125. Chapter 125 – A Long Time Reunion
Chapter 125: A Long Farewell Reunion
After handing those captives over to Dylan to deal with, Heine took Saberia inside.
Not counting the time when Eli Monte took off, this is the first time the two of them have met again after more than 800 years.
Saberia had mixed feelings.
Barry, on the other hand, had a bland expression.
After all, he was a ruthless man stripped of his anger, and his other emotions were vaguely disturbed.
Even if he knew who the old farmer-like black-faced man in front of him was, he didn’t get much excited.
But it was this calmness that stirred Saberia’s heart.
It was clear contempt for his existence!
After sizing him up for a few seconds, Barry said, “It seems you have failed, and failed utterly.”
Sabelia sneered, “That’s better than losing all your power.”
Barry shook his head, “In the past, you wouldn’t have sneered back at this provocation, is it because the crippled soul makes you unable to control your emotions freely?”
“You fart!”
“Looks like it.”
Barry thoughtfully pulled out a shorthand magic quill.
It was the one Dylan had gotten him, and it could take notes just by asking.
The old man’s hands were too shaky to write now.
“Begin recording: ‘Starting with emotions for stripping will damage the soul, but cutting the soul directly will affect overall emotional control’ ……”
Sabelia stood up and said angrily, “What’s the point of studying this when you’re already a waste!”
Swish swish swish.
Quill wrote that down as well.
Barry couldn’t help but scratch his bare head as he looked at the “waste” line.
This is not a high grade, as long as it starts to record, it remembers whoever is talking.
Never mind, there was no way to delete it.
He simply continued recording:
“‘Even if the strength regresses to below level five, the emotional disturbance brought about by transcendental energy will remain ……’, stop recording.”
He looked at the other party, “Alright, you can continue to rage now.”
Sabelia froze for a few seconds and sat down dismally.
Not a word was spoken.
Barry waited a moment, then asked, “So have you discovered anything new in the last eight hundred years? About our research.”
Hmm?
Heine’s ears perked up.
It seemed that in addition to shapeshifters, they were engaged in some undocumented research.
Was it because it couldn’t be documented?
He inexplicably remembered the ‘price of power’ that Shiala had mentioned.
Saberia was also a bit staggered.
But then said in a self-deprecating tone:
“Eli’s situation is different from ours, rather than being ‘bundled onto a chariot’, it has voluntarily submitted to some great will.
“Perhaps because of this submission it was not disturbed by the endless murmuring in the swarming winds.
“As for me, although I can now speak freely of this disturbance, I cannot express it accurately because of my lack of power; after all, with the shedding of most of my power, those whispers have disappeared.”
Barry pondered, “Sounds like some sort of dynamic oath, where those who are strongly bound are unable to speak because of the constraints, and then when the constraints lessen they are unable to articulate them because they don’t feel them strongly enough …… It seems to be the same as the initial suspicion.”
“What’s the point of you studying this.”
Sabelia sneered:
“All of them are almost in the ground.”
Barry calmly said, “The point of passing down knowledge is to make the path a little smoother for those who come after me, not to mention, I still have descendants.”
He hooked the corners of his mouth in an appropriately sarcastic smile:
“That’s why you elves are inferior to humans; instead of longevity, you have diluted lives.
“Long lives but not enough to fill them, so much so that the emptiness drowns out the sense of purpose, and only bursts forth with great vitality when you are young or dying.
“You know, after all these years, they haven’t surpassed you in the study of shapeshifters, and this self-satisfaction is like a frog at the bottom of a well.”
“You ……”
Sabelia was clearly infuriated by the words, but was unable to do anything about it.
He simply stood up and walked out.
Linumu, who had been standing quietly in the doorway, hurriedly followed, and made a “leave me alone” gesture to Heine.
Barry looked at Heine as if asking him what other surprises he had in store for him.
Heine opened the box and took out the Soul Cocoon whose light had already dimmed.
Then briefly recounted the complete course of events he had pieced together. “…… With the death of the witch demon Eli, the soul on the totem suddenly began to cocoon, slowly becoming what it is now over the past half day.”
It now looked like dark green vines twisted into a dragon’s egg, roughly twenty centimeters tall.
Barry only took one look at it and said, “It’s ‘dying’.”
“What?”
“The hardened shell you’re touching is soul matter that’s fibering; it’s supposed to be the nutrients for newborn souls, but it will deteriorate rapidly when exposed to air, and when it solidifies completely, it’s a dead egg.”
Heine couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.
But the soul mass he had seen were all transparent ah ……
As if reading his mind, Barry explained:
“Eli’s soul also fused with the wind elemental energy a long time ago, that’s why it took on the color.
“And it has been favored by some kind of will, that’s why it doesn’t age or die.
“Sabelia’s inability to leave the Eagle’s Bit Mountain after occupying its body was also due to inheriting that favor.
“So …… you think it’s a curse or a blessing?”
Heine was silent for a few seconds.
“A curse.”
“Yes, good boy, you understand it well.”
Barry gave a satisfied but oozing smile, “The curse brands its soul on the body, and only death is the relief.
“But out of the beast’s inheritance instinct, upon complete death, the soul absorbed by the Soul Binding Totem spontaneously breeds a new consciousness, which is the act of inheritance that follows the rules of life and death.”
Heine: “Then is it still saved? How am I going to help it hatch?”
Barry thought for a moment.
“How did you replenish the soul mass for those summons?”
“Replenish the soul mass …… If you mean ‘rest’, it’s on the spells in the lord’s mansion.”
“Taking it there might still save it, as for more, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Oh yes,” after a pause, he added, “Soul Binding Totem, does that sound like a prop for necromancy to you?”
Heine was startled.
You really don’t say ……
“Is a totemist also a type of psychic?”
“It’s just a generalization of the spell, in our time, the evaluation of necromancy was bad, but not as bad as it is now ……”
Barry couldn’t find a suitable adjective for a while and simply gave up.
“You can ask Sabelia, if he’ll talk. Never mind, that guy’s in no better shape than I am. Well, I’m tired, do you have anything else?”
Heine: “Last time I said I found a new meta-spirit spell at the lumberyard on the eastern outskirts ……”
Barry shook his head, “That’s your business, I can’t help you much, like I can with this egg. Stripping a soul in its entirety with a meta-spirit …… I’ve really never heard of such a thing, is that how you plan to deal with Saberia?”
Heine nodded, unable to help but hesitate, “You can’t be trying to persuade me ……”
Barry grinned, revealing a mouthful of rotten teeth, “Torture him for me.”
“…… Good!”
…
As Heine clutched the box out the door, Dylan was heading in with a glass vial of bloodworms.
Heine was surprised and said, “Linumu grew blood dissolving wood?”
The last time he’d seen bloodworms Matt Gitler hadn’t died yet, and the farm’s storage wells hadn’t leaked.
Dylan: “Yes, he spawned a few trees, and Rowan’s research has allowed me to improve the way I breed bloodworms. Now these cute little guys will no longer eat the brains of their hosts, as long as they can sense the mother body stored on the property.”
It sounded like the captives could never leave the farm again.
Considering that they hadn’t done much evil following Goldtooth, Heine didn’t have much of a psychological burden.
“What about the Linumu?” He asked.
He still had some business to attend to with the wood elf.
Dylan reached out and pointed to the dirigible and smiled, “Serving the older ones up there.”
He laughed a little gloatingly.
Saying goodbye to Dylan, Heine had just stepped onto the airship when he saw a group of “Little Tree People” as tall as dwarves circling around Linumu and Saberia.
He couldn’t help but go up curiously.
“What’s that?”
(End of chapter)