Capítulo 100: Complications Of An Awakened
Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also, give your opinions on something I should change or add.
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One of the four occupied Virtual Gaming Cabins in the room suddenly opened with a faint mist flowing out, and Feng rose from it in the next moment.
However, a headache assaulted Feng as soon as he stood on his feet, making him dizzy and nearly causing him to fall back into the cabin.
"It's worse than I thought." Feng frowned when he felt the intense pain weighing on his mind.
Wanting to inspect the complete damage, Feng attempted to activate his ability, only for his headache to get even worse, feeling like somebody was stabbing his brain.
Feng's mental strength hadn't just been exhausted in the process of keeping his soul together, making using his ability extremely difficult at the moment, but his very mind had been rocked to its core by the backlash.
He had to assess in what kind of state his soul was though since he could be in much more danger than expected and had to make countermeasures in case anything has gone horribly wrong, so Feng toughened through the pain and used his ability to check out his soul.
Gritting his teeth, Feng's eyes darted around on the blue fireball, inspecting all the black cracks on it. Compared to when he first investigated his soul's condition upon reincarnating, it was much worse at the moment.
Cracks covered his soul's entire surface like a shattered mirror. It looked like it would break apart into pieces at just a touch.
Needless to say, the situation was critical.
The only silver lining that Feng discovered as he carefully examined his soul was that even though its condition was bad and it could easily shatter with a bit of pressure, it wasn't getting any worse.
Thanks to Feng reacting quickly and managing to stabilize his soul from the shock he had received, along with the girls supporting Feng's efforts by forcefully feeding him Nutrient Fluids, the cracks hadn't spread out even more, stopping his soul's state from getting any worse and making sure it wouldn't just suddenly collapse under the pressure out of nowhere.
As long as he didn't put a lot of strain on his soul, it wouldn't break, so Feng wasn't in any immediate danger.
However, it also wouldn't be able to get any better at the moment.
Repairing damage sustained to one's soul was many times more difficult and complicated than dealing with physical or mental damage. Souls could only be fixed through immense soul power and proper appliance to their soul.
Normally, only something like technology from the four-dimensional civilization that created God's Domain could achieve that feat in real life, as nothing the various races in the Greater World came up with and invented could actively affect the souls of creatures.
However, the things left behind by the four-dimensional civilization were already highly sought after and the result of many gigantic wars between every race the moment any news of the discovered technology, regardless of whether it was correct or not, was heard.
After all, the inventions of a four-dimensional civilization far surpassed anything even the best of what the most advanced races had created and used. Many of the devices such creatures that they couldn't comprehend had made were immeasurably precious, even if a sizeable portion of them didn't have a lot of use for humans and other races; which researchers and historians presume had been daily commodities used by four-dimensional creatures.
No matter their usefulness and utilization, or intended purpose, the means and materials used in the process of creating these things were incredibly valuable to mere three-dimensional creatures like them and could be used for further research to learn and benefit a race.
In the case that a device which was made with a greater purpose in mind was discovered, such as for improving a creature's physical state and abilities, Mental Strength, creation of various devices, fuel, weaponry, food, along with fluids, that was extremely beneficial and tasty, things related to God's Domain, and countless other astronomically useful creations whose worth to the various races need not be said, battles with combatants in the billions from each race would spark; usually ending with a huge number of people dying.
As for devices that could tap into the matter of incorporeal souls, regardless of whether it was for damaging or repairing souls, or even just gaining a better observation of others' souls, they were quite rare even among four-dimensional technology, and the ones that exist always get fought over in the most gruesome fashion.
According to what Feng knew, there had been some kind of item left behind by the four-dimensional civilization that could slightly protect a person's soul from all manner of dangerous attacks that would normally be very lethal to any creature; which was the most recent of its kind to pop up.
Upon it being discovered around 4,000 years ago, a war at a scale not seen in a long time had erupted between every race in the Greater World, with even some races who normally preferred to stay out of wars and conflict joining in.
The total death toll was impossible to know for certain even with the means invented by the more advanced races to keep track of how many people died in conflicts, which became quite necessary considering the wars' frequency and size, due to the sheer number of participants and deaths, but it was estimated to be over a trillion.
With both their rarity and difficulty of acquisition, it was completely impossible for regular people, even apex experts, to have a chance to recover their souls to an optimal state if they were to ever get damaged. Usually, even Apex Powers didn't have any access to such technology unless they had a Mental Strength Supreme Grandmaster among their ranks.
Any human who received damage to their soul like Feng has could only cut his losses though and hope to survive since no human power possessed any soul-related four-dimensional technology.
Throughout the many years of humanity's history on the Greater World, it had won very few all-out wars, only succeeding in battles that the other races didn't place priority on. As a result, the human race almost never obtained any extremely important resources or four-dimensional technology, having to pay a very high price when they do manage to win something.
There was simply too big of a difference between humans and other races in strength.
Be it physical prowess, technological development, Mental Strength standards, resources, economic state, military strength, residents' living conditions, territory size, individual's and organization's power, wealth, along with anything else that would be used to measure a race's power; the human race is inferior in basically all of them when compared to nearly every other race.
Although it did have an advantage in some aspects over some races, the difference in other factors rendered those advantages null.
While other races usually had something they were the best at and drew their strength from as specialists, which ended up boosting their capabilities in all other aspects as well, humans are generalists. They had nothing particular that they excelled at, but had the ability to do well in everything.
This stopped them from being the best at anything but also made sure they never fell behind in anything as well, which is how humans have survived in the cruel Greater World despite being significantly weaker than other races.
But the human race wasn't without its perks, since aside from possessing decent strength in all factors of life, the main thing that humans highly surpassed other races was combat standards.
Due to being suppressed by other races in both attributes and Mana control in God's Domain, along with pretty much everything else, humans put in a lot more effort than other races into their combat standards, which resulted in them creating very efficient training methods and legacies for the Realms of Refinement.
