Chapter 407: Broken Contract
"...It turns out that demons can really evolve."
Ligeia, with blood still on her face, murmured in surprise, "I thought it was just a legend."
"It's indeed almost the same as the legend."
Janice sighed: "Even I have never seen a demon complete its evolution in my life, let alone you."
Theoretically, demons could undoubtedly evolve. After all, the power system of the Sin Mark existed here, and maintaining the same form was inherently inconsistent with the nature of transcendence.
"Because the evolution of demons often accumulates a large amount of Dao power, this requires devouring a large number of souls and accumulating for an extremely long time."
Aiwass overheard the two men's discussion and, while healing himself, replied, "If we extend the time span to five hundred years, then demons that have independently evolved will still exist."
After all, in this world, even harvesting the souls of mortals is quite dangerous.
Because according to the rules of this world, after the death of all lives with souls, the souls will enter the dream world and plunge into one of the nine rivers in the dream world according to their strongest adaptability.
After being screened by the Nine Pillars and the Celestial Officials, souls not wanted by any of the gods are reintegrated into the world, becoming material for the souls of newborns of various races. Souls gradually grow stronger as their personalities mature and their intelligence increases. One elderly person can become nine infants after their death. This cycle repeats itself, and the world's living beings multiply.
In other words, every soul in this world is on the account and cannot be misappropriated at will.
Creating an apostle requires sharing a portion of one's own power, and all nine rivers need to be infused with souls, otherwise it may cause the world to tilt - if there is a path that has not returned the soul of this path to the world for a long time, then the proportion of this path mixed in the soul of the newborn will undoubtedly become smaller and smaller.
Then the influence of this path in the material world will decline, and the celestial officials who tend to follow other paths will have an opportunity to take advantage of it.
From this perspective, the souls we give to the world can be considered a kind of "tax." Once we have paid enough, the remaining amount is ours, and the taxes we pay are shared by all.
——Yes, in this world even the high and mighty gods have to pay taxes.
Many wars in the dream world have occurred between pillar gods, between pillar gods and celestial officials, and between celestial officials. The direct cause of these wars is often the problem of the distribution of souls.
It is possible that someone that Sizhu has his eyes on to be an apostle is poached by a celestial official from another path before he dies; it is also possible that a soul that was about to enter the realm of blood is secretly branded with a great sin and turned into a demon.
Even if a soul was directly destroyed, it would return to the world immediately, which would not cause too many gods to be dissatisfied. At most, the pillar god or celestial official who had previously reserved the soul would be angry.
But stealing a soul, especially one favored by a pillar god or a celestial official, is undoubtedly a very serious sin.
——It seems that only a soul was stolen, but in fact it is equivalent to killing an apostle in advance and stealing the soul that may have originally belonged to other paths to the transcendent path.
This is an "unbalanced" move.
Therefore, only when the terms of the contract are met - that is, the other party has decided in advance to "hand over the soul" and actively accepted the transaction, will the responsibility be transferred to the party that signed the contract.
"Illusions of other paths are easy to deal with, but demons beyond the path inevitably have a strong desire to ascend. However, they themselves have no flesh and blood, and are merely illusions existing in the dream world. Therefore, they cannot, like creatures in the material world, become stronger through the power of the path itself.
"Therefore, demons can only obtain those extremely valuable souls by signing contracts. The transcendental power emitted by the host can slowly enhance the demon's strength. Demons can also find ways to fulfill the contract and directly consume the soul to obtain a large amount of transcendental power."
Aiwass offered a simple analogy: "It's like eating the eggs versus the hen that laid them. While the latter may seem uneconomical, if there are other fearless hens who dare to take over, it's not impossible to backstab them and jump ship."
Because of this, few demons can muster enough strength to complete their evolution. They need to be active in the material world for at least four or five hundred years to accumulate the strength needed to support their evolution—and they can't die completely during this entire process, otherwise they'll be reborn as a phantom demon egg and their strength will naturally have to start all over again.
Aiwass didn't recall many demons having clearly completed evolution.
For example, the Giant Prince's brother, the Eye Demon - it gained a little bit of power during the Tail Ring Ceremony and evolved into the Eye Demon Lord.
This is one of the evolutionary directions, and also the simplest one.
Aiwass's Shadow Fiend can also evolve directly into a Shadow Lord. This merely strengthens the original template without changing its skill set or form, effectively giving it a comprehensive upgrade. While the race remains the same, the elite monster becomes a Lord monster. However, this still doesn't qualify as a higher-level Phantom Fiend.
In addition, the Shadow Fiend with the "Rage" mark has another real evolutionary direction.
That is the "Flame Demon" who became a high-level phantom demon.
The Fire Demon also belongs to the system of the Mark of Rage, and is a high-level phantom demon, very powerful.
The Fire Demon is also the only demon among demons who masters the power of the path of dedication. The Fire Demon devours souls and can infinitely split itself to create a large number of familiars. It can also forge "demon equipment" equivalent to the dark purple "holy object" level.
