Chapter 363 Diabolos
The volcano continued to erupt, consuming the entire town at the top of the mountain and later spewing lava over the crater. The ash cloud from the crater was immensely large that it hid the Red Moon from plain sight. In the meantime, Jin asked Itori, the white fox he was riding on to stay on guard for King Hamu.
However, there was no sign of him coming out of the lava at all. The System then stated that it did not detect the presence of Diabolos Shatian powers anywhere in the volcano. "Did we capture King Hamu?" Jin was curious if the System was hiding the fact it captured the Orc King and wanted to make a joke out of it.
"Negative. The volcano and the operation did, however, capture a total of 1323 Fire Orcs which consist of warriors, archers, spearmen, axemen and mages. 46 Humanoid researchers were captured too. Upon references from Peppers and taxonomy sources from the Goblins, the humanoids are a subgenre race of the Wood Elves that had essentially mated with the Lost Dwarves. For User's information, the orcs called derogatory terms such as Fey Mongrels to them. The plausible reason why these Elvish Dwarves are able to operate the lost tech systems is that they have a faint trace of the bloodline from the lost dwarves which is needed to power up the lost tech system." The System noted to Jin.
"That is a surprise. I was thinking how we could get the researcher slav- erm I mean these Elvish Dwarves in be in our servitude." Jin said while his half mask transformed into a full mask panda. It was to filter away the ashes in the air because of the ash cloud.
"Avatar of Shiva, Yellow Ice, and his goblin subject, Cross which Flame Ripper informed us had been captured too by the volcano eruption User and others had initiated. Scans still showed no sign of the Orc King within the vicinity." The System stated. Jin adjusted the Tact Tweak and sent a message to Flame Ripper to check whether they had any signs on the King returning back to either the Fire Orc base of the castle. Unfortunately, they reported that there was no sign of him.
Jin decided to wait for a little while more while he browsed the Tact Tweak even further. Before the annihilation of the entire fake capital, he gave the robot crawlers and the Robotic Arachnid a secondary task. It was to salvage usable parts from the Orc Mechanised Walkers if it was possible during their combat. Through the Tact Tweak, it seemed that they managed to recover quite a few of them before the volcano took the rest out. The integrity of the Tin Cans varied, but the crawlers were able to get one intact.
"Does User wishes to begin analysis of the Lost Tech Mechanised Walker and the blueprints Orc Researcher Ayse to determine if there are any substitutes available in the market to replace the parts for these walkers? It could possibly be useful as reference for the repairs of Mechataur." The System asked and Jin commanded it to put it in the backburner for now.
"I have a bad feeling about this, System. Enhance the detection of the satellite as much as possible in case he decided to target the real capital." Jin said which the System quickly put it into place.
"User. The satellite indicated no Shaitan related activity in the goblin region. Separately, an update report for the Northern and Western Diversion is available if User wishes to preview it." The System stated which Jin guessed there would not be any harm doing so and allowed the System to carry on.
"For the Western Diversion. The Ice Orc Sea Fleet is currently in a standstill with Spear General Argent's army. Predicative analytics indicated that the counter attack would most be initiated by the cultivators themselves with the aid of the goblins within the next hour or so." The System replied.
"In the Northern Region, both the cultivators and the goblin army had been pushing the weakened Thunder Orcs back following the defeat of their Commander Purple Thunder. Three Sandroku Golems were fixed in the heat of the battlefield by the goblin mages since their pilots were not severely injured. Damage reports of the golems will be sent back for further investigation and evaluation too. Slashreaver who was badly injured in the battle against Purple Thunder had his vitals stabilised. Unfortunately, he was not killed in battle, and System is unable to resurrect him to return his full fighting form." The System further added.
"Will he be okay in the long run?" Jin said as he saw the condition Slashreaver suffered. Third degree burns all around his body, both arms amputated, his left ear was erased from the lightning strike and parts of his skull broke into pieces.
"Affirmative. One of the rewards for aiding this war is the evolution of the goblins. As one of them had already completed Step Up Evolution, more resources can be placed into the other two to force their genes for a Step Up Evolution. However, the System predicts that Slashreaver might not need additional resources as he had met the sufficient requirements for a Step Up Evolution." The System commented but Jin did not understand the process.
