Chapter 535: Betrayal

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

“Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.”—Denis Diderot, French philosopher from Earth.

Did one’s own will stem from memories, from knowledge, or from the soul itself? This was a question that nobody would be able to answer.

From a certain standpoint, the Sky Tower Spirit had made a huge mistake. Since he was an artificial intelligence, the first reaction he had after obtaining freedom was to break off the proverbial shackle on his neck. In order to achieve this, he was even willing to attempt to slaughter his original master.

However, he didn’t consider what another artificial soul would do first upon receiving true freedom.

Indeed, while S1 bent the rules and activated the effects of that training facility to create five completely independent spiritual creatures, S1 foolishly gave these spiritual creatures their own will.

While people were all different, it was likely that not a single newly independent individual would enjoy the feeling of being controlled by someone else from the moment of their birth. The previous artificial souls that S1 had created had all been born with zero memories, so they were much easier to control. However, the five spiritual creatures born from this training facility were duplicates that already had the memories and knowledge of the originals. Not to mention, since these new spirit creatures started off with knowledge of enemy and ally and had been given their own will, then it became quite possible for them to choose their own sides.

“Flesh and blood humans, perhaps we can make a deal.”

Unlike the spirit image Roland’s earlier casual and condescending manner, he now had caution and vigilance in his expression. Even this facility from the scholars’ generation wasn’t powerful enough to duplicate Roland to a precise 100%. Although this spirit image had part of Roland’s abilities and knowledge, he was evidently a completely new individual.

Perhaps duplicating Roland had been a mistake from the very start. Even though the spirit image Roland only had the surface level information and personality of the real Roland, he still understood Roland’s way of thinking, which meant that the spirit image Roland was a perfect candidate to start a rebellion.

“Alright. As long as you help us eliminate S1, we will give you your freedom. I’m an expert engineer and master of artificial soul technology. You can check the information on me. I can help you to become truly free in this world. All the technology is available already. We have the technology of allowing heroic spirits to perform descents. Theoretically speaking, you should be able to use it as well.”

The facility here was capable of interfering with space itself, allowing the creation and descent of these spiritual creatures. However, if nobody else helped the spirit images, then spirit image Roland and the others would find it impossible to leave this location even though they had their own free will. In the end, the spirit images would end up dying whenever their energy was all used up.

It was the strange spatial distortion created by this facility that allowed the spirit images to survive, and maintaining them would require a huge price. At the very least, the energy consumption required would definitely be significant.

“Right now, all of you are useful to S1. But after this, all of you will become useless wasters of energy. What do you think he’ll do to you all?”

No matter how they thought about it, their fate wouldn’t be a good one. Even if their creator S1 was willing to maintain the energy upkeep required to keep them alive, they would be the equivalent of S1’s slaves. Their lives and freedom would be incredibly limited. This would be nothing more than despair to these souls that had just gained their own will. How would they possibly be thankful to their creator?

“Your mistake was the exact same as your original creator’s. You treated your own creations as your tools.”

Right as Timlad confronted S1 with that statement, the spirit image Roland took action.

*Clang!*

Roland’s sword was blocked by Dragon King Seir’s tremendous sword. Seir placed himself right in front of S1 to defend the Sky Tower Spirit.

“You’re going to block my way? You don’t want to obtain freedom?”

“My creator is my benefactor. I must pay back any favors that I owe. That is the way I do things.”

Spirit image Roland asked a simple question, but received a surprising response in return.

The next moment, spirit image Roland’s wooden stick viciously clashed against Seir’s heavy metal sword. Their weapons kept clashing as sword energy was sent everywhere. Roland and Seir’s figures became nothing more than afterimages to everyone’s eyes, and suddenly their fight became even fiercer and faster. Even Barton was unable to see the duplicate Roland’s actions clearly.

Only now did Barton realize that the spirit image Roland had been going easy on everyone due to the restriction against killing, while the other summoned spirit creatures were just as monstrously strong as Roland.

