The Knight teleported as far as it could – but for what it was about to try, this felt too slow.
It knew the general layout enough by now to exit the woods on its own. It did take a while because it kept losing the sense of location. Once the Knight was as far out as can be, it made sure that in all directions, no being was anywhere even close.
It then summoned the dragons. The dragons took time to arrive – since they didn't share skills; they were to set up a perimeter around the Knight. The Knight could not see them from the centre, but it was sure Red Scorch could not disobey even if it wanted to.
Once they surrounded the Knight, it focused on every facet of its power. Then it released all of the void within itself.
It gushed out like a flash flood, like a collapsing dam. It covered every inch from the Knight to near where the dragons set up perimeter. The inky darkness even covered the skies. All the monsters had been cleared out earlier by the vile army. The army had been given a monster soul each and sent on a mission after clearing the monsters.
Then the Knight pulled two things out of its soul. One was the Book of Spells. The other was the contract. The contract shattered to pieces under the pressure of the Knights grip.
Contract Recognition complete. Contract – training to one day challenge a void lord for their territory – Error. Vile Knight already possesses a void territory. Assignment evolving. 'Training' purpose is meant to be earn void territory naturally, and use it to challenge a Void Lord – but seeing that you already possess a void territory – the contract is null... Thus – the assignment has been changed to – acquiring the 'Void Lord' status. Condition for completion – planetary (1 000 000 000). No time has been set. Dungeon Pass has been granted. Dungeon map had been granted. Each dungeon will possess its own special rewards. Reward for fulfilling contract – Rise of rank from void dweller to Void Lord including its full arsenal…
'Come on, you can't be done…'
… Bonus reward to be granted if special condition is filled – Book of History. Special Condition: Conquer a planet.
The Knight had known that its contract might evolve, but it had never intended to use it. The plan was to go to the void and ask Blood Fiend for a contract for another dungeon conquer mission or something else. But the trip to the void had to be put on hold.
The Knight also knew the recipe needed to unleash its soul. It even compared it with the ones it had gotten access to after it became a knight, Bachelor. To unleash the soul in the first place one needs to materialise their will. Once it becomes a physical force, it allows a person to reach the power level 1.
To be able to unleash the second seal one needs to 'corrupt' its soul. When learning a power, one has to change the shape of its soul. But to change the contents of the soul is different. One needs something to fill the soul. The person needs to find out what they wanted to dilute their souls in – but it had to be related to their will.
An example was Mugaw. The Knight had figured out the thing, Mugaw had not absorb a monster's soul by accident. It had probably hopped that possessing the will of madness through a soul that is not the main one would allow it to corrupt its soul. It was either it was trying to learn a new power or trying to unleash some kind of seal since it had been capped at level 150.
Not all corruption is bad. For example, the queen corrupted her soul with that of the woods. This is why she is unable to leave Elleria. The Knight realised this but said nothing. There is nearly nothing that can corrupt a dreaded soul, especially one as vile as that of the Knight, but it had figured it out something.
In short, first seal needs unquestionable determination towards something – a single-minded goal. The second seal needs one to change the composition of its soul by mixing it with something related to the will they acquired.
The reason the Knight had not been able to, was because it needed a book – one similar to that of the book of souls. But using the book of souls was out of the question, since the book the Knight used it could never read, EVER! Only those who could see the Knights soul could – an enhancement of its connection to its will, by turning its soul into a canvas for knowledge it will never be able to read. And the only way to get another was to get a dungeon contract – and because of the search for the sword, it was unable to go to the void to switch out this contract.
However, not only did the knight not have a dungeon contract, but it had a contract that could evolve into something horrendous, as it just did. But after it saw the book of spells it realised something – it no longer needed to go look for a book in a dungeon – and it didn't mind not being able to read it, because the Knight had no need for spells.
The reason it grinned so menacingly was because this meant it could unleash the seal immediately. It could also use the contract it had, no matter how absurd it was, since it did not matter anymore. The only thing the Knight needed in order to unleash was the book.
'I am not a mage so I can sacrifice this book. Never being able to read it is something I can live with.'
The Knight could not cast the spells since it was not a mage. But that did not matter. It had a book filled with a surplus of information – enough to ware down and eventually break the seal.
One of the dragons arrived at the centre, the night had asked Red Scorch to send one of itself here. Then it glowed redder and redder. It was about to use the power over fire. The same power the Knight had pacified in their fight half a year ago. It then sent the blaze hurdling towards the book of spells. The book was vapourised slowly, showing just how durable it was. Anything weaker could not destroy a book in the series of Knowledge.
There where the Book of Spells once was, was just a blazing red hot scorch mark. Not even ashes of the book left. From the red scorch, letters began floating, their blue-black glow contrasted the red plasma beneath them, making a spectacular illumination. The ink had not been burned. The letters floated and they began to patch onto the Knights soul like tattoos. The Knights soul had now become the lost pages.
The Knight had managed to make the surface of its soul into the pages of the new book of spells. Then the dragon collapsed into ashes; this was because a single ununified vessel was too weak to withstand using the absolute power over fire/heat – this is why Red Scorch has to be one with all his vessels to use it continuously. Once it was gone the knight gave the whisper the command.
"Unleash the second seal."
Begin Process?
The Knight then grinned and thought, 'Finally.'
"Do it!"
