After a few more hours in the garden, we went back to Chloe's room, I wanted to try releasing those souls from their torment and also see if I could learn anything about the culprits from them. Seated in a lotus position on Chloe's bed I was observing the stone. It was shinning a mysterious blue, if I focused enough I could see numerous spheres of light shuttling inside it.

"Be careful things about the soul are always complex and dangerous," Chloe warned.

I nodded and told her not to worry, after all, it couldn't bring me any lasting harm.

I gathered my will and seeped my consciousness inside, I was greeted by a tempest of noise, most of it was broken sentences, scream, and other weird stuff. I created a shield with my will, to stop this noise from driving me insane. In front of me, there were a lot of floating glowing orbs, the number reached tens of thousands. I was horrified as I realized the implication of such a number. This 'harvesting' of souls was not recent, it should be a plan that was in motion long ago because such a high number of deaths would've been noticed. They should have been doing this little by little covertly.

All those souls were emitting a sort of despairing feeling, the anguish that was hard to describe. After all, some of them had been sealed in this stone for who knew how long. I thought a bit about how to free them and decided on a plan. I extended threads of will and reached those orbs. Instantly numerous information and feelings started to flow through my mind. A pain so deep it seemed to come from my soul resounded through me, I tried to stop the connection but it was useless. Soon more and more of those orbs reached out to me aggravating the pain, it felt like I was carrying an enormous weight as if a planet was crashing on me. They seemed to have been carrying a huge burden, my arrival was as if an outlet appeared out of nowhere. I lasted the longest I could, the pain was slowly driving me insane, well until it didn't.

When I came to, I was still lying on Chloe's bed my hand firmly holding onto the soul stone. Chloe's face came into view. She had a worried frown, that eased as she saw me regain consciousness.

"I told you to be careful messing with souls."

"I know, sorry I was a bit rash," I said contritely. "How much time? since I passed out."

"3 hours and you didn't pass out, you died," she answered flinching a bit. Looking at her expression, I sighed softly rising from the bed I pulled her toward me and took her in my arms. She stilled.

"You shouldn't worry that much, remember our first meeting, and the reason you chose me to be your fake boyfriend at the time. I can't die, so don't make that face. "

"I know but I can't help it, even if I know you will be back, it's so daunting," she said relaxing in my arms.

"You're going to try again aren't you?" she asked after calming down.

"Yeah, last time I wasn't prepared for all the anger, despair, and agony. Plus I feel much stronger." It was true it seemed that this death brought me a big upgrade.

I discretely consulted my status.

Name: Samsara Yu

Age: 17 years old

Race: ???

Unique ability: Death with benefits

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

'Damn!! who would have thought that my willpower would make such a massive breakthrough! I became stronger but I didn't know it was by that much. I should take time to experiment with my original ability, as the circumstance of my deaths factor in how powerful I become after.'

"Yeah now that you mention it, your aura feels more powerful. It's even stronger than a vampire of two thousand years." she realized a little shocked. Even though she was aware of me becoming more powerful after death, she didn't feel it was too abnormal because she didn't know my race, maybe she thought it was one of its innate traits. Also, she was abnormal, so her ability to judge was skewed. At seven, she was already more powerful than an 800 years old vampire. But now she truly realized how broken was my ability in just 3 hours I changed from being able to contend with a few hundred years old vampires to be more powerful than an elder in the vampire community.

"Actually could you explain to me how is it you vampires judge power among yourself?" I asked curiously.

"Sure. It's like this, Turned vampires are generally weaker than Born vampires who themselves are weaker than True vampires. Besides that, age is the most prevalent indicator of power. Below hundreds of years we are called infant vampires, 100 to 1000 years blood child, 1000 to 2000 years vampire lord, beyond 2000 are elders. The more aged a vampire is the more powerful he becomes.

For a normal vampire blood purity to reach a True vampire, a few thousand years are required. But those indicators were loose at best in the past because a normal vampire could chance upon a miraculous encounter, or blood of a powerful creature allowing him to rise to power instantly. It was like that in the Legendary era but nowadays it's rare."

"I see, so it's not fixed, other factors exist."

"Yeah exactly, but you can use it most of the time to judge power levels of vampires, oh yes, Lycans too. It's similar in a way."

"Anyway, I am going to try again."

"Alright be more careful" she was reassured this time as I became strong enough.

"Yeah, I will," I answered seriously.

I took a deep breath and went inside the soul stone again. This time the familiar scene of those orbs and the dreary atmosphere didn't overwhelm me, my willpower became so powerful that I could actively look for the information I wanted without being crushed by the feelings of hate and agony.

After a time I found what I was looking for. The information came to me using my will as the guide. A series of images flashed through my mind, it was a memory.

< I was in a dark cave-like room. My feet were tied by iron chains. I was wearing rags, I had been abducted from my village the night before by men wearing black robes with green snake motifs.

I was a turbulent child, mom told me not to sneak out in the forest at night but, I wanted to see the stars from the secret spot I found a few days earlier.

It was a mistake, I noticed something was wrong when I stopped hearing noises. The forest had become so quiet and menacing all of sudden. I heard bristling leaves, then a man had come out of the darkness, I couldn't see his face but he had the most terrifying red eyes.

They lacked the emotions a normal human should have. I tried to run but I hadn't gone a few steps before he appeared before me as if he was a ghost. Soon I was surrounded by other people before I could turn into my wolf form, a glowing palm-filled my vision and I passed out....>

'This....it is the memory of an old soul, a Lycan he seemed to have been a teen when he was taken.'

They were all eerily silent as if waiting for something. Soon footsteps could be heard coming from the interior of the temple. From within a man wearing a robe different from the others appeared. He was wearing a white robe with a green giant serpent on it. It seemed almost alive as it was moving along his body. The others immediately kneeled and said:

"We pay respect to the Primus!!" As this man looked at me I felt as if I was an insignificant bug to step on. I instinctively knew that this man was extremely powerful. He said two words "Carry on"

A man came to me with a weird crystal sphere the size of a head, he bowed to the 'Primus' and put his hand on my forehead.>

'At least I know who the head of the enemies is, and the symbol of this group now. Maybe Chloe will have an idea about an organization with a green serpent as their symbol.'