Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Lin Lehan resumed experiments on the living and the dead to come up with a method.

His latest invention was the creation of new and improved alchemy dolls.

The stable and successful process of alchemy dolls was created by merging the concepts of homunculus and Mana Body Creation. This fusion allowed users to alleviate some restrictions they faced with elemental clones and homunculus vessels.

Essentially, users could split their attention as if they were using a perpetual elemental clone without harming their souls. The range of the alchemy clones was also not an issue.

Plus, they were self-sufficient and hardly needed any resources to sustain themselves. They had synthetic mana cores within them, which allowed the users to use them as if they were using their real bodies.

The only limitation came from the use of the Mesh and Menaka's Blessing that was granted to them. As such, the alchemy dolls could only make use of a Skill or two of their original owners.

Furthermore, one could only make use of one alchemy doll at a time, regardless of how powerful their Soul Sense was or how much Spiritual Force they possessed.

The use of alchemy dolls was limited to elite Sages and Saints. Ordinary Practitioners couldn't make use of them even if they paid a premium to their respective organizations or spent millions of Menaka's Runes.

Sansara Sage could be called a genius in matters related to souls. He had even created a synthetic daughter, AKA Maya, instructing her to cultivate a soul on her own for further experiments on soul-related matters.

One of the major reasons he had left an inheritance in Anang was so that he could find a like-minded person like him who would eventually offer him a different perspective on his research.

Unlike Sansara Sage, Nira didn't know much about souls and the mysteries surrounding them. However, she was smart enough to realize that Sansara Sage would pay a hefty amount to capture a unique specimen like Lemaar Saaya.

It seemed as if Lemaar or the man in the shadows using Lemaar as a puppet had already figured out what Sansara Sage had been trying to solve for centuries. Just by the smell of the soul alone, Nira could tell that the restrictions of alchemy dolls didn't apply to Lemaar. It meant that the man controlling Lemaar, if there was any, could potentially make use of several entities like Lemaar simultaneously.

This should have been the power of the Immortals. However, a mortal had somehow made it possible to use it for their own purposes, defying the Immortal writ.

Nira conjectured that even the person who had invested in this technique wasn't aware of the importance of their own creation. Sages and Saints from both factions would pay the creator of this unique invention a hefty amount of wealth and resources if they were to sell the secrets related to it on a global scale.

Nira expected to exact her revenge and benefit simultaneously by capturing Lemaar alive. She had killed his teammates to eliminate surprises.

Afterward, she had her subordinates disperse and secure the perimeter. A space-element combined Skill was used by her subordinates to ensure that Lemaar wouldn't escape from Nira's clutches using some rare teleportation Skill.

'Hehe. You are mine now,' Nira thought to herself as she watched her arrow almost pierce Lemaar's eyes, intending to incapacitate him for good. However, in the next moment, she realized that something had changed within Lemaar.

He suddenly started smelling different from before. Or more like, one palate of his soul had overwhelmed the other.

He smiled at her viciously before his eyes turned hollow as if his eyeballs had been stolen from him. The next thing she knew, the same arrow she had shot was coming for her. Her own attack had been reflected on her.

'What the fu—'

***

[ Skill: Sedated Perception ] x3

Eren slowed down the perception of time for himself to read and observe the situation after taking over Lemaar's body. He wasn't surprised to find out that his pseudo-avatar's body was in dire straits, and he was about to be attacked by a spectral arrow he couldn't dodge.

Seeing the inevitability of the arrow hitting him, Eren gave up on dodging and instead started analyzing the perimeter security.

He memorized the faces and Mana Signatures of the people surrounding him, digesting the newly made memories from his pseudo-avatar, which didn't take long.

Once Eren ensured he didn't have to run away from Labh Salem, he decided to test Nira. There was no way for him to escape the incoming fight, and leaving his pseudo-avatar in Nira's hands risked exposing his secrets. So he might as well fight and bare his fangs at her.

'Hm? A clone? No. Something's off.'

Using his Soul Sense, Eren sensed something different about the elf archer.

She gave off the aura of a Sage, but her soul readings had surpassed the levels of Sagehood. It didn't take Eren long to realize that Nira was using a body double mechanism, and her real self was elsewhere.

He also sensed a hint of greed, indicating she intended to capture him alive. Due to Eren slowing down the perception of time, there was no immediate notification on his Spectral Screen about Nira's intentions. However, he could feel that notification coming into his bones. One could say that he was getting good at wielding his abominated divinity.

'I understand now. Her soul is injured after I killed that Soul Fragment of hers. It would probably take centuries for her to heal from a wound like that. I guess that's why she's using that body double of hers,' Eren conjectured as he analyzed Nira in her alchemy-doll form.

'Then the fact that she wants to capture me alive means that it is much more than simple revenge. She can't possibly know that she smelled the Spirit Beast on me.

No matter how much she investigates, unless she goes to Anfang by herself to check, she can't figure anything out. I'm sure she knows that.

That means she wants to make use of me differently. Or rather, she wants to make use of Lemaar and the one "haunting" him to find solutions to her own problems?

Hmm. I don't think this arrogant archer is capable of unearthing the secrets of my pseudo-avatar. She is not well-versed in soul-related studies. It's not part of her Individuality.

Then… her contacts! Is she still connected to Sansara Sage? But as far as I know, Sansara Sage is definitely not in Labh Salem. I would have known if that was the case,' Eren thought to himself.

'Never mind. Let's fuck this bitch up first. I don't have to know every fucking thing about her to recognize that she's a problem that needs to go away,' the butcher made up his mind.

[ Unique Skill: Unreal Reflection ]

Eren activated his Unique Skill for a fraction of a second to send back the arrow that was about to pierce his right eye. He only activated the Unique Skill through his right eye to achieve this.

Employing his Ocular powers, he erased Nira's will from the arrow, imprinting it with his own will and manipulating the space around it. It was as if the potent spectral arrow had been shot through his hollowed right eye.

In the blink of an eye, he vanished from the scene, closing in on the elf archer who sought to capture him alive.

'What a warm welcome you've extended to a fellow Anfangian, huh? I suppose that's acceptable. We are both from the Land of the Faithless. I shouldn't expect anything different.

Then again, you are not the first Sage I have killed. And you won't be the last,' the butcher thought to himself as he wielded his spear like Lemaar had never wielded before.

His Weapon Intent was unleashed like a surging tide, a manifestation of combat readiness emerging within him when escape was no longer an option.

A fight or fight response.