Chapter 249 Soul Hunger
Roy did not say anything but looked Giovanni up and down, making him very nervous. To be honest, the battle between Arantir and Roy had scared Giovanni a little.
The kingdom of Heresh was actually formed by several large and small death lords and their territories. As a vampire count, Giovanni also had a territory, but his territory was relatively small. In layman’s terms, Giovanni was actually just a countryside lord, and he could only command a group of vampires and some low-level undead.
There were many countryside lords like Giovanni in Heresh. Rather than a kingdom, Heresh was more like an alliance. The necromancers had come together because of the persecution of the mages of the kingdom of Bracada and their shared faith in Asha to protect themselves. This also made the kingdom of Heresh not have a so-called king, and the various lords all had their own thoughts. They were not united and only maintained a superficial harmony.
And Arantir was one of the strongest death lords in Heresh. This person who claimed to have obtained Asha’s favor had received the attention of other death lords. Many minor lords like Giovanni believed that Arantir would be the candidate to unify Heresh, so they all submitted to him.
Giovanni followed Arantir like this back then, but after following Arantir for some time, Giovanni felt that he had followed the wrong person!
Arantir did not show much ambition. He did not take the initiative to attack and consolidate the territories of other death lords, and he spent most of his time reading books and fighting demons. In Giovanni’s opinion, Arantir was like a bookworm, no different from the mages in the ivory towers of Bracada.
When Giovanni gradually saw through the person he admired, he increasingly had thoughts of ‘Arantir is nothing more than this’ in his heart. His ambitions steadily grew, and he wanted to replace Arantir.
However, the enemies Arantir had encountered in the past were too weak, and he could easily defeat them with his undead army. Thus, Giovanni had never seen the Death Incarnation summoned by Arantir and had known nothing about the existence of the spectral dragon!
Until today, after meeting Roy, Arantir summoned his Death Incarnation to fight Roy. Only then did Giovanni realize that this damn bookworm Arantir had actually been guarding against him…
The status of a vampire count was indeed not low among the vampires. But in comparison, Giovanni’s combat strength was at most equal to an upper-middle-rank demon. Before this, Giovanni was quite confident in his strength, but after seeing Arantir’s Death Incarnation and the strength he displayed in the battle with Roy, he was terrified. Fortunately, he had not had the time to challenge Arantir. Otherwise, he would have died.
Giovanni still had some eyesight. He could tell that whether it was this demon in front of him or Arantir’s Death Incarnation, everything they displayed was extraordinary. Especially this demon in front of him, he could actually fight Arantir and the spectral dragon he summoned alone and suppress them both. This was definitely not something that an ordinary high-rank demon could do. Even a powerful death lord like Arantir could not win against this demon, and Giovanni made a comparison easily.
Even if he wanted to join the strong, he had to join the strongest, right? Therefore, Giovanni made a decision without hesitation and planned to cooperate with this demon!
He knew very well that cooperating with the demon might yield better results than with a necromancer like Arantir because demons were absolutely not interested in ruling a nation of undead. As long as Giovanni did it properly, he might be able to use this demon’s power to become the king of all of Heresh!
Of course, this was also the decision that Giovanni made through observing that this demon might be a smart one. If Roy were a hot-tempered demon, Giovanni would not have thought of this, and he was afraid that Roy would tear him apart…
Giovanni waited nervously for Roy’s response, and Roy looked at Giovanni full of interest.
Speaking of which, Giovanni was the second vampire count that Roy had encountered!
The first vampire count was naturally Dracula of the Van Helsing world. But that Count Dracula was just an undeserved name. Not only was he only around four hundred years old, but he was also so weak that he did not even know how to use common magic. And now, this Count Giovanni felt much stronger.
“All right, Your Excellency, Vampire Count Giovanni!” Roy’s tall body stood in front of Giovanni, looked down at him, and grinned sinisterly. “Although I’m very curious about why you’ve betrayed Arantir, it seems like it’s not time to ask about this. What I’m even more curious about is why you, Arantir, and this undead army appeared in the Desert of Death. Don’t tell me that you came specifically to find me!”
“That’s not the case!” Giovanni heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Roy’s words. He shook his head and said, “In fact, Arantir led the army to search for the tombs of ancient warriors in this desert. He was planning to gather a large army and head to Erathia. It was just a coincidence that he met you…”
“I see…” Roy was relieved. I knew it. How could there be such a coincidence? He nodded and asked, “Since you were Arantir’s… collaborator, do you know what’s going on with his spectral dragon? Under normal circumstances, can a necromancer summon such a powerful bone dragon?”
“I don’t know…” Giovanni was a little confused. “In fact, it’s the first time I’ve seen him summon such an undead creature…”
“Let me put it another way…” Roy stared at him intently. “Does Asha’s power really still exist in this world?”
“Impossible!” Hearing this question, Giovanni shook his head without hesitation. “If anyone can obtain Asha’s power, they might become a new dragon! Just like Sar-Elam back then, but that happened nearly a thousand years ago. Arantir’s spectral dragon can’t be a power that Asha bestowed on him. I would rather believe that it’s just a powerful undead creature beyond common sense… Even if Arantir claims to be Asha’s Chosen, that’s only what he calls himself. In fact, the death lords of the entire kingdom of Heresh have never received any revelations regarding this!”
“In other words, you chose to cooperate with him before just to use his declaration, right?” Roy saw through the essence of the matter at a glance.
“That’s right!” Giovanni nodded. “If he is really the Chosen, then under divine revelation, all the death lords of Heresh would have already gathered under his command, and we would have all treated him as king. But as you can see, the truth is that Heresh is still in a state of disunity… I can only say that with this declaration, he’s only a candidate with the possibility of competing for the throne.”
“In that case, he’s actually just a mortal and can still be killed…” Roy rubbed his chin and pondered
The reason why he could not forget it was not because Arantir had led his army to attack Roy and the others. Roy wanting to kill Arantir was actually because of what happened when Roy flashed beside Arantir to slash him at but was blocked by him. During that short exchange, Roy clearly felt that Frostmourne had sent a feeling of desire!
At that time, Roy did not understand what was going on. Afterward, he realized that the desire that Frostmourne conveyed was actually that it wanted Arantir’s soul!
In the Darksiders world, after Ulthane reforged Frostmourne, it gained a special attribute: Soul Hunger!
Frostmourne was currently a pseudo-divine artifact. According to Roy’s understanding, if he wanted to upgrade Frostmourne to a divine artifact-level weapon, he probably needed to let this sword have something similar to an artifact spirit. In other words, to have this sword obtain consciousness. According to the description of the ‘Soul Hunger’ attribute, if other beings held Frostmourne, it would continuously absorb their souls to enrich itself.
Frostmourne had always been held by Roy, and it would not absorb the soul of Roy, its master, so the sword had always been in a state of emptiness. This time, when Roy held Frostmourne close to Arantir, it seemed that Frostmourne had sensed Arantir’s soul!
Arantir was a powerful necromancer. Judging from his fervent faith in Asha; his ideology, willpower, and moral quality were extraordinary, so his soul was certainly different from ordinary souls. Frostmourne recognized the strength of his soul, so in order to obtain Arantir’s soul, it sent Roy a signal of desire, hoping that Roy could use Frostmourne to kill Arantir. This way, Forstmourne would absorb Arantir’s soul.
Roy only figured this out afterward. This was the first time that Frostmourne had given him a signal, so it was normal for him not to understand in time.
Since Frostmourne wanted it, Roy was naturally willing to give it. After confirming that Arantir did not have Asha’s power backing him, Roy began to think about how to kill Arantir…