Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

"Perhaps this guilt towards their father made me resent Beatrice, and I became much stricter with her in my teaching."

"During the reconstruction of Naslan, I experienced the crazy period of Helena, comforted Ariana, and worked with Beatrice to find a way to suppress the vampire urge. Those were quite difficult days."

Lyle looked at the scholar.

"Thank you, teacher."

The scholar responded gently.

"It seems quite fitting for you to say that now."

Lyle scratched his cheek, feeling uneasy. The scholar treated the three sisters as his own daughters, which meant he was practically his father-in-law.

"Teacher, aren't you worried at all about me and my three sisters?" Like about happiness or something.

"Of course I'm worried, but I'm worried about you. Can you handle their feelings? They say it's the grave of love, and in your case, it's like being dead beyond dead. Inhuman values, twisted seduction, heavy love... It must be very hard."

"I enjoy it."

"Your adaptability is your strength, a great strength."

After walking a distance and going around the castle, the figure of the dragon appeared from behind the castle. The Twilight Dragon named Hill was playing in the water, splashing lake water onto the dragon by swinging its tail.

“I remember Beatrice’s vampiric urges back then. We tried many ways to suppress them. At that time, we hadn’t yet connected her talent with alcohol. Perhaps it was those thousands of attempts that left Beatrice with psychological trauma.”

What did you try?

"There are many examples, such as the changes in intelligence when one is thirsty for blood. I once placed Beatrice in a room and had her do twenty advanced magic research exercises when she was extremely thirsty. Beatrice is very smart, and she has a strong ability to learn new subjects."

"...She did it?"

"It took a month."

"She went hungry for a month?"

“I stayed with her the whole time, using magical potions to satisfy her nutritional needs. Her body was healthy, but the feeling of hunger was always there… My attempt to suppress the urge to drink blood with my wisdom failed.”

Isn't this an extremely excessive arrangement? Doing homework under extreme thirst, Mr. Scholar... Sure enough, the lich's values ​​have become somewhat distorted, but they are unaware of it yet. Poor Beatrice, heaven knows how she endured a month under the dual torment of the urge to drink blood and the desire for knowledge.

"By studying the ability of vampires to absorb magic in their blood-thirsty state, I also wrote several academic papers and pioneered another professional branch of mages." A typical lich scholar.

"Spellbreakers. They are extremely sensitive to the flow of magic and spellcasting techniques, even if that magic is in someone else's body. They can destroy the enemy's spell model, or even extract magic from the body, like a vampire sucking the blood of its enemy. I trained a group of spellbreakers based on Beatrice. I originally planned to make her a small leader of the spellbreakers, but she preferred to be a bar owner. As long as she's happy, that's fine too."

"What if it's a creature without magic?"

"Powerful beings all possess some degree of magical energy, even if they don't, my students. Extracting blood isn't much harder than extracting magical energy... In my vision, the perfect spellbreaker would be a vampire, who would combine their bloodlust with their thirst for magical energy, extracting the enemy's magic and blood to satisfy themselves... But I'm worried about the psychological state of such mages. The gap between the satisfaction of power and the emptiness caused by it can lead to a terrible psychological distortion. So, for now, the spellbreakers I'm training are all mages with naturally high magical energy capacities. They won't feel satisfied or thirsty just from drinking a cup of tea."

The surrounding temperature had dropped significantly, and frost had formed on the grass. Despite the bright sunshine, Lyle felt no warmth, and gazing at the sky revealed hazy, indistinct shadows; Nathran's ghosts filled the sky like flocks of birds. Several female stone sculptures were positioned appropriately along the inscribed runes; the dragon priestess communicated with Helena's statue, and Ariana coordinated the ghostly graveyard.

"Puppy!!!" Hill's shout rang out first as she climbed out of the water, splashing water as she rushed toward Lyle.

Lyle shrugged and gave the scholar a helpless smile, as was commonplace.

boom!

Beside the scholar, where Lyle had been standing, a layer of ground had been scraped away. He himself was now in the grasp of the Twilight Dragon, its tentacles, which had been extending from its body as a buffer, retracting. Lyle waved in the dragon's claws to indicate that he was unharmed, and Hill, having received his toy, happily ran back to the dragon's side.

Ariana calmed the restless flock, then looked at the scholar with displeasure.

"Teacher, she was too rude to Lyle. Can't you control your own dragons?"

