- Congratulations!

After they defeated the demon, the red light pillars dissipated and the transparent dome started breaking apart.

The whole area then began to quake as the castle slowly crumbled down.

Arissef wobbled as he no longer had the strength to even stand. Brius and Hevan were near enough that they were able to catch and support him.

"You pulled it off!" Brius remarked as he whistled a note.

Arissef only smiled in response.

The aftermath of the battle was fairly uneventful as Arissef lost consciousness.

When the armies finished sweeping the remains of the castle and discovered that there were no enemy survivors, news arrived that the three fortresses also crumbled to dust and had no signs of demons.

Drago personally checked the keep's remains to check if there were anything valuable they could bring back but found nothing.

The surviving coalition members0 returned to their respective kingdoms after bidding their farewells.

However, everyone reevaluated the strength of Grimley's heroes and made sure to report everything to their kings.

The Grimley soldiers, on the other hand, rejoiced and took pride in the achievements of their protectors.

...

A week later, Edge invited Arissef and Drago for a private talk in the dungeon.

"I need you to put a seal on me, preventing me from using death energy." Edge said while being chained to the wall.

Hearing these words, Drago squinted his eyes. "Then what about Amber's soul?" As he recalled, the terms of his contract were to be an agent of death to kill necromancers, failing to do so would prolong the captivity of Amber's soul, preventing her from passing on.

"Why?" Arissef was confused. He could not understand why Edge would forego such a power.

After taking in a deep breath, Edge explained everything to Arissef.

The explanation didn't even finish when Arissef glared at Drago who had a stern look on his face and had his arms crossed.

"You knew??? Why didn't you tell me?" Arissef shouted at Drago with anger.

Facing Arissef's glare, Drago could only retract his gaze as he said: "It was not my secret to tell."

Arissef snorted as he faced Edge. "What happens if I make this seal for you?"

"As long as I do not use death energy, the god of death will not be able to contact me or trace my presence unless I encounter another agent of death. This also means that I will not be compelled to kill you."

As the last words rolled off Edge's tongue, Arissef and Drago felt a chill run down their spine.

Arissef understood it very well. When he used necromancy to bring back the dead in the previous battle, despite it being a one-off thing, he manipulated a massive amount of death energy to reanimate hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

If Barazi was made a target for only reanimating a dozen people, Arissef could only imagine how much the god of death wanted him dead.

However, he was bothered by one thing.

"What will happen to Amber's soul?"

The three turned silent after Arissef's question.

"I do not know. That's why I called you here as well, Drago."

Zex could feel the painful emotions in Drago's heart. However, Drago also knew that Amber would not want Edge to kill a friend. He could only imagine how Edge was feeling when he came up with this decision.

"If Arissef agrees, I will as well." Drago said as he closed his eyes, gripping his forearms tighter.

Arissef looked at Drago once more before looking into Edge's pleading eyes.

"Are you sure about this?" Arissef asked for Edge's confirmation one last time.

Edge only nodded in response.

As the decision was made final, Arissef sighed before speaking: "Fine. I will need time to research and prepare the seal. For now, try to separate your death energy with your Qi so that your body will not go into shock like last time."

Two weeks later, Zex witnessed Arissef conduct a sealing ritual that even a god would not be able to break.

However, the condition was that the seal will break once Edge dies. Whether this overrides the curse of immortality placed on him or not, Arissef did not know.

This disappointed Zex as a feeling of danger resurfaced in his heart.

He reminded himself that he needed to check the cave where he buried Edge's body.

The final memories that he went through with Drago were pretty much useless to him.

Throughout 5 more years, Drago, Arissef, and Edge took to the battlefields once more and by decree of the church, added demon-hunting into their priorities.

After the discovery of demons kidnapping humans and turning them into their kind, the church was bent on wiping all of them out from the face of the world... or the continent at least.

With the confidence and experience from the war, Drago's team began specializing their combat abilities against demons and donned the name of Grimley's Demon-Slaying Army, with Arissef as the figurehead and Drago as the Captain-Commander. They trained thousands of troops and created an elite division catered to the various areas involved in facing demons.

Of course, these elites would also grow to become useful in normal battlefields as special forces directly aiding the heroes.

Edge focused on nurturing the Shadow corps under the King's orders as he developed his craft in combat.

Arissef received his titles from the church and was given the robes of an honorary priest as his usage of necromancy was wiped from all records to uphold his holy image.

His titles alone held such great power that some demon tribes even escaped to other continents in fear that they would be targeted by the church.

Drago reforged Avegar to gain mana-conversion abilities and had an armor crafted to be used in tandem with the two weapons to aid him in the battle against demons.

Brius developed elemental and light-infused weaponry and machines to enhance both the kingdom's defenses and its military power.

Falna grew as a duellist and slew many commanders throughout many battlefields.

Hevan and Caylin were promoted to become inquisitors, investigating signs of demon influence, and mysterious cases throughout the kingdom.

Some heroes retired, some fell in battle, and some rose to fill the roster.

Finally, the memories caught up to when the last time Drago replenished the blood in the repository which was right before they sortied out to quell a demon who recently invaded Castle Nalva.

Throughout the 4 decades that Zex experienced in Drago's body, he learned more about the world of Valeingash, about politics, military strategies, tactics, culture, etiquette, various combat styles, the existing weapons, races, creatures, threats, religion, classes, finance, and many more.

He absorbed all of the information and the emotions that Drago learned and felt throughout the years which gave him a huge sense of familiarity with the world he was transmigrated to.

Above all, he learned about his master and the lies he was made to believe. He had to decide as soon as possible how to deal with it.

In truth, his heart was telling him to find a way to be free. However, his soul was telling him to continue to serve the master he was bound to.

He did not know if this was because of the soul contract or not. All he knew was that as long as his master was breathing down his neck and the soul contract is in place, he will never have this new life as his own.

In the end, he decided that he needed to gather more strength and find a way to break the contract.

Otherwise, planning to betray his master would only spell his end.

When the final memory concluded, 'Drago's' eyes finally opened and a majestic roar of a dragon echoed within the chamber as several notifications sounded in Zex's mind.

System: Congratulations! [Blood Reincarnation] - Derek Alfonse 'Drago' Grussiva Complete. 100% synchronization. Awarding bonus experience.

System: Calculating bonus experience based on content and extent of the [Blood Reincarnation] process.

System: The user did not skip nor speed up any of the memory sequences. Awarding full experience.

System: Exp + 236,854,325. Bonus Exp + 1,464,890,231.

System: 100% synchronization bonus achieved. Adjusting character status page.

System: Trial Crystal - [Hero Trials 1-50] awarded.

System: Trial Crystal - [Hero Trials 51-100] awarded.

System: Dungeon Crystal - [War of Teresel] awarded.

System: Dungeon Crystal - [War of Burughal] awarded.

...

System: Dungeon Crystal - [War of the Aberrant Fields - Fortress Capture] awarded.

System: Dungeon Crystal - [War of the Aberrant Fields - Castle Siege] awarded.

System: Dungeon Crystal - [War of the Aberrant Fields - Raid on the Demon Castle] awarded.

Zex was shocked at the overwhelming number of notifications. However, what caught his eye was one particular notification...

'I had the option to skip???'