Chapter 1062: The Emperor's Soul.
Chapter 1062: The Emperor's Soul.
Back to Victor.
"Anyway, sign this confidentiality agreement, and I'll take you to meet two interesting people."
Hela looked at the Contract in Victor's hand, grabbed ahold of it, and began to read it. After all, children, you should never sign a Contract without reading it! Look for the small words that are always on the Contract!
Victor rolled his eyes when he saw Hela's focus on reading the Contract, but he could respect her caution.
Victor patiently waited for Hela to read and sign the Contract while keeping a lookout around the mansion to prevent Hela's 'vision' from going to places he didn't allow.
After a few minutes of waiting, Hela finished reading the Contract and signed it in blood. As soon as she signed the Contract, a current of Power formed in her heart. The moment the clauses of the Contract were broken, she would die. The Contract would read the intentions of the host, so there was no point in her pretending to say something or trying to leave information in her death. Nothing would work. Victor took guarantees to cover all the blind spots.
"...That is a very restrictive Contract," Hela muttered. "Not even my End Energy can remove it..." Which in itself was absurd since END should not have anything that it could not obliterate. Except, of course, the opposing Divinity...
'Oh... He used the Divinity of Beginning's in the Contract so that I could not use The End to destroy the chain.' Well, she would not do that, but it was quite impressive how many blind spots Victor paid attention to when making this Contract.
"Indeed." Victor did not deny it. "It's essential, after all, you're acquiring very important information about me… Information that I want no one to know."
'So overprotective… I wonder if he would act this way towards things that weren't his Family.' Hela thought, but she didn't hate that side of him. In fact, she felt a bit envious of his Family for having someone like that taking care of them, after all, her father and mother weren't good examples of relatives.
Victor stood up from the couch and extended his hand. "Do you mind accompanying me?"
Hela stared at Victor's hand for a few seconds and then nodded as she took his hand. "Sure."
The moment she touched his hand, her body was covered by a sudden wave of Power, and the next moment, she was wearing an outfit that looked like a mix of her Divine Raiment and a modern dress that was modest and at the same time easy to move in.
She looked at her new clothes for a moment, and with just one glance, she realized that the clothes, despite looking simple, were hundreds of times stronger than her typical Divine Raiment. The fabric was mixed with small Runes for protection. The fabric of the dress itself was abnormal as well. It was a combination of Divine Material and an unknown material that she couldn't understand.
'He made such a Divine Artifact so casually...' Honestly, Hela had long told herself not to be impressed by anything Victor did, but the more she learned about him, the harder it was not to be.
Hela was from the Norse Pantheon, the Pantheon that was known for their Divine Artifacts thanks to the Dwarves. They were the best craftsmen, and each of their works took months and sometimes years to complete, but here was Victor casually making a Divine Artifact that made the Dwarves look like children.
Because she was lost in thinking about what she was currently wearing, she didn't realize that she had already left the room, not until Victor spoke:
"Currently, my Daughters are not present..."
Hela woke up from her thoughts, looked at Victor, and then looked around, realizing that she was walking through the halls of a castle? Or perhaps a mansion?
Her senses suddenly expanded, and she could see the entire mansion that seemed to be too large to be called a mansion but not archaic enough to be called a castle. She saw that some areas were simply too large as if the entire space was made to house Dragons in their True Form.
'Which is probably the case, considering that his entire Family is made up of Dragons.' Hela thought that, instead of calling this place a mansion, it would be more appropriate to call it a Dragon's Nest.
Another thing she noticed was that the moment she expanded her senses, several other Beings began to observe her, each more powerful than the last.
For a moment, she started to be covered in a cold sweat when she saw those eyes evaluating her, but she tried not to think too much about it for now and focused on what Victor was saying.
"They are going through intensive morning training, so you won't have a chance to meet them for now."
"It's okay, I don't want to bother you," Hela said, but to be honest, she wasn't very excited about meeting this man's Daughters. She could imagine what kind of pressure she would suffer from the 'eyes' that were watching her every step at this moment.
After all, she knew very well that Dragons were quite territorial, especially with their younger members.
Not to mention that Hela was terrible at dealing with children... So, yes, she wasn't very excited about meeting Victor's Daughters. Fortunately, luck smiled on her today, and his Daughters weren't present.
As she walked through the corridors alongside Victor, she saw several servants of different species, all of them looking at Victor with adoration and respect on their faces.
Yes... 'Them'. From what Hela had seen so far, there was not a single man in this entire place. The whole place was full of women.
