Lidien's eyes snapped open, waking him from his dream when he saw the eyes of the Seraph staring at him, as if the Seraph knew that Lidien was watching from within a dream.
As he panted, gripping his chest from its fast and loud beating heart.
His lips formed a smile, twitching... and he wiped his forehead, full of beading sweat.
'He looked at me... he definitely looked at me...'
Panting, he tried to relax his nerves... concerned whether the Seraph was an Enemy or an "Ally".
Since Lidien knew, except for what he felt for Lily... everything comes with a price.
He giggled... then it turned into a maniacal laughter, so intense that the soldier who heard it from outside trembled.
'Damn it... I'm confused who I am now... am I the one who died in the Ancient Hall? The one who lived in the slum... or... Am I the God of Death?'
Remembering the last words of the Seraph before it was gone, Lidien knew... that someday, when the time was ripe... the God of Death would return.
'Even if you're a God... I don't care... I'm the only one who will control this body... and my own destiny... I will never hand this second chance you gave me back to you...'
Lidien took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to remove all unnecessary thoughts, meditating to enter his Dreamflow.
He needed to focus, to do something, anything... with his hands to silence the screaming in his mind.
Yet, after a long time focusing, he couldn't stop his mind from wandering... to his past, to the present... and the near future.
'Should I escape with the Relic? or play Politics with Mother?'
Sighing, he took the Relic from the ring and stared at it for a long time.
He opened it and smiled when he saw that Lily's heart had formed unnatural thin veins webbed and filling the space, protecting the heart that still beat.
'I wonder... which heart will be inside in the end...'
Lidien couldn't believe it at first when the 'Echoes of the Flesh' activated when he touched the Relic of Death after Lily gave the ring to him.
'Chest of the Undying Lich.' one of the Relics of the Death Church, believed lost to the long passage of time.
If a still-beating heart was put inside, it could make that person a pseudo-immortal, living as long as the heart kept beating within.
However, just because you put a heart in it doesn't mean the owner of the heart will be the one to become pseudo-immortal.
For the Death Church to ensure that no one other than them could use it... a prayer, known only to the highest members of the Church to activate it, was required.
But it came with a heavy price...
Freedom.
The heart needs a constant supply of fresh blood... the Pseudo-Immortal cannot leave the Relic within a kilometer radius... and lastly, the Relic cannot be held by that Pseudo-Immortal.
Making it the ideal Relic for the Death Church Guardian.
And that prayer? It was one of Lidien's keys to escape Mother.
'I need to fully grasp how to use the Echoes of the Flesh before I can get home... and learn the prayer hidden in its memory.'
As a passive skill, Lidien couldn't exhaust his verve to actively use the Echoes of the Flesh.
And repeatedly touching the same object wouldn't give new information.
He tried touching everything he could find in the carriage, hoping a random item might have an Essence.
But was only disappointed after an hour.
'Except for Incite of Blood, the remaining two abilities are too vague to use...'
Lidien went out of the carriage, surprising all the soldiers outside.
"Where's Mad Dog?"
One of the soldiers forgot how to speak and only pointed toward the front of the caravan.
Lidien left, making the soldier heave a sigh of relief that he was still alive.
He continued his act the way he remembered the past Lidien when he was with Lily... skipping steps like a child, happily humming... murmuring that in a few days he would get home and was excited to see Mother.
Smiling at Mad Dog, he commanded him to bring a dead beast's corpse into the carriage.
Mad Dog complied, and just a few minutes after Lidien went back to his carriage, someone knocked on the door with a dead wolf.
The Echoes of the Flesh activated at the sight, injecting his mind with the name of the kind of dead wolf.
Lidien then told the soldier to come in and cut it piece by piece, removing its skin, the eyes, the organs. He dissected it, placing the parts in front of Lidien.
Yet, the information it gave was almost the same, but this time it told what part of the body it was.
But when Lidien touched one of its parts, specifically the eye... he saw the wolf's perspective before it died... watching a dagger stab its neck.
Lidien felt deep inside him that Verve was consumed; however, he couldn't fully grasp how much was used since he wasn't able to check his Dreamflow freely.
'There is too much to learn, and I can only learn the basics once I get home and ask Mother to let me read some manuals in the Library, tsk... the previous Lidien didn't even know how to read...'
Lidien touched each part one by one, flooding his mind with information and memories from each piece.
His experiment lasted till evening when he felt his head burning just from staring at the dead wolf.
'Having the Essence of the God makes me feel like my Verve is unlimited; only my limitation is my Sparkline getting overused...'
Lidien slumped on the bed, rubbing his ring with his thumb.
Staring at the ceiling, he raised his hands and stared at the ring, reminiscing about the short time he had with Lily.
'Don't worry, Sister... I'll do everything I can to revive you... so, I hope you can wait inside the Relic for a short while.'
Lidien closed his eyes and heard a familiar voice, a gratitude vibrating in his soul.