Chapter 219: Mortal Hero Sword! (33)

Night.

The starry sky high above was brilliant like a sea of light.

The ground's faith prison, however, was like the sun falling into the mortal world.

More than six thousand Blood Soul Legion members lay in ambush here, using precise legendary magical artifacts, with steel-like discipline, plus rich experience fighting demons, successfully disguising themselves as the most ordinary plants, thus evading the Nether Shadow Lord's detection! At this moment, the six thousand Blood Soul Warriors constructed a massive magic formation with their own souls and power, and 24 Blood Soul Generals each possessing at least 8-ring magic power used their own souls as the power hub of the formation's operation.

Finally, the generals and warriors united their hearts through the formation, then, via the legendary magical artifact crafted by the Grand Guardian Mage, guided vast Guardian Faith Power, condensing into a mighty force that could be called magnificent.

In Luosen's legendary vision, he saw streams of faith power instantly break through the tenth magic ring, enter Huan Wai Xu Kong, and turn into one after another incredibly thick faith light beams.

The strength of these faith light beams wasn't high, about Legendary 3, but their scale was immensely huge.

The Blood Soul Warriors were all mortals, with an average soul strength of 4-ring; they naturally couldn't perceive the situation in Huan Wai Xu Kong, but through countless drills, the action of constructing the prison was deeply ingrained into their souls.

Luosen saw these faith light beams converge at an astonishing speed, almost in the blink of an eye, forming a prison made of Guardian Faith Power.

The only shortcoming was that, because the warriors couldn't sense the demon's exact location and failed to prevent its escape, the prison's volume was built relatively large, covering a vast expanse of the void.

At the same time, Luosen began carefully searching for the Nether Shadow Lord's trace.

He looked left and right, also using Laifu's super-strong analytical ability, but he never found the Nether Shadow Lord's true body.

Inside the massive faith prison, it seemed there was nothing.

Luosen's heart skipped a beat: 'Could he have gotten away?'

That shouldn't be.

He felt it clearly: the earlier ambush had been perfect, the prison formed quickly enough, and the Nether Shadow Lord definitely existed—so why couldn't he be found? Just then, the mortal Datuo suddenly burst out laughing.

"Luosen Mage, do you think your trap is flawless?"

"No, it isn't."

"My master is the Nether Shadow Lord; in terms of stealth and surprise attack ability, no one surpasses my master—he saw through the trap's location at a glance."

"He never even approached this area; he's just messing with you, hahaha~~"

Alianna felt a bit insecure after hearing that, after all, the opponent was a powerful Legendary 6 demon, and this was its first appearance in Nawate, its power completely unfamiliar.

Situations like being toyed with by demons, mobilizing forces only to end up with nothing, often occurred in past demon-hunting operations; it was nothing unusual.

The Blood Soul Legion's soldiers also felt a bit insecure, thinking they'd come up empty-handed with this net.

Some warriors' will even wavered, causing the faith light beams forming the prison to become somewhat dim.

But the generals didn't rush to dismantle the prison; they all looked to Luosen, waiting for his next order.

The Grand Guardian Mage Sasimaer, far away in the capital city, urgently issued an order: for the next twenty-four hours, the Legendary Mage Luosen from the Natural Alliance would be the legion's supreme commander.

He would be the legion's brain and eyes; everything must obey his command.

A thought flashed in Luosen's mind, and he immediately found the loophole.

"No, the fish is in the net!"

"It is indeed very good at hiding, and it has hidden itself!"

Having said that, he gave Datuo a cold smile.

"If the Nether Shadow Lord truly saw through the trap, he should now reveal himself, using his Shocking Magic Ring ability to mock us harshly, rather than letting you, his slave, speak."

"This unexpected situation shows that the Nether Shadow Lord dares not speak, for the moment he opens his mouth, he will expose his hiding place!"

These words left Datuo speechless.

Luosen immediately contacted Alianna in secret: "Can this demon prison be shrunk step by step?"

"If so, we could use this method to directly fish out the Nether Shadow Lord."

