Krysta
“Insane mother, insane child, huh?” Parvorax looked over at Bellessia as he leaned back in his seat once Krysta finished answering the last of the Lady of Hellwater’s questions, his legs up on the table. “Still, I have to say you made a nice little monster. I can count the number of E ranks who personally slew full power B ranks on one hand. Do you think at C rank he might kill you?”
Bellessia ignored him and turned to look at her sister.
The Lady of Hellwater in turn, however, was glaring at Parvorax. “You don’t need to worry about that, Flame Lord. Given your alchemist took him in as an apprentice after said slaying, and everything your niece has explained about his personality, he almost certainly already has an oath and it will likely keep him from using curses and plagues for his revenge.” She then turned to look at Bellessia. “In return, however, it will probably allow him to blaze right past roadblocks which would have impeded his advancement otherwise.”
She turned back to the six Heavenly Scarabs. “From the results of Earth’s war with the Violet Mountain Sect, they would have received coupons for the Universal Auction. Given the nature of the Alchemist, she likely used the 75% off coupon on the Dread Plunderer, but the 50% off coupon she seems to have traded with you, resulting in your faction winning the new universe. What did you trade in return?”
“Oh.” Parvorax’s eyes grew wide as all his brothers turned to look at him, and he even took his feet off the table. Then he turned to look at Krysta’s mother. “That big item. You lied to me, right? It was for his C rank advancement, not A or B.”
Krysta’s mother just smiled at him enigmatically, but it seemed Parvorax was quite sure of his own guess. “That boy is so insane.”
“Care to share with the group, Flame Lord?” Bellessia’s expression was still somehow calm and collected as she looked at Parvorax.
“No can do.” Parvorax shook his head, a big smile again on his face. “I signed a contract with the boss.”
“The Heavenly Spark Soul King isn’t important,” Krysta’s father interjected, calmly looking at the Lady of Hellwater. “Whatever the case, we all know the Primordial Humans will interfere with his ability to gain Territory, so he won’t be able to advance his race to the point he’d be able to use whatever resource my brother sold him.
“He might make it to C rank, surpassing everyone ever on the path of the Heavenly Spark, but, given his path, he won’t be able to make it to B rank, so he can be reduced from a class 3 threat to a class 4.
“The only issue left for us to talk about then is the population of his planet. Yes, everyone from that population has the possibility of awakening to a shadow line uniqueness, but the only confirmed case we have is the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s chamberlain, and her path is limited by your nephew’s.
“Earth Mother created this problem herself, and it is not of a high enough grade to warrant any more cooperation, so you humans will need to deal with it on your own. We under the Divine Child will not be offering any more assistance.”
He rose from his seat and his brothers followed his lead. “Now, please leave. And if we catch you or yours in the Territory of the Forest Cauldron again, we won’t be polite.”
Bellessia looked like she wanted to say something, but the Lady of Hellwater put a hand on her shoulder. Then black water appeared around the Lady of Hellwater and tore open a stable hole in space, into which both goddesses stepped, transporting them over a galaxy cluster away.
“Sky Lord.” Kilvorax bowed to the older independent god who was still sitting in the room. “Thank you for protecting my daughter. I owe you a favor.”
“It was but a minor matter.” The Sky Lord waved a hand dismissively and stood, smiling at the six Heavenly Scarab Brothers. “And feel free to stay on my planet for as long as you like.
“I’ll take my leave now.”
The god then left and the six brothers sat back down, all of them letting out sighs of relief.
As Krysta started to realize the implications of her father and uncles’ expressions, beginning to feel utterly terrified, Kilvorax turned to look at her and her mother again. “I understand you didn’t know any better, but please make sure to never have contact with that planet again.
“Your friends and their people are safe for now—the System’s protection of their planet is not something even the Primordial Humans can get around without at least several tens of thousands of years of work—but with just a B rank planet that boy’s path will be cut off. He likely has more Territory than just what he gained from his war with the Violet Mountain Sect, but the Primordial Humans have his soul aura, so they’ll be able to find it and kill the lords he rules over, not to mention the other ways they’ll manage to suppress him.
