Two days had passed since that encounter with the General and her apprentice.
Seishan sat on a tree branch, her feet dangling in the air, watching as Dana and Ceres trained in the distance.
The two women were locked in a fierce exchange of attacks, with Dana holding a slight advantage. Each of Ceres's strikes was countered or blocked with great precision.
As she watched Dana land a kick to Ceres's knee, Seishan involuntarily brought a hand to her own knee. It was a characteristic attack of the yellow-haired woman—she knew because she had suffered similar strikes in the past.
At the same time, she remembered how Karl used to heal her whenever she got hurt during training.
Seishan let out a sigh as she watched the green leaves of the trees sway with the gusts of wind.
They still had no information about Karl and Harl, though it was obvious they were dead. Given the difference in power, there was no evidence left at the scene to verify whether they had been executed on the spot or taken to the colosseum or the palace. Of the three options, the most painless, surprisingly, was the first.
She suppressed a shiver at the thought of all the kinds of torture they could have been subjected to in order to extract information.
Even though the General had said their movement was succeeding because she was allowing it, Seishan was sure that if everyone turned against her, she must feel some concern.
Though she also concluded that, based on how the General had acted the other day, she was also certain there was no way to harm her—and sadly, she was right.
A cry of pain caught her attention, and her black eyes focused on the fight below her.
Ceres had taken another hit to her knee and ended up on the ground in pain. Yet, seconds later, she was already trying to stand up again
As one of the most talented members of her clan, she possessed many different types of Memories, and one of them helped her heal.
Seishan had several Memories with similar functionalities as well. But she didn't have any that could bridge the gap between a Saint and an Awakened—those simply didn't exist.
Now that Akame was a Master, they had a slightly better chance of succeeding, but they still hadn't found Sylvie and Siord—or so she had believed until recently.
Seishan had spent enough time with Sylvie to identify small details about her. How Sylvie always stood with a slight lean on her right leg. The way she always kept both hands behind her back. The way she could convey messages through her eyes.
Through these small things, she believed she had discovered what role Sylvie had taken within the Nightmare, and to her dismay, it was exactly the one she had least wanted for her sister.
Sylvie had been a slave in the colosseum and, at the same time, the winner of the tournament held a week ago.
Now she only needed to find out where Siord was, but considering she was with Ceres, what were the chances that the other two were together as well?
That would mean that Sylvie and Siord were the two tournament winners, with the former now being the General's apprentice. While she didn't know Siord's whereabouts, she was also certain that Sylvie wouldn't let anything happen to her in the palace.
That caused a great weight to lift from her shoulders, making her feel better about herself.
It also meant they would have two important allies in defeating the General and the King in the future—and one of them was being trained by one of their targets.
From one moment to the next, Seishan felt a new presence, and returning to reality, she noticed Akame standing below the tree she was in.
She cleared her throat and notified them:
"We have news from our spies inside the castle." Everyone focused intently on her. "The King has returned… and he is now a Transcendent."
The information hit them like a physical blow. It was something expected, but there was a big difference between suspicion and fact. This meant they would now have to defeat two Saints instead of just one.
"What is his condition?" asked Dana.
Akame shook her head. "We don't know exactly. It's said that he overcame the Third Nightmare on his own." Then she crossed her arms. "Our spy couldn't get much information about his mental state, but the few rumors he heard say he lost his mind in his Nightmare."
That was both good and bad news, Seishan recognized. On one hand, being insane made him weaker, but on the other, it made him unpredictable.
"But that's not all the news we got," Akame continued. "We have information that the King's personal army is on the move."
"What do you mean, 'on the move'?" asked Ceres—but it was a question they all had.
Akame let out a sigh and replied.
"The army is advancing into the Second Wall, oppressing everyone in their path, regardless of which side they're on." In a more serious tone, she finished, "They are killing everyone who gets in their way, and their direction is the palace where the General is stationed."
Everyone fell silent. It even seemed as if nature itself followed their example.
The news was grave. It was exactly what they hadn't wanted to happen—the killing of innocent people.
