Lucas Reeve also found it somewhat outrageous.
Just a moment ago, he was clearly in Columbia, performing the final batch of Active Originium extractions.
This time, there was absolutely no warning, no sign of any soul fragment awakening. Besides, even if a soul fragment did awaken, it would require Lucas Reeve's own consciousness to transfer over and attach to it. How could a soul fragment forcibly pull his consciousness over?
After all, Lucas Reeve only had one consciousness, and the main consciousness was the dominant one.
By the time Lucas Reeve realized what was happening, his consciousness had already descended upon this place, turning into a giant flame monster. What's more, the exceptionally beautiful red-haired girl in front of him was also looking at him with confusion.
Finally.
At Surtr's slightly anxious urging, Lucas Reeve finally found a way to return to the sword. He didn't even have time to investigate what had happened. Also... why did Surtr call him Laevatain? Or was the name of this flame giant itself Laevatain?
However.
Upon entering the sword, Lucas Reeve's soul noticed something peculiar.
One of his soul fragments was actually residing within this two-handed greatsword. Furthermore, there was another power within the greatsword, and this power was likely that of the flame giant. And... on this flame giant, Lucas Reeve could clearly sense a strong divinity, a divinity that his current self could not compare to. In other words...
This flame giant was an ancient god who once dominated the world!!
However.
Only power resided in the greatsword, not consciousness. And this power seemed incomplete, merely a fragment. But this was no small fragment like that of the Flame Demon or his own soul fragments. This was a rather large piece. Even as a fragment, one had to remember that the flame giant's true form was an ancient god. Even a large fragment contained power that ordinary people could never hope to match.
Moreover.
Surtr currently seemed unable to unleash the true power of this flame giant. Or perhaps, her body couldn't withstand the backlash from this power for now. Each appearance of the flame giant relied on Surtr's Originium energy as a continuous power supply, similar to Lisa's Shikigami.
However.
Lisa's Shikigami could manifest for a long time after being summoned as long as they didn't use their power, consuming very little of her own energy.
But Surtr seemed different.
She seemed to be struggling not long after summoning this flame giant.
And...
Lucas Reeve had also finally found the reason why he had inexplicably arrived in this body.
Inside the sword.
Over time, his soul fragment had actually fused with the flame giant's soul fragment.
Since both soul fragments were in an unconscious state, there was no question of one devouring the other. Over time, after staying together for a long period, the two soul fragments gradually merged. And just a moment ago, the two souls had completely fused.
The power of the flame giant's soul fragment itself was simply too immense. After instinctively sensing the existence of Lucas Reeve's consciousness, it immediately summoned his consciousness over.
And....
Lucas Reeve discovered a serious problem.
He couldn't get out.....
His consciousness seemed unable to leave this soul. It wasn't his own soul that was blocking him, but the soul fragment of this ancient god. Perhaps the ancient god's consciousness had long since dissipated, and this soul fragment was just a part of its power without any consciousness, but its instincts remained. A soul would always crave the existence of a consciousness. And after fusing with Lucas Reeve's soul fragment, this ancient god's soul fragment subconsciously felt... that Lucas Reeve's consciousness belonged to it... and so it wouldn't let him leave.
Of course.
Lucas Reeve could also force his way out.
He could just drop a six-figure sum of Prayer Power, making his own soul fragment stronger than the ancient god's, allowing his soul to take absolute control over the fused soul.
But....
Earning Prayer Power wasn't easy, and he was reluctant to part with it.
A six-figure amount of Prayer Power—who knew how long it would take him to earn that much? And this six-figure sum wasn't a hundred thousand or so; otherwise, with his current total of 1.08 million Prayer Power, he could still afford it. This was in the high hundred-thousands. It was equivalent to throwing away nearly a year's worth of work. Although this soul fragment of his would become incredibly strong, Lucas Reeve didn't need such a strong soul fragment right now. It's not like there was a sucker like [Wolf Fang] everywhere, providing him with a six-figure sum of Prayer Power in one go.
Sigh...
Of course.
There was another way: to slowly grind it out.
