Novel Full Chapter 361 - The Blood Duke
While Zatiel fought the drowsiness and maintained his focus in absorbing the blood and vitality of the Fiend Dragonborn, he frowned as he noticed something odd.
The condition of Dior's body was deteriorating too fast, and the Neo-Demon was not receiving nearly as much energy as he should.
It took a moment, but after knowing the purpose of the people who came here and the Blood Fortress' particular characteristics, he could make an educated guess.
'This entire dimension is like a beast capable of absorbing the energy of those who die. Even though the result would not be as good as having tubes extracting their blood energy and life force, it is still useful.' There was not much Zatiel could do, so he just focused on obtaining as much blood and vitality as he could from Dior before there was nothing left from him to drain.
The body of a life form at the 3rd Engraving Stage could remain in perfect conditions for hundreds of years after its passing. However, due to the white sword and the dimension's ability, Dior's body became nothing but a sack of bones and dry skin in thirty-six hours.
The Neo-Demon stood up and took his sword out of Dior's head. His condition was far from being good, but he managed to restore his stomach and lungs to a functional state, greatly diminishing his body's burden.
Zateil went to Blood Child's body, and his Rebirth Eye confirmed that his soul was frozen. He attempted to pick him up and was shocked when he saw that he could not do it.
'Even though I am injured, I can still lift a small mountain with my bare hands, but I cannot pick him up. It seems that the technique Blood Duke trained was not a crappy one.'
Blood Child's body was too heavy, and Zatiel had to drag him through the ground into the runic formation's core.
Zatiel adopted a meditation position and began to examine the runic formation. To any other person, it would take a long time to figure the principles behind it, but not to the Neo-Demon.
He had an initial hypothesis of its function the moment he saw it with his Mind Force and was the main reason he was confident in defeating Blood Child.
'As I thought, the entire tower and the statue above me is a massive runic formation. The statue gathers Origin Power and injects it into the devils, allowing them to remain alive and produce blood energy, and life force. The core of the runic formation gathers those two healing forces, purifies them, and sends them away.' After completing his examination of the runic formation, Zatiel looked at Blood Child and understood his nature.
'He is a Runic Spirit.'
It was not rare for high-ranking formations to have Runic Spirits. Their purpose is to assist the runic formation and make sure these stand the passage of time. These spirits usually were of energy, and their fighting power was mediocre.
'He should have been a Devil Lord before his transformation. The most likely scenario was that Blood Duke forcefully fused him into the runic formation. The process increased his life span but also destroyed his free will.' Zatiel knew no devil would ever sacrifice himself for others, even if it's their family. He was confident the Blood Duke forced Blood Child into his current condition to obtain a faithful slave that could not betray him.
The Neo-Demon's plan was not very complicated, but he needed to heal himself before he could put things in motion. Right now, if it wasn't for his Rebirth Eye and Mind Force, even a Rank 4 Devil could kill him with ease, and just mobilizing his energy was an ordeal.
He swallowed dozens of high-quality origin stones before manipulating the runic formation and sending the blood energy it gathered into himself.
Zatiel also sent blood energy into Blood Child's body along with life force.
There was enough life force for both of them, but Zatiel did not let it touch his body.
The life force from an individual had fragments of his consciousness and ego. It was one of the many reasons you could not transfer it from one person to another without preparations.
The runic formation used Blood Child to fix that problem. The Runic Spirit filtered the life force, keeping the consciousness's fragments in him. That was the reason his mind was that of a child and was so prone to violence.
Zatiel did not care about the state of Blood Child's ego, so he filled him with as much life force and blood energy as he could. The process was twisting his personality more and more but pushed his recovery speed to an absurd level.
After two weeks of healing and having consumed an ocean of blood energy, Zatiel had managed to stabilize his condition and partially restored his energy pool, Astral Origin and Soul Origin. As for the Rebirth Force, it was spent assisting his body's recovery.
The Neo-Demon was far from being healthy, and any stressful activity would open up his injuries again, but he could not wait anymore.
The more time passed, the higher the chances the Devil Lords would perish. After they leave this dimension, they could all drop dead, and the Neo-Demon could not care less, but he needed them for his plan, especially the Devil Marquises.
Zatiel made his consciousness, empowered by Mind Force, infiltrate the runic formation and traveled the route life force and blood energy used to leave this place.
It took him a few minutes, but Zatiel finally saw the other end. It was a giant pool filled with a concentration so high of life force and blood energy that it became a red-golden liquid.
Floating in the center of the pool was a ten meters tall devil. His size was small compared with other fiends that focused on body refinement, but his heartbeat strength was so high that it could make a continent tremble and harm weak life forms.
Blood Duke had a humanoid body, with two massive horns in his head, red skin, and a bulky figure. He was in a deep sleep, and it appeared that nothing could wake him up.
Zatiel analyzed him from a distance before focusing on the surroundings and saw two other paths that brought blood energy and life force to this place.
After learning everything he could without raising suspicion or alerting the other parties, he withdrew his consciousness.
Thanks to his knowledge and experience, it was easy for Zatiel to figure out Blood Duke's recovering system.
'He uses the blood energy and life force to nurture his body that will, in turn, nourish the soul's fragment he left in it. It is a decent plan, but the truth is that even if he succeeds, the person that wakes up will not be him. That soul will form a different personality and ego.'
If it were so easy to revive yourself after failing your accession to Rank 7, then all Peak Soul Law Domain existences would do it.
'He is in a coma right now. He can wake up at will, but that would affect his already unstable soul, so he is probably leaving the Runic Spirits to handle things.'
Zatiel did not go through the other paths that brought blood energy and life force to the Blood Duke but could figure out where they lead.
'If they also have Runic Spirits like Blood Child, then the Devil Lords sent to this dimension are certainly doomed even if Blood Duke doesn't act.'
Blood Child's strength was that of a Devil Marquess. However, he depended solely on his body to fight, and this dimension's suppression over Law Avatars and energy pools did not affect him.
'They will let the Devil Lords fight between each other. When the time is right, the Runic Spirits would capture the ones alive and use them to give the final push to the Blood Duke's soul.'
The Neo-Demon closed his eyes for a moment as he made the final adjustments to his plan. When he opened them, a cunning and sinister light filled them, and he smiled.
Zatiel had never been someone that enjoys mindless slaughter, but for some reason, the idea of killing millions of devils was amusing to him.
'The Blood Duke's pool is my point of entry. The other two runic formations should be similar to this one and have the same weak points.'
Zatiel looked to the devils trapped in this tower, and his Rebirth Eye and Eye of Death and Destruction acted together, forming a black hole above him.