When the lich and his companions heard that Marcus had already decided to help them, the tension on all of their faces instantly vanished.
Each of them had been fearing that he would consider them too dangerous to be kept alive and decided to bring in the cavalry to destroy them.
"Of course, there is a condition for my help. You must destroy the surveillance system that you set up. That thing is far too dangerous. I know that you all are just using it to search for ways to become human again, but if at any point some one with more dangerous ambitions got access to it, the entire world could be thrown on its head." Marcus said, his tone grave.
In the wrong hands the ability to watch and hear thousands of high ranking officials and wealthy merchants could be used to incite unimaginable chaos. He could easily imagine what a powerful demon could do with it all, and it was not pretty.
Naturally the lich was hesitant to agree to this. He had set up the surveillance system that was practically undetectable over several centuries of work, and it was pretty much their only way to get information on the outside world.
"Are you sure? If you are helping us out, then I do not mind giving you access to our intelligence network. As a spirit you would be able to easily tap into it and receive the information faster than even I can. We have gathered more knowledge here than likely anywhere else on the planet, I am certain you would find it very valuable." Daniel said, trying to appeal to Marcus.
And while it was tempting Marcus could only shake his head.
"I understand what you are getting at, but what you have made is just a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. I am sure right now if you wanted to you could destabilize several nations by simply leaking the secrets you have learned about the nobles and officials that have visited this resort, right?" Marcus asked his left eyebrow raised.
Nodding his head, Daniel acknowledged that he could easily do what Marcus had said. He knew the dirty laundry of each individual that he had infected with his soul spyware.
Certainly, this was information that neither he nor his companions cared about since they were after only a single goal, but in someone else's hands the information they had collected could be weaponized to spark many wars all at once.
"Still, as dangerous as it could be we need it to search all over the world for a way to free us from this place and return to being human. Frankly simply relying on you alone is not enough. I would ask that you allow us to continue using the system. In fact we are willing to not infect anyone else if you just allow us to keep what we already have. Surely that is a decent enough compromise. In a century most of the people we currently are watching will be dead and the system will have lost the majority of tis value even if it does fall into someone else's hands." Daniel said, not wanting to have all of their hard work destroyed.
Marcus though was not willing to budge on this. He and Mrazivy had risked coming down here in the first place to find out what was going on because of how dangerous the system that Daniel and his companions had created was.
"How about this, if I can at least free you and Alyna from being bound to this place you will destroy the surface network and if not then you can keep it up but not infect anyone else." Marcus said not wanting to push them all too far.
While they seemed to have reached an understanding, he did not want to push them into a corner and force them to believe that their only option was to try and fight back.
"I am sure that if the five of you went out on your own to search for a way to become human again then you would have more success than just observing a bunch of people and waiting for them to stumble along what you need." Marcus said, seeing that Daniel was wavering and needed one more push.
"Very well, if you can free Alyna and me from being bound here, I will shutdown the soul surveillance system. But is it something you can really do?" Daniel asked, a look of doubt in his eyes.
He had devoted centuries to studying how to interact with souls to try and unravel his own, but had not gotten any closer to fixing the problem.
"I can probably help you both out in that regard. I am pretty adept at manipulating souls." Marcus said confidently.
In fact he was certain that he could help Daniel at the very least since Mrazivy had told him what his problem was when she looked at his status.
"Daniel, before I begin can you confirm for me that you have a status condition called soul entanglement?"
After a brief pause and a look of shock appearing on his face, Daniel confirmed this to be the case.
"Good then I should be able to help you easily enough."
However, before Marcus moved to unbind Daniel, he raised his hand and looked towards Alyna.
"Please do not worry about me right now, I want you to help Alyna first. She suffers far more from her current condition than I do."
Turning towards Alyna himself Marcus frowned. Unlike Daniel who was suffering from a status condition, Alyna had simply become a dread wraith. Helping her was going to be a much more difficult endeavor and likely a time consuming one.
"As much as I would like to do as you want, fixing your problem should take me far less time. I would prefer to do it now instead of later. Alyna is going to need me to do more and I am not a hundred percent sure I can actually help her unlike you." Marcus said.
"Daniel, go ahead. I can wait a bit longer without any issue. If Marcus says he can help you, then you should accept it." Alyna said, not wanting her longtime friend to suffer any longer for her sake.
"Okay." Daniel said, giving in.
Yet before he accepted Marcus' help, he turned towards him with suspicion clear on his face.
"Before we begin, I have to ask. This is not some elaborate plan to get our guard down and destroy us, is it?"
"No." Marcus answered curtly while looking at Alyna.
She was the one with a lie detector unique skill and Marcus understood that Daniel wanted absolute confirmation that Marcus was not going to betray them here.
For all they knew he could have just been speaking sweet words in order to get their guard down before attacking them. They had not exactly met on the best terms, so it was best to be cautious.
Thankfully Alyna nodded her head, confirming that Marcus was not lying.
"Good, now that we have settled that, you will need something to act as your new phylactery since I will be unbinding your soul from the area. I assume you have made one and tried this in the best, correct?"
"Yes I have tried doing that before, but to no avail. I could not get my soul unentangled no matter what I attempted. What makes you so confident that you can?" Daniel asked, a bit skeptical that Marcus could so easily fix a problem he had been unable to for nearly four centuries now.
"Simple, it is considered a status condition so I can fix it. Now go grab whatever you want to use as your new phylactery. I am not sure what will happen if you do not have something ready to contain the split part of your soul once I have freed it."
Doing as Marcus asked despite still being a little unsure, Daniel headed into the depths of the base where his room was and came back with an amulet he had made several decades ago.
It was the item he had used in his most recent attempt to unbind his soul from the resort, but had completely failed like every other attempt.
"Get ready, this is probably going to be a bit tough on you." Marcus said, warning Daniel.
He then created a small silver ball of light in his hand and launched it at Daniel.
The moment it hit, Marcus' Ultimate Refresh Supreme Skill eliminated Daniel's entangled soul status condition and freed it for the first time in four centuries.
In an instant the split part of his soul returned to his body, but was unable to actually become whole.
Even though it had not been a complete process Daniel was considered a lich and not something Marcus' Supreme Skill could revert on its own. His soul was still spilt from the process.
Nevertheless, with his soul now unentangled Daniel was able to send the split part into a phylactery of his choosing and no longer bound to the resort.
Within just a couple of minutes the amulet he had prepared now housed his soul and acted as his new phylactery instead of the area.
"Congratulations, you are now no longer stuck here. Please feel free to applaud." Marcus said, bowing his head like a showman.
Of course, no one even acknowledged his display, since they were all too stunned by what had just happened.
After centuries of making almost no progress, Marcus had finally helped them take the first step towards their goals.
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