[Soul Perception] and [Soul Affinity] were very powerful abilities that Steve could only describe as cheating at its highest form. They not only made it impossible for anyone to hide or use any stealth skill on him.
They also granted him about a third of the power belonging to whatever he killed, inversely he could also use it to serve as a kill confirmation skill.
[It is not dead sir] Judy suddenly spoke
"Huh?"
[Scans still detect small but mighty bits of its soul trying to escape… you only killed a husk] Judy replied
"That makes sense" Steve replied before reaching out into the space before him.
As soon as he did so, a small fracture could be seen as he pulled out a sword from it. The sword glowed blue and deadly, with it fully drawn, all could hear a soft ring in the air.
They didn't know if this was because of its sharpness or if it was simply because of the abilities of the sword itself. With the sword in hand, Steve immediately powered in more mana into his eyes.
They were his main way of sensing souls and at the moment, it seemed that one was making a run for it. As soon as he did so, he felt a massive wave of information hit him.
"You can't come here and talk big on to escape with your tail in between your legs" Steve said as he squatted over the escaping soul.
It was small, almost like that of an ant but even he could feel the might within this tiny soul. This was no normal ant soul… this was definitely that monarch.
[I curse you human… you will…] The monarch began before Steve simply stabbed it with the sword.
It was the Soul Cutting sword, he had made back in the Red Gate. The original may have been destroyed but it wasn't that had to remake it.
As soon as the sword touched the tiny soul, Steve felt a massive wave of not just information but energy flow through his body.
This was far beyond any he had experienced before. Even Baran didn't release such an amount of power when he killed him.
…..
Title: Architect's Protege? Pseudo-Monarch
Mana: 1.6M
…..
"Well, that was eventful" Steve noted as he held his head and sat down on the nearby rubble.
His status was displaying a level of power he had only seen in Monarch-type beings and his mind was now filled with new information he had never heard or seen before.
This world was way more sophisticated than it let on and they were weaker than he thought.
"Judy, retract the Iron Pagoda and begin work on a new suit, things just got out of hand" he said after quickly sorting through what seemed to be thousands of years' worth of memories.
[As you wish, sir] Judy replied as the Torii that was once used to pin the Monarch who he had found out was named Yorgumunt.
The monarchs are way more than he initially thought, they were Gods… Eldritch gods born from the darkness as the light was made.