Tahgweiy appeared to be looking a bit out of the mood these days. One day, she even refused to eat any food when we were at a waterfall. I figured I'd ask her about it, and she began to tell me the story about the Ocean God, Keasius, and her origin.

"Long ago, there lived a man, or a self-proclaimed god named Quetzalcōātl. You may know of him as a god on Earth as well, but he didn't actually come from Earth. Needless to say, he was born from Cvvoer. As a fake god, he made people happy by giving them rain, making their crops prosper, and such. And then a man named Keasius was born. Keasius lived under the villages blessed by Quetzalcōātl. He eventually grew suspicious of him, and began investigating. It didn't take long for Keasius to find the secrets of Quetzalcōātl, him being an absolute monster, and a bit of a demon who hosted secret rituals to eat victims sacrificed by the brainwashed cultists."

"Hold on. How did people from Earth find out about Quetzalcōātl? Isn't Quetzalcōātl also a bird, or a dinosaur?"

"We're talking about Quetzalcōātl the fake god here, I'm just about to tell you what he is. ...He had a huge influence around the world. But of course, most won't know of him since he existed in ancient times, tens of thousands of years before the Great Apostasy even happened. Anyways. Back to Keasius... You might have an idea of what happened already because of me being here. So yeah. He trained for many years, becoming stronger to defeat the monster, that is Quetzalcōātl. After a long battle, Keasius finally won and freed the villagers from his tyranny. As he grew old, he started a family near the ocean and lived happily ever after."

"Hmm... I feel like there's more into it. How are you here? Why are the both of you connected? Why is he called the Ocean God? Too many questions are still left unsolved. Also, it's kinda obvious you just wanted me to ask."

"Correct. Good ears you have. Actually, he never lived peacefully, and happily ever after. After a regular day, he woke up to the ocean in front of him turned red. It was all bloody, just like the ocean today. But the water didn't have the same effects like the Bloodlust Forest's ocean, instead, an extremely deadly disease broke out from under the water, killing a ton of sea life, especially in his area. ...Keasius realized what was happening and grabbed his sword before fighting off Quetzalcōātl who appeared in it's true form. Everyone knew he was no longer man, but rather, a feathered serpent. Quetzalcōātl overpowered Keasius and pushed him near death. ...And that's when one of the most fearsome and powerful sea creatures arrived just in time to save the day!

"And you know it! It was me! The Tale of the Great White! I came in just before his death! ...I had to save Keasius from Quetzalcōātl, but the disease has already spread too much into my body. I was near dead actually. I was only wandering around land to view what it looked like one last time before my death. But what awaited before me was a land creature being brought to death by a sea monster. I couldn't take it. You know... I can't just die there, it was the moment I realized I had more purpose to this life. To this seemingly meaningless life I had.

"We Shark-People are strong creatures, predators of the ocean. I in particular, am a descendant of the Great White Sharks, the greatest species of sharks in this planet. We've grown too old however. Our species have died out, and getting new members of our kind have proven to be almost impossible. I didn't care much about death, since no one has been around me until then. That man looked me in the eyes covered in blood, holding on to his sword with the last of his strength. I saw how tightly one clinged to life, when I was only waiting for the end of mine. ...Through my more powerful spells, I managed to combine the space between our souls and our bodies, creating that mysterious switching system we have, where I can switch to Keasius and he can switch to me. And with our combined strength, we pushed the great Quetzalcōātl back to the ocean."

I applauded as I listened to her while eating the fish I just caught. It was quite an interesting story, I didn't yawn one time. Though, I still had many questions, like even though they were both heavily weakened, they still managed to defeat that feathered serpent.

"How'd the both of you defeat him really? You were too weak to fight. And also, where is Keasius now? Why isn't he switching to you? Is he being shy or something?"

"Well. Quetzalcōātl was already weakened by Keasius at that time. It's not like he got his full strength back by going into his true form. Keasius, when he was younger, absolutely destroyed Quetzalcōātl. He'd still win even if Quetzalcōātl was in his true form, as long as he was in that state. Keasius was old now, so I gave him some of my powers to get him strong enough to defeat Quetzalcōātl once again. He eventually got titled as the Ocean God thanks to my powers while I was still sleeping, trying to get my full energy back, because of the disease and that fight."