Seishan dropped from the branch she was sitting on and landed gracefully. One of her legs knelt while the other extended to the side, finishing with the palm of her hand planted on the green grass in front of her.
Then she straightened up and said, "If the King has returned from his Nightmare and is so insane that he's sending his soldiers to kill citizens, we're going to have to kill the former before they eliminate the latter."
Akame smiled and began walking toward the base.
"I like that attitude. You have ten minutes to prepare everything." Then she stopped and looked at them over her shoulder. "Today, it all ends."
The girls went to their rooms to prepare for the final mission. Seishan went to her room and let herself fall onto the bed.
She let out a sigh and opened her runes.
Name: Seishan.
True Name: Blood Queen.
Rank: Awakened.
Attributes: [Vampyric], [Charm], [The Blood]
Attribute: [Vampyric]
Attribute Description: [You embody the nature of a creature that thrives unseen among humans, your presence charming, elusive, and quietly unsettling.]
Attribute: [Charm]
Attribute Description: [Your presence carries an unnatural charm that is difficult to ignore.]
Attribute: [The Blood]
Attribute Description: [You have inherited the lineage of Beast God.]
Aspect: [BloodCaller]
Aspect Rank: Ascended.
Aspect Description: [You are a creature drawn to blood. It answers your presence, feeding your strength and warping your form. However, the more it flows, the stronger its pull becomes.]
Aspect Ability: [Second Nature]
Aspect Ability Description: [What lies beneath your skin is patient. When it is allowed to breathe, it reshapes what you are into what you were always meant to be.]
Aspect Ability: [Blood Pressure]
Ability Description: [You impose a silent strain upon the bodies of those around you. Their blood begins to turn against them, building pressure from within until it forces its way out.]
Flaw: [Bloodlust]
Flaw Description: [The presence of blood awakens an uncontrollable urge to consume it.]
She already knew her runes by heart, but they always helped her remember where she came from and whom she cared about. Her Attribute [The Blood] had helped her enormously during her eight years trapped in the Forgotten Shore.
Seishan was also secretly jealous of Sylvie for having the possibility to see Arthur's runes, while she had no way of contacting him.
A pang of discomfort struck her heart at that thought.
Fortunately, a knock on her door distracted her.
"Come in."
The door opened slowly, and a short woman with black hair and dark red eyes entered.
"Hello, sister," she said, closing the door behind her. "Do you have a minute?"
"Yes, of course," she replied, patting the spot on the bed beside her.
Akame sat down next to her, and they both remained silent. After a few moments, she broke the silence.
"For a couple of weeks now, I've noticed something different about you."
Seishan tensed slightly.
'Did she discover that I'm not really her sister?'
Fortunately for her, Akame continued. "It was that day I found you looking at the stars on a rooftop." Her voice grew softer. "Your eyes were shining differently, your pupils were dilated, and you had a smile I had never seen on your face before."
'What is she referring to—' Her sister's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"You were really beautiful at that moment. You were truly happy."
'I was happy?'
That took her by surprise, because she didn't remember feeling that way at the time. However, now, looking back at her memories, she recalled that she had been thinking about Arthur at that moment.
About how she would like to have something of her own. Something that didn't come from her mother's kindness.
But now, thinking about it more deeply after some time, does it really matter where things came from if they made her feel happy, as Akame had supposedly mentioned?
Throughout her life, she had been quite unfamiliar with the feeling of happiness. During her youth, she had been an orphan living in an orphanage in the Outskirts. Then, perhaps, came her happiest stage.
She was adopted by her mother and there she met her sisters. She finally had a family after so long, but she was also under a strict training regimen. Until she challenged her First Nightmare, and then came the Winter Solstice.
In neither of those occasions did she manage to feel anything resembling happiness. Everything boiled down to trying to survive in whatever way she could.
She accepted Gunlaug's offer to become a lieutenant because it was the best way to ensure her survival. Then she had to live with that decision for eight years of her life.
Her entire youth, completely overshadowed by decisions or events over which she had no control.
And Seishan was tired.
