Sin tumbled through the red portal and surveyed his surroundings. The place struck him as peculiar—he stood on a single massive island. Gazing out at the ocean, he couldn't spot land for miles in any direction. The beach stretched before him, but something felt off. The sand beneath his feet possessed an unusual quality; harder than normal sand, it felt like soft crystal despite maintaining the appearance of ordinary grains.
He continued across the beach, his red eyes scanning the unfamiliar terrain. "Is this some kind of island?" Sin wondered aloud, his voice barely above a whisper. "I wonder if my abilities still work here."
He decided to test his powers. First, he attempted to create a shadow blade—it materialized without issue. Relief washed over him as he then summoned a blood blade, watching the crimson weapon form in his palm. Both his blood powers and shadow abilities functioned perfectly. A knot of tension he hadn't realized he'd been carrying loosened in his chest. If his powers hadn't worked in this strange place, Sin honestly wouldn't have known what to do. The thought of being powerless here sent a chill down his spine.
However, two more things required verification. He opened his status bar for his blood powers. A red screen flickered to life before him, floating in the air with familiar text. The system appeared to work as well. He activated his shadow system next, and a black screen materialized alongside it.
"Good," Sin thought, feeling a measure of security return. "At least my systems function here."
He entered his mind space, plunging into the dark, empty void. Looking around, he spotted only Knox, Dice, and the Shadow Demon. The demon stood there as always—silent, motionless, that creepy smile plastered across its face. The resemblance to Sin himself remained uncanny, almost disturbing. Even though he had encountered this shadow demon hundreds of times, it still unnerved him. Something about staring at a twisted version of himself never got easier.
He turned his attention to Knox and Dice. They both stood like emotionless statues, ready to execute whatever command Sin gave them. But as he scanned the void, he noticed a glaring absence. The only person he couldn't see was Elias. He didn't see Elias's distinctive red armor, didn't sense any lingering energy signature from him.
"What happened?" Sin muttered, staring at the spot where Elias usually stood in the mind space.
One of his rare moments of clarity kicked in. "He's gone," Sin realized, his thoughts racing. "But Knox, Dice, and the Shadow Demon are all here. Is that because they're all connected to me?" He considered the implications carefully. "Knox and Dice are my spawns—they obey my will, follow me wherever I go. The Shadow Demon is literally a piece of me. But Elias... Elias is his own being."
The realization hit him with unexpected force. Elias had lived a life before inhabiting Sin's shadow space, probably a long one too. He didn't derive from Sin's soul. Sin hadn't changed him in a way that would force him to become a slave. Elias remained his own person, with his own will and agency.
"Is that why he's not here with me?" Sin wondered, feeling an unexpected pang of loss.
He exited the mind space and began walking along the beach with renewed purpose. After covering several miles, he finally spotted grass. The vegetation looked ominous—large, tall blades that appeared capable of piercing through someone's legs if they stepped on it.
Suddenly, his system activated again, delivering a notification. "Inspect skill activated."
Sin frowned. "Why am I just getting this now?" he thought, frustration creeping into his mental voice. "I've had the system for a while—probably ever since I touched that red orb at the store. That was barely even a month ago. I got shadow abilities, blood powers, spawns... all before getting an inspection skill? Usually people receive inspect skills when they first obtain a system."
He quickly dismissed the red screen with a wave of his hand and activated inspect, his eyes glowing momentarily.
**Name:** Piercing Grass
**Type:** Plant
**Description:** Piercing grass grows from underground within the Dragonic Continent. It pierces all living organisms weaker than a dragon.
**Danger Level:** Moderate
Sin's eyes widened. He never imagined the inspect skill would provide such detailed information. The knowledge both impressed and alarmed him. He tried his best to avoid stepping on the piercing grass, but he faced an impossible choice: either walk through the grass or remain stranded on the beach for all eternity.
Taking a deep breath, he made his decision. He would walk.
When he extended his foot and stepped down on the grass, shocking pain shot up his leg. Blood began pooling from holes in his flesh as the piercing grass penetrated deep inside, not going all the way through but burrowing far enough to cause excruciating agony. Crimson drops slowly leaked from the wounds the bladed grass had created. The grass itself began to stain with his blood.
Sin tried his hardest not to scream. The pain proved nearly unbearable. He had fought many beings—he had fought Noah, that six-eyed creature with multiple bladed arms, that parasite monster that loved killing. Honestly, if Sin had been weaker, he would have died facing those multiple bladed arms and six eyes. But that thing was dead now, so he didn't have to worry about it anymore.
He had fought the Hunter, which ranked among his most difficult battles. He had fought the Hollows—well, actually, he hadn't directly fought the Hollows. The parasite monster had done that. Sin had experienced so few real fights in less than a month. He had fought Edward, a man who had tried to kill him, before the Shadow Demon took control of Sin and killed Edward instead. Eventually, Edward became the leader of the Hollow group. Sin knew he would have to fight Edward again. It wasn't over, after all. Edward probably harbored deep resentment for having his life ended so abruptly.
Tears began streaming down Sin's face as he forced himself to keep walking through the grass. After only thirty seconds, his legs looked torn apart. Nearly all of the individual holes merged together to create one massive wound. Eventually, Sin collapsed to the ground—a terrible, terrible mistake.
The blades of grass pierced his torso. They pierced his head as his face planted into the grass. Now Sin had hundreds of grass blades stabbing into his body simultaneously. He screamed in absolute agony, a sound torn from the depths of his soul. He had never felt such pain in his entire life. This was practically unbearable torture, yet he couldn't move. If he moved, it would probably make things worse.
