Chapter 541 - 525: Prey Has No Right to Negotiate Terms
Chapter 541: Chapter 525: Prey Has No Right to Negotiate Terms
The Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine was responsible for destroying the true body, while Thanatos was tasked with containing the soul. From the moment Sargeras descended, He had already walked right onto the dissection table Allen had prepared.
Allen’s consciousness instantly descended into Thanatos.
The Netherworld Guide slowly lowered its head. The dark green Soul Fire quietly burned within its skeletal eye sockets as it condescendingly looked down at the Demon Monarch hooked onto its scythe blade.
"Lord Sargeras." Allen’s voice was calm and polite, lacking even the slightest hint of ecstasy following a victorious war. "Now, please allow me to repeat your previous question."
Sargeras’s soul struggled frantically, but the more He struggled, the deeper the scythe blade hooking into His Soul Core embedded.
"How was this strike?"
Sargeras’s struggle paused. These were the exact words He had said to Allen after enduring the blast from the PX-4’s chest earlier.
"Not a bad strike. It almost managed to hurt me."
At that time, He was aloof and arrogant, treating Allen’s attack as a mere performance meant to amuse Him. Now, His eight-thousand-meter-tall world-destroying true body had been reduced to ashes. Only His soul remained, hooked on the scythe, making even escaping back to Purgatory an extravagant hope.
"Morning Star Wizard..." There was no longer any of His previous majesty and arrogance in Sargeras’s tone. "You win."
Allen did not respond. A mere "You win" was clearly insufficient to pay for the cost he had invested in this war.
Sargeras clearly sensed the terrifying devouring force coming from Thanatos’s chest cavity. That Soul Furnace, which had smelted millions of Demons, was already wide open. Deep within the furnace, countless twisted faces wailed and melted within an ocean of Curse Power. Once thrown inside, it would be impossible to ever escape.
"Wait! Stop!" Sargeras’s voice carried a sense of panic.
"I can submit!
"I am willing to swear by my True Name of the Demon to become your servant!
"I know the coordinates of nineteen Planes. I also have legions, Blood Pools, countless Believers, and endless wealth!
"Let me return to Purgatory, and all of these will be yours!"
A Purgatory Monarch who ruled over countless Demons and had destroyed multiple worlds abandoned His dignity without hesitation. Only by staying alive would there be a chance to turn the tables. As long as His soul could return to Purgatory, He could sooner or later recondense His true body. A servant contract was not impossible to break; Sargeras knew very well how to choose.
A moment later, Allen let out a very light chuckle. "Submit?"
"Yes!" Sargeras replied immediately, as if grasping at a lifesaver. "I can hand over my true name and open my Soul Core. With the Purgatory Law as a witness, I will never betray you!"
"That indeed sounds very tempting," Allen said in a gentle tone. The fire within Sargeras’s soul brightened slightly. "But it seems you’ve misunderstood one thing."
Thanatos exerted force with one hand, forcefully yanking Sargeras’s soul right in front of its freezing skeletal visor.
"Prey has no right to negotiate terms with the Hunter."
The Soul Fire within Sargeras’s soul instantly froze.
"Let you go back? How could I bear to let you die."
As if admiring a rare treasure, Allen meticulously swept his gaze over this massive soul. In the eyes of a rigorous Wizard, this was no Demon Monarch’s soul. This was a treasure trove of knowledge waiting to be excavated! A complete Dawn Star Level soul sample. Two Laws that had already been proven. A mature Purgatory resurrection system. There was also the True Name of the Demon, Cross-Boundary Contracts, Blood Pool Reshaping, and Soul Utilization Technology.
Every single piece of data here was enough to support a top-tier scientific research project. Rather than taking in a Demon servant who would constantly think about backstabbing him, wouldn’t fixing Him onto an operating table under a shadowless lamp be much more reassuring?
"You still have a long time, and I still have many questions.
"We can take our time studying them."
The Soul Concealing Cloak in front of Thanatos’s chest suddenly flared open. Countless illusory chains shot out like venomous snakes, wrapping Sargeras’s soul in layer after layer and forcefully dragging Him into the bottomless core of the furnace!
"No—! Lunatic! You’re a lunatic!" Sargeras immediately understood Allen’s intentions.
"You can’t treat a Lord of Purgatory like this!
"I can conquer worlds for you! I can give you more!
"Let me go!"
The final syllable dropped. The Soul Concealing Cloak draped back down, and all the wails came to an abrupt halt.
[Target containment complete.]
"Return to Cybertron autonomously."
