Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

 

 

The day 'Twin Helix' team was formed, in a Hunter Association's meeting room.

"Lord Branch Head Sebastian, it's been a while." A man donned in black robe greeted Sebastian warmly.

Sebastian smiled with a delightful smile in response, "It's truly hard meeting you after you took the role of an elder in the Academy. It's a miracle that you've remembered my lowly existence." He joked.

The man Sebastian teased was hooded. When he unveiled the hood, he revealed his short raven black hair and pure black and sharp hawk-like eyes. Despite the warm expression on his face, he carried himself with a regal aura befitting a war veteran. Although he is young, few could match his might.

The man scoffed while shaking his head at Sebastian's joke, but thanks to it, he is no longer tense. "Master Sebastian is too humble. If not for your guidance, I wouldn't be in my current position." He took a glance at his former master as he raised an inquiry, "Right, master. What is it that requires my attention? I believe a man of your caliber wouldn't invite me to reminisce about the past."

Sebastian nodded, "Mitsubachi, have you taken a look at the thing I asked you to?"

Indeed, this robed young military officer is Lord Mage Mitsubachi, the enslavement-path expert who handles the security and monitoring of the recent hunting festival.

"Yes, master." Mitsubachi produced a memory card and handed it over to Sebastian. "It is confirmed that the mixed lightning-path, metal-path, and wind-path undulation matches with the Academy's database. Since some aspects of a path might overlap with each other, it is difficult to determine sound-path undulation unless one is familiar with it, thus, I have used the time-path artifact master bestowed upon me to investigate." Mitsubachi added.

Sebastian listened to Mitsubachi's explanation as his telepathic thoughts digested the information within the memory card.

"I see…"

The memory card not only contains the result of Mitsubachi's deduction, it also contains the whole report regarding the incident. 

Mitsubachi has used various methods and wasp beasts to investigate. The result of his investigation is as follows:

There's a severe lack of space-path trace within Thunderpeak Mountain nor its surroundings. This was normal, as Mitsubachi is not a space-path expert and space-path methods are typically harder to detect unless one is a Paragon. He investigated merely just in case if there actually was a space-path undulation, not hoping to find one.

Then, there's also proof that sound-path methods have been used, although it is extremely minute. It matches Yukikaze Shion's testimonies.

Her testimonies are as followed:

During the process of hunting a rogue rank 1 necromancer known as Nyx, Shion and two other combatants were dispatched by Yukikaze clan, each possessing different specialties. Her role in the team was the antimage responsible for disrupting Nyx's spells while being the core damage dealer. She was chosen because her Soul Armament cultivated in lightning-path.

The relationship between elements and non-elemental paths were like this: lightning-path is the absolute counter against necro-path, followed by light-path and a few others. 

This meant that any lightning-path offensive methods that deal 10 damage might deal 20 or 30 towards necro-path lifeforms. 

That being said, during the last moment, Nyx revealed his rank 3 legendary cultivation base and activated a trap that he had prepared. His goal was to capture Yukikaze clansmen for experimental subjects and undead refinement materials.

This was normal. Necro-path cultivators often kidnap people for these two reasons. It wasn't strange for Nyx to have ideas for Yukikaze clansmen, but unfortunately, he kicked a steel plate instead of a wooden board.

Despite being merely at the 13th superlative height of rank 0s, Shion and her teammates carried several life-saving treasures that resisted forceful teleportation by manifesting a Dimensional Anchor.

Dimensional Anchor is a broad anti-space-path method, it has various forms, shapes or functions.

The 'mild' ones stabilize space, disrupting teleportation or instant-movement that utilizes the concept of compression, stretching or other type of spatial manipulation through other methods. For super-faction like the Yukikaze clan, it isn't strange for their Dimensional Anchor to have a retaliation method, which obliterated Nyx's physical body and severely wounded his soul. 

Thus, the teleportation failed, merely carrying Nyx and Shion in a random location not too far from Fuyuhiro mountain range. Shion also carries a life-saving treasure that activates by conjuring a bubble-like defensive force field, protecting Shion within it during the failed teleportation.

However, the spatial travel method that Nyx used is necro-path in essence, it contains a large amount of necro-path influence. Shion's Soul Armament was forced to envelop her body and activate several countermeasures from mental invasion.

One of them put Shion in a comatose-state. 

The typical trend of mental defenses against mind control is sleeping or sleep-like state, it isn't unique. It was like trying to taint a bucket of water with ink. If the water is frozen, the ink will not be able to taint the ice. 

Thus, Shion wasn't aware how long Nyx had tried to pierce her Soul Armament's defensive methods.

By investigating the clues from the cave and deducting the rest, it was revealed that Nyx hadn't arrived on Thunderpeak Mountain for long. 