Unexpectedly, Alianna shook her head: "No, once formed, it can only maintain its current size, and its duration cannot exceed half an hour, otherwise the warriors' souls couldn't bear it."

Hearing this, Luosen's heart gave a sudden jolt, and he immediately felt the weight of great responsibility.

He observed the void again, but aside from the dazzling faith prison, he could only see various natural fluctuations of power light and shadow in the void.

The opponent hid in the void with perfect perfection, surpassing even the finest chameleon in the world.

"What to do?" He quickly thought of countermeasures, while his eyes darted among the thirty surviving demon followers.

Suddenly, his gaze settled on Sailin.

This blue-haired fallen Guardian Mage showed some abnormal behavior; he remained expressionless, spoke not a word, and his icy blue eyes held no emotion whatsoever.

Such behavior could fool others, but not Luosen.

Luosen faintly felt that Sailin had not fallen willingly, but was forced.

Or rather, he had been dragged into it.

Knowing this was very useful.

Because Sailin possessed a great deal of the Nether Shadow Lord's power, and even more, faith power toward the Nether Shadow Lord.

As long as he was willing to cooperate, through that thread of faith-power connection, we could easily uncover the hidden dark master behind him.

Time was short; Luosen acted immediately.

He immediately told Alianna his idea, because Alianna and Sailin were colleagues, and thus certainly knew Sailin's character better than he did.

Alianna fell silent for a few seconds, then had an idea.

"Sailin, I know you were forced."

"The Saint said that everyone in the world makes mistakes; that's not scary, what's scary is making mistakes and not changing."

"The Saint also said that there has never been a savior in the world; mortals wanting to survive in this cruel world can rely only on ourselves."

"Have you forgotten all these?"

"Who is the Saint? Naturally, it's Ferdemonte, the Ten Rings powerhouse who traveled and urged the states 800 years ago."

"All Guardian Mages in Nawate call themselves disciples of Ferdemonte."

"In a world overrun by demons, this disciple is no mere empty title; they truly accept his creed, take it as their life's goal, even their very meaning of existence."

"So even if one has fallen, as long as the fall isn't complete, Saint Ferdemonte can still exert tremendous influence."

Datuo saw this and immediately said, "Seglin, don't listen to his nonsense; think of the promises our master made to us, think of how many beauties exist in the world!"

"We clearly possess the power to look down on mortals, yet we stubbornly suppress our desires for these mortals who have nothing to do with us, sacrificing our lives for them; this is an enormous injustice to us!"

Aliena was furious.

"Unfair?!"

"Datuo, I ask you, where do the food you eat, the drink you drink, and the things you use come from?"

"Who built your Black Stone carriage?"

"From which mortal woman's womb did your body crawl out?"

"Your knowledge, your power—are they all innate?"

"Now you claim it's unfair. When you were weak, why didn't you say it was unfair?!"

"Answer me, Datuo!"

Datuo's complexion flashed between blue and white, leaving him speechless.

Aliena pointed at Datuo and said, "See, this is a born demon, because like a demon he only knows how to take and never how to give back."

"But the saints told us that everyone has their own shortcomings, everyone is imperfect; a single mortal is extremely fragile, and only by gathering the power of billions of mortals together can we overcome each other's flaws and achieve a mighty force that gods and demons dread."

"This is the only path for us mortals!"

"Seglin, look at Datuo again; he has a demon's heart but lacks a demon's power, so he can only serve a true demon as a dog!"

"Look, he serves a demon as a dog yet claims the Republic is unfair; isn't that the greatest irony in the world?"

Datuo's face turned iron‑blue, yet he could not utter a single rebuttal.

Seglin suddenly roared, "I know all these!"

"I made a wrong move, then a second wrong step because of fear of demons, then a third. I can't turn back now."

"No, you can turn back!"

Aliena shouted loudly.

"Help us find the demon and redeem your soul!"

Seglin's face instantly showed a look of struggle.

He clenched his teeth, furrowed his brows, glared angrily, and roared, as if two souls inside him were fiercely battling for control of his body.