The scholar bowed his head in apology to Ariana.

“My companion spoiled her quite a bit, which is definitely not a good way to educate her. But that’s why we asked Naslan for help.”

"The dragon priest appealed to Naslan for help, asking him to repair Hill's soul and restore her to the sanity that a grown dragon should possess."

Chapter 595 Soul Ritual

"As a high-level being in the mystic world, dragons possess a soul that is completely different from other creatures. Their souls are resilient and powerful, and they can produce a special product called the 'Dragon Soul.' When combined with different species, it causes the soul of the living being to 'dragonize.' This is the principle behind the creation of dragon priests, and it is also the conclusion I reached after analyzing the soul of my scholar teacher."

After Helena's explanation, the dragon priests suddenly realized what had happened. They had mostly guessed about it before, but now it had been confirmed.

“There’s another question,” the black dragon priest asked, “Which one truly carries the power of a dragon: the dragon soul or the dragon blood? I’ve succeeded in mastering the ‘Dragon Roar,’ but other dragon priests cannot. However, my clan can, because they do not possess the dragon soul…”

“But they were bathed in dragon blood.” Helena’s inscribed magic circle began to activate, the air above turning into a hazy mist. Fragments of souls flowed from the statue, forming a blurry human figure at the center of the mist. “My scholar teacher once assisted me in studying the soul of a dragon. Deep within his soul, I discovered some impurities. Please forgive my rhetoric, but compared to the powerful magical soul of an ancient mage, those dragon souls shimmering with golden light and carrying knowledge, truly can only be called impurities, although those impurities also played a significant role. The soul of a dragon is more like a treasure passed down through the soul, carrying knowledge and memories. As for the blood that ancient humans bathed in… those berserkers who bathed in dragon blood probably can no longer be called human. Dragon blood contains magic. It carries even more vague knowledge, like teaching a young dragon how to fly, how to fight, how to breathe, and how to roar—if it’s easier to understand. Dragon blood carries the instincts of the dragon.”

"Instinct and knowledge. If other dragon priests are dragon priests with dragon knowledge, then you, Mr. Omhead, from a soul science perspective, are a dragon locked in the body of a dragon priest."

“...I see. No wonder Hill and Omhead are so close.”

"Father!!!" Hill's voice came from behind them, and the dragon priests saw Omhead being shrouded in the shadow of a dragon.

The black dragon priest roared, his hunched body swelling and transforming. From the shadows, a powerful, towering black dragon extended its claws toward Hill's head, sparks flying as its claws scraped against the scales. The twilight dragon laughed as it was stroked, rolling around as the black dragon priest groomed it. Once the scales were cleaned, it rose again and resumed playing in the water with the dragon, taking Lyle, whom it had temporarily entrusted to the dragon, back into its grasp.

“Father?” Helena’s blurry spirit looked at Omhead, who had returned to human form, with a confused expression.

“Hill’s thinking is very confused. When we dragon priests first met her, she gave us a summary that she could understand. I became her father, and I think this was a kind of repair for her lonely life, so I accepted her title.”

Irason pouted, "You're clearly the best brother among us! Don't pretend to be helpless, it makes you look like you deserve a beating!"

Helena observed the dragon priests, whose expressions were somewhat strange, and sensed something interesting.

"May I ask about the other people's titles?"

“Flowers,” Irason said.

“Ice,” Principes said.

“Flame,” Freheimer said.

“A magician,” Morokui said. “When we first met, I attracted Hill’s attention with a series of magical fireworks, and that’s how I got the title.”

"Mr. Omhead is the 'father,' Lyle is the 'puppy,' so what about the dragon?"

"'you'."

Helena's spirit floated within the magic circle.

"I have a general understanding of the extent of Hill's confusion. If there are no other issues, I will begin the soul-repairing work."

“Ariana”.

After gathering the ghostly herd together, Ariana stepped into the center of the magic circle at her sister's call.

The mist began to dissipate, and Helena's soul embraced Ariana from behind. The sisters' overlapping images slowly merged, until only Ariana remained with her eyes closed. Her allure intensified, and even her words carried a bewitching magic. Helena had possessed her sister.

"To adjust the soul of a dragon, a large and sophisticated 'instrument' is needed. The Ghost Herd is the best scalpel for soul surgery. They obey my sister's orders more than I do. Ariana's affinity is undoubtedly the best among us. She has a good relationship with all the wraiths."