This is roughly equivalent to a low-profile version of the Fallen Angel - instead of turning people into demons, it turns people into familiars; at the same time, the Flame Demon can also give others power... Although it is given through equipment, equipment can definitely be considered a part of power.
——A gun doesn’t count as combat power?
Forget about having a combat power of 5 with a gun, you can’t even reach that level without a gun!
But there is no doubt that if Aiwass's Shadow Demon turned into a Fire Demon, then Aiwass would not be able to sign a contract with her as a Sin Beast. This is because the Flame-Butterfly also has fire attributes, overlapping with the Fire Demon.
And there is another problem.
That is, the Balrog is ugly.
Some players may think it is very majestic, but Aiwass just thinks it is ugly.
The Fire Demon's form was that of a scorching monster composed of flames, magma, and red-hot metal. It looked like a massive giant... Not only was it unable to come into contact with Aiwass, but even the sheer heat of its presence, which could easily melt the earth, was unbearable for any nearby creatures.
Furthermore, if the Shadow Demon truly transformed into a Fire Demon, all the power she had accumulated in the Path of Love would be wasted. She could still use some of the power of shadow, but not much—after all, she still needed to accumulate a large amount of deflection from the Path of Devotion before she could complete her evolution.
But the Night Demon is different.
As a demon branded with jealousy, the Night Demon's counterpart is the Mirror Demon. The essence of jealousy is comparison and imitation, and imitation is the essence of ritual. Therefore, the Mirror Demon is a demon that has transcended the Tao, and evolving into a Night Demon across the Tao is quite difficult.
But it happened that Shadow Fiend's brand of rage turned into a brand of jealousy. If she evolved from Shadow Fiend to Night Fiend through brand evolution, she could retain a considerable portion of Shadow Fiend's power while also obtaining Night Fiend's new template.
——The sixth level upper phantom demon!
In terms of status alone, it has already reached the power of the final BOSS level in the current version.
"Brother," Yulia frowned slightly, "you were too dangerous just now..."
She didn't want to blame Aiwass, nor did she want to reflect on what had already been successful. But she was really scared to tears just now.
What if Aiwass does this again in the future?
What if the demon betrays him next time?
——That's a demon! A demon with a treacherous nature!
"Don't worry, I will only raise one demon, Vines, and no more... The others will be phantom demons from other paths, not dangerous demons."
Aiwas comforted her, "I know Vignes very well. She will never betray me. Moreover, the desire for transcendence that Vignes has gained from me is more mellow than the soul of a vulgar person. It's like the nutrition and taste of eggs have surpassed the hen's..."
...So she won't harm me, don't worry.
Aiwass wanted to make a joke to make Yulia relax a little.
But looking at her red eyes and her eyes staring at him silently, Aiwass shrank his neck and did not dare to say this.
——Evans’ intuition told him that if he said this, Yulia might explode.
So Janice quickly changed the subject: "I remember that if a demon devours the souls of others, it might be discovered and punished by the hourglass's agent."
"Well," Aiwass nodded and immediately continued, "Although Sand Clock is a bit nosy... He is indeed the Pillar God who cares most about maintaining the balance between the two worlds.
"Restricting the Pillar Gods and Celestial Officials from descending into the Material Realm and protecting the Material Realm by capping the upper limit of the world's rank is all due to the Sand Clock's efforts. And when the Celestial Official's fragments fall into the Material Realm and increase the power concentration of the corresponding Path, He will diligently raise the upper limit of the corresponding Path's world rank again, restoring balance between the two realms.
"If there were no Sand Clock, the Lord of Balance, this world would be doomed—"
This is something that comes from the heart.
Just think about it, the Nine Pillars of Deity plus the Celestial Officials can walk freely in the human world without any constraints, and can start a world-scale war at any time...Evans didn't dare to imagine how chaotic the scene would be.
...Of course, Sand Clock is also the pillar god with the most things to do.
When the contracts with the phantom demons summoned from the Dream Realm expire, He will prevent them from remaining in the Material Realm. If anyone steals souls in the Material Realm, He will send agents to deal with it. If a war in the Material Realm lasts too long and the people suffer, He will intervene and mediate. If a wild, high-level phantom demon in the Material Realm becomes too powerful, He will send it back to the Dream Realm...
When the Tail Ring Ceremony begins, Sand Clock will become the busiest pillar god.
When players challenge Tiansi, they will receive targeted blessings from the Sand Clock and use them to make countermeasures - this is the normal mode.
If the player chooses not to accept the blessing of the Sand Clock and forcibly challenges the Celestial Master and clears the level, they can obtain another difficult achievement. This is considered a difficult achievement.
In terms of the game "Unicorn," features like guaranteed card draws, pseudo-random critical hit chances, inventory checks, and difficulty balancing—these only exist at the game level and are also considered "Sand Clock" territory. At least that's what the official announcement says.
……Um?
As Aiwas thought of this, his face suddenly changed and he covered his chest. The Night Demon, who had transformed into a crow, also suddenly transformed back.
"……etc?"
He felt as if something was breaking in his heart.
——That was the contract he signed with the Shadow Demon on the night when Aiwass awakened his memories of his past life.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