Tired of having no choice in anything. Tired of feeling powerless against people or creatures stronger than her.
What did it matter where the things she had come from?
What did it matter if it was Arthur who had given her the chance to feel something different?
In the end… the feelings were still hers.
Throughout her life, Seishan had merely survived. Every important decision was made out of necessity, fear, or circumstances beyond her control. She had never had the luxury of asking herself what she truly wanted.
But now… she did.
And even if she didn't fully understand what she felt—even if she didn't know whether it was love, obsession, or simply the selfish desire to cling to something that made her happy—she no longer wanted to ignore it.
Because for the first time in her life, there was something she wanted solely for herself.
Arthur made her feel different. He made her feel seen, and more importantly… he made her feel happy.
Maybe those feelings weren't real.
Maybe they were just the result of an empty life desperately clinging to the first light it found. But even if that were the case…
Seishan was tired of living only to survive.
So she didn't care about the sacrifices she would have to make. She didn't care about the decisions she would have to face in the future.
If pursuing that happiness meant walking toward Arthur…
Then she was willing to do it.
Seishan smiled. It wasn't a normal smile—it was the most radiant smile she had ever worn in her life.
"Thank you, sister," she said softly, embracing her.
Akame was slightly surprised but ended up returning the hug.
They remained in that position for a few moments until they finally broke apart. Akame then stood up from the bed and said:
"When you're ready, we'll be waiting for you in the dining room."
Seishan nodded, and Akame, seeing her eyes, smiled slightly. Seishan hadn't noticed, but small tears had formed in her eyes.
She remained in her room in silence for a few minutes, then left for the dining room.
Once there, the four remaining members of the group agreed on a plan, and moments later, they were already on their way to the city.
Minutes passed as they reached the Third Wall, and when they did, they noticed changes at a glance.
There wasn't a single hunter in the outskirts. There were no guards covering the gates. Everything was completely deserted.
They didn't climb the wall this time—they entered through the empty gates. What greeted them was exactly the same: not a single presence inside the wall.
However, Seishan—thanks to her senses—managed to identify a strong smell. It was the smell of blood and corpses.
She frowned and communicated it to the other women. Eventually, they continued moving inward.
The houses grew firmer and more solid the deeper they went, but at the same time, the smell of blood grew more intense.
Until they reached the outskirts of the Second Wall—and at that moment, they stopped completely in their tracks.
In front of them lay the answer to why there was no one inside the Third Wall. Everywhere around them, bodies—or rather, corpses—were propped against the wall.
Painting the wall's light-colored material a deep, intense red.
Seishan's Flaw began to distort her vision. Small, blurry edges formed in her periphery from the intense smell of blood, making her sway slightly as she tried to suppress the urge to consume the blood present.
Fortunately, a hand on her shoulder kept her steady—the hand belonged to Akame, who looked at her with a slight smile. Then she nodded, and they began moving again.
Entering the Second Wall, they managed to hear the echoes of the battle raging inside. They hurried to prevent a senseless battle from continuing, but as they crossed one of the squares, they saw something that made them stop dead.
In front of them, in the center of the square, two poles rose high. On them were two things that made their blood run completely cold and sent a shiver down their spines.
On both poles were severed heads, cut at the neck.
The decapitated heads belonged to the twins.
Everyone was completely shocked by such a display of cruelty.
But upon hearing the echoes of swords striking shields or piercing bodies again, they had to continue on their way to the center of the battle.
***
(POV Sylvie)
Sylvie was meditating in her room, and as she did, she kept using the essence-refining technique the General had taught her.
Ascending is the process of reforging the soul core. It requires transforming the Awakened core so it can contain Ascended essence, which is far more volatile and potent than Awakened essence. Because a soul core is originally formed from solidified Awakened essence, the central difficulty of Ascension lies in altering or replacing this structure so that it can properly contain and stabilize the higher-quality essence.
The General had explained that there were two ways to do it.
An enlightened, slow, and conservative method in which Ascended essence washes over the core like sea waves over the shore, gradually changing its composition through repeated cycles. Over time, the structure of the core is altered one sand particle at a time, eventually allowing it to accommodate Ascended essence.