From what she knew of this species of Dragons, they were polygamous Beings, but they usually ended up with only one mate for life, and this fact was due to circumstances beyond their control. For example, before Victor appeared, the Dragon Race as a whole was quite scarce, and there were few Dragons alive. After all, Dragons were dangerous Beings, but they were also Beings that naturally possessed many rare ingredients that even the Gods wanted.
Therefore, they were invariably hunted like animals. Other circumstances about Dragons were their pride, and temperament. Their pride did not allow them to work together with other Dragons. Because of this, they lived alone, and because they lived alone, they were easy targets for hunting.
As for their temperament, they were Beings that got angry easily and tended to destroy everything. This same temperament made female Dragons fight with other possible females. Because of this, it was rare to see a Dragon with more than one companion despite being polygamous Beings.
However, all the facts mentioned above seem to have no involvement with Victor. Just by expanding her senses, she could see that there were more than 30 Dragon Goddesses here, but for some reason, all of them were not killing each other just for existing alongside each other.
'Although Victor did not start out as a Dragon… He became a Dragon. Perhaps this fact caused this abnormal situation?' Hela thought that this thought was the most correct. In reality, most of Victor's current Wives were not Dragons before and were instead from other Races. Victor, The Primogenitor of The Blood Dragons, transformed them into Dragons.
As Hela pondered this unusual but quite interesting situation from her point of view, the two arrived in a room that had a large gate made of what looked like Divine Metal.
Looking at the Magic Circle on the door, Hela immediately recognized the design from someone she had met long ago.
As Hela and Victor approached the door, it opened on its own, confirming Hela's suspicions. On the other side stood Albedo Moriarty.
Albedo wore a long dress that accentuated her curves, adorned by a large Witch's hat. Her skin, pale as death, contrasted with her eyes with black sclera and red irises, creating an appearance that was both frightening and exotic.
A Witch who, through sheer effort, had risen to the status of a Goddess now stood before them. The centuries-old Witch seemed immersed in her notes, writing something on an ancient parchment.
She did not seem to notice the presence of the two guests. The moment Hela entered what appeared to be a laboratory filled with ancient Artifacts created by the Witches, she also noticed the presence of two more women.
The current Queen of The Witches, Evie Moriarty, and a girl who looked very similar to Evie, probably her daughter.
'... When did she have a daughter?' Despite always trying to be up to date with world affairs, there was a time when she was completely disconnected from everything and was completely caught up in her own personal war, so she never knew that Evie had a daughter.
'She doesn't seem to be Victor's daughter... So she is Evie's daughter with another man.' Hela wondered who was the unlucky one who managed to catch Evie's attention. She was 100% sure that having this woman's attention would not attract anything good.
'Although, considering what kind of Beings Witches are, the probability of this child being created by Magic is very high.' Hela didn't doubt it. After all, Magic was very versatile in the hands of Witches. So much so that they became one of the wealthiest Factions.
Although such a thing was in the past now. Victor's new Pantheon practically swallowed the Witches and Vampires, becoming its own force.
When the door they passed through closed, Hela felt her surroundings change, and she immediately realized what happened. 'I entered a pocket Dimension…' With her status as the highest-ranking Goddess of Death, she could see that this pocket Dimension connected to several locations on Victor's planet; she also realized that the entrance to the Dragon's Nest was completely restricted now.
'I see… Only Victor can open this entrance.' After just a few minutes of walking through the mansion that Hela called 'The Nest' and entering this pocket Dimension, Hela understood something.
'This entire place… No, this entire planet is under Victor's Domain. The small Dimensions, Nature, the star, and everything else are under his control; he is practically omniscient here. This is a Domain similar to that of the Primordial of Balance.' Hela thought as she made comparisons between this place and the place where the gathering of Supernatural Beings took place, the Domain of The Owner of Limbo.
"Albedo."
"… Hmm?" The Witch stopped writing and looked towards Victor. "Your Imperial Majesty-..."
Victor narrowed his eyes slightly at Albedo.
"Cough, I mean, Victor... What are you doing here? Actually, how long have you been here?" Albedo quickly corrected herself when she saw that Victor was not here as The Emperor but simply as Victor.
Victor smiled slightly, satisfied with Albedo's understanding. "I just arrived. I came to introduce someone to you, someone who might join us in the future."
Albedo looked at Victor's companion and opened his eyes wide: "Hela?"
"Albedo... Long time no see."
"Yeah, the last time we met was when I tried to steal something from your Hell, huh... Good times."
"Right..." Hela's lips twitched. This woman actually had the nerve to enter Hell as a living Mortal Soul just to steal some of its Artifacts for research.
Her commitment to knowledge bordered on insanity.
"Oh? You two know each other. That makes things easier." Victor nodded in satisfaction, then looked at a scowling Witch in the distance who was looking at Hela warily. 'Well, she must have sensed the 'Death' in Hela, which is why she's acting like this.'
