The impact of the last energy influx was the worst. Even though Michael used the energy influx of six Tier-4 Awakened to refine his body, mind and War Rune, the energy influx of a Tier-5 Lord was several times worse. It circulated through his entire body like molten lava and seemed to burn down everything in its path.
Michael screamed at the top of his lungs right before he disappeared inside the Origin Expanse. He forced his eyes shut to focus on his refinement techniques and use up as much energy as possible. He tried to refine his body, mind, and War Rune simultaneously so as to utilize the energy that wreaked havoc inside his body.
Several days passed before Michael opened his eyes once again. His entire body was drenched in sweat and he felt eerily weak. Yet, the power that surged through his body was amazing. It was exhilarating.
Instead of rushing to leave the Origin Expanse, Michael decided to eat something. He devoured more than a dozen jumbo-sized trays until he finally felt full. He then rubbed his stomach with a satisfying smile and collapsed on the bench.
When he woke up again, Michael found himself in his room. The tiredness that had accompanied him for the last two weeks was no more to harass him. Michael finally rested a bit. He talked a little bit with Tiara, and the Forest Elves about the territory development. Michael then checked the progress of the Sacred Knight Temple and a few other projects as well.
A few hours later, he returned back to the underground prison where a surprise was waiting for him.
The War Priestess, missing an arm, and the Berseker Chieftain, covered in various wounds that stemmed from explosions and razor-sharp blades, were back in the prison.
"Ohh…W-welcome back!" Michael greeted them, flashing a forced smile in the direction of the two powerhouses.
"You are still alive. That's good." Palika Mavenham said, patting Michael's back.
The force in Palika's pat was nearly enough to fling Michael across the room. Fortunately, his physique had improved quite a bit in the last few weeks so he could absorb the impact.
"The security system's sound detectors perceived your screams. The vital signal radar then showed us that you killed the traitorous Tier-5 Lord. I should have warned you about the energy influx. Good thing your limbs are still where they ought to be," The War Priestess explained, draining all the color from Michael's face.
'I forgot about the vital signal radars! Fuck this shit… Were they able to sense the SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols as well?' Michael broke into a sweat at this thought. His breathing grew rougher and a lump formed in his throat. He was about to hyperventilate when he slapped his cheeks to force his body back under control.
'No. If they noticed something like that they wouldn't have asked about my well-being first. They would probably ask about the Soultrait Symbols and the SoulStar Fragments first…right?'
"H-how can I help you? Did you come just to look out for me? That's…nice…" Michael managed to say, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Actually, we just returned from Kirata. You were correct. It was a trap. Thankfully, we were prepared to jump straight into a trap. We created a strategy to counter most traps, and were able to overwhelm the bastards from Dark Heavens. We got the Tritaenus back and our people are currently checking the internal systems to check whether Dark Heavens' hackers were able to procure all or any information. They will also check for viruses and all the other stuff," Palika explained, not hiding that he had no idea about technology.
All the Berserker Chieftain cared about was combat, strength and the death of his enemies. Everything related to technology and modern science was not his forte, so he let others do what they were good at.
"You can read the report later. For now, we came to pick you up and check on you. The security system worried us a little bit because nobody would be stupid enough to kill a Tier-5 Lord while being a Tier-2 Awakened, but it's a good thing that you survived," The War Priestess pointed out.
Her gaze told Michael that she was mocking him. However, Michael could only sigh in relief – inwardly, of course. First of all, the War Priestess seemed to have accepted him. She didn't consider him as a stupid youngling, who trusted his gut feeling like a naive fool. The War Priestess might have lost an arm, but her expression didn't show any signs of worry or resentment. Michael didn't understand that quite well, but it was possible that the War Priestess was unburdened by the loss of her arm.
'They probably have the means to heal her. If Maria is willing to help out they can definitely regrow her arm. That should hardly be an issue.' Michael thought, happy that the security system didn't seem to have picked up on the Soultrait Symbols and the SoulStar Fragments.
He felt a little bit foolish for forgetting about the countless functions most modern security systems possessed, but it was a good thing that he Extracted the SoulStar Fragments and Soultraits of the war criminals.
He procured a total of 24,900 SoulStar Fragments and 8 Soultraits. Second Skin, Insert and a bunch of other rather useful Soultraits entered Michael's possession. The gains Michael made were exceptional, but there was still more. Other than the SoulStar Fragments, Soultrait Symbols, and energy influx, Michael also procured a large portion of the war criminal's goods, and several Memory Orbs.
Their War Rune's storage was emptied by Michael and the Memory Orbs were consumed at once. The dead couldn't speak, but their memories could.
After putting himself in a dangerous situation that could have exposed his secret, Michael obtained what he desired. It was definitely worth the risk. Of course, that didn't mean Michael didn't feel stressed out and under enormous pressure. His heart was palpitating, and he had a hard time talking to either of the races' leaders.
"The Battle Exchange must have ended by now. What will happen now? We have only like…six or seven weeks left before we have to depart, right?" Michael asked, trying to change the topic.
"The Battle Exchange is over, yes. The participants of the Flag War have already been informed. You should also have a notification. In fact, you should have received multiple notifications by now. As for the rest, they'll leave Piloq in the next few days," Palika explained, looking back at Michael before he added, "But why did you kill that Tier-5 Lord? I mean, I understand why you did it, but I don't understand why you would put your life in danger like that. Don't you know that the energy influx of someone two Tiers higher than you is already dangerous? I didn't say anything because I was pretty sure that you would be fine killing the Lowest-ranked Tier-4 Awakened. But you went ahead and killed the Tier-5 Lord as well? You can consider yourself fortunate for being alive!"