It's probably because Ariana's ethereal personality is more similar to that of a vengeful spirit, while the other two Nathlan daughters are full of evil intentions.

The dragon and the black dragon priest coaxed and tricked Hill into obediently squatting in the center of the magic circle. She looked a little scared, as neither the dragon nor her 'father' were by her side, leaving her alone in that ugly-looking circle.

Hill was very sad, so she hugged her 'puppy' tightly.

"Hey, hey, hey, go easy! Go easy!" Lyle desperately tried to keep the Twilight Dragon's huge face away from him. Nia's exoskeleton fibers supported the dragon's grip. Hill had no idea of ​​her own superhuman strength, especially since she had been getting stronger and stronger under the care of the dragon priest recently.

“I’ll go get Lyle.” A soul ritual can only have one target. It is a very precise and complex process. If the ritual accidentally involves two souls, their souls will become entangled and turn into a chaotic fused spirit, which will increase the workload of the caster.

“Ariana” spoke.

“Let’s begin like this. I understand the nature of Lyle’s soul. The nascent form of the evil god cannot be assimilated by the soul ritual. And Hill’s soul is already chaotic. Perhaps the distortion and mutation of the evil god’s power can play a role in repairing it.”

"Alright then, that saves you some trouble. In this situation, it's harder to get Hill to give up on Lyle than to get her to go to bed at ten o'clock."

"Ariana" stood outside the magic circle, her hands pressed tightly against her abdomen, her head raised, facing Hill and Lyle, and began to sing. It was an extremely beautiful and clear voice. Lyle, who was mentally prepared, did not feel the pain of his body being torn apart. His vision began to blur and distort, and his senses became confused by the song. Before his senses went on strike, he saw a wave of phantoms rushing towards him.

……

Lyle awakens in the arms of a sculpture, Helena's Soul Reaper sculpture, in the realm of the spirit.

[You could have slept longer; I'm enjoying this moment.] The enormous sculpture is speaking; the plaster-like Helena remains as captivating as ever.

She kept getting smaller, no, Lyle was gradually "recovering".

A writhing malice surged from the void within her heart, arms turned into withered branches, fleshy tentacles became flesh, and the black ominous giant stood beside the Helena sculpture.

I really want to kill off that "ominous" part of you.

[You can't do it, because there's no "ominous sign" part, only "Lyle." Start working early, don't keep them waiting.]

The sculpture stretches out its arms, cradling the face of the black omen; petrification and corrosion begin simultaneously, eroding each other.

There is no concept of time here; the time we spend together can be a fleeting moment or an eternity.

The ominous sign made him turn around and look around.

There's no point in being intimate with you here; I want to spend our "time" together.

With Ariana, or with me?

Looking back, the ominous sign revealed two empty holes facing the sculpture.

Why do you all like to set traps for me? You are Helena, and you are Ariana.

The Helena sculpture has changed; her face has become a fusion of the two sisters, a more beautiful individual. She smiles, transcending light, freezing time, and creating a beauty that shakes the soul.

[Because I like you, and I want you to react in a more interesting way.]

Let's get started.

The black ominous sign scanned its surroundings and quickly located its target.

What is that?

That's madness. Yes, it's very much like you, because an evil god is the epitome of madness.

Chapter 596 Soul Guardian

A blot of indescribable, hazy liquid floated in the spiritual world of the colorful aurora. At its most orderly, it appeared as a flattened ellipsoid; more often, however, it was uneven, with something thrashing about within, creating bizarre horns and dents. Sometimes, the internal entity would penetrate the outer membrane, causing the dark, shadowy power within to spill out and pollute the surrounding aurora. Then, as if time had reversed, the shadows were absorbed, the broken outer shell mended, leaving the twisted soul to struggle alone.

Every soul in the spirit world retains a unique physical form, as it represents their self-awareness. Whenever a spirit's physical form changes, it signifies a change in the spirit of that being, transforming from one soul into another.

Only some strange beings can distort their appearance in the spirit world, because they have other, more sophisticated ways to maintain their existence, or they simply don't care about themselves at all, and are madmen who constantly destroy and reshape their own personalities.

While Hill's soul, in terms of activity and size, is indeed similar to the nascent form of the evil god, Lyle would never admit it.

Her soul is far more restless than anything in the real world.

Helena's avatar moved through the soul space like a nimble sea serpent, flanking the soul with Lyle on either side.