novelraw Chapter 592: Innate Nature
Chapter 592: Innate Nature
"Ah, let me! It's my turn, my turn!"
"Don't push!"
Right there in the pink realm on that side of the Gate of Carnal Desire, several heart-shaped tails swayed incessantly, highlighting the infatuated, scrambling groans of the succubi pushing against each other. They were so absorbed that they didn't even notice Fisher leading Jasmine and the others close to them.
They crawled and scrambled to pounce on the weakly struggling figure surrounded by them, as impatient as if they were feeding.
When Fisher arrived, he saw bird corpses scattered all over the ground, as if these dead birds had just been through a battle but failed to protect the master controlling them because they were too fragile.
"Hey, stop for a moment."
Unlike the little demons earlier who fled as soon as they sensed the aura of Fisher's Mythic Rank, right now, even though Fisher spoke directly to them, they acted as if they couldn't hear him at all. They continued to crowd around the Lord of Souls, sucking and exacting something.
Instead, it was the Lord of Souls surrounded by them who heard Fisher's voice clearly. He quickly reached his pale hand out from the cage formed by the bodies of the succubi with great difficulty, grasping repeatedly toward the direction of Fisher's voice, as if crying for help.
"Ugh! Ugh!"
Even his extended leg began to tremble convulsively as if enduring some cruel torture, which was beyond Fisher's scope of knowledge.But this didn't stop him from lending a hand. Seeing that this group of succubi completely ignored his existence, he silently raised his hand. The soul in his hand contorted continuously, as if generating a suction force like a black hole. In an instant, the mana circuits on the bodies of all the succubi before him lit up, and a feeling of extreme weakness surged in their hearts as they realized they were being attacked.
"Roar! Who is it?"
One of the purple-haired succubi situated directly above the Lord of Souls's body raised herself ferociously, turning her head to look at Fisher nearby. Dizzy and confused, she thought it was those reckless little demons, but what entered her sight was an expressionless, handsome man.
Her ferociously beast-like expression instantly turned pink and tender. Just as a smile was about to form on her face to reach out and seduce him, she finally sensed the terrifying rank of the existence before her.
"Ah, this is... you! No..."
She was so frightened that her little face turned pale, and her legs gave way as she fell to the side. But the sisters beside her ignored her entirely, moving out of the way and pushing her out of the area surrounded by succubi. Then, the other succubi who had just been waiting on the sidelines eagerly scrambled forward, wanting to take the central position where the purple-haired succubus had just been.
"Smooch... give me a little more... Fallen Self-Nature... ha..."
"So hungry... so hungry..."
"Hey! Dorian! Melanie! Stop sucking, someone else is here! Let's get out of here!"
Seeing that her sisters still hadn't snapped out of it and were about to rush forward as if nobody was watching, the purple-haired succubus who had just sobered up was so frightened that she quickly flapped her bat wings and rushed forward to grab the succubi lying on the Lord of Souls, but they roughly pushed her away.
Moreover, it seemed that this purple-haired succubus who had just finished feeding didn't have much strength left. She was easily shoved to the ground, looking at Fisher in panic, as if hesitating whether she should flee.
"This Lord... no... we..."
Fisher reached out his hand again. As the mana circuits lit up, the soul within his fingers became increasingly contorted. Then, he forcefully pulled his hand back, and all the succubi pinned on the Lord of Souls began to wail, before uncontrollably smashing to the side.
The mana circuits on their bodies turned into kindling, igniting a raging fire to provide Fisher with pure power. This caused them immeasurable pain, rolling and wailing continuously on the ground. Their skin also began to turn a bizarre cyan hue, which was the sign of their blood turning blue.
Their souls were leaving their bodies and dying.
"Ahhhhh!"
The sight of so many succubi scattering all at once, lying on the ground contorting and wailing, made Fisher's surroundings look more like hell than the Demon Dynasty itself, instantly terrifying the purple-haired succubus so much she froze in place.
But the intoxicating sensation of acquiring soul power made it difficult for Fisher to stop. It felt as if at this moment, the continuously increasing pure power offered him a shortcut to defeat Barbatos and Agreas. Just the power from these few succubi was enough to make him feel this way. If he were to increase the quantity and quality of extracted souls even further, the power Fisher would gain was simply unimaginable...
"Professor Fisher, um... why don't you stop for a moment?"
But just then, Jasmine beside him suddenly reached out and grabbed Fisher's arm. That power designated for extracting souls instinctively spread towards Jasmine. This dangerous action struck Fisher's head like a heavy bell, instantly waking him up. He quickly halted the soul extraction process.
"Buzz!"
"Not enough... the soul power to journey to the Spirit World is still not enough..."
In that instant, an explosive ringing erupted in Fisher's ears, and intermingled within was a whisper from a certain Transferred Person Fisher had met before—the Lord of Souls.
He took a deep breath, quickly turning his head to look at the startled Jasmine, and asked,
"Are you alright, Jasmine?"
Jasmine blankly stared at the Fisher before her, then shook her head and asked in worry,
"I'm fine, but are you alright, Professor Fisher?"
