Dead Eagle Valley, inside the vast underground mausoleum.
The colossal sand lizard and the manifested curse had both collapsed and disintegrated. The powerful wild spirits had been torn apart. Chabakunka’s soul had burned down to a mere wisp. Just as Dorothy was about to deliver the final blow, an unexpected soul appeared before her.
Diedin Baruch—the last King of the Baruch Dynasty—his spirit now hovered midair, holding the spectral Goblet of Nether Guidance, his expression blank as he stared forward. Upon seeing this sudden emergence, Dorothy immediately dispersed the electricity gathered in her hand and stopped in midair, holding back from acting. Out of caution, she chose not to make any rash moves.
“Could this be... the soul of Diedin, the last King of Baruch? So the Nether Coffin Order really did manage to steal him away? That Shaman actually managed to summon a soul this powerful at the very end—so this is the might of a Crimson rank Silence Beyonder?”
Watching the scene, Dorothy thought warily. Ever since hearing Shadi’s intel on Diedin, she had worried the Nether Coffin Order might try to weaponize his soul. At first, she had felt relieved when the Shaman didn’t summon Diedin during the battle, but now, in his final moments, he had.
Dorothy stared cautiously at Diedin. As she focused, Diedin’s soul showed no intent to attack. He simply floated quietly midair, holding the Goblet of Nether Guidance, his expression as blank as ever, showing no signs of hostility. This confused Dorothy even more.
Just as she debated whether to make a probing strike, she noticed movement. Diedin’s vacant eyes began to tremble, as if he sensed something. His face started to contort, as if twitching involuntarily, rapidly shifting between expressions: sorrowful one moment, delighted the next, accompanied by strange noises. His entire spiritual form showed abnormal behavior, and Dorothy’s frown deepened as her wariness grew.
“This soul… Diedin’s soul is strange. This isn’t a normal spirit!”
Suddenly, his erratic expressions froze, fixed into one of fierce, glaring rage. Seeing the shift, Dorothy braced herself for attack. But instead of turning toward her, Diedin turned his gaze to a wall of the mausoleum—facing south, in the direction of Karnak.
“Sha… di…”He opened his mouth and spoke in a hoarse, chilling tone. Then, his spirit swiftly rose into the air. The sand that had scattered after the lizard’s collapse now surged upward once again, forming a massive swirling sandstorm above the grand mausoleum. Diedin hovered right in its center.
In the blink of an eye, the mausoleum was engulfed in a miniature sandstorm—fierce winds howled through the confined space. Dorothy squinted against the flying sand. In the chaos, the last wisp of Chabakunka’s soul slipped away unnoticed.
“Sand? He has sand manipulation just like that lizard wild spirit?”
Shielding her face, Dorothy watched Diedin’s increasingly enraged spirit at the heart of the sand vortex. Lightning began to gather in her hand again, ready to strike if needed, but Diedin’s next move surprised her.
“Sha… di!!”
With rage in his glowing eyes, Diedin screamed toward the south, his voice filled with boundless wrath. Then, he turned and, shrouded in his swirling sandstorm, flew straight toward the exit of the mausoleum. He sped down the long corridor—already blown open by explosions—and burst out of the underground palace, out into Dead Eagle Valley.
Dorothy, who had just prepared herself for combat, was stunned.
“He left…? He didn’t attack me, and went straight outside instead…
“This Diedin’s soul… doesn’t seem to be under the Coffin Shaman’s control at all. Instead of attacking me, he rushed out. Could it be he sensed Shadi approaching and went to take revenge?”
Dorothy frowned. She had clearly heard Diedin speak Shadi’s name—he was undoubtedly heading for him.
But the critical question was: how did he know where Shadi was? Dorothy’s intel placed Shadi currently attacking Karnak, about 7–8 kilometers away. Could Diedin really sense him from that distance?
Confused, Dorothy began controlling her corpse marionettes outside the mausoleum to observe Diedin’s state. What she saw through their eyes caught her by surprise.
Outside the mausoleum in Dead Eagle Valley, the skies had turned dark as sandstorms raged. What had once been sunlit was now overcast. A vortex of sand had formed rapidly in the sky, centered on Diedin, and continued to expand. After emerging from the mausoleum, Diedin had stirred up even more sand, turning his small storm into a full-blown sand tornado.
“He’s… growing stronger…”
The sandstorm, now a tornado, raged across the valley, expanding with terrifying speed. What had once only filled the mausoleum now began to engulf the entire valley. The howling winds were unceasing. Dorothy’s bird-type corpse marionettes had to fly away fast to avoid being swept into the expanding storm.
From multiple angles, Dorothy confirmed the tornado was moving rapidly south and growing larger as it swept up more sand. It was heading straight for Karnak, where the Revolutionary Army was in the final stages of its siege against the Savior’s Advent Sect.
“It’s moving south… he really is going to Karnak to find Shadi. Diedin’s soul is driven by the hatred of his life, seeking revenge. But how can he summon a sandstorm of this magnitude? Could it be… that Diedin had similar powers when he was alive?”
Watching the monstrous sandstorm grow ever larger, Dorothy felt anxious. In his current state, Diedin wouldn’t be easy to deal with. Yet the Goblet of Nether Guidance—her target—was still in his hands. She couldn’t afford to ignore this.
“The immediate priority… is to determine just what state Diedin’s soul is in. A regular spirit shouldn’t be able to command a sandstorm like this. There must be something unusual about him…”
With that thought, Dorothy resolved to investigate Diedin’s nature further. But before that, there was something even more urgent she needed to do.
