Soul Venerable (Re-written)

Paimon.

The Demon King of Grand Strategy.

From her title alone, it was clear that she wasn’t the type of old fossil who’s known for her personal might. She earned her moniker through endless schemes, using her slave armies to subjugate myriad worlds. 

In other words, she was never a frontline combatant. 

After she subjugated an Immemorial Chronophagous Demonic Dragon in her demon world, she rarely showed her true body, but she was without a doubt, a Succubus who had developed her bloodline to the absolute limit possible.

Her pre-reincarnation species was the so-called Royal Succubus. 

Of course, the current her is a completely different entity. After being raped and forced to gave birth under special conditions, she have steadily increased her soul cultivation into the realm of rank 1 by devouring the souls of demon and devils that were locked up within Lemegeton like herself.

Despite losing all of her bloodline [Charm] abilities that enslaved all sorts of lifeforms through lust, they were all replaced by Mordred with far more stronger bloodline abilities that focused on enslaving intellectual lifeforms through desire. 

The current Paimon could not activate most of her command-path bloodline abilities as none of them have yet to awaken due to her body being literally still in its infant stage. If her [Species] is compared to a human, she’s currently a baby who has yet to learn how to walk. Of course, her external appearance is that of a human with shark bloodline, but even the lowest level of demons or devils have some sort of body transformation technique. Assuming the form of any human is a trivial matter, at least for someone of her caliber.

That being said, her old soul is a completely separate matter. The soul radiation of someone with transcendent attainment-level in enslavement-path is strong enough to enslave mere lizardmen whose soul foundation is significantly weaker than her.

With her newly enslaved lizardmen entourage, the former Demon King encroaches on the territory of the tribe. The lizardmen waiting in the village originally did not suspect the human who’s guarded closely by their kin. From a glance, ‘Larissa’ is being suppressed by the lizardmen guards like that of a criminal, her face black and blue, ‘wounded’ from being defeated by the lizardmen guards.

Since the village is a gateway to the lightning-path resource trove that was the mountain, it wasn’t uncommon to find foreign races who had other ideas about the Lightning Horn Tribe, but most of them would be handled as usual; beaten until submission or simply killed.

There are two weapons which were confisticated from the intruder: a magic machinery weapon in the form of a blade which held numerous shark teeth-shaped blades that the lizardmen had never seen before, and a weapon that seemed to be a mix of a sword and a staff. 

When the group reached the gate of the village, the gatekeeper greeted the leader of the team who went out to deal with the intruder. “Brisssz, what’sss thisss all about?”

Brisz, the lizardman who captured Larissa, showed the two weapons that he took from her. “Thisss human isss nothing more than an insult. All bark, no bite. I’m going to offer her to the chieftain.” He snorted incredulously at the gatekeeper. 

The gatekeeper simply nodded, understanding the hidden meaning behind Brisz’s action. 

The Lizardmen are a race based on human physiology. Although their sense of aesthetic have been altered to match their species, their ideal beauty actually leans more towards humans. Even from a glance, it was crystal clear that the woman is a beauty amongst beautiful humans. If her external wounds healed a bit, she’ll be an extremely enchanting woman. 

Moreover, the gills-like slits on her neck indicate that she has some sort of shark bloodline. In terms of bloodline compatibility, her aquatic bloodline would match the lizardmen’s origin bloodline, so there should be some sort of genetic compatibility. 

In short, this woman will be given to the chieftain as a vessel to refresh the gene-pool.

The gatekeeper, convinced by the entourage’s explanation, opened the wooden gate to allow the team to enter the village.

The lizardmen are governed under a semi-militaristic rule. The one who has the bigger fist has more say. There wasn’t a complex reason for it, it was simply because the environment is too dangerous for the weak to rule. In this world, combat power is highly valued because it could provide safety and a means of survival. Although the lizardmen tribe seemed to be thriving, they were actually struggling to survive. 

Other minor races such as the kobolds, goblins, gnolls, other lizardmen tribes or even corrupted ents would attack occasionally; there would also be beast stampedes flowing from Mount Kashada once in a while. Due to all of these reasons, the weak ones would usually be thinned out, leaving the stronger elites to survive. 

And so, the wooden wall and procedures are from experience of handling invasions over the course of the village’s history. They are a necessity for survival.

While being carried like a sack of potato, Larissa could still hear the whispers of amazement and curiosity of the lizardmen. After sensing the attacker has been subdued, the village’s state of emergency has been lowered, so the non-combatants are pouring out.

