Chapter 481: Someone Has Their Eyes on Your Body; How Does That Make You Feel?
"The Magic of Rulers? A disgusting magic like this actually has the nerve to call itself the Magic of Rulers? No wonder it was lost to history," Sorano scoffed, her face twisting in disgust.
Lowering an opponent's stats was one thing, but completely obliterating an individual's sense of self and treating a living human being like a disposable, mindless summon? How could such an atrocity ever be associated with 'kings'?
"Baa. Naturally, someone like you wouldn't understand," Capricorn retorted coolly.
"Heh. Of course I don't understand, and I never want to. But what I don't get is how a goat ended up learning a magic like this. Also, the name 'Capricorn'... I swear I've heard it somewhere before," Sorano narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.
It was incredibly bizarre for an animal to wield a human-centric Lost Magic. Furthermore, she subconsciously felt that the name 'Capricorn' held the key to the strange, unnatural aura she had sensed from him since the beginning.
"Hmph!" Capricorn grunted in annoyance.
He intensified his assault, his strikes growing faster and heavier as he tried to quickly dismantle the two Battle Angels blocking his path so he could reach Sorano.
Seeing that her two angels were holding the line—albeit barely—Sorano shifted her attention to the periphery. Several of her other angels were currently locked in combat with the enslaved humans Capricorn had summoned.
She watched as two of the enslaved humans were struck down by her angels. The moment they sustained critical injuries, they dissolved into balls of light and vanished. Sorano quickly realized that Capricorn hadn't attempted to re-summon those specific individuals.
I see. The captured humans must be returning to whatever pocket dimension they're stored in. If they sustain heavy damage, they can't be immediately re-summoned, Sorano deduced.
That meant if she managed to defeat all of his captured humans, Capricorn would be entirely out of backup. At that point, she could justifiably jump him with an entire army of angels.
Even if her theory was slightly off, the tactical reality remained unchanged: maintaining a passive debuff aura while simultaneously sustaining multiple high-level human summons consumed a massive amount of magic power. Sorano didn't believe for a second that Capricorn's reserves were infinite.
It essentially boiled down to a war of attrition—who had the deeper magical reserves, and who could hold out longer.
Of course, a war of attrition was only a backup plan. She was actively racking her brain for a faster, more decisive way to take him down.
"Haaa!"
Sorano focused her magic, summoning two more angels to reinforce her vanguard and overwhelm the remaining human summons.
"Dammit!" Capricorn cursed under his breath. He had no choice but to summon two more humans from his limited stock to intercept the new angels.
Even with his goat-like features, it was painfully obvious he was in a terrible mood.
He had never anticipated facing someone who could fight like this while actively suppressed by Human Subordination. His magic relied on capturing elite, highly skilled individuals. Consequently, his 'stock' was limited.
On the other hand, Sorano's angels were fundamentally mass-produced magical constructs. Trading his finite, high-tier human summons for her expendable angelic constructs was incredibly inefficient and tactically foolish.
But he had no other option. If he didn't summon them, he would be completely swarmed and beaten to death by a small army of angels. He was used to being the one outnumbering his opponents; being on the receiving end of a mob-beating was infuriating.
Summoning one final angel to act as her personal bodyguard, Sorano stepped back and focused her mind. Capricorn... Capricorn... why is that name so familiar? And what is wrong with his aura?
As she pondered, her eyes absentmindedly swept across the broader battlefield. They landed on Loke, who was currently casually knocking out Grimoire Heart grunts.
"I've got it!" Sorano gasped, her eyes lighting up in sudden realization.
"LOKE! LOKE! COME HERE FOR A SECOND!" Sorano shouted across the battlefield.
Hearing her shout, Capricorn's attacks instantly grew frantic. He threw everything he had at the two angels blocking him, desperately trying to break through.
However, the angels perfectly matched his rising intensity, stubbornly holding the line.
Sorano sensed the spike in his aggression but wasn't overly concerned. The angels could hold him off for a few more minutes. Right now, verifying her theory was the absolute top priority.
"What is it?" Loke asked, jogging over after swiftly dispatching the grunts in his immediate vicinity.
"Is 'Capricorn' the name of the Celestial Spirit of the Goat?" Sorano asked immediately.
Loke blinked, caught slightly off guard. "Yes. That is the name of the Goat Spirit."