First, Nyx took possession of a lesser greenskin race's body: a goblin. 

He used a necro-path life-alteration method to change a goblin shaman into an undead with spellcasting ability: Skeletal Mage.

It’s unknown how he survived without a soul-defense artifact because souls cannot exist in the material world for too long without protection of a physical body.

It was like humans couldn't survive in the vacuum of space, the environment of the physical world is hostile to 'naked' souls.

However, with a slight deduction, Mitsubachi soon found out it was easy for Nyx to survive. 

Nyx was a legendary necromancer. His [Legendary] necro-path attainment allows him to mimic the effects of other paths. He wouldn’t lack necro-path methods that alter the environment. Even if he couldn't use them due to the lack of resources, it would be easy for him to produce the effect of dark-path to create a necro-path environment where his soul deterioration rate is reduced significantly until he refine the goblin into a Skeletal Mage.

After all, dark elemental particles are extremely rich in places where light couldn’t reach, such as underground caves.

After a while, a runaway kobold tribe from Magnur City, the underground city of the Duergars and Kobolds, find their ways to the cave where Nyx resides. This point was cross-checked with the Hunters operating on Magnur city, it was easy to determine the truth of this information.

Connecting the dots is simple after that. The conflict between goblins and kobolds ended up in kobolds being enslaved by Nyx.

From the clues, Mitsubachi gained a large amount of insight. 

Apparently, Nyx also dabbled in refinement-path. He wanted to refine Shion's Soul Armament for his own, because who wouldn't want one.

Soul Armaments can only be refined (made) by rank 3 refinement-path experts. It means the refiner has to have legendary refinement-path attainment. Only factions like Yukikaze clan who had a close relationship with Galatreon can give one to their talented disciple without batting an eye.

That being said, his forceful refinement effort ended up in a backlash which woke Shion up from her comatose-like state. There seems to be a battle between Shion and Nyx where Nyx has the upper hand. 

The traces of battle indicate multiple lightning-path methods were used. From Shion's gunlance-type assault railgun transformation, it can safely be inferred that it was the source. She also testifies that her reduction of cultivation base from the superlative height of rank 0 into peak-stage of rank 0 was because she had to activate a defensive trump card so that Shion could survive once more.

For this point, Mitsubachi was misled. 

Of course, all of Shion’s testimony was a giant made up lie, but he was truly misled at this point.

The truth was, those traces are not the result of battle between Shion and Nyx, but Mordred trying to refine Kasumi's slime core into the elementary-stage of lightning core. When Kasumi made plans for Mordred to infiltrate human society, she had begun forging false evidence. 

Of course, forging false traces that perfectly fool a rank 2 forever is impossible for Kasumi. She is a rank 0 while Mitsubachi is rank 2. The investigative methods in his arsenal was more powerful than the stealth method that Kasumi possessed at that time. Even if Kasumi had the proper methods, she lacks the resources to activate them.

A simple time-path investigative method could easily unveil the true events of the past. It's truly undemanding for high-ranking cultivators to mimic the effect of time-path up to a certain point so that they can seek the truth of an event.

However, Kasumi is Mordred's split soul. Her truesoul contains the weakened effect of the rank 6 killer move, [Faux Soul Configuration].

Even if it was the diluted version, it can still evade the detection of rank 1 methods while being blurry in front of rank 2 investigative methods.

Thus, Kasumi easily manipulated the 'evidence' of her main soul's refinement traces into battle traces. The most important point that Kasumi manipulated is the timeline where the event truly happened.

The real sound-path undulation that Sumire accidentally detected came from Kasumi while she transformed into [Misaka Mikoto], a named weapon form specialized in dealing long range damage.

Misaka Mikoto was the form that Kasumi took when Mordred killed the first Twin-Horned Mountain Goat after Kasumi's lightning core refinement was done, not before.

While Misaka Mikoto used lightning-path methods, Mordred used sound-path methods. The traces exist, but the one causing it couldn't be seen clearly by Lord Mitsubachi's investigative methods, thus he can only infer information from the traces.

The detail of this imaginary battle couldn't be determined, but it resulted in Shion's second defeat, as she 'stated' in her 'testimony'. Her Soul Armament once more protected her mind and body from Nyx's evil clutches while her soul was protected by a self-mutilating method that burned up her cultivation base, barely evading the fate of being a meat to the chopping block.

Because of this, Shion’s cultivation base was further reduced from peak-stage of rank 0. 

Then, Nyx grudgingly licked his wounds. To recover quickly, he nurtured the kobolds, mimicking the hunter system.

He made significant progress because the kobolds are smarter than goblins. Slowly but surely, he managed to strengthen the kobold hunters to hunt beasts. Their souls become nourishment for Nyx while their bodies are refined into bone armors, weapons or tools.