Even with the other races having more resources and opportunities to train their many geniuses, human players still had much greater attainment in the Realms of Refinement and the Realms of Truth than other players on average, with their mastery and the power of their Combat Techniques and Mana Techniques being on par with even the strongest races' players.
There was usually a three to four times difference when comparing the number of players on each stage of the Refinement Realms for humans and other races.
The difference changes depending on the players' progression and wasn't possible to properly measure due to the size of the Universal God's Domain and the number of experts, both known and hidden, in it; but the superiority of the human race in the Realm fo Refinement can be best seen by the number of players at the Third Step of the Beyond Domain Realm, the Unexistence[1] Realm.
As the highest attainment recorded in history, the final stage of the Realms of Refinement was not something even the strongest of experts could reach. It's practically a mythical Realm, and even for those among the top of the Universal God's Domain who were thought of as legendary and strongest existences, it was unlikely they would ever get to even witness an Unexistence Realm expert, let alone become one themselves.
Even to this day, it's still a mystery how one reaches such a stage, and most players thought of the Unexistence Realm as nothing but a fairy tale, or that they were no longer around, but those among the top were aware that they still existed. Feng knew without a shadow of a doubt that there indeed were Unexistence Realm experts out there, as he had had the bad luck to run into them during his previous life.
According to his knowledge, there were only around twenty or so Unexistence Realm individuals throughout the entire Universal God's Domain at this time. Their number depended on each race, some races didn't have a single player at the Beyond Domain Realm's Third Step, some only had one, while those among the stronger ranks had two to three.
In comparison, the human race had several of them, making up around thirty to forty percent of the total Unexistance Realm experts.
These higher standards among human players, along with their extreme adaptability and possibility to inherit the powers of any other race by absorbing the Bloodlines of powerful creatures or by changing races, which players from no other race could do, only having the option to increase the purity and density of their own Bloodline, allowed the human race to compete with everybody else in God' Domain and fight for resources; which led to improvements in the real world as well.
Though, even if they were strong enough to fight against the other races in God's Domain and not be at a massive disadvantage, humans still couldn't properly compete with them in real life; which was obviously more important unless one was willing to completely transfer their consciousness into God's Domain.
Setting aside the many factors that are taken into account in a collective's strength, just the disparity in Mental Strength standards between humans and most other races constantly puts them on the losing end of wars.
Due to having inferior resources and environments, humans couldn't build up their Mental Strength as efficiently as others, having to rely mostly on God's Domain to improve it, which, coupled with the superior traits these races have, makes it very difficult for humans to defeat other races in battle; usually needing greater numbers, an incredible strategy, and luck in order to score wins.
On average, the human race had far fewer Mental Strength Masters, Grandmasters, and Great Grandmasters because of this, along with many more of its powerful experts often dying in wars against stronger opponents with a greater number of individuals with the same Mental Strength standard. However, the true gap could be much more clearly seen among the highest levels of Mental Strength attainment.
While most other races had multiple dozens of Mental Strength Pseudo-Supreme Grandmasters, some having around a hundred, the human race only had several of them; and while most races had multiple Mental Strength Supreme Grandmasters, stronger ones having a dozen, the human race only had two Mental Strength Supreme Grandmasters.
Such a gap made it impossible for humans to fully resist the suppression and invasions of other races who also possessed other advantages, but it was also not possible for other races to easily take them down and destroy the human race.
The endeavor would require plenty of effort and resources, especially when the humans would be fighting at all cost for the continuation of their race, and many lives on both sides would be lost.
Although the more powerful races could accomplish it, the price they'd have to pay would leave them vulnerable for other races to take advantage of their weakness; hence none of the powerful races were willing to go all out against the human race or other weaker races.
In fact, had it not been for this stalemate, the humans on the Greater World would have been wiped out long ago, and other humans who arrive to the Greater World from worlds like Feng's would all end up either killed, enslaved, or used as food.
With the powerful forces holding each other back, humans had succeeded time after time to obtain wins and secure themselves a chance of survival, eventually growing even stronger, becoming a bigger and tougher nuisance for other races, and able to compete for technology left behind by the four-dimensional civilization; albeit always paying a high price in the process with many combatants sacrificing their lives for the cause.
Though, when it came to stuff like technology that could affect souls, every race would get serious and hold nothing back to obtain it, resulting in the human race not having a chance to even participate out of the possibility of getting eradicated in the process.
Thankfully, getting damage to one's soul was very rare since creatures in God's Domain couldn't do anything to a player's real soul or body, only their minds being at danger in some cases where powerful beings could severely damage them. In fact it was much more likely that somebody would have their mind taken over by a creature from God's Domain, gaining control over their account in the game and body in real life, than it was for a player to receive damage to their real soul.
Only sources in real life such as extreme strain on the soul due to something like a Mental Strength Great Grandmaster's ability, some special creatures in the Greater World's dangerous wilderness, and technology from the four-dimensional civilization could damage a person's real soul under normal circumstances.
But when it does happen and the situation is fatal, a human was completely screwed.
Feng, on the other hand, didn't face such issues or need outside power to fix, or at least improve, his soul's condition. Only, it required a lot of effort, soul energy, a high Mental Strength standard, and the consumption of a stupendous amount of mental strength; none of which he could afford at the moment.
Even dealing with the pressure on his mind was problematic right now.
Using his ability any more in his current state was not possible without risking further damage and complications, so Feng won't be doing anything more than simply stabilizing his soul in the meantime.
One could say that he had made an incredibly stupid decision by risking his real life for something in God's Domain, but Feng didn't regret it. Overall, it was actually quite a worthwhile risk.
Aside from managing to obtain the Platinum Legacy Tablet, Feng had learned a lot thanks to the experience. Particularly the way his soul functioned and the extent of his ability, as well as how transferring the power of his real soul to God's Domain and using it through his consciousness worked.
