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- Within the Death Realm -

Soon, Axilia brought me to a building to the left of the king\'s, on the other side of a concrete strip of sidewalk. The roads were lit by lamps that were powered by hot white fire rather than electricity, but even with the flames, the night air of the Death Realm was chilling to the bone.

"Come on, darling~" Axilia said, pulling me inside through the front doors and shutting it behind her once we were both inside.

"This place…" I looked around at the interior of the building, which was nothing short of the king\'s. There was some dust settled on the furniture since she had been away for so long, but that was concerning in a different way.

"Axilia… do you not have servants here?" I asked, frowning.

"Nope~" She said in a carefree tone, merrily pulling me up the stairs.

"But… why? You\'re the princess of the kingdom… how do you not have any servants?"

"I used to," she said, slowing down her pace.. "My father sent them here. But then I found out they were actually spies for him, so I killed them all, hehe~"

"…" I fell silent, trying to make sense of all the information I\'ve gotten so far.

From their interaction earlier, I can tell Axilia doesn\'t have a good relationship with her father… but to the point where she is getting spied on by him using servants? Just what happened in the past?

I had to be careful not to pry too hard, or else Axilia would get upset. I clearly couldn\'t ask her anything, and the king was out of the question. So then…

A face popped up in my head — the face of an old man wearing a butler suit.

*****

In the end, Axilia and I climbed into the same bed after taking showers. It took everything I had to convince her showering together was not a good idea, since I already knew we would become too distracted by… other things.

She also tried doing said things with me after showering, on the bed, but I managed to stop her by bringing up a conversation we had prior to arriving at the castle.

"Axilia, didn\'t you say you were going to explain everything about the Death Realm and True Essence to me tonight?" I asked. "That time is now."

"Oh, right~ I nearly forgot, fufu~" She giggled and wrapped her arms around my body, pulling the warm blanket up to our necks. "You see, darling, the thing you call mana in the Living Realm is but a downgraded version of True Essence. And the \'magic\' that you use… is but a downgraded version of the power of the Laws."

I furrowed my brows. "Laws?"

"Yep~ In every Realm, there is a Law supporting it. The Living Realm has many different kinds of Laws in it, clashing with one another, which is why they ended up turning into a weaker version of themselves — the energy you call \'mana\'."

"So… the Death Realm is governed by the Law of Death," I said, then realized. "Sorry, that sounded really stupid."

"Hehe~" Axilia laughed and rubbed her head against my chest, hugging me tighter. I continued.

"Is there any way for me to control the power of Laws rather than mana?"

"Hm… there is, but it will take a long time to convert~" Axilia said. "It\'s better to just let me protect you… don\'t worry, I\'ll kill anyone who tries harming you, darling~"

"Sorry, but I\'m not interested in getting protected by girls," I replied. "If you know how to do this \'conversion\', teach me."

"Fufu… you want to protect me instead, darling~? Hehe~ you\'re making me blush~"

Axilia loosened her grip around me and hopped off the bed, taking my hand and dragging me along. She walked over to the window in the room, then pushed them open, allowing the night breeze to blow in like a winter\'s storm.

Considering I wasn\'t wearing clothes and only pants — that\'s how I usually slept — this came freezing for me.

"A-Ah, shit… it\'s cold…!"

I was about to cast a spell to heat my own body up to fight back, but then, Axilia swung her arms around me and rested her head against my chest.

"Now you aren\'t cold anymore, darling~"

I blinked, feeling the warmth of her body against mine, and slowly patted her head. 

"Heh… thanks, Axilia."

After several seconds, after my body had adjusted to the cold, I gently pushed her away.

"Okay, I\'m fine now. Uh… how does the conversion work?"

"It\'s simple. Try to absorb the True Essence in the air, darling~"

"Huh? But… didn\'t you tell me not to do that earlier?"

"That\'s because you had just arrived here, fufu~ your body needs time to adjust to the new environment. But now… it should be safe to try~"

Yeah… \'should be\'. Okay, got it.

I reached my arm out the window, gulped, then activated my Chaos powers. Since the True Essence in the air was a lot more prominent and easier to feel than mana, I didn\'t need to bother looking for it like finding a needle in a haystack.

I inhaled deeply and began the absorption process, feeling the invisible threads of energy in the air enter my body via my fingertips. But as soon as it did, my eyes widened in shock.

"Ngh…!"

"Darling!" Axilia cried out in worry, but I stopped her from interfering using my other hand and gritted my teeth.

The True Essence of Death… it felt incredibly cold. Not like ice or snow — no, this was a different kind of cold. A bone-chilling, spine-shivering cold, produced from internal fear rather than external climate.

As it slipped into my body, I felt my entire figure begin trembling, but I held steady and took it all in. It felt like a snake was making its way up the bloodstream of my body, causing me to shiver, but I endured it and continued.

"Stop, that\'s enough!" Axilia called out, pulling me back from the window. "Ah… darling, you took in way too much…"

"I\'m fine," I said, glancing down at my two palms and narrowing my eyes. "What next?"

"See if you can control it, of course~" Axilia said. "Like this~"

She smiled and cut through the air horizontally with her right arm, and I blinked in surprise as white energy emerged from seemingly out of nowhere and shot outside the window in the shape of a crescent. It smashed into a tree and utterly decimated it before Axilia balled her hand into the shape of a fist, causing the projectile to disappear.

Around her body, an aura of white energy flowed in a gas-like state, almost similar to clouds but in a messier, sharper pattern. That was True Essence.

"In the Upper Realms, using preset spell names is not what we do," Axilia explained. "Everyone has their own fighting style, using the same power of True Essence. Someone\'s mastery over the power decides how much freedom they have, of course~ now, give it a try, darling~"

I nodded and began to mimic her movements, but she suddenly took hold of my arm and stopped me.

"No, not like that~"

"Huh…?"

"Like I said, everyone has their own fighting style, darling~" Axilia said with a bright smile. "Feel the True Essence inside your body… and follow its flow~"

"…" I closed my eyes and tried to visualize my own body. I could feel that the mana within me had been nearly completed dominated by the True Essence, as if consumed.

But then, a third power came in — the power of Chaos. Just like how the True Essence devoured my original mana, the Chaos energy devoured the True Essence, converting it into Chaos Essence. The originally white Death Essence was turned red and black — it seemed that even True Essence, the genuine energy of the Upper Realms, was still nothing in front of the omnipotent force of the Primordial Chaos.

Deep breaths…

I calmed down, slowing my breathing and clearing my mind of any other thoughts. Axilia remained quiet as well, knowing this was an important time for me and shouldn\'t be disturbed.

My own fighting style… I\'ve got it.

I shouldn\'t be trying to imitate Axilia. My fighting style — my power — is Chaos. All I need to do is embrace that, and…

My eyes snapped open as various black clouds appeared around my body, trailing with red lines of energy like ominous blood.

I had done it.

"Woah…" Axilia looked at me in awe, eyes sparkling, as she admired my new power. "It\'s beautiful…"

Beautiful? She thought this murderous, blood-like black and red combination was beautiful? Well, to each their own, I suppose.

I narrowed my eyes and cut through the air with my arm just like Axilia had done moments before, and a crescent-shaped attack of raw Chaos Essence shot out in front of me, similar in size to the one Axilia had sent out but far more deadly.

As it passed by the tree she had cut down moments earlier, the entire plant withered, leaves disappearing into nothingness and branches thinning out. A black squirrel-like animal that had been climbing on the fallen tree when my attack passed by also froze and fell over, the light in its eyes fading away instantly.

I clenched my fists tightly, mentally ordering the attack to disperse. It did, following my instructions perfectly.

"Woah…" Axilia walked up beside me, eyes sparkling with wonder, then suddenly wrapped her arms around mine and rubbed her face against it. "Hehe~ I knew darling could do it~!"

I smiled. True Essence… you\'re mine now.