While they passed through the main living area, Larissa flinched at the voices of lizardmen children. Staring at them, a sadistic smile creased her lips. If it were not for the fact that they were too young to understand what the strange human woman was doing, they would have undoubtedly been terrified at this gesture. It took all her rationality to not make any move here, in the midst of countless lizardmen.

She was like a glutton catching the scent of a long awaited feast, bearing an impossibly wide, sadistic grin.

After a few hundred meters past the village wall, Larissa could feel Brisz, the lizardman who carried her, stepped onto the electrified shallow waters of Lake Kashada. A bit of electric current ran through her body, but it wasn’t a problem with her body’s specs.

There should be hundreds of houses built on the shallow waters of the Lightning Lake. Each of the houses are built atop wooden platforms so they weren’t submerged, yet short enough to allow the inhabitants to moisturize themselves within an arm’s reach. The lightning elemental particles within the lake water seemed to have become an important component in the lizardmen’s daily life.

Perhaps this was the reason why their lightning-path radiation was noticeably stronger compared to others of the same rank. Their physical body has mutated thanks to the rich cultivation resources, yet, having a strong physical body does not guarantee high combat prowess. 

In Larissa’s perspective, they merely have strong body, but weak mind, thus fitting to be her slave army. 

At this point, many lizardmen have come out of their houses to watch the human intruder being subjugated by Brisz.  

‘Almost a thousand cultivators…’ Larissa pondered as she counted the presence of the lizardmen. If she counted the young, elderly and noncombatants (mortals), the number would easily reach double. ‘I can at most, enslave a hundred or so lifeforms of the same rank before my soul is overburdened. Unless I can awaken my bloodline abilities, it’ll be hard for me to subjugate all of them, but since Mordred will personally move, I don't have to worry about the rank 2 chieftain.’

Over 60% lizardmen cultivators have rank 0 martial cultivation foundation, while the rest is split into rank 1s, and some elite ones perhaps reached rank 2, so even with her overwhelming enslavement-path attainment advantage, subjugating the Lightning Horn Tribe wouldn’t be an easy task.

While slowly being carried by Brisz and his comrade-in-arms, Larissa commanded him to make as many as detours as possible but not to the point of raising suspicions. She needed more information about the political situation of the village and she’s extremely adept at doing so through enslaving crucial characters. 

However, just as Brisz was making his first detour, Larissa received a telepathic message from Mordred.

Her lips curved upward. ‘As expected. Your investigative method is extremely precise. You’ve even managed to pinpoint the important lizardmen in this tribe…’ she couldn’t help but praise Mordred. 

Her investigative method, [Hunting Pulse], might have a great range, but they are not as fine-grained as Mordred’s. His detection should be based on the soul. Coupled with his extremely powerful deduction ability, he was able to determine which lizardmen are strong and thus, if Larissa could enslave the upper echelons of the tribe, she’ll be able to dominate the lower ones.

Naturally, this was thanks to the lack of defensive measures within the lizardmen’s village. If Mordred tried this on a human settlement, especially a large city within the presence of a Mage Tower, the experts within would be able to detect his prying and react properly.  

‘There’s no need to use fancy tricks. I’ll just subdue the elite ones and let Mordred deal with the chieftain…’ with that in mind, she began enslaving the lizardmen while being carried like a sack of potatoes by Brisz.

 

…

 

A distance away, on an elevated ground outside of the lizardmen tribe’s detection range.

“Larissa has infiltrated the lizardmen village…” Tomoe reported, her eyes gleamed with prismatic lights as she investigated Larissa’s condition from afar through an information-path method.

Katsuki frowned. “She decided to infiltrate the village?” She looked at Tomoe. “How did she do it?”

“She baited a team of lizardmen and fought. For some reason, she was beaten black and blue, but even I can tell that she received absolutely zero damage.” Tomoe replied. “After she was brought inside the village, I couldn’t detect her. We are too far for my methods to be effective.”

“I see. If you get too close, we’ll be wasting time… the window of opportunity where the inheritance will open is extremely narrow. Only after several sets of conditions have been fulfilled will the Elemental Repository be connected with the main world…” Katsuki raised her head to glance at Lightning Lake beyond the lizardmen village.

The Lightning Lake has a beautiful hint of blue color in its water. Brilliant electric sparks would jump once in a while from its surface, there are also floating magnetic rocks that decorate its surface. The magnetic rocks would move erratically depending on the electric current or magnetic attraction, only slightly above the lightning lake. 

From a lightning-path mage’s point of view, those floating magnetic rocks are precious resources. Depending on its density and magnetism, they could be an excellent material for lightning-path artifacts.