Luosen, seeing the situation, immediately knew that the Lord of Shadows was controlling him.

He instantly stared into the void, searching for subtle disturbances of the control.

As he watched, Laifu noticed an anomaly and marked it in Luosen's implementation.

Luosen followed the mark, yet still found nothing; the inability to perceive does not mean it does not exist.

Time was running short, and the Blood Soul Legion's warriors were about to collapse.

Luosen took a deep breath and, using a conduit of mana, forged a legendary +2 Soul Oath Sword, which he tentatively thrust toward Laifu's marked point.

When the light sword left, that area instantly manifested a mass of shadow resembling a star‑filled night.

The shadow expanded rapidly, turning in an instant into an enormous mass, ten times larger than the silver‑eyed demon Luosen once killed, sheer terror.

Immediately after, Luosen felt an immense will pressing down on him, giving him a suffocating sense of being unable to breathe.

"Mortal, I never intended excessive slaughter, yet I never expected you to think I fear you."

"And you keep using your petty cleverness to anger me time after time."

"Now, I will let you taste what divine punishment is!"

With those words, a massive Soul Giant Blade suddenly thrust out from the star‑night shadow, swinging powerfully around its body.

Heart of the War God had been highly activated, and Luosen instantly severed his connection to the spell ring, evading the terrifying strike.

He could dodge, but the cage imprisoning the demon could not.

The giant blade sliced through the surrounding cage at extreme speed; where the blade passed, the belief light forming the cage snapped, causing the entire cage to violently quake.

The vibration reached the mortal realm, and countless Blood Soul Warriors fell silently to the ground.

Some fainted, others had their souls shattered outright.

A single strike caused over 500 Blood Soul Warriors to collapse, and the belief cage in the void suffered a massive breach, nearly pierced through.

But the belief cage was not simple.

The damage healed swiftly; aside from a slight dimming of its light, it still firmly trapped the Lord of Shadows inside.

Luosen's heartbeat quickened slightly, shocked by the Lord of Shadows' formidable power, but he had already handed combat permission to Heart of the War God and allocated all his processing power to it.

After dodging the strike, Heart of the War God immediately linked eleven spell rings, calmly analyzing the opponent.

It analyzed both its power and its fighting style.

"Attack intensity: legendary 6.5, base soul fluctuation reduced by 2%."

In other words, although the strike was immensely fierce, it was not without cost.

It caused the Lord of Shadows to expend a great deal of power.

Immediately after, Heart of the War God began a second probe.

It used roughly ten conduits of mana to forge a +3 legendary Soul Oath Sword.

The sword's power reached legendary tier 5, and the gathered mana was considerable. In the mortal world, everyone saw Luosen's staff suddenly emit an extremely dazzling golden light.

In the void, that power formed a massive golden light sword, thrusting at the Lord of Shadows at extreme speed.

The Lord of Shadows' Soul Giant Blade reappeared, sweeping at extreme speed and striking directly onto the Soul Oath Sword.

In that instant, the Soul Oath Sword and the Shadow Giant Blade collided violently, and the clash instantly erupted a fierce soul storm.

The storm instantly rippled to the spell ring, causing a noticeable vibration; in the mortal realm, it manifested as mysterious hazy light mist in the air.

At the same time, Luosen felt a fierce soul vibration, making him dizzy and nearly faint on the spot.

The Soul Oath Sword was shattered by the opponent, while the Lord of Shadows' Soul Giant Blade merely recoiled slightly.

This clash led the Heart of the War God to reach a final conclusion.

"Target's base soul wave weakened by 0.1%."

"Current power insufficient to defeat the target head‑on; chance to win using technique is below 1%, overall win rate below 0.5%."

"Recommendation: withdraw from this battle."

Without power to support it, the Heart of the War God is not omnipotent.

"Not enough power?"

Such a meticulous arrangement, such unconditional trust from so many warriors, successfully trapped the opponent, yet I cannot defeat them due to insufficient power.

Luosen felt a strong surge of resentment rise within.