"I see... It's pretty simple. So he just started training with the powers you gave him, until he became very strong, strong enough to be called the Ocean God? Where is he now then?"

"Just right before this whole Blood God apocalypse thing, he realized he has used up too much of his energy and went into sleep mode just like what I did. He's asleep now, so I'll be in control for another 1000 years. Hehehe!"

"Great. When he's actually needed now, he just goes to sleep. Also, what was that about you not being a fighter? You told me he could fight, and you couldn't, even though you just told me now how you're stronger than him."

"Right? How could he?! Also... About the fighting thing... It's just morals and my own ways of thinking... Bloodshed is unnecessary, don't you think so too? I leave that kind of work to Keasius, but only when it's more important... He can't just go around killing innocent people if he got mad or something."

That's kind of a waste of her powers... What if I had them instead of Keasius? Oh right... Keasius was probably stronger than me when he was younger. I kind of see why she gave them to Keasius.

"Can I have your powers too? Please??"

"No. Sorry, Rireith, but my powers can only be used for good. I'm not sure why it's like that, I think it has something to do with my kind soul or something. But anyways. Your soul... Ummm... I can't really see anything in it... Wait. Let me take a closer look."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Whilst we were sitting on a small camp pretty far from Zeira, Tahgweiy suddenly crawled closer towards me and put her ear to my chest.

"Hmm... I can't hear your heartbeat."

"Y-you're not even supposed to do that... Aren't you going to look at my soul instead of trying to hear my heartbeat?"

"Ah! Right! I forgot!"

What is she doing..? She's not a doctor. My heartbeats are also pretty slow, since I don't need much blood pumping for most of my blood magic, so it'd be pretty difficult trying to hear them.

She then put her head closely in front of my chest. It's pretty embarrassing, but I must not ruin the setting right now. I'm doing this to get her in a better mood.

"There we go! I can see... N-nothing..!?"

"W-w-what? What d-do you mean nothing?"

"Uhhh... How can I say this..? There're Magical Energy everywhere in your body, and in your soul as well. But the presence of your kindness, love, hate, and... Well. Your emotions don't exist, Rireith..."

I could see her sweating whilst I was sitting there in confusion. Reyana told me the dark gods only took my emotion of love. Having my other emotions taken isn't really likely either, since I can still feel a lot of things, like 'liking' for example. I can like things too, so that's an emotion.

She sat down with a strange face. I wondered what she was talking about, and how she can even see my soul, but it must have something to do with her being a powerful shark, right?

"Eh... I'm sorry to disappoint, but... You've been emotionless this whole time, weren't you..?"

"N-no way..! I-I was embarrassed when you put your face close to my chest..!"

"Isn't that instinct, or nature, or whatever? Y-you're a vampire, or a human, kinda, so it'd make sense for you to be thirsting when another human-like creature is really close..!"

Hah... I think I'll just go to sleep. I haven't asked her why she's feeling down though, so I'll do this before I sleep.

"A-anyways... C-can you tell me why you've been feeling sad these days..? I asked about it earlier, and you only told me your story."

"Yeah. About that. I was just thinking about what happened to my home, the ocean. It seems that Quetzalcōātl has returned not too long ago, at the beginning of this apocalypse, which explains why the ocean is red, and sea life is dying. I'm a bit sad, so I just wanted to speed things up a little. No use saying it though, we all want to end this apocalypse already."

"So you just felt sad about those fish I wanted to give you..? Isn't that putting their life in vain? Their lives ended, and the best you can do now is not putting them to waste, by eating them."

"Sigh... Alright. I guess so..."

I gave her one of the fish I had with me, and after that day, everything went back to normal. Zeira, Tahgweiy, and I journeyed towards the North, where we thought one of the Demon Lord's Castle was situated at. According to the survivors here, that castle was built not too long ago. I hope it'll be easier to get into. I don't really want any conflict with the Demons.

It's a bit far away, but I think we'll be able to get there in just a few months. Sigh... If only we had modern technology, like planes. Pikaia had planes, because I taught her, but she's just a bunch of gore splattered on the floor right now. I'd need a trustworthy necromancer, or a demon who can bring her back to life. I can also try to find people who can create planes too, but that's very unlikely, especially in this place.