"Sufficient stress in the genes and experience accumulated, played a major part in a Step Up Evolution. What Slashreaver needs now is a trigger. Similar to what Half Ghoul Lord Derek experienced, the Enhancement card "I am the Alpha" was both the stress and trigger factor for him. That is why he was able to evolve." The System remarked.
"I see…so erm any luck on finding King Hamu?" Jin worriedly asked although the System said there was no indication of him.
"Maybe he is in hiding?" Kraft materialised sitting beside Jin on Itori as he proceeded to explain his reason.
"By now, if the System did not consume them and there is no further detection of Diabolo's Shaitan powers anywhere around here, I can only conclude he ran away. It is either Diabolos had fully taken control of King Hamu's body and teleported away via his Shaitan plane or King Hamu was still strong enough to portal out of danger." Kraft deduced from what he had seen so far during the operation when he was in the Dungeon Maker.
"You mean he retreated for now since the conditions are not favourable for him?" Jin asked for a confirmation.
"That is my only deduction since we knew the Shaitans have access to another dimensional plane. If King Hamu was completely controlled by Diabolos, he could simply do that. Besides, we are not sure if Diabolos already ate King Hamu or that Shaitan Messenger planned to use his body for other nefarious acts." Kraft said his piece as he admired the beauty of the live volcano.
"Moreover, we do not have the ability to scan the entire goblin world in detail since we only have a CHEAP satellite working. Regardless, we covered most of the locations. Both the Orc and Goblin Capital, his military base and the locations of the Northern and Western armies." Kraft said casually as he braced himself for another volcano explosion that was coming and the two guys could feel the shockwaves impacting them.
Jin was naturally distressed if it was King Hamu that cause the volcano attack when they were talking about him, but the System said it was just the volcano.
"Peppers ensured that the island itself would be flooded with lava. She is not wrong at all!! This is way beyond expectations!!" Kraft did not seem to worry a single thing as he whistled, seeing how cool it was for waves of lava to be oozing out and over the volcano crater nonstop.
"ISLAND! YES, ISLAND!!!" Jin suddenly thought of something that they did not cover at all. "Ayse, didn't you say you guys found an island full of lost tech? Right? Do you still have the coordinates?" Jin hurriedly asked in the secured System channel which Ayse promptly replied. Once Jin received the coordinates, he hurried the fox to move as fast as possible.
"You bettER HOLD ONNNNN!!!" Kraft's warning was too late since Itori had already begun sprinting over the ocean waters and towards the coordinates of the Lost Tech Island.
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"To push me into the lava….to humiliate us at every turn….Who did those humanoids and monsters think they are!!!" Diabolos shouted as he tried to slam on the large metal door, but the punch was so faint that it barely made any noise. Despite all the setbacks, he had finally completed his objective of consuming King Hamu's soul and taking over his body for his own selfish reason.
But Diabolos felt extremely weak.
It was not meant to go this way. He initially wanted to overtake King Hamu's body when the Orc King was brimming with Red Moon energy. That was because the energy that was emanated from the Red Moon aligned to his darkness element. As long as King Hamu became a container, a vessel filled with dark energy, he would be able to enter the body and control it easily.
But right now, he was drained out of Red Moon energy. This particular body was so battered up that it was in no position to fight against the humanoids. The body had also taken a lot of damage from the cursed Light magic which slowed its recovery since it hindered Diabolos' dark energy to flow correctly.
"Heh, too bad for them, I had purposely kept this place as a backup, my final gambit for this kind of situation. I never thought it would be necessary… Just wait for me to get better, to get what's coming to you…" Diabolos murmured while he dragged his feet and broken wings along the metal floors inside the deserted laboratory on the Lost Tech Island. King Hamu, under the influence of Diabolos, had previously demanded the humanoid researchers to recreate a recovery capsule when they were searching for other blueprints.
The recovery capsule was a one time use equipment and the materials to replicate the fluid was extremely expensive, using only the rarest materials hunted down by the Avatars and veteran hunter gatherers. And for its quality, it was extremely potent. Just bathed in that miracle liquid for less than an hour, all the damage a body had incurred would be removed, like it never happened before.
