Kiera’s resting body lay in the void, near the Lane of Remorseful Judgement. Dried blood shadowed the luster of her hair, tainted her snowy face, and covered her entire palms.

The pain was brief, only lasting for several minutes, but this otherwise fleeting timespan felt like days to the girl. Pain to the soul transcended everything that could be inflicted on the flesh, even above what the Living’s Terror did to her.

Even at her sleep, discomfort twisted her expression, her body constantly changing positions, the girl devoid of any peacefulness one should have when asleep.

Awakening, she rubbed her temples, a headache still tormenting her as sweat soaking her entire body when she stared at the fourth step that was still illuminated. At the mere thought of trying again, she began shaking uncontrollably, the clacking sound of her chattering teeth the only sound in the void.

Unable to muster the power to stand up, Kiera looked at her shaking limbs in disbelief.

Fear, immobilizing fear. A level of fear foreign to her, fear that suppressed her desire to destroy— the fury in her heart, to a zero.

Fear to experience the aftermath of displaying her regret, regret over something that long passed. She felt wronged, what was there to regret? She was set up, betrayed— killed! It was not her choice!

Brief pain immediately assaulted her soul again, prompting a yelp to escape her lips. She understood the meaning of its sudden appearance— it denied her unvoiced protests, told her she was wrong, that it was her choice.

Then, sudden unfamiliar energy enveloped her body, forcefully controlling her legs to bring her to the stair.

She tried to resist, unable to fight back the fear that dominated her mind, its influence increasing with each step she took.

The memory played again, mentally torturing Kiera, who had a hard time seeing her death.

Yet, she noticed something she couldn’t in her earlier fury, recognizing the ‘choice’ she made, or rather her failure, mistake, and sin.

Her mistake was to blindly place her trust in that man when he invited her to join the meeting. That invitation virtually meant a single thing— her appointment as his successor, something she used to yearn for. And she joined him in the meeting, taking no precautions or forming any plans— a sin to her profession.

It was a test, and she failed it, something she refused to admit although she unconsciously knew it back then. Failure was not something she could ever bear, she thought it was beyond her, her mind was taught it was beyond it, integrated with it.

She laughed in ridicule, ridicule at herself and her stupid beliefs. Beyond her? Back then she was but a human, and now but an inconsequential Apprentice Magician. How could failure be beyond her? The foolish arrogance she hid behind a veil of fake level-headedness ashamed her.

Then, the memory disappeared and the fourth stair darkened, succeeded by a wooden door and not by a fifth stair.

[You passed the {Lane of Remorseful Judgement,} one of the {Grand Mistress of Souls}’s greatest trials, making peace with your flaws. Therefore, you are awarded the General Active Skill {Climatal Aura Control}. The second and last skill of the Emotional Sovereignty Tome.]

[General Active Skill: {Climatal Aura Control}

A support skill, the completing skill of the Emotional Sovereignty Tome. It is the perfecting half of the {Climatal Aura Shift} skill, complementing the latter’s effects. A skill of two forms:

First Form: {State of Detachment}

The first form of {Climatal Aura Control}, erases the user’s emotions to maximize concentration.

Duration: 20 minutes.

Drawback: upon deactivating, the user will experience severe emotional instability up to 12 hours, the drawback’s duration decreases depending on the duration of activation.

Cooldown: 24 hours.

Second Form: {Emotional Control}

The second form of {Climatal Aura Control}, negates {Climatal Aura Shift}’s active distortive effects while retaining the attack power bonus.

Duration: 20 minutes.

Drawback: upon deactivating, the drawback, {Emotional Distortion}, rises to 300% up to 12 hours, the drawback’s duration decreases depending on the duration of activation.

Cooldown: 24 hours.]

[You passed the {Lane of Remorseful Judgement}. EXP awarded for accomplishing something scant few ever achieved.]

[Level up! Silver Apprentice Magician Lv.10, +35 for all battle stats.]

“Convenient, but also dangerous, if I use any of these forms without caution it’ll be fatal. I wouldn’t know where to bury myself if I decided to fight someone above my weight class and die because of that…”

“Well then. Another King and I can finally leave…” she stared at the door, relief in her cold eyes. This place fucked her up too much, she was exhausted— far too exhausted. A bed never seemed so tempting in this world, where sleep was meaningless to her.

But before she decided to continue, Kiera returned her attention to an important detail she could not look into during the but did note it to herself. When she decided to use her shoulder as a shield for the first time, the King of Fallen Flame changed the axe blade’s structure.

She recognized it was not a skill, as she did not sense nor see complex mana patterns exuding from the process. So she understood it was a simple action of an existing skill, and immediately realized it was some kind of attribute manipulation.

