Steadying his mind, Liam took out a black bead, not one of the empty ones and not the one that had the dragon's or the lizardmen's souls in them. Instead, he took out the black bead that was already completely filled with human souls.
This was one of the items he had acquired from the dark mages who had sacrificed the villagers. The souls of the villagers were essentially trapped inside.
Perhaps the right thing to do here was to release the innocent souls and put them to rest, but unfortunately, he was not in a position to do the right thing at the moment.
Liam did not hesitate as he broke and shattered this bead, pulling out all the souls within the bead in a single move.
The next instant, white mist exploded from the bead, just like when Dimitri, the dark elf, used the attack on him. But the him now was much stronger than the him back then. So he did not twitch and convulse in the pain as the numerous souls banged against him from all sides.
Instead, he silently felt them and accepted their presence. He held onto his breath as the wailing of the souls echoed in the stone tablet world and bore the pressure they relayed.
For a second, the souls seemed extremely unsteady, as if they were going to blast apart and dissipate, but soon they started becoming stable.
Just like the fire element essence and the dark element essence swirling in their own respective puddles, these souls as well started forming another puddle and swirled within that puddle.
"I knew it." Liam grinned. His guess had been correct. Just like back at the fort where they had imprisoned the dragon princess, the stone tablet was also a special place. The souls were still stable here without dissipating.
Naturally, this was a huge risk he had taken as he could have simply lost all these souls, but at this point, there was no longer any sense in holding back. He needed to jump in with both his feet and tried anything and everything that made even a little sense.
Sensing the numerous souls around him, Liam stood up from the dark element puddle to sit in the middle of this soul essence puddle. He then took a deep breath and let everything go.
Haaaa. He could feel the abundant energy rushing into him, and he felt as if he was in the most comfortable spa. These soul essences were truly nourishing for him.
Feeling completely pumped from top to bottom, Liam then took yet another shot at his mana core and the shackles that bound him. He sucked in a big breath of air, held onto the chains that kept him down and once again rattled them.
RUMBLE RUMBLE!
RUMBLE RUMBLE!
The chains started creaking and groaning.
The thick metallic shackles that were immovable before were now shaking and trembling as he commanded them to break apart.
"Break for me." Liam gritted his teeth and used the full strength of his mana core to blast them into smithereens, but… how could it be so easy? This was the extent of his current ability, even sitting immersed in soul essence.
"Come on. Break." He gritted his teeth and tried, only to fail again.
"It's fine. I know how to push it further." Liam stopped struggling with the stubborn shackles. He was just beginning. After all, there was no need to push anything just yet. For now, he had confirmed what he wanted to confirm.
He was stronger and able to forge higher beasts in the presence of souls, so he assumed that he also had the best chance to break these shackles in the presence of these souls. This told him that he was on the right path. Just that his soul was not strong enough.
Liam sucked in a breath, and without any other choice, he started working on his plan B. He took out another black bead and broke apart that one as well.
While the earlier bead contained the souls of weak human villagers, this one was completely different. It did not have any weak souls. It collectively held the souls of numerous lizardmen.
These strong vengeful souls swirled around Liam, echoing in agony and pain. For a moment, he felt his body shiver, but he quickly steadied himself. He couldn't afford to let himself be affected by just this much. He still had a lot to face.
The strong souls clashed against him wave after wave, and Liam continued to bear everything.
The wyvern souls and the dragon souls were challenging as they were a singular, extremely powerful entity. Even though these souls were not as strong as them, they still had the numbers on their side. Facing the whiplash of these numerous souls was not a simple matter.
But this was also what Liam wanted. As seconds ticked by, he started feeling completely drained and exhausted. His head was throbbing, and his body was trembling. However, he continued to hold on by drinking the water from the Milky Way pond.
After a certain point, even that stopped working as the pain started increasing exponentially. At this moment, Liam started pulling in energy from the very souls that were attacking him.
This, in turn, made his own soul a little bit stronger. Only a little bit. So he was continuing to struggle nevertheless.
Liam patiently withstood everything and started repeating this same thing, again and again, each time slowly strengthening his soul. At the same time, his other soul minions were running wild outside the dungeon and farming experience points, slowly increasing his overall strength.
***
Back at the divine temple in the Eastern Empire, the high priestess sat on her throne with an annoyed expression on her face. Her meeting hadn't gone well.
The useless good for nothings who were above her just because of their status dared to point fingers at her and called her names. They said she had become lazy and incompetent to let something like this happen.
"As if any of those idiots are capable of managing an entire realm like me!" She scoffed angrily. Adding to her bad mood, the mirror in front of her suddenly stopped displaying Liam's whereabouts.
"What happened? I want to know what he is doing at all times!" She angrily clenched her fists. If she could, she would have already crushed this pest that was causing her a headache thousand times over.
But unfortunately, her hands were tied, so she could only watch. "Your eminence, I am not sure what happened." The golden knight bowed and regretfully answered.
"Useless. Utterly useless. Can't you even see this? He should be using that stone tablet. That's why we are not able to observe him." She rubbed her temples and mumbled, the frown on her face deepening.
"Useless idiot is probably just making more of his soul minions. Trash. Doesn't know the value of the treasure he is holding in his hands. Come to think of it, just how did the demons come in possession of something like this?"
"Hmmm... I need to prepare more for our next project. It looks like I cannot underestimate these demons. Thankfully, in 3 hours, I don't have to deal with this insect again. Without him incessantly buzzing around, I will be able to focus on other important things."
"Yes, your eminence."
"That's enough. Get out now. Take this mirror with you and keep an eye on him. I have some other things to take care of."
"Yes, your eminence."
"And remember, I don't care what happens to him. He is not worth my time. Just get me that stone tablet as soon as that vermin is kicked out of my world. That is more important."
"Yes, your eminence." The golden knight obediently bowed without daring to raise his head.
