Chapter 121: Vivianne Blood Von
"First, I’ll need to collect all the soul fragments and the body," the Devil Empress said.
Ouroboros hissed and opened its mouth. From it came Sara’s body, along with her broken soul. Then Ouroborus unsummoner it self.
Immediately, the atmosphere became depressive.
Ek... hic... ek... hic...
Sage sniffed, trying her best not to cry.
The others had similar reactions, except for Zero, who looked at everything curiously.
Death walked closer to the Devil Empress and said, "I don’t sense her death, meaning there is a probability for her to be revived."
"Yes, her soul is damaged, but it’s strong and resilient," the Devil Empress replied. "It’s not easy for the soul of Emperor Rank Cultivator like her to dissipate."
As she spoke, she waved her hand, and Sara’s soul flew over to her. The others watched closely. They didn’t trust this newcomer, but they didn’t have a choice except to trust her because of rhe circumstances.
The Devil Empress combined the fragments and observed, "This soul looks like it was damaged even before."
"She was suffering from soul damage because of a certain incident that happened," Lucy explained.
The Devil Empress nodded. "First, we will gather everything... every bit of soul fragment available."
She closed her eyes and used the soul in her hand to resonate with what was already there, pulling on the connections.
This time, every bit of the scattered soul fragments was pulled toward her, no matter their size; the core soul in her hand acted as a magnet.
In seconds, the miniature projection of Sara in her hand became stable and corporeal. Though they could see a lot of cracks on the small soul, and it remained unconscious.
"This is all there is that’s already here," the Devil Empress explained. "But if we use only this much to revive her, she will definitely lose memories, and even her personality might be very different."
"Ek ek ek eke ek?" Sage asked. (Can we do something more?)
The Devil Empress looked at the small monkey and said, "Others might have been stuck here, but lucky for you guys, I can do much more than this due to my talent."
"And also because of the power of the Devil Monarch rank I currently hold, I can do much more than I previously could."
[Soul Revival]
The Devil Empress muttered the technique’s name. Then, fragments of Sara’s soul started appearing out of nowhere. The cracks in Sara’s soul began recovering at a visible rate, and within a minute, her soul looked as good as new.
Death looked shocked at what she was seeing. "That’s impossible." She could sense that something which violated the laws of reality was happening.
The Devil Empress smiled, though they could see she looked exhausted from just this one act. "I brought back the fragments of the soul she lost from the past."
"Doesn’t that mean you can revive anyone?" Death asked.
"Not anyone," the Devil Empress corrected. "I still need a medium to do this, and also, it can’t be someone who died more than one hundred years ago. That’s my limit."
Death stayed silent at that, her thoughts unknown.
The Devil Empress looked at her and guessed, "Someone close to you died recently?"
Death looked at her, stunned. "How... how did you know?"
The Devil Empress shook her head. "You are too easy to read."
Death stood there silently.
"Who is it?" the Devil Empress asked.
"My..." Death trailed off.
The Devil Empress raised her eyebrows, waiting.
"My mother," Death finally admitted.
The others looked at Death. It was Lucy who spoke up to ask, "Can you help her?"
Death looked at Lucy. For the first time, she found the mutt was not all that hateful...
The Devil Empress didn’t say anything for a moment. "What was her rank?" she asked. If it was too high, it might not be possible.
"Mortal," Death replied.
"I see, then that’s simple," the Devil Empress said. As she spoke, she split into two identical forms. One of them approached Death and said, "Show me where the remains are..."
Death looked at her, then back at everyone, unsure whether she should leave at a critical time like this.
"Eke eke ek ek," Sage urged. (If Night was here, he would have wanted you to go.)
When Death heard this, she finally accepted. She transmitted the location to the Devil Empress’s clone, and then both of them disappeared.
The true Devil Empress then looked at the remaining summons. "The process is not over."
As she said it, the broken body of Sara flew toward her, and she used another technique.
[Blood Revival]
As soon as she muttered the name of the technique, the damage to Sara’s body started to reverse, and slowly, fresh flesh began to appear from thin air.
First her abdomen recovered, then her arms, and then her lower body...
Looking at the half-naked body of Sara, everyone was stunned. They hadn’t thought something like this was even possible.
