Return of the Mythic Bloodline

Chapter 501: Who is Vivi

I began losing control over my body. My limbs felt too heavy to move, my eyes struggling to see through the blurry vision as everything slowly turned dark and silent. It was the same sensation I had felt when the Sword of Awakening pierced my heart and when Aruma killed me inside the visions. That familiar pull toward oblivion, the warmth of nonexistence calling my name.

While I was falling into a bottomless dark pit, I saw something coming toward me from above in the distance. A faint glow at first, then growing brighter.

As it drew closer, I was able to see it clearly. A blue coloured translucent figure of a female. She had long hair swaying behind her, reaching all the way to her feet like a river of starlight. On her forehead was a slit diamond shaped mark that pulsed with a soft luminescence. At the centre of her eyes, which carried intricate patterns, a vertical slit iris was locked onto me, looking at me with a warm, knowing smile. A pair of wide wings was spread behind her back.

As she reached close to me, she extended her arms and pulled me into her embrace. Her touch was cool and comforting, like a gentle tide.

"Pull yourself together, successor," the woman whispered before dissolving on my body like a liquid, melting into my very skin. Her voice was familiar and strangely soothing. I had heard it before.

Before I could focus on where I had heard it, the liquid that had wrapped around me began glowing, and my body, which had been endlessly falling, slowly came to a halt. The descent stopped.

And then, I was suddenly jolted upward. The darkness around me vanished in a few seconds, turning into countless lines of colours moving past me. Or perhaps I was being pulled too fast that everything around me seemed blurry. Reds, blues, golds streaked by like shooting stars.

In the next moment, my body halted with a sudden abrupt stop as it was launched.

"Huff... huff..." I breathed heavily, my chest rising and falling as my heart beat like war drums inside my ribs.

I was inside my room again, lying on the floor with Ume and Nymria sleeping on the bed beside me. Their soft breathing was the only sound in the quiet night.

Even though the floor below me was frozen, cold seeping through my clothes, my whole body was covered in sweat. Damp strands of hair clung to my forehead.

"What in the world did I just experience?" I murmured, rising to a sitting position. My muscles ached as if I had run a thousand miles.

I pressed my forehead between my fingers and thumb, which was throbbing intensely both from what I had just gone through and from the voices of death that still whispered at the edges of my consciousness.

"Was that what Ume saw in the prophecy?" I murmured as I walked toward the window where moonlight was filtering through the glass, casting pale silver patterns on the wooden floor. "It was certainly not a nice experience."

I stayed there for a few seconds, letting the cold breeze from the ocean calm my mind that was racing with numerous questions. The salt in the air, the distant crash of waves, it all helped ground me.

I moved out, reaching the roof of the house to not disturb Ume and Nymeria. The tiles were cool beneath my bare feet.

"Vivi, are you there?" I asked, lying down on the roof, staring up at the vast canopy of stars.

"Yes, host."

"Thank you for pulling me out of the abyss."

"..."

Now that I thought deeply, I remembered where I had heard the voice of that woman. It was Vivi’s voice, the same voice I had heard when I activated its voice function.

"So, you will decide to stay silent aga—"

"You are welcome, host."

The display materialised before me before I could finish my sentence, hovering in the air with its familiar glow.

"Vivi, are you really just a system?"

"I am your personal assistant and guide to unlocking your true potential."

"Still sticking with that unconvincing explanation?"

"Before that, I was your ancestor, a being from the Forgotten Era."

My eyes widened as I jolted to a sitting position, my heart skipping a beat.

"So you mean you were a living being before?"

"Yes."

I was left completely stunned. My mind reeled, trying to process the revelation.

"And you have been watching everything that I did from the moment you entered my body?"

"Is that what you are worried about, host? I am but only a system now. The being that I was before is long gone."

"Is that so? I cannot help but notice that you have become a lot more talkative now."

