While Levi was left in a trance at the heartbreaking news, Arthur and the rest stood in stunned disbelief... they stared at Dominic in silence for a few moments before Arthur finally spoke, his tone filled with confusion.
"What... what do you mean? We were told that he still has months to live... we even found treasures rich with life force for him. How can he just pass away?"
Jojo’s lips parted, but no sound came out... Shia shook her head slightly while Nurah looked down, her fists clenched.
Levi just stared at Dominic, waiting for him to say something that made sense... he had his own assumption on the matter, but he didn’t want to accept it until Dominic confirmed it.
Dominic did as he was told.
"The Hound has succeeded in winning the spiritual trial imposed by Seraphis," Dominic took a breath. "It has devoured the knowledge of his seed..."
He paused, looking at each of them.
"That means... it has withered beyond redemption. He is gone."
"..."
"..."
"..."
This time, Levi and his friends were left silenced... as much as they refused to admit it, they knew that Dominic had no reason to lie to them.
If the Hound truly won the spiritual trial, then there was only one known outcome... Death.
For a long while, they just stood there, lost in their thoughts... Tyrese, Evangeline, and their teams shared a sympathetic glance.
They thought that Levi’s team was lucky to get out of the site without losing anyone, but it seemed like they assumed too early.
’Ash’Kral... is there really no way to help him?’ Levi asked.
’No... spiritual trials are not a game.’ Ash’Kral shook his head, ’The moment someone decides to trap their enemy in a spiritual trial, they are betting their life and death... if the enemy fails to conclude the spiritual trial, he would remain trapped in the Rift of Binding Laws until he dies of spiritual exhaustion. But, if he succeeded, he earns everything... including the soul of his enemy.’
’Soul... doesn’t this mean there is a possibility of returning Seraphis’ soul to his body?’ Levi frowned.
’Not really... the seed’s evolutionary path knowledge is intricately connected to one’s soul... this means losing one’s seed knowledge is the same as losing their seed and their soul.’ Ash’Kral shared, ’After all, the soul has also evolved and benefited from the seed... stripping a Daywalker of his seed will leave nothing behind.’
Levi hung his head low, deep in his thoughts... he understood that Daywalkers were their Shadowlife seeds. As much as many seed owners described them as parasites, in reality, the seeds should be considered to be symbiotic creatures.
This was the reason Daywalkers separate from their contracted nightcrawlers only when they reach Tier 7... the growth stage of fruition, giving them access to newly born Shadowlife seeds within them.
Those Shadowlife seeds carried the entirety of their evolutionary path... which meant they only needed to restart again following the same order and recipes to reach a similar Tier. This process wasn’t straightforward, but it worked, and it took way less time than the first attempt, considering that one of the hardest parts of evolution was actually finding the required knowledge to keep on climbing.
Now... Seraphis and his contracted nightcrawler had their entire knowledge devoured, leaving them with nothing but an empty shell of a seed... how could their bodies and souls survive such a cut-off?
’As long as no one sought after the Glorious Evolution, their evolutionary path would always remain linked to their seeds.’ The Titan shared calmly, ’The Glorious Evolution is the sole solution to maintain everything while completely forsaking the Shadowlife seed since it means reaching the final circle of the Shadowlife Tree... Death.’
Levi smiled wryly, ’In other words... to break free from our power system, we need to help our seeds complete their full circle.’
The tenants nodded in approval.
Levi could only sigh helplessly... he wanted to save his instructor dearly, but... if even those two ancient relics had no method to help him, he could only accept the reality before him.
"Seraphis might have passed away, but he went out with honor and courage." Feng Ling said sternly, "He decided to sacrifice himself to ensure your safety because he believed in you... He believed that the future of our planet is you, and I truly hope that you show him he was right in his assessment."
Hearing this, Arthur, Levi, and the girls stood up straight; their expressions turning solemn... they knew that Feng Ling was implying that he wished them to stay on the right side of history... the side of humanity.
Feng Ling had seen too many fallen Daywalkers... Demetris was a small taste. He had yet to leave Seraphis’ tutelage and had already betrayed the human race with his brother.
It was that easy to switch sides... especially when the situation looked hopeless for Earthlings.
Feng Ling understood that Levi and his friends were going to meet many situations that would drive them to question their loyalty to Earth... he just hoped that before they could make such a decision, they would think of their Instructor and his beliefs in them.
"The last thing we will do is disappoint our Instructor," Levi replied sternly.
Levi respected Seraphis a big deal... although they didn’t spend much time with each other, he was one of the first Daywalkers who gave him a chance instead of doubting him due to his disability.
If it wasn’t for him, Levi was almost certain that he would have gotten kicked out of the assembly. It was going to be extremely challenging to explain his contract with Ash’Kral, considering his condition.
"What about the Hound?" Nurah asked, her tone chilling. "Did he escape?"
Levi and the others’ expressions turned cold as well... at this moment, their hearts were filled with 30% sadness and 70% rage.
They didn’t cry, not because they didn’t feel emotional about their instructor’s passing, but because they knew that even if they helped him recover his life force, the fact still stood... his death was guaranteed the moment the Hound passed his spiritual trial.
There was no going back on such a decision.
So, they somewhat already accepted Seraphis’ eventual death some time ago... but this didn’t mean that they wouldn’t fight to find him the necessary life force to at least wake him up in case the Hound failed the trial.
Now that the Hound had succeeded, their hearts were left seething in rage.
"Unfortunately, killing the Hound isn’t a simple task... the Bishop will raise hell on your continent if we kill him out of nowhere." Dominic shook his head.
"What kind of crap is this?" Arthur narrowed his eyes coldly, "Are you telling us that he has killed our instructor, and still, we can do nothing to him?"
"Ponytail... the Bishops aren’t to be messed with." Tyrese sighed, "We have our own Bishop ruling over the Black Citadel Eternal Empire... his authority is the highest in North America, and all nightcrawlers’ nests listen to his orders even if they didn’t fall under his territory... that’s how much authority they had. If you were to poke one, they wouldn’t hesitate to make a wound of it and lash out to spread their corruption further."
"What about the Saviors? The f*ck is their job then?" Shia frowned in irritation, "I can understand trying to maintain the world’s peace... but to stand by and watch the Bishops punish us, what purpose do they serve exactly? What are they saving exactly?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
Shia’s words, as harsh as they were, did hit home in everyone’s hearts... not even Feng Ling scolded her for talking shit about them in their headquarters.
Seeing this, Dominic merely showed a forced smile... he could tell that the latest generation wasn’t too fond of the Saviors. But he could understand them.
In the past decade, the Saviors rarely made an appearance... and even if they did to defend a region, they usually lost.
Dominic knew that they were choosing the easiest option to disconnect themselves from Earth without losing too many of their members against the Conquerors.
In this manner, they could be freed to start again on a fresh planet that needed their standard ’saving’ alone... the moment too much effort was required, most of them bailed out and started fresh. Of course, this kind of treatment was reserved only for planets with bad potential.
As much as Dominic wanted to believe that this wouldn’t be the case for the Saviors responsible for their planet, day by day, year by year... that belief was slowly corroding with each fallen region.
Seeing that they were clearly upset about the whole situation, Feng Ling showed them the holographic recording of Dominic beating the living hell out of the Hound.
"Is that really him?"
Everyone watched with dazed expressions, not expecting to witness the scary Hound from Grave’Maw’s expedition being played around with like a piece of garbage by Dominic.