Damon did not say anything. His expression was serious as he finally reached inside his storage space and checked out what exactly had happened in the end.

Almost immediately, he jolted up in shock. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Fuck yes!"

Blood Reign's laughter echoed in his mind. "Judging by that reaction, I assume things went well, my liege?"

"Yes. We got it." Damon did not take out the corpse just yet, but it was there. The entire coffin was sitting there with the corpse intact inside.

Damon let out a sigh and collapsed on the bed again. He was still pretty exhausted. He had been resting all this time with essentially one eye closed and one eye open, so he hadn't recovered all that much. At least all of that effort was worth it now.

Damon closed his eyes and thought back to everything that had happened. The fairy dungeon, the illusion world, and especially the pair of eyes. Was the difference between them that huge? He clenched his fists, unwilling to accept something like that.

Damon snapped out of it. He did not want to think about the entire mind fuck incident. He did not even know if what happened was real or not. This time, the trial of the damned fairies really did a number on him. His head was still hurting as if it was about to explode.

The good news was that Lirae was still here, and he had obtained the main loot of the fairy dungeon.

Now all he needed to do was figure out a way to deal with a famous, deadly assassin cult that might actually possess Umbra's heritage. He opened up his system interface and sent Ghost another message. The guy was sure taking his sweet time.

In the meantime, his hand was itching to examine the corpse of the fairy king. If only there were a space where he could do that safely. It may be time to head out of the royal palace.

He looked around the room he was currently in. He still couldn't believe it.

The princess had actually dragged him into her wing in the royal palace, even though he was a vampire. He was prepared the whole time for a bloody scene and NPCs coming in droves to hunt him down, but nothing of that sort happened.

It did not matter. He planned to leave as soon as he felt slightly better, and now seemed to be as good a time as any.

Damon silently opened up a Blood Gate to a known grinding location in the western desert, a bit far from the royal palace. But before the Blood Gate could materialize, he felt a searing pain in his head and stopped.

Something was off. He could feel it. He just did not know what it was.

He closed his eyes and decided to examine himself for a moment before he left the place. His eyes widened in shock. Instead of the usual pulse, the mana currents, and the blood flow, this time he felt something else entirely.

A dark space. An endless dark space, like a sea of darkness.

Except it was not really all that dark. Once he got accustomed to being in that space, he could feel several other presences. The first one to run to him and greet him was none other than Blood Reign.

"My liege… You are finally here! You have accessed your soul sea!"

Damon blinked. "My… what now?"

Blood Reign smiled faintly, her form shimmering into existence before him, ethereal and regal. Her crimson hair drifted in the void like liquid flame, her eyes glowing with reverence and pride. He still couldn't see her features clearly, but it was her, alright.

"Your Soul Sea, my liege," she said softly. "The true seat of your existence. Only those who have begun to shape their fate beyond mortality can touch it."

Damon looked around, trying to take it all in. "So this is inside me?" he muttered, more to himself than to her. "No wonder my head feels like it's going to explode. Wait, does this mean my soul is actually strong enough now to take in my mana core?"

Blood Reign paused for a moment before shaking her head slowly. "I am sorry, my liege. On the contrary, you are currently under a lot of strain because you have opened the soul sea without your soul being strong enough."

Damon's face twitched.

Blood Reign giggled. "Don't fret, my liege. The pain will subside soon enough. The opening of the soul sea has plenty of advantages. This small disadvantage will fade before them all. The fact that you could even force it open is a miracle on its own. Most beings spend lifetimes trying to sense the edge of their soul, much less step inside it. You… simply kicked the door down."

"Yeah, and now my brain feels like it's leaking out of my ears." Damon rubbed his temples, though his physical body wasn't even here. The sensation was still painfully real. The sea around him rippled in response to his irritation, waves of crimson energy rolling out into the infinite expanse.

It took some time, but Damon slowly calmed down. Just like Blood Reign mentioned, the pain subsided a little, or rather, he got used to it.

"My liege, you don't know this yet, but there is also another advantage of this soul sea. Just opening the soul sea right now, when clearly your mind cannot handle it, you have also started something else. Your soul sea is constantly forging your mind. Among all the methods to temper your mind, this is actually the best one."

Damon could only smile. "That's good. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, huh. While you are at it, do you know of any method to temper my soul?"

Blood Reign once again shook her head. "I still do not possess my complete conscience, my liege. Even if I did, I wouldn't suggest you any method. Most methods have some innate flaws in them, especially soul cultivation. Devouring other souls is the best and the fastest path for your soul development."

***

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