Chapter 91: The Law of Death (2)

"Actually... there is one Law I think would suit you perfectly."

"But don’t expect the path to it to be easy. It’s one of the most complicated Laws to comprehend at the higher ranks."

"Oh? And what Law is that?"

"The Law of Death."

"The Law of Death..." Malrik repeated. "Is it really that powerful?"

"It’s one of the strongest offensive Laws in existence."

"One of the strongest offensive Laws?" Malrik’s eyes widened slightly.

"Yes. But it’s not nearly as versatile as mine." Lilith said. "I can use my Law in countless ways depending on the situation. The Law of Death, on the other hand, was born for one purpose alone."

"Killing."

Malrik looked at her with growing interest. "You seem to know a lot about it."

"I know a little."

"How’s that?"

"Because I’ve fought someone who used it before."

"Oh." Malrik straightened in his seat. "How did it go?"

"Annoying." Lilith’s expression turned serious. "I had to give it everything I had, and I still couldn’t bring him down."

"So... you lost?"

Lilith stared at him for a moment.

"If I had lost, would I be sitting here telling you about it?"

"..."

"Wait... aren’t you already dead?" Malrik asked, genuine curiosity crossing his face.

"Exactly. But if I’d lost, my soul would have been destroyed."

"What do you mean?"

"In this world, we’re all bound by certain limits. One of them is that if the body dies, the soul dies with it."

"But if your soul grows strong enough, you can break past the limits that bind ordinary beings."

"Even after death?"

"Even after death."

Malrik stared at her, still struggling to process what he was hearing.

"Are you saying someone can be killed... and still come back?"

"Exactly."

"How?"

"If your soul is strong enough, you can leave that body entirely. You can even end up in a new one."

A new body?

Malrik was genuinely stunned by this revelation. He’d never thought about death this way before.

"So... death isn’t really the end?"

"Not for someone who’s reached a certain level of power."

"Wait. Doesn’t that mean the strongest people could just live forever?"

"Maybe. Nobody really knows. I’ve never met anyone who’s reached that level myself."

"But what I do know for certain is that the stronger your soul becomes, the longer you can live without issue. Thousands of years, easily."

Thousands of years?

Lilith paused for a moment, letting Malrik process that, then continued.

"And this is where the annoying part of this Law comes in."

"The Law of Death can hurt a soul. It can even destroy one completely."

"And when a soul dies...That’s it. There is no coming back."

Malrik stayed silent for several seconds, struggling to process everything he’d just heard. This was the first time he’d ever heard of the Law of Death, but what Lilith had told him about souls was what genuinely shook him.

He already owned a skill capable of damaging souls, one that could kill weaker souls outright.

If that skill can already do that without any Law backing it... what happens if I reinforce it with the Law of Death itself?

How far could its power actually reach then?

For the first time, he felt real interest in this Law. He didn’t know much about it yet, but something about it was pulling at him.

"So what happened in your fight against him?"

"Honestly, he wasn’t even trying to kill me." Lilith shrugged. "I don’t even remember how the fight started, but whatever the reason, neither of us could gain the upper hand."

"So neither of you could beat the other?"

"Exactly. In the end, we had no choice but to call it a draw."

Malrik looked at her with interest.

"And yet you said the fight was annoying."

"It was annoying enough that I still remember it clearly." Lilith said, visibly irritated. "That man wasn’t easy at all. Every hit he landed left behind something I really didn’t want to deal with."

"At first, I thought I could deal with the injuries once the fight was over. I soon found out that wasn’t going to be so easy."

"Oh... how so?"

"At first, I thought I’d just heal once the fight was over, but that never happened." Lilith said. "The pain stayed. And worse, it slowly began spreading."

Malrik’s eyes widened slightly. "Even after the fight ended?"

"Yes. I thought I could treat it myself, but every time I tried, I realized it was worse than I expected."

"There was something from the Law of Death still clinging to me, slowly spreading through my body. The longer it remained, the farther it reached, until it began affecting my soul as well."

"And in the end, there was nothing I could do about it myself."

"So how did you deal with those injuries, then?"

"I ended up having to call in a favor from an old friend."

"A friend?"

"One of the Elves. One of the few who can actually use the Law of Life."