"Then that guy over there is definitely him," Sorano pointed directly at the frantic goat-man battling her angels.
"WHAT?!" Loke whipped his head around, staring in shock.
"It really is him," Loke confirmed after a few seconds of intense observation, recognizing the unmistakable features of his fellow Zodiac Spirit.
"I only remembered the name because I helped Yukino gather intel on the Zodiacs," Sorano explained. "But how did you not notice him? You're both Celestial Spirits, aren't you?"
"I did have my suspicions because he looks exactly like Capricorn. But for some reason, when he wasn't actively fighting, he didn't emit a Celestial Spirit aura. So I couldn't be sure," Loke explained, his brow furrowed. "Even now, while he's fighting, his spirit aura is incredibly faint. Unless you specifically focus on him, it's almost impossible to detect. Once the war started, I was too busy fighting the grunts to analyze him properly."
"I see. No wonder you missed it. But there's a massive problem. He's actively using Human Subordination magic. Those people fighting my angels are actual humans he's captured and enslaved," Sorano said, pointing at the ongoing skirmishes.
"What?! He's capturing and summoning humans?!" Loke gasped in horror.
He watched as one of the humans was struck down by an angel and vanished in a flash of light.
"That was a spatial distortion... they really are being summoned." Loke's expression darkened completely.
"Hmph. Leo..." Capricorn muttered, realizing his cover was completely blown. He violently shoved the two angels away and leaped backward, creating a large gap between them.
Following Sorano's telepathic command, the two angels didn't pursue him. The other angels, however, continued to systematically dismantle the remaining human summons.
"Capricorn... how many years has it been since you disappeared from the Celestial Spirit World?" Loke asked, his voice dead serious as he approached the goat-man.
"Seventeen years," Capricorn answered casually.
"To maintain a physical form in the Human World for that long... who is your master?!" Loke demanded, deeply alarmed.
"I have no master! I am the master who commands humans!" Capricorn roared back defensively.
Loke's expression turned grim. While it was true that Capricorn was currently enslaving humans, that act was an absolute, unforgivable taboo for Celestial Spirits.
"According to Old Man Crux, you formed a contract with Layla twenty years ago. I don't know what kind of deal you made in the Human World after that, but your current master should rightfully be Layla's daughter, Lucy—even if she doesn't know it yet. What the hell happened to you, Capricorn?!" Loke yelled.
"Layla Heartfilia's daughter?! I cannot let her live! Where is she?!" Capricorn shrieked, his demeanor instantly shifting from calm superiority to manic, desperate rage.
Loke's face fell. He shouted back, "Tell me what happened to you, Capricorn!"
"Wait, Lucy is his owner? How does she not know about it?" Sorano asked, thoroughly confused by the dramatic revelation.
"Because the transfer of ownership likely happened automatically within the Celestial Spirit World, so Lucy was never informed. I only found out recently because I specifically asked Old Man Crux to look into Lucy's inherited keys. Since Capricorn had been missing for so long, I didn't want to get her hopes up by telling her," Loke explained quickly before turning his attention back to Capricorn. "But it seems we'll get the truth today."
Capricorn lowered his head. When he spoke, his voice trembled noticeably.
"Huh?" Loke blinked, taken aback.
"Every form of magic possesses absolute, unbreakable rules. And I... I broke the ultimate taboo of my magic," Capricorn continued, his voice tight.
"What?" Loke took a step back, his eyes widening.
"Wow, how brave," Sorano commented, her voice dripping with pure sarcasm.
"And this was the result! This body! I became a goat! It's hilarious, isn't it?! HAHAHAHA!" Capricorn spread his arms wide, laughing hysterically.
"What are you talking about?" Loke demanded, utterly bewildered.
"I don't know the exact details, but based on what he's saying, he clearly broke a magical taboo and suffered a horrific backlash that permanently altered his body. Serves him right," Sorano summarized bluntly.
"But now... I finally have the perfect opportunity to reclaim a humanoid body! Human Subordination: Light of Humanity!"
Capricorn raised both hands, aiming directly at Loke.
Simultaneously, he summoned eight enslaved humans in a desperate bid to intercept Sorano and keep her busy.
Sorano hastily commanded her active angels to intercept the humans while rapidly summoning five more to secure the line. The massive burst of sequential summoning drained the last of her stamina. She collapsed heavily onto the ground, gasping for air.