The downside of this method is that it is extremely time-consuming and can take decades to complete. To sustain the process, an individual must either learn to elevate the quality of their own essence or acquire a steady supply of Ascended soul shards to substitute for personal enlightenment.
The second method—the one the General recommended she use—is described as swift, radical, and quite possibly lethal. It was likened to construction: rather than replacing the parts of a hut one by one to turn it into a castle, one could demolish the hut and build a new castle in its place.
This means destroying the existing soul core, which is formed from Awakened essence, and shaping an entirely new core from Ascended essence. However, the General noted that the destruction of the soul core usually causes the collapse of the soul, making this method effectively a death sentence, and that nobody had found a safe way yet to accomplish it.
And yet, it was the method the General told her to use—otherwise, she would get bored waiting for her.
At the same time, she had been researching how to apply this knowledge to form more cores instead of Ascending, and she believed there might be a similar way to apply it.
Isceth had also taught her the method for naturally Awakening, and that method was the one most similar to what she needed to form more cores.
The first step to Awaken is that one must gain control over their soul essence—something she already had. There are many methods to do this, but there is a path that anyone can walk: both the simplest and most dangerous, as well as vile. It is to kill those who have already Awakened and plunder their soul shards in order to absorb their soul essence.
She was already Awakened, so she wouldn't use this method to Awaken, but it could be applied to forming more cores.
To do this, one needs to control their soul essence by guiding it throughout the body, following the roadmap of major blood vessels. Through one's will, one guides the essence to flow slowly in a complicated cycle, increases its speed, making it rush like a mountain river and spin inside the body like a raging whirlpool. The essence condenses under the pressure of its weight and the pull of the rotation, making the essence circulate faster, eventually reaching a critical point where a soul core will be formed.
She also had the advantage of having a Mana Core, so she could use the mana reserves she already possessed and the amount she kept constantly circulating in her body to "guide" the soul essence and form such cores.
Therefore, it could be said that, only a week after learning this, the only thing she lacked was killing strong enemies. The stronger they were and the more soul essence they had, the greater her chances of forming cores.
Sylvie had the advantage of having a half-Noble Creature body—a nature that allowed her to do such a thing. At least, that was her theory. She could be wrong.
Suddenly, the door to her room opened, and opening her eyes, she saw the General standing with her arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe.
"Were you applying the technique I taught you?" Isceth asked, and Sylvie nodded. "Good. Either way, you won't have time to succeed." Sylvie was about to ask why, but the General continued, "The King has returned and he is completely insane."
Sylvie's eyes widened.
"What's going to happen now?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
The General shrugged.
"I suppose we'll have a fight to the death."
"Just like that?"
She took a few steps and stood in front of Sylvie. "What else were you expecting?"
Sylvie shook her head. "I don't know."
Isceth approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her hand was completely cold, sending a shiver down Sylvie's spine—and at the same time, her skin was completely smooth.
[You have received a Memory.]
"What? Why?"
The General withdrew her hand and went to the room's balcony. "You'll need it later, believe me." She opened the window and turned to look at her. "Follow me. We're going to the palace's front courtyard."
Sylvie didn't open her runes to see the new Memory and went to follow the General. Once on the balcony, she could see that in the palace's front courtyard, all the guards loyal to the General were standing in formation.
Isceth jumped from the balcony and landed in front of the group of soldiers. Then, Sylvie followed her example.
Not even two seconds passed after her feet touched the ground before, on the other side of the courtyard, more soldiers began to appear. But these were not loyal to the General—they were loyal to the King.
Moments later, an army of equal size stood on the opposite side of the courtyard.
Sylvie took a deep breath, and at that moment, she felt it—a new, overwhelming presence made itself known throughout the palace's front courtyard.
The presence was… disgusting, revolting. Sylvie felt the hairs on her arms stand on end and her knees threatened to buckle. She also recognized the smell—it was the same stench she had detected in the colosseum's food…
It was the King.