"...I am fine."
"I'm not fine!"
Eimhart yelled as he flew back down from the sky onto Fisher's shoulder, bumping into his cheek and saying,
"That damn power you just used completely ignored my existence, it almost swallowed me too! I thought you just couldn't notice anyone, so how come you woke up immediately when Jasmine touched you?!"
Indeed, Fisher had completely forgotten that Eimhart was still on his shoulder just now, forcing him to fly high into the sky to dodge Fisher's soul devourment.
Fisher helplessly patted his book body and apologized to him. He was indeed still a bit unskilled in using the power of Chaos, and he had long been aware of the dangers within it.
When he released Eliog previously and unleashed a lot of soul power, he had experienced this feeling of losing control. He had tried his best to control it then, not acting up until he shared intimate contact with Jasmine. He thought that after his soul power was fully replenished, he would no longer have such feelings. Now it seemed that even though his soul was replenished, his thirst for other souls remained.
This was an ailment he had contracted ever since he began reading the Soul Completion Handbook, and there was still no sign of relief today.
He shook his head and could only focus his attention on the current priority.
"Wuu wuu..."
Amidst the succubi wailing all over the ground, the Lord of Souls was lying squarely on his back, staring up into space as if having nothing left to live for. His original thick outer garments and lining had been torn open, roughly exposing his pale, corpse-like, and skeletal body.
Yet, even so, his face, neck, and chest were still covered in lip prints from being forcefully sucked on. Interspersed among them were rosy, needle-like scars, which were probably left behind when the succubi extracted his Fallen Self-Nature using their tails.
He gazed upward like a sage. In this moment, in his wretched state of torn clothes and disheveled attire, Fisher had already taken in everything.
After a very, very long time, he closed his eyes and sighed. A single clear tear slowly slid down from the corner of his eye as he said,
"...I really want to die."
These words, which sounded almost like his catchphrase, seemed exceptionally sincere at this moment. Mm, and there was also a very interesting hint of resentment in them.
This simple sentence made both Fisher and Jasmine laugh. He ignored the shivering succubi around him who finally sobered up and were scared out of their wits by his Mythic Rank aura. He walked up to the Lord of Souls and asked,
"How did you get entangled with them?"
"...I wanted to come find you all, but I didn't know your location, so I prepared to send my birds out to search for your trails. I sent some birds in both directions. As a result, the birds sent in the direction you came from didn't find you, but the ones sent in the other direction ended up attracting this group of female demons."
While adjusting his indecent clothing, the Lord of Souls listlessly explained to Fisher what he had just encountered.
Unlike Fisher, who had scrolls and connections, he knew absolutely nothing about this place. Not knowing which way was which, he could only search blindly on this side. He didn't know that the area over there was actually within the domain of the Gate of Carnal Desire, and as a result, he was attacked by succubi.
Fisher didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and at the same time, he looked at the group of shivering succubi huddling together beside him. Just as he was about to say something, the purple-haired succubus who had first been pulled out knelt on the ground and begged for mercy in a delicate voice,
"My Lord, please spare our lives, we... we didn't mean it!"
Listening to that obviously seductive voice, Jasmine glanced at their pitiful sobbing faces again. A longsword suddenly materialized in her hand, and the bright silver light instantly made the succubus who had just spoken delicately return to normal, as she completed her final sentence in a solemn, holy voice akin to a Holy Maiden.
"Didn't mean it? But this friend of mine was almost driven to suicide by you all. Could it be that you all took a fancy to his looks and wanted to take him home?"
"We..."
The purple-haired succubus swallowed a gulp of saliva, then whispered,
"We were just hungry. We haven't eaten Fallen Self-Nature in so long, so we couldn't hold back..."
"...Wait, you are all Demon Attendants, right?"
Fisher sized up this group of Demon-kin before him, who possessed clear consciousness, vastly different from those little demons, yet not as powerful as Demon Gods, and spoke up.
As introduced previously, although the name Demon-kin generally referred to the demi-human races originating from the Demon Dynasty, in reality, the true Demon-kin were only the seventy-two Demon Gods. They were powerful Mythical Species, but were currently sealed beneath the magma by the Mother Goddess.
However, beneath the Demon Gods, there were two other categories. The weakest were the little demons, lacking intellect like wild beasts. In human legends, the offspring born to Demon Gods were the little demons. But having later learned the reproductive knowledge of Mythical Species, Fisher knew that Demons couldn't procreate, so the idea that little demons were their children was purely an unfounded fabrication.
Perhaps in ancient times, those Demon Gods used little demons as substitutes to entice other races to contribute their Fallen Self-Nature, or they cursed exactly those individuals, transforming their offspring into little demons, thereby spreading this rumor.
He still remembered that when he first met Eliog, she had used this notion, asking Fisher if he wanted to make her pregnant with a little demon.
The phrase was a double entendre, but only now did Fisher roughly realize that Eliog was just teasing him at the time.
Besides little demons, a higher category consisted of the Demon Attendants. There were many types of them, with varying forms. Just like their superior Demon Gods, they hardly looked like a single species. Succubi were one of them.
