HP: The Arcane Thief

Chapter 254: Soul Bind

"HE DID IT!"

"WE'RE SAVED!!!"

"THE KING NEVER DISAPPOINTS!"

Exclamations of disbelief and unexpected happiness began to be heard from all around the city.

Everywhere in the sky, the Atlantians began firing up magic in celebration, as Axel finally won the fight.

"Really?" But, at this moment, a voice echoed throughout the battlefield.

Energy gathered around before forming into the shape of a grotesque humanoid figure with tentacles.

"What in the Japanese hentai…?"

Axel was half in denial, half questioning the reality.

Usually, if your physical body is destroyed, you're done.

Even in his case, he can dramatically increase his physical defense by activating [Water Body], but if anything like THAT happened to his body, when the [Water Body] is not activated, he's dead.

Then, how did this grandmother fucker manage to survive?

"Do you seriously have so little knowledge of Souls?" Asked the First as his body reformed around his soul avatar.

"Even those in the mundane world know that the secret to longevity is strengthening of the soul. And we practically HAVE a bloodline for it.

"So, would it not be a complete INSULT to our Bloodline when an awakened Arhunt dies so easily?" Asked the First, now looking the same as before.

"F…" Axel cursed. After preparing thoroughly for the examination, in the last moment he discovered that he had only studies for half the portion. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The First didn't let Axel the opportunity to gather himself. He launched himself at Axel once again. And this time, he was significantly stronger.

BAAM

"What?!" Thought Axel in shock as he actually got hit by one of the tentacles, being launched into the ground.

"Also, you might already know, but it is no longer just me that you are fighting, but also the Entity that made the whole Aetherworld landed on its knees.

And one of its main abilities is "Constant Evolution". It experiences, it learns, it evolves. You might be a better warrior than me. But the Entity is constantly experiencing your techniques, learning from them, and evolving accordingly."

'Great... As if it was not bad enough.'

Axel had hoped that all the first had gotten after fusing with the Entity was the huge amount of power that is higher than all overseers combined, along with bearing the burden for that power.

But apparently, that was not the case. He's also going to get stronger the more he fights.

The First clashed with Axel again, this time Axel having to use skills he hadn't used the last time in order to not get hit by those destructive tentacles. Getting an opportunity, he once again used the [Magic Hands] to rip through the tentacles, but—

'Shit!'

His hand failed to pierce through this time.

"Did I not tell you? The Entity evolves constantly. You can no longer use the same trick on it."

"And did I not tell you? You still stink of the garbage I threw at you!" Said Axel as he took distance while putting his mind to work once again.

Axel was now in some deep shit. He had limited time with in which he could wield this power, and he had no way of killing the First.

All he knows, is that soul is also just a form of energy. It might have survived a physical attack. But, when attacked with enough energy, it should be destroyed.

'Then, let's get enough energy,' thought Axel.

During their fight, the space around them had expanded to the point that the only way the Soldiers were able to see the fight was through sight enhancers and high-ranged recorders. All that space was now filled with water.

Now, all that water began to gather.

But in the meantime, the first had already come at him, the tentacles powered with destructive energy extending out.

Fine invisible mana threads were generated at Axel's fingertips as he boosted off the meet the First mid-way. A shockwave was released, throwing Axel back. But he teleported, attacking the First from the rear. He was blown away again, but re-appeared at the side, once again extending out the blades.

"It's useless no matter how much you attack," said the First leisurely, not even bothering to fight himself anymore as he let the Entity's tentacles deal with Axel.

"Even if you have so much power, there's no way you can defeat the Entity. And the moment you get tired of bearing the load of that power, will be the moment this fight ends."

But Axel did not stop. His speed increased to the point that he was began to appear at multiple places at once. But the Entity still didn't have any problems deflecting it all, having numerous tentacles in all directions.

"Have you gotten worse at fighting?" The First couldn't understand what Axel was playing at. He was now not even trying to seriously attack the First, only letting his Trident's blades move around and clash with the Tentacles. And right after, he was teleporting away and attacking from a different direction.

This was not achieving any real results and only making him more prone to the Tentacles' attacks, increasing his injuries.

Axel finally stopped, having used teleportation for at least a few thousand times in just the span of a few seconds. He appeared some distance away, disoriented due to the rapid movements.

"Tired? I fail to understand what you were trying to accomplish there," asked the First, not at all fazed.

"Well, then I'm glad you're not Scitius," said Axel, clenching his fists. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of threads lit up as they tightened around the First from all directions.

"What in the cursed souls…?" The First tried burning the thread with Destructive energy but the fine mana threads now became thick, densely packed and reinforced with the massive amount of magic that Axel had gotten from the people of Atlantis.