But less than three seconds after that resentment surfaced, an extremely violent force suddenly surged from the soul link.

The force was so massive that it instantly filled the Crystal Flood Staff, with a great surplus still raging.

At the same time, Aliena's voice came: "Mage Luosen, you are not fighting alone; use our power!"

Luosen was startled, then immediately understood: "Aliena!"

Aliena employed a secret technique, fiercely burning her own soul and turning it into the purest protective conviction.

At that moment, she radiated an astonishing magical surge, causing countless fine deep‑purple bolts to erupt around her.

And she was not the only one doing so.

Within the Blood Soul Legion, at least a thousand warriors were doing the same.

Each warrior fiercely burned their soul, converting that soul power into pure conviction that converged onto Aliena.

As the power hub, Aliena endured the dual agony of soul‑burn and bearing immense force, her crystal‑blue eyes displaying a sudden release after giving everything.

She looked at Luosen and said, "Legendary Mage, defeat it with our power!"

After speaking, she turned her head toward Seglin.

"Mortals inevitably die; what matters is why they die!"

Seglin's eyes widened dramatically, the twisted expression on his face vanished instantly, replaced by absolute resolve.

"Aliena!"

"I remember every word of the Saint perfectly."

"The Saint has acted on his words, and you have fulfilled the oath of protection."

"Now, it's my turn!"

Purple sparks suddenly crackled over his body, the black flame that had shrouded his eyes vanished, replaced by the blaze of a burning soul.

He looked up at the sky and roared loudly.

"Demon~ taste Seglin's backstab!"

The moment the words fell, the guardian mage's body turned to ash, while his soul condensed into an explosively bursting force that, guided by the thread of faith, shattered the magic ring's limits and poured entirely into the Lord of the Shadows' soul.

This is not gentle faith; it is an explosively vengeful conviction.

When this power entered the Lord of the Shadows' soul, it was comparable to a mortal drinking a can of glowing molten iron.

The Lord of the Shadows is not mortal, so a can of molten iron won't kill him, yet it still causes great pain.

Luosen understood clearly.

He saw the star‑night shadow in the void trembling violently, its movements severely disrupted, as if struck by rabies.

In that instant, Luosen's thoughts became completely calm.

Earlier, using Aliena's knowledge, he achieved a stronger Legendary Focus, reaching Legendary +4.1.

In other words, his attack could reach Legendary 6.1.

At this moment, the guardian warriors led by Aliena burned their souls to forge an immense power, its scale surpassing the total mana of a thousand Luosen.

The force is too massive for a mortal to control, and Luosen cannot either.

However, the Heart of the War God, trained to the limit and allocated almost all computing power, can barely manage it.

"Target's actions severely restricted; our side's power reaches 1,200 Luosen; win probability unknown."

Luosen immediately interrupted Laifu's calculation.

"Stop calculating; assist me with a full‑force strike!"

At this moment, some heroes burn their souls to forge a sword for him, others burn their souls to bind demons for him; if he does not pierce the demon's body with this sword, it will be his greatest regret in this life.

He raised the Crystal Flood Staff high; its tip emitted a dazzling brilliance like the sun, turning the entire wasteland into daylight.

Then, under the Heart of the War God's auxiliary control, using the Crystal Flood Staff as a buffer to shed most of the berserk force's impact, he successfully condensed 1,200 units of mana into a wildly ferocious Soul Oath Sword, thrusting it fiercely toward the Lord of the Shadows in the void.

A sword of soul, a covenant to protect all beings, eradicating all evil—this is the Navat Republic's Soul Oath Sword!

The Lord of the Shadows is indeed formidable.

Even now, he still forged a massive Soul Great Blade, but instead of intercepting Luosen's sword, he swung it at Luosen himself.

The Heart of the War God instantly fine‑tuned the Oath Sword's trajectory.

"Bang~~"

Relying only on the aftershock, the Oath Sword forced the Soul Great Blade aside and kept moving forward.