If Feng were to end up in such a situation again and had to use the method, he was confident of efficiently making use of his real soul without damaging it or putting it in danger this time around. Of course, he wasn't planning on testing it out since there were too many risks involved for a simple experiment.
Especially not in his current state before he recovers, and he wouldn't be able to try it out even if he wanted to.
Sighing, Feng stepped away from the Virtual Gaming Cabin, walking over to the mini fridge and opening it. Feng had originally planned on grabbing a couple A-rank Nutrient Fluids to help in his recovery, however minimal, but upon looking through the fridge, Feng discovered that there were multiple S-rank ones.
With how much mental strength it had taken him to stop his soul from shattering, Feng was certain that the small number of the remaining S-rank Nutrient Fluids would have been used up in the process, yet there were now several bottles in the mini-fridge.
Moreover, after further inspection, Feng also saw that the Nutrient Solution in his gaming cabin had been refilled when he went to check how much he had left. Obviously, someone had restocked them while he was in God's Domain.
"I wonder how they got their hands on more of these?" Feng thought out loud after drinking one of the S-rank Nutrient Fluids. Although it was possible for the girls to obtain more of the Nutrient Fluids without him, it would be a lot more difficult since the Big Dipper Corporation had recently given him a large number of S-rank Nutrient Fluids as a reward for defeating Leo Bao, and it was unlikely they could obtain many more for a while.
"Big Sis Aqua went to talk to the old Big Dipper manager about purchasing more S-rank fluids, and he seemed to have been persuaded by her words," Violet suddenly entered their bedroom and informed Feng of what had happened while he was passed out after overhearing his muttering, before adding "She also used her family's connections to get more from other sources, but that's still a work in progress."
"I see... That's good, I suppose." After thinking for a moment, Feng agreed it had been the best course of action Aqua could have taken considering the situation, his condition, and the limited information she had on Feng's wellbeing.
Though, he would have preferred to avoid asking for resources from other organizations and he'd rather simply rely on himself to obtain the Nutrient Fluids for Zero Wing.
Originally, although the Workshop didn't possess a lot of S-rank Nutrient Fluids, it was sufficient to last Zero Wing for a little bit until an opportunity to acquire a sizeable number of them presented itself.
With the whole thing of Feng about to die, however, the situation grew more precarious, the girls feeding him all of their S-rank Nutrient Fluids and then having none left. Having no idea whether or not Feng would have more issues at the time, Aqua decided that it was of the utmost importance for her to take action and obtain more resources in order to keep him alive by any means necessary.
In fact, if not for Feng's condition slightly stabilizing and no longer seemingly critical, Aqua would have taken much more drastic actions that Feng would not agree with. If he wasn't improving and seemed about to die, Aqua would have even made the decision to sell some of Zero Wing's shares if it came to it so that she could get more S-rank Nutrient Fluids or possibly better resources for Feng.
After all, everything would be over if Feng were to die. It wasn't something Aqua would allow under any circumstances, so it would be a small price to pay if they could save his life by temporarily giving away some of the guild's shares, which could be reobtained at a later time.
Shares, when acquired from somewhere, were something that belonged to an individual or an organization depending on the situation and conditions agreed upon. If a person who owns some shares were to die, their belongings including the shares would go to their family, close ones, or whoever was put in their will.
But if all those people and everybody connected to them that those shares' ownership could fall to were to die or, more likely, get killed, the shares would go back to their original owner. The same went if a guild were to own another guild's shares. In the scenario that the guild and everyone in it were to no longer be capable of owning anything for whatever reason, the shares would once again belong to the original guild.
Thus, even if anyone Aqua sold the shares to refused to return them once Zero Wing was much stronger, there was no possibility of somebody other than Feng and his guild members having Zero Wing's shares in the end while on this tiny planet.
Thankfully, the damage Feng received to his soul hadn't been that grievous and he was able to keep it together, so doing anything beyond working on purchasing more S-rank Nutrient Fluids from other sources wasn't urgent, which Feng could settle for.
Turning back to look at Violet, a faint smile appeared on Feng's face when he saw her moist eyes and quivering lips, saying in a gentle tone "You all did an excellent job as well. Thank you for being there to save me."
Violet couldn't hold back any longer upon hearing Feng's words and being reminded of the scene where blood flowed out of his eyes and ears as she seemed to be on the verge of losing him, tears streaming down her delicate face.
Running up to Feng, Violet tightly hugged him in a bear hug, wrapping her short arms around him and burying her face in Feng's chest.
Feng naturally returned the gesture, putting one hand on Violet's back and running the other across her silky pink hair.
Feeling his touch, Violet's arms only tightened around Feng even more as if afraid he'd disappear.
"Hey, don't cry. Can't you see I'm still here? You're acting like something bad already happened to me." Stroking Violet's head, Feng tried calmly soothing her as the girl cried in his chest.
It didn't seem all that effective though, and Violet continued quietly sobbing against him.
"Mmmph... mmm... mmph... mm-mm-mm... mmmph!" A muffled sentence suddenly sounded from Violet, but was suppressed by her not removing her face from the comfort of Feng's chest.
"What?" Despite his excellent hearing and other senses, Feng couldn't piece together what Violet had quietly muttered below him.
In the next moment, Violet lifted her head and faced Feng, making Feng's heart ache in a way it had never hurt before while looking at her reddened eyes and the tear marks across her face. For some reason, seeing Violet like this angered him to an unbelievable extent, an amount of anger he rarely felt even in the worst situations, yet he had that feeling of something boiling inside him from simply seeing Violet crying like this.
Internally, Feng cursed himself for causing someone so close to him to feel such a level of sadness due to his actions.
"I said stop doing stupid shit that could get you killed!" Violet painfully squeezed out through tears.
Even though she had no way of confirming, Violet was sure that the reason for Feng nearly dying was because of something happening to his soul.