"That... is what I've been trying to accomplish."

Knowing that he didn't have much time, Axel moved on to the next phase. He spread his arms, and a huge amount of magic lines started to arrive from all over the city, making up for a crazy amount.

His mana level soared, creating a thick aura around him that reached up high into the sky.

And then, all the water that was in the area started to move up, surrounding the First.

Axel's muscles bulged as veins popped up all over his body.

"You better not survive this one," he said, bringing his hands together. Still bound by the threads, the First was immediately drowned in water from all sides.

The First tried to escape, but realized that the threads were actually woven through the very space around him, all 360°, and the more he pulled, the more the space compressed, trapping him further.

Axel pressed his hands tighter, compressing the water. With the First still trapped inside, the huge amount of water kept being compressed more and more until it reached its limits.

Now, in order to break those limits, Axel pointed his palms towards the compressed water sphere.

BOOOM

On his direction, the astronomical amount of pure magical power that was revolving around him was poured rapidly the water sphere.

Axel used this huge amount of external energy to forcefully compress the water sphere more than its capacity.

!!!!

A chaotic energy began to be generated inside the water sphere as thing law of nature was forcefully twisted, causing a backlash.

But Axel wasn't done yet.

[Elemental Combination]

Multiple forms of energies began forming in the water sphere, making it even more chaotic.

Light, Dark, Wind, Fire, Ground, Lightning, and water all were there.

To combine all these elements is an extremely difficult feat that can lead to dangerous consequences, if done wrongly.

But, Axel only looking for the wrong consequences, since he was aiming to blow that sphere up. And the more unstable it is, the better.

Yes, Axel was re-creating the same explosion that Aslot had created in order to kill him. Only, while Aslot had only used a small amount of water, Axel, on the other hand, was using an entire sea of water, along with all the elements.

So, the amount of destruction is also going to be a million times the previous explosion.

When the First realized the sheer depths of the shit he was in, he pulled down all stops, releasing a massive amount of destructive energy, but that energy only helped Axel further speed up the process of destabilization.

From this point on, the amount of burden it was putting on Axel to hold it together and push it further was unbearable.

He was using the mana to strengthen his mind and soul but even that had a limit, thus giving him an incredible amount of fatigue.

Soon, the huge sphere, which previously contained more volume of water than the volume of 10 giant statues combined, had shrunk to the point that it was only a few tens of meters long.

It began to glow with a perilous dark energy that was getting more and more unstable.

The bomb was now ready to go off. The only problem now was the fact that once it goes off, there's chance that the Kingdom would be destroyed along with it.

Axel can't even teleport it out of the Kingdom since the First is the bound through the space here. And also, the slightest bit of instability will lead to the bomb being set off prematurely.

So, when the energy finally reached the verge of explosion, Axel mass teleported everyone on the battlefield further back into the kingdom, on the last defense line, and erected a new barrier.

And then, while making sure not to disturb the sphere the slightest bit, he expanded the space all around the sphere to the point that the empty area around it was bigger than the size of the rest of the Kingdom.

By now, the sphere had shrunk further. And the energy about to be released was causing the whole Kingdom to quake.

"If you don't die from this, then I'm officially giving up," Said Axel, releasing the explosion.

— — — — —!!!!!!— — — — — —

Light spread everywhere, before it intensified to the point that it hurt even with eyes closed.

The Anti-explosion Wards were re-activated and Barriers appeared all around the area, trying to contain the Explosion, but they were extirpated as soon as the released energy reached them.

Axel appeared along the last line of defense and erected a 100 meter thick barrier that extended from ground to the sky, spreading out throughout the defense line.

He put every bit of energy he could into the barrier, bracing for the impact.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the blast arrived, the whole city shook, as if having a massive earthquake.

The first few layers of the barrier were directly eradicated. But what was more dangerous was the scintillating momentum which push the barrier back hundreds of meters.

'No!' At this rate, the barrier itself would crush the Atlantian forces, and then the city.

Mana burst out from every part of the of the shield giving it the opposite force in order to stop it from being push.

Cracks started to appear in it as Axel desperately tried to hold it together.

Axel yelled out as he pumped more mana, his water body disappearing and flesh started to melt off due to the exertion.

It took more mana to contain the explosion than it took in creating that chain reaction. From that it could be seen just how damaging it was.

When it was over, Axel fell to the ground. Everyone else also suddenly felt exhausted, having given a bit too much of their magic to Axel.

When the light finally faded, they found that everything beyond the barrier had disappeared. The ground, the remains of the giant statue, the defenses, the great wall, even the portal...

