Chapter 822: Succubus Partner in theApocalypse
The king of the Dazia Kingdom looked at the yellow-colored orb on the ground and subconsciously gulped. Magic grade treasure orbs represented a Magic treasure, such treasures were very valuable and highly esteemed by all living beings in the world. However, Felix Di Dazia did not dare to move to pick up the treasure orb.
"King of Dazia, join us." Bai Zemin extended his hand again as the effect of the second activation "Overlap Regeneration" lingered. "I don"t ask much of you or your kingdom, only cooperation when it comes to facing my enemies. You will be able to keep your private property, honor, prestige, position... everything. In the future, everything you have today will be multiplied tenfold!"
The king of Dazia stood silently looking at the outstretched hand in a sign of invitation before finally sighing. He raised his head and all animosity disappeared from his eyes as he said in a clear voice, "And if I say no?"
Bai Zemin"s expression did not change as he said without hiding anything at all, "If you refuse my invitation then you will have to die."
"... And if I told you that I am willing to return to Dazia and order my troops that are on their way here to retreat? I will not interfere in whatever you and Gales have in mind to do." King Felix said after a moment of silence.
"Hehe..." Bai Zemin let out a chuckle in amus.e.m.e.nt and raised his eyebrows as he looked at King Felix with an amused expression on his face.
Even though the young man in front of him did not say any clear words, his expression spoke enough as it seemed to say "do you perhaps treat me like a three-year-old?"
The existence of the Dazia King and the Dazia Kingdom was not a threat to Bai Zemin at the moment, however, that was just now and things could be different in the future. Bai Zemin had gotten to where he was from the lowest point possible; an ordinary citizen without any real power. All the hards.h.i.+ps he was forced to go through made him learn that in order to live a second longer it was necessary not to underestimate the opponents, but above all, not to leave possible future threats alive.
The king of the Dazia Kingdom sighed and finally nodded, "Alright, I agree to join you to support you in your fight together with the Gales Kingdom."
Bai Zemin smiled slightly and lowered his outstretched hand. His eyes narrowed to a slit, and with a slight tinge of murderous intent, he slowly said, "King of Dazia, I will not use my skill to make you my follower as that would take away a good deal of your power.... However, let me give you a friendly warning.... If you dare even think of betraying me, you better succeed.... Because if you fail, I swear to you on my loved ones that I will make you regret ever being born and you will wish for death as life will be h.e.l.l for you."
The expression on King Felix Di Dazia"s face changed slightly as he perceived the murderous intent in Bai Zemin"s voice, and even though his words sounded like a threat, the king somehow managed to figure out that it was a warning and true advice.
The king of the Dazia Kingdom straightened his back and brought his right hand to his heart as he said in a deep voice, "I, Felix Di Dazia, swear in the name of the Dazia royal family that as long as you, Bai Zemin, do nothing to harm the overall interests of my kingdom, I, Felix Di Dazia, will never try to stab you in the back."
Bai Zemin nodded, temporarily satisfied with things as they were. The reason why he didn"t use Loyal Follower on the king of Dazia was very simple; since Bai Zemin was in a world that wasn"t his home world, he needed powerful manpower, and if King Felix fell under the effect of Loyal Follower his power would drop to the point where a general demon would be able to defeat him in a normal battle.
Besides, even if he wanted to it wasn"t like he could really use Loyal Follower on all the kings in the world since there weren"t enough slots.
"Patience... I"ll have time to put a leash on them all." Bai Zemin"s eyes glistened strangely as he moved forward to pick up the dead king"s belongings as well as the treasure orb.
After finis.h.i.+ng stripping King Logan"s corpse of what was once his belongings and picking up the yellow treasure orb, Bai Zemin cut off his head before standing up.
"Your Majesty Felix, let"s put an end to the Maiston Kingdom"s resistance." Bai Zemin smiled slightly before turning into a gust of wind, heading towards the larger battlefield several kilometers distance away.
King Felix for some reason felt uncomfortable hearing someone who had literally subdued him by force referring to him as "Your Majesty".
"I don"t know why but I feel like this brat is making fun of this old man." Felix Di Dazia sighed before following in Bai Zemin"s footsteps, disappearing in seconds in the direction of the northern horizon.
* * *
With the fall of King Logan, the soul evolvers that composed the army of the Maiston Kingdom completely lost all will to fight. Although there were 2 generals who upon seeing the king"s head being lifted up by the enemy became enraged, that fury cooled down just like a flame that had a bucket of ice water thrown over it after seeing the king of the Dazia Kingdom obediently standing behind the enemy leader like a little minion.
A few hours later and by the time dawn finally came, inside the main tent, Bai Zemin was listening to the report of one of the soldiers regarding the losses and gains over the war that had just ended.
