novelThe Price of Borrowed Power
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Demon bloodlines had always been a double-edged sword.
In the mortal plane, there wasn't a single job class that would have faster growth than demon warlock. Demon warlocks simply needed to relax their control over their own bloodline and borrow power from their own demon ancestor or a powerful demon in the Chaos Abyss. The demon warlock would then be able to grow at a speed like a story's protagonist.
Reach Gold rank in one year, Legend in two years, and Saint rank in 10 years. Other job classes wouldn't even possibly be able to dream of this... but if that demon warlock really progressed like this, then he would no longer be "himself".
Demons weren't exactly the type to be kind and generous to others. In fact, it was rather the opposite. They were far more wicked than even the most black-hearted of people who handed out illegal high-interest loans. Demons would also demand immediate repayment for their services.
"There are no free lunches in this world. If you think that there's an exception, that's because you've already paid everything without realizing it."
That was probably the best assessment of the relationship between demons and ordinary humans. In a way, this was also a correct assessment of the relationship between Gods and ordinary humans.
As long as you proved that you were a worthy investment, a demon/God would give you plenty of power, just like how a loan company would start out by greeting you with a friendly smile and hand you as much money as possible as if they had too much money on hand.
What made Gods and demons worse than loan companies was that they wanted everything you had rather than just your money. No matter if it was in the upper planes or the Chaos Abyss, the best currency was forever the souls of ordinary people.
For high-level Gods and demons, their divine power or demonic power was a part of themselves. If you tried to obtain their power, you would be opening the door to your own soul, and inviting them to come in.
If you really did casually use their strength as you pleased, then you would become connected to the God or demon. You might feel that you were controlling this power, but you were actually already corroded by power, and would become a part of it... Puppets, God Envoys, fanatical believers, dark cultists, chosen by the Gods, demonic descendant awakeners, and so on were possible outcomes for your final ending, depending on the demon or God's personal preferences. However, there was no actual foundational difference between these different statuses.
Karwenz had been targeting Reyne since the very beginning... no, perhaps I should say that Reyne's very birth was something that Karwenz had prepared.
Their identical Soul Imprints were the best explanation for everything. A Soul Imprint would be the crystallization of a person's talents and personal path. There were no examples in history of two people having identical Soul Imprints without another's guidance. When considering Reyne's talent and power level that I didn't need to talk about, her awakening such a super cheat Soul Imprint (with the power to become stronger as long as you believed yourself to be strong) seemed like nothing more than a joke.
"Karwenz created Reyne through his bloodline to use as a physical body substitute in the mortal plane."
This was my guess at Reyne's true identity. Back in earlier generations where powerful demons and Gods were unable to act in the mortal plane so easily, it was incredibly common to see them using their own descendants as a temporary physical body through taking it over or with God's Descent.
Of course, such physical bodies also had other uses, such as being a body to reincarnate in if the God or demon died. There was even a certain Chaos Evil God who intentionally left goblin, dragon, giant, insectman, centaur, deermen, and other descendants from several hundred different species. He had all his descendants slaughter each other to determine who was the strongest, and the final victor became his vessel for revival. He actually increased in power level after reviving instead of having it decrease, so it could only be said that he had such heavy and varied tastes... ahem, that he was quite intelligent and well-prepared.
It was quite common to spread many seeds to find the best possible host for future revival. The shameless powerful existences would often keep breaking new records in how many children they had in the mortal plane.
However, it was quite evident that Karwenz highly valued Reyne's physical body. She definitely wasn't a seed that he had casually sown.
The fact that they had an identical appearance was just one aspect of it. Maybe outsiders would see this as a coincidence, but my inference was that her similarity to Karwenz had already reached the level of being the same in DNA and their very cells. Karwenz had perfectly replicated his own physical body, and spent a great deal of effort on modifying Reyne's soul in order to have the most perfect backup physical body possible. That was the most likely explanation for how they had identical Soul Imprints.
At my and Karwenz's power level, Soul Imprints were no longer that important on the battlefield. However, Soul Imprints were the starting point for the path after Legend rank and the foundation for future development. It would be the stepping stone for creating one's future platform.
For an ordinary God's Descent, it was fine to just use a random physical body. Although it would be better to have higher synchronicity, there was no such thing as requiring an identical Soul Imprint, for that would be almost impossible.
