Chương 124: Chapter 123. Hues of the Soul

The words had barely finished leaving Levi's lips before Anastasia reacted. The entire time, she'd been watching with a pleased expression, but the moment he uttered the word 'magick', she flinched as though burned.

"What? No – Levi, you mustn't!" Levi glanced at her.

"What?"

"You can't use your magick here," Anastasia said, even as the others looked between them in confusion.

"I know you want to kill the Emperor, I do as well, but… the Goddess would never forgive me if I stood aside and allowed you to destroy his soul." Terminus and Selene both tensed up before whirling to Levi, identical looks of horror on their faces. The Emperor stilled before he began thrashing around in a frenzied panic.

"You can destroy souls?" Selene whispered, for once her voice filled with sheer genuine terror. Such an act was anathema even to her, an archdemon. But of course it was. The inviolability of a soul was one of the most fundamental laws that all those who wielded magic understood and obeyed. Destroying even a single soul was perhaps one of the greatest, most terrible transgressions an individual could commit. Why, it was easily enough to have an entire world calling for your head.

"Who… What are you?" Terminus breathed. Levi ignored them both.

"Anastasia, what are you talking about?" he asked, bewildered.

"Who said anything about destroying the Emperor's soul?" Anastasia blinked.

"Didn't you imply that you're going to kill the Emperor with your soul magick?"

"Soul magick, yes," Levi said.

"But definitely not by destroying his soul." His expression was grave.

"I don't intend to ever do such a thing." Again was left unsaid. Indeed, this current situation felt so different yet so similar to his final task. However, while history might repeat itself, ultimately it was still written by men, and Levi refused to pen such a tale once more. He could destroy the Emperor's soul right now, he had no doubts about that. It would be the easiest, most effective method to end the Emperor's warped, profane life.

He could already feel the magick straining at the back of his mind, whispering to be unleashed. But… Never again did Levi want to take away another soul's right to die. Not even the Emperor's. Anastasia must've seen this in his eyes, because after a moment of examining him, she nodded.

"I see. Then, how do you plan to kill him?" How indeed. Full confession: Levi didn't actually know yet. His instincts told him that soul magick was the correct play here – it was the only possible play, really. The specifics, though, he had no clue. Fortunately, this situation wasn't exactly new to him. It was hardly the first time Levi had decided on doing something before knowing how to accomplish it. Rash, perhaps, but he wasn't too worried. He knew he'd succeed. He must. He made a promise to Yuki, after all.

His mind whirred as he considered his options. If there were a line of mana connecting the Emperor's soul to his descendants, then Levi could easily cut it with his Sever and Cleave. The issue was, blood was unique as a medium because it completely bypassed the need for a mana connection, allowing for instantaneous soul translocation. There was a reason why the blood and hair of a mage were considered to be so invaluable – and dangerous if they ever fell into the wrong hands.

The next solution was to bind the Emperor's soul to some sort of physical container, probably a blood homunculus, and imprison him for all of eternity. However, that would then violate the sanctity of death, as the very imprisonment would technically result in the Emperor's immortality – albeit a cursed, miserable immortality. As such, that plan was out.

With those two options infeasible, the only solutions left were to either destroy the Emperor's soul directly with soul magick or to kill all his descendants with the Bloodline Purge Ritual. Neither options were very good, but then again, it was already a miracle that there were even two solutions. Expecting a third would be asking for too much. But Levi was nothing but greedy.

"This is a waste of time," Terminus snapped.

"If you possess the ability to destroy souls, then you can end the Emperor right now. This way, Yuki won't have to even die. Every second you delay is another second that this situation might blow up in our faces. We're still in the heart of enemy territory." Indeed, while Selene's shadows were still restraining the guards and Huntsmen, there was no telling if or when backup might arrive.

"Just fucking kill the Emperor already–!"

"Ah," Levi said. The answer came to him in a flash. In retrospect, it was so simple, so obvious. The best answers always were.

"What?" Selene asked. For the first time since the fight at the palace began, she seemed fully engaged, a hungry curiosity in her eyes. Archdemons lived and breathed magic, loved learning it more than anything else in the world. Levi was more than happy to oblige.

"As you know," he began, taking on a faintly lecturing tone, "just as the soul shapes the body, so too does the body shape the soul." That was how the principle of inherited emotions worked. His counterpart's emotions, carved into the body, had diffused into Levi's own soul, making it so that at times Levi couldn't even tell where his emotions ended and his counterpart's began – or if there was even still a difference between the two.

"Right," Selene said slowly.

"This is all elementary soul-body theory. What's your point–?" She froze.

"Blood." Levi grinned.

"Now you're getting it. Blood is a part of the body, arguably the most important part. Just like magic, it is in constant flow, containing both our essence and the markers that denote our bloodline. Those markers then shape the soul, altering the 'hue' to be a specific 'color'. That is to say, souls of the same blood all share the same 'hue'. That is how a soul knows which 'bloodline' it belongs to, even if it's not presently inhabiting a tangible body of flesh and blood."

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"I see," Selene breathed in dawning realization.

"That means to defeat [Bloodline Rebirth], all you have to do is alter the 'hue' of the Emperor's soul such that it is no longer the same 'shade' as the rest of his bloodline's. Instead of purging the bloodline, you're excising him from the bloodline."

"Exactly," Levi said. He turned to Anastasia.

"Can you get the Emperor out of this kid's body?" Anastasia smiled.

"Am I a High Priestess or not?" She stepped in front of the Emperor, who resumed his thrashing with twice the vigor as before. Reaching out, she touched two fingers to the Emperor's forehead and closed her eyes, concentrating deeply as a holy light began radiating from her form. Then, her eyes snapped back open.