Confirmed…
Soul has been inscribed. Will of Wisdom has responded to sentiment of knowledge. Body has become canvass of knowledge – conviction has been confirmed. To seek power is to seek knowledge. Sacrificing the knowledge contained within those pages – you become its keeper. Thus – power shall be granted to removing the seal. Seal is being worn down. Time to completion – One cycle…
The knight was not up to wasting that much time, and it had actually planned and calculated for this. Afterall the knight had over three decades to think about how it was going to unleash the second seal and had made contingencies. The dragons would protect it, and the army would spend this time fulfilling the missions it gave each.
Then a massive explosion occurred. It was the Knights dreaded soul unwinding. Souls usually have no effect in the world of the living. But a soul with a strong enough will – like the will to live – can. The explosion was because the knight's soul had a will strong enough that its outreach was like a physical phenomenon.
There in the darkness of the void territory, mixed within was a soul as expansive as the area, and inscribed with enchanting spells all over its soul. Countless of spells. The sight would have been wonderous, if not for the fact that some of the spells are forbidden.
The expansion was so that the Knight could strengthen its soul, like it usually did with its body. The Knight had predicted this to take time. But it did not have time to waste. It wanted to speed the process by using the void armament on the soul instead of physical being.
… strength of soul has been bolstered. Time reduced to a year… time further reduced 30 days…
'I guess that is better, I had hoped for a week at least, Adriel will be mad…'
The Knight then lost conscience since it had stopped using the void armament to be able to strengthen the soul directly – so it fell into slumber (usually a being is conscious for the time their body is spent unleashing, but the Knight had decided to use this to slumber and release the void armament, meaning it was saving up on time by hitting two birds with one stone). Even though the unsealing will take a month, the Knight was going to suffer a rest period for nearly a decade. This is why it had already given the army the souls so that they survive. The dragons were to stand guard over the ceremonious site – so that their lord could become an even stronger force.
The army would occasionally take time from their mission to hunt and feed the massive dragon swarm.
A month later…
In the far-removed reaches of a nameless baren land. Noon it was.
At the single point in the centre of a massive ring formed by dragons, an unnoticed expanded soul, that had occupied this visibly empty region shrank to the point it began to invert. Once condensed on a single point, it then furiously expanded.
This sent a massive quake throughout the lands. The entire continent had been shaken – not as violent as an actual quake – but it enough to make all feel its disturbing effect. If not for the walls, places near the sea would have been flooded, those near mountains would have been crushed. The clouds stirred in the sky. The wind became wild and frantic, causing whirl winds and making the trees sing. Even the massive trees in the woods of Elleria shook – even if just barely. A few volcanoes stirred and even more were created.
Everyone felt it and wondered what could have caused it – cause somehow all felt it to be unnatural. The neighbouring continents heard the tremors, but they were unbothered. Some small, uninhabited islands sank into the sea. All this was the sound of the seal placed on a dreaded soul breaking.
Then all of this (the soul) swirled into the lifeless body that stood there, like a statue. The swirling of the soul looked like a drainage. Once all of it was within the body. A smaller boom echoed, like that caused by dynamite. This was the body reconnecting to the soul, but this boom barely reached the dragons.
The soul was heavier somehow, even after losing some of its void against Keiper. This caused the body to collapse to the floor, as the body had not been ready to bear its weight. The dragons remained on guard like gargoyles on an old building, not moving a muscle.
Then inside the pitch-dark helmet, where the grotesque head lay, glowed two blue orbs. This was the Knight peering out of its helmet.
'I'm up…?'
…
Then like a cripple suddenly gaining control of a new body, the Knight struggled to stand. The arm kept giving out as soon as the Knight tried to use it as support. After a few minutes of stumbling the Knight was up. It then raised its arm and looked into the palm.
The Knight had taken a lot of time unconscious, so it had gotten a sense for how much time had passed. It may not know how much passed; it knew that it had barely been enough – a decade was a long ways off. After some thinking, the knight just opted to ask whisper.
"Why am I up!"
5 Slaughter consumed. Somehow the shock of unsealing 'woke' your soul as the void retreated inside your body.
'That is good to know? An unwelcomed grace though – if only I could just find a way to shock my soul up every time.'
The Knight then took a step, the rock-solid ground felt like water as it crumbled followed by a massive crater. It even sent cracks sneaking ahead, creating a small crevice in the land. The Knight then froze where it stood. It really had gotten that much stronger? Way stronger that it had calculated. It was supposed to be at level 251.
"I guess that means the first thing would be to adjust my strength."
A few minutes later, the land was covered by multiple craters. All of varying sizes. There was also cracks in the ground. The surface looked like the vein filled surface of a sickly hand. But finally, the Knight had gained control over its strength – trying to be weak was a new experience for the Knight.
By focusing inside its soul, it could feel the power that it possessed. And with a bit of help from the whisper, the Knight knew why. It was not because of the knowledge on its soul, the knowledge which was forever lost to the Knight. Instead, it came from all the Knowledge it had accumulated when it hit the seal which was converted into power.
The will of wisdom did not disappoint, the reason the Knight had been stuck was not because it was not gaining information, but because something that usually just blocks power was also blocking the Knowledge stats, which are linked – and now that the pesky seal was gone, the knowledge stat reflected the Knights actual wisdom, which also drastically increased its power to match.
So, as it stood, the Knight did not register as level 251 – it stood at…
Power – 314
But that was not the only change as whisper finally got the chance to speak…
The power known as [Desire] can now be used.