This point explains why the kobolds are wearing bone armors.

After that were the tempered mana crystals that were scattered during the hunting festival. They are shiny and are radiating faint traces of energy. After bringing one of them back, the kobolds must've received further orders from Nyx to gather more, while the man in question was trying to refine a bone golem because the skeletal mage's body couldn't even exhibit 1% of his true ability.

Nyx slowly refined a bone golem while ignoring his wounded body, unaware that the incoming rookie hunter team, Violet Sword Blaze, was intent on pillaging his stash of Tempered Mana Crystal.

Nyx must've thought it was a pure Mana Crystal, he was caught off guard when Violet Sword Blaze attacked his lair, forcing him to change his plans.

Then, the battle happened once more. This time, Violet Sword Blaze managed to awaken Yukikaze Shion from her comatose-like defensive state to aid them in killing Nyx. At this moment, Shion woke up while having a 4 transparent star cultivation due to the long duration of her defensive methods which constantly reduces her cultivation base..   

After that, it was exactly as Shion's and Sakuya's testimony, there's not a single point of inconsistency. Nyx's bone golem was obliterated after Shion's Soul Armament used a lightning-path method. As a last ditch attempt, he wanted to possess Sumire, but Shion managed to kill Nyx first before he succeeded.

Shion was barely capable of using ninjutsu at that moment due to the depletion of energy and the reduction of cultivation foundation, it was understandable that she managed to only activate a ninjutsu a single time during the intense battle.  

Then, Sumire was under the scrutiny of the divine churches because Nyx ‘touched’ her body. She was accused of being possessed because it was common for necromancers to possess people. Investigation was quickly underway, but her teammates refused other churches to investigate her soul and sea of consciousness unless it was done by a very specific person.

Priestess Miko of the Church of Knowledge.

The church of knowledge's faith-path methods contain a high amount of wisdom-path profundity, so the request was quickly approved.

As for why only Priestess Miko was allowed by Sumire to determine her condition? It was actually a common arrangement. 

Mages do not like their methods being seen. This ‘investigation’ must include a thorough inspection towards their sea of consciousness. For wisdom-path experts, when one could access another’s sea of consciousness, they could explore the memories that the subject possessed, thus revealing a lot of unwanted things. 

Thus, sometimes, high-value mages or martial artists only trusted one or a few handful members of the church. Only the trusted ones are allowed to investigate their sea of consciousness like this, though as one’s cultivation base is higher, this willingness seems to reduce until they are absolutely adamant in being investigated.  

As for whether the member of the church would lie to cover up the suspects?

What a joke. Priestesses are the property of their god, how can they hide things when even their souls are no longer their own. There are countless faith-path methods that can determine whether one is lying or not, it was unrealistic for a priestess to lie to cover up a necromancer. 

Thus, results came out quickly and Sumire's name was cleared. She was not possessed by Nyx.

"Master, have you contacted Yukikaze clan for confirmation?" Mitsubachi couldn't help but ask to satisfy his curiosity. He wanted to do that personally, but a rank 2 ‘minor’ character like himself wouldn't qualify to get the secluded clan to explain themselves.

One needs to be at least a Legend to have the lowest qualification of being their guest.

Thus, only the association's higher ups like Sebastian can contact them. 

"Unfortunately, my Legendary cultivation base does not mean much in the face of Yukikaze clan. You'll be surprised how many Paragons from Hartina Kingdom's Ten Master Clans wanted to be their guests." Sebastian explained helplessly.

Mitsubachi faked a cough. "You mean the Nine Master Clans, right master? Please pay attention to your words. After Murasaki Shizuku was wedded by the Great Archmage, our kingdom no longer has connection with that clan."

Sebastian sighed helplessly. It was merely 200 or so years ago, for a Legendary with a thousand years of lifespan, he felt the event wasn't too long ago.

"Anyhow, you got the point. The Nine Master clans have put pressure on Yukiaze clan, it's not like we have…" Sebastian paused his words as he stared blankly in a daze.

"Master? What's happening?" Mitsubachi raised his guard. His former master is a legendary wisdom-path expert. 

Wisdom-path revolves around telepathic thoughts, will and emotion. The cultivator of this path excels at controlling their state of mind. Any reaction he showed on the surface meant something happened that greatly shocked him to his core, to the point of crumbling his facade. 

"It's… nothing. I'm surprised that Yukikaze clan responded to my inquiry. It seems like it was a good move in accepting Shion as the Academy's student." Sebastian began to elaborate.

"Just now, I received a transmission from the clan. They expressed gratitude for taking in their clansmen as a first year student according to her cultivation base instead of her age or experience. As compensation, they are willing to provide resources in exchange for taking great care of Shion. I took a glimpse at the lists of resources they are willing to part… they are rich"

Sebastian's old weary eyes usually carry the aura of a kind old grandpa, hiding the vicissitude of life that he had experienced. However, it was now gleaming with sharp faint purple brilliance.

