A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 76: Chapter 62: Blood Profit_1

With that, the calamity that had once swept all over the city came to a conclusion, alongside the eradication of the puppet master behind the scenes.

However… Angels and Demons, huh…

Recalling the angel he had encountered previously, Duanmu Huai felt somewhat contemplative. This issue was linked to a part of history that had been shrouded in secrets. During the Black Hole project in the past, multiple disputes regarding Subspace and its Evil God were initiated, leading finally to the decision of initiating the “God Creating” plan during the second phase of the Black Hole project.

The central objective of this initiative was quite simple.

If Subspace couldn’t be completely destroyed, and the Evil God couldn’t be exterminated, then they might as well utilise the unique characteristics of faith to create deities that could protect humanity. In essence, use the Subspace god to deal with the Subspace gods.

Put simply, if a planet is taken as an example, the four Chaos Evil Gods of Subspace could be likened to four superpowers ruling the planet, controlling everything on the planet with an iron fist, leaving no room whatsoever for other forces to breathe. The Black Hole project was equivalent to obliterating the entire planet, effectively dissolving the powers of the four Evil Gods. The “God Creating” plan treated the barren planet as a territory to establish a regime in, while the four Evil Gods were still attempting to regain their full strength. The plan aimed to create a force capable of opposing the Evil Gods.

Naturally, the plan was not fail-proof. But no matter, if the plan did fail, they just had to start over again, repeat the obliteration process until the plan was deemed successful.

Given the current circumstances, seems like a part of the plan had succeeded, with many civilizations and forces “creating” their own Guardian God and faith system, riding on the wave of this opportunity. However, the powers of these Indigenous Gods were still too weak. As a result, they ended up either being consumed by the four gods as a mid-day snack, or hiding away in an unknown location—Subspace was infinite, after all. Hiding away would never be an issue.

Whereas a cataclysmic war did not transpire, this was what Duanmu Huai had desired. Why else would he gamble with his life and get involved if all he got in return was a final boss to deal with?

Of course, Duanmu Huai’s sacrifices were not in vain. Archbishop Leila of the Cathedral Church knighted him as a Sacred Knight and declared him a hero of the city for eternity. He was conferred a multitude of titles and honors, along with quite a few material rewards.

However, as far as the church was concerned, matters had not settled yet. Since Iver was a disciple of the Ice Hell King, the mechanical religion created by him naturally became a huge problem. During the time Duanmu Huai and others attacked the temple of the Evil Gods, the believers of the mechanical religion did not retaliate, oblivious to the predicament. Even so, interrogation and investigation within the church were essential procedures.

However, these no longer involved Duanmu Huai.

Now that the matters here had concluded, the next step for Duanmu Huai was to pass through this world fragment and the Chaos Warrior camp, followed by acquiring the Crown of Witchcraft.

Just as Duanmu Huai was exiting the church, an unexpected individual appeared before him.

“You’ve done well, Knight.”

Standing before Duanmu Huai was the very angel who had eliminated the demonic nun. This was the first time Duanmu Huai had come face to face with her. From the looks of her, she appeared as an ordinary adorable girl. Apart from the pair of white wings, she did not seem to differ much from human beings. Her short brown hair and the azure eyes reminded one of the sky. Covered in a short-sleeved lace dress, she appeared quite adorable.

“I simply fulfilled my duty.”

“It’s not like that…”

The angelic young girl shook her head. She walked towards Duanmu Huai, extending her hand to take his as she gazed at him.

“We have always been watching over this place, observing this cycle of boundless misery. And now, you’ve finally put an end to it all. Please allow me to express my sincere gratitude.”

The voice of the angelic girl was like a clear spring in the mountains, pleasant on the ears and full of spirit. Despite understanding what she meant, Duanmu Huai’s eyebrows twitched at her words— If it had been anyone else, they might not have grasped the angel girl’s speech, but he instantly understood what she was hinting at.

Apparently, the city had been destroyed by the Ice Hell King in the real world, and the god who was worshipped here presumably lost as well, hiding in some Subspace corner, barely scraping by. However, due to the connection of faith, they discovered this Soul Fragment World situated inside Subspace.

However……

“If you had known all this before, why didn’t you resolve it?”

Gazing at the angelic girl, Duanmu Huai put forward his own question. Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s skepticism, the angelic girl shook her head.

“We couldn’t do it. This world was trapped in a cycle of nightmares, excessively fragile. If we were to interfere rashly, it could lead to the collapse of the entire world. Your involvement caused a divergence from the river of destiny, permitting us to intervene.”

Upon saying this, the angelic girl lowered her gaze.

“We will remember this favor….”

