88 Everything Part 1 (1/2)

”Dang,” Urag muttered as the Blood King's Fehl Legion covered his escape. As expected of the self-proclaimed Mogul of Excess and Debauchery, Urag carried the Mark of Lust on his back. The Lust Overload skill he just used relied on it. But since he still stood far from mastering his Lust, Urag couldn't maintain the form for over one minute. Afterward, he'd go into Lust Withdrawal and lose 90% of his strength.

Breaking through the Blood King's defense lines to take his life needed more than one minute. Once exposed, grim consequences would follow, so Urag had no choice but to watch the Blood King escape. Still, by destroying one of his Philosopher's Stones and forcing him into retreat, Urag dealt the Blood King severe wounds. As a Sin of Pride, he was doomed to agonize.

By the time Urag made his choice, the Blood King's Legion had vanished from the forest's sky and retreated to their headquarter. In the area where the explosion took place, a pale-blue, wraithlike version of Anke hovered. With a smirk of satisfaction, she shrank into a palm-sized blue orb and flew back into her inert body.

For the typical human, the soul was an immaterial storage place for experiences, Dra Roots and Elemental Crystals. Upon their owner's death, white and light-gray souls left for the Aether Plane while black and dark-gray souls dove into the Nether Plane. Besides the souls that inhabited them and the magical energies they held, there was absolutely no difference between Aether and Nether Planes. No reward, no judgment, just cleansing and reincarnation.

Souls traditionally had no offensive abilities of their own. But because of her mutation, Anke's soul had turned into a Fehl Banshee, enabling her to not only use her vocal chords as weapons, but expel the banshee soul to possess or ruin her foes. Still, if not for the Blood King leaving himself vulnerable, Anke wouldn't have been able to affect him—even for that split of a second.

But as Urag stared at Anke's stirring form, his eyes narrowed, and with a step, he appeared before her.

”Weird...why aren't you cray cray?” Urag asked with his usual tact. Better than most, he could see that Anke's mutation stage had already fallen into Beast category. When her banshee soul became one with her body, she'd ascend to the Fehl Plane and become a daemoness. But to reach such a mutation stage, she should have long turned into a walking abomination singing lethal lullabies and sowing destruction wherever she went. Obviously, that wasn't the case.

From beginning to end, she remained alert and logical—only briefly losing herself at the Blood King's arrival. Unless she received a serum akin to Kilian's or had the backing of some mighty fehl entity, that made little sense.

”From what I heard, I had an episode and forced my uncle to use his unique magical abilities to recalibrate my mind. At first, he planned to erase all the fehl madness. But when that proved impossible, he redirected it all at the source. Unless confronted with it, I can remain mostly sane,”

”Your uncle is a throne?”

”I don't even know what that is.”

”My bad. What's your relationship with the Blood King?”

”No relationship. He just wears the face of my ex-fiancé.”

”Then why did you help me?”

”I want to strangle my ex, but he's dead, so I just take it out on those related to him.”

”Ha, typical.”

Anke straightforwardly answered all of Urag's inquiries, and following the exchange, the imp lord pursed his lips—shaking his head at the deranged lady's words.