Sebastian was activating wisdom-path methods that aid him in deduction and calculation. He's deducting the reason why Shion was heavily invested by Yukikaze clan. 

It's common sense for a clan to have overprotectiveness towards their clansmen, but Shion was too highly appreciated by her clan. Even if Sebastian ignores the resources that her clan is willing to send her, the fact that the person in mind possessed a Soul Armament is a big question in itself.

Soul Armaments can only be refined by legendary refinement-path experts. This lowered the numbers of Soul Armament on the market, thus most who possess one are famous and are extremely powerful. Having a Soul Armament has become the standard measurement for differentiating whether one is a 'common' or an 'elite' cultivator of their class.

Obviously, Shion is an elite amongst elites, that was already obvious by the fact that she could ace every single test which was aimed at the first year students of the Hunter Academy. After shortly mingling with her first year ‘peers’, she subjugated the number one first year in a duel without much effort. 

After all, just the fact that she 'was' at the 13th superlative height of rank 0 allows her to easily dominate not only the first year students, but her seniors.

However, was her martial prowess because of her Soul Armament or was it because she was powerful that her clan gifted the Soul Armament to her?

If she’s dependent on her weapon, then the Soul Armament contributes roughly half of her martial might, it would be easily understood why she could dominate Kenji in a duel. But if her martial prowess is independent from Soul Armament, then she'll be like a tiger with wings.

"Perhaps, Shion is the daughter of a bigshot in Yukikaze clan?" Such thoughts appeared in Sebastian's head for one second. 

It isn’t weird for a clan to have thousands of clansmen. A super-clan might consist of one main family and countless family branches. Fuyuhiro mountain range is an extremely large territory that split the Southern Continent with the Extreme South. It was a natural barrier made out of countless mountains. The area within it is so large that it isolates the Extreme South. 

With that huge area on their hands, it would be difficult for Yukikaze clan to ‘protect’ the southern continent from the occasional demons who are escaping from the Extreme South. Thus, Yukikaze clan should have multiple family branches.

If that is so, the clan’s internal politics wouldn’t be as united as a small clan’s. Competition will always exist in places where there’s benefit. Since Shion has so many combat resources already, it could be inferred that she’s the daughter of the bigshot of Yukikaze clan. 

Of course, it’s not like Sebastian knew the internal politics of Yukikaze family. After all, everything that was known about Yukikaze is merely that they are located in Fuyuhiro mountain range, and that they are highly respected by the royal clan of Hartina. Other than that, even the exact mountain that housed the clan is unknown.

If his deduction that she’s the daughter of a bigshot in the clan is true, then Sebastian could leverage the fact that the Academy is 'taking care' of Shion to fetch more benefits.

After all, who wouldn’t want to get resources from a rich clan. Sebastian is a rank 3 legendary wisdom-path mage, thus he was confident that he could scheme a hefty benefit for himself.

However, rationality immediately returned to his mind. 

Yukikaze clan is supposed to have a good relationship with Galatreon's four clans due to their close geographical location and long years of cooperation in hunting demons in the Extreme South. If Sebastian schemed against his boss's allies for petty benefits, the Hunter Association's headquarters might act. 

Sebastian sighed because his deduction went in full circle. He massaged the spot between his eyes as he spoke, "Let's put the issue of Yukikaze Shion for later. I want to ask you how long are you going to give Violet Sumire your rank 1 fire-path body rune?"

Mitsubachi pondered for a moment. "So that was your scheme, master." He acknowledged. "She had just recently applied to be my disciple, I can give it to her since you've asked."

"No." Sebastian denied quickly. "You can give it to her through a contribution point exchange. I'm only asking you to take care of her because of her relationship with the Nine Master clans of our kingdom."

"Ah, I get it." Mitsubachi nodded. "Recently, the academy is facing pressure from that clan. They wanted to take their beautiful but mentally challenged daughter and her little brother away from the Violet Sword Blaze team, but it seems like Sumire managed to handle it well."

Sebastian nodded as if things were progressing according to his plan. "Then, it wouldn’t be long before Sumire couldn’t handle the pressure. That’s where we come in and help her. We have to get close to her and tie our karmic luck with her, but don’t do anything excessive that would make her suspicious.”

Mitsubachi pondered what his former master just said. A person of his caliber has a strong strategic depth of views, his wisdom-path intuition is extremely strong. “Is this perhaps related to the intuition you told me 10 years ago?”

“It was originally vague, but it’s getting stronger.” Sebastian elaborated shortly, “I feel that she’ll have a close karmic relationship with the 5th generation Braves.”