After settling Patty down, Soren sank his consciousness into his mind and started tallying the spoils.
The system prompts he'd deliberately blocked earlier flooded in like a waterfall.
[Yamato Experience Card consumed]
[Skills mastered: Iaijutsu, Swift Iaijutsu, Void Blade Realm, Dimensional Slash, Dimensional Slash: Zero]
A string of notifications hit Soren like a jolt of electricity.
These were all Yamato-exclusive techniques. He hadn't expected one use of the experience card to hand them over for free.
He'd figured the skills would vanish the second the card expired.
Soren scanned the descriptions for a moment.
Iaijutsu was straightforward—the rest were direct upgrades.
Swift Iaijutsu was the move he'd used to save Angela: a lightning-fast dash in one direction followed by a mid-charge slash.
Void Blade Realm was the crowd-control version—charge up and carve a wide arc forward. He remembered the armor-piercing power on that one.
But—
He couldn't actually use any of them right now.
He didn't have a katana. Alastor was a greatsword.
Even if he slapped a sheath on it, the blade length and his reach made drawing the damn thing impossible.
Soren pictured himself winding up for ten seconds only to get stuck and immediately dropped the idea.
He shrugged it off. Extra skills never hurt.
Free ones were still a win.
He set the pleasant surprise aside and kept scrolling.
[Darkness Is Coming Node Quest: The Demon Prince's Ambition]
[Objective: Stop Mammon's descent ritual]
[Failed]
[Independently killed the Son of Hell · Mammon]
[Kill Reward: 20,000 points, Bloodline Awakening +7%, Item obtained: Mammon's Original Sin Demon Soul ×1]
Soren stared at the lines.
Quest failure was no surprise.
The system had wanted him to stop the ritual.
Instead he'd basically hosted Mammon's grand entrance himself.
Still, the kill reward was exactly as juicy as he'd hoped—twice the points and a bigger bloodline jump than playing it safe.
Ten thousand turned into twenty thousand. Bloodline awakening climbed from the planned 5% straight to 7%.
The corner of his mouth twitched upward. High risk, high reward. Classic.
Two more prompts popped up right after.
[Bloodline Awakening +1%]
[Bloodline Awakening +1%]
Those two points probably came from Gabriel beating the hell out of him after the kill.
Only a 2% gain—Gabriel was just too damn strong. Taking a beating didn't count as real combat growth.
Finally he took a deep breath and opened the side quest he'd been avoiding.
[Side Quest: Debt-Ridden Sparda]
[Current Progress: $12,500,000 / $100,000,000]
The number hadn't moved. Soren felt the tension leave his shoulders.
His theory was right.
As long as the destruction was big enough that the feds called it a natural disaster or accident—and nobody dared show up with a bill—the system simply ignored it.
A new notification appeared.
[Demon Bloodline Awakening has reached the threshold and all required materials have been collected]
[Do you wish to consume the Demon Essences for a bloodline breakthrough?]
[After breakthrough: Unlock Demonization form and gain exclusive talent]
Soren blinked at the prompt, then it clicked.
He'd already been at 11%. The psychiatric hospital fights plus the quest rewards had pushed him to 20%.
He forced the excitement down.
No idea what would actually happen during the breakthrough. He needed a safe, quiet spot where nobody could interrupt him.
That afternoon, sunlight slanted across the office floor.
After releasing Carrie from the Silent Hill domain, Soren left the building.
Dante was crashing there now, so he didn't have to worry about anyone kicking the door in.
Besides, he needed to swing by Constantine's place anyway.
Angela was still inside the Silent Hill world, and he had questions about that weird pattern and the demon-sealing technique.
He pushed open the door. A thick cloud of smoke rolled out of Constantine's little house.
Soren wrinkled his nose, waved the air a few times, then stepped inside once it cleared.
Constantine sat at his desk staring at nothing, cigarette burning between his fingers.
In the corner on the couch, a figure in a sweater sat hunched over.
Hearing the door, Gabriel snapped his head up. The second he spotted Soren he marched straight over, eyes blazing.
"Kill me or don't kill me. Either way I'll kill you."
Soren's face stayed blank. He drove a fist straight into Gabriel's perfect nose.
This birdbrain still thought he could waltz back to Heaven. Dream on.
"Guh—!"
Gabriel took the punch clean. Pain twisted his features.
As an angel he hadn't felt real human pain in centuries.
He clutched his face, said nothing, and slunk back to the corner like a kicked puppy.
"You still have the balls to show up?!"
Constantine looked up, bloodshot eyes narrowing, voice tight with fury.
"You helped Mammon descend just to feed your own ego—and you got Angela killed!"
"Correction. I saved her in the end."
Soren kept his tone flat.
"Bullshit. Angela's missing right now."
Constantine shot to his feet, coughing hard.
"If you want to find her, I can help."
Constantine's roar died in his throat. He stared at Soren like he was waiting for the trap.
"Really? You're suddenly feeling generous?"
"Of course. But you'll have to do one thing for me first."
Soren said.
"What thing?"
Constantine asked warily. He'd been burned by this guy too many times.
Soren didn't answer. He just raised a hand and flicked his wrist.
A figure dropped onto the floor out of thin air.
Angela's sharp suit was torn in half a dozen places.
The second she landed she scrambled behind the nearest table leg, eyes wide and frantic, like something was still chasing her.
Soren sighed. Looked like Alessa had gotten bored and decided to play.
Constantine froze, then flicked his cigarette aside and rushed over, pulling Angela into a tight hug.
The familiar smell of smoke made her cling back immediately.
In the corner, Gabriel—who'd been grimacing while holding his face—watched Soren casually pull a person out of nothing and went pale.
"You actually possess a Divine Domain?!"
"What's a Divine Domain?"
Soren raised an eyebrow. First time he'd heard the term.
Gabriel took a slow breath.
"It's a realm only six-winged archangels can reach. Every angel's domain is different."
"Take mine, for example—if the Divine Domain stays intact, my true body is basically invincible. Any lethal damage gets redirected and spread through the domain instead."
"The bigger the domain, the stronger the power it feeds back to me."
Soren's mind turned over the explanation.
He glanced inward at his own Silent Hill domain. The ash that used to drift through the sky had disappeared for some reason.
The town had started out dead and gray. After absorbing Yutun's corpse it had filled with forest.
Now it wasn't just lifeless—it felt downright sinister. Didn't look like any Divine Domain he'd ever heard of. More like the underworld.
Gabriel took the long silence as stunned silence at his superior knowledge.
He pressed on. "What are the characteristics of your Divine Domain?"
Soren shot him a sideways glance.
"You guess."
Still, the whole Divine Domain thing gave him plenty of new ideas. Maybe he'd look into it later.
Once Constantine confirmed Angela was safe and breathing, his expression softened a little.
He got her settled on the couch before turning back to Soren.
"Now can you tell me? What the hell did you come here for?"
"Ran into a little problem. Figured I'd ask the expert for some leads."