The souls all stared at Reign with anger as the latter simply smiled at them warmly.
'I have to admit, I've gotten quite good at this, trash-talking to the enemy is quite fun.' Reign thought as he looked at the souls that were close to the breaking point from what he could see.
"You damnable human, how dare you?!" One of the souls shouted in anger as it almost charged at Reign, only to be stopped by the other souls.
'Human?'
'Ah, so it seems they were unable to learn the fact that I'm not really human, that's quite good.'
"Anyway, let's stop the chitter chatter, you guys lied and tried to manipulate us into getting the artifact before taking control over Liara's body, we simply saw through you and decided to take control of the artifact ourselves without you guys being able to meddle during that time."
"You guys don't like us, but we don't really like you either, as things stand, however, neither of us can do anything to the other side."
"You guys are no longer able to influence Liara, and because of the artifact, you guys can't leave her soul either, which means you are trapped here, and we can't destroy you because this 'prison' of yours is too powerful for us to do such a thing."
"And … what do you propose?" The soul that had spoken to Reign at the very start asked him as it stared at him.
"A temporal truce, I mean, it's not like either of us can really do a thing, so for now, Liara will occasionally give you some souls so you don't weaken too much, and you guys won't try to do anything underhanded."
"A truce with you, as if we would ever-"
"Enough, it's not as if we have a choice, and neither do they, this is the only way for now." The soul spoke as it glanced back at the one that had been hostile to Reign and Liara ever since they arrived.
"You wish to destroy us, and we wish to do the same to you, unfortunately, neither one of us can do that, so I will agree to your proposition, for now, we shall be neutral to one another, as long as we receive some souls from time to time, we won't try anything underhanded."
"We can swear upon the system, we will make an oath." The soul said as he stared at Reign.
"The system our witness, we solemnly swear that as long as you two supply us with souls that have not been manipulated like the last ones, we will not try to do anything harmful to you." The main soul said, prompting the other souls to repeat.
"The system our witness, we solemnly swear that as long as you don't try to do anything harmful to us, we will not do anything harmful to you and will supply you with souls, souls that have not been tainted or manipulated in any way."
Reign and Liara swore too, and upon finishing, they felt a small surge of power envelop their souls, it was the oath that they had made. If they went against it, the system would punish them.
'I doubt they will wholeheartedly stop trying to find a way to get away or take over Liara, which means there is definitely a loophole to be exploited, perhaps a couple of them.' Reign thought as he nodded to the souls before he and Liara went back inside the gray smudge and waited for it to bring them out.
'If I tell Shadow of what had happened, and he was to somehow mention it to Hades, would it be considered breaking the oath, after all, I had done nothing harmful to them personally.'
"Not quite, even though you haven't personally done it, your intentions were clear, the system will indeed consider it as breaking the oath, only that the punishment will not be severe," Aethion said as he calmly stood in Reign's consciousness.
Reign nodded at Aethion's response, realizing that even intentions could carry consequences when it came to the oath they had made. It was a testament to the system's meticulous monitoring and enforcement of such agreements.
As they emerged from the vortex, Reign and Liara found themselves back in the physical world, their connection with the souls temporarily put on hold. They shared the details of their encounter with the souls, the temporary truce, and the oath they had sworn with Basred and their other allies. While Basred was skeptical about trusting the souls, he understood the practicality of the arrangement.
With the souls temporarily neutralized, Liara, Reign, and the leaders of the regions could focus on the next steps in securing their world from further demonic threats. They had liberated nine regions, but many more remained under demonic control. These strongholds needed to be dealt with to ensure the demons couldn't regroup and threaten their world once again.
With the world gaining some power back, they created a communication network, linking the 19 regions to each other, allowing for fast communication between all inhabitants of the regions. This way, they could share information, coordinate their efforts, and respond swiftly to any demonic incursions.
Previously, they only had limited communication and it was mostly the leaders, as well as their second-in-commands, who were able to communicate with each other whenever something happened. With the 19 regions under their control, they were also going to create portals, one for each region.
That would allow them to respond to any threat from the demons instantaneously, no longer would they need to walk to another region in order to help them, now they could simply teleport to it and immediately help them out.
This would increase the survivability of the regions, and it would even lower the casualty rate as more people could fight together now, increasing their overall power.
Still, it was not possible for a Tier VI being to exist as they needed more regions under their control for that. The current limit was the mid-grade of Tier V, which was good considering the fact that previously, humanity could only have 10 low-grade Tier V beings, and now that was increased to 19 mid-grade Tier V beings.
Basred and the others believed that if they managed to control over 30 regions, they could all become high-grade Tier V beings, and if they had 40 or more, they could be peak Tier V beings, with the only issue being that not all regions would allow for a new Tier V at that point as the limit of how powerful a Tier V could be would rise.
In order for a Tier VI to exist, Basred and the others believed that humanity had to control over 50 regions, and there was a good possibility that only about 40 Tier V beings could exist at that point together with a Tier VI, perhaps even less than 40 Tier V's.
As days passed, it became harder to take down the demonic regions as demons had already learned of what had happened and were doing whatever they could to stop them from taking more.
Unfortunately for the demons, even though they had portals as well, many demon tribes disliked one another, so the maximum number of Tier V demons that Reign and the others had faced at one stronghold was 12, and together with the guardians and the new region leaders, they currently possessed a total of 25 Tier V beings, which was more than enough to take down the strongholds.
The only thing the demons were able to do was to slow down the speed at which Reign and the others took down the regions, and when the fifth day arrived, humanity had 25 regions under their control.
Together with Liara's artifact, humanity had a good chance of winning against the demons. Thanks to the fact that 4 Tier VI demons had been killed back when the two Tier VII demons arrived, the demons were enrolled in a war as the other Tier VI demons tried to take advantage of the situation and take the territory that the dead Tier VI demons controlled.
Together with the rest of the region leaders, 3 of which were peak Tier Vs, taking down the regions proved to be not that difficult, even when the demons sent higher-leveled Tier V demons as well.
Reign had met with the other leaders and got to know them.
The three leaders who were peak Tier Vs were actually the only ones who were higher leveled than the rest, who were low-grade Tier Vs, and were actually in the worst position imaginable as their regions were almost completely surrounded by demons.
That was the reason they were peak Tier Vs, that was one of the last things the Will had allowed and helped with before going to slumber. The others were all low-grade Tier V beings, and neither Reign nor Laura knew that previously.
The Will had shared a small fragment of its power with the three leaders to allow them to become peak Tier Vs, the limit for the others was placed at the low grade of Tier V, however, and it would only rise as they took more regions and allow the world to recuperate.
As the fifth day arrived, however, it was time for Laura and Reign to leave.
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