He could create some separation between his current soul and the flame giant's soul fragment. That way, his consciousness could come and go freely.
However.
They were already perfectly fused.
To separate them, even just a little, would be quite difficult. It would take at least two months....
Two months...
Jessica's side was fine. Jessica was in Columbia now, and as the heiress of Raythean Industries, her own strength was already approaching the level of an Elite Operator. She had a ton of bodyguards, and even a powerhouse like Ceobe, who seemed foolish but was actually incredibly strong, was with her as a bodyguard. Lucas Reeve wasn't worried about Jessica's safety.
But Lisa's side... Lucas Reeve was a little worried. Lisa was still young, after all. Without her sniper rifle, Lisa's own strength was genuinely average, at best equivalent to a standard Operator.
After offending so many families in Siracusa.
Lucas Reeve was a little worried about Lisa's safety. He immediately tried to forcibly transmit his consciousness.
After several attempts, Lucas Reeve finally broke through the massive barrier of the flame giant's soul fragment and managed to transmit his consciousness to Jessica and Lisa. He told Jessica that something had come up on his end and not to worry, and also briefed her on Lisa's current situation. Then Lucas Reeve told Lisa that he'd had an accident and couldn't protect her for the time being, telling her not to go out and carry out the assassination list during this period.
Although he knew Jessica would be very worried, Lucas Reeve had no other choice at the moment.
Of course.
If Jessica or Lisa were ever in a truly major crisis, Lucas Reeve wouldn't mind dropping a few hundred thousand Prayer Power to force his way through. After all, compared to their safety, what was a few hundred thousand Prayer Power? If it's gone, it can be accumulated again.
Still, it was very annoying.
He clearly had a lot of ideas he was preparing to implement after the Active Originium extraction was finished, but then this happened.
However.
Besides that, Lucas Reeve had another major question.
Why was his soul fragment inside this sword!!
If Lucas Reeve wasn't mistaken, this sword was a divine weapon. As the weapon of an ancient god from who knows how many years ago, this sword had probably existed for countless ages. Why would his soul fragment be inside the sword? It made no sense at all.
Lucas Reeve carefully recalled his days in the idol before meeting Jessica.
He himself didn't know how long he had stayed in the idol. Lucas Reeve could only vaguely remember that he seemed to have split his soul, turning it into countless tiny soul fragments that attached themselves to the goods of passing merchant caravans.
If Jessica's necklace, Ifrit's beast-tooth necklace, the idol in the Zumama tribe, and Talulah's bracelet could all be explained, then... how to explain this sword? It couldn't possibly be that this divine weapon was forged from goods transported by a merchant caravan, could it? Impossible.
Moreover.
This sword had existed for far too long, basically from the same era as the ancient god's soul fragment within it. Who knows when the era of that ancient god was.
No matter how Lucas Reeve thought about it, he couldn't figure it out. He still couldn't understand why his soul fragment was in the divine sword.
And as Lucas Reeve thought back carefully, he suddenly realized a problem...
His memories from before he split his soul seemed somewhat fuzzy, murky, and there were many memory gaps....
Before, Lucas Reeve hadn't paid it any mind, just thinking that he had been around for a long time and had simply forgotten. After all, at that time, he could still maintain normal human thought processes and felt that 70% of memories would naturally be forgotten over time.
But... the current Lucas Reeve didn't think so. He knew the strength of his original soul. With that level of soul strength, forgetting was not a possibility.
As long as he wanted to remember, he could remember it with 100% certainty.
His current memory fuzziness could only mean one thing.
Something definitely happened during that incredibly long period between his transmigration into the idol and him breaking down his soul to attach to the merchant caravans, but he just couldn't remember it....
Thinking about it that way, it seemed quite possible.
And because of this.
The current Lucas Reeve was even more eager to find out just what he had experienced...
But, compared to the past.
The present was the immediate crisis.
A full battalion of an Army Group was charging over from the distance. Mudrock's squad didn't hesitate either; upon seeing the Army Group, they immediately started to run. Surtr, seeing this, after a moment of calm thought, also took off running.