There were no signs of any physical injuries or problems anywhere on him, while simply overworking his mind would have resulted in Feng merely going into Sleep Mode; not bleeding out of all his orifices.
Violet was also aware that Feng had some complications with his soul from other stuff in the past, and its state had gotten even worse after his reincarnation, so it was highly likely that something had happened to Feng's soul which put his life in danger.
This was the worst possible scenario because not only could they do nothing to help Feng if his soul was at risk of breaking, but if something were to happen to Feng's soul and the situation was no longer fixable, Feng would truly die and no longer be able to reincarnation again.
There wouldn't be a next time or another try. Feng would truly be gone without any of them being able to help him.
The thought terrified Violet whenever she realized how helpless she was, and she wished Feng would no longer do stuff that put his life at risk. Violet wouldn't know what to do with herself without him after she had fallen in love with Feng this hard. She'd probably just kill herself if there was no chance of Feng being with her.
Aside from Violet, the other girls could guess what was happening to Feng and felt the same. Although Aqua tried her best to remain composed, keeping up a calm front through it all, Violet could tell she wasn't doing any better than her on the inside. Ruoxi was too timid to say anything to Feng when a situation like this occurred, but she was definitely feeling the same as them.
As for Fire, Violet had no idea what exactly was going on in the redhead's mind, but she was sure that Fire would definitely go insane if Feng were to be truly gone.
None of them could bear to lose Feng and they weren't willing to simply sit back and watch him die, especially not kill himself with his risky and reckless behavior. But they couldn't do anything to stop him.
Feng silently looked deep into Violet's violet eyes. He could tell what Violet was thinking, but he wasn't able to promise that he wouldn't end up doing something similar.
After how he led his previous life and ended up in it, Feng wasn't willing to do things half-assed or hold back. He had to take risks in order to succeed and get to the top. No matter what it took, Feng would grow much stronger than during the previous timeline by doing everything and fighting for the best results.
Sometimes that involved risking his life and the possibility of a true death being present at all times.
Thus, Feng couldn't tell Violet what she wanted to hear. However, he could promise her something else.
"No matter what, I won't die." Saying so, Feng lifted up Violet into a passionate embrace as their lips pressed against each other.
Unwilling to accept anything but a vow from Feng that he wouldn't do anything that could kill him, Violet tried to resist, but Feng laid in on her, his tongue prying open Violet's glossy lips and invading her mouth.
She was unable to reject Feng's advances for long, giving in and closing her eyes under his barrage of tongue attacks, Violet reciprocated the kiss. Soon, she could feel Feng's mischievous hands moving to her plump buttocks, forcing a small moan out of Violet as he powerfully gripped her bottom cheeks.
As their exchange grew more passionate, Feng carried Violet off to their king-sized bed.
Since a nice chance like this where both he and Violet were logged off at the same time has appeared, Feng certainly wasn't going to pass it up and do other things instead of having some one-on-one lovemaking sessions with one of his women; which have gotten rare these days due to there now being four of them and with how busy they all were.
Little did Feng know, though, that it wasn't at all a coincidence that the two of them were both logged out simultaneously.
Ever since the incident, Violet and her three sisters had talked it over and agreed to organize themselves so that at least one of them was either logged off to watch over Feng's body at all times, or that one of them was with him in God's Domain so that she'd immediately know if something was wrong.
In such a way, they would make sure that Feng was safe and his condition stable throughout the day.
Previously, it had been Fire's turn to be on guard duty, when Feng suddenly called for Aqua to gather all the core members of Zero Wing for a meeting, at which point all four of them would be with him in God's Domain so it wasn't necessary to have someone keep an eye out for him in real life.
Afterwards, Ruoxi had been with him during their excursion to do her Quests and made sure nothing out of the ordinary happened while the other three were at the World Summit doing their own thing.
When Ruoxi and Feng separated for Stone Forest Town, Ruoxi had quickly logged off and informed Aqua of the situation, at which point they changed shifts and had one of the other three leave God's Domain to watch over Feng.
Violet had at the time already obtained the most important thing that she wanted from the World Summit, and since a player's minutes don't decrease while they aren't online, she could afford to be the one logged out.
Thus, no matter at which point in time Feng had logged off, he would have encountered one of those four, constantly checking in on his condition and making sure he doesn't die; with it being Violet right now just a matter of chance.
Feng didn't pay the situation any more mind though, not putting much thought into it and simply enjoyed fucking Violet's brains out.
---
A couple hours later, Feng was sitting cross-legged in the bedroom with nothing but his boxers on, meditating. Violet lay naked on their bed, passed out after the intense passionate pounding she received; both of them letting their emotions out during the sensual session.
Normally, Feng would go and restore more of the members' memories, but in his condition, that was impossible. Hence, the only thing he could do was train his body and work on recovering his mental strength.
Resting his mind until 7 PM rolled around, Feng logged back into God's Domain after kissing the awoken Violet.
---
Appearing in his personal Forging Room, Feng wasted no time, reinforcing the room's Magic Array before immediately calling out Celestina.
The Demon Empress looked as grumpy as usual, silently staring daggers into Feng like she wished to make his head explode with her mind while waiting for him to say what he called her out for.
"I want you to unseal this thing." Exactly as Celestina expected, Feng gave her a new job by taking out a pitch-black star-shaped object from his bag and handing it to her, along with 18 Mana Stones.
This was the Legacy Item that had dropped from Lancelot, which Feng believed belonged to the Cosmic Saint Legacy, one of his God's Domain's Ten Great Saint Legacies.
Under normal circumstances, at least three Tier 4 classes of either the holy or dark type would be required to unseal a Legacy Item like this, which would be very difficult to firstly acquire the help of such individuals, and even more so to convince them even if he could pay the price.
But Feng believed that Celestina wouldn't have any trouble doing it on her own the same as Sharlyn had unsealed the Destroyer of Immortality for him.