“Nothing you do will allow you to help, and we have no way of protecting you if the Earth Mother ever really wants you dead.”
Krysta’s mother frowned. “I feel like I’m missing something. The Lady of Hellwater is powerful, but it felt like the Earth Mother was much weaker than her, barely comparable to any of you.”
“The Earth Mother herself isn’t the issue.” Parvorax was no longer smiling, his jovial attitude from before completely gone. “The issue is her status in the human race.
“You almost certainly couldn’t sense it, but she was wearing some kind of artifact—likely a necklace—with the power of her father. Had we gotten at all violent, he would have arrived almost instantly and slaughtered all of us.”
Parvorax took a deep breath. “The biggest thing revealed today was not the feats of your apprentice, but the fact the Earth Mother had two more children only a couple years after her twins with Emperor Thunderstrike, ones who, from your description, had no degradation of talent.
“As a goddess of motherhood, she’s always found it easier than the rest of us to have children, but now it seems possible she can have children whenever she wants, and that has the potential to change the entire power structure of the universe.”
Krysta knew about the twin children of Thunderstrike Taravan. They were both considered contenders for the best talent of the current generation before her own existence was revealed. But she hadn’t known they were children of the Earth Mother.
The children of deities were far more likely than normal cultivators to have the talent to grow into deities themselves, but they were generally incredibly rare, an average of only one born every ten billion years or so, so only 22 of the universe’s 204 gods had a divine parent. But, if a new divine child could be produced even every thousand years, and even if their rate of advancing past A rank was only 0.001%, far lower than normal for divine children, it would still only take 10 billion years for 100 new gods to be born.
* * *
Mila
Mila felt it as the lord servants under Aalam began to be slaughtered, greatly reducing the size of his Territory, but it wasn’t a big blow. She’d already expected it would happen and destroyed her contracts with anyone whose life and death she actually cared about.
While she’d never wanted to expose her Shadow Princess uniqueness before, there was no issue with that now, so she’d used it to cut off the contracts with those lords she approved of, doing so in a way the other party’s side of the contract would be severed as well.
The bigger loss was the Territory they’d gained from the Violet Mountain Sect, which was quickly being conquered.
Still, while the loss of Territory would slow Aalam’s development slightly, with an A rank planet under his rule, his second uniqueness would still advance from King to Emperor before the end of the War of the Chosen, so their only true loss was in the time it would take.
Smiling slightly, Mila got back to handing out the psyforce to speech collars Aalam had created to the line of monsters heading for the teleportation platform which would bring them back to Earth.
With a goddess targeting all Earthlings, Mila’d had to move up the timetable of finding the Earthlings reincarnated as monsters, and it had been a pretty big success. Having already conquered at least one D rank force from every planet undergoing an apocalypse style integration she knew of, Mila had figured out which planets Earthlings had reincarnated onto before Diana had died—Nana Xara’s information from the monster tutorial and the information sent back by the D rank invasion forces making it quite easy to identify Earth’s talents. Then all she’d had to do was send talented young G ranks from Earth with the Omniglot Reader racial ability to the planets using the System’s reinforcement function for invading forces, paying the exorbitant costs herself.
The young G ranks had immediately advanced to F rank upon arrival, made contact with the Earthling monsters, and then worked with the monsters to help the D rank forces they represented conquer the planets.
The D rank forces Mila later abandoned gained a new planet, while the monsters from Earth could return home and any natives they cared about could move to Hira.
Of the nineteen planets with confirmed Earthling monsters, they’d managed to recover all the remaining Earthlings from 17 of them, and they hadn’t lost any of the 19 talented G ranks, 2 making the right decision to retreat upon realizing most of the Earthling monsters were already dead, the other invasion forces on the planets too powerful.
Thirteen_Life_Legion
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Krysta
“Insane mother, insane child, huh?” Parvorax looked over at Bellessia as he leaned back in his seat once Krysta finished answering the last of the Lady of Hellwater’s questions, his legs up on the table. “Still, I have to say you made a nice little monster. I can count the number of E ranks who personally slew full power B ranks on one hand. Do you think at C rank he might kill you?”