Unlike Albedo, Evie wasn't a Goddess yet, so she didn't have a resistance to 'Death', and felt extremely uncomfortable around a Goddess of Death as strong as Hela.
"The other person I wanted to introduce you to is this one over there… But, it's better to let her get used to you first."
Hela stared at Evie for a few seconds, then nodded. Even when holding in her full presence, she was still a High Ranked Goddess of Death. Mortal living Beings subconsciously felt repulsion towards her; it was a basic survival instinct.
"I was going to introduce you to another acquaintance, but..." Victor's eyes lit up slightly, and he saw Dun Scaith writing Runes on an Artifact with extreme caution. She was so focused on her work that she wasn't even breathing.
Unlike broken Beings like Dragons who could literally speak the Runes with their tongue, Rune Masters needed to 'carve' what they wanted for several hours with extreme care.
At least, that was how it worked if they wanted to make a High-Level Artifact that required complexity in the Runes. If they wanted something simpler, they just needed to write a Rune and activate it, a relatively easy process for a Rune Master, and in more extreme cases, like Dun Scaith, she just needed to speak like Victor, and the effect would happen. After all, she is a Goddess of Runes.
"She's quite busy."
"Okay..." Hela nodded and then spoke: "Hmm, Victor, what should I do here?" She asked.
"Familiarize yourself with Albedo's work. Your experience as a Goddess of Death will be quite useful in the next Project I've given my people to work on."
"... Right." Hela nodded, still undecided on what to do. She wondered whether she should get too involved or not. To be fair, she believed that working with The Emperor, who could do such great things, would be a good experience, and she wasn't going to lie that she wasn't also very curious about this' future project'. Considering it was coming from Victor, she predicted it would be something big.
"Keep me updated on her progress, Albedo."
"Do I really need to? You'll know anyway." Albedo knew very well that he was omniscient in his territory, and because of that, she didn't see the point in making a report... Yes, she was lazy.
Albedo only complained because Victor was not here as the 'Emperor' currently, so she could be more casual and talk half-jokingly/half-seriously with him.
"I mean, you don't have to… But Velnorah and Ruby are leading this Project, you know?" Victor's eyes flashed with amusement.
Albedo shivered. "I'll go make the report." As a fellow scientist, she greatly respected Ruby, Velnorah, Aline, and recently Velnorah's Daughter, but by the Emperor, those two women were too obsessed with perfection.
'Why can't they just do experiments without their annoying perfectionism?' Albedo grumbled. Okay, because of her laziness, explosions could happen, but that was okay, right? She was always careful, and the explosions were never too strong.
'But by acquiring this habit, my experiments became safer, and I was more successful because I didn't have to do everything over from scratch… But doing everything over from scratch was always a pleasure for me.' Albedo was fighting herself now, her innate laziness and her obsession with her work.
… In the end, just like always, her work always won.
"Good." Victor laughed and then turned around, disappearing in violet flames.
Albedo rolled her eyes at this show of Victor's. He always left here in style. "Here, read this. You'll understand why he called you here."
Taking a transparent screen from Albedo's hand, she stared at the strange object in confusion, until the object turned on, and showed extensive data from an ambitious project called: 'Clone Soldiers'.
'What in the Seven Hells is this?' From the name of the Project, it was obvious what it was, but she was talking about the complexities involving the Soul.
'I don't understand even half of what he's planning to do with the Souls of these clones!' Hela looked at Albedo seriously.
"I need more details."
"Of course you do, but before that, let me teach you the basics. You may understand a lot about Souls as a Goddess of Death, but you don't understand much about the body and how it interacts with the Soul..." Albedo's red eyes shone with excitement. "Especially a body that has pieces of The Emperor's Soul."
Albedo showed a container on the table, and upon opening the container, the two saw a tiny fragment of the Soul that Victor had given them to study.
The purpose of this study was obvious, to make the Soul Fragment that would be inserted into the 'Mortal' clones as non-toxic as possible. One problem they faced when creating the safety measures was that Mortal flesh and weak weapons could not withstand the Emperor's Power.
This was a problem that Victor and his associates were trying to figure out how to solve. After all, Victor couldn't simply 'alter' his Soul to become weaker, because that was impossible. Even a small fragment still had traces of the Energy of his Nightmare Form, a corruptive Energy that was extremely toxic to the living, even more toxic than the Miasma of Hell itself.
Hela's eyes opened wide. She knew he was going to do something insane! But she didn't expect it to be this big!
'Now I understand why he made such a restrictive Contract!' Very excited, she quickly dove into the research along with Albedo.
.....
Edited By: DaV0 2138, IsUnavailable
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