However, the most precious treasure in the lightning lake is the flower that bloomed in the center island. Despite being very small as the flower is yet to mature and gained the ability to bloom, the 50-cm tall flower incessantly produces copious amount of water and lightning elemental particles. 

If Mordred were to see it, he would instantly recognize the flower.

“The Elemental Repository’s entrance has the external appearance of an immature Blue Lotus Heavenly Mana Spring. It will open every 21 years to exhale a wave of excess lightning and water elemental particles of the micro-plane, triggering a minor elemental wave in the main world…” Katsuki glanced at Kai, the dual-element mage. “How’s the lightning elemental particle density of the lightning lake’s water?”

“Higher than normal.” He replied quickly. “The data we’ve gathered at the Association does not match with the one we’ve just taken. The lake water on the shore is currently at 211% saturation level. According to my analysis, the closer we are to the Blue Lotus Heavenly Mana Spring, the saturation level in the water should be reaching 4700%. The first phase of the Elemental Repository’s self circulation system is indicated by the rise of lightning elemental particle saturation of the area to 5000%, which means it will happen shortly.”

The window of opportunity wouldn’t open for long. Even if it does, it’ll be dangerous for the team to exploit as elemental lifeforms would swarm out, they would seek refuge and support of the main world’s dimensional laws to advance because the micro-plane’s dimensional laws can provide limited support for advancement. 

In the early period, only weak elementals would come out, so entering the Elemental Repository would be easier. As time progresses, it would be time for the stronger elemental lifeforms to come out. If anyone wants to enter the micro-plane during this period, they’ll have to fight against the wave of strong elementals.

Keep in mind that most elementals are literally a lump of living elemental particles. Most of the time, they cannot be wounded by physical means. And so, to fight against water and lightning elemental lifeforms would be like fighting against a lump of water and electricity. Without certain methods, it’ll be impossible to deal effective damage.

Sure, Night Raid have prepared sufficient countermeasures against elemental lifeforms, but they are not specialized for hunting elementals in the first place. Their methods are just a contingency and it's better if they can avoid fighting against elementals as their corpses wouldn’t be beneficial for them anyway. 

While the rest of Night Raid are waiting for Katsuki’s decision, an explosion occurred near the center of the lizardmen village. Specifically, near the deepest part of the village where the lake water has stronger electric current and deeper depth. 

Everyone immediately glanced at Tomoe whose eyes never stopped observing the situation of the village.

“This is a signal for Plan F…” She muttered blankly as her vision caught the glimpse of colorful glitters in the explosion of icy mist. 

“Plan F?” Katsuki nodded. “I have no idea where she got her confidence, but it seems like her infiltration plan has met with a deadend.” She gives a signal towards the team’s [Medic]. “We shouldn’t waste the chance she gave us. Let’s start.”

“Understood!” Yamato Reiki, the potioneer, nodded and took out various bottles of potions and shared them with her teammates. After each individual team member has been given their own share, they began using them according to its uses.

Lightning resistance potion, haste potion, lesser stealth potion, scent-erasing powder, sound-suppressing potion, potion of lesser strength, potion of lesser dexterity, potion of sense enhancement… et cetera.

Although officially Reiki has the qualification of a [Medic], she is first and foremost, a Potioneer. Her specialty is to refine potions and thus, it wasn’t beyond her ability to buff up the team through the usage of potions. Anyone can use potions or mix together a recipe, but a potioneer knows how to prevent various substances in potions from conflicting, the consequences of which ranging from death by overdose to simply canceling out. Said consequences are even worse for strong potions designed for combat. The sheer quantity Reiki can safely produce in spite of that speaks to her expertise as both a potioneer and a [Medic].

In simple words, Night Raid is currently doping themselves to increase their performance. 

After the whole team had consumed all sorts of potions, Reiki took out a small spider-like drone and gave them towards her teammate. The miniature spider-drone quickly lodged itself on the nape of their necks.

“[Establishing Battlefield Control]!” Reiki activated her spider-drones and established a telepathic link between Night Raid team members. The mechanism was similar to Alanis’ [Group Chat] but it was activated through a telepathic link between Reiki’s mechanical drones.

Having eliminated the need to converse with words, Night Raid’s movements are now optimized greatly. 

Katsuko summoned her Deopir slaves as they took on lupine form and began running towards the lizardmen village in haste. 

Since the Deopirs are dark-path lifeforms, there was no need to waste energy on using stealth methods on them. They themselves excel in stealth. 

The few kilometers of distance are covered rather quickly when the Depoirs sprinted as if their life depended on it. When Night Raid reached the edge of the wooden wall of the lizardmen village, they could sense the intense battle between lizardmen which was led by the woman known as Larissa Agatha. 