Her constitution was very special.
Her stamina and Originium energy recovered very, very quickly. Although Laevatain was a huge energy consumer, as long as she didn't use it for extended periods, Surtr could summon it many times in one day.
Mudrock's squad wanted to run, but it was difficult to escape. They were running on foot, while Ursus had a full complement of land-crawlers and snowmobiles.
In this snowy terrain, while the land-crawlers weren't fast, they were still much, much faster than running on two feet. An unknown number of snowmobiles suddenly broke away from the main force, like wolves in the snowfield that had scented their prey's blood, and were already charging over, following the scent.
This was the vanguard of the Army Group.
It was composed of the famous Imperial Vanguard Elites and Ursus Assaulters from the Ursus military.
The strength of these regular army soldiers was much greater than that of ordinary military police and soldiers. Just as they were about to reach Mudrock's squad, a group of unscrupulous vanguards had already taken out their crossbows and started shooting at them.
However.
These powerful crossbow bolts couldn't inflict even a tiny bit of damage on Mudrock. The heavy armor on Mudrock's body provided her with a great deal of defense, blocking countless surprise attacks from all directions.
However, there were just too many of these damn Ursus vanguards, several dozen of them. And these vanguards were very slippery; many of the Sarkaz mercenaries couldn't even touch them. If they were tied down like this, by the time the Ursus Army Group arrived, their side was almost certain to be wiped out.
Although, Mudrock also found it quite strange.
Why would Ursus deploy an Army Group with such fanfare just to deal with them? It was simply incredible.
Or perhaps.
This Army Group was coming for the name 'Reunion Movement'.
Mudrock had always remembered the name 'Reunion Movement'. In fact, this wasn't the first time she had heard it. She had heard of this organization's name when she first came to Ursus. However, its reputation was terrible; they were almost universally regarded as an Infected terrorist organization that indiscriminately killed innocents. Was it because she was Infected that they assumed she was also part of the Reunion Movement?
But in reality, she didn't know a single thing about the Reunion Movement. She had never even met anyone from the Reunion Movement, let alone known them.
These Army Group soldiers must be coming for the name Reunion Movement.
What kind of organization could actually make Ursus deploy a proper Army Group? It was somewhat hard to imagine. Was this still an Infected organization?
It seemed a bit too much of a fuss.
Mudrock had a bit of a headache. She was trying to figure out how to shake off these damned Ursus regular army soldiers.
As for Surtr, she also chose to follow her instincts and run.
In the past, a mere battalion of five hundred men could be wiped out by her alone after activating Laevatain. But today, Laevatain had inexplicably gone out of control and even gained its own consciousness. A small activation consumed too much of her energy, so even Surtr, with her fast recovery speed, couldn't continue to use Laevatain for a short period.
However.
These Ursus Empire Army Group soldiers seemed to have no intention of letting Surtr go.
After the Army Group reached a certain distance.
A dense volley of crossbow bolts could be seen flying towards Surtr. Surtr's own combat ability wasn't particularly stunning. This could be seen from the way she brandished her sword to block the bolts. She was not a battle-hardened Elite Operator, nor was she a prodigiously talented battle maniac. Surtr's abilities primarily came from her two-handed greatsword.
Or rather.
Surtr's unique fighting style was innate.
Facing the incoming crossbow bolts and the missile bombardment from the Imperial Annihilator Drones, Surtr habitually wanted to use her greatsword to block, using her own flame power. Even if she couldn't use [Twilight], Surtr's own strength was still decent.
Suddenly!
Behind her, a large amount of lava once again burst forth. A huge hand stretched out from the lava, blocking all the impending danger for Surtr. And Surtr's eyes widened at this moment, because...
She hadn't summoned Laevatain at all just now.
As Lucas Reeve used his broad palm to block the incoming crossbow bolts and missiles.
He, following the god's subconscious, grabbed the giant sword floating in the air. With a thrust of the sword into the ground, instantly, a powerful pillar of fire shot up into the sky in the distance. Countless Ursus regular army soldiers died under that pillar of fire.