Soaring Sophe, Blood Butcher Girwell, Dragon King Seir, and Sword Emperor Cindler. These were four of the most famous heroes from the Haletdam generation. Their souls and martial arts prowess were all at the peak. Even though their power level had been reduced to Legend due to the spirit creature creation room’s limitations, no ordinary Legend ranks would possibly compare to them.

For any high-level Sword Saint, their martial path was the inheritance of techniques and knowledge, as well as their own chosen path. Roland’s path of swordsmanship was the most proper one possible, filled with techniques and experience that had withstood the test of time. But when Roland used his swordsmanship, he was highly adaptable and would always consider the situation at hand. That was because Roland was no proper individual who would take a set path. Roland added strategy into his swordsmanship style. And in any battle, whoever was more rigid and proper would always be the bigger idiot. Even though a set swordsmanship style would be consistent and reliable, that type of swordsmanship would lack the ability to change.

And of the four summoned heroes, Seir’s entire life was a classical example of being foolishly loyal. He had been scammed in life into killing his own best friend. After that, he was framed by a treacherous individual, and the domain lord that Seir swore loyalty to ordered Seir to take poison and kill himself. Yet, Seir didn’t even furrow an eyebrow as he obeyed. Seir’s interpretation of knighthood was absolute loyalty to his lord’s commands, and his martial arts path was also that of the direct style, relying solely on brute force with his heavy knight’s sword. It was evident that the spirit image Seir had copied Seir’s exact personality.

Roland and Seir’s fight continued at an incredible speed. Roland was even beginning to faintly gain the upper hand in all areas. However, all the watching mercenaries felt that the spirit image Roland was losing.

*Snap!*

What everyone expected to happen ended up happening after all. Now that spirit image Roland was fighting an equal opponent, Roland no longer had the ability to protect the wooden stick he was wielding. Everyone knew that having one’s weapon be broken in battle would be fatal.

And, there was a huge difference in equipment and status from the very start. Roland was in an incredibly weak physical condition while equipped with the lowest level equipment of regular clothing plus a wooden stick. He was equipped worse than even the most regular of mercenaries. Meanwhile, Seir had been summoned from when he was the strongest, and was fully equipped with a heavy suit of armor and a heavy sword. Since there wasn’t a large difference between Roland and Seir’s martial arts prowess, the difference in physical condition and equipment would naturally determine the victor.

“Die, traitor!”

Seir’s angry roar even contained traces of draconic might. He had learned fighting techniques from dragons, who weren’t well known for mercy or going easy. Since Roland had now showed weakness and lost his wooden stick, it was only natural that Seir would take advantage of this to strike with a killing blow.

However, the spirit image Roland actually smiled despite facing this killing blow.

“Ah! You all…”

Roland wasn’t the one who shouted out in pain and disbelief, but rather the seemingly victorious Dragon King Seir. Seir was now in a rather wretched state.

Blood Butcher Girwell’s axe had sliced off Seir’s sword-wielding right hand. Soaring Sophe’s chains and spear prevented Seir from resisting. Meanwhile, Sword Emperor Cindler had struck Seir with a fatal blow. Cindler’s golden rapier had pierced right through Seir’s heart.

Although these spirit image heroes were all the same species, the others had no intentions of going easy on Seir. Perhaps it should be said that it was precisely because they were of the same species that they knew best how powerful each other could be. That was why they didn’t take action until they knew it would be fatal.

“Ha, as expected.”

The spirit image Roland smiled knowingly. While Seir was the foolishly loyal type, the other three summoned spirits weren’t the same. Since they were all newly born souls, they naturally had their own desires. Since all three of them had remained silent for all this time, this already meant that they had disobeyed their master and chosen to betray S1.

And since they had chosen to betray S1, they wouldn’t possibly hesitate to betray Seir as well.

“You, you traitors!”

Even an idiot would realize that the situation was bad. After seeing four out of his five summoned spirit images slay the fifth, S1 unhesitatingly unsummoned his own physical shadow form and returned to his core floor.

The next instant, the door leading to the next level down was opened up, and an army of mechanical war puppets rushed out!

“Let’s go! A brave hero will always conquer! It’s time for the final battle!”

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