"Your Highness, will that lich come back again?" asked Fiona, the ancient green dragon, as she cautiously approached Muria. She had watched Barbossa, full of fury, lead his ghost fleet away into the gray mist. Unlike Muria, the legends who were weaker than him felt immense pressure when facing a legendary lich of Barbossa's caliber, especially in a situation where Muria had become his enemy. If Fiona or any of Muria's followers encountered the lich alone, it would almost certainly mean certain death.
"Don't worry, we won't run into him again anytime soon," Muria replied confidently as he glanced at the green-haired beauty. Although he had repeatedly refused Barbossa in front of everyone, he had secretly made a dark deal with him through mental communication.
Three days later, at a specific location, Muria returned the shipyard—whose outer seals he couldn't break—to Barbossa. In exchange for redeeming his shipyard, the lich had to hand over two resource-rich desolate worlds and a legendary secret technique that allowed him to transform into a thousand-meter-tall skeletal giant.
Three days later, Muria successfully obtained what he wanted—the secret technique and the coordinates of two different worlds in the void. Immediately after acquiring the coordinates, Muria opened a stargate and dispatched two liches with their undead armies to explore these two resource worlds. He wasn't foolish enough to venture into enemy-provided locations himself.
However, nothing unexpected happened. Barbossa had withdrawn all his forces from these two worlds, leaving only a few low-level undead behind. These worlds were barren, without any sign of life—or perhaps too harsh to support it.
As a result, these worlds had almost no world barriers, allowing any creatures to enter and exit freely. However, the environment was extremely hostile, making mining there particularly challenging.
Firstly, these worlds lacked an ecosystem, only hosting the most basic algae, which couldn't sustain normal human life. Anyone below the Gold rank couldn't even consider going there. Even those at the Gold rank, who had transcended the mundane, couldn't survive there for long. Only those at the Soul Intent level and above could freely operate in such an environment.
But there was no way Muria would have such powerful beings work as miners. Thus, the task of mining naturally fell to the undead. As long as they had enough death energy, they didn't need material sustenance, making them the perfect candidates for mining.
After some thought and consideration of various concerns—such as the fact that Barbossa knew the coordinates of these two worlds—Muria initially sent two Soul Intent level liches with their undead to settle in and conduct trial mining. He feared Barbossa might pull a fast one, but even if those two liches were crushed, he wouldn't be too upset.
...
After temporarily making peace with Barbossa, Muria began searching for Mikaela. She hadn't returned when trouble arose in Synapse, mainly because Muria hadn't notified her.
Using the contact methods he had previously established with Mikaela, Muria quickly found the seraphim girl, who was leading an army in a frenzied campaign against the undead. In the short time since they had last seen each other, Mikaela had gathered an army, but its composition left Muria particularly surprised.
"Mika, what is this...?" Muria asked, his expression a bit stunned. Surrounding Mikaela was a well-organized undead army—something utterly unbelievable.
Although Mikaela had helped him subdue many liches in the undead dungeons before, she had never shown them any kindness. If it weren't for Muria's influence, she might have burned those liches with her Seraphic Flames. Yet now, when left to her own devices, she was leading a group of undead to fight against other undead?
"Muria! Let me introduce you to some new friends. These are the Watchmen, heroes who protect humanity in the eternal night," Mikaela said, after exchanging a few affectionate words with Muria as he descended from the sky. She then introduced the undead warriors fighting alongside her.
"Greetings, Your Highness. I am Pamela, a Watchman."
"I am Sir Galt, the Mistwalker."
"Your Highness, I am..."
One by one, the powerful undead surrounding Mikaela introduced themselves, all showing great enthusiasm towards Muria. After all, he was a Legendary being who was willing to help humanity.
"Watchmen? Your armor looks a bit familiar," Muria remarked as he scrutinized the knight standing over three meters tall. The armor's style seemed vaguely familiar, as if he had seen it on a temple knight somewhere before.
"Muria, Galt was once a temple paladin during his lifetime. But after dying in battle three thousand years ago, he chose not to let his soul ascend to the divine kingdom. Instead, he became an undead to continue protecting this land," Mikaela explained, giving a brief history of these undead.
Gradually, as Muria learned more about these undead, his perception of them shifted. He began to understand why Mikaela allowed a group of undead to follow her.
Mikaela still loathed the undead's mastery of death, but she admired the noble character of these former humans. Even though they had fallen into undeath, their willingness to endure millennia of desolation to protect humanity meant no one could deny their humanity.
"What do you plan to do with these Watchmen?" Muria asked Mikaela privately, after realizing the nature of the souls inhabiting these undead bodies. If he remembered correctly, one of the requirements for angelic rebirth was having a noble soul.
