MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin

After calling and teasing Shuri till making her so flustered that she had to literally hang up the call, Cecilia let out a smile and boisterous laugh before looking at her contact list.

While she had made fun of how Shuri was so friendless, it wasn't as if she could really say that she was better than her in that department either. Even before her self-exile, she was not the most popular hunter out there when it came to social interactions, and the few people that she was acquainted with and the fewer which she could call her friends were generally people that she had helped somehow in the past.

"Heh, whatever."

Cecilia knew that in this world, having one or two good friends was much better than having a group of friends that you could never count on when you really needed them.

After all, an enemy would never betray you. That literally went against the description of a betrayal.

"Now then, should I call my sister over?"

She shrugged and simply decided to call her and see how it went.

The night before, she had a bad feeling about something happening in the distance but in the end, nothing came to be no matter how much time passed.

Cecilia believed in her instincts more than anything else in the world and she was sure that something must have happened out there for her to feel such a feeling of dread all of a sudden. As such, perhaps, she thought her sister, Theresa, could shed some light on the matter and decided to talk to her about it.

And she also wished to spend some quality time with her bratty sister after such a long time.

'I wonder what she will say when she sees me look younger than her right now.'

"Hehe… Though it will be a little complicated to explain this transformation to Shuri."

'Perhaps it was time to make her friend aware of the other side of the world?'

It was one thing to hide the truth when she wished to live a normal life and wanted Adam to just be a normal human.

But now that this was obviously impossible for them, she had to take a decision about this soon.

Either she cut ties with Shuri or she clued her in on the truth of this world.

She knew very well how things usually went and understood more than anyone that half-measures would only result in losses on both sides.

'I should ask Adam about his opinion on this matter.'

This was not her life alone now, after all, and Adam was not a kid anymore and she needed to ask for his opinion before making decisions that were able to affect their lives.

"Speaking of Adam… Where is that brat?"

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.

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Currently, Adam was floating head-first toward the ground…

He had been in this position all night long, after killing himself once to get rid of the negative effects he received after calling Hae-Won's soul to this world.

He was trying to understand his new powers and distract himself from everything that happened to him on the fateful night of sorrows.

One thing he had learned was that his power over Death had to be consciously activated for it to be invoked by him.

Once it was, it would allow him many things such as 'Killing' things and seeing and perceiving the world that lay beyond their own. It was kind of like he could perceive Death itself in everything surrounding him.

'I didn't think there were so many ghosts in the surrounding area.'

Unlike Hae-Won, those ghosts seemed to have lost the vast majority of their wisdom and some could not even keep a proper shape and just wandered aimlessly in the void.

There was still much he did not know about spirits and souls and similar beings but at least one fact was clear to him.

He had effectively become a Necromancer with the acquirement of his recent skills.

His knowledge about the skills still left much to be desired as they were close to zero and he was mostly acting by following his instincts.

But he would soon get hung up on things.

Like ❰The World❱ or ❰Dreams❱; ❰Death❱ was an EX rank unique skill that encompassed many smaller skills and integrated them into his overall powers.

Learning all of it would never be easy for him with his current capabilities.

Aside from ❰Death❱ he had also finally managed to control Heat and get a hint at how to manipulate Thermal energies.

The skill ❰Burning Blood❱ that he had used during the fight with Xezbeth needed him to absorb the surrounding heat inside of his body and then convert the resulting energy into pure explosive power to enhance his speed, reflexes, and power among other things.

The skill could not be used for long traces of time as it would negatively affect his body during a fight but this did not matter for someone like him.

After all, he just had to kill himself to reset things back to their optimal position.

The only problem would be dying during a fight… and this was where things got truly interesting.

Two passive skills that he had gained during the fight.

Or should he call them traits?

『 Trait: Eternal Damnation

Rank: EX

Description: Even in 'Death,' you will no longer find peace nor will you find rest. Death will no longer be an escape for you, even if temporary…

Effect 1: Your mind is damned to wander the world of the living. The eternal rest of 'Death" will not come even partially any longer.

Effect 2: You will not find peace even in lies. Illusions can not affect your mind any longer.

Effect 3: Insanity will not be an escape for you any longer. You will be damned to feel the weight of the years on you for all eternity. Your mind may bend under the weight, but it will never break, only endure and suffer. 』

『 Skill: Adaptation

Rank: EX

Description: Death will progressively come harder and harder for you. The more you die the harder it will be for you to die of the same cause, until one day… Death will not even come to you, not even as a release… You will be damned for all time…

Effect: Continuously evolves your body and slowly creates resistance to the aura of death until it reaches full resistance to death and Immunity to Death itself. 』

❰Eternal Damnation❱ and ❰Adaptation❱…

The first one was already showing its effects on him quite clearly.

He had realized that now, even after dying, rather than blanking out he would simply wake up in the same dark void as he did the last time.

It also considerably increased his regeneration rate after dying and it seemed that soon, even after dying, he would still be conscious in reality as well.

But this didn't just stop there.

He had been barely able to sleep at all and he knew that this wasn't just because of the feeling deep in his heart.

Sleep had simply refused to come to him any longer and he could not rest his mind either.

Would he one day be completely unable to sleep any longer?

"This curse is becoming nastier and nastier with time."

But at the very least, it was supremely useful to him now.

As for ❰Adaptation❱, he had a hard time grasping what it really did for him.

Did he need to die to "Adapt" or something like that? Just what was this Adaptation that the skill was talking about and named itself after? The description had been clear enough but he was not able to completely grasp it yet.

How much Adaptation did each death give him? What was the maximum adaptation possible for him to reach?

"Is it asking me to die in different ways till I create resistance to all deaths?"

He might have to go and ask Cecilia to burn him to death a few more times in order to test this theory.

"You are awfully silent today?"

⦃Your current state of mind is not optimal for an in-depth discussion.⦄

"How so? I think I have never been more focused than today."

Genesis refused to answer further, which caused Adam to shrug his shoulders.

"If you aren't going to say anything then forget it. I am going home. The salt from the sea is starting to become uncomfortable."

He would have rather not have to deal with Cecilia today, but it seemed like it wasn't possible for him…

It was Thanksgiving after all…