Bellessia ignored him and turned to look at her sister.
The Lady of Hellwater in turn, however, was glaring at Parvorax. “You don’t need to worry about that, Flame Lord. Given your alchemist took him in as an apprentice after said slaying, and everything your niece has explained about his personality, he almost certainly already has an oath and it will likely keep him from using curses and plagues for his revenge.” She then turned to look at Bellessia. “In return, however, it will probably allow him to blaze right past roadblocks which would have impeded his advancement otherwise.”
She turned back to the six Heavenly Scarabs. “From the results of Earth’s war with the Violet Mountain Sect, they would have received coupons for the Universal Auction. Given the nature of the Alchemist, she likely used the 75% off coupon on the Dread Plunderer, but the 50% off coupon she seems to have traded with you, resulting in your faction winning the new universe. What did you trade in return?”
“Oh.” Parvorax’s eyes grew wide as all his brothers turned to look at him, and he even took his feet off the table. Then he turned to look at Krysta’s mother. “That big item. You lied to me, right? It was for his C rank advancement, not A or B.”
Krysta’s mother just smiled at him enigmatically, but it seemed Parvorax was quite sure of his own guess. “That boy is so insane.”
“Care to share with the group, Flame Lord?” Bellessia’s expression was still somehow calm and collected as she looked at Parvorax.
“No can do.” Parvorax shook his head, a big smile again on his face. “I signed a contract with the boss.”
“The Heavenly Spark Soul King isn’t important,” Krysta’s father interjected, calmly looking at the Lady of Hellwater. “Whatever the case, we all know the Primordial Humans will interfere with his ability to gain Territory, so he won’t be able to advance his race to the point he’d be able to use whatever resource my brother sold him.
“He might make it to C rank, surpassing everyone ever on the path of the Heavenly Spark, but, given his path, he won’t be able to make it to B rank, so he can be reduced from a class 3 threat to a class 4.
“The only issue left for us to talk about then is the population of his planet. Yes, everyone from that population has the possibility of awakening to a shadow line uniqueness, but the only confirmed case we have is the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s chamberlain, and her path is limited by your nephew’s.
“Earth Mother created this problem herself, and it is not of a high enough grade to warrant any more cooperation, so you humans will need to deal with it on your own. We under the Divine Child will not be offering any more assistance.”
He rose from his seat and his brothers followed his lead. “Now, please leave. And if we catch you or yours in the Territory of the Forest Cauldron again, we won’t be polite.”
Bellessia looked like she wanted to say something, but the Lady of Hellwater put a hand on her shoulder. Then black water appeared around the Lady of Hellwater and tore open a stable hole in space, into which both goddesses stepped, transporting them over a galaxy cluster away.
“Sky Lord.” Kilvorax bowed to the older independent god who was still sitting in the room. “Thank you for protecting my daughter. I owe you a favor.”
“It was but a minor matter.” The Sky Lord waved a hand dismissively and stood, smiling at the six Heavenly Scarab Brothers. “And feel free to stay on my planet for as long as you like.
“I’ll take my leave now.”
The god then left and the six brothers sat back down, all of them letting out sighs of relief.
As Krysta started to realize the implications of her father and uncles’ expressions, beginning to feel utterly terrified, Kilvorax turned to look at her and her mother again. “I understand you didn’t know any better, but please make sure to never have contact with that planet again.
“Your friends and their people are safe for now—the System’s protection of their planet is not something even the Primordial Humans can get around without at least several tens of thousands of years of work—but with just a B rank planet that boy’s path will be cut off. He likely has more Territory than just what he gained from his war with the Violet Mountain Sect, but the Primordial Humans have his soul aura, so they’ll be able to find it and kill the lords he rules over, not to mention the other ways they’ll manage to suppress him.
“Nothing you do will allow you to help, and we have no way of protecting you if the Earth Mother ever really wants you dead.”
Krysta’s mother frowned. “I feel like I’m missing something. The Lady of Hellwater is powerful, but it felt like the Earth Mother was much weaker than her, barely comparable to any of you.”