Humans and Morveth weren’t the only ones living in Valthera. Other races existed too, Elves, demons, dwarves, each with their own territories and spheres of influence. Moving between those territories wasn’t easy, though. The vast distances and the dangers separating them made long-distance travel difficult even for the powerful.

That was why finding someone who could actually use the Law of Life wasn’t simple, especially since mastering it to a level capable of healing soul damage was extremely rare.

"So the Law of Life helped heal the injuries to your soul too?"

"Yes. It’s the natural counter to the Law of Death. It was the only reason I was able to get rid of its lingering effects and heal the damage it had done to my soul."

"Ugh..." Lilith’s expression soured. "Every time I remember that bitch and the price she demanded for helping me, I get angry all over again."

"An Elf?" Malrik asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Don’t let their appearance fool you." Lilith scoffed. "Those innocent faces, those gentle smiles, and the way they carry themselves like they’re somehow better than everyone else..."

"It’s all an act. When it comes to their own interests, you won’t find anyone greedier or more shamelessly exploitative than them."

Malrik was a little surprised. Back in his previous life, his image of Elves had been completely different. Most of the stories he’d read painted them as beautiful women with perfect features, connected to nature and devoted to peace, usually shown as the most beautiful and refined of all races.

Guess the novels weren’t quite as accurate as I thought.

"Was it really that bad?" Malrik asked, a little skeptical.

Lilith let out a sharp laugh. "I don’t even want to remember the details. Just thinking about the price I paid makes me want to strangle her."

Malrik looked at her for a moment. "That bad?"

"Worse than you can imagine."

After that, Malrik changed his clothes and left the room with Lilith. It looked like this round of evolutions was going to take longer than he’d expected, and he needed to meet with Kael and Ronan to see if anything new had come up.

On the way to the war room, Malrik noticed something he wasn’t used to.

Every servant he passed bowed with more respect than usual.

It wasn’t entirely new. Servants had always bowed to him, as the seventh son of the Duke. But this time felt different. Something in the way they looked at him, in the way they bowed, made him feel like they no longer saw him as just another one of the Duke’s children.

Even the atmosphere of the castle felt different today. There was an energy to the place he hadn’t noticed before. Servants talked among themselves with quiet excitement, and footsteps in the corridors seemed faster, like yesterday’s victory had breathed some of its spirit back into the castle.

Guess yesterday’s battle changed more than I realized.

As Malrik and Lilith approached the war room, a sharp argument reached his ears.

What’s going on?

Malrik opened the door and stepped inside with Lilith.

Inside, Seren looked seconds away from lunging at Eliza, while Ronan and the rest of his group struggled to hold her back.

Eliza stood off to the side, completely calm, listening to Seren’s shouting with an expression of utter indifference, as though she were listening to a child throwing a tantrum.

"Give me my corpse back, you thief! Who gave you the right to take it?!"

"Calm down, Seren." Kael tried to rein her in. "She said Young Master Malrik needed it."

"And who gave her the right to take everything?!" Seren snapped. "She took every corpse carrying a Law Seed and left us with the scraps! Give me back the mushroom-headed girl’s body!"

"Do you have any idea how much damage I took just to kill that thing? I nearly died fighting it, and this filthy thief just comes along and takes the corpse!"

Eliza finally raised her eyes to meet Seren’s.

"Watch your tongue, little girl. One more word, and I’ll cut your throat."

Seren glared at her. "You’re threatening me now just because you are an Ascendant?!"

"And you think being stronger than me gives you the right to take our spoils?"

"Seren, calm down. There’s no need for this—" Ronan tried to intervene again, but she cut him off, pointing angrily at Eliza.

"You sat on those walls and watched us suffer through the entire battle, and now you show up to take what we fought for?!"

What the hell is going on here?

Malrik stepped into the room, Lilith following beside him, looking far too entertained by the scene.

"Enough."

His voice wasn’t loud, but the quiet authority behind it was enough to silence everyone at once.

Seren stopped mid-shout. The voices around her died down, and silence settled over the room.

Malrik’s gaze swept across everyone present before settling on Seren and Eliza.

"Now... would someone care to tell me what’s going on here?"