And these Watchmen undoubtedly met that criterion. The only problem was that they had become undead, with the youngest among them having lived as an undead for eight hundred years.
"I want to transform them into angels," Mikaela hesitated for a moment before revealing her plan. She couldn't bear to see such noble-hearted individuals trapped in undead bodies for thousands of years.
"Is that even possible in their current state?" Muria asked, doubtful.
The deathly aura had deeply corroded the souls of these Watchmen. Throwing them into an angelic rebirth pool would be like tossing gold into aqua regia—they'd be completely purified, leaving nothing behind. Muria doubted they could be reborn as angels since their souls had been tainted.
This corruption had severed their connection to the gods they once worshipped. Their defiled souls were no longer eligible to ascend to the divine kingdom. If nothing changed, they would be trapped in their decaying undead bodies forever.
"It's still possible. Only the outer layers of their souls have been corrupted. Their soul cores and true spirits remain intact," Mikaela explained, having a better understanding of soul matters than Muria. After all, angelic rebirth involved knowledge at the soul level.
"Even if the rebirth succeeds, they will lose their memories, becoming newborn angels. Only their deepest, most sincere memories will be retained, but those will be of little use. They'll essentially become completely different beings," Mikaela continued.
"Have you discussed the angelic rebirth with them?" Muria asked.
"Yes, I've mentioned it," Mikaela replied, her eyes showing a trace of admiration. "But few of them agreed to it. Only those whose sanity is nearly eroded by the deathly aura accepted, but such individuals are more likely to be purified completely in the rebirth process."
"I see. I'll reach out to some people," Muria decided after a moment's thought, realizing that a human approach might be necessary. The Watchmen were steadfast and noble, unwilling to become angels, but there were others who could make that decision for them—or even enforce it.
...
"Your Highness, may I ask what urgent matter prompted you to invite us here?" In a special meeting room, Muria sat at the head of the table, while the projections of nearly ten Cardinal Archbishops appeared on either side.
"You're aware of the Watchmen organization, correct?"
"Of course, Your Highness. The Watchmen are a shadowy group we developed. They're heroes who died protecting humanity during the calamities. Though they've become undead, they're still heroes. If you encounter them, please don't attack them," one of the Archbishops quickly explained.
"I already know that. I've called you here for another matter—I need your help," Muria said, resting his chin on his hands.
"What do you need?"
"My fiancée is a Seraph, and she's currently with me. When she descended to this plane, she brought with her a floating city, which contains an angelic rebirth pool. I'm sure you've heard of it."
"Yes, we've heard of it."
"Your Highness, what are you implying?"
"My fiancée greatly admires the Watchmen's noble character and wishes to recruit them as her subordinates. As an incentive, she plans to purify them of their deathly aura and transform them into angels, giving them new life," Muria explained.
"Transform them into angels!" Upon hearing this, the gathered Archbishops exchanged glances, their reactions mixed—some frowned, while others appeared delighted.
One elderly Archbishop seemed particularly pleased, his hands trembling slightly as he listened.
"However..." Muria's serious tone quickly silenced the room. "Rebirth comes at a cost. Due to the corruption of their souls, some Watchmen may be entirely purified during the transformation process. Even those who successfully transform will lose most of their memories, depending on the extent of the corruption. Upon becoming angels, the reborn Watchmen will be completely new beings."
Muria laid out the pros and cons for the Archbishops, leaving nothing hidden. Once the angels were reborn, everything would eventually become known.
The Archbishops fell silent, none speaking immediately. They understood that Muria's fi
ancée had her eye on the noble Watchmen and wanted to recruit them as angels to bolster her forces. This situation had both positive and negative implications for all parties involved, making it a difficult matter to navigate, so none of the Archbishops were quick to respond.
"I have a question, Your Highness. If we agree to let the Watchmen undergo angelic rebirth, what about the next calamity? Without the Watchmen's help, we'll suffer greater losses. How do you plan to address this?" After a moment of contemplation, one Archbishop raised a critical question. The Watchmen had become an indispensable force in resisting the calamities plaguing the Obisto continent.
"Before each calamity, you can summon the floating city. We will dispatch the reborn angels to assist you," Muria answered.
"Is there really no way to preserve their memories?" another Archbishop inquired.
"No. Understand that even the youngest Watchman has been corrupted by the deathly aura for eight hundred years. It's impossible to retain their memories during the transformation," Muria replied calmly. "So, what will it be? Will you watch as your heroes, who have protected you for centuries, slowly descend into despair, or will you give them a chance at rebirth?"
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