---
Meanwhile, in a different mindscape—one that looked exactly like Sin's dark, endless void but felt separate—Elias stood alone. He looked around the area, his red eyes scanning the infinite black abyss. He couldn't see anyone, couldn't sense Sin's presence.
"What if I try to take control of his body?" Elias wondered. "Maybe I'll be able to see him again."
He attempted to seize control over Sin's body, but something strange happened. His eyes opened—not Sin's eyes, but his own. He looked around and found himself in a stone tomb beneath the ground. He felt the cold stone walls pressing in around him. Looking down, he saw his pale hands, his red armor, his pale face gleaming in the reflection his red eyes cast on the stone walls of the tomb.
"This is my original body," Elias breathed, shock coursing through him. "But how? Didn't I die?"
From what he remembered, he had killed one of the strongest beings he'd ever fought, but had died from his injuries afterward. He examined his armor—not a scratch. His hands, his face—nothing was damaged. He felt all the strength he'd once possessed rush back into his body. It was as if he had never fought anything in the first place, as if death had been nothing more than a dream.
He quickly placed his hand on the tomb and forced energy into his palm. Immediately, the stone walls began to crumble. Elias stepped out of the ruins and looked around. Many stone tombs surrounded him, probably around five in total. He stretched his stiff limbs, feeling the tightness of years—perhaps decades—of being dead.
Besides the tombs, seven candles surrounded each burial site, including his own. All the candles burned with blood-red flames.
"I'm alive," Elias whispered, disbelief coloring his voice. "There's no way I'm alive."
Suddenly, Elias heard footsteps. Someone was descending stone stairs he hadn't noticed before. Two people walked down toward him. Their eyes widened when they saw him standing there.
"Sir?" one man said, staring at Elias in shock. "He's alive!"
"He's going to end your life, brother," the first man stammered nervously.
"Will you read the room?" another man interjected, walking down the stairs with more composure. "We haven't even asked why Elias is alive in the first place. Remember, he died fighting Dread. Dread himself died soon after, but Elias perished from his injuries. We placed him in this tomb many years ago, and now he looks completely fine. His armor isn't broken, he has no scars—it's like he never fought at all."
The three men stood and stared at Elias with a mixture of awe and fear.
"James Redwing, Clark Redwing, Lux Redwing," Elias said, recognizing each of them. "What are you all doing here? I just woke up, and I'm not really in the mood for visitors."
All three men shivered and stepped back instinctively. "We're sorry, sir," one of them said quickly. "We just didn't know you were alive. We thought we'd come down here to check on all the tombs, make sure none of the candles ran out. They need to be supplied with blood energy regularly, remember?"
"I know that," Elias said, his tone sharp.
He raised his hand, a gesture that commanded their full attention. "Do any of you mind telling me what happened while I was, you know, dead?"
"Yes, sir," one of the men spoke up, choosing his words carefully. "While you were gone, there have been known attacks from the God Mage."
"The God Mage is still around?" Elias asked, surprise flickering across his features.
"Yes, sir. After you perished fighting Dread, the God Mage stopped attacking and left us alone. We've been left alone for around thirty-five years, sir. You died forty-one years ago."
"Why do you keep saying 'remember'?" Elias snapped. "I know when I died."
He was still trying to make sense of everything—how he was alive, how he was even here right now. He had to maintain a calm and composed demeanor for every single Redwing family member, for the entire vampire faction. They looked to him for strength.
"Serving Redwing," one of the men said, stepping forward with visible nervousness. "There is news."
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. It bore blood-red ink that read simply:
**I'm coming.**
The man read the letter aloud. "It says 'I'm coming.' What could that possibly mean?"
"Probably the God Mage," another man suggested. "He always wrote messages like this before attacks. He just sent this message barely twenty minutes ago. So instead of acting, we figured we should come down here and check the candles."
"The candles that were already fine?" Elias said, irritation creeping into his voice.
All three of them looked guilty. "Sir, it's not like before—"
Before anyone could speak further, a blinding light erupted within the black castle of the vampire settlement, which stood in the middle of seven castles. A man stood beside the new king—the one elected after Elias's death.
"Yes, sir," the man was saying. "I do not know when the God Mage will attack, but—"
He was cut off as blinding light shot down and struck the castle. When the light subsided, the God Mage stood directly in front of the king and his servant.
"Run!" the king shouted. "Quickly, hide!"
His servant did as commanded, scrambling away to safety. The God Mage stood there, an expression of mild amusement on his face.
"Honestly, you're pretty weak," the God Mage said, his voice dripping with contempt. "I can sense your aura. You are nothing compared to the previous vampire kings. Your citizens must have been fools to elect you. Elias, Greydan, Leo, and Rex were all stronger than you."
The God Mage stepped closer to the vampire king, who trembled despite himself. "You are nothing, King. Do me a favor—how about you awaken your past kings for me, and I'll stop hurting you and your precious vampire citizens? Do we have a deal?"
The vampire king shivered. He had been one of the strongest citizens when Elias perished, which was why they had elected him king. But he hadn't realized how far off he was compared to the previous kings. The weight of that knowledge crushed him now.
"That's a no," the God Mage said, reading the king's silence. "You want to know how I know? Because you didn't get up and act. You should be more like your predecessors—they were actually sensible. You just stood there and kept your mouth shut, which gives me the impression that you don't want to bring back the other kings."
The God Mage's expression darkened. "So now that you've given me your answer, I'm going to end your pathetic life right here, right now."