"Sure." Replying bluntly without wishing to speak to Feng any more than necessary, Celestina accepted the Fallen Object and the Mana Stones, not bothering to ask any questions about the Legacy Item.
With the Demon Goddess working on the unsealing, the process went smoothly, and the awakening ritual had come to an end with Celestina only expending a bit of her energy.
Even without a Magic Array or something else continuing to support the star, it remained floating in midair without causing any sort of fluctuations in the surroundings.
Its pitch-black surface had cracked away and broken apart, revealing a five-pointed polygon blacker than black. However, unlike its previous dark texture that gave the impression that the star was dirtied with the black color, it now looked majestic and awe-inspiring; like an all-encompassing void.
Moreover, small, purple lines and patterns covered the star's exterior, connecting with each other from the five tips and their intersections, making it look even more mystical.
Seeing that it had been fully unsealed by the demon maid, Feng walked up to the star and used the Eyes of Truth on it.
[Orbiting Star Striker]
A cosmic object left behind from an Ancient era, containing the energy of an entire world within it. Although it was greatly damaged and most of its power lost, it still possessed the mysterious powers of the cosmos. If one can master its abilities, they will become capable of freely traversing anywhere through space and become untouchable.
Class restriction: Non-melee classes
As Feng had guessed, this was indeed the Orbiting Star Striker, the Legacy Weapon of the Cosmic Saint Legacy.
Having the Legacy Item was undoubtedly great news, and Feng could give it to one of his magical guild members to use and become a Cosmic Saint, creating another, even more powerful combatant.
He had already discussed it with Aqua by contacting her through the real world and she said that she wasn't interested in it due to the Sea God's Legacy already being something she was used to and a Peak Legacy that suited her very well, so Aqua decided to leave it for another guildmate.
Reaching out to the Orbiting Star Striker, Feng attempted to grab it. The texture of the star was smooth on touch and seemed fairly light, but when Feng tried to move the Orbiting Star Striker, it felt as if he was tugging on a mountain.
Moreover, as he barely moved it an inch from the previous spot it was hovering in, a system notification sounded in his ears.
System: Player is not of a fitting class and can not accept the Legacy Trial. Warning the power of space is unstable and could cause the Legacy Item to go through Space Transfer at any moment.
Feng hadn't been sure if the situation with the Cosmic Saint Legacy would be the same as when he unsealed the Blade Saint Legacy, with it having a time limit of only a day before it becomes unusable, but considering that the other Ten Great Saint Legacies that he knows about didn't have such reactions, he had thought that it was simply unique to the Destroyer of Immortality.
Now, though, if he doesn't have someone accept the Legacy Trial soon, the Orbiting Star Striker would apparently disappear, which was naturally problematic when he didn't have anyone available for the Legacy.
Of course, Feng had thought of the possibility that something like this would happen and did have a countermeasure in mind.
"Celestina, can you stop this thing from teleporting away?" His best bet was to let the Demon Empress handle it. Feng's plan for not losing the Cosmic Saint Legacy mainly hinged on Celestina being able to stop the Orbiting Star Striker's Space Transfer, and if she couldn't do it, Feng would only be left with a minute few other options to try.
Walking up to the floating star as well, the demon girl carefully observed it for a moment before nodding "Give me some more Mana Stones."
Taking out another dozen Mana Stones, Feng handed them all to Celestina, who did some kind of pseudo-sealing ritual and created a Magic Array to inhibit the teleportation of the Orbiting Star Striker with the stones, causing the Legacy Item's metallic glow to be dampened slightly and no longer give off the same mystical aura.
After she was done, Feng checked the polygon again, and this time it only said that he couldn't take on its Legacy Trial due to his class, without any warnings. Additionally, its weight had significantly reduced to the point Feng could carry it around with relative ease.
"Swell." Feng gave his demon maid a thumbs up, resulting in her rolling her blood-red eyes at him.
Turns out that everything was sunshine and rainbows when you have a semi-Primordial God ranked servant lying around at your disposal to make the normally very difficult problems trivial to solve.
Following which, Feng stored the Orbiting Star Striker in his Spatial Bag for another time while taking out the Bible of Darkness.
He then began chanting an incantation and used Demon Summoning.
Dark mist congregated from the ceiling to form a pair of dark gray gates. However, unlike the Demon Gate Sharlyn had summoned, Feng's was far weaker. Not only was the size of the Demon Gate much smaller, but the aura it radiated was also ordinary. It lacked the ability to instill fear in others.
Although the Demon Gate he summoned was significantly smaller, Feng did not particularly mind it. He had no thoughts of summoning a powerful demon nor did he need one when he already had Celestina. Instead, he simply wanted any bonafide demon that could serve his purposes.
When the Demon Empress saw Feng use the Bible of Darkness, and more so to summon a demon, her expression turned solemn. Regardless of the output or the limited power that he could draw out from the Bible of Darkness, it still put Celestina on edge that he had it in the first place.
Had it been another human who she was contracted with, perhaps the Demon Goddess would only be irked and disgusted by the notion they were in possession of her race's greatest treasure. But this bastard was another story.
It made Celestina deeply uncomfortable that Feng had the bible and knew how to use it, especially since he for some reason seemed familiar with it, along with the other unexplainable stuff he knows and is capable of.
While the Demon Empress was brooding over such thoughts, the Demon Gates slowly opened, and a Tier 2 Evil Spirit emerged.
"Possess this demon." Feng simply told the demon maid.
"What!?" Celestina, though, didn't take the command so simply or kindly, a disgruntled expression surfacing on her face. "If you wanted me to possess a physical body, it would have been better to let me summon a powerful demon instead of this lowlife."
Possessing another creature was a trivial matter for a being, much less a demon, of the Demon Empress's caliber even in her weakened state, hence it wasn't for that reason that Celestina seemed to have a problem with Feng's order.
