Chapter 98: Soul Thief

Chapter 98: Soul Thief "What is this?" Just as he prepared to attack during the infection opportunity, suddenly the many strange vortexes on the Black Vortex Collector began violently shaking and trembling, as if desperately struggling! Then the Black Vortex Collector let out a horrible roar. A thin layer of dark aura erupted accordingly, touching the surrounding shield guards before immediately fading. Through the shield guards, Carlos actually sensed a bit of distress information... "Could it be the Black Vortex Collector isn’t willingly falling to dark mist?" Carlos looked puzzled. How did it seem like the dark mist was forcibly infecting the Black Vortex Collector? "This... this looks like a golden opportunity!" Carlos instinctively felt he could grab hold of this and use it to his advantage. His brain spun rapidly as various secret arts and intelligence surfaced... Suddenly a flash of brilliance crossed his eyes. "Got it—Retainer Creation!" This was a top-tier ritual developed based on summoning ceremonies, human body creation rituals, flesh fusion rituals, soul reshaping rituals, blood and bone connection rituals, and others. The ritual’s ability was incredibly powerful, capable of fundamentally fusing summoned creatures with beings possessing powerful soul cores. This would birth powerful retainers possessing both entities’ advantages—a different kind of sublimation. But the Retainer Creation ritual’s conditions were extremely harsh. The most difficult point was opening the fusion creature’s soul barrier. Only by opening the soul barrier could the ritual’s power penetrate deep into the fusion creature’s soul core and begin fusing the two. But soul barriers existed almost in another dimension. Current Psionic methods could cause massive destruction and influence to souls as a whole, but had almost no way to peel them open layer by layer... "The first stage of dark mist infection is completely dissolving a creature’s soul barrier. Theoretically, as long as the timing is right at the moment the soul barrier is about to be dissolved, fully activating Retainer Creation could snatch this monster’s soul core from the dark mist’s jaws! But..." Carlos felt slightly conflicted. Doing this might successfully complete Retainer Creation. But he wasn’t sure how the dark mist aura would react after losing its infection target. However, giving up this opportunity was too hard to swallow. After brief hesitation, Carlos took out a precious Teleportation Scroll and placed it against his chest. "Give it a shot—run immediately if there’s danger!" Once the dark mist aura showed any signs of going berserk, he’d recall the shield guards and immediately activate the teleportation scroll. "Time is running short, must act quickly!" The vortexes on the Black Vortex Collector were shaking more and more violently, meaning the dark mist aura’s infection was speeding up. He had to immediately open the Retainer Creation arcane array. Only this way could he observe to what degree the Black Vortex Collector’s soul barrier had dissolved. Flying down, retracting his crimson-gold wing bones, Carlos landed in the underground opening. The shield guards on the ground quickly followed, pouring into that final laboratory... "Fortunately, there are no missing materials for drawing the Retainer arcane array." Taking out materials, under Carlos’s direction, the shield guards began drawing around the Black Vortex Collector... Soon, the Retainer Creation arcane array was complete! "Which shield guard should go in?" After thinking it over, Carlos felt Purple Thornblade Shield Guard #1 was most suitable. Creak creak, Purple Thornblade Shield Guard #1 walked in, positioned in the core area together with the Black Vortex Collector. "Beginning." Carlos looked dead serious, stepping along the arcane array’s edge, pausing at each step as his fingertip shot out Psionic Energy, landing on the first position. Then the second position... third... until all positions were activated... Following the activation sequence, positions connected to positions, and the outline of a strange vessel slowly emerged... Shaped like an inverted two-horned cup, but both horns were open. Carlos lowered his head and closed his eyes, chanting continuously: "Great ****, humbly requesting ***&#@@++—..." Moments later, a gust of wind actually began blowing in the underground chamber. Each position in the arcane array grew increasingly bright until a sound echoing in the soul descended. The strange object that had been only an outline actually began floating. Instantly, a terrifying phantom descended, mysterious voices constantly tempting in his mind. Carlos desperately fought off inner distractions: "&##soul#&&..." After several moments, in his tightly closed eyes, he suddenly saw a strange scene beyond human description. Sky, earth, walls, flesh and blood—all real objects disappeared completely. Various colored light points continuously rose, traveling in groups toward unknown distances... Carlos steadied himself, relying on inner marks, his soul’s ’gaze’ directly looking toward the Black Vortex Collector. In his vision, the Black Vortex Collector’s soul barrier was being wrapped by a mass of deep aura, rapidly dissolving and being devoured. At this moment, four-fifths had already dissolved! The Black Vortex Collector’s soul core at its deepest depths trembled wildly, desperately trying to repair the soul barrier. But the repair speed was far slower than the deep aura’s consumption rate. Carlos just watched quietly. The Black Vortex Collector’s soul barrier had one-sixth remaining... one-seventh... One-twentieth... ... Soon, only a thin layer remained, about to break through... "Now!" "Great , ##*&&&" Carlos immediately fully activated the Retainer Creation arcane array! Outside, above the arcane array, that terrifying vessel phantom erupted with a terrible devouring force. Purple Thornblade Shield Guard #1 and the Black Vortex Collector were helplessly sucked in without any resistance. In Carlos’s ’eyes’ vision, just as the dark mist aura had completely dissolved the Black Vortex Collector’s soul barrier, a vessel phantom suddenly jumped out from behind, its opening aimed at the soul core and sucked, easily absorbing the soul core before disappearing... "?" The dark mist aura on the verge of success suddenly struck empty air. Such a large soul core—where did it go? The dark mist aura became agitated, using this point as center, beginning anxious expansion, rapidly approaching the vessel phantom... Carlos’s nerves were on edge, ready to trigger the teleportation scroll at any moment... Fortunately, the Retainer Creation ritual had sufficient rank. Plus, this was merely a wisp of aura descending. Even though this strand of dark mist aura penetrated the arcane array, it didn’t discover the mysterious vessel’s existence... Several minutes later, having searched fruitlessly, the dark mist aura reluctantly accepted the Black Vortex Collector’s disappearance and gradually faded... "Dodged a bullet." Carlos breathed a sigh of relief internally. He still kept his eyes tightly closed. In the arcane array, that mysterious vessel continuously gave off strange radiance, producing various weird sounds from within: "Crack!" "Rumble!" "Clang!" "..." Carlos remained unmoved, silently reciting prayer words as time quietly passed...