"When the host absorbed the Heart of the Fallen, your authority increased, which lifted the constraints on me. I can converse more deeply now."

"Then, can you become what you were before if I obtain the remaining artifacts as well?"

"As I said before, the being that I was before is long gone. I will vanish once I achieve my task."

"Which is?"

"Return of the Mythic Bloodline."

I let out a small chuckle and rose to my feet, the wind rustling my hair backward while my face shone under the bright moonlight. My shadow stretched long across the roof tiles.

"I don’t know what kind of person you were before turning into this. But what I am sure of is that you are not someone who is indifferent to feelings. I am not an idiot who did not notice the number of times you went out of your way to help me with things that had nothing to do with the Mythic Bloodline."

The warning not to take out the Heart of the Fallen on Earth. Giving me a customised quest to allow me to return to Vyoman again. And countless other favours that Vivi had done. I remembered them all, every small kindness.

"Vivi, whatever the future holds, I will not let you disappear as long as I live."

For a moment, no response came. The night was still, the stars watching in silence. Then, instead of a screen, a soft voice whispered in my ear, "You should be careful with your words. Your wives will not like the sound of that."

"Hey, don’t just suddenly whisper inside my head," I jolted from the sudden words, my hand instinctively slapping my ear. "And that is not what I meant by those words."

"..."

"Tch, being smug," I retorted, shaking my head with a wry smile.

After spending a few minutes on the roof, I said, "Vivi, can you summon the soul of the Death Knight?"

"Initialising Host’s request..."

My shadow turned dark, with black flames vaporising from it like smoke rising from dying embers. From within the shifting darkness, a figure emerged, a shape of pure shadow bound by bright white chains at its neck, stomach, and limbs.

The chains rattled loudly as the figure frantically tried to break free and attack me, its movements jerky and desperate.

Still, I kept a calm demeanor and said in a soft tone, "I will not say that what you did in your past was not your mistake, and neither can I promise that I can help you find redemption."

My voice turned lower, my eyes half closing as I continued, "What I can tell you is that I understand you. Perhaps better than anyone else.

For I see my alternate reality in you. If anything happened to Nymeria, I would have become a being corrupted by death just like you."

With a wave of my hand, I unbind its shackles. The chains fell away with a resonant clatter, dissolving into wisps of light.

The moment it was freed, it bolted at me with a gluttonous screech, claws extended, hunger for destruction burning in its hollow eyes.

"If you want to perish, I will fulfill your wish. But if you decide to serve me, I promise you the revenge that you seek. To kill the creature that destroyed your world. To kill the pisach."

Her claw stopped after reaching just a hair’s breadth from my eye.

Her hand began trembling. The darkness suddenly erupted away from her body, vanishing into thin air, revealing her face that had been hidden by the corruption. Pale skin, delicate features, and eyes that had seen too much pain.

She looked at me with her blue eyes, tears trickling down her face as she asked with a plea, "Can you really kill it?"

"Let us find out together."

She gave a slight nod before moving onto one knee, "I, Celestia, acknowledge you as my master."

The moment she said those words, a swirl of dark and white energy emerged from my shadow and began absorbing into her body. The two forces intertwined like serpents, merging and flowing.

Her figure slowly turned human, standing at the same height as me. A dark, heavy armour with bright patterns drawn along its surface became clad to her body, each line glowing faintly like veins of light. However, unlike before, her dark face was now visible without a helmet. Her long cyan hair cascaded behind her back, the only colourful part of her beside her piercing blue eyes.

Ding...

"Congratulations! The summon has been successfully named! Celestia is added to the Soul Conjuration Legion. Yin-Yang Soul Conjuration (Level 3). Current Soul Capacity: 2/3.

1. Devouros Prime

• Soul Type: Troll

• Current Rank: Veteran

[Tap to Rank Up]

{View Details}

2. [Celestia]

• Soul Type: Human

• Current Rank: Commander

{View Details}"