The vampire simply manipulated his element to create different shapes! Kiera never thought it was possible, as she always thought she needed to use skills in order to show her attribute— she thought {Tyrannical Lightning Manipulation} only made her skill usage smoother and more efficient.

Then she thought about it again and understood she was wrong all along, while it really made her skill execution better, the primary use of the attribute manipulation skills was to grant the user free control over their attributes. And now that she knew it was possible, the process and method naturally appeared in her mind.

She picked up her dagger and channeled her mana into the blade, Tyrannical Lightning crackled around it before it solidified around the blade and turned the silver blade into violet. Channeling more mana, Kiera created extended the coat, enlarging the blade to twice its original size. Now it was more of a shortsword than just a dagger, but for some reason, Kiera still felt at ease when holding it.

Satisfied, Kiera proceeded to open the door and immediately found herself in the Third Royal Hall, her eyes immediately finding her last opponent, and announced her willingness to start the battle, releasing the First King from his, or rather—her prison of stone.

The First King was, surprisingly, a woman— an extremely seductive one. Her long snow-white hair fell gently to her perfect waist, while her tall body was tightly wrapped by a blue leather shirt, accentuating her plentiful breasts.

The outfit was completed by a pair of blue leather shorts covering her toned, springy thighs, making a magnificent view even Kiera had to appreciate.

Kiera was of the opinion that the woman's true personality would have befitted her playful outfit. But a doll created by magic could not show such complex emotions and demeanor.

[Rippling Soul Queen- Silver Apprentice Magician Lv.10 (Pureblood Vampire)]

"Rippling Soul Queen, the First Vampiric King, bearer of Soul and Gravity, a Sovereign Attribute— the Quaking Soul Attribute."

Kiera sensed a dangerous aura coming from the woman, as expected. Befitting of the First King, the Rippling Soul Queen was a cut above the other two. Besides her Supreme Attribute, she controlled Gravity, a Transcendent Attribute.

Transcendent Attributes were attributes that retained a major part of a Supreme Attribute’s power— such as the Life Attribute which inherited the Light Attribute’s healing and creation power. A step above Unique Attributes, that inherited only one aspect of the Supreme Attributes.

All in all, Kiera had no idea what to expect from such an opponent, but it would surely be overwhelming.

And her suspicions were immediately confirmed when the woman suddenly appeared beside her, sending a fist toward her temples.

The fist was packed with two strange energies, one that made Kiera's body feel heavy and one that made her mind ache intensely.

The combinations of the two energies caused Kiera's movements to become very sluggish as she only succeeded in raising her forearm to block, a Tyrannical Lightning shield she formed on her arm with her latest discovery barely enveloping it in time.

Kiera felt as if a truck crashed into her forearm, her bone nearly snapping as her body was blown away like a stringless kite in a storm.

She could barely stabilize her body after heavily bouncing off the ground several times before she saw another fist incoming, aiming to destroy her head.

She hurriedly activated Eruption and felt the gravitational change on her body lessen but couldn’t say the same about the pain in her head. She ducked as fast as she could and bolted from the spot.

“She uses her gravity to make her body basically weightless, which enhances her speed tremendously, then she uses her complete attribute to manipulate my weight while attacking my mind. It’s not only her attributes that are superior, but her current skill set and creative attribute manipulation bring out much more of her potential...” Kiera assessed while avoiding another punch.

Fortunately for Kiera, the Gravity Attribute had a high degree of physical influence— so her Power Attribute could successfully suppress at least a part of it. She jumped back to make some distance in order to recollect her wits, surprised when she saw the Rippling Soul Queen didn’t give chase.

Suddenly, a peculiar long sword appeared in the queen’s hands, causing Kiera’s pupils to constrict. Its blade was very thin, less than two centimeters, but Kiera estimated it was at least 130 centimeters long. Its unusual shape was not what caught Kiera's careful attention, however, but the crystalline look which made it semi-transparent.

The invisible energy radiating off the sword made Kiera feel phantom pain in her mind, the fact she was a {Lane of Remorseful Judgement} graduate helping her understand this sword was not made to cut physical matter, but sever souls! Too familiar with soul pain for her taste, Kiera took a stance to prepare for what was coming next.

The vampire disappeared from her spot a split second later, Kiera spinning back at the same time with her guard up. Seeing the crystal sword aiming to bisect her chest, the girl immediately slashed with the dagger, or now shortsword, to intercept it before it could reach its targeted body part.

But to her horror, the dagger simply passed through the longsword as if it wasn’t there, the crystalline blade still moving unhindered on its way to separate her chest from her stomach. The familiar constraints were placed on her body and soul again, making her reaction too slow.

