The Monster Monarch System-Chapter 207: The Changing Ruins (Part 10)

What reason would such a monster need an army for?

It had been attacked a lot over the course of the past few years and it had kept to the cave, ensuring that nobody could come here and anyone that managed to make their way here got their souls consumed – this army was meant to grow for a few more years before releasing them on the outside world.

Rem clenched his fist, the tags atop their head had returned and it didn’t give him any reassurance.

’Mutated Corruption Solider, C-rank,’

’Even the humans are at least C-rank, Ember would be the first to fall to this,’ Rem thought, ’And then Orion... I’ll have to stop it now,’

Rem stared forward fearlessly, the crimson glow in his eyes intensifying as his cloak billowed in an unseen wind – an immediate pressure was brought over everything within the cave as Rem used the command.

"Rise!"

At first, nothing happened and only a still silence ensued but that changed within a matter of seconds – the ground lit up in a powerful crimson as spirals of soul energy sparked around it, almost like he controlled it.

A set of hands appeared to be clawing out of the ground and although they were short, they packed a lot of power too... several Goblin soldiers were the first to arrive, pulling up to the scene in armors made of pure crimson soul energy.

As other monsters rose from the ground to help their liege with the battle, Rem raised his hand up into the air and arcs of golden lightning escaped from it, razing the ceiling... Both armies clashed in a battle of determination and power.

The Goblin soldiers materialized weapons within the blink of an eye, summoning a fraction from Rem’s overflowing reserves. Rem decided against summoning the monsters like the Mutated Spidergob that he had in his army and focused only on using the goblins as well as another swift monster.

The Death Wolf Boss moved with blinding speed, weaving around the battlefield with grace while several Death Wolf Mounts ran behind it, each of them glistened in soul energy. The army of the Monster proved to be no match for a refined squad like Rem’s, their soul energy was primal and raw, although it was increasingly powerful – it was also a lot harder to control while Rem’s army, as soon as they got incarnated... they already had the knowledge to grasp the essence of soul energy to the maximum.

"This is only a fraction of my entire army," Rem spoke, his voice filled with clear arrogance, a rare emotion that the Cavalier portrayed, "If you like, you can try to use your abominations to stomp mountains, destroy towns, even go for the city that lay in the distance but you’ll never compare to me. You’ve spent years gnawing at the lives of Monsters that live in these ruins, even consumed the souls of humans just to grow stronger but you’ve barely managed to reach the pinnacle... how pitiful,"

White flames burst around his palms, burning around them with a force akin to how flames burned at dry wood – a terrific amount of heat surrounded the cavern as Rem raised his palm backward, drawing at the flames that spiraled with power.

’I need it to take shape,’ Rem thought as he poured his magical energy into the flames, ’Into something that’s sure to cause a lot of damage...’

The holy flames that raged around his hand morphed into a shape, a sphere was something he had constantly been using with his flames but while they were undoubtedly powerful, he needed something a little more... sharp.

Orbs could only go so far with their round surface area and while morphing to a knife or a sword would be sharper, it wouldn’t be optimal to pierce and destroy in one shot... a Knife had a small figure and while it’s speed would vastly be increased which heightened the penetration would be good as well, the Boss had already proven to have a healing ability that could rival that of his slime healing.

Rem had located the core, every monster had a core and this one wouldn’t be able to escape the dynamics... it was nestled within the forehead and looked quite easy to reach, except it wasn’t... it was far more durable than any other part of it’s body including the metallic tendrils that served as it’s legs.

His eyes widened in realization as he got the perfect weapon to use against the likes of a durable monster like this.

’How couldn’t I have thought of this sooner?’ Rem thought as the holy flames took shape, morphing into an arrow that he drew back... the more he poured magical energy into the arrow, the more uneasy the cavern felt.

The heat spread all over, even reaching the likes of Cecilia that had been sitting in the cave with unease... the ground below Rem began to burn and he retracted his summons.

The Monster realizing the intensity of the situation began something that even Rem hadn’t expected, the soul energy that lingered in the air outside... the energy completely covering the ruins in a haze was being retracted right back into the Monster’s body, it’s figure became more grotesque and it’s skeleton of a head hardened but Rem only grinned.

"These are holy flames, it is not a fire that you can play with!" Rem shouted out, releasing the arrow from his grasp – the moment he released it, it shot forward in a sonic boom, cutting through the sound barrier in an instant.

The arrow made an appearance on the Monster’s head, burrowing deeper within as the seconds ran by... heading straight for the core. The tendrils on it’s back moved to yank off the arrow but they were burned away before they could come close to it. This was the power of Holy flames.

The monster staggered, the magic stone on it’s forehead cracked – an unfathomable amount of raw soul energy being let out but the arrow held on, drilling deeper into it – several more cracks appeared and Rem could see the greenish soul energy escaping from every part of the Monster’s body.

Rem finally realized, a final option.

"You were planning to detonate yourself?" Rem asked, he had no idea that the core harbored such insane amounts of soul energy... this would be enough to destroy the ruins and almost everything nearby, "Killing yourself and taking as much of the enemy as you could with you, pretty brave I must say,"

Rem took a step forward, the holy flames vanished as the stone had been completely shattered, the soul energy emanating from the monster was out of control but Rem didn’t falter, he raised his palm into the air and shadows stretched forth, wrapping around the entire monster.

"I have to keep this soul secured, it holds valuable skills," Rem said, the first thing of priority was the monster and then the people that were still in the Ruins with him, "Plus this place... the Changing Ruins hold a lot of minerals, some of which I could mine myself,"

It seemed like a nice idea, the shadows pinned the monster against the ground as the soul energy went out of control but Rem kept walking... placing his palm on the head of the Monster and immediately circuit-like runes were formed on his palm.

The soul energy of the Monster was being absorbed at an alarming pace, down into his soul and being assimilated constantly. He had gotten this skill ’Soul Assimilation, A-grade’ as a reward from the System a month after he had reached Ember town.

There were two ways for him to absorb the soul of a Monster – by using the System panels or by sucking the life out of them himself, with the System panels, he gained additional stats which topped up his physicality quite nicely while absorbing them directly with Soul Assimilation would ensure that all their soul energy would be absorbed and assimilated, he would gain their soul too but the Monster Monarch System wouldn’t give him any bonuses but he would get their skills nevertheless.

The soul energy continued to be absorbed by Rem who didn’t want to waste a valuable drop of soul energy, it was raw and would increase the potency of his soul energy by a large margin... something that he needed a lot.

Rem withdrew his hand a while later, the runes adorning them had disappeared and all that was left was the ashy remains of the monster.