122 – Chapter 39. Where there is no God – 3
– 123 –
There were prisons in the spirit world.
There is no rule that says that spirits do not commit crimes, and it is said that there are cases where demons captured as prisoners of war are sometimes imprisoned.
But the number was so small that the prison consisted of only one small two-story building.
It would be more accurate to call it a type of confinement facility rather than a prison.
The lesser spirit gatekeepers recognized us and made our way right away.
He had a rather serious expression on his face, but it was difficult to feel intimidated by his appearance that looked like a character product.
“What will the demon prisoners do?”
“They showed the seriousness of their situation. He must have been afraid of sending him back to the Demon Realm.”
Arumanan’s brow frowned at the words.
If you listen to the explanation, someone’s sacrifice is inevitable, but what kind of demon would kill themselves for the sake of the group?
As we went down to the basement along the guardhouse, a large room appeared.
The demons who had gathered there gave a vigilant glance and slowly retreated.
The giant demon who was guarding the mine was lying in the place where they left.
“Are you dead?”
“Still alive. But it’s already out of hand.”
The guards who surrounded the demons with their weapons took a step back.
Arumanan and I approached the giant demon.
He coughed out a lump of blood as if to come to his senses, then opened his eyes with difficulty and turned his head to this side.
“This… ….”
Not trying to say something, he contorted his face and closed his eyes again.
After a while, a demon walked out of the crowd.
It was an old demon who grabbed me by the collar in the mine.
“This friend will die if you leave it alone. I hope that his sacrifice will dispel your doubts.”
“Did you call to show me this?”
The old man nodded his head.
“Something I don’t understand will happen. You will need an explanation.”
The old man placed his hand on the lying demon body with his trembling hands.
When a weak light stayed in his hand, the guards standing behind raised their weapons at once.
The magic stone vibrated and the gun was loaded.
Aruma Nan raised her hand to restrain them and sent a glance to the old man to explain.
The old man struggled to open his mouth.
“The demon realm and the spirit realm are not very different. The demons are the laws of the Demon God, and the spirits are the law of the Heavenly God. The only difference is that they reincarnate without losing their souls, but the main point is the same.”
“And?”
“So, what happens to the demons who died here in the spirit world is the same as what happens in the demon world now. Because I’ve seen a lot of ‘like’ demons here.”
Before even asking what it was, the old man sharpened his hand and stabbed it into the chest of a large demon.
The demon’s body trembled.
A sigh emanated from among the demons gathered behind them.
Female demons who covered the eyes of young individuals, and young male demons with no arms or legs, stepping forward.
The old man looked at them and pulled out his hand that had reached his wrist.
The white essence extracted from the heart was held in his hand.
The old man beckoned to the young demon.
The two young demons crouched and approached the old man.
“This is the spirit of a demon who cannot get into the cycle of reincarnation. Until recently, the energy remaining in the demon realm was finally broken. So if you leave it in this state, it will scatter.”
The old man put his hand on the empty leg of the young man.
The young man flinched as if he knew what the old man was trying to do, but he did not avoid it.
“And what I just wrote was a secret art that wrought the souls of demons who had lost their bodies. It was passed down from our clan.”
With a lonely voice, the old man touched the mutilated face of the young man who had no place under his thigh with his hand mixed with blood and soul.
Then, a bright light stayed on the cut surface.
“What are you doing now… ….”
Ignoring Arumanan’s frown, the old man took the other young man’s severed arm.
The cut surface of the arm also started to shine.
After a few seconds, we couldn’t keep our mouths shut as we saw the extremities gradually regenerating from the amputation.
Young men moaned in a cold sweat, wondering if limb regeneration was painful.
“We wanted to go to the physical world in exchange for handing over this technology, but in the end we were abandoned. They had no intention of accommodating weak demons who have no backbone.”
“Then, if the demons in the physical world die right now, will their souls be scattered or able to be extracted?”
“No. In the material world, different laws apply to this place and the demon world. Spirits of the physical world can be reborn into any race, anywhere, without discrimination.”
“That’s right. Unlike the spirit world and the demon world, the physical world is a place where huge laws that even the gods cannot access are applied.”
Arumanan added.
After all, it is said that demons are flocking to the physical world for fear of the annihilation of their souls.
Even if I defeat the demons and send them back to the demon realm, I feel exhausted already thinking that they will come back to the spirit realm and the material realm.
“Then what happens to the souls of the scattered demons? Is it the energy of the demon realm?”
“I can say that. But those who made their way into the material world took a different approach.”
“What number?”
After closing the eyes of the large demon, the old man scrambled to get up.
“In the Demon Realm, the souls of the dead gather in one place and scatter. As for you, it’s like the cradle of water.”
