The Empress turned and slowly, deliberately began to descend the unseen steps. Her eyes, two bottomless voids, locked on Vlad, unblinking and unreadable.
Vlad met her gaze without a trace of fear of the unknown spirit, his mind already calculating what to offer and what promises to make to show his competence.
He understood one thing clearly: though they were now bound by oath, it meant little if she decided he was unworthy. A spirit like her could sever the bond at will if she deemed him unfit to be her oathbound.
When Vlad had first prepared to forge a contract with Velcrissa, he was fully prepared. He was ready to offer what few spirits could refuse, things of immense value, whether they belonged to the material plane or carried weight in the spirit realm.
And he had the means to offer it all then and now.
But it would be a lie to say that Vlad was not nervous because Velcrissa's condition was alien to him. After all, in her child form, she was a daying greater spirit, but with her display of strength, she was clearly of King or Sovereign grade.
After witnessing the wind spirit flee in absolute terror, Vlad was nearly certain she had to be a Sovereign, if not something even greater... perhaps Ancient.
But knowing how few beings of such strength existed, he couldn't even bring himself to consider it.
Vlad could only speculate because he had no way of confirming her current grade, as her grade was not King or Sovereign but was marked as unknown by the system.
He could understand her information being hidden due to his limited strength if they weren't bound by contract. But they were bound, and the only way her status could remain concealed despite that bond was if Velcrissa herself was deliberately suppressing it.
That, in itself, made little sense, not if she intended to maintain the contract.
If she wanted to keep him as her Oathbound, then revealing her true strength would only benefit her. No matter what strange affliction she might be suffering, any oathbound with half a brain would do everything they could to aid her because success meant remaining bound to a powerhouse.
The Empress stopped just inches from Vlad, close enough that, if she breathed, he would have felt it. For a long, quiet moment, they simply stared at each other, eyes locked in silence.
Vlad would have said something, but it was taking all his will just to stand tall and not drop to the floor. The aura she radiated was mentally crushing him, his vision engulfed in darkness, his mind slowly sinking into the abyss of nothingness.
But even with cold agony eating away at his senses, Vlad did not tear his gaze away because he wanted to show the Empress that he was worthy of being her oath-bound.
After a long and heavy silence, Vlad felt cold around his face, and in an instant, the pain and terror engulfing his mind was gone, and so was the suffocating presence.
As the darkness faded and his vision cleared, Vlad forgot to breathe momentarily, stunned by the sight before him.
Two ivory hands pressed gently to his face, the Empress's cold touch as still as stone, yet somehow carrying the strange comfort like warm sunlight.
Her face hovered mere centimeters from his, close enough for him to see the depthless black of her eyes and lose himself in them.
He might have thought she was about to kiss him if he hadn't been so stunned. But instead, she leaned forward and gently pressed her forehead against his.
In the next moment, darkness engulfed his senses once more, but this time, it was one of silence and maybe comfort.
Maybe it was the complete absence of light or the weightless void where even sensation had vanished. For a moment that lasted far longer than it should, Vlad drifted in silence, and in that emptiness, he was reminded of something he had buried deep.
The final moments of his past life.
At first, there was no panic, anger, or grief. Only a quiet, hollow acceptance, like the end of a long, terrible dream.
Vlad felt, for a moment, that his nightmare had finally ended.
But then he remembered.
He remembered his family, the second chance he had been given, the promise he had made, and the burden he carried.
With a sudden surge of will, Vlad fought to wake, and he did. His heart was pounding aloud in his chest as he greedily took short breaths.
As his vision returned, there she was, the Empress, her cold, unreadable face the first thing he saw. Their eyes met one last time before her form began to fade, dissolving silently into the surrounding air.
A sudden system notification shattered Vlad's daze, and as the words registered in his mind, it felt as though the very ground had dropped out from beneath him.
{Congratulations, Player V. You have acquired the Legacy skill: "Champion of Death."}
{You have earned 50 Million Game Points for earning the Legacy skill: "Champion of Death."}
'Champion of..... Death!... Legacy skill,' He silently stared at the notification, taken aback by the sudden windfall.
After seconds of silence, he gave the mental command to open the skill details, and seeing it, he could not help but draw a deep breath.
Name: Champion of Death
Grade: Unique
Rank: None
Effect(s):
Death's Favor (Passive): Respawn time is reduced by 50%.
Death Denied (Passive): When the user's health reaches 0, he enters a Deathless State for 10 seconds.
– ??? (Condition not yet met.)
– ??? (Condition not yet met.)
– ??? (Condition not yet met.)
Description:Death is the one unyielding truth, an end that every soul must eventually face. But as Champion of Death, the bearer is recognized by it... and for him, Death offers mercy.
'So, I can respawn in just 6 hours,' Vlad murmured, impressed by the passive effect, but his eyes stayed glued to the second effect.
'Ten seconds... The tides of a battle can shift in ten seconds,' Vlad mused, his mind already busy remembering the Champion of Death from his past life.
The player who had the Champion of Death skill was not Morvaine, the Oathbound of Vel, but her lover, the player named Adam.
As for why Velcrissa did not share her legacy with Morvaine, it could simply be because her focus was already consumed by something far greater.
Morvaine was a monster known by everyone as the Plague Reaper, but her lover Adam himself was nothing short of a natural calamity, leaving nothing but death and destruction on wherever battlefield he joined.
Still, even a top ranker, he was nothing compared to one of the nameless king's shard holders.
Velcrissa was undoubtedly a spirit with command over aspects of the death element, but it was not surprising that Vlad remembered her differently. Her very nature would have changed after merging with the shard of corruption.
Her former skills and knowledge should be of little use since she now possessed a different kind of treasure, one that gave her command over various aspects of corruption.
So, what had likely happened was that Velcrissa had given her Death Elemental skills to Adam as a way to preserve and pass down her knowledge and power.
At least, that's what Vlad speculated could have happened.
He could only speculate as to why Velcrissa gave her legacy skill to him and not to a successor. Maybe she saw potential in him, or he was her only reasonable choice in her current circumstances, or it was just a gift for kindly treating her younger self.
She was clearly dying and possibly had no cure for her condition, so it was also not strange that she gave away a legacy skill since it was her knowledge, and she could share it as many times as she wanted.
And with her death, her knowledge and decades of work would also die.
'Let's hope my luck holds, and I find a solid lead on the Deceiver,' Vlad thought as he strode toward the headless vampire.
Vlad reached Cazimir's corpse, where the glass vial, filled with a murky, dirty green liquid, was still clenched tightly in his lifeless hand. He pried it free and activated Appraisal.
Name: Unknown
Grade:Refined
A potent concoction capable of permanently enhancing one's strength. However, the mixture is unstable, its alchemical structure incomplete, and may trigger unpredictable, potentially dangerous side effects upon consumption.
The potion was only of refined grade, something an apprentice alchemist could create, and even then, it was muddy, full of impurities, unstable, and not safe for consumption.
But Vlad knew this was the work of the Deceiver, no matter how low-quality. There was no doubt in his mind because its results spoke of its vile and terrible nature.