Chapter 993: Soul Interrogation (Part I)
The magic core — shaped like a giant spindle — swelled outward, releasing a wash of purple light that lit the hall from floor to dome. It rose two meters above the ground and began to spin, its skeleton structure hanging suspended in the air as though gravity had simply decided not to apply.
Roland watched it and admitted, once again, that magic power operated beyond the reach of physical concepts. There was no force holding those components aloft. No mechanism. And yet there they were.
“How did the underground civilization create these?” He looked at Pasha. “Could you reproduce one, given the same materials?”
“I’m afraid not, Your Majesty.” Pasha shook her head. “Though I’m reluctant to admit it, the underground civilization understood magic power more deeply than the Union ever did. Celine is among the finest researchers the Quest Society produced — and even she has spent centuries merely learning to operate them.”
“We are terribly short-handed.” Celine turned from the apparatus. “You can’t activate a magic core simply by pushing magic power into it. You have to connect yourself to thousands of sensors simultaneously. A common person could never do this.”
“So to learn to use a magic core, I’d have to transfer my soul into an original carrier?” Tilly asked.
“Exactly.” Celine exhaled. “A summer insect has no conception of winter. A deaf man hears nothing of the world. A human being can barely imagine what it feels like to operate this instrument. I cannot find adequate words in the human language to explain it.” She gestured at herself. “Right now, only Pasha and I can control a core.”
“Wait—” Roland studied her main tentacle. “You mean that thing, which looks rough from the outside, is actually highly sensitive?”
“Not only the main tentacles but all of them,” Celine confirmed. “They can smell. They can feel cold and heat, wet and dry, the faintest brush of contact. The main tentacles can even trace the flow of magic power directly.” She glanced at him. “Once you transfer your soul into a carrier, adapting back to a human body afterward becomes nearly impossible. Are you interested?”
“No, I was merely curious.” Roland turned away to close the subject. He needed a clear head. He was remembering now that an original carrier’s tentacle was also her weapon — and according to Phyllis, carriers matched God’s Punishment Witches in raw physical strength.
What Celine had said cut deeper than it appeared. Without reliable means to observe and measure magic power, the study of it could only advance through a handful of original carriers. That constraint would not loosen easily.
“Core Three has been activated in Soul Instrument mode.” Celine’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Soul transfer is about to begin.” Pasha and Alethea inserted their own tentacles into the apparatus.
Roland widened his eyes, unwilling to blink.
It was less spectacular than he had imagined. Two beams of light extended from the core and settled over the two stone beds below. The magic power inside the skeleton structure surged and churned. Fifteen minutes passed. Celine let out a slow breath. “We were lucky. The instrument has caught the demon’s soul. Now we wait for it to enter the God’s Punishment Warrior’s body.”
“That’s all?” Roland blinked.
“Soul Transfer is essentially an exchange of Keys,” Pasha explained. “If you were observing through a Five-Colored Stone, you’d be able to watch the demon’s beam of light cross to the Warrior.”
Before the ancient witch finished, the God’s Punishment Warrior on the left bed — motionless until that moment — opened his eyes.
His face contorted. His body seized, shaking hard, and the fingers that resembled dead wood twisted violently. Sounds came from his throat that had no name. The witches around him stepped back, almost as one.
“That’s a normal reaction,” Zooey said. “The soul entering an unfamiliar body for the first time. We didn’t look any better. We could barely eat or drink without help.”
Roland pictured it: a group of exiled ancient witches fumbling in a cold underground cave for a decade, learning to inhabit shells that were not theirs. The image sat heavily.
“Now that the demon is panicked and confused, this is the moment.” Zooey looked across the assembled witches. “Lady Camilla, no matter what you want to know — ask me directly. I’ll repeat what I hear from the demon.” She paused. “And I have one request.”
“Go ahead.” Roland nodded.
“Unless I gesture stop, do not break the Mind Resonance for any reason.” Each word landed with deliberate weight. “The interrogation takes priority above everything else.”
“This—” Camilla Dary hesitated, which was unusual for her.
“You have my word.” Roland didn’t pause. He had seen enough of Zooey’s conviction to trust her judgment, and he wanted to honor the thing she was volunteering to do.