"A total of 47,782 men of our original army lost their lives during the past two days of the war against the Maiston Kingdom. At the same time, a total of 7251 soul evolvers from the Krap Kingdom died during the past 24 hours." Said the soldier before turning to the next page and continuing, "Among the 55,033 fallen men, 4206 were First Order existences while the rest were all at level 25 or below and we haven"t lost any of our Second Order soul evolvers."
Bai Zemin listened with his eyes closed as the soldier paused for a moment before continuing.
"We have killed over 126,000 enemies including two generals, one of them having been killed by yourself and the key point that marked our rise to victory. Although the count is still ongoing, approximately 460,000 men who were part of the main army of the Maiston Kingdom have surrendered while approximately 100,000 managed to flee northwards taking advantage of the turmoil... General Bai, should we chase after them? Even if we can"t hunt them all down, I"m sure we"ll be able to find several of them."
However, Bai Zemin shook his head and waved a hand, "Forget it, there"s no point in doing something like that. Those who ran did so because they did not possess the ability to threaten us, our power will only grow from now on so they will be even less of a threat in the future."
This was not underestimation, it was self-confidence. Bai Zemin was confident that when it came to growth speed, there was no one able to compare to him; therefore, if an enemy was not able to defeat him today then they would definitely not be able to defeat him tomorrow.
The soldier nodded and continued, "As for treasures and skill scrolls..."
Bai Zemin listened to the soldier for several minutes and after ordering him not to touch the treasure orbs above the Rare grade (orange color) he simply dismissed him.
"Nyehehehehehe..." He rubbed his hands together and while laughing like an old hag pulled a few things out of his storage ring when he was finally left alone and in peace.
A dagger, several glowing stones, a thick tree branch surrounded by a strange pale green aura, a skill scroll, and a deep blue sword.
The sword and some of the Soul Stones were looted from King Logan"s corpse while the rest had been taken by Bai Zemin after he defeated and killed Shadow Killer.
"Why are you smiling like that? It"s creepy just like your expression." Lilith appeared to his right, sitting directly on the edge of the table while moving her feet back and forth in an extremely cute manner.
Bai Zemin gave her a sidelong glance and said with a serious expression on his face, "Lilith, just as we men don"t understand many things about you women, you women will never be able to understand the love that every man of culture feels when we look over the spoils of war."
"Man of culture?" Lilith blinked before realizing something. She rolled her eyes and said not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "Again it"s one of the codes that appear in your light novels that you love so much isn"t it?"
"Hmph." Bai Zemin snorted softly before silently starting to count the number of Soul Stones.
Not long after he started, his eyes lit up as he said with a big smile on his handsome face, "Hahaha! This daddy has become rich overnight! As expected, killing high-level soul evolvers really is good stuff!" he nodded in satisfaction.
Lilith observed how happy Bai Zemin had become as he counted a little over 21 Third Order Soul Stones joining Shadow Killer and King Logan"s treasures. Her ruby-colored eyes sparkled with a hint of tenderness and the corner of her lips curved slightly into a beautiful smile: "I wonder what kind of reaction all those people who look at him with fear and hatred would have if they saw that the young man they call a tyrant and bloodthirsty demon was actually capable of putting on such a pure and innocent expression."
In reality, Bai Zemin was not a saint and had done bad things considering that the lives of many innocent people were affected to a great or little extent due to his actions. However, when he was compared to most people Bai Zemin could be considered relatively righteous.
He treated people as he felt they deserved to be treated based on their actions, and although he often threatened other powers with enslaving their families, the reality was that the only slaves in the entire Transcendent faction were the families of those who had betrayed his trust or plotted against him while the families of deserters suffered no punishment whatsoever despite the law stipulating it.
In the apocalypse, all morality had been thrown away by humans. Bai Zemin had no choice but to put up the front of a person willing to commit the vilest acts in order to achieve his goals; he knew that apart from his power, if he lost his facade as a raging and cruel wolf he would definitely be stabbed in the back a million times on the first day.
[Resurrection Rod (Natural Treasure Rank 3): Natural treasure that was part of an ancient cedar tree over 10,000 years old grown between two twisters of mana. When held close to the body it increases the Health stat by +300 points and if given to a competent blacksmith could be forged into a staff for which countless mages would be willing to kill.]
After a few moments of thought, Bai Zemin put the rod away in his storage ring while muttering under his breath, "Let"s leave this for Wu Yijun. I think I can build a good weapon for her using this stick."
"... Are you sure you"re not planning to add that busty girl to your royal harem?" Lilith asked with a raised eyebrow as she gave him a questioning look.
Bai Zemin rolled his eyes and pointed, "Royal harem? This daddy doesn"t even have a kingdom and has only accepted one wife so I don"t know what you"re talking about."
Lilith"s lips curved upward as she said with joyful eyes, "Little brother Zemin, you really know what to say to make a woman"s heart feel sweet as honey. If you were to say that you are willing to accept a harem then this big sister might have to castrate you later."
