Chapter 332 - Harvest Time
Chapter 332 Harvest Time
When they returned to Ur-Hekal, all they saw was a melted city.
Thick smoke swept up and slowly drifted toward the dim sky. Hot magma was flowing randomly in the city, and houses would collapse into the magma from time to time. The flammable objects burst into fierce flames when they came into contact with the magma.
The entire city was burning. Apart from the alliance army’s attack, the reason why the city of Ur-Hekal had become like this was mostly because of Kha-Beleth. When he transformed into a flame demon and fought Roy, the nearby Ur-Hekal naturally became the first place to suffer.
As Roy was worried that this melting state would be disadvantageous to his search, a large amount of black frost quickly spread out from beneath his feet the moment he landed. Not only did the black frost freeze the flowing magma in the city, but it also strengthened the crumbling buildings.
After identifying the direction, Roy brought Julia and Benia straight to the city hall of Ur-Hekal, while the other demons scattered into the city and tried their best to find something useful.
The city hall was also melting. Roy’s arrival caused the frost to freeze the collapse. After entering the interior of the hall, Roy raised his head and looked at the circular dome above. There was an enormous purple crystal embedded on the dome, exuding a warm light.
“That’s… a soul crystal?!” Julia looked up and was shocked. “Such a big soul crystal?!”
Benia also came to a realization. “No wonder the souls of those killed on the battlefield would drift to Ur-Hekal. So there’s actually such an enormous soul crystal here…”
Yes, this was the first harvest Roy obtained in Kha-Beleth’s memories.
Soul crystals were also a method to store souls. Compared to storage methods such as soul contracts and other documents, soul crystals could store more souls. Moreover, soul crystals had a special characteristic. After the number of souls stored in one reached a certain number, a special ability to attract and absorb souls within a certain range would appear. This was similar to Roy’s Soul Attracting Flag.
Benia’s eyes were shining as she stared at the soul crystal on the dome and whispered, “How many souls are stored in such an enormous soul crystal?! We’ve made a killing!”
“About 3,430,000!” Roy replied. “This is the number of souls that Kha-Beleth has been storing since he left Sheogh and came to the surface. Over the past twenty years, demons have sealed half of the souls they obtained in the war here…”
“Why was Kha-Beleth storing so many souls?”. Benia asked in puzzlement. “This is a kind of… magic power energy!” Roy spread his wings and slowly floated toward the dome. Julia and Benia quickly followed. As they flew, Roy explained, “Although Kha-Beleth wanted to use the Dark Messiah to break Sheogh’s seal and release all the demon lords, he did know if the Dark Messiah would have such powerful magic power to break the seal after growing. So he stored a vast number of souls in advance so that he could prepare for emergencies when breaking the seal.”
“Even if the Dark Messiah can grow up, it will still take at least twenty years. How many souls was Kha-Beleth preparing to store?!” Julia asked in surprise. “More than ten million!” Roy said. “Moreover, even if he doesn’t need to use these souls to break the seal, there are other uses. For example, after breaking the seal, using them to replenish the magic power of the demon lords who are constantly weakening after being trapped in Sheogh. Or… using these souls to sacrifice to the Dragon of Chaos, Urgash, to help him recover and return!”
Benia’s eyes widened when she heard this. “They actually want to play this big?! They want to let Urgash return?!”
“There are more demon lords in Sheogh, but no one at the demon king level…” Roy explained. “And Urgash is truly at the demon king level. Kha-Beleth and the others need Urgash’s power to fight against the Dragon of Order, Asha… He prepared this soul reserve just in case.”
“Hehehe!” Benia suddenly laughed. “But now, it’s all for you, right, Osiris?”.
Roy smiled but did not say anything. He stretched out his hand and hugged the enormous soul crystal. Then he used his strength to break the soul crystal off the inlay socket.
This purple soul crystal was about seven meters tall, more than twice his height, and it weighed about two tons. When he carried it to the ground, the ground trembled slightly when he landed. He sensed the number of souls in the crystal and found that it far exceeded the 3.43 million in Kha-Beleth’s memory! It was over 3.6 million!
The extra quantity was probably the souls of the alliance army and demons who died in this battle. Kha-Beleth had not included them in his number after the crystal attracted them.
Holding this crystal, Roy was ecstatic. He really made a killing this time!
Although he had been collecting souls over the years, the greatest amount of souls he had obtained before this was the soul contract that Fury had given him in the Darksiders world. There had been a million souls in it. And now, the souls stored in this crystal were 3.6 times as much as in the soul contract.
