NOVEL NEXT Ch. 113
Chapter 113
Law of the Soul
The Ark of the Styx sped through the rushing current.
The white pup in Lucy’s arms suddenly began to struggle violently, barking in its childish voice:
"Put me down! I need to confront the Sleeper face to face!"
Fenrir bared its teeth, its three-inch-long body causing the wooden ark to sway slightly. "He dared collude with an Outer God and violate the laws of the Realm of Death, and... and he even sent someone to kill me!"
At that moment, tears welled up at the corners of the little dog’s eyes.
As one of the Seven Gods of the Realm of Death, Fenrir was originally nothing more than a pet of Death God, the Sleeper. It was only by chance that it came to grasp the Gatekeeper’s Law and became an Old God.
Now, having been betrayed by its "master", Fenrir felt deeply wounded.
Lucy pinched the scruff of its neck, her silver hair gleaming coldly in the ghostly light of the Styx.
"If you really want to die, I won’t stop you, but aren’t you forgetting something?" Her tone was laced with mockery.
The sadness on the pup’s face froze, and it gave an awkward grin. "The Law and such is too valuable... how about I give you something else..."
"So you’re planning to default, huh?" Lucy, who had long anticipated this, raised an elegant brow.
Sure enough, those tears were fake.
Fenrir pressed its goofy dog face forward, trying to justify itself.
"It’s not that I don’t want to give it, transferring a Law needs a ritual..."
"Oh, then forget it."
Lucy’s tone was indifferent.
Just as Fenrir thought it had managed to talk its way out, Lucy suddenly drew a scalpel from the Abyss of Nightmares, pressing the sharp blade against the soft belly of the little dog.
"Your appearance is that of a dog—I’ve no idea what you look like on the inside. Since you won’t honor your promise, I’ll have to find out myself."
A devilish smile crept across Lucy’s lips. "Don’t worry, I’m quite skilled. Never had a bad review from the dissection table."
The white pup’s fur bristled instantly.
Its instincts screamed that this silver-haired girl wasn’t bluffing—she really meant to dissect it!
Its short limbs flailed wildly in the air, but to no avail.
"Barbaric witch! In the name of the Moon-Eater—"
"I’ll count to five. Five." Lucy’s scalpel tip pressed against its damp little nose. "One!"
"Wait!"
Fenrir suddenly stood upright, slapping its front paw into Lucy’s palm with a loud smack. "The Law of the Soul, right? Fine, take it!"
"I’ve been loyal to the Realm of Death, and yet the Sleeper wants me dead. Forget this god’s authority—I don’t want it anymore!"
Fenrir’s tone was full of bravado.
In truth, its hold over the Law of the Soul of the Realm of Death was negligible.
So long as the Gatekeeper’s Law and the Gate of the Dead weren’t lost, once it recovered, it would still be the great Gatekeeper Fenrir.
As its paw touched Lucy’s palm—
Golden luminescent runes surged from the paw, outlining canine tooth-shaped patterns across Lucy’s skin.
Nearby, the high-ranking wizard quietly stepped back.
Receiving a Law barehanded? Was she not afraid of divine contamination?
What he didn’t know was that, with the aid of the 'Anti-Divine Contamination Garment' stitched from Ghostface Tree bark, the contamination from the Gatekeeper’s divine power would only increase marginally.
【Divine Contamination from the Gatekeeper of the Realm of Death: 0.1%, 0.2%... 0.8%.】
【Detected massive resonance with the Law of the Soul】
【Fusing with the power of the Law of the Soul】
【Law: Soul Scent (Fragment of the Law of the Soul), a soul law fragment from the Realm of Death comprehended by the Gatekeeper Fenrir through extraordinary olfaction, capable of smelling the scent of souls】
【Law: Malice Lure (Magnifies the dominant emotional fluctuation currently resonating in the soul)】
【Law: Soul Devour】
【Mental Strength: 22.3 → 32.3】
The stream of flickering blue characters left Lucy frozen for a long moment.
The roar of the Styx suddenly transformed into the murmurs of countless souls in Lucy’s ears, and the ghostly green firelights along the riverbank appeared to her as halos of varying depths and hues.
It was a visual manifestation of soul intensity and attributes.
"Interesting," she murmured.
Compared to this peculiar ability, the ten-point increase in Mental Strength seemed far less noteworthy.
After all, there was no essential difference between a Tier-2 apprentice and a Tier-3 apprentice.
Lucy suddenly looked toward the high-ranking wizard beside her.
A strange scent permeated from his body—a smell that didn’t belong to him, nor did it come from the Wizard Continent.
Even more startling was that among the souls drifting down the Styx, more than half bore this same mark.
"What are these?" Lucy asked, pointing at the strange aura emanating from the souls.
"Just special sacrificial markings," Fenrir replied as he wriggled free and jumped to the bow of the boat. "According to the laws of the Realm of Death, even gods are forbidden from devouring souls at will. Excessive consumption will bring the punishment of the law."
"But there is one exception."
When someone from the Primary Plane offers a sacrifice in the name of worship, the deity may consume the offering at will.
In other words, all those marked souls in the Styx were sacrifices to the Death God.
"These souls were tampered with while they were still alive. With that signature, the Sleeper was able to bypass the laws of the Realm of Death and devour them all as sacrifices!"
The pup grinned and barked in its childish voice, "What you’ve done today will definitely earn you a death hunt from the Realm of Death. If you want to survive, I suggest you hide away somewhere with me."
"Lay low for a good ten or twenty years, then find a chance to escape through the Gate of the Dead. As for those souls marked as offerings... hmph..."
Lucy glared at the pup.
It reeked of sourness—a clear sign of trying to maliciously lure her.
But the situation was indeed dire.
Ahead lay the Riverlord and the Feeder of the Dead blocking the path; behind, Chief Arbiter Zoe was in pursuit. Hidden in the shadows, the Death God was watching hungrily.
She pinched the pup’s scruff, ignoring its protests.
"You woman, don’t touch my nape like that!"
"Shut up!"
The pup immediately fell silent.
The moment it had chosen this form to survive by hiding, aside from possessing the power of Law, it was no different from an ordinary dog.
"You said those marked souls were offerings for the Sleeper? And devouring these sacrifices wouldn’t trigger the Realm of Death’s laws?"
The pup nodded reflexively. "Right, so wha—"
"What do you think would happen if I consumed those souls before him?"
Fenrir’s dog eyes widened, a terrifying possibility forming in its mind.
"How do you mean 'consume'?"
"I discovered something quite interesting within the Law of the Soul—something called Soul Devour."
At the words "Soul Devour," Fenrir instantly grasped Lucy’s intent.
As one of the masters of the Law of the Soul, none knew the devouring law better than him.
Under the influence of this Law, a deity could absorb souls to gain their power and memories—arguably the most formidable aspect of the Law of the Soul.
However, for gods, the weak souls in the Styx had long lost their value for devouring.
And the souls that entered the Realm of Death through the Gate of the Dead were protected by its laws.