She, covered with a knight-like icy Mage Armor while wielding her two weapons, is maiming lizardman with every hit. None of the lightning attacks that the Lightning Horn Tribe lizardmen produce are able to deal significant damage towards her while her chainsword and bladestaff allowed her to deal near-fatal damage.

That’s right, near-fatal, not lethal. 

For some reason, the number of wounded lizardmen is numerous. Some had their arms severed, had their intestines gouged out by chainsword, had their body impaled by ice spears, had their eyes pierced by icy spikes, and dozens of other methods. The groans and scream of pain of the lizardmen created a heavy atmosphere that broke the lizardmen’s morale.

Furthermore, some of the lizardmen would suddenly betray their own kin when they tried  to coordinate for an all-out attack, further breaking the chain-of-command of the lizardmen. The battlefield was chaotic, as she had truly accomplished her role as being the team’s Vanguard.

Witnessing the gorey scene, Katsuki was both impressed and disgusted. ‘Oh… she was capable of following the combat doctrine mentioned in Geneva War Manual, ‘Terror Warfare’… Interesting.’ Katsuki scans the battlefield with her telepathic thought while Night Raid is approaching the shore of the lightning lake.

Obviously, they were here not to swim as the lake water not only contains electric water, but also home to various aquatic lifeforms that would attack them. The territory of the Lightning Horn Tribe was special because they have been maintaining their territory. Most rank 1 aquatic beasts that lived in the lake are smart enough to determine that the lizardmen’s territory is not to be encroached upon. 

That being said, the reason why they come here is to get close to the entrance of the Elemental Repository. 

Of course, if swimming is impossible, then there are other methods. 

The Lightning Horn Tribe’s village has a layout that could be considered creeping towards the center of the lake’s center. Of course, the lightning elemental particle within the water is harmful towards everything and the Lightning Horn Lizardmen are no exception. Still, they are precious cultivation resources, only those who are strong enough to handle the electric current in the water can stay deeper in the lake’s water. 

Thus, the deeper the house is located, the stronger the resident. 

This would mean if Night Raid wanted to take a shortcut towards the lake’s center, they’ll have to get permission from the chieftain. Only then, they can pass through their houses.

Needless to say, this wasn’t the only option. Night Raid can also choose to traverse the chaotic path made by the magnetic rocks that float above the lake’s surface, but that’ll be dangerous.

Unlike the path made by the lizardmen’s chieftain from his abode that was locked up by some method, the floating rocks can move randomly and could even flip. 

That being said, plan F is for Night Raid to sneak around while the vanguard, Larissa Agatha, makes a commotion. Whether she could enter the Elemental Repository or not is no longer of concern. She’ll be rewarded accordingly, so the hunter-priestess isn't pressured to explore the micro-plane. 

Under the stealth method of Katsuki’s Deopirs and Reiki’s stealth potions, Night Raid members leaped from roof to roof while dodging the senses of Lizardmen down below.

When they passed through the point where Larissa fought against the swarm of lizardmen, Night Raid noticed how strong she really was. At this point, the lake water contains a sufficient amount of electric current that it would fry a non lightning-path lifeform. Yet, she was able to freeze the lake water and made it so that the ice wouldn’t conduct electric current. Through this method, she was not only able to change the environment to benefit her, but also restrict the lizardmen. 

After all, merely touching the ice meant you’ll be slowed down by its strange time-slowing power. 

< We are approaching the chieftain’s house. Since Larissa created a huge commotion for the lizardmen, we should be able to bypass the detection of the chieftain! > Katsuki spoke through the telepathic link of the team.

Just as she had expected, whilst standing on top of the chieftain’s house which was twice as large as the second largest building in the village, they could feel the pressure of a rank 2 Lord. 

Despite lacking the advanced magical civilization to refine high-quality body runes, the lizardmen were able to produce strong martial artists that should be comparable to strong rank 2 human Lords. 

This is already a worthy accomplishment, for a primitive. 

This was already the deepest part of the Lightning Horn Tribe. The platform supporting the lizardmen houses were refined from special wood, but they can no longer resist higher levels of electric current closer to the lake’s center. If they want to progress, Night Raid will have to jump onto the path of magnetic rocks. 

< There’s no time to hesitate. The elemental particle density is almost at its zenith! We should make best use of the time given by Larissa, otherwise, it’ll be harder for us to enter the Elemental Repository! > Kai voiced out his opinion after sensing Katsuki’s hesitation. 

Katsuki instantly regained her composure, he was correct. With a telepathic command to her Deopir slaves, Night Raid jumped towards the fragile-looking magnetic rocks and run towards the center of the lake. 