But the reason Fisher brought this up was that Demon Attendants weren't like the sealed Demon Gods; they were capable of freely walking in this world. Why would they be deprived of Fallen Self-Nature for a long period?
"Ah, we... according to human classification, we are indeed Demon Attendants. More precisely, we were all once Familiars under Lord Cidi and Lord Sallos, but that was a very, very long time ago. My name is... Mitra, I am Lord Cidi's Familiar."
"No, what I mean is, since you guys aren't sealed, why haven't you been able to extract Fallen Self-Nature for so long?"
Upon hearing this, the expressions of Mitra and the sisters kneeling and shivering beside her became even more indescribable. This instead piqued Fisher's interest, prompting him to raise his hand and ask again,
"Not talking?"
"I'll speak! We'll speak!"
Seeing him raise his hand again, Mitra—terrified that he would use the previous method to extract their souls—immediately raised her hands to beg for mercy, explaining to Fisher with some hesitation,
"Actually... we had also gone out before, but later we were chased back and forbidden from going out again..."
"Chased back? Who chased you back, and why?"
Mitra cautiously shot a glance at Fisher. Seeing that he had a human appearance, she couldn't help but say,
"My Lord, you should know that we demons—whether it's the Lord Demon Gods, the Familiars, or the little demons—all live off Fallen Self-Nature. But to us, Fallen Self-Nature isn't quite like food; it's more akin to an irrepressible... Innate Nature.
"We won't die if we don't extract Fallen Self-Nature for a long time, but it will bring us unimaginable pain that no other race can comprehend. It's like not breathing but living on in the agony of suffocation; like not drinking water but living on in extreme thirst... And this imagination grows more pronounced the stronger your strength and the older your age.
"As Familiars of the Gate of Carnal Desire, we are inherently passionate about lust and this matter, and we must obtain 'food' from this alone, no other method can suffice. And I, as well as the sisters beside me, are Familiars who have lived for a millennium, considered quite senior, and thus the Innate Nature within us becomes increasingly harder to suppress...
"Therefore, unlike those younger Familiars who can endure it, we accidentally lost control and overdid it in the human cities. As a result, the Lord chased us back and forbade us from going out again. Up until today, it has been a full three years..."
She cautiously glanced at Fisher again. Not knowing what exactly came to mind, she said with some indignation,
"Those Lord Demon Gods rely on their immense power to do whatever they want in order to deeply satisfy their Innate Nature to the maximum extent. But what about us weaklings? Not only do we have to obey their commands, we even have to exercise restraint when satisfying our own Innate Nature, all while worrying about exposing ourselves completely to humans and ruining the Lord Demon Gods' plans...
"Hah... staying in this sunless, desolate place void of people for three long years, day and night we suffer from the torture of our Innate Nature... some of our brothers and sisters have even died of madness because of this. We... we just wanted a man, even if just a little... giving us a little would be enough..."
As she spoke, perhaps thinking of something in her mind, her face began to flush again. It seemed that ever since Fisher arrived, the already unappetizing Lord of Souls, who had been squeezed completely dry, had lost all appeal. Moreover, he wasn't nearly as handsome as the powerful Lord before her.
Mitra, kneeling on the ground, unconsciously touched downwards with her right hand. That unsatisfied and hungry demeanor showed that they were suffering terribly from their Innate Nature. Their prior demands on the Lord of Souls were merely drinking poison to quench thirst, completely incapable of satisfying them...
The Lord of Souls was just a half-dead living corpse. His obsession with death had basically overpowered all other desires. What's more, he originally had a beloved who had long since passed away, and he wasn't someone to forget his affections and forsake his duties, naturally making it impossible to squeeze out an adequate amount of Fallen Self-Nature from him.
However, this Lord of the Mythic Rank... oh my, if only she could taste the flavor of the Fallen Self-Nature upon him, then it truly would be worth dying for...
But just as Mitra was thinking of this, a verdant mark suddenly barged into her disappointed sigh-filled gaze, engraved directly upon the chest of the man before her.
That intense Demon God aura, that extremely conspicuous crown symbol...
That is...
"Lord Baimon! You are Lord Baimon's Favored One?!"
Mitra's face turned pale. She panicked tens of thousands of times more than when she initially saw Fisher, as if merely mentioning that name would completely obliterate her soul in frightful terror.
Under the astonished gazes of Fisher and his group, they abruptly found that the succubus before them suddenly became incontinent, being so frightened that she couldn't even maintain her true humanoid form, while the flame on her tail grew increasingly faint...
"Lord Baimon... we didn't mean to... please don't test and torture us anymore..."
"When we were in Naris, we really couldn't hold it back... that's why... we didn't intentionally ruin your matters... please spare us..."
Fisher furrowed his brow, watching Mitra violently smashing her head onto the ground to kowtow towards him, seemingly begging him for mercy, or rather, begging for mercy from the existence she spoke of.
But his thoughts were completely gripped by the information within Mitra's words. He furrowed his brows and quickly asked,
"Baimon... wait, what did you say? Where were you sent by Baimon previously?"