondered. “‘Satoru’ will enroll in Ninetail Royal Academy. I’ll search for one of the Great Archmage’s minor inheritances to refine a new mortal shell. My synchronization rate with the natives of this world is too low. Even if I shed all pretense and go all out, I can’t reproduce a fifth of my peak strength with how unsuitable these meatbags are.”
Kasumi nodded, instantly understanding what he meant.
Much like ‘breathing’ is crucial for biological lifeform, mortal shell synchronization rate is critical to spectral beings like Mordred. As a Spectral Soul, he can possess any living being or even a non-living object like a piece of armor or a weapon. Kasumi being a liquid metal slime acting as a Soul Armament is proof of that, but if he does the same, it’ll affect the synchronization rate greatly. Considering Mordred is originally a human, possessing a human body offered the highest synchronization rate, allowing him to perform in his best state. However, the natives in this world aren't a good ‘vessel’ to house his truesoul.
In truth, there wouldn’t be any ‘good’ vessel to house his truesoul in this world or its surrounding worlds, everything would be garbage from his point of view. As a soul cultivator, his truesoul is simply too strong.
Comparatively, his truesoul can be likened to star matter, a substance of high temperature and volatility. Attempting to contain it within a biological mortal vessel is akin to pouring star matter into a plastic cup. Even if he were to transition to a sturdier biological shell, it would be akin to trading a PET bottle for a steel one. Yet, even the latter would struggle to withstand molten plasma with temperatures exceeding twice the melting point of steel.
The deficiency in his current mortal shell's synchronization becomes glaringly evident when considering the toll it exacts on the body’s lifespan. Each usage of soul-path healing methods accelerates the body's decay, diminishing its lifespan, proof of the inherent incompatibility between his truesoul and a biological vessel. This issue is bound to exacerbate as his truesoul continues to grow in strength.
Compromising the integrity of his soul to accommodate the physical flesh would be threading on the wrong path of cultivation, a counterproductive endeavor that Mordred abhorred the most. Likewise, not ‘wearing’ a mortal shell and wandering like a free soul is hardly a viable solution, unless his soul cultivation reaches a certain threshold. Regrettably, at present, he finds himself compelled to don a mortal shell, navigating the delicate balance between the ethereal and the corporeal.
“The undead machinery, [Armored Soul Tribe]…” Kasumi whispered, “The solution Grimsong Specter found to solve this issue. True Purple had already reached minor success in refining the perfect mortal shell." Kasumi pointed at Shion. "I can get away by telling Shion is a Convert like Ayame, a joint of man and machine, while in reality she's an undead machine in human form. I believe you won’t be too far behind in terms of knowledge.”
“Yeah, I already have some design in mind, I just need the correct refining facility,” Mordred confirmed. Meeting Purple Fragment has unlocked bits of his memories that were once hidden, allowing him to remember various refinement-path methods, including Armored Soul Tribe mortal shell designs. Unfortunately, refining them requires specialized tools. “Do you happen to know one?”
“If your goal is the Ninetail Royal Academy, then there’s a Great Archmage’s minor inheritance near the capital. It is unknown if it has been taken by Color Fragments like me or the natives, but it beats looking for a specific molecule of water in the Pacific Ocean. I came across this information a while back, it’s called Azure Blade Twins minor inheritance.” Kasumi then whispered in a language never heard of in Morgen World and its neighboring worlds.
Hearing the somewhat familiar language made by a fellow Magus of Holy Terra, he frowned. “Verbum-Mechanica? Seems like I have to decode it.”
Crack! The karmic barrier started to fall apart. Despite using a method to bypass the karmic cycle through an encrypted alien language, the barrier still couldn’t hold as long as it was expected, proof of how impactful that information holds. Now that they are back in the cycle of karma and the laws of causality, they can no longer talk about karma-heavy topics. Fortunately, Asmodeus has quickly returned to the Soul Phylactery on the brink of the barrier falling apart, eliminating any risk of classified information being exposed to high-rank psychometry.
