It was true that the sand‑woman possessed remarkable skill, though she ultimately failed to bring Diego down. Yet had she fought alongside the two throne guards and the death knight, four against one, they might have stood a real chance of defeating him—perhaps even killing him outright.
Despite her failure, her mastery was undeniable; she wielded enough energy and chaos to push Diego into a near‑death state, a feat few could claim. This alone proved the terrifying potential of a lich, or even more so a chaos lich, should their progress be carefully nurtured and monitored. Her performance was not just a battle display, but a warning of what such beings could become if they were provided with enough resources and their progress was monitored.
By noting these three critical points—the provision of the finest combat equipment for a soul being, the strategic use of resources to enhance their performance in battle, and the necessity for mastering abilities, skills, and energy manipulation techniques—it becomes increasingly evident that Diego must prioritize the strengthening of his servants and officials.
This deliberate cultivation of discipline, resilience, and tactical awareness would ensure they are not only capable of matching Maru's servants and officials but surpassing them, becoming paragons of excellence whose reputation inspires loyalty, fear, and admiration across every battlefield and domain.
With the firm resolve to elevate the level of his officials and servants still burning in his mind, Diego began contemplating the creation of a structured and effective training regime. He envisioned a system that would not only sharpen their combat readiness but also instill discipline, resilience, and unity of purpose.
Through carefully designed drills, progressive challenges, and the cultivation of both physical and spiritual endurance, Diego sought to ensure his officials could embody the excellence he imagined for them—becoming formidable, loyal, and strategically adept individuals capable of surpassing every expectation and rival.
***
It was not as though Sebastian had failed to consider escaping from Diego or evading his watchful presence; indeed, the thought of escape had crossed his mind more than once. Yet he never physically attempted such a plan, nor did he take even the smallest step toward fleeing, because he judged his odds of success to be perilously low.
His foresight ability, sharp and unrelenting, revealed with glaring clarity the disastrous consequences that would follow any attempt at escape—visions of pursuit, capture, and inevitable ruin. Bound by this knowledge and the heavy weight of inevitability, Sebastian resigned himself to remain, knowing that defiance would only hasten his downfall and that patience, caution, and subtle endurance were his only viable strategies for survival.
If Diego had remained a mere apprentice soul vampire, Sebastian's chances of escape would have risen considerably, for the disparity in speed and dominance would not have been so crushing. But now that Diego had fully ascended into the formidable state of a soul vampire, his movements were simply too fast, too fluid, and too overwhelming for Sebastian to keep him behind or force him to remain grounded.
To even attempt survival, Sebastian would have to manipulate the very fabric of space itself—first bending it around his own body to accelerate beyond Diego's reach, and then distorting the space surrounding Diego so that his pursuit was perpetually delayed. Only through this dual mastery of spatial manipulation, both defensive and offensive, could Sebastian hope to carve out a fleeting path toward freedom, though even then the margin for error was razor-thin and the looming shadow of failure pressed heavily against every possibility.
This technique had once proven effective when Diego was still an apprentice soul vampire, but now that he had ascended into the true form of a soul vampire, the balance had shifted entirely. His speed was so extraordinary that he could even outrun the manipulated space designed to slow him down, rendering Sebastian's efforts futile.
More terrifying still, Diego seemed capable of breaking the very laws of space itself, moving faster than what was ever believed possible, transcending natural limits with a predatory grace. Faced with such overwhelming power, Sebastian's chances of escape grew increasingly bleak, his foresight painting a grim picture of inevitability where every path led to pursuit, capture, and ruin. In this crushing reality, the notion of freedom became less a possibility and more a fragile illusion, shattered by Diego's supposed mastery of speed and space.
And even in the unlikely event that Sebastian managed to slip away from Diego's grasp, the threat was far from over, for Diego's officials were never far behind in their relentless pursuit. If by some chance they failed to capture him, Sebastian's foresight revealed outcomes far more dreadful than direct confrontation.
He had once glimpsed a vision of himself successfully escaping, vanishing beyond the prying eyes of Diego and his officials, only for Diego to unleash a vast search party drawn from his army. That search party, disciplined and merciless, eventually tracked him down with unerring precision. The consequences of such defiance were grim, insidious, and devastating—punishments that went beyond mere capture, designed to break his spirit, extinguish his hope, and remind him that freedom was nothing more than a fleeting illusion under Diego's dominion.
Foreseeing that every attempt at escape would inevitably be fouled, forcing him back into Diego's grasp—or worse, leading to his death—Sebastian resolved to adopt a different strategy. He chose not only to play the part but also to look the part, presenting himself as an obedient hostage whose loyalty seemed unquestionable.
He avoided any reckless or flashy attempts at freedom, not because he accepted captivity or found comfort in Diego's dominance, but because he understood that escape was a futile endeavor under such overwhelming power.
Instead, Sebastian focused on maintaining appearances, carefully crafting the illusion that he had surrendered to inevitability. By convincing Diego and the other soul beings that there was no possible route of escape, he bought himself time, patience, and cover to quietly formulate a plan—an escape strategy that would be subtle, deliberate, and far more likely to succeed than any desperate attempt born of impulse.
If Sebastian could not simply drift out of the dire situation he found himself trapped within, he knew there was more than one way to slip beyond the prying eyes of Diego and his officials. After all, he was among the rare few in all of New Darkovia gifted with the formidable ability to manipulate space itself.
By bending and reshaping the dimensions around him, Sebastian could create pathways unseen, moving successfully from one point to another without leaving a trace of his trajectory. In such a maneuver, neither Diego nor his officials would be able to track where he had gone, when he had departed, or what destination awaited him. This mastery of spatial manipulation offered him a fragile but potent hope, a secret weapon that could transform futility into possibility, and illusion into the faint promise of freedom.