"[Banish All Evil]!" A bright flash filled the dining hall before the Emperor's soul was knocked out of his son's body. Levi let out a low whistle. This was the very reason why he'd been so worried about High Priestesses when he'd initially reincarnated into this world. As it turned out, their exorcism was very effective against souls inhabiting bodies not their own. The boy slumped over in a dead faint. Above him, the Emperor's soul hovered in the air.

He manifested in a transparent astral form, somewhat like a ghost, taking on the same appearance as his original body.

"You contemptible vermin," he spat in a voice of magic.

"You meddle with forces you don't understand. You will regret it if you dare–" Whenever a foreign soul was exorcised from a body, there was a small window of time as the displaced soul gradually 'forgot' the host body and the lingering connection between the two fully dissipated. After that, 'death' would occur, which was defined as the complete separation of the soul from the body. For the Emperor, his 'death' would then trigger the activation of [Bloodline Rebirth].

The window of time wasn't very long, only a few seconds at most. However, that was all the time Levi needed. He raised his hand and shot forth a bolt of blinding white light at the Emperor's astral form. The Emperor shrieked and tried to dodge, but he was still bound to the boy's body by an invisible tether. Levi's aim struck true. The soul magick sank into the Emperor's chest, sending out phantasmal ripples that raced across his entire body.

"Wait!" the Emperor shouted in pure desperate terror." We can talk about this. We can negotiate. Please! If I die, then–" The color of the Emperor's soul changed. Levi couldn't exactly describe it with words, as the colors existed on a wavelength not perceivable by normal sight. However, his True Sight could just about detect the minute shift in the Emperor's soul's hue. In an instant, the soul magick finished running its course.

"No," the Emperor whispered. He must've somehow been able to sense the shift as well.

"I am a god. I am eternal. I am the almighty God-King Emperor of this country–!"

"You are a foul, despicable man," Yuki said.

"And for the first time in my life, I am truly overjoyed to say that you… you are no longer my father. I disavow you, Shingen Toranaga."

"You can't!" the Emperor roared." We share the same name! You will forever be Yuki Toranaga–"" No," Yuki said softly.

"I am not a Toranaga. My name…" Her crimson eyes flashed.

"... is Yuki Samura." The soul tether broke. [Bloodline Rebirth] activated once more. It found no related targets. And Emperor Shingen Toranaga died. The Resistance wasn't the only faction in the city. As the battle to conquer the capital progressed, Makoto's paranoia grew and grew as it became increasingly clear that there was another party present. He had no concrete proof, of course. He saw nothing and heard nothing, and indeed none of his men seemed to have noticed anything wrong.

Yet, he was the leader of the Second Shinobi Unit for a reason. Identifying patterns was his job. And the coincidences kept on stacking up. Unconscious imperial guards here, empty foxholes there… The rest of Makoto's men just assumed that another Resistance member had done it. Except Makoto's skill, [Presence Awareness], allowed him to keep tabs on everyone within a five mile radius – twenty miles if he overcharged it with mana.

It was more difficult for strangers, but for allies he knew, he could recognize them in his sleep. Currently, he was actively keeping tabs on the positions of more than a thousand Resistance members. Which was how he knew that none of them had been in the right place at the right time to do any of this. But the only question was… If it wasn't the Resistance, then who was it? It wasn't like there were two Resistances. Perhaps it was a local adventurer who decided to join the fight?

Except, if that was the case, then why didn't they just openly fight together with the Resistance? Whoever this was, they were very much deliberately concealing their presence. Two thousand men spread throughout an entire city, and not a single one had reported noticing anything out of the ordinary. It made no sense. Could it be foreign involvement? Did some other country send in a tactical strike force?

That would explain the need for discretion, since if the Resistance lost the battle, then the foreign country would need plausible deniability. Yet, for some reason, Makoto doubted it. The Curtain, sustained by the Dragon's Leyline, had only been disabled less than an hour earlier. Any foreign agents would've been detected before then, and after… There was no way they could've reached Endo in such a short amount of time. Unless… Makoto's blood ran cold. Unless the third party wasn't human at all.

According to the high-tier mages of the Resistance, something terrible had just happened to the Dragon's Leyline. The ambient mana had been thrown into utter disarray. Normally, the Heavenly Barriers would be protecting Endo from all monster attacks, but with the barriers disabled… Perhaps all the chaos had drawn the attention of some ultra-high-tier monster. One that was powerful enough to fully conceal its presence while rampaging through the entire city. It… It couldn't possibly be a Vampiric Lord, right? No…

No, that would be ludicrous– Makoto froze. The Imperial District was where most of the corrupt members of the Imperial Court lived. Consequently, it was protected by not only elite guards but also multiple powerful defensive barriers. The Resistance had sent over five hundred men to besiege the district, anticipating a long and grueling fight. Yet, now that the Resistance had finally arrived… The gates to the Imperial District were wide open, not a single active barrier in sight.

Unconscious elite guards, each easily Adamantine-tier, littered the ground.

"Huh," one of Makoto's men said.

"Did another squad get here first–?"

"STAY ON HIGH ALERT!" Makoto roared, to his men's confusion.

"DON'T LET YOUR GUARDS DOWN! EXERCISE THE UTMOST VIGILANCE!" Sweat trickled down his face as he glanced around, eyes darting from shadow to shadow. It was clear that there was someone else in the city with them. Or something else. And… Was it his imagination, or did he just catch the faint acrid whiff of alcohol in the air?