She flared the Tyrannical Lightning Attribute to its maximum, breaking the physical bindings that obstructed her before she dodged backward. Unfortunately for her, she was slightly late in her reaction as the longsword successfully reached her chest.

Kiera screamed in agony when indescribable pain assaulted her entire body, and although it wasn’t nearly as serious as the ‘pain of regret,’ she still preferred to not feel it. It was as if thousands of small blades penetrated deep into her whole body, unceasingly lacerating her.

She immediately activated Tyrant Regeneration in hope it would help and was pleasantly surprised that the pain alleviated enough for her to stop her suicidal thoughts. “It seems its evolution doesn’t only regrow limbs but can treat soul injuries as well. I wonder if that what ‘increase to regenerative powers’ meant.”

Kiera then took the initiative for the first time, Tyrannical Lightning gathering on the tip of her shortsword as she stabbed it toward the First King. Thunderstroke came onto the vampire in the shape of a slender lightning bolt, splitting the air in its wake.

Rippling Soul raised her fist and punched twice toward Kiera’s attack a moment before it reached her, gravitational energy crashed onto the lightning bolt, shattering it entirely. Then, the soul sword unleashed an invisible energy wave Kiera could only see with her {Eye of the Tyrant}.

She dodged to the side, daring not to block the ethereal energy. Her body turned cold when the phantom strike traveled beside her, she sensed that the damage it could inflict her was disastrous.

Kiera understood that she could not simply avoid close combat as Thunderstroke was not developed enough. She gritted her teeth, suppressing her post-trauma from soul pain, and continued the engagement.

Closing in on her opponent, Gravity and Soul suppression instantly affected her when she was within five meters from the vampire’s body.

Now that she felt the attribute’s influence several times, Kiera could sense an invisible energy field around her. She perceived the energy field was actually some form of attribute manipulation that let the Rippling Soul Queen influence her with the Quaking Soul Attribute’s essence— she had to investigate it.

Kiera turned into a series of afterimages, dodging another slash before returning a stab of her own, but her mind was busy analyzing her opponent’s skilled attribute manipulation. Besides the peculiar influence field that caused her severe headache and turn her several times heavier, the vampire had other tricks up her sleeve that did not involve skills.

When she started her attack, she made her limb entirely weightless to enhance her attack speed, and right before the attack reached her, she increased her limb’s weight extremely to enhance her attack power.

Kiera thought to herself, “why wouldn’t I try to do this as well...?”

After all, she could manifest the Tyrannical Lightning Attribute outside not only in the form of skills, so why wouldn’t she be able to create an influence field as well? Her attribute governed both agility and strength, so if she focused it on each limb she attacked with at the moment, the attack power would be improved on top of Eruption’s effects.

Her thinking process took a mere second before Kiera acted on her theory. Eruption’s lightning coat extended further with Kiera’s urging, her mana expenditure increasing in the process.

She then quickly realized that independently expanding her attribute outside her body to such a range was extremely hard without a skill, but she did not let it stop her.

The force erupting from her body pushed the vampire back, suppressing all her attribute’s influence. Kiera sighed in relief when she managed to stabilize the Tyrannical Lightning field she formed and was satisfied with her choice when the pain in her soul lessened.

Channeling Tyrannical Lightning into her arm, she stabbed with her shortsword to test how her striking power would change. Her lightning-shaped tattoos glowed intensely as Kiera almost stumbled forward from the force her arm generated, which was several times stronger than what she could normally generate even with Eruption.

Unlike Way of the Tyrant’s passive effect which generated Tyrannical Lightning only on the point of contact, the whole process was infused with Tyrannical Lightning— which additionally enhanced her power.

BOOM

The attack was dodged by the vampire, but a powerful shockwave erupted from it although it was merely a normal stab without any skill charged in it. But Kiera’s loss of footing did not go unnoticed by the experienced opponent as a transparent longsword threatened to slice her soul through her neck.

Kiera immediately dropped on her back, dodging the blade by a hair’s breadth. Quickly rolling sideways, she avoided a subsequent stab before jumping to her feet. The movement was so abrupt she lost control of her influence field, the pressure on her body immensely slowing her down as a result.

She hurriedly erected the field again, now more proficient in its execution, and inched on the vampire, engaging in close-quarters combat the soul sword was excessively long for. But she quickly discovered the Rippling Soul Queen was not only a swordswoman but also a skilled hand-to-hand combat fighter.

Dodging a rain of gravitational fists laced with soul-destroying energy, and a series of stabs, Kiera flashed a contented light smile when three notifications she couldn’t ignore appeared in her mind.