Allen’s consciousness withdrew from Thanatos. It wasn’t until this moment that he redirected his gaze back to the entirety of Ionia.
The war was over, but the devastation left behind was shocking to behold.
With Silver Moon City as the center, the land within a radius of thousands of kilometers had been repeatedly scorched by Evil Energy and high temperatures. Mountain ranges had collapsed, rivers had stopped flowing, and once-lush forests had been reduced to charcoal. The rift created by Sargeras’s final palm strike stretched all the way to the end of his field of vision.
The three outer walls of Cybertron all exhibited varying degrees of damage. The first wall had almost entirely vanished. The damage rate of the second wall exceeded fifty percent. The third main wall had been shaved down a layer by the shockwaves.
As for the mortals and living creatures native to Ionia, the number of casualties was simply impossible to calculate in a short period. The Demon Legion had destroyed over a hundred towns and settlements along its marching route. Among those mortals who weren’t killed directly, many perished from Evil Energy contamination, earthquakes, Storms, and Magic Power tides.
As for the Resurrection of the dead? Allen indeed possessed the relevant technology, but since no one was paying the expensive bills, such an unprofitable act of charity naturally wasn’t within his considerations. Having won this battle, this Plane was now the property of the Association. The most pressing matter was to preserve the value of the asset and prevent further losses.
"Jarvis, dispatch the rescue troops."
[Please designate the operational priorities.]
"Continental scope.
"First Priority: Purify Evil Energy contamination sources, suppress the rioting ley line nodes, and lock down high-risk radiation zones. Fully deploy all Engineering Golems that are still capable of movement.
"Second Priority: Establish standardized water purification and food rationing points.
"Third Priority: Tally the surviving population and re-register the labor force archives."
[Directives confirmed. The engineering clusters are currently being deployed.]
Within Cybertron, tens of thousands of Factory Servants and "Hercules" heavy Engineering Golems stepped out of their bunkers and began clearing the collapsed walls. Immediately after, a battle damage report appeared before Allen.
[Thirty standard Golem Legions. Average damage rate: 61.3%.]
[Peacekeeper PX-3. Completely destroyed: 8,621 units.]
[Spider-Killer Type II. Completely destroyed: 39,172 units.]
[Hive Mother Ships destroyed: 19. Freedom Gundams destroyed: 7. Storm Falcon Fighters destroyed: 2,109.]
[Cyclops, Gabriel, and other heavy mecha models. Structural damage: 8 units.]
[PX-4 is unresponsive. Underground excavation work is currently underway.]
[Thanatos mecha damage rate: 17.8%.]
[Cybertron comprehensive damage rate: 12.4%.]
[The Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine’s main cannon requires a comprehensive overhaul.]
Every line of numbers represented a massive amount of Magic Stones. Allen scanned through them.
"Convert this into direct economic losses."
[Preliminary calculation: Approximately 1.4 billion to 2 billion Low-Tier Magic Stones (excluding the charging consumption for the Zero main cannon).]
However, he hadn’t walked away entirely empty-handed either.
On the battlefield, over a million soulless Demon corpses covered the ground. Some were intact, others were reduced to severed limbs, and some had been blasted into charcoal by Magic Energy Cannons and Plasma Beams. But the horns, bones, hearts, and blood of the Demons were all Extraordinary Materials that could be sold. The corpses of High-tier Demons were particularly expensive.
There were also the souls reaped by Thanatos. Even though a portion had already been converted into Curse Power by the Soul Furnace, a batch of high-value souls was still preserved separately.
"Recover all of them, and send those severely contaminated by Evil Energy into the quarantine cabins.
"In addition, connect to the Wizard Association’s communication link and submit a mission closure briefing.
"Just say the Purgatory Reconnaissance Corps was entirely wiped out.
"The Ninth-Layer Lord of Purgatory, Sargeras, has been eliminated.
"The Y-417 Plane has been successfully defended and has not completely fallen."
This was precisely the mission’s requirement. The Association had only required him to prevent the Y-417 Plane from completely falling. Now, the Demon Legion was gone, Sargeras had become his experimental material, and although Ionia had been beaten half to death, the Plane still existed.
The mission, of course, had been completed. As for the ownership of the Demon corpses littering the ground, there was even less of a dispute. The Association hadn’t paid any remuneration for this mission, but it didn’t matter. Ionia’s native organizations had already all but collapsed.
Therefore, according to the Wizarding World’s most fundamental rule of war: whoever killed it, claimed it.
From this moment on, all these Demon corpses belonged entirely to Wesren.