Bai Zemin subconsciously closed his legs and sucked in a breath of cold air as he looked at her with persistent fear, "You.... Don"t you dare. This daddy wants at least enough children to raise a basketball team or two."
"Hahaha... Looks like we"ll have our work cut out for us in that case!" Lilith directly burst out laughing out loud.
Her smiling face lit up the gloomy interior of the tent and her carefree expression subconsciously made Bai Zemin feel happy that he could make her laugh like that.
After laughing good-naturedly for a good 20 seconds, Lilith finally began to calm down as she gently hugged her stomach with one hand and wiped the tears from the edge of her eyes with the other.
She looked at him with an incredibly innocent expression and said softly, "Say, Zemin. May I ask you a slightly weird question?"
"Mm?" Bai Zemin had reached out his hand to pick up the skill scroll but upon hearing Lilith"s words his movements froze. He looked at her curiously and said without much thought, "What"s wrong with you? Is it necessary for us to ask each other that kind of question? Just say what you have to say without thinking too much... We are a couple after all."
Lilith kept the same faint smile on her face, her voice sounded calm and flat as if what she was asking was no big deal: "In the hypothetical case that I or a being you love were to lose their mind.... Let"s say, let"s take me as an example. In the hypothetical case that I lost my mind and my power got out of control, what would you do if there was no real solution to the problem.?"
Bai Zemin frowned and subconsciously straightened his posture as he looked at her intently. For some reason, he felt that the question Lilith was asking him was not there just for the sake of finding an answer but that there seemed to be a deeper meaning that Bai Zemin could not currently understand.
Seeing the worried expression on Bai Zemin"s face, Lilith chuckled and said with raised eyebrows, "Don"t overthink it, just say what you really feel and think about it.... This is just a question I"m asking you out of pure curiosity to know how you would react to such a complicated situation like this..... What would you do if you saw me or any other loved one of yours turn into a mindless being that the only thing he or she knows to do is slaughter and slaughter to the point where he or she stopped being himself or herself, even willing to kill those he or she once loved."
Although Lilith said that she was only asking out of curiosity, Bai Zemin did not answer her question even after 5 whole minutes.
Just when Lilith was about to ask him to ignore the weird question she had asked, Bai Zemin answered in a serious voice but without looking her in the eyes.
"I would find the solution."
Lilith rolled her eyes and pointed, "You... I told you that there is no solution. You have to answer on the premise that there is no solution."
Bai Zemin finally turned to look at her and said in a serious voice, "If there is no solution, then it means I have to create one with my own hands... Did you forget? My goal is to surpa.s.s the highest authority in the universe, to go beyond the power of the Soul Record... I refuse to believe that at the end of my path I will not be able to find a solution to the problem you bring up."
After a moment of silence, Lilith sighed and closed her eyes, "Right.... If it"s you, maybe you"d be able to do it."
The two were silent for a few minutes before Bai Zemin suddenly asked, "Lilith, what about you?"
"Uh?"
"What would you do if I lost control of myself and turned into a killing machine?" Bai Zemin asked as he recalled the first strange dream he had, that dream in which he saw what seemed to be a more mature and adult version of himself slaughtering myriads of races and annihilating all life.
At Lilith"s surprised stare, he pointed out, "At the end of the day, the Blood Berserker"s Wrath skill could go into overdrive at any time.... The triggers of the last levels are a mystery, which is dangerous from several points of view."
Unlike Lilith"s seemingly casual question but which probably held some hidden meaning, Bai Zemin"s question was very serious regarding something that could potentially occur in the future.
Surprisingly, Lilith did not hesitate or take too long to answer.
Her beautiful ruby eyes shone with a hint of sadness, her pupils dilated as she looked at him with tenderness and affection. She reached a hand forward and gently caressed his face as she said softly, ".... If that were to happen, then I would kill you..."
Bai Zemin simply used his eyes as black as night to look into her eyes. His expression did not change, waiting for her next words.
"Unlike you, Zemin, I do not have the ability to overcome the Soul Record.... Only you can do that." She forced a smile and said softly, "I would rather kill you with my own hands than let you hurt those you were willing to die for, I know you would want that too.... After I kill you, I will end my life and go to keep you company if there is life after death."
After a few seconds, Bai Zemin closed his eyes and took a moment to process and understand Lilith"s words. Finally, he nodded as if he understood something before opening his eyes again.
"Don"t worry, Lilith."
His serious voice thick with resolve filled the tent.
"Such a thing will definitely not happen with me, I promise."
"I want to be your partner, someone capable of helping you ease your burdens and not someone who will add more weight to your baggage."
Bai Zemin took the hand Lilith was using to caress his face and gently kissed the top before looking into her eyes and saying with a smile:
"I want to be your partner.... The partner of a succubus in the apocalypse."
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I was going to post a 3rd chapter, but the previous chapter was +2800 words and this one +3200 so I think that makes up for the missing second chapter yesterday. Although there might be another chapter hours later, it will depend on if I have free time and mood :)
Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3