The Devil Empress waved her hand, and the soul and body merged.
[Blood Soul Revival]
A red aura covered the body for a moment before disappearing.
"She will wake up naturally after some time," the Devil Empress said, lowering her hands. "It could be hours, days, or even years. But she is alive, and I guess that’s what matters..."
Lucy used shadows to cover Sara and then tried to put her in Night’s Soul Space, but it failed.
"Did it fail?" Eve asked.
"I am being blocked when I try to pull her," Lucy explained. "It seems a connection is required if we want to put her inside his Inner World."
"Why don’t we try to create a connection?" Lilith suggested.
Lucy had a thoughtful expression. "Is that possible?" she asked, looking at Lilith.
The Devil Empress observed them quietly. It seemed her guess was right; this blackish-purple mist was indeed the body of this being, and these girls were his summons.
"From what I can tell, Night received the Bond skill after you created a bond with him," Lilith reasoned. "If it’s possible for anyone, it’s you..."
Lucy then tried to create a bond between Sara and Night, similar to what she had created between herself and Night using the skill.
Surprisingly, it worked. Because of Night’s state, his resistance was basically nonexistent, and the same was true for Sara, who was deep in a coma.
Immediately, the surrounding Nightmare Mist gathered around Sara, entered her body, and started transforming her.
"Shit..." Lucy muttered, realizing what was happening.
Eve and Lilith looked on, stunned.
The mist covered Sara entirely, forming a cocoon like a giant egg.
Zero spoke up for the first time. "Did she become a follower like us?" She had experienced something similar very recently.
"I didn’t mean to..." Lucy said defensively. "I just tried to create a bond, but this..."
Perhaps because Night was currently in the form of his main body, the process happened in a flash. The egg-like Nightmare Mist broke, and the energy was entirely absorbed into Sara’s body.
The half-naked Sara now floated in the blackish-purple mist. She looked a lot weaker than before. Her hair that was previously Black had turned Blackish Purple; a proof that what happened pervious was not a illusion.
The Devil Empress watched curiously. "Did she just become a summon, like you guys?"
Lucy’s eyes twitched. "I guess, though I didn’t mean to do it..."
The Devil Empress scanned Sara repeatedly with her Spirit Sense. She was shocked to find out that, although Sara was now barely at the Devil Soldier Rank (Rank 2), her body’s foundation was a different matter altogether.
She had never seen a foundation like this.
If the woman cultivated again, the strength she would attain would be at least ten times what she had previously. And the best thing was, the woman retained her Emperor Rank foundation completely.
This will work... the Devil Empress thought.
If I go through something similar, I can escape the worst backlash of burning my foundation...
But this would turn me into a summon of this unknown being.
Lucy covered Sara with her shadows again and tried to pull her back into Night’s Inner World. This time, it worked easily.
Eve then looked at the Devil Empress and said, "Can we request another favor from you...?"
The Devil Empress looked at the robotic maid and properly introduced herself. "I am Vivianne Blood Von. In Hell, I am known as The Blood Empress. You can also call me Devil Empress if you wish."
All of them looked stunned. Especially Lucy, who had grown up hearing terrifying stories about Devils.
Still, Lucy quickly regained her bearing. It was easier to accept the fact after the Devil had just helped them revive Sara, and like Sara, lucy had a strong hunch they would become ’family’ very soon anyway.
"Eke eke ek," Sage introduced. (I am Sage.)
The others immediately followed suit.
"I am Eve, Master’s Maid," Eve said.
"I am Lilith, Master’s Maid as well," Lilith added.
"I am Zero. I am an Ice Hopper Queen," Zero stated flatly.
"I am Lucy, a Fenrir," Lucy said. "And the one that looks like an undead is Death."
She then pointed at the sprawling blackish-purple mist and said sadly, "This Nightmare Mist is Night. You can say he is our Summoner, though he would prefer if you call him a friend."
Vivianne took it all in, then looked back at Eve. "What help do you need?"
The others had already guessed what she wanted to ask. Eve explained, "We have another friend of Master’s, and we don’t know what happened to her."
She pointed at the black blade resting against the plant. "Just before Master lost control, she became like this."
Everyone looked at the black blade. The hilt possessed two eyes that seemed to be peering directly into their souls...