In fact, possessing a proper physical body in order to increase her abilities exponentially was something that Celestina had proposed to Feng a long time ago. Although the body created by the Spectral Animacell was very good and suitable for Celestina due to being created according to her soul, even allowing her to recreate her Mana Body to an extreme degree, at the end of the day, it was still a fake, fabricated physical vessel.
If the Demon Goddess were to possess a real body and reformed it, the combat power she could display would improve dramatically.
Yet, despite knowing this when she had brought the matter up, Feng had shut down Celestina's idea without a second thought.
His reasoning was simple.
Feng was very concerned about Celestina's state of being and what she could do at all times. She hadn't been one of the Universal God's Domain's strongest beings during her era for nothing. He has no idea what Celestina was exactly capable of at the moment and what she could do if the Primordial Demon Goddess had a physical body.
Even though they had a soul contract between them and Feng could shatter Celestina's soul at any time, he wasn't confident that things would remain the same if she were to obtain a physical body.
The contract would definitely remain in effect without a doubt, with Celestina still having to obey his commands, but she would most likely have more freedom since the demon girl wouldn't be a simple soul-formed body anymore.
With the current limited usage of his ability, Feng wouldn't be able to keep her soul on a leash any more as he could while it is in the Spectral Animacell, meaning that he'd no longer have that advantage over the Demon Empress.
Furthermore, if he were to let Celestina possess some other creature with her soul, he'd no longer be able to carry her around at all times and call her out whenever needed, which was extremely important for his plans; for both the getting stronger ones and the seducing ones.
Hence Feng naturally couldn't allow his demon maid to run around freely in a real physical body. Though, Celestina wasn't aware of Feng's plans or the current constraints on his ability, thinking that even if she got a different vessel, he'd still be able to have a hold over her soul and break it.
Originally, the Demon Goddess wasn't sure why Feng had rejected her proposal and simply guessed that he had something against her possessing a creature, but now he was ordering her to do exactly that.
He had even summoned an Evil Spirit for her to possess, which wouldn't really increase her combat power by any noticeable amount. If she had summoned a vessel to possess, though, it would be a completely different story.
"Don't say stupid things that you already know the reasons for." Brushing her disagreement aside, Feng made a hurry-up gesture at Celestina.
Since she was a Tier 4 Great Demon, if Celestina were to use the Bible of Darkness's Demon Summoning, she'd definitely be able to summon a Demon King, or at least a powerful Great Demon.
Upon possessing it, if she was capable enough to manage the feat considering her current soul strength and the summoned demon's, of course, Celestina's power would skyrocket, and if she possessed a Demon King, she'd directly become Tier 5 thanks to its body.
But that came with problems for Feng, and it would only be temporary since the summoned demon's body would still be sent back to the abyss once Demon Summoning's duration ran out, along with Celestina's soul. At that point, regardless of their contract, Celestina would be out of Feng's grasp since he would no longer be able to contact or command her, while the Demon Empress wouldn't have to look for a way to return to him, even if she could, without a directive.
Possessing a demon she summons and letting her stay in it so that Celestina could fully manifest in a physical body wasn't doable to Feng at the moment, and while he could technically simply retrieve the demon girl's soul before the summoned demon was sent back, there was another huge problem with the matter because then a demon would find out that the Demon Empress has returned.
Even if it was a Great Demon who wasn't aware of Celestina and her history, the pure demonic Bloodline within her would still be instinctively sensed by any demonic creature, and after the summoned demon returned from wherever it had come, it was only a matter of time until it investigated and made Celestina's existence known, the information reaching higher ranking demons.
Once the old Primordial Demon Gods find out that the Demon Empress they had betrayed was back and roaming free, moreover only Tier 4 at the moment, they were sure to make a move against Feng.
He still wasn't ready for that kind of trouble, and Feng would be fairly screwed if the wrath of multiple such Primordial Demon Gods, or even a few Ancient Demon Gods, was to befall him.
Letting any of those demons back to their realm alive wasn't an option, and while it would be trivial for them to murder a Tier 4 Great Demon, even if it was a Demon Prince, Tier 5 Demon Kings were another story.
Though that wouldn't really sit well with Celestina.
She was still, after all, the ruler of the demon race and considered herself their empress and protector. In fact, despite the atrocities she had committed in her time, Celestina was considered the kindest and most benevolent demon ruler in all of history due to how she treated all demons. Considering it her duty to keep the members of her race safe, Celesina had often protected them when possible and never killed anyone unnecessarily.
It was partially due to her kindness towards demons that Celestina ended up getting betrayed.
Although the circumstances had greatly changed, and she had no problem eradicating any demon that got in hers and Feng's way as she had killed Kildered without hesitation, summoning a demon simply to use it while knowing full well that they would have to kill it and intending to take advantage of them wasn't something the Demon Empress would be willing to do.
It was why Feng never brought up the matter of her using the Bible of Darkness to summon powerful demons.
Suppose Feng actually forced her to summon members of her race who she still considered her descendants and subjects who she had the responsibility to protect, which he would be able to do through the contract, and then either ordered Celestina to slay said demons or killed them in front of her, all the while having been fully aware that would be necessary to do. In that case, Celestina might truly grow to resent him beyond any hope of redemption even if he somehow managed to seduce her.
Celestina would wholeheartedly oppose such a thing if Feng asked her to do it, and she had only brought it up now to see Feng's reaction. It allowed her to get a better understanding of the things he knows and takes into consideration. His response both reassured and alarmed the Demon Goddess, since although it was good that Feng was aware of what kind of problems there were with her using Demon Summoning, she still had no idea why and how he was aware of them.
Seeing his dismissive response, the Demon Empress begrudgingly moved to possess the Tier 2 Evil Spirit that Feng had summoned with his permission. Albeit a bit bothered by having to enter the body of such a weak creature, would have preferred for the vessel to at least be Tier 3, Celestina still welcomed a physical body.
