Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 661: Lawful Duel

Just as I was observing my status window, Silverʼs roar of fury shattered the silence. His powerful legs coiled, and in an instant, he lunged toward me.

Multiple figures moved at once.

In a single moment, three beastkin and two humans held him down, their combined strength pinning him to the ground easily.

The first was Vargis, the grizzled dogkin warlord, and my father-in-law.

The second was Rajah, the regal tigerkin chieftain.

Third, Skarn, the imposing wolfkin leader was the one to hold him down, and as he was sitting right on Silverʼs back, I could only assume he was the first one to reach the foxkin. I had to assume, for my eyes only saw a blur. This all happened in a fraction of a second.

Lastly, Vex and Raika acted in time as well, letting me know my allies were truly capable. They werenʼt quite as fast as Skarn, but the fact they matched up with the strongest tigerkin in speed was a tremendous feat.

”How dare you?!” Silver spat. His voice was raw, shaking with grief and fury. ”He killed my son!”

Gasps and murmurs spread among the crowd, this was monumental news. Some beastkin watched in muted silence, unable to believe this truly happened. On the other hand, some were waiting with eager eyes to see how this situation would unfold. None were more grim than the foxkin entourage, who were not only one prince less, but also surrounded by the subordinates of the other leaders. They were all eagerly waiting, daring them to make a move.

A deep rumble resonated when the bearkin leader, Gorruk spoke up.

”Within the lands of the Beastman Confederation, all duels—unless explicitly stated otherwise—shall continue until a decisive victor is determined. Victory may be claimed through the opponentʼs surrender, incapacitation, or death, with no distinction between the means.”

”I told you to make sure the match wasnʼt until death, but you didnʼt listen due to your arrogance!” Vargis hissed, before adding, ”At least your youngest was spared…”

Silverʼs body trembled as a great deal of emotions moved through his heart. But then, understanding he wouldnʼt be killing me, at least not here and not now, he merely lifted his head to glare into my eyes with pure hatred.

I returned the glare, entering a staredown contest with him. I did not care one bit about his feelings. This scheming scumbag tried to take my woman away from me and paid the price for it. His own laws had sealed his sonʼs fate. I simply played by the rules. It wasnʼt like Veyrin tried to defeat me while keeping me alive. He was even surprised I survived his foxfire latching onto me. He had no qualms about killing me in our duel.

That being said, my actions werenʼt only about payback for his audacity.

I deemed my personal XP bar and my quest to unlock necromancy more important than my relationship with a man like him. I could never trust Silver to be a proper ally, for he was too cunning and greedy for me to do so. The other beastkin leaders seemed to be a lot more straightforward and honorable, marking them as much better alliance candidates.

”Amazing! You protected me from the big bad fox!” Kitsara purred after jumping into my arms right from the stands. This whole ordeal was about her, after all. Though, truth be told, it was just a farce the two of us cooked up.

We knew Silver thought Kitsara to be a very sexy woman, so I and my mischievous lover thought I could earn the recognition of the beastkin leadership while she would get revenge for the horrible way Silver treated her beforehand when she was in her normal foxkin form.

Knowing this old fox would get greedy if Kitsara revealed her Nine-Tailed Sorceress class to him, making her the perfect wife candidate for the leader of the foxkin people, as it was a mark of a proper leader of the foxkin people to have a woman with the illustrious racial class. Furthermore, if she displayed public affection for me, to a human Silver thought to be a mere nobody, he would be outraged and get baited into the current situation.

The game was rigged from the start.

”Will you behave or should we send you home?” Rajah growled.

I didnʼt know if ʼsending him homeʼ should be taken literally or as in a casket alongside his sonʼs desecrated corpse, but I was fine with either option.

”… Iʼm calm now,” Silver spat, never removing his eyes from me. ”What have you done to my son after landing the finishing blow?”

I prepared an answer to this question, knowing it would come up. I was right to do so because all five people restraining him proceeded to observe me and my blade with keen eyes. Not even Vex was privy to its details.

The Soul Reaperʼs aura suddenly deepened on my command, turning darker, more potent. A spectral haze coiled around the blade as remnant traces of energy clung to its edge, they were the effects of the tasty meal my blade had just consumed. I commanded it not to display these effects until this moment.

I tilted my saber, allowing the onlookers to glimpse at the visual effects. Even from the distance of the audience, those with sharp senses would recognize the shift—an increase in presence, in weight, as though the weapon itself had feasted on something.

Silverʼs glare darkened alongside the bladeʼs shine. His sharp gaze jumped between me and the saber, trying to detect something beyond mortal perception.

After getting bored of my silence where I just displayed the blade, he hissed, ”Is this meant to be an answer to my question?! What have you done to my son, bastard?!” he had an even more venomous tone than before.

”This blade grows stronger when I defeat foes more powerful than myself. By slaying your son, Prince Veyrin, I claimed the reward that came with achieving such a feat of power.” 𝔯ãNộʙÊṤ

I tapped a finger against the bladeʼs surface, letting the spectral mist swirl around my hand. ”This is the result. A natural phenomenon tied to my abilities.”

Some looked at the saber with fascination, others with thinly veiled apprehension. It was a truly ominous-looking blade right now, with the princeʼs blood dripping from its edge while it was visibly in the middle of consuming its meal.

”The spell I cast was only to collect said effects. It holds no meaning beyond that. Without activation, it does nothing.” I paused, letting my gaze travel to Veyrinʼs bodiless head. ”His death is his own. His fate remains unchanged.”

This was the lie I crafted.

After all, these people—mortals—had no true concept of the soul.

They believed in the afterlife, in the divine embrace of their Goddess. In their minds, their existence would transcend to the next world, with their spirit soaring into the heavens.

But they did not understand the nature of the soul.

To them, it was simply… who they were. Their essence. Their being.

Not a force that could be manipulated, harnessed, or taken. None here dared believe such an outlandish idea that I could mess with their ascension to heaven.

Surely, the Goddess wouldnʼt allow such blasphemy to exist in Thalorind, no?

What these people didnʼt know but I did was that she had very limited ability to interfere in the workings of Thalorind. Iʼm sure she didnʼt like what I was doing with her worldʼs souls, but she had very limited ways to deal with me.

Furthermore, I was the beloved son of two primordials, whom she thought of as her dearest family. She had a very deep familiar relationship with the primordials, she often visited them in their dimension as well, where they talked amongst themselves, and I also had an inkling my mothers and her were gossiping behind my back ever since my adoption by the pair of alleged (by Malakar) psycho mommies, but both Miri and Lumi declined any such possibility.

All that is to say…

The Goddess was basically my auntie.

Damn, now that I put it like this, it kinda shows me in a bad shade, as if I were a horrible scumbag.

Anyhow, as that could only be a huge misunderstanding, it was time to move on.

Silverʼs teeth ground together as he instinctively growled at me. Whether he believed me or not didnʼt matter in the slightest. He had no grounds to call me a liar, for he knew nothing of souls. My explanation of my sword more or less having its own XP and leveling process was much more believable than my damning his sonʼs soul to my eternal service, storing his essence in my swordʼs soul storage.

I watched his expression for a while, observing the battle of emotions warring in his eyes.

Good.