Chapter 213: Six Months Later
The next six months changed Victor more than all his previous years of training combined. Rakshasa took charge of the Divine Blood Body Refinement Method, correcting every advancement and preventing him from skipping stages whenever his adaptation tried to accelerate the process. Yu Jin Cheon handled everything else with a much less patient approach. For months, Victor was forced to dismantle the way he fought and rebuild everything from the basics. He spent weeks using only Lilith as an ordinary sword, without White Fire, Black Ice, or Black Lightning, until he could perform thousands of cuts without showing the small flaws the Heavenly Demon found in his movements. Then came footwork, breathing, reading the opponent, weight distribution, and control of intent. Only when Yu Jin considered that foundation acceptable was Victor allowed to integrate his powers again, one at a time, without using them to hide technical mistakes.
The results began to appear quickly after that. Victor was not merely stronger; he was far more efficient. Before, one of his battles could involve dozens of techniques, constant changes to Lilith, and an absurd amount of energy poured onto the enemy until some combination worked. Six months later, he needed fewer movements to achieve greater results. Black Lightning stopped being merely acceleration and began being used in precise pulses to enhance specific movements. Black Ice no longer covered large areas without need; Victor created it exactly where he needed to control space, trap a limb, or establish a foothold. Even White Fire, his most destructive power, began to be used in smaller and far more dangerous amounts. Yu Jin had summarized it simply: if Victor needed to burn down a forest to kill one man, then he probably still did not know how to kill that man.
The Demonic Sword Dance advanced alongside his body refinement as well. Rakshasa had kept her word and only unlocked a new stage when Victor’s body reached the level necessary to withstand it. He had learned that it was not a collection of separate attacks, but a structure that built a specific way of thinking during combat. Every step served the next cut, every stance eliminated useless movement, and no technique should exist without a clear intention. The most important difference, however, was in Victor himself. Yu Jin had managed to tear away his need to constantly prove that he was becoming stronger. The urgency was still there, because Victor never forgot what would happen in the future, but now there was direction behind it.
And time kept moving.
Less than a year remained until the period when, in the other timeline, the Valentine Family’s main headquarters would be destroyed. Many pieces of that future had already disappeared. Edgar was dead, Natasha remained healthy, the family’s prodigies were alive, Carmilla and Scarlet had returned, and the werewolves’ movements had been discovered much earlier than expected. Victor knew the future could no longer happen exactly as before. The problem was that he still had not discovered who had prepared that attack, and that made him treat every remaining month as something precious.
That morning, Victor trained alone in an area far from the mansion, using one of the methods Yu Jin had turned into routine. His body was completely inverted, supported by only one hand as he slowly performed push-ups over a stone slab. Weights were attached to both ankles, and thick shackles encircled his wrists, each piece weighing approximately two hundred kilograms. Altogether, they totaled eight hundred kilograms of an extremely dense gray metal that even Victor could not identify. When he had asked where Yu Jin had gotten it, the old man had simply replied that knowing the metal’s name would not make the weights any lighter.
Victor lowered himself until his hair nearly touched the ground, then extended his arm again. Even under all that weight, the movement remained stable and free of trembling. His body had changed considerably over the last few months. He was not excessively larger, but his muscles, bones, vessels, and organs had been refined repeatedly until they reached a density that did not match his appearance. The sixth stage of the Divine Blood Body Refinement Method had unified much of those changes, making his body function as an integrated system instead of separate groups of muscle and energy.
Rowena was materialized near a tree, sitting on a rock while watching Victor complete another repetition. She had not said anything for several minutes, unusual enough to catch his attention. Victor continued training, but after a few more push-ups, he shifted his eyes toward her.
"What happened to you?"
Rowena rested her face against one hand and looked at him without much interest.
"Nothing. I’m bored."
"You spent centuries trapped inside a ring."
"Exactly. I’ve already had my share of sitting still and watching someone do the same thing thousands of times."
Victor was about to answer when he felt a familiar presence cross the edge of his perception. He did not need to search to know who it was. He finished the repetition, still balanced on one hand, and looked at Rowena.
"Back into the ring."