“Then I’ll begin.” The Chief Butler of Sleeping Island studied Roland with an unreadable expression, then placed one hand on Zooey’s shoulder and the other on the shoulder of the God’s Punishment Warrior.
The next moment, Zooey looked like a woman in pain.
A sound came out of her — something between a growl and a roar — that clearly did not belong to her. In the Mind Resonance, the demon was using her throat.
“What have you done to me?” Her voice had changed completely — deeper, wrong in its grain. “Stupid crawlers. Low-grade species. Let me go. Otherwise, I’ll make this woman suffer.”
Several witches drew sharp breaths. “Is Zooey—”
“Don’t worry,” Anna said, calmly. “Look at her finger.”
One of Zooey’s fingers rose and shook with easy, deliberate precision. She was in full control of her own body.
Roland saw the logic instantly. Rather than the back-and-forth of questions and answers — which gave the demon time to calculate each response — letting it speak through Zooey’s mouth forced it to react in real time, with far less space to prepare.
“You were defeated by us.” Roland let contempt into his voice. “If we’re stupid crawlers, what does that make you?”
“Defeated?” The voice shifted — dropped, as though struck. A confusion beneath the outrage. Roland couldn’t tell where Zooey ended and the demon’s agony began.
He pressed. “Yes. Riddled with bullets. Your army annihilated — half dead on the battlefield, the other half failing to retreat to Taquila. We burned thousands and destroyed your underground camp. So tell me — who’s the low-grade species?”
“No. This is impossible — unless, unless—” Zooey’s head moved in something between a shake and a recoil. Then she looked up, voice shifting into something closer to stunned. “Did you acquire a legacy shard? Did you upgrade your species? Did you create those weapons from the contents of the shard?”
Roland caught the words like sparks. “What is a legacy shard? What does ‘upgrade’ mean?”
Chapter 993: Soul Interrogation (Part Ⅰ)
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
The magic core which was shaped like a giant spindle suddenly expanded while giving out a purple light. Its luminescence lit up the entire hall. It floated two meters above the ground and began to spin, looking like a fabulous merry-go-round.
Seeing this, Roland had to admit that the magic power, to a certain extent, could not be explained by physical concepts. After this skeleton structure automatically expanded, all its parts could somehow stay in the air without falling to the ground under the influence of gravity. It looked as if there was an invisible hand holding them together.
“How did the underground civilization create these things?” He looked at Pasha. “Can you make copies of them if I give you the same materials?”
“I’m afraid we cannot do so for now, Your Majesty.” Pasha shook her head. “Although I’m reluctant to admit it, the underground civilization did have a deeper understanding of the magic power than the Union. Celine is already one of the best researchers of the Quest Society, but even she only learned to operate them in the past hundreds of years.”
“We are short-handed. It’s a major problem.” Celine turned around. “We can’t activate the magic core simply by injecting our magic power into it. We have to connect ourselves to the thousands of sensors in it. Common people can never do this.”
“In other words, if I want to learn to use this magic core, I have to transfer my soul into an original carrier in the same way as you did?” Tilly asked.
“That’s right. A summer insect never knows how cold the winter is. A deaf man never hears anything in the world.” Celine sighed with profound resignation. “A human being can hardly imagine what I feel when I’m operating the magic core. I can’t find an appropriate word in the human language to describe this particular feeling to you either. Given that, now only Pasha and I can control a magic core.”
“Wait… Do you mean that the main tentacle on you, which looks rough, is actually very sensitive?” Roland was surprised.
“Yes. Not only the main tentacles but also the other tentacles on us are highly sensitive,” Celine confirmed. “They are able to smell and to feel cold and hot, wet and dry. They can sense even the slightest touch, and the main tentacles can even capture the flow of the magic power. So once you transfer your soul into a carrier, you won’t be able to adapt to a human body anymore. Are you interested in it?”
“No, I was merely curious…” Roland turned his head away to stop the conversation. He had to clear his mind at such a crucial moment. He remembered that an original carrier’s main tentacle was also her weapon and according to Phyllis, the carriers were as powerful as God’s Punishment Witches regarding physical strength.
Based on what Celine had said just now, he realized that an ordinary man who was unable to sense the magic power could never study it in depth. Without a reliable observation and measurement method, this study could only be conducted by a few original carriers for now.