Moreover, since it was only an Evil Spirit that had not been promoted into a real Demon yet, Celestina was only slightly indignant about having to get rid of it, the two of them not being able to afford any chances at the Demon Empress's revival getting discovered.
Feng was slightly relieved at Celestina not continuing about the subject and obediently possessing the demon thanks to him acting so dismissive about the matter. Aside from the risks and complications of allowing Celestina to use Demon Summoning, Feng in general simply didn't want the Demon Goddess to get a hold of the Bible of Darkness.
She was the former wielder of the bible when it was still a Divine Artifact so she definitely knew a lot more about it and how to effectively use the Bible of Darkness, along with its secrets. Feng wasn't sure what Celestina would be capable of doing with the demon race's treasure in her hands, and he'd rather not risk anything regardless of how unlikely it was that the demon maid could accomplish something against him with it.
Celestina was simply too important to his future plans. Feng wasn't willing to take any chances that could lead to the Demon Empress slipping out of his grasp until his seducing operation was completed.
The possession process didn't take long after Feng released her soul from the Spectral Animacell, emptying the orb and causing its interior to once again appear crystal clear, Celestina's strength allowing her to easily take over the body of a low-ranking demon of no special Bloodline like the summoned Evil Spirit.
With Mana, the Demon Goddess reformed the Evil Spirit's body into her voluptuous, sexy figure that was accentuated by the tight maid outfit designed by Feng, along with her breathtaking face and curly purple hair.
Due to the high rank of Celestina's soul, the body was automatically promoted to Level 99 Tier 4, while Celestina's strength wasn't affected by the low standard of her vessel; the power she could now display having increased by a small amount.
Though, the Demon Goddess could still feel the human's grip around her soul, making it seem like Feng still had the ability to shatter her soul at any time he wanted and causing Celestina to remain cautious and obedient, even though it was just a bluff from him.
Nodding, Feng informed Celestina as he continued with the next step "Good, prepare yourself. I'll be needing your assistance in a moment." His words caused the demon girl to look at her contractor in confusion.
While working for him, Celestina had seen how strangely powerful Feng was for his tier, so she found it weird that he'd ask for her help here in a place like this, even telling her to prepare herself as if they were about to do something dangerous, which made the situation increasingly odder considering the minimal improvement she had received by possessing a mere Tier 2 vessel.
But Feng hadn't given Celestina a physical body to occupy simply for a minor temporary boost to her combat power. Instead, he simply needed a powerful guard like her to be around while he made space in the Spectral Animacell, which was only possible by allowing Celestina to possess a body so she could remain in the physical world without the Fragmented Legendary Item materializing the Demon Empress.
Before Celestina could inquire, Feng transferred another soul from the Pandemonium Lashblade into the orb. In an instant, the empty white Spectral Animacell was filled up by a black substance.
However, unlike the pitch-black mist that occupied the Fragmented Legendary Tool when Celestina's soul resided inside it, this thing that was blacker than black appeared to be in a liquid form. The Dark fluid filled up the Spectral Animacell to the brim and seemed like it would overflow out of it.
And a second later, as the black liquid swirled inside the Fragmented Legendary orb, a drop of whatever occupied the Spectral Animacell actually seemed to seep out of it, gravity pulling it down for a moment and causing the droplet to fall down on the Forging Room's floor.
Despite its fluid form, when the drop of the black liquid touched the ground, it didn't behave like water, spreading out across the floor in a sticky manner as if it was made out of slime.
A disgusted expression appeared on Feng's face as he looked at the black mass next to his feet. In the next moment, a silver, metallic flame spread out from his feet and attempted to eradicate the dark slimy substance.
The Burning Argent Flame enveloped the black drop on the floor and its flames vigorously burned as the smudge wiggled somewhat under the intensity of the Tier 4 Mysterious Flame. Surprisingly, the black substance managed to resist getting destroyed under the Burning Argent Flame's might for a few moments before it was finally thinned out and turned into nothingness.
Feng didn't extinguish the Mysterious Flame just yet even after the drop was gone, continuing to have it burn under the Spectral Animacell in his hands, from which more black liquid continued to drop, while carefully holding the Fragmented Legendary Item in fear of some of the substance getting on him.
To the side, Celestina showed an even greater expression of disgust and hatred, glaring at both the Spectral Animacell and Feng.
"Don't tell me you're going to bring out one of those things!?" Evidently, Celestina had an idea of what kind of being's soul was currently within her former carrier tool, and she was not the least bit pleased about what Feng was doing.
"Yep, take this." Confirming with a simple nod, Feng tossed the Pandemonium Lashblade to the Demon Empress, who immediately caught it and took a fighting stance in annoyance upon Feng affirming her suspicions.
Feng then activated the Spectral Animacell, having the orb materialize the soul in it into the physical world.
The liquid within the Fragmented Legendary Tool churned, moving and being dragged out of the Spectral Animacell by some force, before taking a humanoid shape.
Moments later, an effeminate Elf wearing blood-red robes appeared in front of Feng and Celestina. The High Elf's skin was pale, his face unblemished, and his two eyes were pitch-black like two black holes.
From its eyeballs to the pupils, they were completely black, seeming extraordinarily evil. The Awakened's eyes were full of hate as it glared at Feng.
Without saying a single word, Lancelot released a terrifying aura from his body that made the air feel heavy. His Mana Domain enveloped Feng and the entire room while a powerful gravitational force pulled at Feng, attempting to bring him towards the Awakened.
However, it wasn't powerful enough, resulting in Feng not budging from his spot as he braced against the pulling force with his feet.
A slight frown surfaced on Lancelot's face, but he didn't care that Feng could resist his Dark Gravitation despite being a mere Tier 1 Swordman, and simply cast a Tier 4 Spell at Feng, intending to quickly get rid of him.