When I turned around because I didn’t know the story, Arumanan explained it to me.
“When the spirit of water disappears, the element flows into the cradle of water and is reborn as a spirit. Spirits can exist in the pure elemental state, regardless of whether they are in the physical world or the spirit world. That’s why reincarnation in the physical world doesn’t apply. It also contains elements instead of souls.”
“Ah.”
Wait. As Arumanan said, wouldn’t it be a serious problem if the Cradle of Water was occupied?
Water spirits who are reborn will fall into the hands of the demons.
Aruma Nan read my eyes and put his finger to his lips.
You have ears to hear, so that means be quiet.
The old man cleared his throat and started explaining again.
“So, what kind of device did they put there.”
The old man looked down at the demon’s corpse with hollow eyes.
“It was a device that captures lost souls and extracts the essence. I was in charge of the drinking.”
“… ….”
As we shot with sharp eyes, the old man made excuses.
“I didn’t know the purpose at the time. He only thought of keeping the soul until the cycle of reincarnation became normal. But the reality was different.”
“Did the soul extracted like that be used in any way other than regenerating the body of another demon?”
“That’s right. The fact that their limbs have just been regenerated is a phenomenon that occurred when a part of the soul that had been damaged was filled. But they used souls extracted in a different direction.”
“You must have poured the souls of low-level demons into your elite troops.”
The old man nodded his head silently.
I looked down at the demon’s corpse.
The dark blue skin was floating.
“Isn’t it better for you to save him? He must have been the strongest of your clan.”
“Someone at the expense of another living? You don’t want this friend either.”
“Really?”
As the question continued, the old man sighed.
“If you had saved this friend, you would have been wary. As you saw last time, you were too strong to win easily. Those who remain here are either powerless or lacking in one place. Neither of those who have just been healed will ever reach full regeneration.”
The old man’s deep eyes gleamed with light.
“We will not go against you. I’ll just stay here, and when the material world is organized, I’ll be locked up in a secluded place, and I’ll live until my clan’s fortunes run out.”
Arumanan pondered for a while, then accepted his words.
“You will have to keep your promise.”
“Thank you.”
The old man bowed his head to us.
With some relief and anxiety, the other demons also bowed their heads.
After leaving the cleaning up to the guards, we left the prison facility.
Now we must set off to retake the Cradle of Water.
The demon world was losing its light.
The cracked and devastated land seemed to show the splendid culture and history of the past, and the future of the demons who made it.
The warmth and energy that flowed in the city disappeared, and the factory had long ceased operation.
“The only hope is to advance into the material world.”
“Enlist in the Demon King’s Army immediately.”
The footsteps of the demons passing by looking at the placards written in rough letters were heavy and weary.
In the past few years, dozens or hundreds of tribes have disappeared, merged and merged.
In the process, a lot of friction and conflict arose, and as a result, Calad took the advantage.
While the nobles of the Demon Realm denied reality and sought the Demon God, the Calads gradually encroached from the bottom of the Demon Realm through simple quarrels, incitement, and violence mobilized without hesitation.
Monopoly of arms and food distribution, conscription, conciliation, intimidation, extortion.
Finally, he reached out to the taboo soul and ascended to an absolute position in the Demon Realm, where his energy has disappeared.
Every time the low-ranking demons died, his subordinates and army grew stronger.
And one of its beneficiaries, Fir, an assassin and necromancer, soaked himself in the bathtub and trembled.
Beside him, Astat lathered with soap expressionlessly and rubbed Fir’s head violently.
The only person who could provide Fir, whose existence itself is close to a secret, was Astat, a young female executive in a similar situation.
She was a starter of her own Apart from her highly motivated, it was difficult to say that she herself was a very good caregiver.
There were many times when she forced Pir to do something with her expressionless face.
Aren’t they forced to feed a salad to Fir, a race close to carnivores, or, even if it’s okay, come in every time they take a bath, apply soap on their hair, and rub their scalp so hard that it hurts?
It wasn’t her intentional bullying, but Fir was bothered enough.
And a few days ago.
Her demon lord Calade suggested to her.
She said that she would regenerate her arms if you take out a few of her targets against her.
Despite her skepticism, she clings to a ray of hope and carries on a dangerous mission with her one arm, and she finally gets her ‘cure’.
Like a necromancer, Fir knew at a glance that I was related to her soul, like the pure white smoke in her bathtub.
She resisted with her trembling body, but Astat silently grabbed her pir and threw her into her bathtub.
“Ah.”
Leaving Fir, astonished to see her arm playing little by little, Astat left her seat.
Burns engraved with hellfire were healed by a similar process, so I knew how painful the process was.
After a while, the girl’s screams of pain filled the building.