Due to the existence of [Origin], the human soul was relatively stable; in exchange, it was hard for them to manifest a power that was the same as interference force in nature. To gain access to this particular power, one must release their [Origin] to increase the strength of their own soul; sometimes, releasing the [Origin] just once might not even be enough.
Due to the seven Righteous Gods' tampering, anyone who used the natural mana of this world to release their [Origin] would mutate, the one who released their [Origin] would undergo immediate Origin Assimilation, or lose their rationality. It was for this reason that this kind of release was called an 'Evil Soul Awakening'.
Without the corresponding resources, even Negary wouldn't be able to help others release their [Origin]. Even if he used his own Soul Essence to guide them, the loss would outweigh the benefits.
It was exactly for the sake of a deeper understanding of the human soul that he conducted these experiments with the Gear, which artificially undermined the equilibrium of the soul in order to draw out its power.
One of Negary's notable findings after many experiments was that by utilizing the power of Impurity to disturb the natural balance of the soul, one would be able to draw out a power similar to interference force. However, this power was very stiff, unable to flexibly change into illusion techniques or other manifestations of interference force, so it was dubbed Psychokinesis.
What Darr exchanged his contributions for in the Hermit Order was the surgery to unlock psychokinesis. This was a kind of invisible force of willpower, which could be utilized in certain situations to stimulate the environment and create a chain reaction.
Naturally, there were side effects to artificially disturbing the balance of the soul, in certain serious cases, it could even cause the user's personality to greatly change, magnifying one or more of their emotions, which also caused them to become obsessive.
Part of Darr's zealous worship towards Negary might have been a result of this.
What truly intrigued Negary was how, for the sake of regaining balance of the soul after it was broken, the [Origin] would derive and generate more Soul Essence from itself, thus strengthening one's soul.
Under the circumstance that the [Origin] could not be released, this was a way to use the [Origin] to generate a large amount of Soul Essence. Unfortunately, there was a limit to this, and if even a single step among this went wrong, the soul would shatter.
…
What was causing Darr to feel anxious was how the Gear was fusing with his power as he fused with it, which resulted in Darr being unable to utilize his psychokinesis.
Other than this, the only ability Darr had exchanged for within the Hermit Order was a localized snake demon implant. The implanted organ acted as a conduit for an added extra sense that wasn't part of the five senses, which originated from one of Negary's subordinates, the snake demon Isrig.
This person who had pledged his allegiance to Negary before anyone else in this world, wasn't particularly noteworthy among Negary's crew, comparatively, it was his Ritual of Snakes that drew people's attention a lot more. After going through Negary's teachings and optimizations, this system of power had greatly improved, the transformation could now be done in parts instead of all at once, like granting thermal sensory, or become cold-blooded.
In the Sun Shadow church's area of influence, everyone knew perfectly well that the knights of the church's expertise lied in their ability to see changes in temperature, as well as high-temperature attacks.
From a certain point of view, snake demons were entities that could counter the Sun Shadow church's knights. Thermal sensory would allow a modified person to recognize the knights' positions and attacks, while the cold-blooded modification allowed them to perfectly evade the knights' perception.
Because the cold-blooded modification made the modified person feel an extreme sense of drowsiness in a low-temperature environment, Darr only chose to undergo the thermal sensory modification, which allowed him to perceive heat within his surroundings.
It was thanks to this that Darr recognized Chromie's presence from the changes in temperature as soon as Chromie approached his hideout.
"Damn it…" Darr pushed open a hidden wooden hatch, where there was an artificial circular hole that led towards an unknown pitch-black location.
He then activated the self-destruct function that would cause this entire area to cave in on itself and stop his pursuing enemy.
Darr staggered as he walked along the hidden path. He was now feeling a bit regretful for attempting to fuse with the Gear so soon, but he truly didn't expect for someone to find this place through his numerous distractions and false leads.
The power of the Gear of Impurity was constantly circulating around his body, adapting itself to his body and gradually forming a new equilibrium.
The other side of the secret path soon appeared in front of Darr, this was an extremely ancient path, which Darr obviously didn't create.
It was only after he had chosen a certain place under the sewers as his hideout that he discovered something amiss about from the nearby wall as he was rigging it with his mechanisms. According to his survey of the nearby soil, he discovered that there should be another small space within the dirt wall.
Sure enough, as he broke through the dirt wall, he discovered this ruin-like hallway. Both sides of the hallway were lined with seemingly non-extinguishing lamps, while the hallway led into an unknown location.
According to his estimation of this place's topology, this ruin should be right beneath the region of Lohr, and after some preliminary probing of the ruin, Darr was able to confirm that he had discovered something extraordinary.
The area he had surveyed was already ridiculously huge, but he believed that the place he had visited was only the main gate into the ruin, while the true ruin had yet to open itself to him.
This was quite a terrible thought, as not even the current Sun Shadow church would be able to construct such a gigantic structure underneath Lohr. Furthermore, both the style and age of the structure suggested that it wasn't a part of Lohr.
Darr's barren understanding of history only afforded him the knowledge that the church had been the ruling power for the last 1000 years, but nothing about who was the ruling power before that.
In reality, most people of Lohr were the same, having next to no knowledge of the past. Even the most knowledgeable among the populace about this subject might only know that a capital of evil used to rule the world, and the Gods came to liberate it.
It wasn't until Darr examined some of the Hermit Order's internal documents that he understood this ruin might have belonged to a certain extinct race----- the elves.
He managed to find some treasures within the ruins, which was also the reason why he was able to grow so quickly within an organization like the Hermit Order, but he never truly managed to enter the true ruin; so Darr had turned this place into a secret escape tunnel.
As the sound of collapse resounded, the path he took to enter this place had already been destroyed.
This way, any enemy who wants to enter will have a very tough time doing so.
Shaking his head, Darr started walking in a different direction, as there was another hidden tunnel at another location where he could escape.
…
On the other side, Chromie was far from pleased. After he meticulously dismantled each of the trap mechanisms to enter the hideout, he was welcomed with an explosion, what was even worse was that the pursuing path had also been cut off.
He didn't expect my Spirit Vision ability, but I also didn't expect him to be so decisive.
Chromie's expression was considerably annoyed, if he lost that teenager's tracks now, he might have already finished fusing with the Gear by the next time they met; the Hermit Order's strength would grow again, and his rescue of Olga's soul would become even harder.
"Wait a minute…" Chromie suddenly felt something amiss. As he raised his hand that was missing a few fingers, there was a ring with the words [May the Moon be with you!] engraved along the inside of the band.
Years ago, he once saw his sister wearing this ring when he came home, and his father had always kept it carefully. After his family was ruined, he kept carrying it with him as a memento, but never did he think it would display some difference today.
"Underground?" some information that he had kept suppressed for a long time suddenly resurfaced in Chromie's mind.