Leaving behind these words, the angelic girl turned to leave. Watching her receding silhouette, Duanmu Huai shrugged and proceeded to access the system.

The mission completion notification of the system appeared before Duanmu Huai.

[Special Task “Extinction Day” Completed]

[Task Evaluation: Outstanding Performance!]

[Task Rewards: Gained a special skill “Sacred Knight’s Summon” (Consumes 3 graveyard cards to summon ‘Sacred Knights’ to the battlefield, all Servants get a +2/+0 ‘Rush’ effect during the battle)]

[Your reputation in the Soul Fragment “Holy City” has reached ‘Great Respect’]

[Your reputation in the Soul Fragment “Heaven” has reached ‘Esteemed’]

“[Permanently obtained the World Soul Shard ‘Holy City’]”

Excellent!

Seeing it, Duanmu Huai excitedly clenched his fists.

The greatest reward of this mission would certainly be the World Soul Shard!

As mentioned before, soul shards are projections within subspace that show events from a certain place that have not necessarily disappeared. Nearly every soul shard is ownerless. Essentially, therefore, whoever discovers a soul shard is effectively its master.

The mission prompts this time were both World Soul Shards, ‘Holy City’ and ‘Heaven’. However, according to Duanmu Huai’s estimation, ‘Heaven’ is likely the place where the angelic girl had previously been, a place that had previously been unable to establish contact with ‘Holy City’. Now that it has been able to connect with ‘Holy City’ through Duanmu Huai, this means that in the future Duanmu Huai can communicate with the angels situated in ‘Heaven’ through this link, and even summon a host of angels to battle. Well, this is way better than summoning things like resentful spirits or ghosts.

World shards can be divided into two completely different types.

One are the purely functional shards, like the ‘Puppet Room’, ‘Ghost Mansion’, and ‘Sky City’ that Duanmu Huai had previously obtained. They are more like factories.

The ‘Puppet Room’ can produce puppets.

The ‘Ghost Mansion’ can turn destroyed units into resentful spirits.

Then ‘Sky City’ can produce creatures and a series of mechanical soldiers.

These are all fixed soul cards.

World Soul Shards, however, are completely different. They represent a complete region, such as the ‘Holy City’ where Duanmu Huai is currently located. It includes not only the entire city, but also the farms and forests outside the city. It’s almost equivalent to a perfect, self-sufficient region shard.

More importantly, once a Soul Walker obtains a World Shard, they can freely traverse within it, and they could even convert everything inside the shard into soul cards to summon.

For example…

Duanmu Huai stretched out his hand, and soon, a soul card appeared in his hand.

“Missionary Priest. Lorena (Gold)”

“Cost: 3”

“Attack: 4”

“Defense: 5”

“Lorena’s Holy Water (Cost 1): Restores two points of life value to a unit, draws a card”

“Lorena’s Iron Fist (Cost 2): Deals an attack equal to the ‘highest attack power among the servants on own battlefield’ to an opponent’s servant”

With this card, Duanmu Huai can bring Lorena out of the Holy City and summon her to the Major Material World to fight by his side.

However……

“Damn, that’s rather overpowered…”

Seeing the effect of “Lorena’s Iron Fist”, Duanmu Huai’s eye twitched. No wonder that girl, who appeared to be gentle and soft, turned out to be so strong. The highest attacking servant in his own ranks is Ogis, so does that mean Lorena’s punch is equal to Ogis’s attack power?

In addition to that, the special ability he gained this time, ‘Sacred Knight’s Summon’, also very much appealed to Duanmu Huai. This move can summon the heroic spirit of the Sacred Knights by reducing the card count in the graveyard, and it can also give all servants on the field +2 attack. This means that Duanmu Huai can have a strong army offensive in a short amount of time!

After all, though Duanmu Huai could previously use the Puppet Room card, the puppets were too weak to attack. They could only take advantage of the situation like before in the Temple.

But not anymore!

Duanmu Huai even envisioned how to use these cards.

Firstly, summon the zero-cost ‘Puppet’ to fill the battlefield, then initiate an attack. After the puppets are all dead, activate the ‘Sacred Knight’s Summon’, consuming graveyard cards to summon ‘Sacred Knights’, and then launch an attack once more. If the Sacred Knights die too, he could even activate the ‘Ghost Mansion’ to summon resentful spirits the moment the ‘Sacred Knights’ are destroyed, and launch a third wave of attack!

Combined with the +2 attack effect under the ‘Sacred Knight’s Summon’ skill, it’s enough to sweep the majority of armies on this continent!

More importantly, this is almost at zero cost!

Thinking of it, Duanmu Huai felt like the sun had burst out from the clouds, the rain had stopped, and he was in high spirits.

This mission… it pays off big time!