After walking for a few weeks, we arrived at a field of dead flowers, and so we all agreed to rest for a while. Zeira flew around like a bee looking for flowers to take pollen from, leaving me and Tahgweiy in the middle of the field, like we were having a picnic.

"Quite a lovely picnic during the end of the world, isn't it?"

"Yes. Right. We'll leave Zeira to scout for nectar, it's one of her main sources of food and energy, I heard. But maybe I was just reading a book about the bees of Earth. It's not hard to confuse her with a bee after all."

"Hmmm... Speaking of sources of food and energy, you have blood and life essence as your sources of energy too, huh? Fufufu! Doesn't that sound familiar? Life essence.... Essence of Life... Vital energy... Life energy... Vampires... Succubi..."

"What're you getting at here? Are you saying that I'm the same as a succubus?"

"Good job! Bingo! Hyaahyahyahya!! You two really aren't that different after all! Huuhuhhhhuhuhu!!"

She was laughing really hard. But I still didn't know what was so funny. Vampires and Succubi have similar sources of food and energy, but the extraction process is really different. I only drink "Vital fluid" by shoving my hands into creatures, or by biting them. Succubi doesn't do any that.

"Hm? What's gotten into ya?"

"Hahahaahaaa...! Ahem ahem. Sorry, I had a bit of a laugh there."

"Don't worry. It's better for you to laugh at times like these. Also brings me reassurance, so go on."

"Eh..? Are you mad, or angry..? I'm sorry..."

Do I sound too serious? I genuinely enjoyed watching her laugh. But I guess I just can't say it well.

"Anyways. About Succubi and Vampires..... One of the higher ranking members of the Private Sentinel Group is a succubus. Her name is Backbone, she's also the 2nd-in-command of the Private Sentinel Group's main unit back there. I wonder if she's doing all fine with her mission..."

"Well. I-It's a bit of a wonder to how she gets back her energy, considering how she's in a really difficult mission right now..."

"Is that really the first thing that comes to your mind..? What are you, a pervert or something!?"

Well. Generally, Succubi and Vampires don't share much asides from their sources of energy. Of course, I could also just do the same thing that succubi do, but it won't be as effective as just biting. Succubi can try to copy us too, and it will have the same results as extracting "that" way. In a way, they're just better vampires, aren't they? Succubi has better abilities, but I'm not sure about their strength though. Maybe that's why they only resort to being secretive and such.

"Iiiiif... Just if... If Backbone were to fight you, would you win? She has advanced healing abilities, and really good physical strengths and speeds. I heard she even took out 4 entire armies in just 1 day back in the Great Apostasy!!"

"Well... Did she do that on the battlefield, or nah? But for your question, Succubi might be strong, but fighting them on fairly would be pretty dumb. They're secretive for a reason. You can't just throw in a sniper into a sword fight in the ring."

"Hah... I see your point... But she's grown really strong because she's one of the ancient demons born long before civilization was even formed. You know how much Life Energy she has now? Succubi become stronger whenever they extract vital fluids, it's one of the few things that Vampires don't really have."

"T-that long..?! Really?! Sigh... If only I could grow stronger after drinking blood, I'd be a monster by now!"

"Well. You're kind of a monster already. You can make an entire mountain of blood if you wanted to, and you can also just detonate a nuclear bomb on your spot anytime you want."

"It's a terrifying thought that you are actually like 50 times stronger than me... I wonder what happened to your enemies... IF you didn't have any morals..."

"Stupid question! I'm strong because of my morals! If I wasn't so kind, I wouldn't be so strong either, even if I was the descendant of some of the greatest predators in the ocean."

Backbone must be a really strong succubus if she's the 2nd-in-command of her main unit. The Baphomet's group is full of powerful creatures, but is it really for the sole purpose of upholding balance and order in this world? The Goddess of Order, Lazarus-Delta-Aquamarine-Alice exists, right? They should just leave the job to the actual gods.

Later, we left the fields of dead flowers and continued our journey towards the North. We were all supposed to go North anyways, so I guess I'll just go first. I hope everyone doesn't get mad at me or anything. They should still be alive, right?