Nothing existed between the position of the barrier, all over to the circular boundary that marked the end of Atlantis. Even the space was broken into numerous fragments, glitching as it tried to reform.

Everyone looked at the scene in abject fear, their bodies frozen in shock.

Axel fell to the ground, his body contracting due to the exhaustion. "That… was peak," he panted.

That explosion could have easily vaporized Theron's coral armor. He would even go as far as saying it could have destroyed the whole earth.

The unstability he had created through forcefully combining all elements in chaotic order and then compressing them to the breaking point was a lot more powerful than he had expected.

The only reason the explosion was contained was due to the anti-explosion wards of Atlantis.

It's safe to say that that was the most offensive he could have ever used, going above and beyond what he considered 'enough' to wipe out the soul of the First. It should even be enough to wipe his soul multiple times over.

The barrier finally disappeared completely as Axel looked up at the sky.

"It's… over," he breathed, his eyes closing up.

But suddenly, his whole body went rigid as he was bound with strong tentacles.

The breath escaped his lungs as the tentacles tightened, spreading destructive energy throughout his body.

""""Did you think you won?""""

A voice whispered in his ears that chilled him to his very soul.

The predominant emotions running through Axel's mind were that of confusion and disbelief.

This... just doesn't make sense. There are some things and laws that are not meant to be opposed. Otherwise, things just don't make sense anymore.

But, he wasn't given the chance to gather his composure as he was rapidly dragged back into the explosion area and suspended in mid-air.

In front of him, the soul of the first appeared as just a small ball, from which the tentacles were extending out.

But, the soul regrew rapidly, until it regained its original form.

The First sighed. "You know, you did kill me. Believe me, I never thought you could, but you did."

"The problem is, the third trait I've achieved through fusion with the Entity… is immortality."

'Third Trait too? Fuck this shit!' Axel was utterly steamed as he understood the implications.

The First has fused his soul with the Entity, which gives him its traits as well. The first is, of course, immense power and the capacity to wield it. The Second is the Entity's tentacles, that constantly learn and evolve. And finally, the third… is true immortality.

'He had immortality all along?!' Axel couldn't understand how he was supposed to win when his opponent was fucking immortal.

This... This is just...

"Unreasonable, right? But you have to understand, son. This is not a fairy tale in which the good side wins by combining the power of love and friendship. It is not only me you're fighting, but also the most unreasonable existence throughout the long history of Aetherworld."

"What you did was definitely enough to kill me, no matter how strong my soul is. But… even more powerful means than that have been tried on the Entity by the most powerful Aetherians. And yet, they all failed."

[Water Body]

Axel tried to escape by activating the water body, but at that time, a Soul energy was released through the Tentacles, and unlike before, this time, it directly targeted his soul.

"Soul Freeze."

?!

Axel was surprised, the thick mana coating he had around his body being completely unable tp prevent the Soul attack as he found himself unable to move.

"Did you think I can only use my Soul Energy for destruction? I haven't even used the True Soul Magic skills yet."

?!

Axel's eyes slowly widened.

"Fucker… you baited me."

Axel realized that he had gotten played. First, he was led to believe that his fucker's body was mortal, from the way he was trying to protect it.

And then he led him to believe he would only die when his soul is destroyed. When, in reality, the fucker is immortal this whole time.

Finally, he can also use soul energy to by-pass his defences, which would have made Axel run long ago had he known before.

The First extended his hand, gripping Axel. "Of course, I had to give you hope so that you could spend all your energy."

"You see, the soul binding only works when the subject is either willing, or completely incapable of resisting. And with your mental power, your Arhunt Bloodline, and the stupid stubbornness, I knew it was going to be impossible to make it work on you as long as you even had a tiny bit of energy left."

'Soul Binding?!' Axel gritted his teeth, understanding everything.

Soul Binding is what the Entity does to the people of Kraken. It makes them completely loyal to the Entity, making them think for the Entity while still retaining their original personality. The thing with it is, Axel has been able to resist it so far because his mind and Soul are really strong.

"So… that's what you wanted when you asked me to join you, didn't you?" Asked Axel, not at all surprised. The First has been trying to get him to join his side from the start, talking about helping him take over all three worlds. But it seems that the condition for that is to have him completely under the Entity's control.

"Of course. The Arhunt Bloodline, and the Royal Bloodline, with all affinities. This will make it so much easier to face those monsters from other worlds. That's why I didn't kill you on sight, and instead focused on generating the right opportunity."

"And now that everything is perfectly set up, without further ado.... let's start, shall we?"

[SOUL BIND]

….

A.N.: Vote with Powerstones and take me top 3 and I'll post another chapter instantly

In case you want to read 20+ chapters /Snollygoster