Afterward

"Cough, I'm fine…" I vomited a mouthful of blood and wiped a trace of blood from my lips while looking at Marana and Akilah.

My body was completely covered in injuries. My current condition was truly tragic. In fact, the current me could easily be killed by someone in the tenth or eleventh layer.

That was the price to pay for going against the universe's laws.

The universe's laws are the rules that keep the universe working, violating the universe's laws is not something that the universe will easily allow.

Moreover, what I did just now violates more than one rule. It violates the individuality of a soul, the concept of mortality, and the universe's entropy. With the contract in effect, it means that Raven's soul will be tied to my soul for a long, long time, retaining her memories after each reincarnation, and acquiring part of my concept of eternity.

Unfortunately, that contract is not complete, it's flawed.

With the current contract, the most a soul can accompany me through the reincarnations are two or three times, after that, the soul will slowly fade away, disappearing for eternity.

However, maybe this time will be different.

I examined the bond between our souls excitedly. I realized it when I saw Raven's soul. Her soul is very special. Anyone else would have died much sooner after signing a contract with a cursed weapon as powerful as her daggers.

I realized that her soul used the bond with the daggers to slowly learn the dagger's properties. In other words, her soul used the bond to learn the dagger's laws!

If I can make use of her soul's uniqueness, then maybe I can perfect the contract so anyone else can learn my laws of eternity. With that, I'll never again fear to lose my loved ones after each reincarnation.

I can even find a way to make them immortal! Living forever blissfully with my loved ones!

But when I examined the bond between our souls, my excitement slowly turned into disappointment.

[It did not work, huh] I sighed inwardly and shook my head.

[Well, at least I found a possible method to realize my goal.] I looked at the sleeping Raven on my arms and my expression softened. No matter what, at least I found a bit of hope.

I then turned toward Marana and Akilah. They were looking at Raven and me with a mix of worry and fear. Of course, the worry was mostly directed to Raven and the fear to me.

"W-What happened?! How is Raven?!" Akilah gulped nervously and summoned her courage to question me. Currently, most of her hatred had been replaced by extreme fear.

"Don't worry, she is fine. Just a bit tired." I smiled gently and held Raven on my hands as though she was a treasure. Marana and Akilah were startled when they saw my expression. They could not understand why my attitude changed so suddenly.

But now, that was not important.

"You… You are injured." Marana said while looking to my bloody body.

"It's nothing." I shrugged and moved my mana from my core to heal my injuries. In the blink of an eye, the cuts that had appeared around my body disappeared. In less than thirty seconds, my injuries were completely gone.

When Marana and Akilah saw that, their mouths fell open. They looked at me as though I was a monster and their faces were dyed in despair.

After witnessing the contract with Raven and seeing how easily I healed my injuries, they realized that escaping from my control was even harder than they thought.

Before this, they harbored a bit of hope of finding a way to deal with me, but now, their hopes were dashed.

I ignored them. Instead, I examined my body carefully.

Although I healed my external injuries quite easily, the truth is that I'm more injured than it looks. I'll need around five hours to heal the injuries in my soul and mana core, and even after that, my cultivation will fall from the fifteenth layer to the twelfth layer. I'll need around one year to recover from such a drop.

However, it was worth it. What I got was many times better.

I moved my gaze to Marana and Akilah. "Take me to a room, I need to change my clothes. Also, take Raven to a safe place. She will wake up around twelve hours later."

Marana and Akilah were startled before nodding in the next second.

…

After changing my clothes, I went to the main office of the Red Skull gang. This office belonged to Marana, but now that I took over the gang, the office became mine.

"Explain to me the gang's overall situation." I looked at Marana and asked.

Marana nodded and quickly explained everything to me. She did not bother to hide anything and answered all my questions honestly.

Of course, it was not that she became loyal to me suddenly. Instead, after getting a glimpse of my true strength, she was too intimidated to have other ideas.

Her current fear of me suppressed any thought of resistance. In fact, she could have attacked me when I was injured after forming the contract, but her fear of me had become so huge that she did not dare to make a move, even after seeing my heavy injuries.

Of course, if she would have tried, she would have failed.

I frowned a bit to that. As I say before, I dislike when others fear me and treat me like a monster, but there is nothing I can do about that now.

Thinking about the situation back then, I could have been more careful when making the contract. At least I could have found a better place than the headquarters of a medium-size gang to realize the contract.

Well, no use crying over spilled milk.

After hearing Marana speak about the gang's situation, I was slightly surprised. Marana's management of the Red Skull gang was excellent. She managed to control perfectly each part of the gang and kept detailed records about the gang's earnings, costs, loses, the relationship between the members, the relationship with other gangs, and the relationship with other powers.

She even told me who were spies and whose force they belonged and how she arranged the different members according to their specialties. It was so detailed that I wondered if it was the report of a gang or the report of a secret special force.

I heaved a sigh of admiration. "Truly impressive. Your management of the gang is practically flawless. I even wonder why your gang is still a medium-sized gang."

Marana smiled wryly. "It's not so easy becoming a large gang. There are only four large gangs in the imperial city, and each one of them is a powerful monster than even some noble families fear. Even if our high-level combat strength is comparable to them, there is a great disparity between our low-level strength. Moreover, all the four strongest gangs have a powerful force supporting them from behind. I don't dare to think about replacing them."

"Oh? However, I was thinking about making this gang the strongest gang in the capital."

Marana was startled. "… Are you joking?"

"What do you think?"

"… You are crazy."

"Hahahaha… What? Are you not confident in me?"

Marana fell silent for a moment. Remembering the terrifying power I showed not long ago, her expression turned bitter. "Yeah, thinking about it, maybe it's possible for you."

I smiled confidently and put my hands behind my back. Looking outside through the window of the office, I observe the capital's night sky.

"My goals are greater than you think, Marana. Do you want a piece of advice? Take advantage of this opportunity. It will not come twice."

Marana fell silent for a brief instant. "… I'll think about it."

I smiled. It was her choice if she wanted to believe me or not.

At that moment, someone hurriedly entered the office with a panicked expression.

"Boss, bad news!"

Marana was so startled that she forgot she was no longer the boss. "What happened?!"

"The Blood Night gang ambushed the third master! He is currently being attacked by two of their vice-leaders."

"That scum!" Marana's expression fell. "How do they dare to plot against my little brother?!"

In an instant, her presence changed completely. Gone was the fear she was showing, and instead, it was replaced by a powerful rage.

She then looked at me with a determined expression, as though telling me that she was going out no matter what I say. I smiled slightly and shrugged.

"Let's go, I want to see how strong is one of the four strongest gangs of the capital."