City of Sin

Aftermath

Richard was unsure whether the resemblance to Sinclair and the girls in his party was intentional or there were other reasons. It may have been a coincidence, but judging from the broodmother’s answers he had a thought he never had before: perhaps the broodmother had its own mind and soul, and wasn’t merely a contract beast that just followed his orders.

The special unit was the same as any other drone. Once born, it picked up its eggshell and devoured it clean. Its outer armour grew slightly harder, thicker, and more glossy. Once done with the task, the unit stood in place without moving.

The broodmother then transmitted a special spell to him called Enlighten. It would activate this special drone, enlivening its nascent soul. It also branded a trace of himself in the soul, ensuring that this being would recognise him as the master and not the broodmother herself.

Newly created as itel was, the special unit’s soul was still in slumber. It was very weak and vulnerable, only at the level of its creator. Zendrall and Flowsand were both proficient at their classes, specialising in the spiritual. This made their wills stronger than the broodmother’s own, allowing them to enslave this new being. This was why the spawning had to be kept secret.

Richard acted according to the broodmother’s guidance, placing his hands on the new unit’s forehead and reciting a spell. A tiny spark of his soul was sent into its body, igniting its hidden divinity into a burning soul.

The being’s entire body shook, its eyes rapidly gaining life. It first turned its gaze towards the broodmother, “Thank you, creator.”

Just as Richard was shocked by the unit’s ability to speak, it turned around and bowed like a noble towards him, “I shall obey your every command, Master.”

“Oh, umm… That… is good.” Richard was left at a loss for words; the events in front of him were fat too shocking. Had he not seen this “drone” being created, he would have assumed it was a human or some humanoid sentient being. Even with the broodmother explaining that the presence of a soul was because she had used the power of divinity, even when all of this had happened right in front of his face, he still felt a great sense of amazement.

The scriptures of many churches mentioned that the realm of the soul was the domain of the gods; mere mortals were restricted from meddling in it. This was why humans could not create new, intelligent races: they could not create souls. Only the gods could create sentient races, and even then it was the domain of the few gods that were very powerful.

Richard calmed himself down, but he still felt uneasy as he spoke to the unit, “Wait a second, I need to think of a name for you. Your current clothes aren’t adequate either, I need to get you some new ones to protect your body.”

“My name is Phaser,” the special unit replied.

“Phaser?” Richard was startled once again. He turned and asked the broodmother, “Did you name her?”

“No, Master,” the broodmother replied immediately.

Phaser spoke up, “This name was carved into my soul, arising when you awoke me. However, that is only what you can refer to me as. My real name is ”At the same time, Phaser added, “This name is carved as a symbol in my soul, it came out at the same time as my soul. I can only use it as my name. My truename is Phaser Repersie….”

Phaser went on to recite a very long name that was made of almost a hundred syllables, taking more than ten seconds just to speak. Thankfully, Richard’s great memory allowed him to memorise it. However, the shock in his heart just grew in magnitude. A truename at birth? Even in the deep abyss, that only held true with the more powerful demons.

He didn’t know whether this was a trick of his mind, but when Phaser looked him in the eye he felt like her gaze held complicated emotions behind them. Thinking about it, he felt creeped out…

Richard returned to camp, fetching a hooded cape for Phaser. He also got her a masked scarf that was commonly used by assassins, allowing her to cover the visible portion of her face. Only then did he dare bring her into the castle. This wasn’t because Phaser looked strange, but more because her face just looked too much like Sinclair’s. His soldiers had just fought a bloody battle, and would have nightmares of the demonic young lady for a long time to come. Exposing them to Phaser’s case would definitely not be a good idea.

The common soldiers weren’t the least bit interested in this new companion. It was common for nobles to have new ladies by their side, and what’s more this one was dressed like an assassin and spent most of her time in the shadows. Anyone who was smart knew better than to disturb her.

Everyone contracted to Richard felt the presence of another soul belonging to the same owner, but with knowledge of Olar and his spike they didn’t try to find out more. Richard himself couldn’t think of a perfect backstory even after deep thought, so he merely passed it off, saying, “This is a contracted being.” Flowsand cast an indifferent glance at her, not asking further.

After a bit of back and forth, Richard handed over all the magic crystals he had gathered to the broodmother as an energy source, increasing her ability to create drones threefold. However, every subsequent upgrade needed more and more energy, leaving him with less than ten crystals. It was only enough for him to make some ordinary runes for Faelor.

Once the upgrade was done, the broodmother could create six wind wolves or three throwers in a day. The throwers were even enhanced with poison, their bone axes able to kill even level 10 knights in a minute if they broke skin. Only strong warriors that were level 12 or above could use their powers to endure it for a while.

Needless to say, the manticore’s venom was not that gentle. The broodmother had diluted the power of the poison she granted to the throwers; only someone at level 15 or above would be able to survive the actual poison. And this was merely the might of the replica; a single sting of the manticore itself could even kill a Faelor saint.

Once everything was done, Richard allowed the broodmother to retreat back into the Land of Turmoil; that area could provide enough food for her, and operating in an area full of humans would be too conspicuous anyway. A majority of the wind wolves followed the broodmother back, only forty left by Richard’s side. He could only exercise perfect control of thirty units right now, so this was more than enough. When the new wind wolves that were enhanced with poison were created, these old ones would naturally be phased out.

It was only the second day after the battle that the reinforcements started to arrive. The reinforcements had reached at the same time as the original party the Direwolf Duke had sent, led by Lord Moonbear who was one of Bevry’s three saints. Moonbear had rushed forth with two hundred elite knights, managing to catch up with the messengers who had set off much earlier.