The Sovereign Spark entered his half-soul's chest, filling the gaping hole that once sat there. Then, Dyon took out the Soul Tome once more.
Dyon immediately felt a comfortable feeling quickly dull the pain his soul was experiencing. If things continued at this pace, Dyon was certain that his soul would be whole again in just half a year. This price was definitely worth it.
He flipped the tome open, pausing when he reached a page containing an eerie flame that filled him with discomfort. Maybe the Soul Tome was one of the only vessels in existence that could contain such a flame.
This flame flickered with a black and silver light. It wasn't as dense as Dyon's Chaos Flames, but somehow its air wasn't any less sinister.
Beads of sweat fell from Dyon's brow. He slowly extracted a single wisp of the flame, allowing it to enter the sovereign spark.
In an instant, the golden flame became agitated. It grew in size, surrounding the black-silver flame and imprisoning it. Only after Dyon saw this did he breathe a sigh of relief. This was something only he would dare to do. If he failed, never mind the sovereign spark, but an entire half of his soul would be incinerated to nothingness. He could only succeed with the help of the Soul Tome that trapped an overwhelming percentage of this black-silver flame.
Dyon didn't know exactly what this flame was, but he knew it was dangerous. The most corrosive flame on the unique flame rankings was the 11th ranked Devil Wisp flame, but this black-silver flame put it to shame… That, Dyon was certain of.
In all likelihood, after trillions of years, this mystical world had birthed a new flame by following its own evolutionary path. However, Dyon could only speculate.
Dyon carefully protected his soul. If he allowed it to get too close to Orcus' skeleton too soon, it wouldn't be able to survive the death qi.
Just as Dyon was thinking this, his soul didn't seem to care for his feelings. While he had been focusing on retrieving the next piece he needed, it had somehow already made its way to what remained of Orcus. In fact, it entered his skull, assimilating before Dyon's stunned eyes.
Dyon didn't have time to think. He realized immediately that it was his own stupidity that caused him to underestimate his soul. A nascent soul was the hallmark of a transcendent, how could Orcus' remains harm it so easily? As his master once said, even if his body and cultivation was destroyed entirely, what would remain steadfast was his soul.
Normally, when Dyon's soul was 'harmed' it was actually just his mind's eye taking a beating. Its core, or his soul, was never actually harmed at all. With the exception of when he burned it, of course. But, even then, he survived far longer than anyone else would.
In truth, Dyon didn't understand why this was. He assumed that it was a byproduct of being born with the soul kernel, but that didn't explain the divine chains, nor did it explain why the soul kernel couldn't bind him like it sealed the rest of the mortal realm.
Yet, even with all of this being true, he could somehow split his soul with ease as though it had long been waiting for him to do so. Well, easy insofar as he could ignore the heart wrenching pain.
Setting aside all of this, Dyon began to work quickly. First, he took out what Orcus prepared for Vital Flesh.
Although Vital Flesh didn't have to be true flesh, it seemed that Orcus didn't take this to heart. According to his diary, the Vital Flesh he chose were the preserved hearts of his wives.
It turned out that Orcus never forced his women into marriage with him. Or rather, he never did this with his official wives. This made sense, after all, the Dark Phoenix Clan would never let him off if he stole their Princesses.
That aside, the reason that this was so important was because as they neared their deaths, Orcus' wives displayed their love for him by using their bodies to support his ambitions. Not only did they allow Orcus to use their flesh to refine his corpses to be stronger, they left behind their hearts and blood essence for him to revive himself with.
Orcus' wives weren't as talented as him, so they never managed to make it to the Higher Existence realm, however, they were all Peak Dao Experts at a minimum. The strongest being of the 12th stage, and the weakest of the 11th.
It turned out that Orcus set aside the blood essence of his wives to act as his Life Blood, while he planned to use their hearts as his Vital Flesh. Alone they weren't enough, but together, they were more than.
The only shame about all of this was that if Dyon used this blood essence for the sake of creating a clone, he wouldn't be able to use it to gain a Dark Phoenix Bloodline. However, after diligently reading Orcus' diary, he understood why Orcus was willing to make this sacrifice.
When Orcus was exploring the Pride Clan Tombs, he found a blood pool similar to the Celestial Beast Vats. Orcus was willing to use the blood essence of his wives to revive himself because he saw the blood essence of the Pride Clan to be more valuable!
The only issue was that Orcus didn't have this blood pool with him. He had left it within the Ancient Battlefield. However, he had luckily left the location within his Star Lord Robe. As long as Dyon's clone entered the battlefield, he could teleport there immediately. This way, the cultivation of his clone could skyrocket.
Six massive hearts, several dozen meters across appeared. Orcus had long since connected them all, etching the appropriate runic veins into their bodies.
The next thing to appear was a large vat of blood. The essence within was so pure that they shimmered with a slight gold, but the death qi still managed to blacken them.
Dyon looked up to find his soul slowly devouring Orcus' skeleton. It was only now he understood why it entered of its own volition. However, Dyon didn't panic. Although it was a bit odd that this step was happening so soon, Dyon didn't mind it since this was what was meant to happen anyway. Plus, he somehow felt that this method was more perfect than the one detailed within his clone creating technique.
Projecting his celestial qi out from himself, Dyon created a string of blood essence, connecting the vat of blood to the six combined hearts. Soon, the Life Blood began to flow within Vital Flesh.
The heart began to pump. First, it was incredibly slow, almost unnoticeable. But then, the deep resounding LUBDUB sounds pulsed throughout the throne room.
Sensing vitality, the blue flames tried to surge toward the heart, but Dyon used his remaining strength to block them. There was a reason Orcus didn't want to use Life as a basis of his resurrection.
According to Dyon's original thoughts, it was because Orcus had a death body that it was detrimental to him to use life essence to reawaken. However, after reading his diary, Dyon found out that this was wrong!
Orcus always lamented that he could never break into the final stage of his death god body. He spent years trying to understand just why that was, but in the end, he couldn't find a solution. To him, his resurrection was a chance!
Unlike Dyon who could break into new stages of his Titan Diamond Body by simply refining his strength, Orcus had to also comprehend the dao of death to a deeper degree. However, he felt that the fact he was alive was what was holding him back…
So, Orcus devised a plan. He decided that upon resurrecting himself, he would rely solely on death. He would defy the heavens and breathe life into himself using only its direct opposite!
The heart continued to pulse, growing more and more violent. Suddenly, Dyon's soul finished absorbing Orcus' skeleton. Without so much as a pause, it dove into the heart, causing its massive exterior to shrink at a visible pace.
Dyon felt his vision grow blurry. He finally couldn't withstand the pressure anymore. Despite having the soul tome in his hand, it just wasn't enough.
The last thing he saw was the massive heart seemingly disappearing, and the last thing he heard was the wail of a baby.