As expected, a horse doesn’t get fat without extra feed, and people won’t get rich by being honest. After so much effort collecting, how could it be faster than robbing someone?
Unfortunately, souls were delicious food for demons. Demons usually would not save souls after obtaining them and would eat them directly. So unless a demon lord like Kha-Beleth stored some souls while plotting a big scheme, it was impossible to obtain the spoils of war from slain demons under normal circumstances…
Xeron and the high-rank demon heroes had contributed a large portion of these 3.6 million souls. Since they had chosen to work for Kha-Beleth, apart from leaving some for their own use, they had stored the rest in the soul crystal.
When Roy fought against Kha-Beleth, it was fortunate that he did not think of draining his magic power. If Kha-Beleth had really run out of magic power, he might have thought of this soul crystal and used the souls inside to replenish his magic power. In that case, Roy would not have been able to maximize his benefits.
“Julia, Benia, each of you take two hundred thousand souls from it. This is your reward!” Roy patted the soul crystal.
Benia was ecstatic with this one-time reward of two hundred thousand souls. It was a huge fortune! But before she could rejoice, she saw Julia shaking her head. “I don’t want them. I can’t absorb souls to increase my strength, so it’s useless to give me so many! Dear, it’s time for you to promote to demon lord, and you should use these souls. You don’t have to give me any!”
Benia was stunned when she heard this. Yes, Julia was a fallen angel. Her strength could only grow by continuously absorbing dark power and could not grow through devouring souls like a true demon. But now that she said this, it was not good for Benia to take them because the comparison would make it seem like she was not thinking about Roy…
She was now loyal to Roy. The stronger he was, the higher his status, the greater the benefits for her, so she gritted her teeth and said, “Then I don’t want mine!”
Roy understood their intentions and smiled. “It’s fine if Julia doesn’t want them. Take them, Benia. Don’t you want to take revenge on your sister? You also need to increase your strength as soon as possible. I’ll use Julia’s share to reward the demons under me. After I modify Kha-Beleth’s demon sword, I’ll use it to compensate Julia!”
“Okay, I have no objections!” Benia quickly nodded. Her weapon was usually a flame whip, and she was used to it. But Julia used a sword, and she was indeed the only one who could use Kha-Beleth’s demon sword.
Benia stepped forward and placed her hand on the soul crystal. Then one soul after another flew out of the crystal. Benia opened her mouth and swallowed them. The entire process lasted for quite a while. After reaching two hundred thousand, she stopped. At this moment, her magic power was surging all over her body, and her charming face looked very satisfied. She looked at Roy seductively. “Then, my dear lord, I’ll go and digest them first…”
“I’m going too!” Julia hugged Roy affectionately. “I’ll go to Fat Tiger and get the demon sword.”
Seeing Roy nod, the two of them flew out of the city hall.
Only after they left did Roy place his hand on the soul crystal and began to take out the souls in it. It was the same process as before, but unlike with Benia, the souls Roy took out merged into his body and were stored in the system space.
The originally empty soul counter in the system began to rise rapidly. One million, two million, three million, and finally stopped at about 3.2 million.
Roy took away 3.2 million souls and left more than 200,000 in the soul crystal. He was going to use them as bonus pay for his demon subordinates. As the leader of these demons, he had to give his subordinates enough benefits to trick them into continuing to work for him.
After temporarily leaving the soul crystal here, Roy began to walk slowly in the city hall, sensing for something as he walked. Soon, he stopped and muttered, “It’s here!”
Roy stretched out his arms and condensed magic power on his fingertips. He crossed his hands and slowly made a tearing motion in the air.
Buzz! A slight sound came. Roy actually ripped open a spatial channel with his hands in this originally empty spot! There was an oval-shaped spatial gate shining with blue light, and the center was pitch black.
This was naturally space magic that Roy used. He was a frost demon, and he was not good at space magic, but Kha-Beleth was not much better than him. To a demon lord, although knowing space magic was necessary, it did not mean that they had to be proficient.
This spatial channel actually connected to a Purgatory Space, which was a separate layer of the main world. If Kha-Beleth were a rift demon, he could freely travel through this Purgatory Space, but he was only a flame demon, so his use of the Purgatory Space was only… to hide things! Through Kha-Beleth’s memories, Roy knew how to open this space where he hid things. After finding it, Roy flashed and walked in.
The first and second things he saw were… two stone steles full of demon characters!
Because he had come into contact with them before, Roy recognized them immediately. They were two steles of the Demon Bible! Roy was stunned on the spot. F*ck! Are these the original steles of the Demon Bible?!