“Since you want to go to the Ninetail Royal Academy, I can help you with the admission.” Kasumi offered, “I can ask for Ayame’s Virtual Reality headgear to teach you about universal history and common knowledge.”
Mordred has no reason to deny it. Her offer also implies that she'll give him the justification for breaking Satoru's image of being an uneducated country bumpkin. Now that he understood the reasoning behind Twin Helix’s success, he has qualms about using Purple Fragment’s resources.
To ensure their conversation won’t be deducted even by those with high-rank psychometry, both of their diction changed as if speaking in riddles, their words having doubled meaning. Only those who know the context can understand the underlying meaning. “Ayame is very cool, I want to be like her in the future (I would’ve never guessed that you’ve made contact with the Violetstorm Empress’ descendant, Murasaki Ayame, that quickly).”
Kasumi shook her head, “Everything is according to the path fate has set for us, everything is pre-arranged by the heavens (Everything is according to True Yellow’s arrangement, nothing is a coincidence). I’m sure you’ll be able to achieve your dream as long as you persevere (I’m sure she had foreseen your intent in enrolling in the Ninetail Royal Academy and had schemed someone to be your helper there).”
“Thank you (Fair point).”
“Then, I’ll clean myself up (I'll wipe my memory of ever meeting you, True Black). From here on out, you’ll be facing a lot of trials, but I will assist you in some way (From henceforth, I will see you as a random boy that Sumire luckily picked up, but I will give you my full support).” Kasumi headed over to the power armor while Shion tapped her ear while going towards the bathtub once more. “Ayame, return, I need to borrow your VR headgear.”
Mordred silently nodded in acknowledgment, erasing one’s memory was a standard protocol in safeguarding against karmic retaliation. It also served as a contingency plan in the event of capture by their enemies.
As if already predicted her summon, Ayame returned, her neck adorned with cutting-edge VR headgear that seamlessly blended functionality and style. The headgear boasted a unique design, featuring a visor that could be slid up into its headphone parts. Its futuristic, cyberpunk aesthetic coupled with compact form ensures both ease of use and portability.
Her face reveals an expression of shock when she sensed Katyusha who’s meditating in silence, had her cultivation base regressed into early-stage rank 0. “Shouldn’t you be peak-stage rank 0? You’re… weaker than I’d expected.”
According to common sense, death mitigation methods are reserved for high-rank cultivators. However, certain cultivation methods offer death mitigation methods from early on, but the cost of activating them is severe. Since this is not Katyusha’s first time using her death mitigation method, Ayame was fully aware that it would push back her cultivation base onto rank 0, but the fact betrays her expectation. Her gaze quickly searches for Shion who has returned to the bathtub half-filled with liquid nitrogen. “Shion, what happened to her?”
The moment she calls for Shion, Mordred is secretly surprised. He can now hear Shion’s name instead of being altered into captain or whatnot. ‘This must be the information-path method that Shion mentioned earlier…’
“Three out of my four hearts were destroyed by Slayer Ants, I almost experienced true death. It's already a great success that I can revive with early-stage rank 0 cultivation,” Katyusha spoke, answering her question in place of Shion. “Don’t worry about me, it’ll take me a month to return to the realm of rank 1 once more. Shion wants him to enroll in the Ninetail Royal Academy.”
Ayame examined Mordred closely, her eyes shining in prismatic colors. “That’s a tall order… He’s so weak that I might break his brittle bones, and my mods are not specialized for physical strength.” Obviously, she doesn’t want to do it.
“Make it happen,” Shion ordered before her body submerged deeper in the liquid nitrogen bath.
Ayame exchanged a meaningful glance with Katyusha, who responded with a helpless shrug. Resigned, Ayame let out a soft exhale, relenting to the inevitable. “Very well.” She conceded, gesturing for Mordred to follow her. “Come, I’ll take you to your quarters, I’ll explain on the way.”
With a respectful bow to both Shion and Katyusha, Mordred fell into step behind Ayame.