He had returned from his Third Nightmare, having overcome it and become the second Transcendent of the Kingdom. Becoming a Transcendent Titan.
Sylvie took a step back and positioned herself beside the General, who was already looking toward the direction the King was approaching from, her brow furrowed.
Yet, in the next moment, Isceth smiled. But it wasn't a normal smile—it was a twisted one. The corner of her mouth rose asymmetrically, baring her white teeth.
Then, she stepped forward as the King's figure became visible on the balcony they had just descended from.
His figure was enormous—nearly two meters tall, his back completely straight, both arms clasped behind him in a firm, almost impeccable posture. Yet his face… his face showed clear internal madness. It was the expression of someone living in a body that did not belong to them.
Mordrath was no longer the King. He was a mere vessel, and the consciousness that had carried him to such heights was now consumed by complete madness.
His golden eyes reflected terrors that no human should ever witness in their lifetime. His gaze held an abysmal depth as it fixed intently on the General's figure.
Then, he stepped forward, and the railings covering the balcony began to crack until they shattered, sending pieces of white marble flying in all directions.
Sylvie felt her blood begin to behave differently with each step Mordrath took—as if it wanted to leave her body and bow before the King's presence.
At that moment, the General turned and said to her, "Summon the Memory I gave you."
Sylvie searched for the last Memory she had obtained and summoned it immediately. It had a very simple name—[Blood Controller]—and it materialized as a simple bracelet on her right wrist. The moment it did, her blood began to calm.
Isceth stepped forward until she stood face to face with the King.
Both Saints remained silent, staring at each other.
After a few seconds, Isceth broke the silence.
"I see you overcame the Third Nightmare," she said. "I suppose I should congratulate you?"
Mordrath's smile widened as he replied, "Oh! Isceth… Isceth…" Then his eyes hardened slightly. "How could you know… I didn't just overcome that Third Nightmare—I conquered it."
Then he opened his arms wide as he continued speaking. "I suppose you should, but… I don't want your congratulations. What good would it do for a miserable creature like you to congratulate me?" He shook his head. "No, no, that won't do it. It won't do it… Oh! But how could we solve this, Isceth?"
Isceth returned the same smile. "I don't know… you tell me, Mordrath. What do you plan to do now that you're a Transcendent?"
"Transcendent?" the King repeated. "Oh! I suppose I am, but… that won't do it either." He lifted his head and gazed broadly at the sun. "Tell me, Isceth—do you want to hear a story?"
The General shrugged, and the King began to narrate.
"I had a dream… a dream that wouldn't end. A dream where I was strong… no, not just strong. I was a god. I had made it—I had reached Divinity." Then he lowered his gaze, and his golden eyes focused on the General's sky-blue ones. "Tell me, Isceth… do you know what Divinity tastes like?"
The General shook her head.
"Well, I do. I was a god in that dream. I was the only god in that dream. And I want it… I want to feel that way again. I want to be a god once more. I know the path—I don't just know it… I walked it, I experienced it." Then he shook his head. "But to get there, one must first clean the house… do you understand what that means, Isceth?"
Isceth's eyes filled with killing intent as she nodded.
"Good… good," said Mordrath. "Then… let's start, shall we?"
Both took a few steps back as two longswords materialized in their hands and a new layer of armor formed over their bodies. Then, their presence and killing intent radiated throughout the entire kingdom.
Staring intently into each other's eyes, they both smiled again—expressions completely consumed by madness.
From one moment to the next, they lunged forward, making the earth tremble at the impact of a Transcendent Titan against a Transcendent Beast.
Sylvie felt the blood in her body begin to behave differently again, even with the help of the Memory. Then, a cold chill seeped into her bones.
'I need to get out of the fight zone if I don't want to become collateral damage.'
She began circulating essence and mana through her muscles, shooting off in the opposite direction. But the moment the battle between the two Saints began, the rest of the soldiers launched themselves at each other.
The final battle of the kingdom had begun, and Sylvie had to do everything possible to prevent what she had seen in the vision at the beginning from becoming reality.