As a creature whose soul was given form by the Spectral Animacell, Lancelot should not be capable of attacking Feng due to the controlling effects of the Spectral Animacell.
But even though the spell fired off by the Awakened was about to reach Feng, it showed no signs of stopping, nor did Lancelot seem to be facing any sort of restricting or backlash for attempting to attack his summoner.
Before the attack could hit Feng, a demon maid blocked its way and swatted it down. Lancelot's attention was attracted to Celestina upon the Demon Empress protecting Feng from the spell. Glaring at the demon girl opposing him, Lancelot shouted "Step aside, demon! Once I devour this human, I'll deal with you."
"A little disgusting thing like you thinks it can tell me what to do? I'll be damned if I don't slice you up today!" Celestina instantly grew enraged when Lancelot spoke out, worse yet tried to order her around.
Mutants and Awakeneds were hated by all creatures in God's Domain due to the very nature of their existence. Whenever one is discovered, everybody, regardless of their race, the side they're on, or their situation would do whatever it takes to kill creatures like them.
Most people only knew this was the case because of Mutants and Awakeneds being extremely violent and attacking everything around them in order to grow stronger, which they could do infinitely and become incredibly dangerous within a brief span of time; so it's unanimously decided that when any of them get spotted, everyone should work towards nipping the massive threat in the bud.
As the ruler of the demon race and one of the beings standing at the top of God's Domain, however, Celestina knew a lot more about Mutants and Awakeneds than regular people. She also had clues as answers for their origin and what they truly are.
Hence just the sight of Lancelot made her reek and wish for nothing more than to immediately dispose of this atrocious creature.
Lancelot became indignant as well after being insulted by a mere Great Demon, not caring about the purity of Celestina's Bloodline in the least and preparing to kill both her and Feng at once.
Mana started rapidly gathering around the Awakened, but Celestina didn't shy away and immediately spread out her own Mana Domain as well while pitch-black Soul Fire covered the Pandemonium Lashblade.
"Hey now, let's all settle down." Feng interjected before the two of them could begin fighting from behind Celestina while walking up next to her and putting one hand around the Demon Goddess's shoulder.
He naturally didn't bring Lancelot out simply to fight the Awakened. Feng wanted to discuss a matter of cooperation with the NPC, despite knowing full well the nature of Awakeneds about as much as the Demon Empress, and knowing Celestina's disposition on creatures like Mutants and Awakeneds.
"Human don't get cocky just because you have this bitch to protect you. I will devour the two of you right here and now. Moreover, your death will not be swift as punishment for ambushing me." Lancelot barked out while his eyes shot daggers at Feng.
Lancelot still vividly remembers that just as he had gained his freedom back after being sealed away for so long, this human and another one suddenly jumped him with powerful attacks, quickly beating him down before the NPC had time to adjust and fight back. Such a humiliating offense was not something Lancelot was willing to let slide.
"Yes yes, I get that you're mad, but I have no intention of fighting you. Why don't we just have a peaceful chat?"
With his strength, Feng naturally wouldn't need Celestina to protect him from Lancelot's attack. He had his own ways of dealing with a foe of his caliber.
Previously, Feng and Black Flame had only managed to kill the Tier 4 Awakened NPC so easily because he had only just possessed a physical body after spending hundreds of years sealed, with the two of them instantly ambushing him and chaining some of their most powerful attacks, taking Lancelot down within a few seconds without giving him a chance to even defend himself.
Although Feng believed he might still have a chance of defeating Lancelot on his own, it would be a long and difficult battle with him going all out, while the Awakened wouldn't consider anything except killing Feng, which wasn't suitable for their current location, and would ultimately be pointless to do. They'd end up fighting the whole time without achieving anything.
Having a Tier 4 demon like Celestina interfere with him, though, would at least cause Lancelot to stop for a moment, so Feng had decided to have the Demon Empress possess a physical body and obtain form in order for her to be around and stop Lancelot in his tracks, providing Feng the opportunity to try negotiating with him.
"GO TO HELL!" Unfortunately, Lancelot didn't seem to have any intentions of listening to what Feng had to say. Mana continued gathering around the NPC as he reignited his attack.
"Good grief." Feng could only sigh at the Awakened's reaction. He was aware of what kind of creatures Mutants and Awakeneds are, seeking only death and destruction in order to grow stronger, but NPCs, especially high-ranking ones, usually had a lot more intelligence.
This made them much stronger and difficult to deal with, while simultaneously also creating the possibility of communicating. Feng's hope had been that Lancelot would at least be open to having some kind of conversation after considering his current state of only a soul and that it was Feng who summoned it out with the High Elf's high intelligence.
The current behavior displayed by the Awakened thus greatly disappointed him.
However, Feng wasn't exactly out of options and he still had a way to smack some sense into Lancelot's head. Only, he hadn't wanted to even entertain revealing such a thing at this point, and especially not in front of Celestina.
Plans could never keep up with change, though, and Feng would have to take a risk since obtaining Lancelot's assistance was of incredible importance to him; with many of Feng's future plans hinging on it.
"Why are we even bothering with this disgusting thing? I'll just kill it since it refused you!" Celestina had no patience for this matter and was extremely against this Awakened even existing, let alone her contractor speaking with it. She immediately decided it was best to eliminate it before Feng or Lancelot could do anything more.
"Just try it you lowly dem-"
"Can't you two shut the hell up already?"
Suddenly, Feng's cold voice rang out in the room. For some reason, despite there not being any particularly powerful aura coming from the human, both of the two Tier 4 powerhouses seemed to freeze in place as a strange premonition surfaced in their hearts.
Moreover, Lancelot, who had a clear view of Feng's face, felt his entire being tense up at the sight. Right now, Feng's emotionless face no longer seemed like something that would appear on a human. And even more horrifyingly, his eyes had turned completely black, the same as Lancelot's.
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1. Not the official name for the Third Step as of yet.
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