I couldn't see my body in this darkness, but I didn't feel the same deep cold as when I was dying.

Then the void started to boil. Forms started to fill this darkness and some time after shapes appeared. It was a sight of a lone tower that stood surrounded by destruction.

Strong white flames could be seen from inside battling a thick bloody mist inside.

My point of view suddenly shifted, and I was now looking from within someone. The person I looked through faced two familiar faces.

Jinhyung and I. It was obviously when we fought against each other. I remembered this encounter well, I could feel now that Lillian held back her true strength all this time. I could hear her inner thoughts now.

"Kill me, kill me, kill me."

What a devastating sight.

----------------------------------------

The world started to fade away again, Lillian was now standing in a cozy room by a fireplace.

She cried

"Who am I?"

"Lillian Vingram?"

"No, I am nothing more than an illusion destined to die protecting this castle."

She punched the wall, creating a large hole.

"Then why do I want to live so much? I know nothing about this place, I owe it nothing."

The furniture swirled around and Lillian was now standing looking through a large mirror. The mirror displayed our fight against the armored vampires after she healed us.

"Mayhap could they give me a beautiful death? I should help them again, huh?"

After we overcame the vampires, she stood up. And exclaimed out loud.

"To all subordinates of Vingram, stay away from the intruders for the next three hours."

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She walked through a corridor looking down from a window, it was Jinhyung using the Dawnbringer's stance for the first time.

When he slashed the powerless trolls, the white flames somehow reached Lillian's hand. Her skin appeared slightly burnt.

"How cute, maybe I could play some more with them?"

----------------------------------------

Lillian was now standing on top of the tallest tower of the castle, her platinum hair waving under the eternal storm of this place.

She looked into the distance, a strong flash of light breached the monochrome view. Then two people exited the light.

"Hmm? Visitors?"

----------------------------------------

She was back again looking through the mirror, we just entered the castle and fighting a group of ghouls.

"They seem rather weak, I shouldn't bother with them."

----------------------------------------

Lillian stood at the entrance. She was waving goodbye to a dark carriage. But I couldn't distinguish anything inside it, everything seemed blurry.

"See you, Father."

The doors of the carriage opened and a tall man appeared.

"Father?"

The man was covered in black chains holding an indescribable amalgamation of dark clothes and leather scraps.

Dark fog coated him and his face couldn't be seen. When he approached Lillian, trails of blood could be seen beneath him.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

His blood quickly started to fizzle and morph into thin black strands. After a closer look, strands were strings of letters, most of them were nonsensical but I could decipher some of them.

Hate

Kill

Mother

Demon

Vingram

As I read more of them, the man slowly turned towards me.

Black chains quickly flew toward me. I tried to dodge but I couldn't move my body. The chains dug into my skin and started to tighten. I was slowly dragged toward the man, or more precisely what once was a man.

Suddenly, carmine spears split the sky and fell upon him.

The chains holding me faded away and I stood up. I finally could use my body.

I quickly jumped away. From the air, Lillian was slowly floating amidst her reddish mist.

"Hey Friedrich, we need to get out fast, I can't hold him for long.," screamed Lillian from above.

I looked at her, then looked where I first saw her waving goodbye to the carriage, it was nothing more than a lifeless doll, a lowly imitation of her.

Large chains flew everywhere, crushing everything in their paths. Lillian materialized herself from one of the carmine spears she sent near me.

She grabbed me by the hands and gathered all of her fog around us.

"Open your eyes, wake up," she screamed before fading away.

The shield she left me was thinning out under the relentless assault of the nightmarish chains.

Then I blacked out.

_____________________________________________

When I opened my eyes, the sun already rose about halfway to its zenith. The back of my head really hurt, did someone hit me? I laid on the beach where I was before entering Lillian's memories.

I looked around and saw her about half a meter from me. What happened? Last thing I remembered was Lillian fighting against some monster wielding black chains.

I saw Jinhyung walking toward me drinking another magic refilling potion.

"Good morning, idiot."

"What's wrong with you again?"

"What's wrong with me?"

I never saw him this angry, his eyes were twitching and lips were distorted. I looked around and all of the trees near the beach were cut down. His sword was still steaming.

"Why are you this angry?"

"How do you want me to feel when I find you dying interlaced with this accursed book?"

"Listen, I had too."

"I won't listen; now you will always be in my eyesight. I left you alone with her thinking she could open up on her techniques more, since we both hate each other and I thought I made her anxious."

Well, he wasn't all wrong here.

"It is part of the spell."

"Huh? She clearly wanted to take over your body if I didn't break the chains you would have become her body!" He yelled.

"It wasn't her, it was the spell. Please let me explain."

"Were you brainwashed by her?"

"No, please calm down, let me explain," I screamed, grabbing his hand before he could strike Lillian.

"5 minutes."

He lowered his sword and looked into my eyes. His dark irises were trembling, his keen gaze faltered once more.

I explained how in order to use the full potential of the carmine fog I had to connect my souls with Lillian and how this would share our memories, how I saw our adventure in the Castle of Nightmare trough her memories.

Then how I saw the 'thing'. How it bled words and how it attacked me. With only Lillian flying in to save me.

"How can I be sure that those are not made up memories?"

I pointed at Lillian, she was all charred up. Since she didn't have any sword wounds, I deduced it wasn't Jinhyung's work.

"See? She took a hit too."

Jinhyung slowly sheathed his blade.

"Do not use this technique without me nearby, I do trust you but not her. Be aware, if this happen again, I won't risk losing you, I will simply destroy her," still angry, but his usual cold-blooded attitude came back.

"She didn't mean any harm, I swear."

"I don't care."

Tsk.

"By the way, can you wake her up? I guess you should be able to not let this happen again, right?"

Since I already had a portion of Lillian's memories, I guess we could link without waking up the monster.

I opened a healing elixir and dumped it on Lillian, could it heal books? Luckily, burnt pages started to clear and repair themself.

I directed some energy at her, all my worries about her well-being vanished as she started moving.

"Once this over, could we take some time around a tea talking about our past, Fred?"

"Of course, companions need to know each other," I answered smiling.

His complexion suddenly lightened and he his anger vanished.

"Then, let's spar with your new powers," he smiled frantically. Was he eager to witness my power?

[Beware, I will fuck you up.]

"Show me your worth bitch." He exclaimed, leaping backward taking a battle stance.

[Fred, simply accept the link, no need for contact after the first time.]

Lillian flew right above my right shoulder. I felt as if her magic surrounded me, it was a warm feeling.

I opened up my soul and the tendrils of the linking spell dug into me. My vision blacked out for a moment but it came back as fast as it was gone.

—Hey, you hear me?

"Yes…?"

—Just think about the answer.

—Yes?

—We can hear each other's thoughts while connected.

—Great, so how do we avoid the monster from earlier?

—Do not try to remember anything before Vingram left the castle, it's the limit of the seal that Vingram put upon my memories.

—Why was it bleeding?

—When you destroyed my core, you broke part of the seal, I could hear the echoes of my memories, this is what made me accept helping you kill Vingram.

Weirdly, she stopped calling him her father.

—I hear you, you know? I am not Lillian Vingram no longer, I am simply Lillian he is nothing but a demon to me now.

I could feel a powerful vampiric presence emanating from me, the carmine mist.

"You are ready?" asked Jinhyung.

"Yes"

[Yes]