Dorothy quickly stepped over to the unconscious Nephthys lying on the ground. Not far off, Nephthys’s soul flame was slowly drifting back toward her body. Dorothy picked up a stone and drew a ritual array beneath Nephthys, then, following the method taught by Uta, began a ceremony that consumed Silence spirituality to accelerate the return of Nephthys’s soul. Once the soul flame returned to her body, Nephthys’s eyelids fluttered. Eventually, she sat up, rubbing her eyes.
“Huff… huff… I finally made it back. I really thought… I was going to die… thank goodness…”
As she sat upright, Nephthys let out a relieved breath, her face still carrying the lingering fear of her out-of-body experience—and being swallowed. It was clearly not something pleasant.
“Good job, Senior Neph. See? I told you there wouldn’t be any problem. I had every part of this process thoroughly worked out.”
Dorothy said, patting her on the shoulder.
How long can a living soul be separated from the body before death becomes irreversible? Is a curse primarily targeted at the body or the soul? How long does it take for a soul to be digested after being devoured by a Great Shaman? If a cursed soul is swallowed, does the curse transfer to the devourer?
These and many similar questions Dorothy had carefully consulted with Uta and Sadroya, both senior Silence Beyonders. For anything they couldn’t answer with certainty, Dorothy even used divination to find out. Only after confirming every critical detail did she finalize her plan: have Chabakunka devour Nephthys’s soul, transferring the curse onto him.
So while the plan may have looked reckless and risky, Dorothy had seen it as highly executable from the start. Even though Nephthys had been very apprehensive, Dorothy had always been confident.
“Whew… That Nether Coffin Order Shaman is finally dealt with. But it seems he still left some trouble behind. Miss Dorothy… that soul he summoned at the end, what happened to it?”
Nephthys asked after exhaling deeply. Dorothy pointed toward the exit of the tomb.
“That thing’s still outside, and it’s becoming more and more of a problem. We need to deal with it soon. But before that, we have to figure out what exactly it is. Why does it have powers like that?”
Dorothy said.
Nephthys frowned.
“So… how are we supposed to find out what it is?”
“That’s easy, we ask someone who knows.”
Dorothy replied, pointing in another direction inside the mausoleum.
There, lying in the shadows, was the body of Mohn, a member of the Nether Coffin Order. Above his corpse floated a flickering soul flame—his soul.
High-ranking members of the Nether Coffin Order often carried special soul-anchoring curses to prevent post-death spirit summoning. These would force the soul deep into the Netherworld upon death, making it difficult to retrieve. But in the face of Hafdar’s manifested curse hands, such enchantments were meaningless. Mohn’s soul had been suppressed so severely that it couldn’t even return to his body, let alone the Netherworld.
Following Dorothy’s instructions, Nephthys quickly drew a soul-summoning array and pulled Mohn’s soul into close range. After Dorothy finished him off completely, Nephthys successfully bound the soul, forcing it into a coherent spiritual form. Now, Dorothy could use a ritual to compel answers from him.
“Do you know who the Shaman was that was piggybacking on your body just now?”
Dorothy asked bluntly.
Mohn’s spirit nodded.
“Yes… That was Lord Chabakunka, one of the high-ranking figures of the Order. He’s the planner and overseer of all operations in Addus.”
“Chabakunka, huh…”
Dorothy committed the name to memory, then asked again.
“The soul he summoned at the end—was that really Diedin, the last King of Addus? Why could he control sand? He felt very different from any other soul. What’s his background?”
Mohn paused briefly, then replied slowly.
“Yes, that soul was indeed the final King of Baruch… Under Lord Chabakunka’s command, we spent years preparing in Addus. When Diedin was defeated by the Revolutionary Army, we seized his soul and offered it to Lord Chabakunka. His soul was a key subject for one of the Order’s major experimental projects.”
“Experiment? What kind of experiment?”
“According to Lord Chabakunka, the project was named ‘Artificial Wild Spirit.’”
Mohn responded quietly.
Hearing this, both Dorothy and Nephthys were visibly stunned. They exchanged a look of mutual shock.
“Artificial Wild Spirit? Explain. What kind of experiment is that?”
“Artificial Wild Spirit refers to research aimed at creating wild spirits in regions beyond Starfall Continent—places where no natural wild spirits dwell. The project was developed by the Soul Desecration Cult under the Nether Coffin Order, with the goal of producing strong territorial spirits for the Order’s use.
“There are several branches of the research. The most advanced and successful one is called ‘Kingdom’s Spirit’—it involves using the soul of a publicly recognized ruler and transforming it into the wild spirit of their land…”
Mohn continued explaining. Dorothy’s expression grew stranger as she listened. She asked again.
“Transform a ruler’s soul into a regional wild spirit…? That’s even possible?”
“Of course it is. A legitimate ruler embodies the recognition and memories of all the sentient souls within their realm. In the collective consciousness of countless people, that ruler represents the entire land. Using this recognition as a key and anchor, the ruler’s soul can be transformed into a wild spirit. This cognitive resonance ties the spirit to the land, turning it into the very soul of the territory, capable of controlling its natural forces…
“It’s a complex process involving Lantern, Silence, and even traces of Revelation spirituality. Only Shamans proficient in both Lantern and Silence can truly conduct this research.
“It’s said that some mainland nations maintain their kings’ power through citizen worship and cognitive rituals. The Nether Coffin Order’s Shamans took inspiration from those legends to begin the Artificial Wild Spirit project. They’ve achieved a few stable results in small-scale trials. As for kingdom-level success, there’s only one subject—Diedin.
“According to Lord Chabakunka, Diedin still has many flaws as the sole kingdom-level prototype. But he already possesses most basic wild spirit capabilities. In some sense, Diedin is now the spiritual embodiment of Addus itself. He can use his will to summon the land’s innate spirituality and manifest specific phenomena.”