“The Earth Mother herself isn’t the issue.” Parvorax was no longer smiling, his jovial attitude from before completely gone. “The issue is her status in the human race.
“You almost certainly couldn’t sense it, but she was wearing some kind of artifact—likely a necklace—with the power of her father. Had we gotten at all violent, he would have arrived almost instantly and slaughtered all of us.”
Parvorax took a deep breath. “The biggest thing revealed today was not the feats of your apprentice, but the fact the Earth Mother had two more children only a couple years after her twins with Emperor Thunderstrike, ones who, from your description, had no degradation of talent.
“As a goddess of motherhood, she’s always found it easier than the rest of us to have children, but now it seems possible she can have children whenever she wants, and that has the potential to change the entire power structure of the universe.”
Krysta knew about the twin children of Thunderstrike Taravan. They were both considered contenders for the best talent of the current generation before her own existence was revealed. But she hadn’t known they were children of the Earth Mother.
The children of deities were far more likely than normal cultivators to have the talent to grow into deities themselves, but they were generally incredibly rare, an average of only one born every ten billion years or so, so only 22 of the universe’s 204 gods had a divine parent. But, if a new divine child could be produced even every thousand years, and even if their rate of advancing past A rank was only 0.001%, far lower than normal for divine children, it would still only take 10 billion years for 100 new gods to be born.
* * *
Mila
Mila felt it as the lord servants under Aalam began to be slaughtered, greatly reducing the size of his Territory, but it wasn’t a big blow. She’d already expected it would happen and destroyed her contracts with anyone whose life and death she actually cared about.
While she’d never wanted to expose her Shadow Princess uniqueness before, there was no issue with that now, so she’d used it to cut off the contracts with those lords she approved of, doing so in a way the other party’s side of the contract would be severed as well.
The bigger loss was the Territory they’d gained from the Violet Mountain Sect, which was quickly being conquered.
Still, while the loss of Territory would slow Aalam’s development slightly, with an A rank planet under his rule, his second uniqueness would still advance from King to Emperor before the end of the War of the Chosen, so their only true loss was in the time it would take.
Smiling slightly, Mila got back to handing out the psyforce to speech collars Aalam had created to the line of monsters heading for the teleportation platform which would bring them back to Earth.
With a goddess targeting all Earthlings, Mila’d had to move up the timetable of finding the Earthlings reincarnated as monsters, and it had been a pretty big success. Having already conquered at least one D rank force from every planet undergoing an apocalypse style integration she knew of, Mila had figured out which planets Earthlings had reincarnated onto before Diana had died—Nana Xara’s information from the monster tutorial and the information sent back by the D rank invasion forces making it quite easy to identify Earth’s talents. Then all she’d had to do was send talented young G ranks from Earth with the Omniglot Reader racial ability to the planets using the System’s reinforcement function for invading forces, paying the exorbitant costs herself.
The young G ranks had immediately advanced to F rank upon arrival, made contact with the Earthling monsters, and then worked with the monsters to help the D rank forces they represented conquer the planets.
The D rank forces Mila later abandoned gained a new planet, while the monsters from Earth could return home and any natives they cared about could move to Hira.
Of the nineteen planets with confirmed Earthling monsters, they’d managed to recover all the remaining Earthlings from 17 of them, and they hadn’t lost any of the 19 talented G ranks, 2 making the right decision to retreat upon realizing most of the Earthling monsters were already dead, the other invasion forces on the planets too powerful.
Thirteen_Life_Legion
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thirteenlifelegion
Vote for SotSK on TopWebFiction! http://topwebfiction.com/listings/shadow-of-the-soul-king/
And a special thank you to Shadow of the Soul King's patrons, who get to read the latest chapters as they are written and edited.
If you are unable to support Shadow of the Soul King monetarily but are enjoying the story, please like, comment, and add Shadow of the Soul King to your reader list to help more readers see the story. It will be much appreciated, especially comments. As an author, feedback is always of value.
Also, any mentions on social media would be awesome. Let's see if we can get that thief who posted the first 25 chapters of the story to webnovel.com off the first page of a 'Shadow of the Soul King' google search.
