“Give me the soul strength you took from him you stingy Dragon King. You didn’t attack or defend against anything, so I know you have that power stored somewhere.”
Hearing Dyon’s order, the Dragon King could only oblige. In an instant, Dyon’s soul began to slowly replenish itself. Although a damaged soul couldn’t save a damaged soul, Dyon had something Zabia Jafari hadn’t had. The ultimate soul replenishing technique: Devour!
The rate of Dyon’s soul dissipation drastically decreased. Loki’s soul simply wasn’t powerful enough to fully replenish Dyon. And, even if it was, Dyon didn’t know if that would be enough to stop the dissipation without his grand teacher’s technique. But, it was enough for him to hold on for now.
“You’ve hidden your soul strength even from me all this time. You must have quite a treasure on you.” Dyon said nonchalantly, brandishing his sword.
Dyon ran a deep cut along Loki’s thigh, twisting his way through without remorse.
Loki’s screams began to fill the inner world. Although he had expected this as soon as Dyon filled the tables on him, the idea of the torture being inflicted on him was enough to drive him insane.
Even in venting his frustrations, Dyon was incredibly clear headed. He was fully aware that if he wasted too much time, Loki would recover and he wouldn’t stand a chance. But, how could Loki do such a thing if Dyon slowly tore his soul to shred with every stab of his sword?
Dyon’s eyes were deadpan, flickering slowly with a dense black flame. He calmly sliced apart Loki’s thighs, separating the muscle as though he was a surgeon before slowly gliding the sharpness of his blade into his bone and twisting.
The strain on Loki’s soul coupled with the excruciating torture caused his screams to reach higher levels.
Dyon suddenly chuckled, “Do you think I can’t tell the noises you’re making are part of an illusion? It’s a shame that you don’t have enough power remaining to do anything else.”
Those words cut through Loki’s screams, silencing them in an instant. For the first time, Loki’s eyes truly widened in terror.
From the very start of Dyon’s torture, Loki had done the best he could to fake as though he was helpless. Only this way would Dyon lower his guard and allow him to recover. Since Dyon had already taken away the very thing weakening him, survival was still possible.
However, Dyon’s music will was much too sensitive for such a thing to work on him. He had long since mastered it as an intent. How could he be fooled by fake sounds?
The problem was that Loki didn’t know that this was why Dyon had seen through him. To him, Dyon had become like some sort of flawless God. A person capable of planning so many steps ahead that even Loki the trickster was fooled.
Maybe if he wasn’t so fatigued he would have tried a different kind of illusion. Maybe he would have thought of the truth… But unfortunately, Dyon had stomped on his hope and tore it apart without remorse. Quite simply put, the moment Loki revealed what he truly was, he had lost.
The truth was that Dyon hardly had the strength to stand up, let alone try and use his 6th sense to see through Loki’s illusions. His only shot at healing his body would be to use The Tree of Life and Death to absorb the remaining power in Elder Daiyu’s corpse, but that would completely deplete his soul. He wasn’t sure if that was something he could afford.
However, he had to make this man pay. For all the pain he caused. For all the tears shed because of him. For all the lives lost at his whim. He had to pay.
Suddenly, Loki started laughing.
By this point, he barely looked human. He was nothing but a bloodied mess. However, after Dyon exposed his illusion, he hadn’t spoken a single word.
His bones were shattered. His muscles torn. His face scarred beyond repair. And yet not a single time did he utter a word. After all the torture he had endured with the Ragnor family, until the day he finally awakened his faith seed, what did this little bit mean to him?
“Go on, kill me then.”
Surprisingly, Dyon chuckled as well, “I’ve long since noticed that slicing your skin and breaking your bones has been too easy. Since when was the body of a peak saint capable of being hurt this severely by a man who can hardly lift a finger?”
Loki remained silent. By this point, he was much too used to Dyon seeing through him.
Although Loki’s body wasn’t nearly as powerful, the situations were still comparable considering the difference in strength between Dyon then and now.
Even at his peak most strength, it had taken everything out of Dyon to even injure Elder Daiyu, and that was when he unlocked 5 seals on the Dragon King weapon!
Yet now, Dyon was disheveled and couldn’t muster up any strength. Nor could he handle even a single seal being broken. At the moment, the Dragon King’s sword was nothing more than a common level weapon in his hand.
The answer was clear. Loki had diverted his remaining power to protect his most important organs while trying to stall for time.
He would allow Dyon to enjoy himself now. But as soon as he accumulated enough saint energy to form a drop in his meridians, this farce would be over.
There was nothing Dyon could do. His soul was tapped out. He could hardly lift his arms. Even his vision was steadily blurring.
He could feel that the bit of soul he had protected with Loki’s was starting to fade away again, and there was no stopping it this time… There was no one to devour, no one to stop it… No one to help…
“I only need ten more minutes.” Loki said, a sinister glare in his eyes. “In ten more minutes, I’ll make sure your soul never comes back!”