The Lord of the Shadows then formed a massive Soul Great Shield of endless star‑night shadows before him, blocking the Soul Oath Sword's path.

In the next instant, the great sword struck the great shield.

In the void, the two forces clashed violently again, causing an even stronger vibration on the magic ring.

Above the lakeside wasteland, a striking golden light pattern erupted, spreading outward in all directions, extending for over ten kilometers before finally dimming.

"Puff!"

The Soul Oath Sword consumed up to 70% of its power, successfully piercing the Soul Great Shield, driving deep into the Lord of the Shadows' body, then erupting violently inside.

In the void, that massive star‑night shadow began trembling uncontrollably.

A fragmented thought drifted out from the shadows.

"Duke Weilan, this is not your power; the one who defeated me is not you!"

Luosen replied calmly.

"Indeed it is not me; my power is far too weak to defeat you."

"The one who truly defeated you is a mortal hero of the Navat Republic."

"I am unwilling~ I should not die like this!"

"I am a god! I should be eternal!"

"Ah~~~~~"

"Wha—~~~"

The massive phantom burst outward from within, shattering into soul fragments that filled the void.

Some of those fragments drifted to Luosen's side.

Luosen felt a stir in his heart, quietly picked them up, selected the smallest fragment, and sucked it into the Burning Chamber of the Soul‑Igniting Secret Technique for intense combustion.

As the burning progressed, the soul fragment began to disintegrate, emitting all sorts of information, which Laifu naturally recorded into the database.

Luosen was instantly both delighted and annoyed.

"Darn, I should have done this last time!"

He immediately tossed the other fragments into the Burning Chamber as well.

This was something he did in the void, a secret no one knew about.

In the mortal world, he looked at the soldiers of the Blood‑Soul Legion with eyes full of both joy and sorrow.

Amid the hopeful gazes of the soldiers, he shouted, "The so‑called Phantom Master, the so‑called god, is dead!"

"Wha—~~~"

The Blood‑Soul Legion erupted in a fierce, tear‑filled cheer.

The cultists of the dark god, led by the fallen mage Dato, knelt helplessly as if their souls had been ripped away.

Luosen stepped forward and came to Alenna's side.

Alenna lay on the ground, her soul still burning.

She had not yet perished completely, but her remaining time was short.

Luosen knelt beside her, lifted her upper body with one hand, let her rest against his chest, and whispered through a soul link.

"Mage Alenna, though we have known each other for less than half a day, your name and visage are forever etched upon my soul."

"I admire you!"

Alenna's face broke into a relieved smile as she strained to raise her hand and touch Luosen's cheek.

"I heard that in De Rui Tan you are a ducal lord; under your protection, the people of your domain must be very happy, right?"

Luosen shook his head, "I don't know, but I will do my best."

The female mage's soul began its final disintegration, and she said at the end, "After the soul burns, it leaves behind a soul crystal. Bring this crystal to Nedrin and keep it as close to the Saint as possible."

Having spoken, her body could not withstand the immense power and crumbled into dust, leaving, at the head region, a radiant soul crystal.

Luosen picked it up and carefully placed it into the pocket over his heart for safekeeping.

Undoubtedly, it was a flawless Hero Crystal.

He then arrived at Seglin's relics, found another soul crystal, picked it up, and likewise stored it carefully.

It was a 'Redeeming Hero Crystal.'

As for Dato nearby, if he burned his own soul, what remains would count as a 'Fallen Hero Crystal,' I suppose.

No, that's wrong; he does not deserve the title 'hero,' it should simply be a 'Fallen Crystal.'

He turned toward the Blood‑Soul Legion, standing before its supreme commander, and said, "General, I must go to Nedrin."

The general nodded, "I will arrange it."

Then, he looked at Luosen with reverence, "Mage Luosen, you are tonight's brightest hero; Navat will forever remember your name!"

Luosen shook his head, watching the Blood‑Soul warriors silently gathering comrades' soul crystals.

"No, I am no hero; I am merely a traveler who wields the Hero Sword, and that is the supreme honor of my life."

(End of chapter)