“No. 3 core has been activated in the Soul Instrument mode. The soul transfer is about to begin.” Celine’s voice interrupted his thoughts. Hearing this, Pasha and Alethea also inserted their main tentacles into the giant spindle apparatus.
Roland widened his eyes in fear of missing a single detail of the process.
However, this transfer process did not look as extraordinary as he imagined. Two beams of light shone out of the core and covered the two stone beds below. The magic power inside the skeleton structure began to surge. After
15 minutes, Celine sighed of relief. “Well, we are lucky. The instrument has caught the demon’s soul. Now, all we need to do is wait for it to enter the God’s Punishment Warrior’s body.”
“That’s it?” Roland blinked.
“Yes, in fact, the Soul Transfer is a process of exchanging Keys,” Pasha explained. “If you had observed the process through a Five-Colored Stone, you would have been able to see the demon’s beam of light move to the God’s Punishment Warrior.”
Before the ancient witch finished her sentence, the God’s Punishment Warrior who had lied on the bed motionlessly suddenly opened his eyes!
His face was contorted and thus looked exceptionally ferocious. He could not stop shaking and his fingers, which looked like dead wood, twisted violently. Some weird sounds came out of his throat. Seeing this, all the witches around subconsciously took a step back.
“Don’t worry. That’s the normal reaction shortly after the soul enters into an unfamiliar body,” Zooey said. “We didn’t look any better when we transferred our souls into the God’s Punishment Warriors for the first time. We can hardly eat or drink without someone else’s help.”
Roland pictured the scene: a group of exiled ancient witches kept fumbling around in a cold underground cave for a dozen years. He was deeply impressed by the willpower of the Taquila survivors.
“Now that the demon is panicking and in a confused state, it’s time for us to get started, lady Camilla.” Zooey glanced at everyone and continued. “No matter what you want to know, you can ask me directly. I’ll repeat what I’ve heard from the demon.” She paused. “And I have a request.”
“Go ahead.” Roland nodded.
“As long as I don’t gesture a ‘stop’, please don’t halt the Mind Resonance no matter what happens,” Zooey stressed each word with due strength. “The interrogation is the most important thing.”
“This…” Camilla Dary looked hesitant, which was a rare thing.
“I promise.” Without any hesitation, Roland approved Zooey’s request. Seeing her determination, he believed he did not need to worry too much, and he really wanted to respect her wish.
“If so, I’ll start to use my ability now.” Chief Butler of Sleeping Island looked at Roland profoundly and then put one hand on the shoulder of Zooey and the other on the shoulder of the God’s Punishment Warrior.
The next moment, Zooey looked miserable.
It seemed that she could not stop herself from growling out. However, Roland immediately knew that this roar must have come from the demon and it might somehow be able to roar through the witch’s mouth in the Mind Resonance.
“What have you done to me?” Zooey’s voice sounded totally different now. “Stupid crawlers, low-grade species, let me go! Otherwise, I’ll make this woman suffer!”
The witches could not help gasping. “Is Zooey…”
“Don’t worry. The demon is just bluffing,” said Anna, calmly. “Look at her finger.”
At this moment, the others noticed that the God’s Punishment Witch raised one finger and shook it with ease. Apparently, she was not controlled by the demon.
Roland quickly understood why she acted this way. In comparison to a question-and-answer method, letting the demon speak through her own mouth was a better approach since it would give the demon less time to think and prepare.
“You were defeated by us.” Roland sneered. “If we are stupid crawlers, what about you?”
“I was… defeated?” Zooey’s voice sounded much deeper all of a sudden. She seemed to be stunned and caught in agony. Roland could not tell whether the painful expression came from Zooey herself or the confused demon.
He did not want to give the enemy any chance to take a breath, so he continued to put pressure on the demon. “Yes, you got riddled with bullets, and your army was annihilated. Half of your soldiers were killed on the battlefield, and the other half failed to flee back to Taquila in the end. We burnt down thousands of them and destroyed your underground camp, so tell me who’s the low-grade species!?”
Roland shouted out the last question to the demon.
“No, this is impossible, unless, unless…” Zooey shook her head violently. After a moment, she looked up and muttered in astonishment, “Did you get a legacy shard and upgrade your species? Did you create those weapons… based on the contents of the shard?”
Roland captured the keywords instantly. “What’s a legacy shard? What do you mean by ‘upgrade’?”