But this battered body of his was taking too much time and effort to move that it felt like ages walking towards the recovery capsule. Diabolos became too feeble after taking over King Hamu's body. Not because of the possession but because he used by his remaining energy to shield and teleport this body from the lava to the Lost Tech Island. He even had to destroy the magical barrier that was protecting the island since only King Hamu knew the exact passphrase to enter without any harm.
"I will make sure…that I will find these monsters…these humanoids…and mostly importantly Sol!" Diabolos growled under his heavy breaths as he tried to activate the console for the recovery capsule. As he was about to open the capsule, Diabolos suddenly felt that his stomach was feeling rather queasy and his legs gave out almost immediately.
He started to gag from the pain and subsequently vomited but only blood was splattered all over the floor. Not just any healthy red orc blood, the blood Diabolos vomited on the floor was dull black. Lamentably, Diabolos heard heavy footsteps from afar, which made him feared the worst.
The white fox entered the island with ease as it bashed through the metal doors of the laboratory and followed the pieces of feathers that were dropped from the wings of Diabolos. ( along with some blood stains) Just a sniff from the feathers, Itori knew where to find King Hamu. But first, She shrank smaller so that Jin would not hit the ceiling because of her size and later went after the trail of scent left behind by the feathers.
Not long, Jin and Itori found King Hamu lying on the metal floor with an activated capsule right beside him. The stench in the room was obscenely strong and supposedly it was from the King Hamu himself. "Ah I see, Hou Fei's poison had started to work. I guess it took that long because it made sure to impair the dantian of the cultivator so that it could no longer produce any chi to supplement the body." Kraft saw the effects and walked towards Diabolos armed with his No Mercy.
"But because this guy did not practice any cultivation nor had any chi,not to mention we have no idea how their magic circuits worked, I guessed the poison took some time to act." Kraft frowned a little, considering he did not know what to expect from the poison on an orc. (Kraft then realised he should have asked Hou Fei to collaborate with him first and test on certain subjects before attempting this method. Although Kraft guessed they were both too busy to worry about this.)
"But we still decided to give it a try right? It might have been a long shot to hope it would work and hinder the Orc King but looks like it did even better than expected." Jin said, and at that point of time, pitch black moonflowers began to abruptly grow from the pores of King Hamu's body, oozing more blood from the flowers themselves.
Later, Kraft quoted from Hou Fei that the flowers were usually the representation of their 'chi' and it was the body's way of expelling the poison and bad blood out from the pores of the skin. Through deduction, they figured that the expulsion of the toxins produced the flowers, and Kraft said that by the time the body defence mechanism kicked in to save itself, it was already too late.
"What is…happening to this body…curses… This is *COUGH* the wrong…*COUGH* time to enter a body…" Diabolos questioned as his vision turned foggy and he could not utilise any dark energy in him at all. He felt his mana reserves empty which was supposed to be impossible. He had totally no idea what was going on.
For once, He was powerless.
Kraft did not hesitate as he raised his No Mercy revolver at King Hamu and shot all three bullets at Diabolos, causing the body to become limp immediately, putting up zero struggle. Jin slowly walked towards the body and saw that even though it was King Hamu's body, the features on his face was clearly not his.
"User, Diabolos has been captured. However, he had been sealed and will be under System's supervision until User reached higher grades. This is not a form of punishment, but merely the System's precaution. The entity is a being with powers unimaginable and the System believed its current loyalty enforcement orders might prove to be inadequate against it. System would keep the entity in stasis and not treat its wounds until analysis of its powers is satisfactory." The System noted and Jin realised this was the first time the System felt…scared.
"Are you saying its powers could possibly be higher than Grade 19? Or maybe an equivalent to the legendary Grade 20?" Jin was a little excited but the System denied his fantasies.
"His powers are estimated to be an equivalent grade level 15 or 16. Without further analysis, System is unable to know its true extent of Diabolos' powers. It is the first time the System encountered and captured such a powerful creature. The System will require some time to make sure the loyalty enforcement order works while recommends User to level up to ensure that User is capable of making full use of its powers." The System commented before it turned quiet once again.
"Then I guess…Mission complete…?" Jin awkwardly cheered at this rather anticlimactic ending which Kraft sniggered a little before looking at the capsule right in front of it.
"Let's look through our 'rewards'?" Kraft said as he asked System to summon out Ayse for a better explanation of the items in this particular lab they were in.