She sensed Rakshasa approaching as well and did not argue. Her form slowly disappeared, returning to the artifact on Victor’s finger. A few seconds later, Rakshasa emerged from between the trees, walking toward the training field with a folded towel draped over one arm. She did not speak immediately, only stopped to watch Victor still upside down with eight hundred kilograms attached to his body.
Victor pressed his palm against the stone and pushed once. His entire body rose, spun through the air together with the weights, and landed on his feet with no more than a small impact against the ground. He began removing the shackles as Rakshasa approached and tossed the towel toward him.
"Your body has improved quite a lot."
Victor caught the towel and wiped his face, still recovering his breath. Rakshasa walked around him with the natural ease of someone who had already examined every part of that body during the refinement. Even the old scars Victor had carried since before awakening his bloodline had disappeared. The refinement had not merely strengthened what already existed. Little by little, his body had rebuilt old tissue, corrected minor imperfections, and replaced structures that could no longer keep up with the rest.
Rakshasa touched his shoulder and pressed her fingers into the muscle.
"Even those scars disappeared. Your body practically rebuilt itself."
"It was painful."
"It was supposed to be."
Victor removed the weights from his ankles and left all four pieces on the ground. The stone sank beneath them. When he straightened again, he ran a hand through his hair and had to pull it back. During the last few months, he had simply stopped cutting it, and now the strands already reached his hips.
Rakshasa looked at it with a small expression of disapproval.
"You need to cut your hair."
"Why?"
"Because it’s huge and it’s dirty."
Victor pulled a strand forward and inspected it.
"A bath will fix that."
Rakshasa immediately smiled.
"Was that an invitation?"
Victor noticed the change in her expression and released a small laugh.
"You really never miss an opportunity."
"I’ve been waiting for six months. I’ve already been very patient." Rakshasa moved closer until she stood directly in front of him. "Or are you finally going to give in to me?"
Victor ran the towel over his neck before answering.
"I never said I was against the two of us."
"No?" Rakshasa tilted her head slightly. "Then why did you make me wait?"
"Because I had my reasons."
She closed the distance between them until her chest almost touched his.
"And now you have reasons not to wait?"
Victor looked at her for several seconds. Then he turned his body slightly, raised his right hand, and struck to the side using only his open palm.
There was no visible energy.
Only wind.
The pressure wave tore through the forest in a straight line. Trees were cut apart instantly, opening a gigantic path through the vegetation, and the impact continued for kilometers until it reached a distant mountain. A line appeared through the center of the rock formation. A few seconds later, one half began to slowly slide aside, separated by a cut so clean it took time to collapse.
Victor lowered his hand and looked at Rakshasa.
"I think I’m up to the standard now."
She spent several seconds looking at the mountain before turning her attention back to him. She did not seem impressed by the destruction itself; she was watching the way Victor had produced it. No technique, no element, and no apparent effort. Only physical strength properly transmitted through the body and released through a simple movement.
"Your body refinement reached the sixth stage." Rakshasa smiled and approached again. Her hands moved over his arms, then his chest and abdomen, checking the density of his muscles the way she did during training. "There’s still a little way to go. The seventh stage is where things really start getting interesting, but soon enough you and I will already be able to cause quite a bit of chaos."
Victor caught one of her hands before she could continue examining his body and brought the other to her cheek.
"Do you think I’m strong now?"
Rakshasa leaned her face into his palm and pretended to think for a few seconds.
"You’ll do."
Victor kept staring at her, waiting for something else.
Nothing came.
Then he burst into loud laughter, letting his head fall slightly backward.
"Six months of hell just to ’do.’"
"I have high standards."
"I noticed."
Victor wrapped one arm around her waist and, before Rakshasa could ask what he was doing, slid the other beneath her legs and lifted her into his arms. She offered no resistance. On the contrary, she wrapped her arms around his neck and looked very pleased with the decision.
"Let’s take a bath," Victor said, beginning to walk toward the mansion.
Rakshasa raised an eyebrow and settled more comfortably in his arms.
"Oh... just a bath?"
Victor looked at her.
"We’ll start with the bath."
Rakshasa’s smile immediately widened.
"After six months of training with my father, you finally learned not to try doing everything at once."
Victor laughed again and kept walking.
"One thing at a time, master."
"Good boy."