It was interesting to know that many Awakened criminals were executed in the past. Since killing Awakened rewarded an energy influx to the executioner, various families began to search for high-ranked criminals to let their children kill them. The young Descendants were at a similar Tier and rank as Michael when they killed the Higher Lifeforms in the hopes of refining their War Rune rapidly. While that worked most of the time, it created two major problems.
The first problem was pretty simple. It was a fact that Awakened provided an energy influx upon getting killed. Various criminals were executed by young Descendants, but that was not all. Some big families were getting greedy. They wanted to grow faster than others and exceed them all. They wanted to become the sole and unrivaled rulers of mankind. Therefore, they began to hunt criminals to capture them for their children to kill.
Most families accepted this. They did the same in the beginning. However, they didn't kill innocent Awakened or smaller criminals. However, there was one family that began to frame powerful Awakened from unknown families. They captured and killed them for their energy influx. But that was not all. Smaller criminals who stole their party's goods were also captured by this family – and mercilessly killed by the younger generation. The family changed a lot, and they developed techniques to procure more energy influx from killing 'criminals'. Their hair turned crimson like the blood they shed when they killed the innocent and criminals alike.
Their family's name was added to history's books as the Crimson Hunters, the Arcania family.
The second problem was the danger of the highly potent energy influx a Higher Lifeform provided. The energy influx was on a completely different level from the energy influx of a Lesser Lifeform. Therefore many Descendants with weaker Soultraits suffered major backlashes from killing criminals, who were two Tiers above them in rank. Only the strongest Descendants with powerful Soultraits to strengthen their Soul, and a sturdy foundation encompassing both physical and mental fortitude could overcome and endure the energy influx provided by an Awakened two Tiers above their rank.
Michael met that requirement mostly because he was in possession of so many Soultraits. Even if his mind and body would crumble, his Soul provided enough protection to his existence to endure and use the energy influx of a Tier-4 Awakened. As for the Tier-5 Lord…Michael would rather be in unbearable pain and be considered an idiot for thinking that he could endure the energy influx of a Tier-5 Lord rather than keep his guinea pigs alive.
He had used the war criminals as guinea pigs for his experiments. He removed their Soultraits and extracted their SoulStar Fragments. Leaving them alive was not an option. Therefore, Michael chose to become the stupid fool, who overestimated his capabilities. That was much better than his secrets getting exposed.
Michael was still alive and he was almost done with the second refinement stage of Sacred Rectification. Caesurium Menta was also nearing the limit of the second stage. It was only a matter of time before he reached a bottleneck. By then, Michael would have to change his refinement technique to a better one or advance to the 3rd Tier to practice the 3rd stage of Caesurium Menta and Sacred Rectification.
"Well…how about I show you something? You might understand why I killed that old bastard on a whim," Michael responded to Palika. He retrieved a Memory Crystal and channeled some memories inside it.
The memories originated from the Memory Orb of the Tier-5 Lord he'd killed. Michael was disgusted just thinking about the memories, but he kept a straight face as he handed the Memory Crystal to Palika Mavenham.
The Berserker Chieftain's expression remained neutral for the first few seconds. However, upon reaching a certain point his expression turned sour. It worsened until his large hand twitched and his grip on the Orb tightened. Not even a second later, the memory crystal burst into thousands of pieces.
"This…Is that how humans can be? Not even the worst criminals of our kind would dare to do something so cruel and evil to children…and innocent women. How could someone let loose Goblins and Kobolds onto them….?"
Palika Mavenham had seen a lot. He had seen many bad people. However, most of the time the Chieftain could sense the bad within people. But that was not the case with the Elder. In fact, the Elder of the Silvermoon University had a likable personality. Many liked him. Even Palika had had a favorable impression of him…until now.
"That is terrifying…" The War Priestess mumbled as she received a similar memory crystal from Michael.
"Yes, it is. He is one of the worst humans I've encountered until now…so I couldn't hold back…especially with his memory being imprinted in my mind…I hate it…I want to get rid of them all…but I needed that to collect information…" Michael swore under his breath, clenching his fists.
He really hated some of the memories that had been imprinted deep into his mental with exceptional clarity. It was horrifying to have someone else's memories in his mind, especially if those were foul. The only good thing was that Michael could organize his memories and thoughts. If not for being able to differentiate his memories from those of others, Michael would have crumbled by now. That was something he was certain of.
'But I need to know how disgusting mankind can be and how low they can stoop. I need to understand that not everyone is good. If I extract the memories again, I will lose every memory connected to the bad ones. The weapon mastery, their knowledge, and how disgusting they are. I…have to use their memories as a source of energy to grow stronger, and to remind myself about the dark side of mankind…'
"Their memories are inside you? That…must be your Soultrait's doing… I am sorry for you. That must be terrifying. I understand why you killed them," The War Priestess said, looking at Michael with a tinge of pity, and newly found respect.
Despite knowing how vile the war criminals had been, Michael spent the previous two weeks procuring as many useful pieces of information as possible. Silvana couldn't imagine how horrifying it must have been for Michael, and how much he had to endure. Yet, he worked so hard to help everyone. He deserved to be commended and respected.
"Don't worry about what others might say. I will make sure nobody can even harm a single hair of your hair for killing these bastards!"
