Soul Essence

Demon King Castle

"Duke Titan, how do you feel now?" It hasn't been an hour since I retrieved the body of duke titan from throne room, who was on the verge of death after receiving beating from demon king Lucifer, for failing to fulfill his duty.

"Barely alive." He answered.

"Your regeneration abilities are among the best I have ever seen, among us 4 dukes only you are capable of surviving the demon king's wraith." I praised him because of his titan physique, he can even regenerate missing limbs within seconds.

"It's all because of demon king's grace, I will gladly receive death, if he wishes to kill me, this minor beating is nothing corresponding to what demon king has done for me." He said while all his wounds and missing libs regenerated.

"I stayed because I was curious, how was merlin able to trick the great duke titan and successfully escape?" I asked because if merlin was strong enough to do something like this, the situation could be worse than I thought.

"I don't know, I just know that he has done something when demon king Lucifer has summoned all of us to the throne room, when that hero arrived!" So even he doesn't know.

"Well, I think I will have to wait and ask merlin himself to satisfy my curiosity." I said.

"You should do something about your curiosity; your curiosity will be the death of you someday." Duke titan warned me but i shrugged his warning because my thirst for knowledge was the reason I was able to become the third strongest duke and without it, my life will lose its purpose.

"I can say the same to you." I said because duke titan always liked to fight, the more he fought against the strong opponent more powerful he becomes.

"Where is demon king?" Duke titan asked.

"He has gone to the land of gods." I said and duke titan remained silent but his emotions could be felt, which were of guilt.

"Those scum gods will not tolerate his mistake this time." I said.

"I know." Duke titan replied.

"Have you found any clue about the hero that escaped?" Duke titan asked and I liked the way our conversation was going.

"No." I replied.

Duke titan gave a dubious look and stood from his place ready to leave the room.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"To finish the job I have been given but failed to execute." Duke titan replied stopping in his tracks.

"And how will you find him on this huge planet among billions of mortals, he could be anywhere, this planet, moon or dimension pocket?" I said understanding his job which was to keep an eye on merlin and the hero.

"I will have to eliminate any threat, which may harm demon king Lucifer in the future." He said his reason for hunting the hero was not revenge but betterment of demon king's future.

"But demon king has instructed us to not make any move." I said.

"Why, does demon king intend to let that hero grow stronger, and destroy the balance of this planet?" He asked me doubting my words.

"Demon king said that searching for him would be waste of time, which we can invest in becoming stronger or focus on other problem." I said.

"By other problems, do you mean the other 2 heroes?" Duke titan replied and I nodded.

"My only duty was to guard the dungeon, but now that the most troublesome prisoner has escaped and demon king hasn't issued me any new order, I will assume that he wishes for me to track his enemies.

"You should prepare a better argument than this, when demon king arrives." I said.

"Let me worry about that and stop wasting my time, tell me what do you want from me?" Duke titan said.

"You misunderstood my good intention duke titan; I just wish to help you finish your task." I said.

"How will you do that and what do you want in return?" Duke titan asked and in response to his question I retrieved a blue crystal in center of which white wisp could be seen floating bound by the rune inscribed wall of crystal.

"You have extracted the soul essence of that hero, do you have a death wish." Duke Titan said because the hero that we captured was a sacrifice for demon gods and tempering with his soul could get me killed, if anyone found out."

"Let's just say my curiosity got the best of me." I replied trying to alter the topic.

"You should have given this to demon king; it would have helped him track the hero." He said.

"Yes, he would have made good use of it, but after killing me." I said because without his consent extracting soul of a sacrifice would be a crime punishable by death.

"Why not use it for yourself?" Duke titan asked.

"I don't have time to wonder around the world and chase someone; on the other hand having a favor due to a fellow duke is quite an interesting barter don't you think?"

I asked duke titan because he was a dedicated follower to the degree that he would do anything to impress the demon king and also keep my secret to himself.

I could have tracked and killed the hero myself but with merlin's help, the hero was able to escape from the demon king's clutches, who knows what other hidden cards he might have saved.

Therefore I decided to get the task done through duke titan and get what I want from him.

"What is the favor that you need me to fulfill?" Duke titan asked.

"I want you to capture the hero alive and hand him over to me for some research purpose for few days, after I am done with him, you can do whatever you want." I said.

"I will capture him alive, you can be sure of that, but without demon king approval, i can't allow you to touch him." He said rejecting my offer.

"I think our deal is off then; I will just destroy this crystal and pretend nothing happened here." I said while applying a slight pressure on crystal but duke titan released his aura trying to threaten me.

"What are you doing?" Duke titan asked me in angry tone.

"I can do whatever I want with my things, what does it have to do with you?" I countered him.

"Don't play your games with me; do you believe I won't tell demon king, what you did with the soul of sacrifice?" Duke titan asked me.

"Go ahead and tell him, you know it as well that it will take demon king Lucifer few decades to come back and by that time the hero will become much stronger than now." I said signifying the urgency of time because it would be too late if we give more time to hero and complaining about my past actions won't matter at that time.

"Why are you so hell-bent on using him as experiment, as far as I know, you have stopped experimenting otherworldly beings long time ago?" He asked me and I sighted and told him the truth.

"I will tell you the truth, I have extracted countless souls from otherworldly beings but this hero is special because after a very long time, I have found a soul which I don't understand." I said.

"Can you explain me what you can't understand and what makes you think he is special." He asked me.

"To explain you in simple words, his soul is not that of a mortal and at the same time not of any god, at least I have never seen anything like this before." I said.

"Could it be.. because of merlin?" Duke titan asked.

"No you big oaf use your brain, I extracted his soul before he was put into dungeon." I replied.

I still remember clearly when demon king ordered me to lock the hero into dungeon, when I picked him and our eyes met, I felt a peculiarity coming from him, which I haven't felt in a long time and out of curiosity, I took him to my research lab instead of dungeon.

There was nothing special about his physique other than that he was born with immortal rank physique but when I tried to extract his soul essence in small amount, I failed.

Even after 3 hours and countless attempts, I wasn't able to successfully extract his soul essence and have to satisfy myself with a small part of his soul husk.

I wanted his soul essence which is found in the center of person's soul and through which I could unravel every mystery this hero's soul possessed, but the time at my disposal was limited.

Finally I came to conclusion that the soul essence of this hero can't be extracted without harming him, and harming him is the only thing I can't do.

For the time being, I extracted the part of soul husk of the hero, which is the hard layer above soul for research purpose and locked the hero in the dungeon hoping to find a method to extract his soul essence before the sacrificial ceremony begins but before that could happen, that damn merlin escaped with hero.

While I was lost in thoughts, duke titan was pondering whether to accept my proposal or not, but i knew if he wanted to reject the offer, he would have already done so and soon he will come to realization that, it is the only chance he have to redeem himself.

"I accept your deal but I will only hand him over to you for 3 days and in those 3 days, I will be close to him all the time, if you can accept these conditions then we have deal." He said adding some conditions and I accepted it.

"I accept." I said tossing the crystal to duke titan.

"Ohh, one thing I forgot to tell you, it is not a soul essence but a soul husk and therefore it will not guide you toward the location of the hero but when you are within 100 kilometer range of the original soul, it will react." As I was saying this expression on duke titan face gradually heightened but finishing my sentence I disappeared from the room, leaving him alone to curse me.