It could be said that Reyne was Karwenz's clone. Of course, when considering how much effort Karwenz had spent on her birth, it wouldn't even be wrong to call Reyne Karwenz's actual daughter.
Reyne was important, abnormally important to Karwenz, to quite an unusual extent... But, to the Mist Kingdom, Reyne was also highly important. I couldn't possibly just kill her and end things just because of a possibility that I might one day become enemies with Karwenz.
Fine, I admit that I was likely unable to do such a thing to her.
This wouldn't be a dead end. It wasn't guaranteed that a God or demon's descendant would definitely be controlled by their ancestor. Many powerful demons and Gods had previously started out as a demon or God's descendant themselves. As long as the descendant did their best to become their own person and break free from their ancestor's temptations, they could obtain a "true name" and become truly independent. This meant it was possible to become independent and break free from the ancestor's control.
I wasn't sure about the Gods, but in the Chaos Abyss where the law of the jungle reigned supreme, someone weaker overcoming a stronger individual was considered a virtue that would be greatly renowned.
I had tried to teach Reyne and guide her into searching for her own path without relying on the power of Chaos in her bloodline. That seemingly free lunch would actually end up being extravagantly expensive.
Karwenz had possessed Reyne multiple times before. Although he did many ridiculous things, when looking at the big picture, he seemed like a perfect "grandpa spirit" who helped Reyne through all her hardships, and even once helped Reyne to save the Mist Kingdom. It would likely be highly difficult to erase her grateful feelings from saving her life and country.
It was likely that more than anything else, my relationship with Karwenz had caused Reyne to relax her guard. Perhaps in her heart, she didn't view my younger brother Karwenz as a terrible villain that she needed to be absolutely vigilant against, especially after he possessed her in order to save the Mist Kingdom, was so humorous, and also really "wise".
It would be quite fatal to have such a friendly attitude towards Karwenz. Reyne was busy with politics and all sorts of national affairs, so she didn't have much time left for cultivation practice so that her power level wouldn't decrease, which meant that she kept relying on her bloodline power as a cheat to help her swiftly become more powerful... It was impossible for me to believe that Reyne could reject the temptation of her bloodline, especially since her personal talent was incredibly terrible. All of her previous foundation had all been created for her by the power of Chaos.
More than 50% of the legends about Reyne being the "Princess Knight" could actually be credited to her personal "grandpa spirit". It could be said that Princess Knight Reyne wouldn't have ever existed without Karwenz.
One would become accustomed to relying on something. Trust would be buried deep in the heart, and become something akin to instinct.
"It was fine when I used it before. Why would anything happen to me in the future?"
Once such an attitude formed, it would be incredibly difficult to persuade the person no matter how much an outsider tried to explain. Things were even more difficult because Reyne was filled with trust for Karwenz.
In the end, I half forcefully changed out the blood in Reyne's body, which also caused the unfortunate Glina to suffer along as well when Glina shouldn't have required such a thing. She had been fighting against her own Chaos bloodline since young, and had an iron will to guard herself that made me feel quite reassured. Her willingness to work hard and outstanding talent also helped her to grow at an incredibly swift rate. Stealing the strength of her own bloodline to complete herself was also a shortcut.
Changing out Reyne's blood didn't mean that it would be the end. It would only serve to slightly distance the connection between her and Karwenz. It was like installing an iron door in the middle of Karwenz and Reyne's connection.
However, if the homeowner was unable to resist temptation and opened the door of her own volition to allow the burglar to enter, then no matter how sturdy the iron door was, it would become completely meaningless.
Reyne was a Chaos Knight who was already in a powerful job class that required the power of Chaos (similar to a demon warlock). Unless she abandoned all her power and started over from the very beginning, it would be absolutely necessary for her to remain connected to the Chaos Abyss.
Did Reyne end up borrowing power from Karwenz? How much power had she borrowed? Had she accidentally sold all of herself? I didn't know, and it was quite difficult for me to interfere. However, I had felt that things were quite bad with how swiftly Reyne's power level kept increasing, which was why I had made some extra "preparations".
When "Reyne" woke up from a fatiguing deep sleep, someone blocked her way before she could get accustomed to the changes in her physical body. This person had a familiar face and an even more familiar yet strange dual voice.
"Ha, isn't this my foolish little brother/little sister? Little brat/little girl, are you lost?"
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