While leaping from one magnetic rock to another, everyone could sense the danger of the lake water below. There are several presence of rank 2 beasts that swam freely, the electric current in the water which was lethal to humans like them are nothing to the aquatic beasts. Even an idiot knows falling into the water meant certain death, thus Night Raid took extreme caution in each leap.

Slowly but surely, they progressed towards the lake’s core area. At this stage, the lightning elemental particle released by the Blue Lotus Heavenly Mana Spring was so strong that electric current ran through the air, not only in the water. Fortunately, they had consumed lightning resistance potions before, these levels of environmental hazards wouldn’t be much of a problem.

Moments before they reached the Blue Lotus Heavenly Mana Spring, every member of Night Raid was shocked at the intense presence of the rank 2 lizardmen. The chieftain has released his aura to the fullest. Meaning, the radiation of a rank 2 Lord is noticeable even in this location where most senses have been dulled by the high amount of lightning elemental particles.

< The lizardmen chieftain has been alerted. Can Larissa delay the chieftain until we entered the Elemental Repository? > Shingen asked while the rest waited for Kai to pry open the micro-plane’s entrance. The capability of a rank 2 cultivator is so great that they could practically reach this place in a few seconds if they noticed Night Raid’s infiltration.

The Lightning Horn Tribe probably doesn’t know about the subtle increase of lightning elemental particles but even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to pry open the micro-plane’s entrance forcefully. Simply, they lacked magical inheritances that described how to do it. However, things would be different when someone who can do it suddenly appeared. 

The Elemental Repository is a micro-plane that houses various species of elemental lifeforms. Since this was left behind by Murasaki Shizuku who is a lightning-path cultivator, then the micro-plane should house lightning elementals, which are extremely beneficial for lightning-path cultivators who couldn’t use magic.

And, it just happened that the Lightning Horn Tribe’s Chieftain is a lightning-path martial artist who can’t use magic himself. 

Yamato Reiki shook her head. < I don’t think she can fight against the lizardmen who have trained their body in this environment for decades… but we’ve never seen Lupusrazor. > She paused, emphasizing her next words. < Didn’t she tell us that she inherited that mount-type Soul Armament from a Great Archmage’s Minor Inheritance? We should never underestimate whatever the Great Archmage has left behind. Just trust her. >

< Oh, you know something about Lupusrazor? Is this related to your experience in Galatreon? > Katsuki inquired while still maintaining the highest alert. 

< Soul Armaments are usually weapons or accessories. As a type of artifact that could become stronger like its owner, they usually have small size. I don’t know the specifics, but as the size of the Soul Artifact increases, their price climbed up exorbitantly. To be honest, I’ve never seen one so large in my life before. The second-largest Soul Armament that I’ve seen was only a third the size of Lupusrazor. > Reiki elaborated.

At this moment, Kai’s finger penetrated some sort of invisible membrane. He used his other hand to spread the membrane as space literally cracked open by his lightning-clad finger. His heterochromic eyes are shining in their respective glow. < Captain, it’s open! > 

Boom! A wave of extreme lightning-path radiation can be felt from the edge of the village. Obviously, the chieftain was able to detect the sudden increase of lightning elemental particle saturation in the Lightning Lake’s core area. The sense of a rank 2 is far greater than that of a rank 1 cultivator.

Bzztt! At the same time, lightning sparks are being produced by the dimensional hole that Kai pried open, the lesser lightning elementals are scurrying out of the Elemental Repository to advance in the main world. ‘Lesser’ elementals are obviously because they are rank 0, even if they collide their body with Night Raid members, they could not deal efficient damage, but it’s a different thing when a mid elemental (rank 1) or even high elemental (rank 2) do the same. 

< Run for it! > Katsuki ordered, they’ll have to bruteforce it, going against the flow of the lightning elementals that’s pouring out of the Elemental Repository. Otherwise, the rank 2 lizardmen would use the time to catch up and forcefully enter the micro-plane. 

Night Raid instantly acted on her orders. Every member jumped towards the dimensional hole which has become an exit for the swarm of lightning elementals. Colliding with their elemental bodies made the Night Raid receive lightning damage, some burns have started to manifest on their bodies, but they cannot turn back.

After the last Night Raid member entered the dimensional hole, Kai used a delayed method to mend the dimensional breach, closing it and isolating the micro-plane’s entrance from the main world until the time where it would open naturally, within  a few days. 

Unbeknownst to Night Raid, the reason why the lizardman chieftain- a being who can move several times faster than the speed of sound- did not instantly catch up with them is because of Lupusrazor, who suddenly put himself between them.