Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 635: Mother Theresa in her future

After spending minutes staring so hard at Athenodora that she was beginning to feel uncomfortable, Conscience moved his eyes over to Caius. While he had never acknowledged his presence, he didn't look surprised, which made sense. It would have been quite ridiculous if Caius could enter the Trial's core without Conscience knowing.

"You," Conscience said, "You came here planning something. Tell me."

"I came to appease the dead," Caius said in a level tone, noticing Athenodora glancing at him. She actually looked surprised. As though she hadn't known he was here.

"And why?" Conscience asked.

"No one should be trapped in an eternal loop of agony, seeking a meaningless victory," Caius said.

"Meaningless?"

"The actual battle already ended," Caius explained, "Even if they slaughter anyone who steps into the dimension, it would never grant them peace. Because the battle has no purpose."

"It has a purpose," Conscience countered, "It sifts the worthy from the rest."

"Perhaps. But that's not the purpose of the undead. They don't care what happens in this dimension. They have no opinion on what happens here and simply seek a victory that evaded them.

You just use that to your advantage and turn them into essential guard dogs."

"Harsh words," Conscience said and his voice was a little colder.

"I didn't mean it that way. Not really. I only meant that their pain is separate from the purpose of the Trial. So why not appease and ease their agony," Caius said.

Conscience was silent for a while and then he smiled.

"So you wish to bring them peace?" He asked.

"If you will allow," Caius said with a bow.

'And of course, you will,' he added in his head.

None of it was real. While the souls of those who died due to the actions of the Dimension's creator may have tortured him, they had long passed on. This was all just an imitation of what they were feeling according to the Dimension's creator's guilt. He probably represented it all very well actually considering the torture he believes he endured from those souls.

Anyway, although none of this is real, the Dimension doesn't really see it that way. And Conscience, being the consciousness of the dimension, also doesn't see it that way. To Conscience, the trial evokes actual souls rather than an imitation of the dead.

And so, once Caius offers to appease those souls, Conscience doesn't see it as a way to cheat the trial and rather as a show of genuine compassion.

Caius just had to choose his words right.

When he said the trial treats the souls like 'guard dogs', he hadn't had a slip of the tongue. He had chosen the words deliberately to invoke the 'compassion' that had been built into Conscience and show that he was ultimately on the side of the 'poor souls' being exploited.

So while his head was bowed and Conscience pondered in silence, Caius knew what the answer to his request would be.

And sure enough…

"Comparison," Conscience cheered, "A selfless concern for the souls of the departed. Delightful!"

Caius straightened up.

"I didn't do it for praise," he said in a solemn tone and with a melancholic shake of his head, "I just think everyone deserves peace."

To further his theatrics, Caius even managed to get a tear to roll down his eye. Because it was happening with his body, he was able to make it happen with this mental representation of his body within the Trial's core.

Conscience raised a hand over his mouth and his shimmering eyes appeared to have reddened.

"You move me, young man."

Caius simply nodded. He looked as though he was too choked up to speak.

Athenodora shook her head and had to work really hard not to roll her eyes and smile widely in amusement. Instead, she kept up her frown because she trusted Caius was up to something and didn't want to ruin it.

"You should show her a thing or two," Conscience said, pointing at Athenodora, "Help her grow those seeds of compassion I can see within her."

"I'll get right on it," Caius said with an emphatic nod, "I see Mother Theresa in her future."

"Who's that?" Conscience and Athenodora asked at the same time.

"Never mind," Caius said, "Can I begin the appeasing Ritual now?"

"No," Conscience said.

Caius paused. This wasn't part of the plan.

"No?" He asked.

"No," Conscience repeated and then grinned,

"Someone who thinks of the peace of the departed. And another who has the seeds of compassion like my creator, as well as being a Blood Mage just as he was.

I shall allow you to progress into the next trial. Pass that and I believe you'd truly have what it takes to do what must be done."

Caius let out a breath of relief as his building panic melted away.

"Right—" he started to say when Athenodora spoke over him.

"What must be done?" She asked Conscience.

Conscience smiled.

"To say would be to ruin the surprise. Off you go now."

With a wave of his hand, Caius exited Athenodora's memories and was back standing beside her kneeling self at the core of the Trial.

It was then Caius realized all that conversation had happened in Athenodora's head—her memories—which had been submerged into the Trial's core. Essentially, Caius's mental representation had gone deep twice over; once into the Trial's core and a second time into Athenodora's head.

"Fuck, that's convoluted," Caius mumbled as his mental representation exited the Trial's core and returned to his body where he finally stopped the chanting as the Appeasing Ritual was no longer needed.

Athenodora's blood chains were gone. She just remained on her knees, staring into the oval blood pool.

"Took you two long enough," Philip groaned.

Caius and Athenodora turned back and Philip's robes were ripped in places. He was grabbing his midsection where a gash was visible and a trail of blood dripped down the corner of his lips.

"You look well," Caius said.

"Ha ha," Philip said dryly with a glower.

"How many waves dis you endure?" Athenodora asked.

"The fourth ended and then came the fifth. A hundred thousand of those things. They overwhelmed my shields by detonating.

And then came the sixth wave. One million of those things charged before I could reinforce the shields. As you can see, they got me pretty good since I was perpetually forced into the defensive.

Thought it was all over, but then they all just turned into puddles of blood, and it ended. You both woke up almost immediately after."

As he filled them in, Philip retrieved potions from his Storage ring. Mending potions brewed with Blood Alchemy which was the only way to make effective potions for Vampires. As he chugged down the potions, most of his wounds healed. The rest of his healing was aided by the canister of human blood he drank right after. Courtesy of the Venuzzian Palace.

"You did well," Athenodora said and then looked at Caius.

"Thanks…" Philip said in a drawn-out voice as though he expected—hoped—for more but clearly that was all he was going to get.

"So what was with all that bullshit in there?" Athenodora asked Caius.

Caius smiled and stood to his feet. Philip held his hand out to Athenodora but she didn't seem to notice and grabbed Caius's arm to help herself up.

"What makes you think it was bullshit?" Caius asked.

"Because you talked about the souls like they were real. But they're not," Athenodora said.

"How do you know?"

Athenodora rolled her eyes.

"It's Blood Magic, Caius. I know. All those things are summons, constructs of magical energy. They have no more personality than a spell," she said.

"Spells can have personality," Caius said with a little smirk.

"Perhaps, but you didn't talk about the souls like spells. You talked about them like they were the souls of the dead being used for the trial and I know it's not true," Athenodora said shrewdly.

"Why do you care?"

"Because…" Athenodora started and trailed off.

"Because he got to you," Caius said to complete her sentence, "His words, his access to your memories. He got to you and has you questioning things."

"Who?" Philip demanded, "Who got to her?"

"The Dimension," Caius answered him dismissively.

"The dimension is a 'he'?" Philip asked.

"Apparently," Caius said, still dismissive.

"He didn't get to me. And you haven't answered my question," Athenodora said.

"I talked about the souls like they were real because to the dimension, they are real. It has no concept of them being falsified. That wasn't included in his 'consciousness' by its creator.

As far as 'Conscience' is concerned, the souls are real. And they deserve compassion. That's its whole thing; compassion.

So try not to let it get to you. You're the first Blood Mage he has seen since his creator, so he wants to see something in you that he saw in his creator. It has no bearing on how you should act going forward."

"I told you," Athenodora said calmly, "He didn't get to me. But I understand what you did now."

"Alright," Caius said, and while Athenodora didn't look it, he knew the fact that he had been in her memories was on her mind.

It was just that, just like her, he didn't want to discuss it. Not now at least.