Seeing the sphere-shaped item through the ground within Lux's hand, Jason frowned, because he never heard from such an item, which didn't lessen the bad premonition that formed in his mind.
Subconsciously, he went closer towards Lux's tunnel while the small human group was already lying on the ground, with their mana fluctuations dissipating.
Frowning, Jason would have never imagined witnessing something like this through his mana eyes.
Even if he knew that humans were greedy and selfish, Jason thought that he would have some time before he would witness his first murder from a human.
However, after having seen humanity's nature during two beast tides and thousands of dying humans and even more beasts, Jason wasn't really that shocked about death anymore.
In the end, Jason also survived the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit which brought him immense pain, while his mind matured with time passing.
The worst thing however was that Lux approached the dead bodies, with the blood sphere in his hand, as the released death-aura it spread intensified, causing Jason to halt his steps once again.
The death-aura spread through the whole cave, and Jason involuntarily trembled, as he felt his insides invaded by it when he carefully averted his gaze in order to look at the other split groups with a small trace of hope left.
Jason was aware that he wouldn't be able to survive if he were to encounter Lux or even the weakest of his soulbonds without using any other means to protect his life.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Without him knowing, he already unholstered his mana grade-2 Five-SeveN with anti-mana bullets loaded.
With his pistol in one hand, Jason felt immediately more secure, as he would at least be able to defeat the undead evolved beasts, as long as they didn't overwhelm him with their numbers.
In order to eliminate an undead being, one had to destroy their core, which was their only weakness, because they could heal over the course of time by supplying mana towards the damaged areas.
Thanks to his exceptional eyesight, Jason was sure that it wouldn't take long for him to hit a mana core, even if it was surrounded by a bone cage, which was quite common among undead beings, with only a few particular exceptions.
It was slightly problematic that he didn't practice much with any gun because he didn't want to waste his credits before, but in the end, Jason told himself that it would be more difficult to not hit something that was only a few meters away from him.
Trying to find excuses to release his tension, Jason noticed that many groups began to gather, while their path was directed towards Lux.
'Is that really so clever?' He asked himself, as he wondered why Lux did something so reckless without considering the possibility of more groups venturing into the elemental crystal cave.
The smaller groups gathered into groups of 10 to 20 individuals but this only caused Jason to frown slightly because this number was nothing against the small undead army.
Without knowing what to do, Jason's attention was attracted to the blood-sphere he saw within Lux's hands as it released a dense amount of death transmuted mana which infiltrated the corpses on the ground.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Suddenly he saw four soul worlds' manifesting above the corpses, while an intense suction force within the blood-sphere absorbed them greedily before it released an eerie, dark-green colored liquid which floated towards the corpses once again.
Piercing into their mana cores, Jason exclaimed involuntarily, as the dead cores without any fluctuations began to release faint death mana, which slowly intensified.
'He is really able to awaken undead beings!! Where the hell is this treasure from if he can even seal souls with it?'
The government didn't have any forbidden undead awakening techniques, according to his knowledge, and this undead blood-soul sphere, Jason renamed it, was also not a treasure someone on Astrix would possess under normal circumstances.
'Why are so many things suddenly happening on Astrix? Aren't there too many incidents, I'm involved in?!'
Since his soul-awakening, too much happened, and Jason felt, as if he was blessed and cursed at the same time, because he found good things in the bad, while unfortunate things seemed to tail him.
'Two beast tides and now Lux becoming insane, can't I have my peace?' Lamenting in his mind, Jason noticed the three dead corpses, slowly standing up.
While their moves were rather slow and crude, their mana core was definitely still at the low-unblemished rank.
Cutting his hand and dropping a drop of blood connection with a soul thread connected on top of the newly awakened undead humans, Lux seemed to have contracted three new soulbonds, which led Jason to frown deeply
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})'How much soul energy has he?!... I just hope that his soul world's amplification is low..otherwise, everyone within the four-star rift is in danger!!'
Without being sure how much soul energy Lux had left, Jason could only take the worst-case scenario which meant that not only his soul world should be extremely large but also his soul-energy and that he accumulated it over the course of three years.
'Maybe his soul energy reproduction is similar to mine, his innate soul energy was high...or..' Gasping, a sudden idea appeared in his mind, shocking him.
'What if he doesn't need as much soul energy for undead beings than others for regular soulbonds? Could that be the case? Is the soul energy demand for undead lower? Or is it because of the undead blood-soul sphere?'
He didn't want to think about it and the worst-case scenario shocked him more than expected, as he made a quick calculation according to a 10% soul world amplification.
If it was even possible, Jason's eyes widened even further, as he mumbled "Peak Master? Please don't let him have a mana core size and physique at the Magus rank…."
As long as his calculations were even partially correct, every human being within and around the elemental crystal cave would be in danger and his whole body was covered in goosebumps.
Even if Jason was not a Saint, he couldn't allow the large, gathered human groups to encounter Lux due to multiple reasons.
One of the reasons was that they would most likely fall into Lux's trap, because it was irrational to kill a small human group, by creating such a commotion and it was most likely his plan, to attract the attention of his surrounding.
In a narrow cave, Lux could either use the numbers to overwhelm his opponents, preventing them from fleeing or he would distract them with his undead army while slaughtering them with his high combat prowess.
If Lux's army of undead soulbonds increased even further, Jason doubted that the highland plateau would be safe from his grasp.
With several dozen soulbonds, Lux was already at a devastating advantage, causing Jason to look around in order to find the closest human group to him, as he exerted the weightless steps technique to his current limit while ordering Scorpio to enter his mana core.
If he were to surprise the human group he approached, they would most likely attack him instinctively, which was the reason for him to let Scorpio enter his mana core.
The death-aura within the cave remained the same, while Jason entered the tunnel, where he saw more than 20 humans, wearing the same clothes, with guns and rifles in their hands.
Approaching them, he tried to attract their attention, without shouting, which could be heard throughout the whole cave.
"Hey! Yes...you government protectors!!"
Suddenly the group in front of him turned around with their weapons aimed at him, causing Jason to gulp involuntarily.
'Why is the government always like this?!' He lamented in his mind, as a young, yet tall woman with shoulder-length, blond hair stepped forward.
"Who are you and what are your plans!?" She said in an overbearing manner, causing Jason to roll his eyes.
