Sophia let out an unhinged laughter, as the illusory world shuddered, in her monstrous cackle, "Let me guess, he will blame the death of me, the valkyrie, on Blackvale and Samartan."

"Just when they are at their weakest near the end of the war. He will attack, attempting to unite humanity under one singular golden banner of his fucking royal household?"

Axel nodded grimly, "Exactly. That’s why you have to be extremely careful."

Axel added after a pause, "Actually, there is one thing I can do for you. If you help me improve my forging. I believe I can create a strong enough rune weapon for you that could come in handy when your life is in dire danger."

The windows by the side of the classroom, one by one, began to shatter, cracks spread through the building, the entire structure quaked, and the illusory world was coming undone.

Sophia stepped closer to him. She had already regained her calm. She asked one last thing, "Let’s say I believe all of that, after all. There is nothing wrong with being careful. But I still don’t understand, why do you blame yourself, why are you so fucking despairingly sad as you look at me?"

There, there was nothing but silence. Axel did not speak a single word, but his eyes conveyed it all. He did not avoid her gaze, even as the world was being destroyed, nor did Sophia look away.

Even as the undoing of this reality shredded their bodies, neither looked away after what felt like an eternity of gazing into each other’s souls. Sophia’s eyes snapped open to the reality: Axel was unconscious.

He was soaked in his own blood, though his bleeding had somewhat stopped; the wound on his stomach was quite bad. Axel had to be treated soon, or it could become even worse. Natural healing of a human 2nd-phase seeker wouldn’t be enough.

Sophia reached out with her hands, touching his face for a bit. She didn’t remember the exact conversation she just had with Axel in her illusory world, but it seemed Axel had managed to convince her to teach him how to forge.

She also remembered the last moments, how deeply Axel looked at her, strangely, that look of longing from him didn’t bother her much. She wondered why.

Sophia chuckled, "That was quite a lame way to try and impress a girl, you know. Let alone me, the most beautiful girl in the world. You looked pathetic with those sad eyes."

Though the Dark beauty said those harsh words, her amusing expression when looking at Axel told a different kind of story. She brought out the most precious kind of healing potion she possessed, a glass vial containing a golden colored liquid.

She poured liquid directly into his mouth. To her surprise, the medicine worked even faster than it should have on him. For a moment, her eyes went to the closed wound on his shoulder, and she reached out, almost on instinct.

Axel’s dark blood smeared her fingers red. She brought her hand closer to her nostrils and inhaled the scent. She almost half closed her eyes in pleasure. Her own element of darkness seemed to be craving it like a gluttonous snake.

Without even realizing it, she instinctively put the fingers smeared in blood into her mouth, the moment her tongue tasted his blood. She let out an unconscious groan in pleasure. It felt like all the blood in her body started boiling like lava, and for the first time in her life.

She felt a response, a response from her mysterious and unknown bloodline that not even Prime Nexus could identify, or it purposefully refused to identify. It could be either, as she did not know the answer.

The darkness of the entire room churned and swirled like a living entity without her permission. At the same time, a cold and mechanical voice whispered into her ears.

[Your unknown bloodline is being stirred for devouring the blood of ’&^%&^%&^%&’]

[You may devour more of it to attempt to awaken your bloodline completely]

[The potency of your All-In-Compassing darkness has increased]

[Your affinity to the unique element of All-in-compassing darkness has increased to 20%]

[Your bloodline grows stronger ever so slightly]

[The seal on your slumbering bloodline has weakened by a minuscule degree]

Sophia’s eyes transformed, like a primordial beast jolted awake; the mana of the entire training room shuddered, almost in fear; the All-In-Compassing darkness took on the form of a living, breathing coiling entity. That could devour the world itself.

The sclera of Sophia’s eyes turned pitch-black, her red irises narrowed to a monstrous slit, as if she were losing all her reason and sanity. She licked every last drop of blood smeared on both of her hands with her tongue, savoring the taste of Axel’s ancient demonic blood like the greatest delicacy.

While notifications from Prime flashed in her retina nonstop. But at this very moment, Axel, whose wounds had all healed, stirred.

His eyelids trembled, his demon blood trembled with the instinct of a beast facing its most natural enemy, unnerved by the awakening of another bloodline equally, if not more, powerful.

The moment Axel opened his eyes, he frowned. His body was still soaked with his own blood. For a moment, he could not see anything, as Sophia’s darkness had enshrouded every source of light within the training facility.

It was only then that Axel registered the sensation overflowing from his demon bloodline, an intense sense of danger, coming from something just a bit ahead, but he could see nothing. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

If it were just the normal darkness or shadow, he would be able to peer through it quite easily, but not the All-in-compassing darkness.

Axel narrowed his eyes, his mind on complete alert, ready to attack at a moment’s notice, but right then, abruptly, the lights returned, although barely flickering, and all the darkness retreated inside the divine valkyrie.

She was standing there wearing a neutral expression, the same as always, her bloody hands clasped behind so that Axel couldn’t see them.

Axel had a distinct feeling that something wasn’t right. His eyes went to the drops of blood sticking near her lips.

’I guess some of my blood probably splattered on her face when she stabbed me three times,’ thought Axel.

And the look in her eyes was a bit strange, but that was no big deal for Axel.

’Well... she always did look at me like she wanted to eat me alive or something, even back on earth,’ he shrugged.

In the end, he couldn’t quite put his finger on what was wrong, and the moment all the darkness was sucked inside her, the sense of danger he felt vanished just as swiftly as if it were just a passing, unimportant thought.

The valkyrie let out a sigh, as she stated, "I guess I will choose to trust you, for now... Axel. I’ll teach you forging as well."

Then she smiled and walked closer, whispering into his ear in a soft but almost seductive tone, "But the next time, try to be a bit cooler, I might just appreciate you a bit more."

Then Sophia took a step back, flashing another heart-throbbing smile. She turned around and said one last thing as she left, "Rest for a few hours in the next room. You will need it since you lost a lot of blood. I will start your lesson exactly in three hours."

Axel could only chuckle bitterly and shake his head at her antics. Taking a deep breath, he entered the room next door. He really stank of blood; he needed a good shower and some rest. Though for some reason, he felt a bit weak, even though he should not be feeling such weakness after such minor injuries.

Axel could only guess that perhaps stopping the natural healing of his demon bloodline had taken a toll on him. So, he made a mental note not to do that ever again unless it was necessary.

He lingered for a moment, feeling an overwhelming guilt in his heart once more, the things he told Sophia, some of which were indeed true, like...

The king’s restrictions on the soul brand, which controlled the valkyrie, were true. It was something he only came to learn recently, as if a lock in his memory had been abruptly opened regarding certain information from the story he had once read.

The Sun King’s desire to rule all of humanity was also true, but, most importantly, the king would definitely try to kill Sophia in this war through some schemes. According to the original timeline, she had to know this.

But...

The rest of it was simply false; he ended up making Leonidas Suncrest take the blame for what he had done to Sophia. Decieving her like this again. Axel could never get used to it. It would always feel revolting to him.

But then he scoffed, "Meh, who cares. That fucker has to die one way or another at a certain point; he might as well help me smooth my way to Sophia’s heart a bit while taking the blame for everything."

The more Axel thought about it, the more right it felt, giving himself an imaginary pat on the shoulder, he plunged into the tub filled with ice-cold water.