"That magic won't work on me! I'm not a human! I'm a Celestial Spirit!" Loke dropped into a fighting stance, though he couldn't help but point out the obvious flaw in Capricorn's plan.
"Exactly. That is the taboo. This magic can absolutely never be used on non-human entities. And the penalty for breaking that absolute rule..."
Capricorn glanced sideways at Sorano, a victorious smirk forming on his goat-like face as he saw her collapse in exhaustion. As his spell activated and shot toward Loke, he finished his sentence.
"N-No way... you can't be serious..." Loke gasped, a horrifying realization dawning on him.
"...is that the caster fuses permanently with the non-human entity." Capricorn confirmed.
"Your true identity... you're a human who fused with Capricorn?!" Loke yelled in absolute shock.
"And now, I will claim your body, Leo!"
A shadowy, human-shaped mass erupted from Capricorn's body and shot toward Loke with blinding speed.
Loke braced himself, preparing to intercept the entity. Suddenly, an angel materialized directly in front of him, physically blocking his path.
"N-NO! NOOOOO!"
A shrill, terrified scream echoed from the shadowy entity. But the magic had already been activated; its trajectory could not be altered.
The shadowy mass slammed directly into the angel blocking Loke. A second later, the angel collapsed heavily onto the ground.
"DAMMIT! DAMMIT ALL!"
The fallen angel began shouting in a human voice—a voice filled with absolute, furious rage and underlying terror.
"Hehe. Did you really think that little of me? You assumed that by throwing all your remaining human summons at me, you could keep me busy while you body-snatched Loke.
"But you forgot one crucial detail. The only reason I was struggling was because of your suppression aura. The exact millisecond you left Capricorn's body to possess Loke, your suppression field vanished. My magic instantly returned to full power."
Sorano giggled, standing up smoothly and walking over to the incapacitated angel.
"With my power fully restored, and your human summons vanishing because you were no longer maintaining them, I had more than enough magic left to instantly summon one weak, disposable angel to act as a meat shield," Sorano smiled radiantly down at the screaming angel.
"DAMMIT! YOU BASTARD! DAMMIT ALL!!!" The entity trapped inside the angel shrieked furiously from the dirt.
"Thanks," Loke breathed a massive sigh of relief, turning to Sorano.
"Don't mention it. I could tell you were preparing to use your own Light Magic to counter him, but I figured this was safer," Sorano waved him off.
"Yeah. My backup plan would have been pretty rough on my own body. I'm glad I didn't have to use it," Loke admitted with a wry smile.
"DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!" The angel thrashed weakly on the ground, desperately trying to stand up, but it simply lacked the motor functions to do so. It could only scream in helpless fury.
"Stop struggling. I specifically summoned the absolute weakest, lowest-tier angel possible. Its physical stats are practically zero. In fact, if you weren't currently possessing it and supplying it with ambient magic, it would have already faded away. I thought this fight was going to drag on for a while, but you really just threw yourself right into the trap, didn't you?" Sorano laughed mockingly.
"DAMMIT! If I had just taken Leo's body, I could have finally walked among humans again! I already knew about Layla's daughter! If I had just killed her, I could have become completely human once more! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!" The angel's face contorted in horrific, manic rage.
"What an absolutely disgusting piece of trash," Sorano's face darkened. She was extremely tempted to kick the angel a few times, but decided it wasn't worth dirtying her boots.
She turned to Loke with a teasing grin. "Someone had their eyes on your body. How does that make you feel?"
Loke shivered violently, rubbing his arms. "Please don't say it like that. My skin is crawling."
"Hehe," Sorano giggled at his discomfort.
"So... what do we do with him?" Loke quickly changed the subject, pointing at the screeching angel.
"Oh, I know exactly who to give him to," Sorano smiled wickedly. She summoned two fresh angels, commanding them to pick up the possessed angel.
Loke walked over, gently hoisting the unconscious, true Capricorn over his shoulder, and the two headed toward the rear of the base camp.
"I brought you a highly unique... specimen? Material? Honestly, I don't know what to call him, but he's incredibly anomalous. He should definitely help with your research," Sorano announced cheerfully as they approached Noah's Thought Projection.
~~~
Get early access to 50+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn