Spirit Soul

"Youngest reincarnation of the old universe, let me tell you the true origin of the Razkadan castle, and why we are here!"

Stepping forward, Nitran spoke the words which made Kyle avert his attention to the Reaper.

He was looking at the Reaper hopefully and did not avoid his gaze.

Kyle was highly curious about the history of the castle, the Undeads, and Beatrice, followed by the reason why he had been pulled towards the castle.

Seeing that Kyle had lost all his fear of the Undeads, they stared at him, unsure what to think about the young man.

He was still a mystery to them, and only Nitran, and apparently Beatrice knew more about him.

The rest of them had no idea what exactly the words 'youngest reincarnation of the old universe' meant with reference to Kyle.

They clearly knew what a reincarnation was, but they weren't sure what the meaning of the Old Universe was.

In fact, most knowledge about the old universe that had been devoured to allow the omnipotent being to finally end its life was unknown.

Only the Old Souls that were able to retain their memories knew a few things about the omnipotent being.

These were also the only select few who knew the fact that Shima had emerged from the energy the omnipotent being had to release in order to die.

That was something Kyle was also aware of.

This made Kyle assume that the Reaper had to be someone who knew an Old Soul.

Either that, or he was one of the Old Souls himself, though Kyle doubted if that was the case.

It was more likely for Nitran to know about most things owing to him being acquainted with Karnias.

As such, he stared at Nitran, waiting for him to finally start the history lesson.

"Let's start with 50,000 years ago, when I traveled with Karnias through Shima. At that time, we were fleeing away from another Old Soul who was pursuing us.

After all, we had stolen the Undead Heart right in front of his eyes!

…"

The moment the Reaper started with his story, Kyle's mind started buzzing with information.

Nitran continued with his tale as if he was discussing whether but he forgot that he was literally dumping spanning over a total of 50,000 years.

Though Kyle was interested to hear him, the way he simply went on without a pause caused Kyle an extreme headache.

In the end, it took Nitran a total of three hours to finish his tale.

He got so carried away that it was only after he was done speaking that he looked at Kyle again.

He believed that the history of the Castle, and how the Undeads had arrived in the castle must have been exciting to hear for Kyle.

But he frowned a little to see that Kyle was holding his head in an arm, staring into nothingness.

He was sitting on a cushion that he had taken out while eating bread.

Meanwhile, his other arm was trying to support his head, and veins were protruding out of his forehead.

The information had been extremely interesting, but Kyle couldn't help but feel that explaining it in simpler terms would have been more helpful.

After summarizing everything Nitran had explained, the situation looked much easier.

First, Karnias and Nitran had been traveling together, as master and disciple.

But later they were being chased by another Old Soul because they stole the Undead Heart.

It was then that they found Beatrice.

Both the Undead Heart and Beatrice were about to die due to their own unique reasons.

The Undead heart didn't have enough Undeads around itself to be maintained.

And, Beatrice had a unique condition which Karnias had immediately figured out.

Thus, making the best out of the situation, he sealed them to each other.

Karnias built the Razkadan castle at the place they were sealed before he began to gather all kinds of Undeads that owed him a favor.

After binding them as an additional layer of supportive seals to the Undead heart, he left them.

However, what Kyle hadn't expected Karnias to do was to lure away the troupes of the Old Soul from which they had stolen the Undead Heart.

While acting as bait, he was unable to return to take care of Beatrice or unseal the other Undeads from their shackles.

Only Nitran was left behind, and he was also not sure where his master was right now. He had been ordered to protect Beatrice, but over the course of time, she had become stronger than anyone else.

Even after 50,000 years had passed, Karnias had yet to return for good.

And, instead of coming back once every few millennia in order to take a look at the Undead heart, whose use nobody knew, he decided to forget it for good.

In the end, Nitran made it clear that Karnias was an evil being known for his scheming, but that he had noticed this way too late.

As such, he, the other undeads, and Beatrice had just been Karnias' chess pieces.

Kyle found this to be quite sad, and he felt somewhat bad for them because they had been stuck in the castle for 50 millennia.

He couldn't even imagine how it must have been to live in the same place for such a long time, with no way of leaving it.

It must have been hard to find a distraction and avert their focus on something.

However, other than the evil scheming of Karnias, Kyle realized something else about the other Undeads.

Each of them had their own goal, and in order to fulfill it, they had to move freely. Apparently, they had been promised something if they were to be tied to the Undead heart for a few centuries.

Spending a few hundred years in order to achieve their goals was nothing, but thousands of years were a different matter.

As such, they were desperate to leave, and after endless experiments, Li seemed to have found a way.

However, this way was exceptionally tricky.

It would not only unseal and free everyone from the Undead heart, but it would leave them behind with only a fraction of their current prowess.

That was if the worst-case scenario did not occur in which they would be obliterated.

Because of that, it was fortunate that Kyle appeared out of nowhere as if someone had brought him there, just to rescue them.

In the beginning, they had planned to forcefully bind him to the Undead heart, turning him into an Undead being, powerful, but undead.

But this thought changed once they perceived his capabilities, his abilities, and every other strong trait about him.

Because of that, their hope to be freed, without a decrease in their strength, had increased a lot.

And after his initial tests, and the information he had procured from Kyle, Li was confident that it might even be possible for them to regain their former strength from 50,000 years ago!

Furthermore, even Beatrice could be saved if her earlier assumption was not wrong.

All in all, everything looked pretty great.

Despite being forced to stay in the castle, the group of six had grown attached to each other over the course of 50,000 years.

As such, they had to treasure Kyle, who was still digesting the information in order to prevent any kind of misunderstanding.

Nitran realized that it had been a lot, so he gave Kyle some time to accept and process the facts before he would go on.

Meanwhile, Kyle was confused about some things which he decided to clear with the Reaper.

"So...now I have two questions. One might sound a little bit rude, but I hope nobody would misunderstand me.

As such, I'll be blunt; I was forcefully brought to this place and pulled towards the castle. Other than having been forced to enter the castle, I was not even given any rewards after I left the maze trial.

Because of that, I want to know what exactly I can gain by helping you guys, and what exactly I should do to help you?"

Kyle wanted to figure out if the task he had to do was dangerous.

It was because of this factor that he bluntly asked for rewards as it was the perfect tactic to reveal other's true colors.

This made things much easier for everyone of them.

He knew that it was rude to ask someone just for rewards, but kindness was often misunderstood as being weak in the era of Cultivation.

And weak was certainly not how he wanted to look like to anyone.

Thus, Kyle had to be blunt, and rude!

To his fortune, the Undeads had already expected this question, and it was Li who answered this time.

"As for your trial's rewards, you can choose one item from the castle's storage for every trial you pass after the maze.

If you need anything else for helping us, you can ask Beatrice.

She has a rather special and different request than what all of us want from you; to destroy the Undead heart by providing it with your life force!"

The part about the rewards sounded nice, and Kyle could assume what Beatrice would ask from him.

Though it made him a little bit uncomfortable.

However, what he was unable to understand was how exactly destroying the Undead heart should help them because they were bound to it.

Thus, he stared at Li with a confused expression, but instead of him, it was Beatrice who jumped in after her name was mentioned.

"We want you to use your ability to provide the Undead Heart with the life force which is the direct opposite energy of the death energy. Through this, the accumulated death aura will be released, and the others can absorb it to regain their old power.

Meanwhile, we will be able to break the seals, and everyone will be happy...well, I would need you to enter a blood pact with me once I break the seal on me. Through this, I can survive by drinking my soulmate's blood...but I hope that is fine."

Hearing Beatrice saying the last sentence so nonchalantly caused Kyle, who had already expected this outcome, to frown deeply as a chill ran down his spine making him shudder.

He could comprehend the first part of what she said, even if he was not sure if it made sense.

But, both freeing the Undeads from their shackles, and allowing them to roam Shima as well as making a blood pact with Beatrice didn't sound nice or comfortable.

After seeing the discomfort in Kyle's eyes, it was not exactly difficult for the Undeads to understand his concerns.

Yet, when he spoke out his thoughts, they felt this to be a little bit weird.

"During the last few months, I noticed that you guys are not bad people, but I don't think any of you can reassure me that your temper won't create chaos...right?

If I were to destroy the Undead Heart, which will save you guys, and possibly restore your prowess, won't I be at fault if you guys were to unleash your wrath and destroy a kingdom?

I don't want you to kill any innocent people because that won't make you better than anyone you want to take revenge on. 50,000 years have already passed, and it is a long time.

If those who took something from you are still alive, kill them, but if only their descendants are alive, what use does it have to kill them?

They are not the ones who made you suffer and have nothing to do with the entire situation."

After he said that, Kyle turned towards Beatrice with an uncomfortable expression.

"About that blood pact thing... if you need some of my blood every once in a while, you will have to stay by my side...but I do want to leave and live my own life… without being forced to do something I do not want, just because you might possibly be the dominating force in the contract because you're stronger…"

In the end, Kyle didn't hold back, even if it could worsen the situation.

Stating things clearly and explicitly made him feel better and reduced the chances of a misunderstanding later.

He had his own principles, and if several kingdoms were to be destroyed because he unleashed some powerhouses, that would be devastating.

He wouldn't be able to forgive himself for that.

Meanwhile, Beatrice was like a ticking bomb that could explode at any moment.

Neither did Kyle know how much blood she needed, how it would be initiated, what kind of restrictions he would have nor what exactly a blood pact was.

However, what he didn't expect was Beatrice's confusion as she replied to him.

"I think you are misunderstanding something. First, I'll lose my cultivation the moment the seal of the Undead heart is broken.

Don't worry, I won't die due to my age…I think. But the second and the most important thing is that, I cannot hurt you in any way once you make a blood pact with me… "